“Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” (*** out of four) was a good-natured sequel to the 1984 classic about the legendary heavy metal band (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer) reuniting after decades for one final concert which is once again chronicled and coordinated by film director Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner). Director Reiner ably duplicates the amusing and tongue-in-cheek tone of the original and the boys immediately replicate both their musical and comic chemistry together with cameos from musicians Elton John, Lars Ulrich, and others. Sadly, this was Reiner’s final film before his recent tragic death.

Continue reading →

“The Amityville Lost Tape” (0 stars out of four) was an embarrassingly awful thriller that deserves to be lost and stay there; a trick-or-treater on Halloween night stumbles upon a lost VHS tape that shows what happened when three curious college students (Courtney Griswold, Katie Terry, Rob Seitelman) investigated the legendary Amityville house and wound up missing. Film is (incredibly) the 69th movie under the “Amityville” ouevre but to call this a film is a bit of a stretch since it looks like bad footage captured on someone’s cell-phone camera. You’ll probably get more scares watching a real-estate portfolio on the actual Amityville house. Unwatchable, even for die-hard “Amityville” completists.

Continue reading →

“Snapped” (** out of four) was a stylish but empty urban thriller about a successful businessman (Demarvious Rorie) whose life and relationship with his partner (Gayla Williams) are thrown into disarray by the arrival of a sexy new co-worker (Syncere Ellis) who he begins an affair with and he soon finds out she is an unstable nutjob who doesn’t take rejection well. Reasonably well-acted and well-directed enough to hold your attention but seems to be following a much-too-familiar pattern of “Obsessed” which in itself was patterned after (i.e. ripped off from) “Fatal Attraction.”

Continue reading →

“6 Wheels From Hell” (* out of four) was a freewheeling mess about a group of none-too-bright college friends (Evan Keys, Malachi Durant, Brenna Marie Naray, and others) on a weekend trip who cross paths with a psycho truck-driver (Mark Anthony Baca) who carries a torture chamber with him in the back of his truck. Film itself is its own torture chamber as it punishes the audience with terrible acting and even more terrible dialogue. Made by rednecks who likely spent too much time watching “Duel” and “Maximum Overdrive.”

Continue reading →

“It Ends” (* out of four) was a torturously dull horror psychodrama about four friends (Mitchell Cole, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth, Phinehas Yoon) who go out on the road on a late-night food run and find themselves trapped on an infinite highway with no means of escape and various otherworldly terrors lurking beyond that test their sanity (and the audiences). The word infinite will have meaning to the viewers also because this claustrophobic and tedious film feels like it goes on forever. Give writer/director Alex Ullom points for trying to do something slightly original but trust me you won’t wait for “it” to “end” and soon.

Continue reading →

“A Game In The Woods” (*1/2 out of four) was ho-hum horror hokum about the death of a Texas rancher millionaire and his granddaughter (Eleanor Newman) and her girlfriend (Emily Skeen) who show up to inherit and inhabit his property but instead find 2 hillbilly redneck retards (John P. Crowley and Doug Field) who want to all compete in a twisted game of hunted life and death. Latest weekly attempt to update “Deliverance” to an audience that doesn’t know any better fails to deliver much in the way of originality or even scares. How many god damn times can they literally re-tell this same story by now???

Continue reading →

“My Husband Hired A Hitman” (*1/2 out of four) was an artless suspense melodrama that fires all blanks about a greedy husband (Jason Diaz) who hires a hitman (Brett Geddes) to murder his wife (Tamara Almeida); upon uncovering this, she decides to fight back and seek revenge at any and all personal costs. Same story was told in Paul Mazursky’s 1996 “Faithful” which was also a misfire. By the end of this clunker, it may have been more enticing and exciting had they all gone to marriage counseling instead.

Continue reading →

“The Carters” (*1/2 out of four) was a pointless horror thriller set in the midst of the COVID pandemic in which the title family (QuanNae Coleman, Ciara Cravens, Cameron Cottrell, and others) struggle with the aftereffects of the virus and also the vaccination and how it turns all of them against one another in the facility that they all confer in. Part horror thriller, part social and medical commentary, part family comedy and pretty much an all-around mess. Film doesn’t so much end as stop, assuming you make it that far.

Continue reading →

“The Mannequin” (*1/2 out of four) was an unbearable horror thriller about a stylist’s assistant (Isabella Gomez) who investigates her sister’s death in a historic L.A. building and soon uncovers the spirit of a ghost in the form of a mannequin which is dismembering and mutilating victims in the area. Good production values can’t enrich this tired and tiresome material. Title is fittingly appropriate in some ways because film never comes to life. Byetheway- this is not a remake or related to the 1987 comedy cult classic of the same name.

Continue reading →