Home About Me My Work Contact

My Work

Editorials

THE ROLLING TAPE •

The Persistence of the New Flesh: A David Cronenberg Retrospective

With his twenty-third feature film, The Shrouds, releasing last week, I find it apt to perform a dissection of sorts on David Cronenberg’s filmography. In all phases of his career, Cronenberg has never shied away from honing in on the gross and the desirable in equal measure, never failing to add in his own personal fears and neuroses about the human condition, or what it means to be human. Even in his non-horror fare, Cronenberg’s films hone in on what it means to be human: the good, the bad, t...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

Lionsgate Releases the First Trailer for the Second Hunger Games Prequel Film

After a decade-long hiatus, the world of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games made its glorious return in 2020 with the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, promising more on the way. In true Hollywood fashion, a film adaptation starring Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Hunter Schaefer, and Viola Davis was released back in 2023 to mixed reviews and huge financial success. And, with key financial success, comes the propagation of the franchise.ABC News reports that the film adaptation of Sunrise on...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

The Meaning of Love is in the ‘Jackass’ Franchise

The phrase “you find love in the most unexpected places” is perhaps cheesy and overwrought, but there’s a kernel of truth there. Love exists beyond just romance. Sometimes love, through witness or experience, comes into our lives with no preamble and changes our understanding of what it is and what forms it can take. And sometimes that unexpected place is a media franchise about dangerous stunts and cock and ball torture.Although its reputation suggests pretty much anything to the contrary, the...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

The Many Woes of Universal’s Wolf Men

Remakes, sequels, and reboots–the horror! Especially in horror, sequels, remakes, and reboots are plentiful and are mostly stinkers. It’s a tradition that goes extends to the earliest horror sequels in one of cinema’s earliest cinematic universes: Universal’s Monster Mash. While Universal certainly hasn’t been kind to any of its monsters, arguably the one that’s been done the dirtiest is Larry Talbot – better known as the Wolf Man.Over the past eighty-five years since the Wolf Man first graced t...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

FYC: ‘I Saw the TV Glow’ and I Smashed My Head Through the Screen

There is no possible scenario where I can write anything about I Saw the TV Glow without the piece transitioning into something horrifically personal. It’s an odd, though not totally unwelcome, quality that this film seems to evoke by nature. I’ve joked a few times this is a film created in a lab for me specifically, although I’m more than willing to admit that its specific release period coinciding with some big personal changes endeared me to the film from the start. However, considering how s...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

Five Years Since ‘Cats:’ What Was All That?

I cannot think of a film with a bigger “collective fever dream” energy than the absolute mess that was the 2019 movie musical extravaganza Cats. Tom Hooper’s second attempt to bring the spectacle and majesty of live musical theatre to film–the follow-up to his Oscar-winning Les Miserables–was a disaster, plain and simple. Five years have passed, and this movie has been torn to shreds a thousand times. And yet, there is still so much more this film can be ridiculed for in its aftermath.I have a v...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

10 Video Game Movies That Are Kind Of Worth Your Time

So, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 right? It’s crazy that we live in a world where the Sonic franchise is largely carried by its movies rather than games. But, honestly, Sonic is a rarity amongst video game movies: a label that’s been maligned ever since the concept of adapting games to film became a reality. Arguably, video game adaptations are some of the most wildly mixed bags in terms of form, function, and reception. Some films are just extensions of games, others attempt to distill the vibe of the f...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

Ten(ish) Films about Food for the Holiday Season

Well, we did it. We have reached the end of another year, and the holiday season is upon us. The onset of the holiday season signals many things, including delicious, seasonal food. Whether doing a Friendsgiving potluck, a good holiday dinner with your family, volunteering at a food bank, or trying to recreate a cool recipe you found online, the last two months of the year are all about good food and good company. So, in the spirit of the season, I’ve compiled ten films (and a television show) a...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

‘Saw’ Twenty Years Later: Jigsaw’s Silly Little Games Live On

After ending the twentieth century with a brief slasher revival, sparked by the 1996 release of Scream,  the horror genre, in Hollywood, at least, was in a slump. The juggernauts that dominated the last third of the twentieth century– Michael, Jason, Leatherface, and Freddy–were presumed dead, Ghostface just wrapped up a pretty open-and-shut trilogy, and none of their derivatives seemed to make as much of a splash. No new horror icons seemed to be on the horizon. That was, until, a first-time di...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

Horror in 2024: The Devil is Inside Me and I Don’t Want It There

The horror genre kicked 2024 off with an anomaly: two films, made by two completely different studios, with similar premises, released mere weeks from each other. Immaculate and The First Omen ushered in horror with a bang of demonic babies, corrupt nunneries, and fears of unwanted parenthood. Then, after much anticipation, Longlegs was released. Beyond its absolutely fantastic marketing campaign was a story of demonic children, false nuns, and fears of parenting.The double-hitter of Immaculate...
Awards Radar •

Before Emmy Gold: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series - 2024 - Awards Radar

The 2024 Emmy Awards are coming fast; it’s another year of celebrating the excellence in television comedy. This year’s nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series feature a few familiar faces as well as a few first-time nominees.


