Written by: Alex Garland (screenplay), Jeff VanderMeer (based on the novel by)
Directed by: Alex Garland
Review by: Stacey
Prior to its release, there was some studio hooplah with Annihilation and whether it would garner any kind of love from moviegoers as Paramount said it was "too intellectual". They weren't wrong- the movie made me sit back and think the entire time I was watching it, but it wasn't a bad thing. I admit, I felt a bit stupid at times during my viewing, but I appreciated that and don't particularly care for my movies to spoon feed me every bit of a scene. However, as more and more people see the movie, I can only imagine how divisive this one will be but I can say with every bit of me- IT WAS SO GOOD.
If you've been reading my reviews for a while now, you probably know that I never try to dissuade anyone from watching a movie, no matter how much I dislike it, so I usually follow that myself when someone tells me not to watch a movie; I like to form my own opinions, y'know? This time though, I probably should have heeded everyone's warnings abut Netflix original The Open House.
Release Date: June 4, 2016 (Los Angeles Film Festival)
Written/Directed by: Chris Sparling
Review by: Stacey
Not to be confused with the 2014 movie of the same name starring Carl from The Walking Dead, 2016's Mercy was acquired by Netflix sometime this year after having its premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Now, Netflix has a pretty good track record with their original series, but when it comes to their original movies I'm actually pretty in the dark about those. And as we all know, Netflix isn't the best when it comes to having a variety of quality horror.
I decided to give Mercy a chance taking into consideration the streaming site's top tier series selection, hoping that maybe their horror films would follow suit.
I first heard about the disappearance of Johnny Gosch on a podcast a couple of years ago. What caught me about it was that it was relatively unknown for me, so I didn't feel like I was hearing about something that had been rehashed over and over on other platforms, and because this case is like a cornucopia of conspiracy, police ineptitude, multiple missing children, and just general mystery.
Currently on Netflix, Who Took Johnny (2014) delves into the (now) 34 year old missing persons case of 12 year old Johnny Gosch . The documentary's focus is Johnny's mother, Noreen, who has spent the last three decades trying to uncover what happened to her son.
I don't want to give a whole lot about the film away for you readers who haven't heard anything about the case, but I highly recommend this one. Especially if you have an affinity for conspiracies and true crime. It's equal parts crazy and heartbreaking because at the end of the day, a boy went missing and no one knows who is at fault. Families were destroyed and to make it worse, Johnny's disappearance wasn't the only one that occurred in that area around that time (which is briefly covered during the documentary). That's where the film starts to take a turn into sketch-land.
Disappearance and conspiracies aside, the film reveals how poorly the police handled the disappearance. Whether it was unwillingness or inexperience, the Des Moines PD dropped the ball in the first hours of Johnny's disappearance (and for a long time afterwards), and it's very evident. It's not hard to become a little mad and ultra-suspicious of what exactly happened in this whole tale.
Ash and Stacey-Beth have resurrected 'Horror Huddle' from it's grave to talk about the tv series that has lit the internet on fire: STRANGER THINGS. On this episode we have on guest (and SB's husband) Adam as we all give an overview and our thoughts on the first 4 episodes (or chapters) of the Netflix original show.
Enjoy and leave some feedback!
Find us on Instagram: staceybethh || e.txcountryboy
I've been a tad MIA the last month due to me and the hubs picking up and moving our asses on out to the dang 'ol country! But I'm back and ready to take on this dreaded holiday season here at To Avoid Fainting with the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the Christmas horror films! All December long I'll be posting reviews for these films (with a few random non-Xmas related films sprinkled in) to make this cheery holiday a little more bloody.
Release Date: Sep. 9, 2006 (TIFF) and Oct. 11, 2013 (limited US release)
Review by: Stacey
This was one of those rare movies that I actually went into full on cold watch. I didn't even know what the premise was. All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, that's basically all I knew. I was a little hesitant because initially I thought it would be some kind of gross, teenage rape film. I was way off.
Release Date: Aug. 27, 2012 (London FrightFest Film Fest) & May 31, 2013 (US limited theatrical)
Review by: Stacey
I saw American Mary some time last year when it first came out on Netflix and being a film that was highly anticipated in the horror community, I thought I'd give it a shot. What did I think? Well, I didn't like it the first time I viewed it. Maybe I didn't pay enough attention, maybe I didn't get it, hell, maybe I went to take a piss and missed a pivotal scene. All I know is I didn't see what everyone was losing their shit about. Okay, I think I know why and it comes in the form of fringe-haired, tall, brooding and very boob-y
KatherineIsabelle (Ginger Snaps). For that I can't blame y'all, but c'mon now. Fast forward to today and I felt like the now-cult classic venture by the Soska Twins (Dead Hooker In A Trunk), who seem to have taken the genre by storm, deserved another watch to see if maybe my opinions had changed.
Release Date: September 6, 2013 (TIFF) & May 2, 2014 (US limited release)
Review by: Stacey
Blood Glacier. The name alone reeks of cheesy B-grade horror. I've been hearing the name float around in the horror community the last few weeks but surprisingly, didn't hear many reviews on it. I imagined it was a movie about a killer glacier so I tried to distance myself as much as possible from it. Then I saw it was put up on Netflix and decided to bite that bullet and sit down for a watch. Wait, researchers (in a desolate, cold wasteland known as the Austrian Alps, fighting off otherworldly monsters that use humans or anything it lands on, really, as incubators? Wait a minute...did John Carpenter make this?
Looking at the cover, my eyes were immediately drawn to the words at the top right: "From the producers of Saw". I knew what I was about to get myself into because anything with the name Twisted Pictures attached to it is going to be in the vein of it's previous films that gave "the house that Wan built" it's torture porn notoriety; most notably Saw. Unlike Saw and it's many sequels that followed, The Tortured was straight to VOD and as the title suggested, it was torture to watch a lot of the time.
