The first forty-five minutes or so of Jacob Chase’s Insidious: Out of the Further are excellent. In that section, there are two incredible setpieces that genuinely had me on the edge of my seat. One is a Backrooms-inspired liminal horror that sees its protagonist, Gemma (Amelia Eve), trapped in a never-ending, claustrophobic hallway with creepy-looking creatures that do little more than
Read MoreWe can thank Destin Daniel Cretton as one of the architects of the MCU’s current and much needed reinvigoration, with the introspective Wonder Man being a major highlight of their post-Avengers: Endgame projects. And now there’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The fourth entry in the current Spider-Man franchise finally gives Tom Holland textured material to explore with his character, away from
Read MoreIt would be fair to say that the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU) hasn’t had a particularly great run ever since the release of Ruben Fleischer’s Venom. Apart from those trilogy’s box-office successes, each live-action installment (the Spider-Verse films are innocent) was critically and commercially reviled and became the subject of ironic memes rather than actual fan engagement. J.C. Chandor’s Kraven the Hunter might have killed
Read MoreMamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet, a derivative adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The film begins with the most spiritually charged image of the Japanese animator’s career as the titular character (voiced by Mana Ashida) arrives in the “Otherworld,” a purgatory that stands between life and “nothingness.” Scarlet attempts to fight her internal (and external) demons and prove to the forces that be that
Read MoreContinuing the story of its predecessor’s release from only a couple of months ago, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple marks the most fascinating point in the franchise’s history creatively. 2025’s 28 Years Later represented a refreshing shift from the rut of the modern legacy sequel, offering one of the most thematically rich studio films in recent times, with cinematography that
Read MoreWhat happened for the explosive sequel of a middling actioner no one asked for, Sisu, to be this good? Usually, sequels experience diminishing returns, where the director repeats what worked in the first film without offering much beyond an effective formula that audiences enjoyed the first time and will likely enjoy again. However, in Sisu: Road to Revenge, Finnish filmmaker Jalmari Helander refuses to
Read MoreFantastic Fest 2025 kicks off today in Austin, Texas, with another year of potentially great offerings. The festival is jam-packed with several great titles and early premieres. For example, the highly anticipated sequel to Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone is expected to captivate the Austin community during the first weekend. The festival will also feature Chris Stuckmann’s long-awaited movie debut, Shelby
Read MoreDarren Aronofsky has always been a tricky filmmaker to pin down. A filmography featuring crowd-pleasing award winners like The Whale and Black Swan, alongside divisive films like Noah and Mother!, is certainly fascinating, to say the least. This inherently makes his ninth feature, Caught Stealing, fascinating since it contains all the pieces of him as a filmmaker that have stood out
Read MoreIn a film landscape where rom-coms seem to be few and far between (theatrically speaking), the film Oh, Hi! can be seen as a breath of fresh air in many ways. The film’s setup is playful enough, with great chemistry from Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman, respectively, as they embark on their first romantic getaway together. Not everything hits comedically, but
Read MoreEveryone has secrets that they’ll take to their graves, right? Those bits of information that are too delicate to ever utter out loud in the world. Events that perhaps bind us through trauma, never to be mentioned again. Things we’d do just about anything to forget, even though they’ll haunt us for the rest of our lives. Those living in South
Read More28 Years Later is the strangest sequel in years. The original was gritty, dark, and had a low-quality aesthetic that added to the horror. The long-awaited sequel is far from conventional and takes numerous artistic swings. The world is lighter, the vision is more humorous, and there is a strange, heartwarming nature to the world. 28 Years Later has more in
Read MoreIf you didn’t think you had enough of The Karate Kid after six incredible seasons of Cobra Kai, think again! Sony is bringing the iconic franchise back to the big screen in Karate Kid: Legends, a legacy sequel that wants to capitalize on the success of both iterations of the film & television series (the universe of the 1984 film created
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