Lionel ‘L-Boy’ Boyce


Nominated for: The Bear


Previous Nominations: N/A


Hidden Gem: The Jellies! (2015, 2017-2019)


Before his acting career, Lionel Boyce was a member of Odd Future: a collective that also included names like Tyler, the...
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Queer Horror Recs for Pride

Happy Pride, Queer Fear blog readers! To start the month off, I wanted to offer a quick list of unique queer horror recommendations for your viewing pleasure. As much as I love to sing the praises of queer horror classics like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or Sleepaway Camp, there’s only so many ways to discuss them. There’s plenty of new, underappreciated, or under-discussed films in the queer horror canon, and that’s what I’d like to highlight. These films cover all manner of subgenres, budget
CBR •

What Went Wrong with the Jaws Franchise?

The impact of Steven Spielberg's Jaws on the film industry cannot be overstated. The film is largely responsible for establishing the summer blockbuster season that studios still stick to nearly fifty years later. It's easy to see why Jaws captured moviegoers' attention the world over: Roy Scheider, Richard Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss' performances are top-tier, John Williams' score was instantly iconic, and the visual effects still look fantastic. Even without factoring in the aggressive marketi
Screen Speck •

In Defense of ‘Oppenheimer’s’ Women

Christopher Nolan became infamous for prioritizing male genius and exceptionalism. It’s an interpretation that’s followed him since the Dark Knight trilogy and met renewed interest with the announcement of his latest release, Oppenheimer. It played into the odd dichotomy of the Barbenheimer double feature, which almost asks for gendered separation: the omnipresent dichotomy of “boy” thing versus “girl” thing.

Oppenheimer does seem to feature every available white actor over twenty-five in some
Flip Screen •

‘Skinamarink’ (2022) as Ergodic Filmmaking

When a leaked screener of Kyle Edward Ball’s feature debut Skinamarink reached viral status on YouTube and TikTok, the film quickly garnered attention for its minimalistic approach to scares. Though the film may have come out after the “disturbing movie iceberg” trend died out, many a YouTuber has dedicated themselves to explaining the film or trying to articulate what makes Skinamarink a transgressive nightmare. It’s not an entirely incorrect assumption, but there isn’t that much content to spe
Screen Speck •

There's No Such Thing as a 'Lifetime Guarantee'

For this past Pride Month, the Criterion Channel released a collection of nineteen films under the title “Masc” – a celebration of trans men, butch lesbians, and transmasculine people through film. Buried within the collection was a short little documentary that stands out amongst the others. Lifetime Guarantee: Phranc’s Adventures in Plastic focuses on SoCal’s sole butch Tupperware saleswoman. The documentary was nearly forgotten until Criterion restored and released it on their service in June
Dread Central •

The Brief and Troubled History of Universal Monster Reboots

The Brief and Troubled History of Universal Monster Reboots

Despite being nearly a century old, the Universal Classic Monsters still remain titans of the genre. Early additions like Phantom of the Opera, The Man Who Laughs, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame cemented Lon Chaney Sr. as one of Hollywood’s first horror icons and brought the legendary Conrad Veight to American screens. With 1931’s double hitters of Dracula and Frankenstein, some of horror’s first talkies, the Universal Monsters univer
Dread Central •

'Seed of Chucky': Horror Outside the Binary

‘Seed of Chucky’: Horror Outside the Binary

In the horror genre, a lot of scares manifest as “fear of the other” by using a marginalized group as a source of terror. This is where a lot of trans representation in horror falls. Both coded and explicitly trans characters (almost exclusively trans women or transfeminine characters) end up filling the position of antagonist in one form or another. Where there’s an overrepresentation of transfeminine characters in negative roles, there’s also a larg
Certified Forgotten •

'Lily C.A.T' and the Allure of Animated Body Horror

‘Lily C.A.T’ and the Allure of Animated Body Horror

Body horror is an intricate subgenre of horror preying on the innate fear of losing bodily autonomy in an incredibly visceral way. More often than not, the cause of the bodily takeover is not from Earth, allowing for a variety of settings for the horror to unfold. Lily C.A.T—directed by Hisayaki Toriumi—is one example of the subgenre within another subgenre: space horror, combining the fears of the infinite cosmic void and the aforementioned d
Screen Queens •

The Body as a Product in ‘Helter Skelter’

One guaranteed aspect of the human experience is the body. We all have organs and blood and bones encased in skin meant to allow us to move, breathe, and think (though sometimes the body decides to ignore its basic properties). What is a relatively new concept is the body transcending its original purpose. No longer is a body just a body, it’s a machine. It’s a product. We’re expected to make it run as efficiently as possible and fix it until it’s a flawless product. Any flaws in the eyes of the
Film Cred •

Living on the Dance Floor: Ten Years since 'Dance Moms'

