Amorosa (2025) (Canada)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

An internet fashion mogul’s daughter goes missing from the rural estate she calls home. An urban legend concerning a summoned spirit who snatches the soul’s of phone-addicted dorks. A reclusive psychic. A team of tech-savvy ghost hunters. That’s the stew we’re working with. I have not been quiet about how Bloody Mary scared the shit out of me in my youth and the freaky entity at play here is just a modernized version of that childhood nightmare that made it impossible for me to sleep in a room with a mirror. World weary psychics with drinking problems are my kind of psychics. Vast estates in the middle of nowhere with plenty of corners and shadows to hide in are my kind of haunted locations. Ghost hunters in over their head are how I prefer my investigations. So, needless to say, I had my dinner plate ready for second helpings. Bella Hawthorne is called in by the frantic mother (stopping her from writing her suicide note after mournfully looking at a photograph of an older gentleman. I should also note that this farewell message was being scribbled on a piece of paper with a giant header in fancy text that read Final Words of Bella Hawthorne. Yeah. It’s serious) and the distressed woman is out of options as the police believe her kid ran away but mama is thinking the paranormal is at play and she will pay whatever sum is required to get her girl back. Bella consults with the framed picture of her father and heads out. An excited group of corporate sanctioned ghost hunters (actually in the “hunting” sense as they are a bit more hands on and instead of just trying to make contact are there to terminate to the best of their ability) are looking forward to the payday in their future and are ready to kick some spooky booty. They’re not exactly happy to hear a psychic will be joining them (they prefer to rely on science), especially one who has a history of fucking things up. Not that Bella’s happy to have a team there too. She prefers to work alone and would have walked if not for the desperate mom pleading for her to stay. Luke is the level-headed leader of the group. Willy is the obnoxious loud mouth with a chip on his shoulder. Jada is a bitchy New Yorker who immediately dislikes Bella. Neil is an older gentleman who is new to the group and seems to be the expert on all things spooky. Troubled by the fact that the spirit they’re up against may be stronger than anticipated, the lure of money and fame if they’re successful at their job quiets any concerns and they decide to take a couple days to see what they can accomplish. They also lose their hotel rooms so end up breaking protocol by staying the night on the property. Jada calls forth Amorosa because she’s desperate for funds and the spirit answers. Bella picks up on the lands twisted history, Luke and Bella hit it off and prove to be quite a capable team, the mother seems like she may be hiding something and it may take its time to get there but bad shit is on the horizon. Making the genius move of setting a familiar story in a universe that’s just slightly outside of our own in its acceptance of supernatural tomfoolery, this bad boy gets to have some fun with its nightmare. It doesn’t exactly work all that well when it aims for drama and some of the comedy elicits more groans than laughs but luckily it’s way more concerned with the specter handling and shenanigans. I respect anything that feels fresh this deep into the genre game and everyone here is trying their damndest to make this work. Troubled pasts, violent entities, two likable leads and minor scares (still an awesome if barely seen entity) join together for an unexpected good time.

Darkness Hunting (2024) (USA)

⭐️

An abandoned farm house in Kentucky catches the attention of a small gang of folks with dreams of ghost hunting fame and it supernaturally blows up in their faces. They don’t buy into the supernatural bullshit but unlikable Derek thinks they can just fake this shit and make some money. That’s what brings him and his group of unlikable “friends” (one of them making his first date come along) to the empty place. Everyone bickers for the sake of comedy and it doesn’t work because nobody ever wants to watch a gang of assholes act like pricks to each other. I mean, normal people at least. Religious Eli spills the history of the place while thickly laying on the dramatics like some sort of scenery chewing Roddy McDowell with none of the acting chops. There was a bunch of murder just in case you’ve never seen a horror film. Something evil is there and it eventually begins coming for the idiots after trapping them in the house and putting an end to their phone service. A renowned psychic warned a couple of the members that something bad was on the horizon (in a scene that goes on for fucking ever) and they ignore it because the dude and his big-ass head-ware are hard to take seriously. If you manage to stay awake during the opening stretch of character building, sarcasm and mumbling, you’ll be rewarded with such questions as “Why do these people hang out?” “Why did I watch this?” “Did I pay that bill?” “Is that couscous in the cabinet still good?” A score that sounds like the menu music to an HR training video and the pacing of a leisure climb up hill without the use of both your legs adds to the urge to doze off and call it a day. On the plus side (see, I’m not a complete asshole) I did enjoy the possessed person vs possessed person ending, especially when the possessed thick woman with no eyes was showing off her midriff.

