Are Something is Killing the Children & Dept. Of Truth Connected?
Anthony and Shawn do a FULL SPOILER Deep Dive on James Tynion IV’s two most iconic books. Are they connected?
Elements of Horror: The Vanishing (1988) w/ Prof. John Trafton!!!
Skinamarink
Elements of Horror: The Dark Backward
Infinity Pool: Full-Spoiler Discussion w. Prof. John Trafton!
Elements of Horror: Boys in Trees
Ray’s Love Letter to 2022 Horror
Ray did something different for his “Best of 2022” list this year, so we gave him his own episode!
M3GAN!
The Last of Us Episode 1 Spoiler-Free Review
Elements of Horror: Lost River
Our Favorite Horror Films of 2022!!!
Elements of Horror: The Leech
Just in time for Christmas, here’s a special Holiday bonus episode of our new spin-off Elements of Horror. In it, Missi, Ray and Shawn talk about Eric Pennycoff’s new Holiday film The Leech, available from Arrow Video!
The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror – Only Lovers Left Alive
The beginning of a new spin-off series here at The Horror Vision: Elements of Horror will be a place for us to talk about films that contain Horrorific or genre elements but don’t necessarily qualify as out-and-out entries into the Horror genre. With this series, we also now welcome long-time friend of the show Missi as a regular contributor!!!
Joe Begos’s Christmas Bloody Christmas
‘Nuf Said!
Bones and All
Professor John Trafton joins Shawn and Missi to talk about Luca Guadalgnino’s new film Bones and All!
Moorhead & Benson’s Something in the Dirt
Terrifier 2
As a recent convert to the Terrifier camp, Shawn sells Antony, Ray and Tori hard in Terrifier 2 with a spoiler-free reaction. Also, our spoiler-free reviews of V/H/S/99, Deadstream, Smile, Day Shift and a whole lot MORE!!!
Halloween ENDS!
WARNING!!! The first 10 minutes or so of this episode is our Spoiler-Free review/reaction to David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends. HOWEVER, after that – and we give you ample warning – for those of you who have seen the film, we go into a full-spoiler discussion on the film.
Kevin Williamson’s SICK
Fresh from our review/discussion of David Bruckner’s Hellraiser, special guests Madison and Kenta return to help Shawn give a SPOILER-FREE review/reaction to Scream-screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s awesome new Slasher flick SICK!
David Bruckner’s Hellraiser
We start with a spoiler-free reaction to David Bruckner’s long-awaited Hellraiser, then give ample warning when we deep-dive into this one. Polarizing for sure, so is it worth watching? We’ll tell you!
Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses
Beyondfest 2022 and Cinematic Void hosted the West Coast Premiere of Iconic Horror Auteur Dario Argento’s new film Dark Glasses at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica last night and Shawn gives his spoiler-free review/reaction.
Ti West’s Pearl
We start the episode with our spoiler-free reaction to Pearl – Ti West’s follow-up to X, then give you clear warnings before launching into our full-spoiler discussion. Ti West is back and he’s making some pretty amazing films! Let’s talk about it!
Barbarian!!!
We start the episode with our spoiler-free reaction to Zach Cregger’s amazing new film Barbarian, then give you ample warning when we do our full-spoiler discussion. We loved this one SO very much. If you need convincing, listen to the first half and then turn this episode off, come back when you’ve basked in the glory that is BARBARIAN!!!
Glorious Gloryhole Movie Death Match
Just consider this episode the Consumer Reports of Gloryhole Horror! We watched both 2020’s The Special and 2022’s Glorious and only one movie gets out alive with our recommendation – which one? Ya gotta listen!
Also, to celebrate the winner, we give you our “worst bathroom ever” stories, plus pocket reviews of The Cursed and Titane.
Tori’s Back!!! We talk Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, more Predator, Popcorn, Silver Coin #13, Rocktober Blood, the f*&ked up films of Andrey Iskanov, plus a lot more!
Prey!!!
We give you our spoiler-free review/reaction to Dan Trachtenberg’s PREY, the newest film in the Predator franchise that rocked HULU like no other release before. Is it worth the hype? It is, and we also give fair warning when we deepen our discussion with full spoilers. From there, we thought it’d be nice to review the new Marvel Comics’ Predator #1 that dropped recently, kicking off the Comics Giant’s first foray into the Predator-verse.
The Silver Coin Deep-Dive (Full Spoilers)
Now that the first two volumes of Michael Walsh and friends’ Amazing Horror Anthology Comic The Silver Coin are on Comic Shop Shelves, Anthony and Shawn do a full re-read on the series and go in-depth on the Silver Coin mythos. Full Spoilers! We talk about every issue, how they tie together, what characters overlap, and all our theories about the bigger picture of this wonderful Horror Opus!!!
David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future & Alex Garland’s Men (Full-Spoiler Discussion)
SPOILERS: Seattle University Professor of Film Studies John Trafton returns to go all-in with Ray and Shawn as they attempt to unpack two of the most conversation-worthy films of the year so far: Alex Garland’s Men and David Cronenberg’s return to Body Horror Crimes of the Future.
Hatching: Spoiler-Free & Full-Spoiler Discussion
Anthony, Ray and Shawn just watched Hanna Bergholm & Ilja Rautsi’s new film Hatching in an AMC theatre at the local mall. THAT’S F’ING CRAZY!!! Let us tell you why. We start with a spoiler-free reaction/review, and clearly delineate when we’re going to go full-spoiler, so join us up top to see if this new Body Horror film is for you, then after you see it, come back for our thoughts. There’s a lot to ‘chew’ on here.
The Northman Full-Spoiler Critical Discussion
Seattle Film Professor John Trafton returns to go in-depth on Robert Egger’s The Northman. Please DO NOT listen to this until you have seen the film.
The Cellar!
I do quick, spoiler-free reviews for The Cellar, You Won’t Be Alone, and the new Brubaker/Phillips’ Reckless graphic novel, The Ghost in You.
Spoiler-Free Review: Ti West’s X
Fresh from a Saturday afternoon theatrical viewing of Ti West’s first film in 5 years, Ray and Shawn give you a quick, spoiler-free review/reaction to X. It’s awesome and we’ll tell you why you want to see it on the big screen if you can!
Mickey Keating’s Offseason