Lifetime had its humble beginnings as a channel built on small talk shows. It soon evolved into producing its questionable “based on true life” stories and reality television. Once upon a time, its flagship trash boat was Dance Moms: a journey through the competition season of the Abby Lee Dance Company (ALDC), located outside of Pittsburgh. While the premise of watching a bunch of 8-10 year old competitive dancers rotate through weekly choreography might not sound deserving of the title “garbag
Screen Queens •

‘Fat Girl’ and the Conditions of Desire

No matter how you slice it, the definition of femininity is devious. The way it’s societally applied to exclude trans women and women of colour is sinister enough regardless of how many girlboss infographics are made. This is due to the inextricable connection between the ideal feminine and the male gaze; all the stringent, unspoken guidelines applied to women for the sole purpose of pleasing a man visually, behaviorally, and sexually. From childhood people socialised as women are taught to thin
Film Cred •

'American Satan,' 'Lords of Salem,' and the Reverberations of the Satanic Panic

Rock and the dark forces have always been tied together. It’s been part of the appeal, an additional edge that used to pull it away from the mainstream. However, the passive association became a lot more active during the 1980s, initiated by a distinct rise in conservative Christian values. The Reagan administration allowed for the rise of Evangelical Christians, spearheaded by Jerry Fallwell Sr. and the Moral Majority, which had a major cultural impact on what was deemed “wholesome” and what wa
Gayly Dreadful -- Bursting out of your closet with the latest horror reviews •

[Editorial] The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Leatherface, and Gender —

Gender nonconformity in horror has a weird track record. Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill, though never explicitly mentioned or debunked as not trans, carry a reputation of giving transfeminine people a bad reputation. Films like Sleepaway Camp and Dressed to Kill have more explicitly trans antagonists and provide further fuel to the idea that gender nonconforming people are irredeemably evil. But quite a few trans horror fans online (including myself) have been reevaluating characters that they fe
Load More

Interviews

Awards Radar •

Interview: The Team behind ‘Solo Leveling’ on its Monumental Success

While anime has rapidly crept into the popular culture space over the last decade, Solo Leveling, an adaptation of the webtoon/manwha of the same name–has reached new levels of both commercial and critical success. After a phenomenal first season last year, and its subsequent sweep at this year’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Solo Leveling makes history as the first anime under consideration for the Emmy Awards.


The series takes place after rifts to dungeons riddled with dangerous beasts open wor...
Awards Radar •

Interview: Molly Smith Metzler on the Sharp-Witted Look at Class, Gender, and Complex Bonds in 'Sirens'

After the success of 2021’s Maid, Molly Smith Metzler added “showrunner” to her list of talents. Once again, Metlzer brings her decisive wit and biting social commentary to lead a new mini-series Sirens, an adaptation of her first highly-regarded stage play Elemeno Pea, for Netflix. Taking place over a weekend on a luxurious Martha’s Vineyard-esque estate, Sirens follows Devon DeWitt (Meghann Fahey) as she tries to reconnect with her younger sister Simone (Milly Alcock). However, Devon’s finds b...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

*SLAMDANCE 2025* Interview With ‘Memories of Love Returned’ (2025) Writer/Director, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine

At Slamdance Film Festival, Red Broadwell interviews writer/director, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, of Memories of Love Returned. On April 24th, 2002, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s car broke down in the small town of Mbirizi, Uganda. While waiting for the car’s repair he stumbled upon a photo studio and met photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo, whose work spanned from the late 1950’s up till 2006 when he passed away.This chance encounter turned into a 22 year journey documenting and exploring Kibaate’s l...
Awards Radar •

Interview: The Boulet Brothers on the Killer Looks of 'The Boulet Brothers' Dragula' - Awards Radar

Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet, better known as the Boulet Brothers, have been long-standing pioneers of the alternative drag scene and patrons of all things spooky. Their show, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, has created a platform for all manner of drag artists to show their art. After five regular seasons, the Resurrection special, and the returnee Titans season, the show has grown into a massive celebration of the spooky, the punk, and the unapologetically queer. Now the Boulets can add Emmy n...
Awards Radar •

Interview: John Early on the Cabaret of 'Now More Than Ever' - Awards Radar

After years of playing the neurotic host, including earlier this year in Stress Positions, John Early shows a truer, groovier version of his comedy. In his Emmy-nominated special John Early: Now More than Ever he alternates between serenading the audience and hilarious bits all framed by sketches reminiscent of This is Spinal Tap.


I had the chance to speak with Early about creating the eclectic vibe of his first stand-alone special, believing in the promises of technology, and why we need to...
Awards Radar •

Interview: 'The Righteous Gemstones' Stunt Coordinator Cory DeMeyers on his Emmy Nominated Work -

Season three of The Righteous Gemstones is, by far, the most bombastic. It’s emotional, it’s hilarious, and, most of all, it’s action-packed. The impressive stunts and fights–including a ton with a beast of a monster truck–were coordinated with precision by veteran stuntman turned stunt coordinator Cory DeMeyers. For his amazing effort, he’s been nominated for an Emmy in Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Comedy Programming.


