One of the best movies that I saw at the Fantasia Fest in Montreal back in July was Maya Annik Bedward's horror documentary Black Zombie, which takes a glancing look at the subject of race via the eating-brains genre -- I wrote up my thoughts right here. And happily y'all didn't have to wait long to see it -- it's out in NYC and LA today! I imagine it will play some other places too, or perhaps hit streaming instead -- if I see that news I will share it. But if you're in either of thoise places go see it this weekend! It is super.
ETA oh also available today -- one of the year's best horror films Mārama just landed on Shudder! I wrote some very brief thoughts on it at this link -- if the phrase "Gothic Maori" doesn't make every nerve-ending of yours tingle and immediately run to Shudder then I cannot comprehend you. This movie is also getting a physical media release thanks to Vinegar Syndrome -- in case you missed that here's the link. Fuck Obsession, this one is so much better.
Hey weirdos, my beloved weirdos, have I got a movie for you -- well a movie review actually. I reviewed Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma this past Friday and you can read it right here. We're playing catch-up, you see, in more ways than one -- I saw this the first time at NewFest and the third time at Fantasia Fest (with a press screening sandwiched in between there) but only just got around to writing about it as it hit theaters this past Friday. But only a few theaters -- NY and LA I believe? It spreads out this week and further after that (you can keep track of that at this link) so I imagine most of you haven't yet had the chance. Anyway I bust out the "m" word in my review -- "masterpiece" that is, which if you know me you know I don't break that word out lightly when a movie is this new. Having seen it three times now though, with it only getting funnier and weirder with every watch, I feel pretty compelled toward that word. It is most definitely one of the year's highlights and not to be missed.
Did you know there was a reboot of the Y2K classic series Roswell that ran for fifty-two episodes beginning in 2019? I had no freaking idea. Looking up actor Michael Vlamis here was the first I'd ever heard of it. Why was I looking up actor Michael Vlamis, you might ask? (If you're asking that you probably didn't look at these pictures though as I am but a simple man.) I was looking up Mikey boy because he's in a queer horror movie I just reviewed out of Fantasia Fest -- it's called Corpus and you can read my review right here. And here's another picture of Michael Vlamis for your trouble:
it's a good movie! But of course Michael plays the straight guy in what is otherwise a very queer movie -- I say "of course" because that just about fits my pattern. Makes sense! I mean I have no idea what he does in his private life, but in the movie he is obnoxiously heterosexual and extremely hot while doing that. (Just wait for the gifs!) I even posted about him on Bluesky like right after watching the movie a few weeks back lol:
Watched a movie co-starring this guy named Michael Vlamis over the weekend and I don't think any of you should be surprised if I start posting about him a lot in the future is all I am saying
I considered waiting a little bit for another review of mine that is dropping later this afternoon, but what the hell -- not being patient guarantees me another post today and given the case of the Murky Mondays my head's currently swimming in that's not a gift I should side-eye. And linking to two reviews in one post is already a bounty, a bouffet -- then you add on half-naked Mason Gooding and -- I feed you people well dammit. That photo is one Mason himself shared from his behind-the-scenes experience making Gregg Araki's I Want Your Sex, which my review of dropped at Pajiba on Friday. Read it right here. Surprising nobody I loved it -- do I wish that one of the many mentioned Grindr hook-ups that Mason's character kept talking about happened on-screen? Duh and durrr. Of course. But then there's a scene where Mason's in short running shorts and a half-shirt and I remember Gregg Araki always feeds us well too.
The other review of mine that dropped over the weekend was another one out of Fantasia Fest -- click here to read my thoughts on the horror doc Black Zombie, which ingeniously speaks about the undead-genre through the lens of Haitian and American race history. It's a terrific doc about The Movies -- as I say in my review it's yet another one that throws all the money I spent on getting a Film Studies degree in college into a big fire-pit; what I probably spent an entire sememster's worth of thousands of dollars on you can now see in a compact and fun little documentary. No I am not bitter, you're bitter. Great movie though! And as I said at the top -- stay tuned, I've got another Fantasia review dropping shortly...