“Isolation Breeds Horror.” Indeed it does, and a recent example of this in cinema is Mickey Keating’s new film, Offseason. Starring Jocelin Donahue, Joe Swanberg, Jeremy Gardner, Richard Brake and Melora Walters, the film is an exploration of tropical southern gothic isolation Horror. Offseason hit VOD last Friday – a $6.99 rental on Prime and is playing in arthouse theatres around the country. Here’s what we thought.
Also this episode, Anthony watches monster movies with his son and finishes the Horror Space Opera game Valfaris on his Switch, and Shawn and Ray talk suggest where newcomers to New Wave French Horror begin with Shudder’s recent addition of a large part of the movements most notable films.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022!!!

We discuss the ups and downs of Fede Alvarez and David Blue Garcia’s new Texas Chainsaw Massacre from Netflix. Also, Classic Corner returns as a regular feature and we kick it off with 1960’s Eyes Without a Face. From there, it’s Image Comics’ Infidel, Vinegar Syndrome’s release of Beyond Dream’s Door, and Adam Ellis’ Dear David.
The Horror Vision Presents… Sticks & Stones

Ray and Shawn continue this new regular adjunct series – Sticks & Stones, with a look at 1984’s Children of the Corn and 2013’s Jug Face, two movies that have more in common than you’d probably realize at first glance.
The Horror Vision Presents… Sticks & Stones: A Folk Horror Discussion