Awards Radar had the chance to speak to DeMeyers about planning stun...
Awards Radar •

Interview: The 'Ripley' Costume Team Discusses Their Take on a Classic Wardrobe

Netflix’s Ripley seeks to expand upon the story of Tom Ripley’s descent into lies, deceit, and homoerotic madness. As the first serialized adaptation of Patricia Highsmith‘s novel, the cast and crew had significantly more time to explore the intricacies of Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), his relationship to Dickie Greenleaf (Johnnie Flynn), and the ever-changing circumstances of his deception. A big part of this is the costuming lead by Giovanni Casalnuovo and Maurizio Millenotti. Their work is an in
Awards Radar •

Interview: Amir Talai on Playing the Most Enigmatic Demon in 'Hazbin Hotel'

One of the biggest draws to Hazbin Hotel’s 2019 pilot, on social media at least, was the Radio Demon Alastor. That meant whoever took up the staticky voice when the full series entered development had some pretty big shoes to fill. Amir Talai–a prolific voice actor across film, television, and video games–would take on the mantle to great success.

Below is our interview with Talai, where we discussed playing a character so shrouded in mystery, his love for playing a wild card character, and Haz
Awards Radar •

Interview: 'Hazbin Hotel' Star Erika Henningsen on Radical Optimism While Living in Hell

With a show as musically inclined as Prime Video’s Hazbin Hotel, it’s natural that the cast and crew would be theatrically inclined. The voice cast is chock full of Broadway’s finest. Leading the way is Erika Henningsen, who originated the role of Cady Herron in the Tony-award nominated Broadway adaptation of Mean Girls as Charlie Morningstar: daughter of Lucifer, creator of the Hazbin Hotel, and perpetual advocate for the citizens of Hell.

Awards Radar spoke to Henningsen about moving from liv
Awards Radar •

Interview: 'Hazbin Hotel' Creator Vivienne Medrano Discusses the Success of Her Hellish Creation

When Vivienne Medrano released the pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel on YouTube days before Halloween 2019, it near-instantly became a viral success. The bold character designs, catchy songs, raunchy humor, and diverse queer representation captured millions of viewers the world over. So, when A24 announced that Hazbin would be their first venture into co-producing a fully animated project, the surrounding hype was understandably massive.

Awards Radar recently spoke to Medrano about the massive succ
Awards Radar •

Interview: Noomi Rapace on Motherhood, the Passage of Time, and 'Constellation'

Noomi Rapace is an actress unafraid of taking on a challenge. Just looking at her breakout role in 2009’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and first international leading role in Prometheus, it’s clear Rapace is game to take on some bold characters. This year, Rapace once again takes on a doomed space voyage in the AppleTV+ limited series Constellation as Jo Ericsson: an astronaut on the ISS that returns to Earth facing unspeakable horrors.

Below is our lovely chat with Rapace where we discuss t
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Interview: Alice Maio Mackay

Alice Maio Mackay has quickly made a name for herself in genre cinema. At just nineteen years old, Mackay has been steadily pumping out several modern queer horror classics since 2020. Her first two films, So Vam and Bad Girl Boogey, are currently available on Shudder. Joining her work available on VOD this month is her third film, T-Blockers, a trans take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The film was created during and is directly calling out the ongoing rampant transphobia that has, sadly, o
Gayly Dreadful -- Bursting out of your closet with the latest horror reviews •

[Pride 2023] Interview with 'Saint Drogo''s Michael J. Ahern and Brandon Perras-Sanchez —

Red: So what inspired the lore for Saint Drogo and the cult situation? That was a really interesting route to take.

BP: I think that what I was saying with creating the mythology of folk horror, they really serve as a cautionary tale. They’ll all have some kind of monster or some sort of magic that is for the protagonist or villain. I think that we wanted to create our own folklore with Christian and Catholic mythology, but not so much of the moniker of the “saint” route. We’re kind of showing
Film Cred •

Sundance Interview: Director of 'We're All Going To The World's Fair' Jane Schoenbrun

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair debuted at Sundance Film Festival 2021 and needless to say, I was a massive fan (as evidenced by my review). Jane Schoenbrun’s debut is a trippy homage to the forums from which legends like Slenderman spawned. But, the World’s Fair holds a lot more to it than just a simple Internet rumor.

