Movie Review: LORD OF MISRULE

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 12/08/2023
LORD OF MISRULE movie poster | ©2023 Magnolia Pictures

Rating: Not Rated Stars: Tuppence Middleton, Ralph Ineson, Matt Stokoe, Anton Valensi, Rosalind March, Robert Goodman, Alexa Goodall, David Langham, Jane Wood, Evie Templeton Writer: Tom De Ville Director: William Brent Bell Distributor: Magnolia Pictures Release Date: December 8, 2023 Folk horror doesn’t get much folkier than LORD OF MISRULE. Almost every frame is packed with masks, costumes, charms, decorations, and artwork of British paganism. Even the scenes that are relatively mundane are shot and adorned to look as though they can easily accommodate anything folklore-related that may turn up in the frame. For a good stretch, the film, written […]Read On »


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Movie Review: CONSECRATION

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 02/09/2023
CONSECRATION | ©2023 IFC Midnight/ Shudder

Rating: R Stars: Jena Malone, Danny Huston, Thoren Ferguson, Will Keen, Eilidh Fisher, Alexandra Lewis, Jolade Obasola, Daisy Allen, Kit Rakusen, Ian Pirie, Steffan Cennydd, Janet Suzman Writers: Christopher Smith & Laurie Cook Director: Christopher Smith Distributor: IFC Films/Shudder Release Date: February 10, 2023 CONSECRATION gets off to a bracing start. Grace (Jena Malone) informs us in voiceover that her brother used to believe she had a guardian angel, while she believed in nothing. Onscreen, Grace is taking a peaceful walk outside a park when she is confronted by a nun, in full white habit, who points a revolver at […]Read On »


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Movie Review: YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 03/25/2022
YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER Movie Poster | ©2022 Magnet

Rating: Not Rated Stars: Hazel Doupe, Carolyn Bracken, Ingrid Craigie, Jordanne Jones, Paul Reid, Katie White, Florence Adebambo Writer: Kate Dolan Director: Kate Dolan Distributor: Magnet Release Date: March 25, 2022 YOU ARE NOT MY MOTHER has a title that indicates where its plot is going. Director/writer Kate Dolan makes a good case for how mental illness can easily be confused with supernatural darkness, while not letting her genre audience down. In a prologue, we see a baby alone in a stroller at night. A woman, Rita (Ingrid Craigie), runs up to the stroller and begins pushing it. She sets […]Read On »


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Movie Review: GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 02/03/2022
GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS movie poster |©2022 XYZ Films Releasing

Rating: Not Rated Stars: Thomas Hobson, Tara Perry, Phil Morris, Angela Bettis, Joseph Ruud, Tim Blake Nelson, David Arquette Writers: Jordan Wayne Long and Tara Perry, story consultant Sean Anthony Davis Directors: Matt Glass & Jordan Wayne Long Distributor: XYZ Films Releasing Release Date: February 3, 2022 GHOSTS OF THE OZARKS is a rather bland title for a well-executed tale of period folk horror. The movie owes a debt to two other films. To name these would give the game away. Suffice to say that it’s a respectable homage to one, and a big improvement on the other, though it […]Read On »


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Movie Review: THE ADVENT CALENDAR (LE CALENDRIER)

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 12/02/2021
THE ADVENT CALENDAR Key Art | ©2021 Universal Pictures/Shudder

Rating: Not Rated Stars: Eugénie Derouand, Honorine Magnier, Clément Olivieri, Janis Abrikh, Cyril Garnier, Vladimir Perrin, Jean-François Garreaud Writer: Patrick Ridremont Director: Patrick Ridremont Distributor: Universal/Shudder Release Date: December 2, 2021 THE ADVENT CALENDAR is worth seeing for its title object alone. The antique wooden advent calendar, with a different size and design for each of its doors, is a joy of design, something any collector of folk art would be delighted to own – assuming they didn’t know what this advent calendar does. Eva Roussel (Eugénie Derouand) introduces herself, speaking directly into camera. She says she is a paraplegic, […]Read On »