Ray and Shawn begin a new, regular adjunct series – Sticks & Stones will look at the wealth of film and literature that fall into the realm of Folk Horror, starting this week with a discussion that begins with Kier-La Janisse’s new documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (Severin Films), and continuing onto Avery Crounse’s 1983 forgotten epic Eyes of Fire and Robert Eggers’ 2016 masterpiece The Witch.
Yellowjackets Theories For the Season One Finale!- FULL SPOILERS
WARNING: DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED YELLOWJACKETS EPISODES 1-9

That’s right, we gather the week before the season one finale of Showtimes’ Yellowjackets to talk about everything we’ve seen on the show so far, our theories, observations, what we like, what we LOVE, what we wish was better. EVERYTHING.
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Our Favorite Horror of 2021
We bring you our favorite Horror of the past year. Movies, TV, Novels, Comics and more – this is the best of the best.
Ghostbusters Afterlife! Last Night in SoHo! Halloween Kills! Threshold! Yellowjackets and MORE!

Spoiler-free reviews of all the big Autumn Horror flicks, as well as the awesome new Yellowjackets series on Showtime!
Lamb & Titane Deep-Dive w/ Professor John Trafton

SPOILER WARNING! Ray and Shawn welcome back Seattle University Film Studies Professor John Trafton to the show to do deep-dives on Valdimar Jóhannsson’s new film Lamb and Julia Ducournau’s Titane! If you have not watched these films yet do not listen to this episode. Instead, run – don’t walk – to your local cinema, view, and return to us as we pick apart two of our favorite films of 2021!
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Antlers Spoiler-Free Review

Closing night at Beyondfest 2021, Shawn gives his quick, spoiler-free review of the long-awaited Antlers!
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The Black Phone

Fresh from Beyondfest 2021, Ray and Shawn bring you their spoiler-free review of Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill’s new film The Black Phone!
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Ray Reviews Titane & Prisoners of the Ghostland

Ray ventures out on his own and give us two SPOILER-FREE reviews for Julia Ducournau’s Titane and Sion Sono’s new Nic Cage vehicle Prisoners of the Ghostland!
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Cineray Under Siege!

It’s time to get ready for a fight, horror fiends! In 1976, director John Carpenter released Assualt on Precinct 13 and almost single-handedly created the modern siege film. The story of a policeman with a couple of other officers, secretaries, three felons, and a hysterical man trying to keep at bay gang members who are trying to break into a closing police station in an abandoned section of Los Angeles to kill them all was groundbreaking. The gang members were a nameless, faceless threat, while the people keeping them out were charismatic and likable. The film also highlighted a characteristic that would be synonymous with the siege drama: urban blight. These films and stories would literally not be possible if the locations under siege – once functional structures occupying the heart of booming, populated areas – had not been left behind, abandoned by urban growth. Since the film was released, the genre has become a favorite subgenre within Horror (even Carpenter himself returned to it several times) so today, we are going to dive into a siege double feature with John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars and Joe Begos’ VFW.
Continue reading “Cineray Under Siege!”James Wan’s Malignant

We do both an initial, spoiler-free review, and then a spoiler-laden deep-dive. If you haven’t watched Malignant yet, we’ll cue you in on when you should stop listening. If you have, let’s have some fun!
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New Stuff!

We talk Brand New Cherry Flavor, The Night House, Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? Also, Never Hike in the Snow, Jakob’s Wife, American Horror Story: Red Tide, Sator and a lot more!
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Cineray Goes Metal!

Feeling inspired horror fiends? Anyone who has tried to create something from nothing knows your talent isn’t always enough. Sometimes, inspiration is a real bitch to come by. Whether it’s not knowing where to start, where to keep going, or even what to create. This block can happen in writing, painting, sculpting, drawing or pretty much any creative endeavor. And, if like in today’s movies, your talent as an artist also happens to be your primary source of income, then lack of inspiration is not just annoying but dangerous. In cases like this, how do you afford to eat, feed your family, or pay rent?
But what if all these pressures could be relieved by heavy metal music and the dark and mysterious forces it purports to conjure? Well, let’s find out in today’s films, The Devil’s Candy and Bliss.
Continue reading “Cineray Goes Metal!”James Gunn’s Horror DNA

