![]() It’s highlighting horrors of the outside world, as society repeatedly tells women they’re perfectly safe and to stop overreacting, right before another innocent life is taken by some dude who stalked another target home late one night. I liked The Watcher a tad more than IGN’s Amelia Emberwing, whose 7 out of 10 review says, “The story will linger too long for some, but anyone willing to stick with it is in for a treat.” Chloe Okuno’s feature debut needs nothing more than a woman abroad and the man whose eyes are always locked on said woman’s figure. The selfish streamer’s moronic decisions lead to invigorated scares, plenty of humble yet hellacious demonic effects, and a proper horror-comedy balance that roasts online obsessions up there with the year’s best Instafamous satires. Joseph’s portrayal of a disgraced YouTube personality who thinks spending the night in a haunted location will win back his community and sponsors is a prime example of protagonists we love to hate. It’s down and dirty, homegrown filmmaking that laughs in the face of low budgets and cobbles together a hilariously thrilling livestream from Hell. Joseph and Vanessa Winter approach Deadstream with the same enthusiasm and resourcefulness as Sam Raimi once did on Evil Dead. At barely 90 minutes and loaded with full-on shots of a spectacularly grim bird-beast, you’re in good hands. As IGN’s official review acknowledges, “With delightful practical effects, and a spectacular child performance at its center, Finnish body-horror movie Hatching works despite itself.” We’ve seen protector flicks like this before, but Hatching drills into the core horrors of stage moms, expensive facades, and broken homes that try to appear as anything else. Hatching goes further to blend coming-of-age awkwardness with an aviary monster that hatches from a discovered egg. If your horror flick has outstanding practical creature effects, you immediately have my attention. Offseason is his championing of waterlogged themes and unexplained mysteries, feeling almost like a radio drama you'd expect to hear read aloud by hosts through adjustable static. Keating loves honoring his idols throughout his films, each feeling like a student wants to make his teachers proud. ![]() Think along the lines of The Block Island Sound (on Netflix) meets Silent Hill as ominous mist rolls over a vacation town that's been vacated by most. Mickey Keating's Offseason - available on Shudder - is the filmmaker's ode to coastal Lovecraftian horror with essences of soggy thrillers like The Fog. There are acts in The Sadness that will cause even more veteran gorehounds to cringe in what's easily the meanest horror flick of 2022. Intensity and sadism mock civil obedience as bodies are flayed, deep-fried, and defiled (here’s your trigger warning). Even worse, these feral monstrosities act on heightened immorality levels, explicitly sexual and violent. It's a blend of 28 Days Later and The Purge, as infected Chinese citizens start savagely attacking everyone everywhere all at once. "The Sadness is one of the ickiest, most sadistic outbursts of unbridled horror aggression I've beheld in a spell," I wrote elsewhere in a review for Shudder's most delinquent release of the year. Pearl is Goth’s technicolor showcase and she doesn’t waste any potential in a screenplay she co-wrote with Ti West during the 14-day quarantine before shooting on X could begin (which IGN’s reviewer thought a better idea than actual production). With Wizard of Oz whimsy at the core of an unstable hopeful actor’s breakdown, I described Pearl elsewhere as “an ax-swinging slice of bad-vibes hoedown kookiness.” Goth takes to her almost famous farmgirl character with unmeasurable psychosis - charming, ruthless, delightful and deranged. How many directors can brag about having two separate films in massive consideration for “Best of the Year” horror roundups? X is the winner in my opinion (spoiler alert), but Mia Goth makes Pearl unmissable. ![]()
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