Directed by: Natalie Erika James Starring: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden Go Horror Rating: A Despite what some critics would have you believe, this movie kicked plenty of ass. Midori Francis was fantastic, full stop. Saccharine scratched the itch for creepy, twisted and scary. A few shocks, some bleak scenes and plenty of tension throughout. The film never overplayed its hand and the themes were well thought out and well executed.

Directed by: Daniel Goldhaber Starring: Barbie Ferreira, Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah Go Horror Rating: B Aside from the movie tripping over itself a few times, I thought this was a pretty awesome re-imagining. It was gruesome and violent but not overdone for any sort of cheap shock value. We're desensitized and crave chaos. This murdery remake draws attention to that and how over the top our world of clicks and views really is. Well directed and well acted, it took talent to take this remake down this path and nail it.

Directed by: Damian McCarthy Starring: Adam Scott, Peter Coonan, David Wilmot Go Horror Rating: A Damian McCarthy is a damn directing wizard. From Caveat to Oddity to Hokum, I love his resume bigtime. Adam Scott is awesome as always (go fucking watch Severance if you haven't!) and the supports are also fantastic. I love the layers of mystery and the overall dark and jaded feel to it all. Folk horror done right just sticks with you and leaves you craving more. McCarthy and Scott deliver more than we could have hoped for and it's one of few movies so far this year that lived up to the hype.

Directed by: Ian Tuason Starring: Nina Kiri, Adam DiMarco, Michele Duquet Go Horror Rating: B Undertone is a great example of 'less is more' and it effectively uses sound (or lack thereof) to keep you feeling unsettled. Great setting and scares, and Nina Kiri's performance was genuine. I may not have loved how it ended but I was uneasy and alert the entire movie. That's exactly how you should feel with this type of film.

Directed by: Amy Wang Starring: Shirley Chen, McKenna Grace, Amelie Zilber Go Horror Rating: C A little cringey but likeable... There were some far-fetched depictions and the boldness of the movie didn't quite stick the landing. I can get behind the idea of teens fitting in and merging with people who they don't gel with, mainly out of internal feelings and pressure. I just don't need tone deaf dashes of racism and beauty standards to dictate the entire flow. Is it a body horror? Is it satire? Is it deep? Fucked if I know, but it's certainly worth watching even if it's premise is skin deep.

Directed by: Tommy Wirkola Starring: Phoebe Dynevor, Whitney Peak, Djimon Hounsou Go Horror Rating: C Another shark moviiiiiiiiiiie! This one was alright and that's about as far as I can take it. There may have been a few times I was rooting for the sharks but in the end, the movie was reasonably fun. The cast felt very average, even though I love me some Djimon Hounsou. Thrash won't stand out in the shark attack genre, let alone the survival horror realm. This movie likely hits some clearance shelves sooner rather than later but I still think it's watchable.

Directed by: Gavin Polone Starring: Georgina Campbell, James Preston Rogers, Malcolm McDowell Go Horror Rating: D I mean, I'm usually down with some trash-slasher stuff but this... this didn't even make it to first base. From the film's atrocious name to an awkward ending, there wasn't much meat on this bone whatsoever. I like Campbell in all of this, it's just too bad she fell victim to poor writing and a hollow plot. We endured a forgettable killer, uninspired kills and what appears to be a lead up to a sequel that I'm sure no one wants. Hopefully this is just a misfire by Polone and he bounces back with something proper.

Directed by: Mark Fischbach Starring: Mark Fischbach, Caroline Kaplan, Troy Baker Go Horror Rating: C Full marks to Markiplier for his creativity and talents on this, it just didn't fully grip me. It's not to say this movie wasn't cool, I was just expecting a little more meat on the bone. I'm sold on the low-budget, claustrophobic horror... just not at over 2 hours. Anxious to see what Fischbach does next and very much appreciate the effort in this film.

