Megan Is Missing (2012) - 2.5/4
Megan Is Missing may be the most warped, perverse piece of exploitation filmmaking to come out in a long time. Not because it is contains the rough, explicit sex of a Max Hardcore video—it doesn’t. Not...
View ArticleEyes of the Mothman (2011) - 3/4
Something about the legend of the mothman, often classified amongst cryptozoological legends like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, that stimulates a degree of seriousness not reserved for those...
View ArticleThe Cabin in the Woods (2011) - 3.5/4
The Cabin in the Woods is a wet-dream to smug, intellectual students of horror movies. Wes Craven is still making Scream movies, but Cabinis the real heir to what the first Scream movie did, which is...
View ArticleThe Bay (2012) - 2.5/4
Directed by Barry Levinson of Rain Man fame, propagandizing an ecological message, and presented as a found-footage horror, The Bay is a very strange film however you look at it. The experience it...
View ArticleGrabbers (2012) - 3/4
Making an independent, quirky horror-comedy that 'hits the right spot' is hard to do. More and more filmmakers try to do it, leaving more and more failures to wash onto our shores. Grabbers is another...
View ArticlePrometheus (2012) - 3.5/4
Ridley Scott, like James Cameron, is a director I usually approach with low expectations. I am a shameless consumer of narrative; I enjoy a good story. Visuals must be of a highly spectacular nature to...
View ArticleThe ABCs of Death (2012) - 2.5/4
The ABCs of Death has perhaps drawn more attention due to its sheer breadth of directorial talent than due to the formalist conceit. With 26 geek-gen directors involved, it was hard not to run into the...
View ArticleHemlock Grove (2013) - 2.5/4
Hemlock Grove is yet another werewolf-and-vampire-based series, this one peculiar in being produced exclusively for Netflix. The directorial talent featured is primarily Eli Roth (Hostel) and Deran...
View ArticleRites of Spring (2011) - 2.5/4
Since time immemorial, plucky blondes have been known to be disasterous for harvests. That's why they had to be sacrificed to crop gods all the world over. Or at least given entry-level secretarial...
View ArticleBerberian Sound Studio (2012) - 2/4
The plot description I had read of Berberian Sound Studio that intrigued me was, "A sound engineer's work for an Italian horror studio becomes a terrifying case of life imitating art." This is the main...
View ArticleHellgate (2011) - 2/4
Hellgate is a film about a man (Cary Elwes) who survives a car accident that kills his wife and son. From then on he can see ghosts. They can see him, too, and seem to want something from him....
View ArticleThe Cinema of Repulsions from Suspiria to Satan's Playground
The following essay I originally wrote a few years ago as a sort of defense of Dante Tomaselli's films. When I wrote it, Tomaselli, an independent horror filmmaker, had made only three films, all...
View ArticleDeadheads (2011) - 3/4
Deadheads is another heartwarming zombie horror comedy in the vein of Shaun of the Dead and the legions of other heartwarming/hearteating zombie comedies. If you're sick of zombie comedies, as I am,...
View ArticleBad Kids Go to Hell (2012) - 2.5/4
Probably every reviewer that took on Bad Kids Go to Hell has described it as "The horror version of The Breakfast Club." Yes, there is even a Judd Nelson cameo. I suppose to some extent that's true. To...
View ArticleWalled In (2009) - 2.5/4
Walled In, based on the psychological thriller Les emmurés by French author Serge Brussolo, concerns a pretty, young engineer (Mischa Barton) assigned to find a building's weak points for her dad's...
View ArticleThe Dark Halves: How Stephen King and George Romero Reflect Themselves in The...
In 1991, an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Half (1993), written and directed by George Romero, began filming. Though both men are well-regarded artists within the horror genre, the pairing of...
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Carrion Creativity: The Sources of Evil Dead
Evil Dead (2013) was not a candidate for review on Lair of the Boyg. With 404 external reviews already on Internet Movie Database, mine would be a drop in a lake. Had I written a review, I would have...
View ArticleThe Devil's Rock (2011) - 3/4
Nazi occultism is always an interesting subject and certainly ripe material for a horror movie. I am inclined to think the occult tendencies in the Third Reich were purely decorative and symbolic. But...
View ArticleManiac (2012) - 3.5/4
Maniac is a remake of the 1980 William Lustig classic slasher of the same title. Lustig didn't just approve, he also produced this remake, helmed by P2 director Frank Khalfoun. What makes Maniac really...
View ArticleGeorge Romero's Philosophy of Violence
Romero's entire cinematic oeuvre can be taken as a lifelong reflection on the nature of violence. Violence in fantasy and action, not zombies, has been the one constant in all of Romero's films. His...
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