I had the chance to speak with Schoenbrun over Zoom shortly following the close of the festival. We discussed online forums, the power dynamics that form within them, and th

Reviews

THE ROLLING TAPE •

*Slamdance 2025* ‘Banr’ Review: Mortality and Memory Intertwined

Dementia and Alzheimer’s are often referenced as some of the most challenging conditions on both the person with the condition themselves and their family. Trying to navigate through the often rapid declines, as both the person with dementia and as the caretaker/family, is difficult. Banr, the directorial debut from Erica Xia-Hou, follows a family trying to function through the phases of dementia. As Liu Ximei (Sui Le) struggles with the disorientation and loss of self characterized by dementia,...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

‘Look Back’ Review: The Life-Affirming Tragedy We Need

What is the point of creating art? What is there to do when something you love so much doesn’t love you back? It’s an ever-pressing question, especially now when art is progressively devalued and commodified between generative AI, garbage working conditions for animators, and the churn-and-burn pacing of the anime and manga industries. And yet, despite it all, humans continue to create art because it’s an innately human thing to do. Even in times of tragedy or isolation, people still want to con...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

Review: ‘Above the Knee’ Cuts Itself Off at the Leg

Above the Knee, which had its world premiere at BeyondFest 2024, follows a man so desperate to cut off his own leg that it consumes his life. Like in his first feature Good Boy (2022), director Viljar Bøe delves into an absurd yet somehow plausible human phenomenon and turns it into a character study. Above the Knee teeters between a frustrating watch and an unnerving thriller. While the premise, acting, and practical effects are impressive enough to keep viewers engaged and their posterior clen...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

‘Crumb Catcher’ Review: Cringe-Inducing Entertainment

The balance of cringe as entertainment is a hard one to strike. Cringe comedy, as of late, has a tendency to devolve into being mean-spirited; I’ve found that cringe in genre films can just fall flat on its face. Crumb Catcher, the first feature from writer-director Chris Skotchdopole, takes basic social faux pas to the absolute worst, most cringe-inducing extent. While I found it a pretty competent thriller, the character motives and relationships bring the movie a step down.


Newlyweds Shane...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

‘The Coffee Table’ Review: The Anxiety Inducing Dark Comedy of 2023

Not everyone is cut out for parenting. Caye Casas’ most recent work The Coffee Table depicts this uncomfortable truth to its most horrifying extent. For an all-too-quick 87 minutes, Casas throws the audience headfirst into the most terrifying anxieties about becoming a new parent, with the extra spice of a failing relationship thrown in for good measure. Between the actual plot beats, the claustrophobic setting, and the stellar cinematography, The Coffee Table does not let up on its dreadful, sh...
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Review: Carnage for Christmas (2024)

Holiday-themed horror is nearly as old as the genre itself. While Halloween, for obvious reasons, lends itself to the genre the best, Christmas appears to be another popular choice for holiday horror. And, honestly, why wouldn’t it be? Despite the facade of cheer, Christmas is a pretty spooky holiday no matter how one looks at it. The Pagan traditions behind the holiday, like Halloween, have a spooky edge but the forced holiday “cheer” is equally terrifying to those who fear going home rather th
Dread Central •

'Purgatory Jack' Salem Horror Fest 2024 Review: An Overambitious Look At The Afterlife

‘Purgatory Jack’ Salem Horror Fest 2024 Review: An Overambitious Look At The Afterlife

Editor’s note: This review contains mentions of suicide.

The simultaneous fear and insatiable curiosity about what happens after death fuels art to this day. There are innumerable interpretations of Heaven and Hell. But the secret third option of Purgatory rarely receives the same kind of dedicated love, apart from the poet Virgil, No Exit, and The House that Jack Built. The Butler Brother’s Purgatory Jack r
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Review: The People's Joker (2024)

The People’s Joker is officially free and ready to make anyone that lays eyes on it transgender: a promise from mastermind Vera Drew herself. For the sake of an extended diatribe, I won’t get into the protracted copyright situation that Drew and the film were embroiled in–let’s be honest, the film is way more interesting than a legal situation–but it’s certainly added to the mythos of The People’s Joker. Whenever the film appeared on festival line-ups, it felt like a creature breaching containme
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Review: Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Rose Glass’ sophomore feature Love Lies Bleeding continues the weird sapphic energy from her previous film Saint Maud in spectacular fashion. The film follows the whirlwind romance of reserved gym manager Lou (Kristen Stewart) and current drifter, aspiring bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O’Brian) as the tightening grasp of Lou’s father Lou. Sr. (Ed Harris) threatens to expose both Lou and Jackie’s worst habits. Under the guise of a Cohen-esque crime thriller, Glass weaves a surreal tale of lesbian erot
Film Matters Magazine •

Monkey Puzzle Shorts Block. Reviewed by Red Broadwell ⋆ Film Matters Magazine

The Monkey Puzzle shorts block of Cucalorus features experimental shorts existing in the limbo between dream and nightmare. These shorts use surreal imagery to convey indescribable parts of the human experience or fears we don’t dare speak of. This review covers the first five short films in the Monkey Puzzle block in the order they were aired at Cucalorus 2023.

