Blair Witch (2016)

The successful duo of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett (You're Next, The Guest) take a stab at breathing new life into the Blair Witch mythos. Unfortunately not much is added except a relative (James Allen McCune) searching for Heather (from the first film) and a few more nights in the woods. It could almost be misconstrued as a remake. One aspect improved upon is the camerawork. POV cameras strapped to the characters' heads help keep the action in view. By the time the film quits jerking off and the real action starts, much of the runtime has passed. Fortunately the remaining scenes are worth the wait. There are a bevy of annoying jump scares, but effective and startling sound design in the final act wash them away. It is certainly an uneven film, and while it may not be as memorable as the original, it certainly trumps it with a more engaging conclusion.

2½ corners to stand in out of 5

THE GUEST [2014]

Director Adam Wingard's enticingly sinister psycho-thriller, The Guest, tells the story of soldier who visits the family of a friend who died in action to deliver a message to them.
Like Wingard and his crew's previous film, You're Next, it manages to take a simple and silly concept, paste a dumb face on it and deliver it with wit, style and a slickness that keeps you glued to your seat from beginning to end.  Known for gently playing the doomed Matthew on Downton Abbey, Dan Stevens takes an impressive turn as a menacing soldier turned killing machine in this ode to the '80's b-films.  If John Carpenter were to mix A History Of Violence and Drive, with a heavy dose of excellent post-punk/Goth-pop then this is what you'd get.  

3½ mix CD's out of 5

YOU'RE NEXT [2013]

Adam Wingard crafts an effectively scary and sickly funny home invasion thriller with the ominously titled You're Next.
It's not particularly original or groundbreaking but Wingard and his cast & crew are obviously very dedicated and enthusiastic about the material, making it that much more brutally enjoyable.  Through all the killing and off-color blood is a tale about family dysfunction and inane materialism that has you rooting for the masked killers to do their thing to the collection of douches.  I love the kitschy music but unfortunately it is really distracting in the film itself.  All in all, a delightfully sick & twisted slaughterfest that knows what it is and never tries to be smarter than it should.

3 meat tenderizers out of 5

V/H/S 2 [2013]

V/H/S 2's setup is pretty much exactly the same as the first in the anthology horror series, only this time around it's quite a bit more entertaining and tightly paced.
With The Raid: Redemption's Gareth Evans, Lovely Molly's Eduardo Sánchez and Hobo With A Shotgun's Jason Eisener on board as directors, you're pretty much guaranteed schlocky twisted fun.  It's not exactly high art and it's never particularly scary but it packs in enough laughs, gore and weirdness to end up being highly enjoyable.

3 doggy cams out of 5

THE ABC'S OF DEATH [2013]

The ABC's Of Death is a collection of short segments by a variety of genre directors & film mediums from all over the world, including Ti West, Angela Bettis, Xavier Gens, Jake West, Adam Wingard & more.

Each segment is assigned a letter of the alphabet that features a death that must relate to it.  In a way it reminded me of the teaser intros to Six Feet Under, as I tried to guess how each death was going to play out in the often bizarre scenario. The quality of each segment ranges from great to terrible but never really seems to hurt the sickening enjoyment of it all.  They're wildly funny, immensely disturbing and sometimes excruciatingly disgusting.  It's not high art but packs in enough squeamish laughter to please horror film nuts for an evening.

2½ letter blocks in blood out of 5

V/H/S [2012]

V/H/S is a collaborative effort of several short "found footage" films framed by another "found footage" film, all of which have next to nothing to do with each other. 

It might feature some interesting concepts and effective scares but never really seems to gel together to form a stronger impression.  I pretty much got exactly what I was expecting and admittedly was entertained by a few of the better segments but none of it leaves much of an afterthought.  

2 homicidal video glitches out of 5