FCK’N NUTS *** USA 2023 Dir: Sam Fox. 11 mins This short blast of Giallo and absurdity lives up to the title of Fck’n Nuts (2023). It’s not that crazy when you think that a certain Marvel Franchise has a talking tree person and animals. The first thing you notice in the blast of colors you get is reminiscent of the Adam West/Batman television series. The short follows Sandy (Maddie Nichols) dressed like she fell out of Barbie (2023) or the ‘little pale girl’ from the beginning of Terrifier 2 (2022) depending on how you look at it. She reluctantly…
Author: Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood Born in Ottawa Ontario, Canada; Terry is a "Monster kid ', film fan and popular culture person. Once worked in television as a commercial writer/ Director. Writer of the SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET site covering aspects of the Horror Genre from Books, Comics, to Film old and new. He has previously written for WE BELONG DEAD and MONSTERMANIA magazines, The Spooky Isle UK website, Horror hound and Turner Classic Movies. Published Book of own writings titled SCREEN AND SCREEN AGAIN: ESSAYS ON THE HORROR FILM on amazon world wide plus contributed to other genre books. Chaired numerous convention panel discussions on Horror and Comics Terry is member of The Horror Writers Association and Dracula Society in U.K.
HAUNTING OF THE QUEEN MARY *** USA / UK 2023 Dir: Gary Shore. 125 mins The ocean has given us such fun horror as personal favourite Death Ship (1980), Ghost Ship (2002), the witty if not silly Sharknado series, Deep Blue Sea (1999), Blood Vessel (2019) and countless others. Joining the folk who travel the briny deep you have Haunting Of The Queen Mary (2023) which comes across as a combination of elements in the television series American Horror Story: Hotel and the BioShock game franchise. The film has a slightly confusing plot that unfolds across two timelines with some…
MERCY FALLS *** UK 2023 Dir: Ryan Hendrick. 103 mins I would suggest we have a new splinter group in the genre called Trauma Thriller Horror. These films which I think the film or works that do not contain supernatural influences fit one of those being the survivalist film Ryan Hendrick’s Mercy Falls (2023). Emerging tropes are usually a group of people placed in an out-of-the-way place such as a rave party on an island in the superb Austrian film Party Hard Die Young (2018) or the romantic getaway in the gruesome Eden Lake (2008). The people are stalked by…
THE MASTURBATING GUNMAN (a.k.a. Masked Avenger Versus Ultra-Villain In The Lair Of The Naked Bikini) **** Australia 1997 Dir: Mark Savage. 90 mins With film, you can enter a world. Lose yourself in the characters, the situations, the conflict, the action, and the adventure. In the case of Writer-Director Mark Savage’s 1997 ridiculously Indie film The Masturbating Gunman (1997), you just go what am I watching but it all fits. Not a horror film or for some a horror film, the picture is also known by its less provocative title of Masked Avenger Versus Ultra-Villain In The Lair Of The…
LIAR’S POKER ** USA 1999 Dir: Jeff Santo. 93 mins I am a Film Noir aficionado and have been for a very long time. An avid viewer of TCM’s Noir Alley and follower of the many things of its Host Eddie Muller. Read pulp/ thriller novels and enjoy Giallo in all its forms. So when I come to Liar’s Poker (1999) which is classed as neo-noir as modern noir is called or a crime film, I am at a bit of a loss until the last fifteen or so minutes. The narrative opens with clipped dialogue and moody expressions of…