By John Corrado Sometimes a basic premise is all you need to sell a movie. Such is the case with Whalefall, which follows a young diver who gets swallowed by a whale, and has to survive inside of the creature as his oxygen runs out. But it’s what director Brian Duffield (No One Will Save… Read More Movie Review: Whalefall
By John Corrado It’s the mid-2000s, right in the middle of the reality TV boom, and Chris Hansen is using his NBC show To Catch a Predator to turn sting operations capturing pedophiles into entertainment. This is the premise behind Primetime, director Lance Oppenheim’s quasi-biopic of Hansen turned stylish, disturbing Nightcrawler-esque thriller. Robert Pattinson stars… Read More Movie Review: Primetime
By John Corrado What would you do if you found yourself stranded on a desert island with your asshole boss? Now imagine that boss, who has constantly belittled you as an employee, has no survival skills, and now you hold all the power? That’s the basic premise behind Send Help, the new film from director… Read More Movie Review: Send Help
By John Corrado In We Bury the Dead, Australian writer-director Zak Hilditch offers his own take on the zombie movie and survival thriller. The film opens with news reports of a magnetic pulse weapon accidentally being deployed by the United States military during testing, killing half-a-million people in Tasmania. Daisy Ridley, continuing her post Disney… Read More Movie Review: We Bury the Dead
By John Corrado Director Paul Feig is probably best known for his comedy work like Bridesmaids, but dipped his toes into the thriller genre with his darkly comic 2018 mystery film A Simple Favor and its sequel Another Simple Favor, released earlier this year. It’s this energy that Feig now brings to The Housemaid, his… Read More Movie Review: The Housemaid
By John Corrado In the Finland-shot survival thriller Dead of Winter, which takes place during a Minnesota snowstorm, Emma Thompson is doing her best impression of Frances McDormand in Fargo, and her out-of-character performance is what makes the film worth seeing. Thompson stars as Barb Sorenson, an older lady who is going ice fishing alone… Read More Movie Review: Dead of Winter
By John Corrado The Long Walk is the long-awaited film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1979 novella of the same name, an early work by the author that became part of a 1985 short story collection published under the pen name Richard Bachman. That that collection also included The Running Man and Rage, a school shooting story… Read More Movie Review: The Long Walk
By John Corrado A single mother ends up on a first date from hell in Drop, the twisty new thriller from Blumhouse Productions and director Christopher Landon (Freaky, Happy Death Day). The film also serves as somewhat of a palate cleanser for Landon, who was supposed to direct Scream 7, before that fell through. The… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Drop (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, we get Dangerous Animals, a clever, entertaining spin on killer shark movies from director Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones). In Byrne’s film, the sharks aren’t the real villains, and the main threat is actually a different type of predator;… Read More Movie Review: Dangerous Animals
By John Corrado Black Bag is the new sexy spy thriller from director Steven Soderbergh, with an ensemble cast of characters dealing with the prospect of a double agent in their midst while navigating their own personal relationships. Michael Fassbender stars as George Woodhouse, an English spy married to fellow agent Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). In… Read More Movie Review: Black Bag
By John Corrado Flight Risk is the new movie directed by Mel Gibson. It’s the actor-turned-filmmaker’s first since the World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge in 2016, which provided a stunning Hollywood comeback for him when he received a Best Director Oscar nomination. Gibson’s latest is also his most constrained and straight-forward directorial effort yet;… Read More Movie Review: Flight Risk
By John Corrado At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, a group of Palestinian terrorists broke into the Olympic Village and kidnapped Israeli athletes, holding them hostage in a tense standoff. Director Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 is a movie about this hostage crisis, but somewhat indirectly; the film is based on the true story of the ABC… Read More Movie Review: September 5
By John Corrado The latest “event movie” from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, Trap is basically pitched as a thriller set at a pop concert with a serial killer trying to escape the auditorium, and it delivers on this conceit. Josh Hartnett stars in the film as Cooper Abbott, a working class dad taking his daughter… Read More 4K Ultra HD Review: Trap
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. German filmmaker Edward Berger last exceeded expectations with his 2022 remake All Quiet on the Western Front, a gripping adaptation that went on to win four Oscars. Now Berger follows… Read More #TIFF24 Review: Conclave (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here. Seeds is an Indigenous B-movie thriller that serves as the feature directorial debut of actress Kaniehtiio Horn, who also wrote and stars in the film. Horn plays Ziggy, an Indigenous woman… Read More #TIFF24 Review: Seeds (Discovery)
By John Corrado The sophomore effort from German writer-director Tilman Singer, Cuckoo is an intentionally bizarre horror movie that draws upon the metaphorical symbolism of the titular cuckoo bird to reimagine genre tropes through Singer’s more unique vision. Our heroine is Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), a 17-year-old girl who travels to Germany with her father (Marton… Read More Movie Review: Cuckoo
By John Corrado The latest film from writer-director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel and Hansel), Longlegs is a deeply unsettling mix of horror movie and police procedural, unfolding with a suffocating atmosphere that keeps us invested right from the chilling opening flashback. Maika Monroe (The Guest, It Follows) stars in the film as Lee… Read More Movie Review: Longlegs
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Following his Old Hollywood passion project Mank, director David Fincher returns to the thriller genre with The Killer, a slickly crafted adaptation of Alexis Nolent’s French graphic novel exploring the daily grind of a professional assassin. Fincher’s film opens with its unnamed titular assassin (played by Michael Fassbender) staying… Read More Review: The Killer
By John Corrado Please note that this is a review of the Blu-ray release of Knock at the Cabin. For my full thoughts on the film itself, you can read my original review right here. M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, Knock at the Cabin, is being released on Blu-ray this week. Based on the novel… Read More Blu-ray Review: Knock at the Cabin (Collector’s Edition)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Written and directed by Matt Ruskin, Boston Strangler is a pretty good direct-to-streaming serial killer thriller that dramatizes the events around the real life Boston Strangler murders, seen from the perspective of Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley), one of the female journalists who helped break the story in 1962.… Read More Review: Boston Strangler (Disney+)