Reviews

A sort of dull horror patchwork of concepts and ideas extracted from many other B-movies, about a demonic teddy bear terrorizing a preadolescent child while his stepmother struggles with her own childhood traumas. Directed in a generic and predictable manner by a supposed genre specialist and regular Blumhouse director, Imaginary is an old-school horror movie that mixes teen horror with dark fantasy, which makes every effort to undermine any hint of adult horror in its plot, in favor of a mild horror suitable for PG-13, with a noticeable absence of scares and gore scenes that blows all of film's potential, if had any.

A dark fantasy film that attempts to subvert the tropes of the "The Princess Bride" subgenre while incorporating some elements of survival horror. Based on the novel of the same name by Evelyn Skye and directed by Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, it's a stylized medieval fantasy with dragons, princesses and evil queens that gets very dark and surprisingly claustrophobic, especially after the saccharine first half. There's also a great cast, led by Millie Bobby Brown and a wonderfully frigid Robin Wright, who are completely wasted by an underdeveloped, very predictable script with no surprises and some poor lighting choices that opt for artificial phosphorescence where darkness and shadows would have been better. Despite all this, the movie manages to entertain sufficiently and offers some frightening scenes that are a pleasant surprise even for horror fans.

A typical fall slasher, designed to exploit the usual demand for horror movies at Halloween. The film was directed by a little-known Swedish filmmaker and the unusual setting was the Liseberg amusement park in Gothenburg, one of the largest in Europe. With no big mystery or gore and a somewhat misguided ending, it's a dull, formulaic and predictable slasher that will unfortunately leave the audience yawning more than creeped out. Not even the deaths caused by the "doll-faced' killer are something, because they're all disappointing and somehow lacking any spectacularity. Also, the young cast turned out to be a failure, especially since they don't have much material to work with either. To sum up, a mediocre slasher in a fantastic setting and nothing else.

Conventional horror film for teens that takes all the typical "haunted house" tropes but focuses on a domestic swimming pool that serves as a metaphor to explore the hidden secrets beneath the facade of a typical suburban American family. Unfortunately, it fails to rise above its state as a "horror house film", a film whose main motivation is to attract as many viewers as possible by promising a series of jump scares and short-lived entertainment that is quickly forgotten when the next film with similar characteristics is released. His script is nothing more than a linear and monotonous stitching together of common elements seen in other productions and the repetition of the same pool jump scares over and over again. The only remarkable thing about this film is that it's the first collaboration between Jason Blum and James Wan after the merger of their companies, but it doesn't offer many positive prospects for the career of debut director Bryce McGuire.

An uninspired horror film and the last screen appearance of the late Julian Sands, that explores the concept of music as a tool of evil through a reinterpretation of the popular story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Unfortunately, it lacks the suspense or imagination necessary to overcome its outdated visual style -unequivocally inspired by the typical mannerisms of 1990s Italian horror- and an alarming lack of effective scares. Furthermore, the Pied Piper's main appearance comes too late and is poorly justified. The most notable aspect, however, is Christopher Young's eerie and omnipresent score.

A horror thriller that promises to explore Hindu mythology through a flesh-eating demon stalking two high school teenagers. And on a second level, it tells the identity journey of a second-generation Hindu immigrant in the US. Directed by acclaimed Indian-American short filmmaker Bishal Dutta, this is his feature debut, and distributed by NEON. A company that specializes in promoting high-quality independent cinema, but in this case has opted for a teen horror film that resembles the typical Blumhouse productions. With a classic approach and unoriginal results, it ultimately fails to deliver any genuine horror moments.

Norwegian Christmas horror film belonging to the subgenre of horror that focuses on mischievous little creatures such as goblins, elves or fairies, who usually react violently to those who disturb their customs. With a pace off key that could have been improved by a better balance between comedy and violence, the movie offers a slow and less engaging first half that, but manages to achieve some fun when the frenzied home invasions unfolds in the second half. Though is severely affected by its confusing tragicomedy tone and somewhat silly storytelling. As one of the protagonists makes clear at one point: "This is Norway, nothing bad ever happens here". Not even in the movie, where nothing really remarkable happens either.

Forced mix of Christmas horror comedy and slasher that tries to take advantage of the premise of Frank Capra's classic and the concept of the protagonist's dynamic suddenly and radically changed, following the footsteps of other comedies of the genre such as "Happy Death Day" or "Freaky". Unfortunately, the plot doesn't take itself seriously enough to rise above the generic mediocrity. The movie has a strange Gen-Z tone that doesn't quite fit, and is extremely unbalanced in its doses of gore and comedy. For a comedy, the laughs are meager and for a horror movie, the scares aren't memorable enough. It also features a more cartoonish Justin Long than ever.

Predictable mix of family drama and vampire movie, directed by a filmmaker with a certain reputation within the genre, especially after the critic successes of Session 9 and The Machinist, but who in this case doesn't dare to take his own rationalization of the vampire myth too far. Although the plot successfully intertwines themes such as the emotional strain of motherhood, vampirism and the effects of a terminal illness. Unfortunately, the film lacks the necessary tension to generate fear. But at least it has Michelle Monaghan as a courageous mother who rarely hesitates to make the most delicate decisions as a real added value.

A mediocre, gruesome film that pays homage to the subgroup of slasher films set during the celebrations of popular holidays. It's an extension of one of the fake trailers shown in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. A classic slasher with more zing than punch, poorly written characters and a rudimentary central mystery. It's clear that Eli Roth isn't trying to deconstruct the genre, just mimic its many and varied rules, but maximizing the gore. Something that serves him well in order to divert the audience attention away from his absolute lack of artistic inspiration. Told to be truth, there's not much to be thankful for in this "Thanksgiving".

A long-awaited movie adaptation of one of the most popular video games of the last decade, whose plot goes about an abandoned family pizza restaurant where its animatronic mascots come to life at night. More goofy than scary, the movie provides the type of jump scares to make itself nothing else than a boring and predictable teen horror. Shockingly, the movie has achieved the highest box office takings for Blumhouse. A success due in large part to the fans of the video game, who enjoyed the game being teenagers and now yearn for those long, thrilling hours in front of a computer screen. While the rest of the audience would do better to find their scares in another movie.

The best and most divergent of Kenneth Branagh's films dedicated to the work of Agatha Christie. It adapts very loosely the penultimate novel of her most iconic character: the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Branagh's greatest achievement is to imbue the usual detective story with a ghostly atmosphere and set it in the mysterious Venetian setting. This third installment is equal parts murder mystery, old-fashioned ghost story and supernatural thriller, and Kenneth Branagh perfectly exploits the horror tropes with which he enhances the familiar whodunit narrative, beautifully shot by cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos . It is an absolute winner.

A bit formulaic survival horror that entertains the premise of a tetraplegic teen trapped inside an isolated house under a great danger, that tries to make the most of a simplistic and hardly credible plot that would've worked better as a short film, where its suspense and its atmosphere would've been more convincing and disturbing, without the unnecessary tricks that its director has to resort to in order to lengthen the plot. It has a lot of reminiscences from many movies like Cujo (1983) or Monkey Shines (1988), for instance.