The Movie:
If you've ever been to a historic theater, the kind built in the twenties or thirties, that hosted vaudeville acts and the like, you'll know that they're naturally eerie places, and thus a perfect spot in which to set a horror film. And that's part of what inspired writer / director Jeff Ferrell to make his feature debut Ghostlight.

Mira (Lisa Coronado) is a high strung and fragile young woman, who is none too happy that her husband Andrew (Brian Sutherland) has won a chance at $50,000. All he has to do is spend the night in an old theater, and the owner Mr. Black (Dennis Kleinsmith) will fork over the cash. But Mira has a bad premonition about the whole affair, even though her skeptic husband insists that there's nothing to worry about.

After some hemming and hawing, and a tour of the creepy building from Mr. Black and the caretaker Bob (Russell Hodgkinson), the day f...Read the entire review

The Movie:
While Demon Kiss may be sexy (in the most vulgar way, at least) the supernatural shenanigans on display are hardly thrilling, and not frightening at all. Confusion and boredom are by far the most prominent reactions of this reviewer, which is hardly what the producers could have intended when they stuffed as many naked prostitutes into the film as they could.

The story revolves around Amanda (Jessica T. Perez), a young prostitute who makes her hookups via the internet, and imagines herself to be a direct descendant (and perhaps the reincarnation) of Mary Magdalene, supposedly the greatest prostitute of all time. This connection keeps pulling her back into the sex trade, even though she would prefer to leave it. From time to time, she visits Dr. Lacey (Sally Mullins), a psychologist and author who specializes in prostitutes, and was one herself in her youth. Dr. Lacey ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
As a slasher movie, or even just a creepy killer in an isolated place movie, The Farm is something of a disappointment. It is plodding, confusing, and ultimately pointless.

Mickey (Jack Lowe) is in something of a pickle. He and his stoner friend Charlie (Robert Donohoe) kidnapped a random man on the street for a gangster they owed a debt to. Getting cold feet when the kidnapped man is tortured, Mickey kills said gangster, earning the enmity of his organization, bent on revenge and retrieving the large amount of money that Mickey stole during the confusion. In a panic, Mickey flees the city with his vapid girlfriend Juliet (Louise Cargin). They have no particular destination in mind, and wander through the countryside until they happen across quiet, unassuming fellow (never a good sign in this kind of film) John (Cathal Reilly), who agrees to let them spend the night a...Read the entire review

The Product:
Here's a tough critical quandary - what's worse? Bad ideas expertly executed, or ambitious concepts crafted into crap. Put another way, does imagination trump terrible acting, amateurish direction, bad production design, and an overall feeling of talent-free time wasting? That's the big problem with Hell House: The Book of Samiel. It's clear that everyone involved - from director Jason D. Morris to screenwriters William Martin and Jennifer Brugman know their horror. They've got their spook show requirements and references down pat, and when they borrow, they tend to borrow from the best. But that doesn't make up for a complete lack of filmmaking competence. Indeed, Hell House is so problematic and piecemeal that it's almost impossible to understand what's going on - and when, toward the end, the movie tries to make sense of itself, it turns from lamentable to laugh...Read the entire review

The Tenement is the latest from microbudget auteur Glen Baisley and the first of his films to net a wide release on home video. His shot-on-video movies take place in the same world, the sleepy little hamlet of Fairview Falls. The Tenement revolves around...surprise!...a tenement where, for the past few decades, its residents have been butchered, mauled, eaten, and hacked apart. Each of the four main stories tackles a different flavor of horror, beginning with a slasher set in 1980, appopriately enough. "Fade to Black" opens with a couple necking in the woods, which in this sort of movie means they're certain to lead long, happy, productive lives. The ritualistic slaying that follows isn't actually happening, though -- it's just a scene from another in a long lin...Read the entire review