I don't care if this is two posts very nearly in a row on the same day -- since this is it for this staggeringly busy one day week of blogging (I am, I will remind you, currently on my "three-day-weekends through the summer" bullshit) I want to have Chuck Melton top hot and center to remind y'all that you should go see Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell this weekend. (You can find out where it is playing near you at this link.) I pointed you to my review earlier today but if you missed it then click on here and gape in awe at my pretentious fanboy enthusiasm. I don't care -- whatever, every critic has their faves and I'm no different. And it's not like I've immediately loved everything NWR's done -- I didn't love Only God Forgives when it came out, which is why I'm one hundred percent going to re-watch it this weekend as I'm 100% now convinced that my opinion will have shifted favorably since then. No I haven't seen it since it came out (which is wild) but HPH definitely feels like a companion to it and I have a feeling I'm more into Refn's Whole Thing now than I was in 2013. I wasn't ready! Anyway I tell you that because if Only God Forgiveswasn't your thing you should be warned that Her Private Hell is very very much of that vibe. But perhaps like me your tastes have shifted in the 13 years since? Hopefully we've all grown into the weird sicko freaks we were always meant to be. And with that -- have a great weekend, you weird sicko freaks!
I was not at all surprised to learn upon my first googling of actor Egor Venned, the leading man in the brand new queer folk-horror film No Rest For the Wicked, that he's also a model -- half of the movie just hangs on the cut of his cheekbones. The camera is completely in love with him. So it's not so surprising when the character played by Game of Thrones actor Pilou Asbæk (himself a dish) rolls into town that he's immediately drawn beauty-ward... anyway I saw this movie at Fantasia and it's the second review that dropped while I was out of town, so click on over to Pajiba to read my thoughts. I also shared the film's first trailer there (it's down at the bottom of the review) so you can see in motion how ridiculously pretty Venned is. Which isn't the only reason to see the movie -- it's a beautiful and haunting little thing -- but the palpable heat between Venned & Asbæk (seen below being his gorgeous self) is in itself on its own worth the price of admission. (Also the sweaters. The sweaters! Oh my god I love a sweater movie.)
So while I was up in Montreal for Fantasia Festival for the past week I had two reviews drop from same said fest, and the first of those is the reason for this post here you are currently reading -- Nicolas Winding Refn's hugely-awaited-by-me (and maybe some of you) latest Her Private Hell was the Opening Night film at Fantasia, and so I dropped my extremely ecstatic review right here at Pajiba. I've seen the movie a couple of times now and it's my favorite movie of 2026 so far -- I fully admit it's not for everybody, but man alive is it for me. Oh and while I was in Montreal...
So not only did I manage to score a HER PRIVATE HELL poster but I got NWR to fucking sign the thing!!! IN GOLD. I am a golden god.
... I got to meet Nicolas Winding Refn briefly and have him sign my poster from the movie, so that was neat. To use a word that doesn't come anywhere near close enough to encapsulating that experience. Anyway Her Private Hell is out in theaters this week, tomorrow (probably some theaters tonight even) so you can all decide for yourselves soon enough whether you're a cool cat like me or total dingleberries with bad taste -- whatever. I don't judge. That said there's an interview in GQ today with the film's star Charles Melton and they shared some fresh set-photos of him and his greasy exquisite torso modeling his character's leather chainmail jacket, and how am I not gonna share those? Hit the jump for them all...
Actor Garrett Wareing would like us to know that his seres Ransom Canyon has just dropped its second season on Netflix -- how do I know this? Because he just posted these pictures and said so. Speaking our language, basically. I also have something to share but I'm not getting out out my clothes to do so (sorry!) -- I'm back! My week in Montreal at Fantasia Fest has come to its inevitable conclusion and I'm now sitting at my desk in big stinky sweaty New York City posting pictures of a shirtless Garrett Wareing again -- all is as it should be. Anyway more on Fantasia in a bit -- for now let me eat my breakfast! Y'all can eat (more Garrett) after the jump...
