Tough Films For The Rough Crowd

  Happy Memorial Day Weekend! This is before anything, a good time to reflect on the heroism of our Armed Forces, which is the primary reason for the season. More than ever, with certain elements trying to erase our nation’s history and to dumb us collectively down so they can…

  DINNER WITH LEATHERFACE opens with friends and colleagues of Gunnar Hansen discussing meals they shared. As someone who not only enjoys watching documentaries about films I love, but who is also fascinated by how food connects us both in real life and in storytelling, this immediately grabbed me.  Fans of…

        This review is informed by material from a written interview with the directors.    Co-Directors Nozomi Tomaki and Kyosuke Koizumi are self-described lovers brought together by their passion for extreme gore films and desire to push boundaries. Their 30-minute POV found footage “cruelty film” KILLMAGEDDON shimmers…

  There’s always at least one film per festival that knocks me so far sideways I need to take extra time to process. Historically, for Panic Fest, it’s been things like Robbie Banfitch’s THE OUTWATERS and Kyle Edward Ball’s SKINAMARINK. It seems almost like being made deeply upset is one…

Found footage is, in some ways, the ultimate playground. Everything about the genre feels intimate and in-your-face, often to an almost—or intentionally—uncomfortable degree. It’s the best subgenre there is for encouraging creators to get out and make something weird, no matter the experience or skill level. Almost everything you could…

      Horror is making a quiet splash in the world of theater, but it is a splash that has been long overdue. The immersive nature of the horror genre screams to be up close and personal with its audience. This is just what has been happening with MAB,…

  “Time, as it were, is trapped and can’t move on…the family home seemed to have been violently altered by the presence of the stones.”    Mattijs Driesen and Chloë Delanghe’s 34-minute experimental folk horror short (mixed VHS scans/still photography) HEXHAM HEADS is a hauntological dark night of the soul…

THE OUTWATERS, writer/ director/ cinematographer Robbie Banfitch’s visionary found footage first feature, is a tough act to follow, but his sophomore feature TINSMAN ROAD (which premiered at the Unnamed Footage Festival Vol. 8 in San Francisco) ups a different kind of ante. THE OUTWATERS shreds the fabric of reality on an…

    As teenagers, we are so often pressured to fit into particular molds of being in order to better survive the hell of high school hallways. We’re told that looking and acting a certain way is what will promise us the most comfort and success in the “real world”…

    Having made its world premiere at SXSW, director Alex Scharfman’s DEATH OF A UNICORN transforms the traditionally whimsical unicorn mythos into a darkly comedic and grotesquely imaginative tale. Drenched in satirical wit and dripping with viscera, Scharfman’s film gallops through themes of corporate greed, stolen Native land, and…

    Premiering at SXSW, CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD brings Adam Cesare’s hit slasher novel to life under the direction of Eli Craig (TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL). Adapted from the first book in Cesare’s trilogy, the film blends classic slasher tropes with some gory but humorous death sequences. Set…

    A life lived in fear is a life half-lived. — Baz Luhrmann     A friend of director Peter Ohs rented a house in upstate New York and wanted to see how many films could be made there. Ohs visited and while staying there, he refused to go…

  And we’re back for a new week with trailers and tunes and posters and all kinds of good stuff! Also some strange and upsetting stuff, because that’s life, now more than ever now. Can’t have the happiness without the horror. I’m kind of over living in interesting times, to…

    This is a masterpiece? Matt Johnson, the brilliant and unpredictable filmmaker behind THE DIRTIES (2013), trades psychological horror for chaotic comedy in NIRVANNA THE SHOW THE BAND: THE MOVIE. While THE DIRTIES was a deeply unsettling found footage film about two teens planning a school shooting, this new…

  We’re back with our daily column, or as daily as we can humanly manage. (I was sick yesterday. Apologies all around!) The good thing is now there’s two days’ worth of cool things to talk about and share with you.   8½! One of Federico Fellini’s most beloved and…

  At some point in our life, we will all wish we could turn back time. Often something happens and we will sit and wonder what led us down this road. AONTAS, an Irish-language heist thriller from director Damien McCann, plays with this very concept. The title AONTAS, translates to…

  Happy April Fool’s Day! Welcome back to our daily round-up of movie news, trailers, music, comics, and other noteworthy stuff. Can you spot the fake story below? Just kidding, we wouldn’t put you through that. Pranks are fun, but the year of Someone Else’s Lord 2025 is no time…

  Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that this column took its first break in over a week. That’s only because the weekends have less news and announcements to cover, and we sort of burned through a lot of cool stuff in the first few columns, so we needed a refractory…

  America’s greatest and only daily column at Daily Grindhouse is back for another day. Many technicians and craftspeople work hard behind the scenes to bring you the best in bizarre takes and demented opinions. Here are some movie-type things that happened today:   ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER! One week…

  Day Nine, and we are still rocking and rolling. This edition is a little late because I went long on one topic. You’ll see. Let’s get to reading! Here are the things I was thinking about today (aside from lunch and naked ladies, because I’m just a caveman).  …

  It’s Day Eight of our experiment, and by now maybe you know the routine. I am going to share some things I thought were cool, or just thought about today. And you can comment on my thoughts, or share your own! I would love to know what you’re thinking….

  Day Seven. I think that’s supposed to be the day of rest, but we’re still just getting started here. Featured today: A few things to make you happy and one thing to make you furious. That’s still a bargain, in this day and age. It’s usually the other way…

  It’s Sunday, so things have been quiet as far as breaking news and big premieres, but not quiet in my personal life! I’m exhausted, and it’s not even Monday yet. All of that taken into account, I only have one thing to recommend today, and it’s something that has…

  Back again with a shortlist of things that have caught my interest over the past 24 hours. There’s not much in the way of big news or trailers, it being Saturday, but there’s still some cool stuff to share!     JOHN CARPENTER! I’m a guy with a fair…