Demo_n (2024) (UK)

⭐️⭐️1/2

While a group of friends are having themselves an online reunion and booze-infused watch party, one of their number opens an email link to a game demo because he is an idiot and has obviously been scammed multiple time. Who the fuck opens an unsolicited email link nowadays? Especially from an unrecognized source? I don’t care of you’re in the field of gaming, that’s even less of an excuse… come on! Fuckin Gary. Anyways, said demo is cursed and now a supernatural presence is tearing its way through this group of dopes thanks to one moron with the brain of an eighty-year-old widow whose grandchildren never visit. Thankfully, the quartet of actors are affable and have solid chemistry so it’s easy to not give up on them immediately but, of course, they begin to bicker when the shit hits the fan. As soon as Gary starts playing the game whilst waiting for his friends to jump back on, shit gets crazy and glitchy. Hell is unleashed, possession causes violence and everyone is pretty much screwed. Newly religious Angharad catches on quick that evil is in the works but it may do nothing to help the situation. POV horror taken from the view of the ill-fated web chat or whatever shit Gary is getting into on his screen which includes playing the side-scrolling game he’s foolishly downloaded because lives depend on it. It’s like Evil Dead meets Host and not as good as either but still worthy of a watch because both of those movies are high benchmarks. You could also throw a splash of Stay Alive in there but that’s not really a high benchmark and I’d say this one is at least on the same level as that admittedly under appreciated but still not great flick. A climactic battle hilariously comes off like being forced to watch your older sibling play a video game they won’t let you play.

The Swamp of the Ravens (1974) (Spain/Ecuador)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Queasy grime feels like something that was birthed in Florida, abandoned in the mud and then adopted by a slave laborer with a short fuse and syphilis. It’s my kind of ugly! A doctor (Frosta, who looks like the kind of doctor that operates in a back-alley and is no longer welcomed amongst his peers) works hard to prove his theory that death is just a minor roadblock and there’s more after those lights go out. So the man collects corpses and attempts to resurrect them with the added bonus of controlling their minds on top of giving God and his plans a big ol’ middle finger. Sadly, the dude keeps on failing and that’s causing an influx of dumped corpses in a nearby swamp. Swamps are disease-pits on their own but now that the rancid corpses are polluting the place, things are getting weird and the ravens (or vultures) are gathering. Frosta’s lady is done with him and decides to call it quits, returning to the arms of her ex-lover, an American lounge singer who is somehow a step down from a cold-hearted scientist that spends all his time with dead bodies and has vapid conversations that may seem deep if they were being heard by some emo teenager who just got in a fight with their parents. Shockingly, the mentally unwell man who collects corpses and discards humans like week-old trash does not take being spurned all that well. This is bad news for his former gal. Hopefully the sheriff who looks like what I imagine Ron Jeremy’s insides look like nowadays is on his heels and may be able to put a stop to the mad man before the lady becomes another corpse on the slab. It’s doubtful. Severed bits of humans are found and the sheriff (Fernando Sancho who you have definitely seen before) is exhausting all his options… and by that I mean he hopes that the newspaper lost and found can bring him some leads… yeah, he’s really good. The lounge act involves the teenage-lookin’ hair-helmeted American singing to a mannequin and is far more disturbing than anything that goes on in Frosta’s laboratory. There’s also an actual autopsy (I assume. The visual effect is way too good considering the movie it’s in) to make you question what the hell productions in Ecuador were like. Frosta’s questionable stability is faltering more and he’s beginning to see the ghosts of his victims rise from the swamp to stare at him. No, don’t get excited, there’s no vengeance-minded zombies shuffling up from their water-logged graves to get their rotting hands on the not-so-good doctor. Inadequacies shine in front of and behind the camera, merging together to create a vibe that feels like the sickly offspring of regional trash from Florida and a lazy fever dream born in the head of an ailing Jess Franco after forgetting how horny he was and falling asleep reading Frankenstein.

