Riding a wave of critical success in the States, The Conjuring has outsold almost every big budget blockbuster of the summer with a meager budget of only $20m in comparison. Directed by James Wan, the man who kick-started the torture-porn sub-genre a decade previously, The Conjuring is a surprisingly blood-free horror that bears more in common with his last work Insidious than … [Read more...]
Sinister (2012) review by That Film Guy
True crime novelist Ellison Osbourne (Ethan Hawke) has made a career out of writing about missing children and is trying to recreate the success of his first book. He decides to move his family to the site of a grisly murder that saw four members of a family hanged from a tree. During the move he discovers a box in the attic which houses a series of super 8 reels of film and a … [Read more...]
When the Lights Went Out (2012) review by That Film Punk
Loosely based on a (supposedly) true story, When The Lights Went Out is a British horror written and directed by Pat Holden. It tells the story of the Maynards, a young family who move into their dream house in West Yorkshire, only to find themselves terrorised by a poltergeist. With the ghost taking particular interest in 14-year-old Sally, parents Len and Jenny soon find … [Read more...]
Poltergeist (1982) review by That Film Guy
Toward the tail-end of the horror genres heyday in the late late 1970s and early 1980s came a film with quite the production dream team. Poltergeist, directed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre supremo Tobe Hooper and produced by Jaws' mastermind Steven Spielberg attempted to give the haunted house sub-genre a new tentpole. In many ways they suceeeded, as Poltergeist took over … [Read more...]