1998 was an rockin' year for for video game releases, especially if you're now in the 35+ category. The N64, PS1, and Windows were dropping hit, after hit, after hit. There were certainly some bangers for Saturn, Dreamcast and both GB & GBC, too, but I didn't know too many people with those consoles so we'll focus on the first 3. For the N64 we got: 1080 Snowboarding Banjo-Kazooie F-Zero X Gex: Enter the Gecko Pokemon Stadium WWF Warzone NFL Blitz Turok 2: Seeds of Evil The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Mario Party Look, I still maintain that Cool Boarders 2 was better than 1080 but when you added the latter into a birthday party rotation, it was siiick! Pokemon Stadium being the first console Pokemon game (internationally) was awesome. I was never huge into portable consoles because I simply just liked bigger screens, so this was a gamechanger. NFL Blitz will go down as one of my favourite sports games of all time. It was revolutionary! I would love modern ports, or at least sports games with this style to be made more often. Mario Party may have been the true beginning of raging, familial battles. I still want to punch my cousin in the face for getting that 4th star in Rainbow Castle on his last turn of the game. For the PS1 we got: Resident Evil 2 Tekken 3 Parasite Eve Vigilante 8 Metal Gear Solid Spyro the Dragon MediEvil Tomb Raider III Suikoden II Tenchu: Stealth Assassins Resident Evil 2, easily in the top 3 games for the franchise. I mean, it only lost out to Metal Gear Solid for best Playstation game of the year. Both the original and the remake are excellent and ate up tons of my time as a kid. Parasite Eve, another legend in the horror realm from Playstation. We still haven't anything quite like it and I hope we eventually get a remake. Metal Gear Solid was a blast... there aren't many gamers, especially PS fans, that will tell you this game is anything less than honoured. Suikoden II, a noble Konami release that still holds up. For RPG lovers, this entry is one of the best in the series and required you to be a bit of a tactician. For Windows we got: StarCraft Unreal Rainbow Six Delta Force Grim Fandango Fallout 2 Half-Life Baldur's Gate I remember being so excited about StarCraft and hadn't looked forward to an RTS that much since Red Alert. It added to a genre I loved so much and was another excuse for me to drone in front of my PC. In the FPS sector, Unreal was... Unreal! Lots of memories playing it and even it's sequel on the original Xbox, Unreal 2: The Awakening. Even though the adjacent series Unreal Tournament is where I logged the most of my time, the original was all the rage on release. Now for the game that probably took up the vast majority of my time as a teen; Half-Life. Aside from playing the campaign countless times, it led to me being completely addicted to Team Fortress Classic and even Counter-Strike. To this day the Half-Life Umbrella is probably where I've logged the most hours. ------- These among other stellar games were unleashed to the public, sending gamers into a euphoric frenzy. Between Mario Party, RE2 and Half-Life, I barely saw the sun that year. It's shocking I didn't get the beetus, crushing big gulps by the litre and eating my local 7/11 damn near out of business. What an amazing time to be alive and capable of enjoying these titles as they came out. Gaming was evolving at such a rapid rate that these games always felt like we couldn't get any better. Nothing but time and good friends (and a Blockbuster!), no wonder people miss those days!

Directed by: Max Winkler, Ian Brennan Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Suzanna Son, Vicky Krieps Go Horror Rating: C We'll preface this rant/review by saying that Charlie Hunnam's performance was awesome. It may have taken an episode or two to accept his voice (Gotcha!... Gotcha again!), but I truly believe he nailed the 'role' (he shouldn't get roasted for Murphy's decisions or casting) and put everything he had into it. He's the main reason we stuck it through the series. Moving on... what. the. fuck. It was essentially 8 episodes of psychosexual bedlam with deficient storytelling. It's worth noting that I enjoyed Ratched and still enjoy American Horror Story, but when it comes to true crime (even if he takes liberties and fictionalizes it), Ryan Murphy just can't get his act together. Artsy, ragey, perverted insanity really only works well when you get to create something from scratch. It's entirely my fault for hoping there'd be more focus on the depravity and seriousness of Gein's atrocities, I just feel like the liberties taken in the show bordered on asinine. -"2 straws please", blue balls comments, serving human-meat to neighbours- The circle jerk of pop-culture and horror references was excessive. It's like listening to a hip-hop song where the artist just name drops other popular rappers for 3 minutes instead of having to write decent lyrics. We get it... in fact, most people familiar with Gein know his story's influence in modern horror, and how many movies drew inspiration from his crimes. It would have been a lot cooler if all of those references weren't jammed down our throat at every turn, but I guess we needed something to break up all the cross-dressing scenes. The way Murphy oversexualizes in the Monster series is weirder than Tarantino's foot fetish timeline. The best way I can explain this season is if it were the year 1999 and I was trying to download an Ed Gein documentary on Napster. What I would inevitably get would be what Netflix just released to the world. Maybe it's supposed to be a commentary on media manipulation, or some sort of 'we're the monster' take. If either or both of those ideas was the point, dialing down the sensationalism, even slightly, would have driven it home. I just found it monotonous and murky. It felt like it had so little confidence in itself that it defaulted to flooding the viewers with other scenes of horror icons. This is the 3rd instalment of the Monster series and by far the worst one. Barely worth recommending.