Ben Nagy reviews ‘Trick or Treat’: This one doesn’t have Ozzy or that guy with the bag on his head in it
This last in my triumvirate of Halloween-themed reviews ended up not quite being as Halloween-themed as the two prior (those two were Mischief Night and Trick). There are a couple appearances of trick-or-treaters, the main character has a Halloween birthday and the Grim Reaper shows up a couple of times as well in Trick or […]
Ben Nagy reviews ‘Trick’: It’s what comes before ‘or’ and ‘treat’
This flick, Trick, starts with a definition. You know what starts with definitions? Middle school oral reports. A lecture in front of the Kiwanis Club. Graduation speeches. The sermon at church on a weekend when the lector just doesn’t have a good one in em but still has to say something to fill the time. […]
Ben Nagy reviews ‘Mischief Night’: It’s What Used to Come Before Halloween
So if you have your Halloween timeline straight and who doesn’t, October 30 is the rainy night where Dr. Loomis and Nurse Chambers go to transport Mikey, but he’s let all the people out of the Illinois mental hospital and is traipsing around with his hiney flopping out of a hospital gown before he hijacks […]
The Last Drive-In | Halloween Hangout
Art by T.J. Denton (@TDenton_1138 on Twitter) About three decades back, the big criticism about the Super Bowl was that what was supposed to be the crowning, ultimate, must-see event of the football season ended up having no suspense and being a less-than-satisfying experience. The game ended up being a blowout, the halftime show didn’t […]
Ben Nagy reviews ‘Spookie Dookie’: Independent Hourlong Halloween Special Screams ‘Watch Me!’
Brian Papandrea, the all-time indy filmmaking shrimp cocktail king (see The Big F, if you don’t believe me) has churned out another flick from his Rock Bottom Films company with a title that could describe what happens about an hour after someone follows up eating four bowls of Boo Berry cereal for breakfast with a […]
Ben Nagy reviews ‘Murder Party’: The Brown Knight tries to survive a Halloween bash and artistic torturers
I was so inspired by Murder Party, the Halloween-themed flick I’m reviewing in this column that I even came up with a song… Ain’t no party / Like a Murder Party / Cause a Murder Party / Is a party with a murder (repeat x3) But before you get all hyped up that Murder Party […]
Ben Nagy reviews ‘ShriekShow’: Anthology Features a Bunch of Clowning in the Woods
Director Brad Twigg, the guy behind Killer Campout about the slasherguy who makes his deadly axe out of street signs (see the review here)and who’s working on getting the finishing touches completed for Killer Campout 2, emailed me over the summer telling me that he had a flick he wanted me to check out. And while it’s taken […]
Ben Nagy reviews ‘Time Loop’: If You Could Turn Back Time, Like an Hour, Would it Be Worth it?
There’s that whole saying about a person being ahead of their time, which isn’t such a rousing compliment when you REALLY think about it. Anyone who is saying that about somebody else is looking back into the past from the present. Usually they are also nodding their head sadly because whoever this ahead-of-their-time genius is, […]
Ben Nagy reviews ‘All Your Friends are Dead’: Campout Reunion Saves a Life, Loses a Bunch of Others
Ricky Glore, a standup comedian by trade, decided he was going to make the first “middle-aged slasher flick,” so he pulled together about $6,000, wrote a script and then went on to star AND co-direct it with Nicholas Hiance. Not necessarily in that order. The result, All Your Friends are Dead, is scheduled to make […]
Ben Nagy reviews ‘Fall of Usher’: Hubbie-winning director gets all Poe-tic on us
The one sure trait that can be used to identify the truly great writers is the flexibility of their work to be understood and adapted by the skilled and the unskilled alike. Great writing is like one of those six-cylinder Mopar engines from the early 1970s. You could be driving down the road going about […]