With the advent of the delightful The Suicide Squad, we decided to host a discussion about James Gunn’s Horror DNA. From writing the remake of Dawn of the Dead and The Belko Experiment to the super gory crowd-pleaser Slither – we even touch on Gunn’s industry beginnings with Lloyd Kaufman’s Troma! PLUS – we talk about Shawn’s new obsession with Nick Antosca’s Brand New Cherry Flavor, Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft’s Severed, Werewolves Within, The Silver Coin, and Ken Russell’s Lair of the White Worm. Plus, a lot more!
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Cineray Psychosis!

Hey horror fiends! Today’s double feature is a jump into the fractured dark psyches of seemingly normal people. As we have all seen on the news, it’s always the quiet ones. Ordinary people can sometimes harbor dark and horrible secrets not visible on the surface. From feelings of weakness to an inability to heal the damage of tragic events, some people are incredibly tortured. Eventually, the damn of sanity cracks and madness seeps through, ushering in pain and violence once thought unbelievable. With this in mind, I give you today’s Cineray double feature: Prano Bailey-Bond’s new film Censor and David Lynch’s classic Lost Highway.
Continue reading “Cineray Psychosis!”Messiah of Evil Deep-Dive w/ Prof. John Trafton

Seattle University Professor of Film Studies John Trafton joins us as we deep dive into 1973’s overlooked and underrated classic Messiah of Evil!
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Etheria Film Fest & Shawn’s Best of 2021 So Far…
Ray and Shawn go over their recent viewings, and there are A LOT of recommendations therein. From Netflix’s new Fear Street: 1994 to Ray’s impressions on this year’s Etheria Film Festival, to a succession of films Shawn is already betting will end up in his top of the year six months from now, we have a lot for you this week. Oh yeah, and there’s a totally impromptu discussion about Terminator to begin the episode. Just ‘cuz.
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Deep Sea Cineray

Let’s take a deep dive today, fiends! Today’s double feature is all about monsters from deep down in the ocean. In my opinion, today’s double feature entries broke the ground for a film like last year’s Underwater to be made. That’s right, deep-sea diabolists, today’s double feature is Deep Star Six and Leviathan.
Continue reading “Deep Sea Cineray”Cineray’s Freaky Sex Party!

Let’s get physical, fiends! And I’m not talking about aerobics. Nope, what I am talking about is sex! And not just sex, but freaky sex at that!
You may ask what this has to do with horror movies. Well, when the intercourse involves a human and a non-human creature, it becomes incredibly horrific. So let’s get it started with today’s double feature of The Special and The Untamed.
Continue reading “Cineray’s Freaky Sex Party!”Conjuring Three: The Devil Made Me Do it

We talk about the third installment in James Wan’s Conjuring series! We stay spoiler-free while we discuss what we liked, didn’t like, and how this new entry in the “Conjuring Universe” stacks up compared to the others. Also discussed: Fried Barry, Black Roses, Army of the Dead, Eve’s Bayou and The Untamed. TV-wise, we cover Little Marvin’s Them, and in comics we talk about Boom! Studio’s cinematic adaptation of Cullen Bunn’s The Empty Man, Horror Anthology The Silver Coin, and Ed Piskor’s Red Room!
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Cineray Vincent Price Triple-Feature!!!

Good evening horror fiends! If you did not imagine that said in the voice of the one and only iconic Vincent Price, then get ready because this Cineray is perfect for you. But this is not a double feature recommendation; no, today I have decided this is a triple feature of my three favorite Price films. The reason for this is I could not settle on just two of his movies, and I feel like three is the limit for suggestion all in one sitting. Also, it’s been a bit since I suggested an excellent triple feature, and what better excuse than to watch the films of one of the great actors of horror. So today’s recommendation is The House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, and The Comedy of Terrors.
Continue reading “Cineray Vincent Price Triple-Feature!!!”Cineray Hits the Strip Club

Get ready for beauty with bite fiends! Strip clubs are very lascivious places where men throw their money down for sexy ladies to dance and reveal more of their bodies while alcohol is usually drunk. But what if the ladies who dance in these clubs were after more than the patrons’ wallets? What if they wanted a little more? Like, say the blood pumping through their veins, for instance. Today’s double feature is two tales of strip clubs filled with the most deadly dancers, vampires and riff-raff. The double-feature recommendation is Vamp and From Dusk Till Dawn.
Continue reading “Cineray Hits the Strip Club”Saint Maud!