Zac Ivey’s Incident 4 fits squarely in the recent analog horror film trend: a cinematic successor to the alternate reality games (ARGs
Dread Central •

'Satranic Panic' Review: Alice Maio Mackay's Most Ambitious Film Yet

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Alice Maio Mackay’s directorial career is skyrocketing. In just three years she’s released three features, each deconstructing a portion of the queer or trans experience with equal parts heart and wit. So Vam tackles the monstrous “othering”, Bad Girl Boogey uses supernatural horror to examine how queer suffering is ignored en masse, and T-Blockers turns toxic sludge into a metaphor for transphobic vitriol. With a continued commitment to a largely LGBT cast a
Film Cred •

Salem Horror Fest Review: 'Guys at Parties Like It'

Guys at Parties Like It, the feature debut by directors Colton David Coate and Michael Coate, is the latest offering in feminist horror. Utilizing a fraternity party as the story’s backdrop, it follows a sorority sister caught in a hazing ritual gone wrong. The film has a lot going for it with regard to its sense of style: the neon lighting, kinetic cinematography, and special effects provide a lovely feast for the eyes. Unfortunately, like its predecessors — Black Christmas (2019), Promising Yo
Film Cred •

Salem Horror Fest Review: 'HeBGB TV'

Out of all the subgenres, something about horror anthologies always feels the most fun. Perhaps it’s because these films are the closest equivalent to scary stories around the fire. Anthologies also allow creators the freedom to flex their creativity without the rigid constraints of a single story or tone. One bit can balance the thin line between horror and comedy, while the next can be genuinely pee-your-pants horrifying. With the right tie-ins and presentation, they harmonize to form an iconi
Film Cred •

Review: 'T-Blockers'

Alice Maio Mackay has firmly established herself as a staple of independent horror unapologetically made by and for the LGBT community. Her first feature, So Vam, was added to Shudder last year, and her second film Bad Girl Boogey debuted shortly after. Her rapidly growing repertoire now includes T-Blockers — her first venture into the more sci-fi realm — which premieres at Salem Horror Festival next month. As with her previous films Mackay and co-writer Ben Pahl Robinson explore dark themes inh
Film Cred •

Review: 'Bad Girl Boogey'

Compared to the last couple years, 2022 has been a great year for the horror genre. Fans of every subgenre, from slasher to body horror to monster flicks, have received at least one solid film to gush about on Twitter. Unfortunately, the one area that seems to be lacking once again is queer horror. Sure, there’s been a couple nods to queerness in mainstream films like Jordan Peele’s Nope and Ti West’s X, but unfortunately the only mainstream queer horror film has been the experience that was Joh
Film Cred •

Review: 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

On October 1, 1974, first-time filmmaker Tobe Hooper released a film so visceral and psychologically disturbing that it was banned in several countries. The terror that the original iteration of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre wrought upon the public still hangs in the air nearly 50 years later, despite the lack of explicit gore and violence. While cannibalism and dismemberments are what the other installments in the franchise chose to focus on, the original TCM is first and foremost a social comme
Buffed Film Buffs •

Kore-eda Film 'Air Doll' Releases in the U.S. at the Perfect Time

In the corona years, isolation has become a feeling too well-known by many. Making human connections, whether online or in-person, is in high demand yet invariably difficult to maintain. As communal creatures by nature, the increased distance from others, physically and emotionally, or the lack of ability, be it from having no time or just general discomfort at the idea, to create new meaningful connections has us asking what it means to be a human.

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 2009 film Air Doll, based
Film Cred •

Salem Horror Fest Review: 'Brain Death'

The first generation of kids that grew up with the modern Internet are now the first “terminally online” adults. Being constantly connected has the perk of building relationships with people we’d never meet otherwise, but the downsides are much more detrimental. Irony and borderline mean-spirited satire drive humor, which becomes a coping mechanism for the larger issue of constant omnipotence. “Doom scrolling” — spending an excessive amount of time scrolling through generally bad or triggering n
Film Cred •

Salem Horror Fest Review: ‘So Vam’

Vampirism has always been tied to queerness, for better or for worse. In the original Dracula and Carmilla, the titular vampires are alluring to their respective protagonists (and in Dracula’s case, his wife too) but are explicitly labeled as monstrous and deviant — pretty much the blueprint for a queercoded character. But the same characteristics that make vampires scary in the popular consciousness are what make them endearing to us. Their otherness is what makes them easy to relate to, their
Film Cred •

Review: ‘Spiral’

In 2004 the trajectory of horror changed forever with the release of Saw directed by James Wan and written by Wan and Leigh Whannell. The film arguably ended the run of more teen-centered, Scream-inspired horror movies with the opening shot of a nasty bathroom and the utterance of “I want to play a game.” The success of the film led to the spawning of six sequels during the rest of the decade, a seventh film in 2017, and a laundry list of copycats. Billy the Puppet, Jigsaw, and the reverse bear
Film Cred •

Sundance Review: 'The Blazing World'

Fairy tales have been synonymous with light, bright animation since Disney started churning out their adaptations despite the sinister tones of the source material. However, films like the children’s nightmare fuel Coraline, the cannibalistic fever dream of The Lure, and a solid chunk of Guillermo del Toro’s repertoire prove that fairy tales can be anything but wholesome.

