Review – Late Night with the Devil

Serious third act problems. The set up here has potential: a struggling talk show tries to boost ratings by featuring a guest who’s possessed by a demon. The making-it-look-like-archive-video approach is clever and entertaining. Even when the “commercial breaks” give way to less realistic behind-the-scenes footage, the story still holds together. But after the demon puts in a hypnosis-induced appearance, they don’t seem to know where to go from there. Mildly amusing

Review – Invaders from Mars (1986)

Tobe Hooper directs this stiff remake of the semi-famous sci fi classic. Aside from occasional nods to the original, this one doesn’t have much going for it. The acting is stiff (surprising considering there are some talented people in the cast). Some of the effects are fun in a pre-CGI sort of way. See if desperate

Review – Hold Your Breath

If the movie had been half as good as the concept, this would have been one of the year’s best. The inherent creepiness of rural isolation has been used to good effect in other horror movies, and dust storms add another scary element. Though the result here isn’t terrible, it would have worked better if the supernatural-or-insane ambiguity had been more effective or at least a little less drawn out. Mildly amusing

Review – Very Frightening Tales

So this is where D listers go to bury their careers. Eric Roberts, Sally Struthers, Martin Sheen’s brother, all somehow got roped into appearing in YouTube-worthy shorts mashed together into this sad excuse for a horror anthology piece. This time around I can’t even dish out an E for effort. The writing, directing and acting are all too terrible. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Nightmare Alley (2021)

This remake of an old noir classic gets off to a good start. The protagonist is sympathetic and his story’s fairly interesting while he’s getting his start as a grifter in a carnival sideshow. But when he breaks into the big time, the plot turns stale and the production starts relying heavily on art direction to keep things compelling. To be sure, the sets and costumes are good. They just aren’t quite enough to breathe life into the trite tale of a good man gone bad. See if desperate

Review – Satan Wants You

This documentary does a solid job of uncovering the roots of the “Satanic panic” of the 1980s, a time when a fraudulent “memoir” called Michelle Remembers convinced gullible evangelicals that the world was beset by a vast army of child-murdering Satanists. The whole thing would be funny if it hadn’t served as an excuse to ruin a lot of innocent people’s lives. The production also does a good job of reminding viewers about how often the perpetrators of this sort of thing are truly awful people. Mildly amusing