Now that Rose Glass’s debut feature Saint Maud is readily available to watch on VOD we’ve got a review! Did A24 hit it big again with another indie debut? Is Saint Maud worth your time? Did we like it? The short answer to all those questions is yes, but tune in to hear all the whys and wherefores. Also, we do a flashback watch and review of Joel Anderson’s Lake Mungo. Plus, The Special, Ken Russel’s The Devils and Anthony and Shawn say you must watch Adam Stovall and MacLeod Andrews’s A Ghost Waits! All that, and a whole lot more!
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Cineray Wants Revenge!

It’s time for payback, fiends! If you are any kind of horror fan, you know that there is a revenge sub-genre. It has existed almost as long as horror movies have, with Tod Browning’s Freaks being one of the earliest examples I can think of. What separates horror revenge films from revenge thrillers is the level of violence and gore that bridges typically into the territory of exploitation. Other prime examples of the genre are The Last House on the Left and The Day of the Woman, aka I Spit on Your Grave. These films are known for their extreme levels of violence and gore. So with revenge in mind, today’s double feature is Revenge and Mandy.
Continue reading “Cineray Wants Revenge!”Cineray Goes Goofy

It’s time to giggle, fiends!
Sometimes we all need to take a break from people turning into demons and zombies and just have some fun (What the f&*k is so not fun about people turning into demons? – Shawn). I’m not just talking about fun, but the kind of fun that has goofy energy. Maybe you just want a movie you can enjoy with the rest of the family and still keep your horror love intact while you watch. If that’s the case, I’m here to help because today’s double feature pairs Elvira: Mistress of the Dark with underrated cult classic Rockula.
Continue reading “Cineray Goes Goofy”Mortal Kombat, Jakob’s Wife and a Lot More

We give you our reviews of the new Mortal Kombat flick, Jakob’s Wife, as well as discussing Steve Niles’ Winnebago Graveyard, Amazon’s Them, the Hail Satan documentary, Dark Horse’s reimagining of Dan O’Bannon’s original Alien Script and a lot more!!!
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Cineray – WTF?

Say Cheese!
Alright fiends, let’s get cheesy!
I make no pretense about my love for cheesy cinema. Some movies are just so bad that they wrap around into the realm of being good again. Sometimes this is because of absurd plots that progress in bizarre or insane ways. Other times, the films are so poorly acted that they border on comedy gold; you know the kind, those movies worthy of group watches where the jokes that arise make viewing experience. Well, for today’s double feature, both films make such odd choices that they are charmingly eccentric and worth a watch, especially with friends (We’re getting there folks, but stay safe – Shawn). That’s right, today’s films are Don’t Panic and Doom Asylum.
Both of these films are so filled with cliches from the genres they draw from that I liken them to pizza, in that even bad pizza is still kind of good (definitely wouldn’t agree there – Shawn). One is the old “demon- summoning-by-mistake movie,” and the other is a straight-up slasher. In each case, these films know the tropes to exploit and the beats to hit and they do so with flair.
Continue reading “Cineray – WTF?”Cineray Contemplates Identity

Alright fiends, let’s get metaphysical! Today the double feature goes into the territory of Horror-Science Fiction. Usually, when this particular subgenre of Horror gets mentioned, aliens and/or the future are the central focus. Not with today’s film selections, though. These films’ primary focus is the concept of identity and how it is tied to our bodies. Today’s Cineray double features are Possessor, directed by Brandon Cronenberg and Come True, directed by Anthony Scott Burns.
Continue reading “Cineray Contemplates Identity”Kong Vs Godzilla