The Blazing World, Carlson Young’s feature debut based on her short film of the same name, has all the elements to join the
Film Cred •

Sundance Review: 'We’re All Going to the World’s Fair'

As long as the Internet’s been widely available, there’s been horror games. What started as small roleplay and fan fiction blogs created on dial-up Internet connections slowly grew and developed into dozens of story games, discussion blogs, and writing challenges. The most infamous evolution of these early horror blogs was Creepypasta: collections of short horror stories copied and pasted across the Internet starting on the Something Awful forum and the subreddit r/nosleep. The mass creation and
Film Cred •

Sundance Review: 'Eight for Silver'

Werewolf mythos is an intricate, expansive mass. There’s plenty of ways one becomes a werewolf, and the resulting lycanthropes come in all shapes and sizes: some are more man than beast, others are in a weird limbo between the two. One part of lore that manages to worm its way into the vast majority of werewolf media in one way or another is the creature’s guaranteed kryptonite— silver.

Sean Ellis’ Eight for Silver aims to take a more original crack at werewolf lore, while still keeping very tr
Film Cred •

Sundance Review: 'Cryptozoo'

By the time the United States inserted themselves into the Vietnam War in the 1960s, there was a marked shift in the attitude towards interventionism. Suddenly, the demographic of young adults that used to line up in droves to go to war were suddenly more interested in peace and harmony (and psychedelics). The dream was to have everyone hold hands and start planting the seeds for an idealized society. But, what if the seeds are planted in rancid soil?

The ideals of free love and utopias-gone-wr
Load More

Podcast Appearances

THE ROLLING TAPE •

Pride Mini-Series: New Queer Cinema & Moving to Mainstream Hollywood (Part Three) - THE ROLLING TAPE

As we enter the 90s and early 2000s the team discusses Queer cinema’s entrance into the mainstream and the films that we grew up with. We discuss The Oscars and the dramas that entered “high cinema,” as well as the low-budget comedies that came to define CAMP and the Queer pushback to the tragedies still facing them. With only one more episode left, the team prepares to break down contemporary Queer cinema and where we go from here.


Subscribe:The Rolling Tape Patreon


Listen Here:SpotifyApp...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

NEWS 037: Cinema Con 2025

This past week we had one of the biggest events of the film industry’s news cycle in Cinema Con, the world’s largest gathering for the motion picture theater industry featuring major studios sharing their slate with theater owners for the rest of the year and beyond. We’ll discuss the panels and various announcements from the studios who presented including Sony, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Amazon, Universal, Disney, and Paramount
THE ROLLING TAPE •

RETROSPECTIVE 018: Bong Joon-Ho

Before our review of Mickey 17, we’re looking back through the filmography of Bong Joon Ho, a South Korean filmmaker who has defined his career by blending genres and inciting sharp social commentary. From his earlier Korean works such as the mystery procedural of Memories of Murder to the monster spectacle of The Host, all the way through his Best Picture phenomenon in Parasite, we unpack his full career leading up to his newest release in Mickey 17.Listen Here:SpotifyApple PodcastsAll Listenin...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

EP 126: The Monkey (2025)

Following up last years viral sensation with Longlegs, Osgood Perkins is back with The Monkey, a horror comedy based on a short story by Stephen King. When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. The film stars Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, and Colin O’Brien.
THE ROLLING TAPE •

RETROSPECTIVE 015: Animation in 2024

As one of our wrap-up conversations of 2024 before we enter the new year, our retrospective this week is celebrating another medium of storytelling. Similar to our horror retrospective for Halloween, we are celebrating the animation of 2024 today recapping our way through the year all the way back from Orion and the Dark to the box office boom of Inside Out 2 to arthouse selections like Flow and Memoir of a Snail.Listen Here:SpotifyApple PodcastsAll Listening PlatformsFollow our team online:Dann...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

EP 117: Nosferatu (2024) ft. Kenzie Vanunu

With our final review of the year, and following our recent retrospective conversation on the career of Robert Eggers, we succumb to the darkness in his latest work, Nosferatu. In a reimagining of the 1897 novel and 1922 silent film, Nosferatu’s legacy of adaptation is rich and extensive. In the 2024 iteration, Eggers delivers a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake. The film stars Lily-Rose Depp,...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

EP 116: Juror #2 (2024)

In our last review before the holidays, our team decided to step inside the courtroom for the Max release of Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. While serving as a juror in a high-profile murder trial, a family man finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma, one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict or free the wrong killer. The film stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, and J.K. Simmons. Listen Here:SpotifyApple PodcastsAll Listening PlatformsChapter Timestamps:Follow o...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

Live Commentary: 82nd Golden Globes (2025) Nominations

We react live to the 82nd Golden Globes Nominations for the 2025 ceremony. After our live reaction, we come back to debrief and recap our takeaways for the nominations for the rest of the awards season.Follow our team online:Danny Jarabek Website, Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinktreeTate Fowler on Letterboxd and InstagramEvan Miller on Letterboxd, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTokCameron Ritter on Letterboxd, Instagram, X, and TikTokRed Broadwell on Letterboxd, X, and InstagramOwen...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