Well alrighty then -- the famous Québécois seen above must mean it's time for me to be on my way Montreal-bound again for another year's incredible-looking Fantasia Film Fest! (And whaddya know -- there's even a movie starring François Arnaud sceening this year too!) I leave tomorrow morning and I'm there until next Wednesday, watching heaps of great genre fare per usual -- keep your eyes on my socials and over at Pajiba too and maybe probably you'll see me popping up in those places! Or just stare long, hard, and deep at that photo of François -- I get it. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one more time, since I am a glutton for attention, that right now right here as I write this it's my birthday and if you'd like to donate to the site's continued emotional / financial maintence (inextricably bound, they are) there are places to do that -- there's also as mentioned earlier this week a ton of shit I tossed onto eBay recently, which is another good way to pay it forward. Although maybe not so great for the next week since I'll be in Canada and unable to ship anything out until I get back from there. Otherwise -- y'all have a great week! And no I am probably not reviewing The Odyssey even though I told y'all I have indeed seen it, although I did plop down a few off-the-cuff thoughts in a brief thread at Bluesky as linked below. That's not nothing! Okay -- bye til I'm back! Hopefully it's not an infernal Odyssey of my own...
This happens with every damn Nolan (Oppenheimer excepted) - I never plan on being the turd in the punchbowl but I get so viscerally annoyed by the OTT praise (Nolan doesn't know how to make an ugly image? WTF u smoking NYT) I feel compelled. The Odyssey's... fine? See it for Samantha Morton I guess!
Well I started today by wishing one hot fella congrats on his Emmy nomination, I might as well end the day doing the same -- and this time for a performance I have actually seen! (Sorry, Colman.) Congrats to our boy Charles Melton for getting an extremely deserved nod for his hysterical turn in the second season of Beef -- I was happy to see that show get a few nominations; I really thought the general consensus (not shared by me) was that its second season was a downgrade. Personally I liked the second season even more than the first, mainly due to Charles' comedic brilliance (and sexual tension with Oscar Isaac) and the utter perfection that is Carey Mulligan every second she exists. Anyway I don't want to do any deep dive on the Emmy nominations because the Emmys fucking suck -- not one single nomination for anything Industry-related is basically an immediate disqualification for any meaningfulness with regards to their entire organization. But if Charles is happy...
... we're happy for Charles. Anyway I had been hoping that he'd grace us with some more from his Milk Extravaganza of last week, but seeing as how generous he's been lately I won't complain. Not too loudly anyway. I've got these gifs from Beef on hand that I've not shared yet anyway. And just think -- his Nicolas Winding Refn movie isn't even out yet! That's in a couple of weeks and we'll have so so so much to say about it shortly, believe you me. (Yes indeed I have now seen it. I have now seen it!) It's actually opening Fantasia Fest in Montreal which, well I guess now's the time to share I'm going back to Montreal for that again this year, so stay tuned for lots of Fantasia coverage to come. Unbelievably that's... uhh. one week from today? Shit I haven't packed a thing yet. All that AND it's my birthday next week. When it rains milk from Charles Melton's lips it pours milk from Charles Melton's lips. As the saying goes. Okay I've rambled enough. Time for me to head off for my three day weekend. Keep your eyes peeled to Pajiba as I have a review going up tomorrow but otherwise y'all have a good weekend and you can get it started by hitting the jump for more Charles Melton gifs...