This episode, Anthony gives his review of Adam Wingard’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, and as a diehard fan of the giant lizard, we trust his opinion. Also, Shawn gives Wrong Turn 2021 its second chance on the show, Tori talks South-Western Giallo White of the Eye a holler before joining Shawn in salivating over Waxwork Records‘ new Lords of Salem vinyl release. Plus, Larry Fessenden’s graphic novel and LOTS more!
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Cineray Gets Furry

Let’s get hairy, fiends! Today’s Cineray recommended movies are two of my favorite werewolf movies ever!
Ever since I was a kid, werewolves have been among my favorite monsters. Something about the lore and the look and the general terror associated with the creatures fascinates me. The concept of being a noble, good-intentioned person cursed to become a monstrous beast driven to attack people by the changing moon is mesmerizing. It’s not Jekyll who keeps taking his potion or an evil vampire driven by bloodlust. No, this is a person trying to control a beast within and trying to cure themselves of it. So today’s double feature is Werewolf of London and Dog Soldiers.
Continue reading “Cineray Gets Furry”Come True, Wrong Turn & Stay Out of the F*&king Attic!

We review a bunch of new stuff, including Anthony Scott Burns’ new film, Come True, the Wrong Turn re-boot, and Jerren Lauder’s Stay Out of the F*&king Attic. Plus, Lucky, The Craft: Legacy, Anything for Jackson, and tips on how to overcome streaming’s Paradox of Choice!
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Cineray’s Imaginary Friends

Let’s get imaginary friends! For today’s double feature, we need to all try and remember back to our childhoods. For some, it may have been a while – it certainly is for me. If you were a single child or did not have siblings near your age, you may have had an imaginary friend. Someone as a young child you imagined playing with when other kids were not around, or you just felt lonely. Maybe that friend was harmless, or perhaps they made you do bad things or things you were not supposed to do. You know, stuff like dancing on tables, writing on walls, getting into things you were not supposed to, throwing that annoying kid down the stairs. Wow, wait, did I just write “throw a kid down the stairs?” I sure did because today’s double feature is about imaginary friends that are a lot more malicious than usual in Z and Daniel Isn’t Real.
Continue reading “Cineray’s Imaginary Friends”Cineray Exercises Demons!

Let’s get meta fiends!
To be fair, today’s Cineray double feature is not entirely about being meta. These movies are also focused on crazy gore, blood puking, and 80’s hair metal soundtracks. Why? Well, because when Italians make horror movies, they like all those things and if they can do it with trapped victims they create cinematic magic. If you have not guessed it yet, today’s Cineray recommendations are the sequels Demons and Demons 2.
Continue reading “Cineray Exercises Demons!”A Most Horrible Library talks new Horror Comics Starting in March!
In the newest episode of A Most Horrible Library, Chris and Shawn talk about a bunch of new Horror series’ with number ones currently on the stand, as well as the revitalization of two classic DC Horror titles!
A Most Horrible Library – Archie Horror Comics Deep Dive!
Chris helps Shawn get the various editions of Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein straight, then takes him through the Archie Comics’ Horror line – Jughead the, Hunger, Blossom 666, Vamperonica, Sabrina and the one that started it all, Afterlife with Archie! Also discussed, digitally remastering the original Vertigo Comics line, colonizing B&W Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell, and we dip a little into the idea that John Logan’s Penny Dreadful feels an awful lot like another seminal Alan More title – not in a bad way!
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Cineray: Slasher Fundamentals.

