Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

SAVAGELAND (2017)

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In horror mockumentary SAVAGELAND (2017), the 57 residents of a tiny Texas border town are massacred in a single bloody night and the lone survivor is accused of the heinous crime. But the pictures he took tell a different story.

This was a real surprise. What the filmmakers accomplished with a small budget is amazing. SAVAGELAND is presented like a true crime documentary and follows the same structure, presenting the crime, the man who stood accused, and the questions raised about his guilt. Only, in this case, the survivor described a group of strange people who came to the town and tore everyone to shreds.

As the story progresses, we meet the sheriff, who is absolutely convinced Salazar, an illegal immigrant, committed mass murder; various locals caught up in the debate over immigration; a reporter who discovered the mysterious photos depicting a nightmarish horror; a border patrol agent who believes Salazar is innocent; and families and friends of the victims.

When the photos are introduced, they tell the story of Salazar’s mad dash through hell, and they are super creepy. Depicting the last moments of various residents, blurry with motion, they take on a life of their own and give heavy NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and 30 DAYS OF NIGHT vibes. Coupled with the secondhand nature of the storytelling, it really plays on the imagination and brought me directly into the story.

Overall, I loved SAVAGELAND and recommend it. I didn’t expect anything, and it turned out to be a great surprise.

28 YEARS LATER

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28 DAYS LATER marked a salient reinvention of the zombie genre, providing an infection in the blood that turns people into enraged homicidal maniacs. 28 WEEKS LATER was the polished but less punchy and visceral follow-up. With 28 YEARS LATER, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland team up again to revisit this sad universe, returning to its grungy, episodic roots with a new film that explores fresh weird and blood-soaked terrain.

28 DAYS LATER was a big influence for my zombie novels back in the day. From the gritty look and music to the desolation to the terror of the infected to the sheer desperation of the survivors, I loved it. I liked 28 WEEKS LATER–especially the insane opening scene–but didn’t love it. Tonally, it was so different, and when the SHTF, it ended too quickly for me. So, I went into 28 YEARS LATER ready for anything, especially after watching the off-the-hook trailer with the wild song where an actor recites Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Boots.”

Anyway, England has fallen due to a blood-borne virus that causes homicidal rage and shedding blood. The infected immediately either kill you or infect you. The authorities disinfected the island and tried to bring the survivors back to repopulate London, but a fresh outbreak destroyed the settlement. The virus was pushed back from mainland Europe, and the UK is permanently quarantined, leaving the human survivors to fend for themselves.

In a community surviving on a small island off mainland UK, 12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams, who pulls his weight as the lead) lives with his father and ailing mother. The community has a strange culture with traditions around conquering death, including masks and boys going ashore to kill an infected. When Spike learns of an isolated and possibly insane doctor tending a perpetual bonfire of the dead, he sets out in the hopes of getting his mother cured, learning to respect instead of fear death in the process. An apocalyptic bildungsroman. Along the way, Spike encounters various survivors and variants on the infected as the Rage virus has mutated.

Overall, it was fun and weird and different, throwing out the fast-food menu of the franchise for a far grungier vision that hearkens back to the original. At the end, Spike meets up with someone in a setup for a continuation of the story, which I would definitely watch.

As far as criticisms, some of the editing is heavy-handed, and Boyle’s trick of occasionally freeze-framing during action scenes doesn’t work for me. The first act has cutaways to British documentary war footage and old movies of medieval warfare, which was odd and unnecessary. The overall story’s episodic nature is similar to Garland’s CIVIL WAR. Story wise, I think it would have been better to convey more tangibly what Spike is rejecting about his home and why beyond the philosophical theme, and make him a little older. If it’s a simple story set in an apocalyptic world, they should have leaned on it. Also, I’m surprised Spike finds a home in the wild world when it’s obvious he very likely won’t survive–it’s not really clear he understands and accepts this. I don’t want to overthink a zombie movie, but this one does seem to reach for something bigger.

Anyway, no matter. Overall, I thought 28 YEARS LATER was a worthy addition to the Rage universe. It didn’t trigger a hungry sense of wonder like the first movie did and it wasn’t quite as visceral, but it was weird, punchy, exciting, and a fun ride.

THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025)

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It’s all the rage to take traditional stories and invert them by making a sympathetic villain the protagonist, but THE UGLY STEPSISTER (2025, streaming on Shudder), a fresh take on the Cinderella story, drives it to a whole new level. Rather than skating on the premise, this Norwegian horror film aims for from-the-ground-up reinvention as it harvests brutal body horror and strong themes, making this movie a cross between Cinderella and THE SUBSTANCE.

In this movie, Elvira travels with her sister Alma to a new home in a country ruled by the dashing Prince Julian, whose book of love poems inspired Elvira into a swoon of passion and desire for a fairy-tale romance. There, she meets her new stepfather and stepsister Agnes, whom she initially admires but comes to resent for being naturally graceful and beautiful. When the stepfather dies, Elvira’s mother needs to marry Elvira off to raise money, with them sharing a goal of her marrying the handsome Prince Julian, who is hosting a ball where he will choose his bride.

Thus begins a brutal competition where Elvira will do anything to transform herself to become beautiful using painful and primitive beauty methods and gain what she believes is the perfect man and life.