It's really difficult to explain the forthcoming film called Buffet Infinity -- pieced together from local low-budget lo-fi television commercials for a car dealership, a pawn shop, and the restaurant of the film's title which slowly reveals itself to maybe be some sort of portal to hell, this movie is pretty much one of a kind. One of an awesome kind! I saw it at Fantasia last year and it was probably my favorite thing at the entire fest -- here is my review -- so I'm extremely happy to see the news that it's somehow getting an actual release thanks to the fine demented folks at Yellow Veil Pictures. They're saying it'll hit "select" theaters April 24th (I think it's safe to say we're not talking about three thousand screens in every corner of the country though) and then it'll move over to VOD on May 8th. Speaking from experience (having only seen it on a small screen) you'll be fine watching it at home. Below is the freaky trailer which does a good job capturing the vibe without really giving much away -- being a movie that's entirely about the experience of feeling like your mind is unraveling from watching it, I don't know that you could spoil this just through a trailer. It's a rare exception, me saying you'll be fine watching this horror movie trailer! So seize the day, ya buncha bastards!
The pervasive sense that the movement of Time has lost all meaning isn't just for our own individual sliding-down-the-shower-wall moments any more! The movies have taken notice! Time Loop Movies might be somewhat more prominent in Japanese cinema right now -- I think it must have been the one-two-punch success of One Cut of the Deadand Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, which were then followed up by River and the upcoming horror flick Exit 8 (and I should note that every single movie I just mentioned is terrific and you should seek them all out). It's not like we haven't had our own love affair with this subgenre blooming in our cinematic margins, though -- look no further than the entire ouerve of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who've moved on up to the Marvel level of filmmaking after making a name for themselves with small-nudgeted mind-benders a la The Endless.
Point being that while these sorts of movies have been around for ages they seem very hot right now if you know where to look, and where you should be looking is for the nearest theater playing writer-director-brothers Kevin and Matthew McManus' new movie Redux Redux, a wham-bammer or a brain-bender that's in theaters today. I missed it at Fantasia last summer but finally caught up with it this week and this should prove a calling-card of cinematic excellence for the filmmakers previously behind the unnerving horror The Block Island Sound.
That movie also starred McManus sister Michaela, and here she turns up again to play our lead Irene, a broken woman who's taken to jumping through wormholes to chase down and murder the man who murdered her daughter -- and yeah okay so this is a multi-verse movie, not a time-travel movie, but it plays out basically the same as the process has becomes no less than a hyper-violent Groundhog Day for her.
As in all of the previous movies mentioned the tech and special-effects are all lo-fi, battered and beaten crapola a la Ridley Scott's Alien freighter -- the focus remains on the way these science-fiction concepts are mangling with the emotions and mental-stability of our characters, and this quest that Irene is on is a doozy of one. Forcing her to re-live her trauma in an endless circle, violence begetting violence until the very idea of revenge reveals itself to be as empty and useless as it truly is. There can be no catharsis when her daughrter's killer inescapably remains in an infinite number of universes -- it's a brilliant way of showing that there is only sense in trying to fix ourselves, and that the monsters that haunt us will forever haunt us if we can't let them go or find some way to move on.
For Irene this comes in a couple forms -- she strikes up a sporadic one-sided love-affair with dreamy dude Jonathan (played by dreamy dude Jim Cummings), and she gets way too mixed up with another one of the victims of her daughter's killer, a young woman named Mia (Stella Marcus) who wants her own revenge. And to the filmmakers' extensive credit absolutely none of this plays out like we think it will -- their script swerves in all sorts of unexpected ways, managing to be an absolute thrill-ride while never losing sight of its profound emotional stakes. I'll just end with this -- if thoughtful genre movies like Redux Redux were what Hollywood was actually churning out right now we'd be so much better off. As movie-lovers, as a species. Go see this movie.
Y'all know how giddy I get when I get blurbed -- my great joy is also my great shame -- so consider it giddy-time! That's my Mashable review of Neon's forthcoming found-footage horror flick Shelby Oaks quoted there from the film's Instagram account -- I saw it at Fantasia Fest in Montreal last year and it rules. Here's the full review, although you might wanna see the movie first. It's one with a lot of tricks and turns up its tricky twisty sleeves. As it says above the movie is out on October 24th and I hope it makes for an All Hallows hit -- as I said I haven't seen it since last July but there are still a couple of scares that make the hairs on my arms stand on end when I think about them. I will definitely be re-watching it the second I can. And since I apparently hadn't posted this yet, here's the trailer for the movie below... although like I said, maybe just don't watch this. I will share it because we're all adults and we can make our own decisions -- I'll just hand you the rope to hang yourself with but I deny any and all blame!