Class is in sessions, fiends! All right, today I am recommending a double feature of foundational horror. Horror, like any other film genre, becomes more entertaining when you know its history. For one, the work that became the foundational building blocks are usually fantastic movies in their own right and are still as entertaining now as they were when they were first released. Knowing these historically significant films can enhance the viewing of later entries because they typically reference them. For today I have picked two films that were the building blocks for the slasher genre. They also have their genesis in the true-life story of the notorious serial killer Ed Gein. Today’s Cineray double feature is Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, directed by Tobe Hooper.
Continue reading “Cineray: Slasher Fundamentals.”What We’re Watching
Ray discusses Tobe Hooper’s 80s Space-Vampire movie Lifeforce as a homage to Hammer Horror by way of Twins of Evil. Tori has an awesome theory that Pyscho Goreman exists in the same world as another film we love, and Shawn sings the praises of Alex de la Iglesia’s recently finished HBO opus 30 Coins! Plus, The Love Witch, the new Mortal Combat trailer, and all the stuff in 2021 we’re waiting for!
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The Serial Killer Cineray

All right, fiends, let’s get disturbed! I tend to build my double features based around my interests and what I find entertaining, but honestly, that can be short-sighted. I have long championed the opinion that just because a movie or genre is not my thing does not mean it is not good or worth a person’s time. Everyone has a right to their own opinions and tastes, and with that in mind, today’s double feature is one I have watched but don’t think I would put myself through again. Today’s territory is serial killers, and the movies are Random Acts of Violence and Found.
Continue reading “The Serial Killer Cineray”The Cineray of Your Dreams… or Nightmares!

Greetings, horror fiends. Think about it: we spend our days working or doing whatever we have to, and every night we sleep to restore ourselves. But sometimes sleep is not restful at all; sometimes it’s worse than being awake. Sleep can be troubled, our dreams plagued with the anxieties of our daily lives, nightmares filled with demons of the things we fear. Today’s double feature focuses on nightmares and the monsters that call them home. No glove-wearing, crispy-skinned killers here kids, today’s double feature is Dreamscape and Dream Demon.
Continue reading “The Cineray of Your Dreams… or Nightmares!”Spell, Kill List, 2010’s Blood Junkie & 1988’s Dream Demon!
We talk about the lost gem of 2020 – Mark Tonderai’s Spell! This one’s gnarly folks, and we’ll tell you why it would have been on our best of 2020 list had we actually seen it in 2020 (shout out to Alex and Christina from the Beyond the Void podcast for putting this on our radar).
Also, Tori talks Drew Rosas’ Blood Junkie, Ray digs into Harley Cokliss’s goopy Dream Demon (recently released through Arrow), and Anthony and Shawn sing the praises of Ben Wheatley’s Kill List! Plus – a lot more HORROR!!!
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A Most Horrible Library – Jeremy Haun Interview!!!
Chris and Shawn sit down on Zoom for a nice, lengthy discussion with comics writer/artist Jeremy Haun, creator of The Red Mother, 40 Seconds, The Beauty, and The Realm!
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A Most Horrible Library – Hill House Deep Dive!
Chris takes Shawn through a deep-dive on all five of the Hill House imprint books from DC Comics, and Shawn talks Vault’s Dorian Gray sequel The Picture of Everything Else, Aftershock’s Knock Em Dead, and IDW’s Sea of Sorrow!
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Psycho Goreman Spoiler-Free Review
Steven Kostanski’s new film Psycho Goreman hit VOD on Friday and Anthony and Shawn have seen it and wish to sing its praises! Here’s their quick, spoiler-free review, which also walks viewers through a bit of Kostanski’s history as a part of the Astron-6, his other films, and where you can watch this gore-tastic new flick!
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Cineray Loves Weirdos!

It’s Cineray time, fiends! All right, if you are like me, the last year has been challenging. And if you are a lot like me, you have been watching a lot of horror movies to escape the stress of this year. Certainly, there have been times this year that have felt like life itself is the most fearsome thing in our lives. And that concept that life can sometimes be the monster that stalks us is the concept at the heart of today’s double feature of Fingers and Are We Not Cats.
Continue reading “Cineray Loves Weirdos!”Cineray Explores Strange Connections in this literary Double-Feature

