Author: Mark Salcido

Bishal Dutta is an Indian-American directing slowly rising to the great heights of horror cinema. The director/writer has made a series of shorts in the horror genre, and his feature film, It Lives Inside, shows that Dutta has a promising future in Hollywood. The film features Megan Suri, a high schooler dealing with the demon known as a Pishacha. What makes this movie more interesting is the characteristics of a coming-of-age used as a backdrop for this tale. Dutta has been a horror fan since his early years, but the man is more than that. The director has a vast…

“I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Famous but chilling words said by J. Robert Oppenheimer that best summed up the fall of man. Director Christopher Nolan was pitched the idea from producer Charles Roven, which began to bring the story of the American theoretical physicist to life. Nolan’s distinct style of filmmaking could perhaps be the story of the creation of the atomic bomb would need and benefit from. The complexity of such a momentous feat of humanity holds so much nuance that the director/writer believed he was up for the task. In doing so, Nolan’s latest work…

It’s 2023, and look at where we are now. We’re coming up on the 10th movie in the Fast and Furious franchise, and the well-beloved series is barely slowing down. So long gone are the days when boosting TV/DVD combos was a plot point of The Fast and the Furious (2001). Now, we are getting stories featuring cars underwater, in space, defining the laws of physics, and when none of the heroes stay dead. Fast X is here, and that trend is still as good as ever. Fast X sees the return of many of Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and…

Dark, twisted, humorous, and great cinematography; are the things that make up a Yorgos Lanthimos movie. The director behind films such as The Killing of a Sacred Dear, The Lobster, and the Dogtooth has another film on the horizon. Poor Things is Lanthimos’s take on the classic story of Frankenstein. The movie is based on the 1992 novel by Alistair Gray, a Frankenstein-like tale with an impressive roster of actors. Starring Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, the teaser trailer for Poor Things has finally dropped online. It is another display of Lanthimos’s visual eye for compelling storytelling with a bit…

Oldboy is one of those movies that you have to see to appreciate the work of Park Chan-wook. The film about revenge, love, and losing one’s hold has been a favorite among those cinephiles and those heavily into South Korean cinema. NEON is hoping to make an impact on the popularity of the film for its 20th anniversary with a theater of the masterpiece. The distributor got the domestic rights for the 2003 classic movie, and NEON has released a trailer for the special occasion. Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy has received praise over the past decade and cemented the director as…

The Scream franchise has followed an almost formulaic path. The films feature several teenagers or young adults with various personalities hunted by a masked killer called Ghostface. Consequently, revealing Ghostface and convoluted motives related to the characters has worked all this time. Not only in other horror films and franchises but also, in theory, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! These movies are sometimes exciting because not every main character is safe from harm or potentially killed off. Minus the graphic nature of Scream, the core cast’s personalities, antagonist(s) reveal, and motives are something we’ve seen repeatedly in the show. The creative…

Nazi hunting movies have been in cinema dating back to the propaganda era during WWII. Let’s be honest; a person or a team of ragtag heroes or anti-heroes on a mission to destroy The Third Reich never gets old and probably never will. Many films in this genre have examined the subject through the lens of comedy, drama, horror, or straight action. The latter is where Jalmari Helander’s Sisu comes in. The 2023 film features a Finnish war veteran who is spending his twilight years searching for gold. Aatami, played by Jorma Tommila, discovers a large deposit, but when his…

The idea of people hunting down Nazis is nothing new, but it never gets old. So consequently, Quentin Tarantino brought the sub-genre back into mainstream Hollywood, with many fans wanting more. Sure, there have been other movies to follow this never-ending trend, but they have not entirely made it as fun as 2009’s Inglorious Basterds. Now that changes, thanks to Jalmari Helander’s Sisu. The Finnis action film Sisu, directed by Helander, follows a silent prospector and Winter War veteran played by Jorma Tommila (Aatami Korpi) during the Lapland War. Korpi discovers a large and rich gold deposit at a time…

Ari Aster is one of those directors who come to mind when mentioning “elevated horror.” Truthfully, the idea of horror being used as art and making a thought-provoking statement is nothing new – look at George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. However, Aster’s previous topics in films, like family, grief, and surviving trauma, are used as a backdrop in his visually stunning horror movies. Beau Is Afraid is a comedic spin where the director hits the gas on insanity and only presses harder. Beau Is Afraid, directed by Aster, features Joaquin Phoenix (Beau Wassermann) as a paranoid and anxiety-ridden…

There are two types of Nicolas Cage movies. They’re bad with Cage doing a decent to good performance, or they’re a good where the performance is either great or phenomenal. Universal Pictures’ Renfield fits the latter, with the legendary actor chewing up every scene. I’m a sucker for a good Nicolas Cage movie, and Renfield is an excellent reminder of why the actor continues to be a notable presence in Hollywood and on the big screen. Renfield is directed by Chris McKay, and stars Nicolas Cage (Dracula), Nicolas Hoult (Renfield), and Awkwafina (Rebecca). The script, written by Ryan Ridley, follows…