To my fellow horror-hounds of the Big Apple, a heads-up -- FLC has brought back their much beloved "Scary Movies" series this year and it kicks off tomorrow!, running through the 21st. You can check the entire line-up at this link but I thought I'd highlight some, uhh, highlights in case you're overwhelmed by the week's worth of creepy cool choices that they've curated -- for real out of the ones I've already seen there's not a bad bugger in the bunch. They do such good work with this series every time. Now some of these I'm planning on reviewing in the next week so I'm going to keep it mostly brief for now. But I give you...
5 Movies Not To Miss At "Scary Movies XIII"
The Wailing (dir. Pedro Martín-Calero) -- A tremendously accomplished and stylish scare flick from Spain (the director's very first feature!) that I saw at Fantasia earlier this month and reviewed right here. It fucking rules. And when I tell you something reminds me of Luca Guadanino's Suspiria you should listen! (And obviously take it as a good thing since Luca Guadanino's Suspiria is revelatory, of course.)
Rabbit Trap (dir. Bryn Chainey) -- a Folk Horror flick from the UK starring Dev Patel? Who's gonna miss that? Nobody wants to miss that. If you're not in NYC for this series you don't have to wait long for this movie though as it's being released in theaters on September 12th. But if you are in NYC treat yourself and see it ASAP. I'll be reviewing it for its theatrical release but it's a definite rec.
Good Boy (dir. Ben Leonberg ) -- Another one I saw at Fantasia and reviewed (right here). My feelings were mixed, it's true, but it's a horror movie starring an adorable doggy -- everyone should still see it even if I don't think it quite entirely works. And I'm fairly lonesome on that island as most people seem to've adored it. Make up your own minds! Support Doggy Cinema!
Chain Reactions (dir. Alexandre O. Philippe) -- The latest essay film from the director behind Lynch/Oz and Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist and several other single subject cinematic studies of note, Chain Reactions is all about Tobe Hooper's masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre here for that film's 50th anniversary. I will also be reviewing this soon so mum's my word til then but, uhh, do go see it. Really superior group of voices gathered.
It Ends (dir. Alexander Ullom) -- This is tomorrow night's Opening Night movie and it's already sold out so just put a pin in this one! Likewise any more thoughts from me on it since I'm planning on reviewing it. But I will say that it's about a group of teenage friends who find themselves trapped on an endless road that winds through the forest forever and god I felt that.
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They're also screening a couple of classic horror movies like m-f'ing Daughters of Darkness which is never to be missed on the big screen, so make sure you peruse the entire line-up. I'm hoping to check out a couple of the other titles that I haven't myself been able to see, so maybe I'll see you there! Or maybe not! I'm a shy hermit who barely leaves the house, so
Big huge ups to MNPP reader Natty who alerted me to the presence of a 2017 short horror film called "Great Choice" that stars a pre-Gilded-Age Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector as people trapped inside a hellish Red Lobster commercial loop -- I'd never heard of it and I loved it, so I wrote a little thing about it over at Pajiba today (where you can also watch said short). Anyway Natty I didn't get to mention you in the piece there for obvious reasons but I can give you your flowers right here, amongst the luxurious chest follicles of Mr. Spector himself, so that's what this is. King! Anyway that short is indeed a perfect companion to the film Buffet Infinity that I just reviewed out of Fantasia -- you can read that here if you missed it. Anyway me and Morgan are back off to bed now so g'night!
