Movie Review: THE LIZZIE BORDEN GAME

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/01/2025
THE LIZZIE BORDEN GAME movie poster | ©2025 Breaking Glass Pictures

Rating: Not Rated Stars: Airisa Durand, Jason Brooks, Naomi, Charlie Dae, Steve Larkin, Chynna Shurts, Laura Ellen Wilson Writer: Calvin Morie McCarthy Director: Calvin Morie McCarthy Distributor: Breaking Glass Pictures Release Date: August 1, 2025 (digital) THE LIZZIE BORDEN GAME is a riff on the BLOODY MARY/CANDYMAN-style invocation of a spirit, achieved by chanting into a mirror. In this case, the familiar rhyme about Lizzie Borden, accused and then acquitted of killing her father and stepmother with an axe, provides the ritual words. After two young sisters unfortunately play the game and get the exact result you’d expect, three months […]Read On »


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HOLIDAZED: Actress Virginia Madsen on new limited dramedy series- Exclusive Interview

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 01/10/2025
Virginia Madsen in HOLIDAZED | ©2024 Hallmark Media

In HOLIDAZED, the eight-episode miniseries now streaming in its entirety on the Hallmark+ Channel, Virginia Madsen plays Connie Manetti-Hanahan. Connie’s husband Chuck (John C. McGinley) has, for Christmases beyond counting, turned the holiday decorating on their cul-de-sac from friendly competition into suburban warfare. This year, Connie has had enough, and presents Chuck with a contract of behavior she wants and expects from him. In real life, the Chicago-born Madsen says she can’t get enough of Christmas, or her HOLIDAZED costars. Madsen and McGinley had actually worked together before, in 1991’s HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING. Madsen was nominated for a Supporting […]Read On »


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Movie Review: NATTY KNOCKS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 07/21/2023
NATTY KNOCKS movie poster | ©2023 Vertical Entertainment

Rating: Not Rated Stars: Charlotte Fountain-Jardim, Thomas Robie, Noen Perez, Channah Zeitung, Bill Moseley, Danielle Harris, Robert Englund, Amit Sarin, Will Murden, Joey Bothwell, Jason James Richter Writer: Benjamin Olson Director: Dwight H. Little Distributor: Vertical Entertainment Release Date: July 21, 2023 Too often, horror movies don’t have much plot. We get a set-up, then a villain, and then it’s just stalk, fend off, and fight-fight-fight. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but still, it’s nice to see a story with cause-and-effect plotting. That’s the case with NATTY KNOCKS. Written by Benjamin Olson and directed by Dwight H. Little, […]Read On »


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Movie Review: DEVILREAUX

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 06/30/2023
DEVILREAUX movie poster | ©2023 Lionsgate

Rating: Not Rated Stars: Vincent M. Ward, Tony Todd, Krista Grotte Saxon, Monaye Moyes, Meberate Brooks, Jon Briddell Writer: Thomas J. Churchill, story by Vincent M. Ward Director: Thomas J. Churchill Distributor: Lionsgate Release Date: June 30, 2023 DEVILREAUX fits, very broadly, into the CANDYMAN pantheon of vengeful revenants created by wrongs of the pre-Civil War American South. An onscreen title informs us that we’re in present-day New Orleans. A nice young couple have what appears to be a tourist-trap magic shop. While they are redecorating, both are killed by a tall black figure in skeleton white-face makeup. This is […]Read On »


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YEAR IN REVIEW: THE 10 BEST MOVIES OF 2021

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 12/31/2021
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME teaser poster | ©2021 Sony/Marvel

2021 was in many respects a nightmare year in real life, but it managed to deliver some really good movies. Here are my totally unscientific picks for the ten best. BELFAST. It’s a tough decision, but director/writer Kenneth Branagh’s ode to his childhood gets the edge, precisely because it could easily have been trite or average or, worst of all, boring. Instead, it’s informative and glorious and full of sorrow and joy. CYRANO. Directed by Joe Wright and adapted by Erica Schmidt from her stage musical (lyrics by Matt Berninger & Carin Besser, music by Aaron Dessner & Bryce Dessner), […]Read On »


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CANDYMAN: Star Vanessa Estelle Williams on 9-1-1 and the 1992 and 2021 CANDYMAN films – Exclusive Interview

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 12/02/2021
Vanessa Estelle Williams as Anne-Marie McCoy in CANDYMAN | ©2021 Universal Pictures/MGM

CANDYMAN has a long history, both on and offscreen. Originally a short story by Clive Barker, “The Forbidden” was adapted into the 1992 movie CANDYMAN by writer/director Bernard Rose. Rose moved the story from Barker’s London to Chicago’s then-infamous Cabrini-Green low-income housing projects. Here, it was learned that Daniel Robitaille (played by Tony Todd), a Black man murdered in the 1800s by a white mob, had become the hook-handed spirit Candyman. Anyone who says his name five times into a mirror invokes a visitation and very bloody consequences. The original CANDYMAN film had Candyman kidnapping a Black infant, who was […]Read On »


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Movie Review: CANDYMAN

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/27/2021
CANDYMAN movie poster | ©2021 Universal Pictures/MGM

Rating: R Stars: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Kyle Kaminsky, Coleman Domingo, Michael Hargrove, Brian King, Rebecca Spence Writers: Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld and Nia DaCosta, based on the 1992 CANDYMAN screenplay by Bernard Rose and the short story THE FORBIDDEN by Clive Barker Director: Nia DaCosta Distributor: Universal/MGM Release Date: August 27, 2021 CANDYMAN is being billed as “a spiritual sequel” to the 1992 feature film of the same name. Since that was set in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing projects, and the new movie is set in the upscale apartment complexes occupying the same area, and since […]Read On »


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Exclusive Interview: Bonita Friedericy on CHUCK & the Season 5 renewal – Part 2

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 05/23/2011
Bonita Friedericy | photo courtesy of Bonita Friedericy

In Part Two of our exclusive interview with actress Bonita Friedericy, she tells us more about playing General Beckman on CHUCK, plus when she realized the show had a cult following and her other recent projects. ASSIGNMENT X: Beckman does show up in person occasionally, but most of the time, she interacts with Chuck et al over a computer monitor … BONITA FRIEDERICY: I’m playing a part that actually is pretty much on a monitor. I’m always either on a video camera or it’s floating away from me onto the reactions of others, which I find extremely amusing. This is […]Read On »


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Exclusive Interview: CHUCK actress Bonita Friedericy on Season 4 and beyond – Part 1

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 05/16/2011
Bonita Friedericy in CHUCK - Season 3 | ©NBC

On CHUCK, the Josh Schwartz/Chris Fedak-created NBC series that has its Season Four finale tonight at 8 PM and will be back for Season Five, the title character (Zachary Levi) is an electronics store employee turned super-spy, thanks to a ton of arcane information downloaded into his brain. His team consists of actual super-spies Sara (Yvonne Strahovski), who is now also Chuck’s love, and John Casey (Adam Baldwin), plus Chuck’s nerdy best friend Morgan (Joshua Gomez). They all take their orders from General Diane Beckman, played by Bonita Friedericy, the exceedingly stern but often compassionate authority figure who gives them […]Read On »


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