Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through The Gateway Chosen By The Holy Storsh (2020) - Movie Review

Well, here’s a welcome change: A film title that actually works. Yeah, it lands squarely in Alexander And The TL;DR territory, but for a movie all about cult mentality, it sure sounds like the name of a self-help book that would garner a small but creepily devoted fanbase. And yes, we’re doing a SpectreVision double feature today (well, technically, this is from Company X, but same producers, so let’s not split hairs here), and despite this being about such a dark topic, this isn’t a horror movie. Not in the conventional sense, at least; this is a lot closer to The Greasy Strangler in tone, and much like that feature, it’s difficult to put into word how truly batshit insane this entire thing is.

The Empty Man (2020) - Movie Review

A few years ago, I looked at a film with the immediately-mockable name of The Bye Bye Man. I found myself in a bit of an odd situation after watching it as, while it initially caught my attention through contemporary critics lampooning the shit out of it, I ended up struggling to figure out if I hated it or not. Yeah, the acting was weak, the horror cred of the overall production was limp at best, and most of what it had to offer was watered-down material from other, better entries in the genre… but to this day, there’s still something about its approach to a supernatural killer that appeals to the kookier part of my brain.

I bring all this up because this film left me with a similar reaction, where I feel like I’m still having an argument with myself if this is a uniquely cool take on psycho-horror, or if it’s just an overcooked and under-seasoned casserole of a film.

Bad Times At The El Royale (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: A priest (Jeff Bridges), a singer (Cynthia Erivo), a salesman (Jon Hamm) and a hippie (Dakota Johnson) all show up at the El Royale, a hotel that rests on the middle of the state border between California and Nevada. As they make themselves at home, under the attentive eye of concierge Miles (Lewis Pullman), the secrets and lies that brought them to this establishment begin to surface, and despite outward appearances, it seems like no one's hands are clean.

Mandy (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: Logger Red (Nicolas Cage) and artist Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) live a quiet life in a cabin in the woods. However, that life is shattered when they come across a hippie cult run by Jeremiah (Linus Roache), who takes Mandy as his own... and then kills her. Red sets out on a bloody and drug-addled path of vengeance to destroy the cult.