Fantasia Film Festival Review: Hello! Tapir (2021)

Hello! Tapir is exactly the kind-of film that hits me in the emotional feels; one of those kind-of films that use fantasy to deal with our own grief. Films like Bridge to Terabithia come to mind for that, as well as more direct comps in A Monster Calls and I Kill Giants. In this Taiwanese film, a young boy, Ah-Keat (Run Yin-Bai) is told stories by his father, Ah-Sheing. His main tale is about a tapir – a creature with the body of a pig, trunk of an elephant, ears of a horse and feet of a rhinoceros. The tapir is a benevolent creature who passes through villages at night, gobbling up all nightmares.

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Fantasia Film Festival Review: The Slug (2021)

When Chun-hee is struck by lightning, she wakes up, stunned; and soon discovers that she is being visited by herself from when she was a kid, the same age as when she first lost her parents. In one of the film's tenderest aspects, this version of the character is called Chun-hee's Childhood (played by Park Hye Jin). Moments of flashbacks are shown throughout the script, as we get further insight to the character of Chun-hee.l

Fantasia Film Festival Interview + Review: Baby, Don’t Cry (2021)

Here's a review and interview for the film BABY, DON'T CRY, which just premiered at Fantasia last night. We speak about some of the themes in the film and how everyone got on board this fantastical coming-of-age story. Read and watch here:

The Filmcraziest Show – Nicholas Ashe Bateman, “The Wanting Mare” (Podcast Interview)

For today's episode of The Filmcraziest Show, I was joined by Nicholas Ashe Bateman, the writer, director, producer, VFX supervisor and editor of the new drama fantasy epic, The Wanting Mare. The film is set in a world called Anmaere, about a city inside of it called Whithren. Whithren's most valuable export is wild horses and …

Review: The Wanting Mare (2021)

We’ve seen so many worlds in so many franchises, all with vast world building. Most of these films take on huge budgets – from Panem in The Hunger Games to the gigantic world of the MCU – but Nicholas Ashe Bateman’s The Wanting Mare proves that it doesn’t take a budget of over $100 million to create a convincing world like that. Sometimes you just need a great production team and time to do so. This film takes us to a world called Anmaere, where we focus specifically on the city of Whithren. This is a city plagued by an intense heat; and everyone who lives here dreams of escaping to the continent of Levithen across the sea, where it’s winter year-round. The chance to get there comes once a year where a giant ship docks in Whithren to transport its most valuable export of wild horses. On this ship, there are tickets the people can get to travel to Levithen, but these tickets are highly coveted.

The Filmcraziest Show – Robert Bockstael for Fatman (2020)

Here’s another episode of The Filmcraziest Show featuring a Christmas film, as I chat with Robert Bockstael (pictured in the featured image in the background on the right) who plays Captain Jacobs in the new Mel Gibson film Fatman. In Fatman, a rowdy, unorthodox Santa Claus (Gibson) fights to save his declining business by taking on a government contract proposed by the military, represented by Captain Jacobs (Bockstael). Meanwhile, Billy (Chance Hurtsfield), a neglected and bratty 12-year-old, hires a hit man (Walton Goggins) to kill Santa after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking. The film also stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Eric Wolfe, and it is written and directed by Eshom Nelms and Ian Nelms.

Shudder Review: A Creepshow Holiday Special (TV Special 2020)

Directed by: Greg Nicotero. Starring: Anna Camp, Adam Pally, Pete Burris. Runtime: 46 min. A Creepshow Holiday Special follows Robert Weston (Adam Pally), a man trying to figure out the strange thing that has been happening to him every full moon. Believing himself to be a werewolf, he finds a support group called Shapeshifters Anonymous …

Filmcraziest Interviews – Ryan Spindell, The Mortuary Collection

On this new episode of Filmcraziest Interviews, I'm joined in a conversation with writer and director Ryan Spindell of the new anthology horror film The Mortuary Collection, which is now streaming on Shudder in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and New Zealand. (You can find my review of the film here.) Set at Raven’s End Mortuary in Boggy …

Reposted Review: The Mortuary Collection (2020)

Directed by: Ryan Spindell. Starring: Clancy Brown, Caitlin Custer, Christine Kilmer. Runtime: 1h 48 min. Editor's note: This review was originally posted on Sept. 1 for its release at the Fantasia Film Festival. I am reposting this because it has just been released on Shudder in  the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and New Zealand. I watched this …

Fantasia 2020 – The Mortuary Collection (2020)

Directed by: Ryan Spindell. Starring: Clancy Brown, Caitlin Custer, Christine Kilmer. Runtime: 1h 48 min. Released: August 20, 2020 (at Fantasia Film Festival). The strength of any good anthology film lies within its framing story. I loved certain shorts in V/H/S but didn’t care for the burglars in the house in the main story, but …