Comrade Courant Culture Critic

Kids vs. Aliens (2022): A Gory, R-Rated Love Letter to ’90s Kids’ Horror “Goosebumps meets Evil Dead—but leave the kids at home.” — 3/5 Stars On the eve of Halloween, there’s a special kind of joy in a movie that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is: loud, bloody, and wildly entertaining. Kids vs. Aliens (2022) is exactly that—a gory, R-rated romp that wears its influences like badges of honor. Think of it as what happens when the kids who grew up on Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? hit their 30s, watched Evil Dead , and decided to make something that honors both. Unlike R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead —a perfect gateway horror for younger viewers—this one is decidedly not for kids . It’s chaotic, profane, and drenched in practical-effects gore. The film follows Sam, a sharp-witted teen played with fierce commitment by Phoebe Rex, as she tries to survive a Halloween house party th...

Late Night with the Devil (2023): A Fun, if Flawed Séance in the Studio “Do not adjust your set.” — And don’t expect perfection, but do expect a wildly entertaining Halloween night. — 3.5/5 Stars I’ve been hearing about Late Night with the Devil since it dropped—a buzzed-about “instant cult classic” that fused analog horror, found footage, and 1970s late-night TV into something supposedly groundbreaking. As someone who followed ARGs like The Mikaeli ARG (yes, the “hitting metal 17 times” guy— In my opinion a defining voice of modern analog horror, whose project concluded just last year), I went in hoping for a feature-length version of that same immersive, broadcast-based dread. What I got was something far more modest—but still very fun. This isn’t a masterpiece. It’s not even terrifying. But it is a wildly entertaining, impeccably styled Halloween movie that absolutely earns a spot in your annual rotation....

Immaculate (2024): A Missed Opportunity in Religious Horror “Not every intervention is divine.” — And not every horror film with a great premise deserves your time. — 2/5 Stars Immaculate (2024) arrives with a premise ripe for horror: a devout American nun, Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), joins a remote Italian convent only to discover she’s been chosen for a terrifying divine purpose. The film flirts with powerful themes—bodily autonomy, reproductive control, institutional gaslighting, and the weaponization of faith against women. In the hands of a bold filmmaker, this could have been a Rosemary’s Baby for the post-Roe era. Instead, director Michael Mohan and writer Andrew Lobel deliver a film that feels like it was focus-grouped into mediocrity, or never intended to be great in the first place. There are so many interesting ideas here—Cecilia as a modern-day vessel, the convent as a gilded prison, the Chu...

The Substance (2024): Body Horror as Capitalist Self-Cannibalism “Audaciously gross, wickedly clever, and possibly Demi Moore’s finest hour.” — 4/5 Stars In a world that demands women consume themselves to stay relevant, The Substance literalizes the metaphor with grotesque, operatic precision. Coralie Fargeat’s audacious body-horror epic isn’t about aging—it’s about the capitalist machinery that turns self-optimization into self-annihilation. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading aerobics icon fired on her 50th birthday for being “too old.” Desperate, she injects a black-market serum that splits her body in two: out of her back emerges Sue (Margaret Qualley), a younger, hotter, more marketable version of herself. For seven days, they alternate consciousness. But the system demands sacrifice—and the original body pays the price. The Horror of Self-Commodifi...

The Last Circus (2010): A Masterpiece of Grotesque National Grief "Most horror clowns want to kill you. The clowns in The Last Circus are already dead—killed by fascism, machismo, and a country that never buried its past." — 5/5 Stars The Last Circus (2010) reveiw: In the oldest sense of the word, this Spanish tragicomedy is incredible : awe-inspiring, grotesque, stunning, and heartfelt. Directed by the visionary Álex de la Iglesia, this Spanish tragicomedy uses the clown as a vessel for national trauma, transforming the circus ring into a bloodstained arena where Spain’s unburied past—Franco, fascism, machismo—rages like a ghost that refuses to rest. Set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War and its long, suffocating aftermath, the film follows Javier (Carlos Areces), a gentle soul born into a family of circus clowns, who is drafted into a militia and forced to trade laughter for ...

A Punk Rock Grindhouse Horror, Spare Parts (2020) A Punk Rock Grindhouse Horror, Spare Parts (2020) What's more punk rock than getting your arm hacked off and replaced with a rivet-shooting axe by a cult of junkyard freaks? On paper, Spare Parts should play like a scratched-up VHS discovered at a squat party — a bloody, DIY manifesto against good taste. In practice, it's more like a band with all the right influences but no distinct sound. Ambitiously grimy, knowingly trashy, but leaving its best riffs on the cutting-room floor. Short-Ass Summary Directed by Andrew Thomas Hunt, this Canadian flick follows Ms. 45, an all-girl punk band touring through hell—or, at least, the worst parts of America. After a setup ripped from a seventies revenge thriller, they're captured by a cult led by a wannabe Caesar (the great Julian Richings) and forced into gladiatorial games. The ticket price? Their fucking limbs, swapped for cr...

Sinners (2025): A Southern Gothic Vampire Epic Rooted in Tradition "A maximalist horror musical that honors every vampire rule—and weaponizes them against Jim Crow." — 4/5 Stars Sinners (2025) review: Vampire movies often punish those who stray from the rules. Holy water, garlic, stakes through the heart—these aren’t suggestions. Sinners , Ryan Coogler’s operatic Southern Gothic horror musical, doesn’t just follow the rules—it worships them . This is a film where vampires need permission to enter a home , flee from sunlight , recoil at holy water , and fall to wooden stakes . The mythology is classic, even reverent. The revolution is elsewhere. Set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta, the film follows twin brothers Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack” Moore (both played by Michael B. Jordan), World War I veterans who return to their Black hometown to open a juke joint for their community. But thei...

Crimes of the Future(2022): Cronenberg Returns with a Visceral Vision of Human Evolution "A chilling, visually audacious provocation that lingers long after the credits roll—just maybe not in the way you’d want it to." — 4/5 Stars For devotees of cerebral body horror and those unafraid to stare into the abyss of biological obsolescence, Crimes of the Future is a singular, unforgettable experience—grotesque, brilliant, and defiantly Cronenbergian. Let’s be clear: if the words “written and directed by David Cronenberg” don’t make your stomach flutter with a mix of dread and anticipation, you haven’t been paying attention. With Crimes of the Future (2022)—a film that shares only its title with Cronenberg’s obscure 1970 debut of the same name (the two are completely unrelated)—the legendary auteur returns to his roots with a slow-burning, surgically precise meditation on art, mutation...