Thematically, pretty much everything is covered here, from the unfairness of beauty standards and the sacrifices and pressure to conform to them to the belief that beauty is the ticket to a perfect romance and life. While it’s low-hanging fruit, it’s done extremely well by showing (in the most brutal way possible) instead of telling, trusting the audience to get it. From the start, Elvira is a deeply sympathetic character, slowly sacrificing her inner for outer beauty. The sets and costumes all look both formal and shabby, reinforcing the conflict between image and reality. While Agnes is her opponent, the real antagonist is her mother, who gets everything she wants by selling sex, whom Elvira will become if she carries on her path. And then there’s the body horror, which on a 1-10 Cronenberg scale jumps between 7 and 11, made all the more horrific because we really come to care for Elvira as a character.

Overall, I found THE UGLY STEPSISTER impressive and liked it a lot. It could have traded on a gimmick and instead reached for something far more substantial and affecting.

HERETIC (2024)

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HERETIC (2024) finds horror in conventional religion regardless of where you stand on belief. With solid pacing, stimulating ideas, and terrific performances, notably Hugh Grant playing a charming baddie, it’s a truly standout horror film.

When I wrote THE CHILDREN OF RED PEAK several years back, one of the points I wanted to make in the novel is whether it’s a cult or a mainstream religion, religion itself is, well, terrifying if you think about it beyond the comforting assurances. Cosmic horror. The idea that there’s a supreme being judging everything you do and will burn you forever if you don’t love him enough or worship him the right way. The alternate idea that there’s nothing at all out there, no meaning or reason for being alive, and death is oblivion.

HERETIC cuts right to the heart of this existential dread (for another example of this, check out the Netflix series MIDNIGHT MASS). In the movie, two Mormon doorknockers, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), visit Mr. Reed (Grant), who has expressed interest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They’re hoping for a convert, but he has something else in mind, a game of sorts about faith and belief. Soon, the two young women will find themselves trapped and forced to play.

If you’re super religious, here’s your trigger warning: Faith is discussed in many ways, but there is a strong point of view that is not flattering. That being said, HERETIC isn’t a religion-bashing film, not at all. The women, of course, also get their say, with the suggestion that God is not necessary for religion to be good. And the film is more about the questions than any answers.

As a horror film, the first act is almost perfect. The dread as the women start to realize things aren’t as they seem, the mounting tension as they try to talk themselves out of it, the calm and almost cheerful menace as Mr. Reed guides them without force to follow his script. In the second act, the horror steps up, but I didn’t find the third act, as the unknown becomes known, as strong, nor the final payoff. It’s pretty conventional and thwarted my hope the conflict would all boil down to a moral choice that provided a different answer to Mr. Reed’s explanation as to what the “one true religion” actually is.

Overall, I loved this highly thoughtful and provocative horror film and was glad I caught it in the theater. Definitely recommended.

LONGLEGS (2024)

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Imagine SEVEN meets SILENCE OF THE LAMBS with a supernatural element, and you’ve got LONGLEGS, an entertaining horror film featuring one of Nicholas Cage’s best performances.

In this police procedural horror film, FBI agent Lee Harker is recruited to a task force working a case involving a bizarre series of murder-suicides–each involving a father killing his family and himself and leaving a coded letter signed “Longlegs.” She finds herself pursuing a serial killer who kills by implanting homicidal madness in otherwise upright families. As she goes deeper into the case, memories begin to surface that suggests she has met this sinister figure before.

The movie has a wonderful brooding atmosphere going for it, elevated by Cage’s gonzo performance as Longlegs. The supernatural element is a lot of fun. On the downside, it’s awfully derivative of stronger films, though I didn’t mind that all that much as I had a good time. Probably my biggest criticism is Harker has almost no personality, appears constantly on edge, and makes some really terrible decisions, especially at the end, but hey, it’s a horror movie.

Overall, it’s not exactly what was sold in the marketing, particularly in its messy last act rife with odd decisions and strange continuity errors, but I liked it and it is a lot of fun, and it’s honestly worth watching for Cage’s creepy performance alone.

SMILE 2 (2024)

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Holy cow, I did not expect such a solid movie from a sequel of a middling horror film. SMILE 2 is terrific horror.

Full disclosure, I thought the first movie was, well, I didn’t think much of it. A fellow horror author advised me to check out the sequel, and he wasn’t wrong that it’s night and day with the two films. The sequel has a strong emotional anchor, strong themes, excellent horror, great acting, an entertaining inside look at what it’s like to be a pop star, and a killer ending.

The first film is basically about a curse where you and only you can see demonically smiling people who terrorize you until you die or witness a death, and then the curse passes on. In the second movie, it finds its way to a drug dealer who in turn passes it on to Skye Riley, a pop star (played to the hilt by actress/singer Naomi Scott), who finds herself in an escalating nightmare.

Skye has her own inner demons to contend with. She just got out of rehab and is trying to rebuild her career with a new tour. She decided to stop using after a car crash that killed her boyfriend, which still haunts her. This provides a strong emotional core for the film and a theme of wrestling with addiction, as the smiling curse similarly tries to break down her will and control.

SMILE 2 is a bit long for a horror movie at over 2 hours, but I enjoyed how it let itself breathe instead of throwing one horror setpiece jump scare (the jump scares are actually rare and used for maximum effect) after another at me. We get a lot of time seeing Skye doing her job–dealing with fans, practicing with backup dancers, and so on.

My main criticism is something the film actually overcame. I hate socially embarrassing ghosts, the kind of spirits that make you hallucinate so you freak out in front of a crowd or wind up doing something harmful. It delivers more anxiety than fun, and it doesn’t seem like a fair fight. But SMILE 2 overcame that usual objection, and I ran with it and enjoyed the ride until the killer ending.

Overall, I loved SMILE 2, it was a real surprise. Recommended.