celluloid consommé

“Horror’s Greatest” returns, examining space-set screamers, demented love stories, cutting edge film scores and beyond spanning another five episodes that hit the streaming service December 31st. If you’re browsing  Shudder  right at the end of the year, chances are you might be looking to experience one more shock or scare before 2024 comes to a close. Maybe you’re looking for some fresh recommendations to follow through on in the new year. The site’s previous programmatic offerings have brought an illustrious array of titles forward for exploration into the deepening sub-genres of horror. The second season of Shudder’s celebratory series,  Horror’s Greatest , sees its second season begin right before the end of 2024 in a compact five-episode stretch encompassing horror’s best in animal attacks, film scores, killer dates, hidden gems, and space horror. Episodes feel very much like they did in the previous season with the same and other similar talking heads, ranging from...

There’s a chill in the air. Frost is accumulating in the sky and on car windshields; people’s faces are leaking fluids while they try politely hiding their illnesses; dealerships are dusting off their house brand market-devised strategically named year-end sales events. In other words, the holidays are here. But the only holiday we know will get the spotlight is Christmas. I’m not here to tell you why, you probably already have a good idea. There’s an embarrassment of riches when it comes to anything Christmas-themed alone in this country. The embarrassment may in fact come because of the sheer volume of it all. This extends to film but more specifically because of this article, horror films. Maybe once upon a time there wasn’t much horror centered around the holiday but I have never been part of that world. Are these curses cast on human society or balms to soothe us in our times of need? Am I lucky to be part of this — or is this what it’s like having been born into a reality where v...

Kalman and Horn’s latest retro-futurist homage to 90s basic cable thrillers offers a hodgepodge of satirical angles for the hyper-specific subgenre of television. But this is precisely its strength in embracing transparent cheese and sleaze. Minh T Mia as Dr. Veronica Beef in Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn's DREAM TEAM. Photo by Whitney Horn. Courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures. Writers and directors Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn have carved out a specific cavern of cinema out for themselves. It’s completely autonomous of the conventions filmic “aesthetics” populate within A24-like fuzzy film filters although it may look just like one. The difference is  Dream Team’s  attitude, which is something admirably peculiar and offers something wholeheartedly genuine that you wouldn’t get elsewhere. The treatment of what  Dream Team  employs is a complete and total participation within what’s being lampooned — late 1980s and early 1990s procedural softcore television. It feels like...

Writer/director Steven Kostanski is doubling down on more of the humor that made  Psycho Goreman  an outlier for horror comedies within the past few years. This time around it comes in a pint-sized form (give or take a few ounces).  Frankie Freako  is, largely, a puppet-centric original creature feature that lifts from various  Gremlins -adjacent cinematic riffs like a spoiled grade-schooler would when trick-or-treating, regardless of a babysitter’s presence. You could say that  Frankie Freako  meets expectations and not much more, which would be true. Kostanski draws from a treasure trove of puppet horror films for inspiration and depending on your knowledge of the sub-genre of ankle-biting creature flicks, it’s either gonna click for you or it isn’t. Simple as that.  Goreman’s  situational humdrum tongue-in-cheek dad humor is beefed up to the max in  Freako . Unlikely hero Conor finds himself in an existential bind when he realizes tha...