Halloween Special: Horror in 2024

To celebrate spooky season and all the thrills and chills we’ve witnessed so far this year, we are doing a genre retrospective today covering the spectrum of horror movies released in 2024. Going all the way back to Night Swim, we recap our way through the year unpacking the best and worst of the genre through October with a preview for what is still to come.Listen Here:SpotifyApple PodcastsAll Listening PlatformsFollow our team online:Danny Jarabek Website, Letterboxd, Instagram, X, TikTok, and...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

RETROSPECTIVE 010: DreamWorks Animation Studio

DreamWorks Animation has been a major force in the world of animated storytelling since its inception in 1994. Founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, DreamWorks brought a new vision that has consistently pushed creative boundaries, and challenged industry norms, delivering beloved franchises like Shrek, Madagascar, and How to Train Your Dragon. This retrospective explores the history of DreamWorks Animation, tracing its journey from a fledgling competitor to Disney an...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

EP 098: Cuckoo (2024)

Originally premiering at Berlin International Film Festival before also showing at SXSW, Tilman Singer’s sophomore feature Cuckoo follows up his 2018 effort Luz. In Hunter Schafer’s first major leading role, 17-year-old Gretchen is forced to move with her family to a resort where things are not what they seem. She is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family. The film stars Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, and Jessica Henwick
THE ROLLING TAPE •

RETROSPECTIVE 007: M. Night Shyamalan

Born in India and raised outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, M. Night Shyamalan has received critical acclaim over the last 2+ decades as a director, writer, and producer. Best known for his films with supernatural plots and horror storylines, Shyamalan gained international recognition when he wrote and directed The Sixth Sense in 1999, which was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture. He has continued to develop his signature brand of supernatural filmmaking which we will un...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

EP 083: Challengers (2024) ft. Red Broadwell

After originally being set to open the Venice International Film Festival in 2023 and a long delay for its release, we have finally made it to the official arrival of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist. The tennis-centered sports relationship drama features Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, who turned her husband into a champion. But to overcome a losing streak, he needs to face his ex-best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.Chapter Timestamps:F...
THE ROLLING TAPE •

EP 069: The Iron Claw (2023) ft. Red Broadwell

Based on the true story of the Von Erich family, director Sean Durkin dives into the 1980’s world of professional wrestling with The Iron Claw, his third feature film. Starring Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Harris Dickinson, we review the triumph and tragedy of the wrestling quartet and their domineering father and coach who pushes them to the biggest stage in the sport.


Chapter Timestamps:

Follow our guest online:

Red Broadwell on Letterboxd, Twitter, and Instagram


Follow our team

Retrospectives

Queer Fear Film Festival •

Review: Interview with the Vampire (1994)

With the second season of Interview with the Vampire in full swing, what better time than to revisit the 1994 film? A pinnacle of vampiric homoeroticism for thirty years, the cinematic adaptation of Anne Rice’s first novel in her Vampire Chronicles series has, obviously, continued to capture the imaginations of queer audiences to this day. Beyond Louis and Lestat’s whole deal, Interview with the Vampire is steeped in queer allegory. From the found family and community dynamics of the vampires an
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Review: Killer Condom (1987)

The history of comics and contemporary queer culture have been long intertwined. Beyond newer entries like “Gender Queer” or the continuing legacy of queercoding in mainstream series like X-Men, archives of independent queer zines are littered with long-running comic strips from the likes of Alison Bechdel and Howard Cruse; these comics were bite-sized ways to communicate community in-jokes and condense aspects of gay and trans life into funny, somewhat informative anecdotes. During the AIDS cri
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Review: Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

There are three things certain in life: death, taxes, and absolutely devastating friend group drama that changes you as a person. Bodies Bodies Bodies dares to ask: how toxic can a messy queer friend group get? The film taps into the early-to-mid-twenties queer zeitgeist, to varying degrees of accuracy, through a twist on a classic murder mystery. The film’s focus on a very specific type of queer friend group feels refreshing to a degree, although mileage may vary on how willing one may be to pu
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Review: Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (2021)

Safe, sane, and consensual: these are the last words anyone would possibly use to describe Eric LaRocca’s novella Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. Even without the objectively disgusting twist in the last act–which is largely responsible for the novella’s gristly, “endurance test” reputation– the under negotiated terms of the central dom/sub relationship creates enough tension for the reader to endure. However, the reduction of Things Have Gotten Worse to just its (rightfully) infam
Queer Fear Film Festival •

Review: The Lost Boys (1987)

Vampires, since their inception, have always been queercoded at minimum. Carmilla clearly, at least for 1876, centers on a U-Haul lesbian situationship gone wrong and several analyses of Dracula posit Bram Stoker used the titular count as a vessel for societal ills including homosexuality. So what exactly makes The Lost Boys such a long-standing classic queer horror classic? Despite the film largely sidestepping the romantic or gothic trappings of traditional vampire narratives, Joel Schumacher