The Guest (2014)

There’s a knowingness that propels The Guest (2014) into a delightful combination of humour and tension. Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett (the team behind You’re Next) establish patience with their set-up: a soldier, David (Dan Stevens), turns up on the doorstep of a grieving family whose dead son he served with in the military. Straight […]

Bliss (2019)

Joe Begos had two films as a director in this year’s MonsterFest and Bliss (2019) was made before VFW on a low budget, shot on 16mm, and exorcising the director’s own creative funk through the horror genre. Focusing on a painter (Dora Madison Burge, from Friday Night Lights) in a career slump who decides to […]

VFW (2019)

One Friday night, I went to a 9:15pm screening of VFW (2019) as part of MonsterFest, but it felt more like a midnight movie. Completely in the spirit of John Carpenter’s Assault On Precinct 13 right from the opening credits, particularly with the ominous synth of Steve Moore’s excellent score, it’s a splatter siege movie […]