Midway through writer/director Dean Kapsalis’s debut feature, The Swerve, put-upon housewife Holly (Azura Skye) makes a revelation about her role in a shocking act of violence. Desperate and dazed, Holly goes to the supermarket managed by her husband Rob (Bryce Pinkham), hoping to find a sympathetic ally. But as she makes her way through the empty …
IFC Films Of all the horror subgenres, slashers have the least use for memorable characters. People in those movies don’t need to have rich inner lives as much as they need to die gruesome deaths. If they can make some sort of impression before their inevitable offing, then that’s nice, but it’s certainly not required. …
Review: The Rental Offers a Pleasing, Forgettable Stay Read More »
A good thriller is like a well designed game. There are players with clear objectives, a field of play holding them together, and well-defined rules that determine how the players will meet those objectives. Some random elements are acceptable, such as a bad dice roll or a fortunate card pull, but most of the game’s …
Review: The Disappointing Breaking In Keeps Breaking Its Own Rules Read More »
A little boy stands on a staircase landing, staring at a covered mirror. As far as we can tell, it\’s just a plain old broken mirror, but the boy\’s look of horror and the sound of high-pitched strings raise the tension. The boy\’s siblings call from another room, playfully urging him to rejoin them in …
Review: Marrowbone\’s Well-Crafted Scares Can\’t Overcome Its Clumsy Narrative Read More »
A little boy stands on a staircase landing, staring at a covered mirror. As far as we can tell, it\’s just a plain old broken mirror, but the boy\’s look of horror and the sound of high-pitched strings raise the tension. The boy\’s siblings call from another room, playfully urging him to rejoin them in …
Review: Marrowbone\’s Well-Crafted Scares Can\’t Overcome Its Clumsy Narrative Read More »
How\’s this for a movie idea? A couple\’s romantic mountain getaway turns deadly when they accidentally take a sex trafficker\’s cell phone.Pretty exciting, huh? That synopsis promises lots of scenes in which our heroes Brea (Paula Patton) and John (Omar Epps) escape from the trafficker\’s greasy biker gang, and that stuff does happen a few …
“I’m just a father with a good imagination. In my imagination, I lose my children every day.”That’s the response author John Irving gave to a reader who asked how he, a father, could write The World According to Garp, a novel filled with lurid scenes of child-peril. Nearly every parent can identify with the experience …