Some movies are just so goddamned weird that reviewing them can only get you so far -- the experience is the thing. And so's it goes with Buffet Infinity, which I nevertheless tried to do some justice in my Pajiba review from its screening at the Fantasia Fest. An assemblage of escalating local commercials telling a most forboding tale of capitalist woe, I've seen people try to do this sort of thing in short form but Buffet Infinity at feature length really goes for broke, and I admired its chutzpah, I did. There are some clips from the movie over at BD if you want more of an idea of what to expect -- but I'll keep my eyes peeled for any kind of wider release. It might be a minute though given how f'ing weird this thing is and 2) the fact that it doesn't even have a Rotten Tomatoes page yet for me to link my review to. This one's for the cinematically adventurous!
There's a good chance that some of you International Readers outside of the U.S. have already seen the movie I'm about to link my review to -- Spanish director Pedro Martín-Calero's film The Wailingcame out in his home country last year and it's traveled around from there. But it hasn't gotten any release in North America save a few festivals and I'm hoping the good word of mouth changes that quickly, cuz this movie rules. Click here to read my review at Pajiba -- I saw it up in Montreal at Fantasia a couple of weeks ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. It's very good! And it's Martín-Calero's very first movie so let's hope we hear more from him. Once we're able to hear this from him, anyway. One movie that kept coming to mind, although I didn't mention it in my review, was Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria -- so that tells you something about how impressive I found it!
You'll want to put a pin in this one for future consideration -- i.e. whenever the hell this movie gets released -- but I had a lot of fun with a movie called Terrestrial from the director of Hot Tub Time Machine that stars actor Jermaine Fowler (seen above) and which just screened at the Fantasia Film Festival -- click here to read my review of it at Pajiba. I did my best to not spoil it -- and it's a movie with a lot of twists and turns so it wasn't easy. But when there's a trailer and such we'll come back to this one so I'll no doubt bring it back up then.
The best horror movie of 2025 to date is out this Wednesday! (And just screened at Fantasia, which is where I saw it.) Newcomer writer-director Michael Shanks proves with Together that he's not just somebody to not just watch but someone to attach yourselves to as if glued by some sort of demonic force. Tackling the story of an inseparable couple named Millie and her sexy but useless cuck-boy Tim (played by real-world couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco) who literally become inseparable thanks to some weird-shit-in-the-woods hoodoo that they do, Together is exctly what it promises to be on the package -- but what a package! (Don't make the Dave Franco's penis joke, don't make the Dave Franco's penis joke....)
In all seriousness I refused to watch the trailer for this but I had susseed out what the general story would be anyway thanks to 1) its title and 2) the images on the posters -- and as any of you who've ever read anything of mine know, it's not because I'm thrillingly clever. It's one of those stories that is so obvious now that it's been made you can't believe it hadn't been made already. (Final scene of Society notwithstanding.) But Shanks -- with copius thanks to the wonderful chemistry between his stars -- delivers a film that exploits our expectations while also delivering on them to a gratuitous (complimentary) and gore-iffic tee. The shocks come in how far the three of them are willing to go with it all, and Together goes all the way, baby. Two days before a movie comes out is probably early to call something a classic but Together has all of the makings. I will watch this fifty times if the world can refrain from ending first.
Kicking off my Fantasia 2025 reviews with one of the buzziest titles that played -- the horror flick Good Boy, which stars a tremendously adorable dog named Indy who finds himself trapped in a haunted house with his sickly owner and like any good boy will do whatever it takes to keep his human safe. Read my thoughts here -- I tried to keep them spoiler-free as much as possible although there might be insinuations I make so, you know, only read it if you don't care about that kind of thing. Anyway keep your eyes peeled (and your tails wagging!) for more Fantasia coverage dropping this week -- there's about to be a lot of it!
"I too quit smoking (2013) AND find this type of pictures cool. Also, PSA: if you're feeling like you want to start smoking again, just remind yourself "I do not want my body and house to stink like stale horseshit", then go drink one more glass of water to entertain your hands and lips. Congrats, btw."
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