Sometimes, the peculiar alchemy of what makes a film click with an audience can never be fully understood, but merely accepted as what is, part of the ineffable magic of the movies. This is not the case with the six Leprechaun films that were released between 1993 and 2003. Every person who’s ever seen even […]
In Abandoned, we find ourselves in the middle of a marriage in peril. Searching for a reprieve from the chokehold that is mental illness after pregnancy, the couple relocates to a remote farmhouse to somehow cure Sara, a new mother, of her depression and potential hallucinations. This beautiful house full of antiques and mystery somehow […]
Frank Henenlotter deserves at least this much credit: he has not lied about what went on in the creation of Basket Case 3: The Progeny, and he does not pretend that it turned out perfectly well. Basically, 1990’s Basket Case 2 went so well that he and everybody else wanted to get a jump on […]
More than one filmmaker has burst onto the scene with one really good horror movie and built a career out of insubstantial remakes of that one movie. So for that alone, one must extend no small amount of credit to Frank Hennenlotter, whose 1982 debut feature Basket Case was rather more than just “one really […]
There’s no reason for a film as flat and uninspired as Leatherface to have taken such a painful path into the world as it did. The short version: Lionsgate and Millennium Films acquired the rights to make several Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequels, but ended up dawdling so long on releasing the two it actually paid […]
Other than the pilot episode, all reviews of The X-Files are exclusive for Patreon subscribers. Click here to support Alternate Ending through Patreon. Season 1 (1993-1994) Pilot (10 September, 1993) B Deep Throat (17 September, 1993) B+ Squeeze (24 September, 1993) A- Conduit (1 October, 1993) A- The Jersey Devil (8 October, 1993) C Shadows […]
The phrase “elevated horror” is one I am very reluctant to use, since its meaning seems to generally land on something amorphous like “horror movies that people who think they’re too good for horror movies are willing to praise”. But there’s definitely something there, and “elevated horror” is as good a shorthand to describe that […]
“If you like watching naked people have sex, it’s incredibly hot.” –-Sharon (Noël VanBrocklin), a character in Witchcraft XVI: Hollywood Coven, reviewing Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood, and by extension, every other Witchcraft picture As I write these words, Witchcraft XVI: Hollywood Coven is the last of the direct-to-video Witchcraft movies, and there’s a clear […]
Nine years and two months separated the releases 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful and 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, both directed by Sam Raimi. He made no other features between them (though he did some television work, and produced quite a bit), making this by far the longest break between projects […]
Witchcraft XIV: Angel of Death and Witchcraft XV: Blood Rose were shot at the same time by the same group of people. There should be no reason for them to be as far apart in quality as they are, and yet: Angel of Death is no great shakes, but it’s basically watchable as a bargain-basement […]
Even at their most chameleonic, actors remain fundamentally themselves as every character they play. That’s unavoidable in a profession that involves employing your body as an instrument of sorts—you can tweak every dial of voice, gesture, and posture, but some essence of You remains, irreplicable by anyone else on Earth (even if you have an […]
Thirteen is a pretty cool number of entries for a horror franchise to arrive at: it is the spooky number, and thus very auspicious. And when the Witchcraft movies became the very first horror series ever to arrive at its thirteenth entry in 2008, with Witchcraft 13: Blood of the Chosen, the series minders seemed […]