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Movie Review: THE VIGIL

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 06/17/2021
THE VIGIL movie poster | ©2021 IFC Midnight

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Dave Davis, Menashe Lustig, Malky Goldman, Lynn Cohen, Fred Melamed, Ronald Cohen Writer: Keith Thomas Director: Keith Thomas Distributor: IFC Midnight Release Date: February 26, 2021 THE VIGIL, originally released theatrically in February, is now available on Hulu. Most religious horror films are based in Catholicism, Christianity, paganism, or Satanism. THE VIGIL is therefore comparatively uncommon, as it centers around Orthodox Judaism. Specifically, THE VIGIL focuses on the real-world tradition of having a Shomer, or watchman, sit with the corpse of a newly deceased person. The Shomer recites prayers intended to comfort the deceased’s soul and ward […]Read On »


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Movie Review: DEATH OF ME

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 09/30/2020
DEATH OF ME movie poster | ©2020 Saban Films

Rating: R Stars: Maggie Q, Alex Essoe, Luke Hemsworth, Kat Ingkarat, Kelly B. Jones Writers: Art Margolis & James Morley III and David Tish Director: Darren Lynn Bousman Distributor: Saban Films Release Date: October 2, 2020 DEATH OF ME is contemporary folk horror set on a Thai island. Christine (Maggie Q) and her travel journalist husband Neil (Luke Hemsworth) are staying at a rented house in this picturesque setting. Neil is here to do an article on the place; Christine is along for this working vacation. Christine and Neil wake up in the bedroom, covered with dirt and possibly blood. […]Read On »


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Movie Review: ENTWINED

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 08/26/2020
ENTWINED movie poster | ©2020 Dark Sky Pictures

Rating: Not Rated Stars: Prometheus Aleiferopoulos, Anastasia-Rafaela Konidi, John De Holland, Maria Eglezaki, Kostas Laskos, Aleka Toumazatou Writer: John De Holland, story by John De Holland & Minos Nikolakakis, idea by Minos Nikolakakis Director: Minos Nikolakakis Distributor: Dark Star Pictures Release Date: August 28, 2020 ENTWINED is set in the present, but nearly everything in it could take place any time between now and whenever people first started telling stories. Director Minos Nikolakakis and screenwriter John De Holland, who are both credited with crafting the story from Nikolakakis’s idea, borrow from Greek mythology and worldwide folklore for their tale. Young […]Read On »


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Movie Review: GRETEL & HANSEL

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 01/31/2020
GRETEL AND HANSEL movie poster | ©2020 Orion Pictures

Rating: PG-13 Stars: Sophia Lillis, Alice Krige, Samuel Leakey, Jessica De Gouw, Charles Babalola Writer: Rob Hayes Director: Osgood Perkins Distributor: Orion Pictures Release Date: January 31, 2020 GRETEL & HANSEL is Exhibit A for the argument that it’s possible to make an excellent movie from source material that everybody already knows, so long as the filmmakers have a strong point of view and actually care what they’re doing. Yes, director Osgood Perkins and screenwriter Rob Hayes are bringing us another version of the Hansel & Gretel story. GRETEL & HANSEL actually feels somewhat spiritually akin to filmmaker Robert Eggers’s […]Read On »


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Movie Review: THE WIND

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 04/16/2019
THE WIND movie poster | ©2019 IFC Midnight

Rating: R Stars: Caitin Gerard, Ashley Zukerman, Julia Goldani Telles, Dylan McTee Writer: Teresa Sutherland Director: Emma Tammi Distributor: IFC Midnight Release Date: April 5, 2019 THE WIND is an effectively creepy and handsome-looking folk horror film, set on the American prairie in the late nineteenth century. It is deliberately paced, beautifully photographed by cinematographer Lyn Moncrief, and makes great, terrifying use of shadows and light. The principal complaint is that it is needlessly disjointed. Lizzie Macklin (Caitlin Gerard) has been living in an isolated cabin on the plains with her husband Isaac (Ashley Zukerman) for eight years when the […]Read On »


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