MadS (2024) (France)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Before he begins his night of hard partying, teenage Romain swings by his dealer’s and guinea pig’s a new drug for him. His night is sidetracked when he comes across a distressed young woman seemingly making a getaway… and things spiral swiftly out of control. But is it a nasty trip or something far more chaotic? We may get the answer pretty quick but I’m not gonna tell you anyways, just watch this beast. A brief chance to take a breath opens the show but after the relative calmness of some drug consumption and small talk, well, you don’t get much of a chance to breathe. Claustrophobic camerawork, a pulsing score and some horrific visuals (give me all the eyeshine) bring it all home. It’s wild and I hope I’m not giving too much away. More impressive when you consider it’s all one continuous take (well, as close as you can get at least. Imma take the director’s word for it) and even if there’s an air of familiarity to it, it helps to tighten the tension… that ticking bomb under the table that Hitchcock loved so much is in full effect. I don’t know if it’s something in the wine but the French are fucking killing it with their genre output recently. One of my least favorite exporters of horror (I’m sorry, the New French Extremity annoyed the fuck out of me, ruining the good graces the country had earned with artsy trash decades earlier) has quickly become a favorite over the last couple of years (Deep Dark and Infested have my plaudits) and I’m excited for whatever else they may have in store.

The Mad Magician (1954) (USA)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

Don Gallico (his majesty, Vincent Price), after years spent expertly devising the illusions of magicians, attempts to establish his own stage show under the name Gallico the Great. It’s an interesting premise, where he dresses up as the magicians he is mimicking and performs their tricks as them when not performing his own bits. In the cutthroat world that is stage magic, it’s a show that could work. His attempt at magical celebrity is ruined when his seedy employer Ross Ormond puts a stop to his show via court injunction. Ya see, Gallico signed a contract with Mr. Ormond years ago and now any and all illusions Gallico the Great creates are the rightful property of Ormond. Adding salt to the wound is the fact that Don’s ex-wife Claire (oh my lord, it’s Eva Gabor) is now Mrs. Ormond (although she loves nothing but money) and Gallico’s illusions are given to Ormond’s partner The Great Ribaldi (a perfectly hammy turn from John Emery) to use for his own magic show. Luckily, it’s Vincent Price so he ain’t about to sit back and let these jerks get away with wronging him. The guilty dopes begin to turn up dead as things spiral out of control and a young(ish) New York detective (who happens to be an item with Gallico’s pretty assistant and befriends the magician rather quickly) begins using cutting-edge forensic technology (of the time) to uncover the culprit behind these murders. There’s also the operator of a boarding house who spends her time writing crime novels (the wonderful Lenita Lane) sticking her nose into things. A troublesome severed noggin, multiple disguises, memorable side characters and the proper use of a bonfire to cover one’s crimes. The obvious 3-D silliness stands out like sore thumb (minimal as it may be), but it always has and I’m a bit more forgiving when Vincent Price is on my screen… that’s just the way my momma raised me. A fun time filled with murders and scheming. “They’ll give me the same voltage for killing four as they would for killing three!”

Lurking (2022) (UK)

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

A young videographer gets his hands on some cheap video equipment and, although both of the items don’t work, they both contain SD cards with footage of two missing boys on it. The two lads were out making a documentary on a local urban legend and the videographer is shocked to find that he may have discovered proof that the two young men found what they were looking for (I have a hard time finding my phone on a good day but somehow every youthful dope with a camera manages to wander out into the woods and find whatever supernatural entity they’ve been hunting for for all of a day). Our narrator edited together the raw footage into a rough cut and has made it available for us, the viewer at home. Kurt and John are out searching for the Goat Man, a 7-foot tall half man and half goat who wields an axe. I, for one, would never go looking for such a thing but I am no longer a young idiot and I don’t have any access to camera equipment. “What about your phone?” You may ask. Well, you obviously weren’t paying attention because I already told you I can’t find the fucking thing. So, Kurt and John visit various local spots where the Goat Man has been seen (allegedly) and Kurt rambles on and lightly berates his cameraman. He also hates the town and their selfish mentality when it comes to crime and the homeless. He attempts to tie that into the Goat Man legend but it’s grasping at straws that are more non-existent than loose. The village is also trying to stop the building of a new film studio which further pisses off our host. That brief foray into teen angst finally ends and the duo head to the Goat Man’s underpass to light some candles and use a Ouija board. Nothing happens and when night falls they march their asses into the woods. Considering that the combined age of these two brave idiots involved is probably less that the age of your humble writer, this is a shockingly solid bit of found footage horror. It takes its time but the videographers defy the odds and manage to not be overly obnoxious knobs (they’re teenage boys so they’re going to be obnoxious anyways) as they sink into dark waters they are vastly unprepared to tread. Same goes for the poor sap who found the footage because he learns nothing from the exploits of the two dopes he just watched come into contact with something malicious. A smart use of audio scares add a level of tension you don’t find in a large amount of micro-budget shaky-cam terrors and considering how early we are in the career of H. Owen Richardson I have some high hopes. There’s more to check out and I’m looking forward to jumping into his filmography.