CARNAGE PARK [2016]

In his ode to 70's survival horror films, director Mickey Keating attempts to emulate Quentin Tarantino's vibe in Carnage Park.
Ashley Bell is great as a woman who starts her shitty day as a hostage to a couple of bumbling bank robbers which leads to her being hunted down by a crazed ex-sniper in the middle of the California desert.
It starts out as your standard Tarantino rip-off, minus the snappy dialogue, with a crime gone horribly wrong but slowly transforms into a pretty disorienting horrific thriller that reeks of The Hills Have Eyes and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Originality or unique characters is not it's strong suit but suspense and unsettling atmosphere is where it excels.

3 warped vinyl out of 5

TALES OF HALLOWEEN [2015]

Featuring a gaggle of well-known and not-so well known genre directors, including Neil Marshall, Lucky McKee & Darren Lynn Bousman, Tales of Halloween, is an anthology film that seems like it's set out to compete with Michael Dougherty's modern cult-classic Trick 'r Treat for the most amount of fun a Halloween film can be.
Does it succeed?  Almost.
There's a few weak shorts in the bunch but for the most part it's really sick and twisted gory fun that keeps on rolling right up to the final frame.  Even the weaker shorts are enough fun to keep it from ever really losing steam.

3 spooky Mick Garris' out of 5

CHEAP THRILLS [2013]

How far would you go for the ones you love?
How much would you risk when money talks?
Those are some of the questions director E.L. Katz's deliciously nasty and horrifically hilarious Cheap Thrills asks it's off-kilter viewers.
It follows two old high-school buddies who meet a sadistic rich couple that will toss cash at them to perform humiliating deeds that grow increasingly more life threatening with each turn.  Like a reality show no one's watching, the characters turn their backs on dignity and "dance, monkey. Dance".  It pays homage to Roald Dohl's classic short story Man from the South and rightfully so, seeing as it treads over the same sort of themes.  While it's nice to see The Innkeepers' Pat Healy & Sara Paxton together again, it's Ethan Embry & David Koechner that steal the show with their unavoidable screen presence.
It's not a great film but entertainingly twisted enough to be exactly as it's title advertises it to be.  

3 bad days out of 5

THE INNKEEPERS [2011]

I'm a sucker for ghost stories so naturally I'd be drawn towards Ti West's The Innkeepers.

West crafts an evenly paced slow-burning creepy story with a healthy dose of well-timed humour all beautifully framed with moody lighting and crawling photography.  Sarah Paxton and Pat Healy are cute as the goofy hotel employees even if their fast-talking personalities put the slow-burning story off balance.  There's a few moments of frustrating stupidity and it never really does anything we haven't seen before but in the end it's a pretty safe bet you'll enjoy it if you like a good ghost story. 

3 images your eyes might not see out of 5