SynopsisWhen Kurt Russell's son is forced into retirement from the MLB, he and his family move to a new house with a pool. The pool ends up being a death trap for his family and the neighborhood. But not in the normal way, this pool is extra scary because… that’s right there’s no gate! But actually it gets worse, the pool is also haunted or something.Review of Night SwimNight Swim is produced by Jason Blumhouse, and like most of his horror movies, this one stays in the shallow end of the pool. The main features of Night Swim are recycled tropes from much better horror movies. You’ll recognise borderline theft of the IT sewer scene, and the father descending into madness ala The Shining and Amityville Horror.It is an interesting concept to set a horror movie around a haunted pool. It taps into some latent fears about pools and deep water in general, but this movie definitely doesn’t crack the code and come up with a convincing premise. The ideas all seem half baked and made up as they … [Read more...] about Night Swim Review
Featured Episodes
When Evil Lurks Review
It's a new year and a new set of hosts! Listen up as Bryce announces the new permanent cohost(s?) of Horror Movie Talk, then we get right into reviewing When Evil Lurks.SynopsisWhen Evil Lurks is directed by Demian Rugna who also directed a film you may recall Terrified or Atterados. In this film, two brothers living on a farm find a man infected with a demonic disease. In order to save the town and themselves they do what they can to get rid of the man, but things quickly get out of hand. Our main character Pedro played by Ezequiel Rodrígue is rough, stern and a natural-born leader to his brother Jimi played by Demián Salomón who kind of just does whatever his brother says. The film gives a nuanced take on possession and while I think Terrified was scarier, this has a better story. Review of When Evil LurksWhen Evil Lurks is heavy and doesn't pull any punches. The violence is brutal and shocking and the makeup on the possessed people makes them look truly disgusting. The characters … [Read more...] about When Evil Lurks Review
Saw X Review with Kyle Nolan
Merry Christmas and a Happy Saw Year! … [Read more...] about Saw X Review with Kyle Nolan
Christmas Bloody Christmas Review with Carl Swan
Will robo-santa win you over? Only if you believe.SynopsisCBC pits off-brand lead character Tori (Riley Dandy) against a malfunctioning, homicidal robot-Santa manufactured by Uncle Sam. Tori runs a shop next door to a toy store with one of the killer Kriss Kringles and … mayhem ensues. Review of Christmas Bloody ChristmasReview: This flick takes the concept of intelligent tech (a concept popularized by 80s slashics like Maximum Overdrive, Deadly Friend, Chopping Mall, RoboCop, and Terminator) and Frankensteins it onto another favorite 80s concept: the killer Santa. Of course, the gold standard for killer Santas was set by Charles Sellier’s ‘Silent Night Deadly Night’ in 1984, but that doesn’t stop modern directors from trying to put their own special spin on the ax-wielding punisher of naughty boys and girls. Last year alone, we got three new entries in the category: Violent Night, The Mean One, and Joe Begos’s Xmas Bloody Xmas. I can easily say that Begos’s option is my favorite. Not … [Read more...] about Christmas Bloody Christmas Review with Carl Swan
The Pope’s Exorcist Review with Sydney Lee
This fun exorcism romp is more fun than riding a Vespa across Europe. Listen to Bryce and Sydney break it down.SynopsisThe Pope’s Exorcist is a 2023 film that follows Father Gabriele Amorth, the real life Chief Exorcist of the Vatican from 1986-2016, as he goes around to possibly possessed adults and children and cures them of their affliction, through unconventional and sometimes frowned upon means. The movie follows Amorth, played by the award winning actor Russell Crowe, as he tries to get rid of a very powerful demon that has attached itself to a little American boy named Henry, who has just moved into an inherited Spanish castle with his mother and sister. This movie is based on true events and documents from the Vatican, as well as being based on two books Father Amorth wrote before his death in 2016. There are some true elements to the story but a lot of it has been fictionalized to make this slightly scary, sometimes funny exorcism movie. Review of The Pope's ExorcistIn … [Read more...] about The Pope’s Exorcist Review with Sydney Lee
The Exorcist: Believer Review with Max and Sydney
Do you believe that this sequel is good? It's going to take some strong faith on your part.SynopsisThe Exorcist: Believer is a direct sequel to the original 1973 The Exorcist. In this film, we get not one, but two, that’s right two possessions for the price of one. When two teenage girls go out into the woods to perform a séance, they disappear and reappear days later acting… strange. Their parents struggle to find out why the reason th... It’s possession, they are possessed. The father of one of the girls played by Leslie Odom Jr. must recruit an Oceans 11 type ragtag group of exorcists and Chris MacNeil reprised by Ellen Burstyn, who I can only assume had an important boat she wanted to buy.Review of Exorcist: BelieverNBCUniversal shelled out 400 million on the rights to The Exorcist IP and entrusted David Gordon Green to work his soft reboot magic that he showed with the Halloween franchise. They’ve committed to producing two more of these exorcist films, and after watching this … [Read more...] about The Exorcist: Believer Review with Max and Sydney
Whoooores Only Vol. 8 – Voice Mail Episode with David Day
Hey remember David Day? He came back to listen to and respond to your voicemails with Bryce. … [Read more...] about Whoooores Only Vol. 8 – Voice Mail Episode with David Day
The Exorcist II: The Heretic Review with Sydney Lee
Who possessed these filmmakers to make one of the worst sequels of all time? The Exorcist 2 is a befuddling mess that bears no resemblance to the original.SynopsisIn this sequel to the Exorcist, Father Lamont, played by Richard Burton, is assigned to investigate the last exorcism of Father Merrin to clear his name of any doubt of faith. Father Lamont finds Regan spending her time in therapy in a psychiatric institute that appears to be the backrooms of Westworld. Her doctor, Gene Tuskin, played by Louise Fletcher is testing out a new device that synchronizes hypnotic states… or something. In the course of her experiments and Father Lamont’s investigation, we find out that Regan isn’t Exorcized, but just mostly exorcized.In the end, we get more pazuzu than we bargained for…Review of The Exorcist II: The HereticThe Exorcist still stands as one of the best movies of all time, and still is my favorite horror movie. So I have always been intrigued by The Exorcist 2, and the fact that it’s … [Read more...] about The Exorcist II: The Heretic Review with Sydney Lee
Thanksgiving Review with Kyle Nolan
Why make the feature length version of a beloved fake trailer when you can make a watered down Blumhouse-style remake? … [Read more...] about Thanksgiving Review with Kyle Nolan
It’s a Wonderful Knife Review With Carl Swan
In this follow up to Freaky, writer Michael White takes on the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life in this disappointing horror sendup. SynopsisIn the sleepy town of Angel Falls, Winnie Caruthers kills a rampaging masked killer and saves the town from further massacre. After a year, she has never fully recovered from the trauma of the killer killing best friend, and everyone around her inexplicably is a huge dick to her about it. In a moment of despair she wishes that she never existed, and a magical aurora borealis grants her wish and she gets inserted into an alternate reality where she never killed the masked murderer, and he has continued his rampage.Review of It's a Wonderful KnifeComing off of the success of Freaky, a horror sendup of the Freaky Friday premise writer Michael White attempts for a repeat by creating this horror parody of It’s a Wonderful Life. The problem is on the surface the premise doesn’t make any sense. “Oh how I wish I’d never existed so I didn’t have to … [Read more...] about It’s a Wonderful Knife Review With Carl Swan