Hey there fiends, today’s Cineray recommendations are going to seem bizarre together. Both were released in the last year, and they are going to seem completely unrelated at first. And yet, therein lies the power of this double feature. You see, both films have surprise twists at their conclusions that tie them together. That’s right, today’s recommendations are Underwater and Castle Freak.
Continue reading “Cineray Explores Strange Connections in this literary Double-Feature”First Episode of 2021!
We talk Part for of Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Love & Monsters, HBO’s Heaven’s Gate documentary, Fingers, Alex de la Iglesia’s 30 Coins, our favorite characters from John McTernan’s Predator, what we love and hate about Fede Alvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead, and what movies will be a better dose of Ninja action than 1983s Samurai Christmas Horror film Blood Beat (here’s a hint – the titles all contain the word “Ninja.” Oh, and a lot more!
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Cineray Watches Brian Yuzna’s Society
All right, today’s review is for Society by Brian Yuzna with effects by Screaming Mad George. Word of warning right up front, this is going to be a spoiler-heavy review. It just seems like it would be impossible to critique this movie without discussing the final act and its grotesque imagery. Honestly though, if you have not watched this one as a horror fan, shame on you. The film is infamous, and while it might have been hard to come by once, Society is now readily available to stream in multiple places, although if you have Shudder, I’d recommend you head over there and see it with Joe Bob Briggs as your guide. His presentation is fantastic. Joe Bob adds some fun trivia, and the way he breaks up the movie with his interludes may distract you from the lack of horror in the film and the over abundance of Story.

The story revolves around Billy Whitney, played by Billy Warlock, who has anxiety concerning his family and their increasingly strange behavior. His parents are wealthy, and his sister Jenny is a popular girl whose only concerns seem to be about fitting in with the right crowd. This may all sound like your standard teenage anxiety, with there’s something else going on with the Whitney’s, Billy begins to fear may be incestuous, what with all the strange sounds he hears at night and Jenny’s ex-boyfriend’s urgent, coded messages that he has to tell Billy something about his family.
Amplifying Billy’s familial concerns are his own girlfriend’s odd behavior, as well as navigating the popular crowd at school, a caste he is supposedly born into as a Whitney, but one he has a growing schism with. As the story unfolds, Society sometimes feels more like a soap opera with thriller elements than a horror film – perfect because Billy is played by actor Billy Warlock, who was indeed a soap opera star.
The story evolves slowly, and honestly, there are just not enough horror elements in this movie. There are the remnants of a car accident with blood all over the concrete and a throat-cutting, but really, it’s not until that final act that the Horror with a capital H rears its head. Because folks, this is where Yuzna’s film goes bananas. When we get to the reveal that the popular kids in school, Billy’s parents, friends, and pretty much the entirety of the popular kids at school are all members of a Secret Society things get really interesting. And when we learn these folks aren’t human at all, but some sort of species living alongside humanity pretty much since the beginning of time with a vampiric appetite for human flesh, the film goes all out.
The whole process of shunting, the activity during which Billy learns the truth, is monstrous, with an orgy of flesh that’s soft and gooey, malleable and interchangeable, well, let’s just say you might be thankful for your gag reflex. The whole thing reminds me more of an alien on Deep Space Nine who could take whatever form he desired but had to spend a certain amount of time as a puddle in a bucket.

I don’t want to bash the film entirely. The way no one throughout the film believes Billy is done well. It really creates a paranoia about what is happening. You can never be quite sure as a viewer if Billy is disturbed, he is going to therapy after all, or if his suspicions are right. The scene when he zips up his sister’s dress and the love scene with Clarissa both create the real sense that you might not be able to trust Billy, either. From a social critique perspective, the film lavishes in its suspicion of the social elite. It’s not as thoughtful as They Live, but it still raises solid points. I feel this one could have used more of that critique and maybe some more candid glimpses of Billy. However, following that path may have proved difficult without sabotaging that shocking final act. Also, we should definitely take into consideration that this was Brian Yuzna’s directorial debut, so it’s possible he just did not have the experience as a storyteller to think of this or some of the overabundance of story in this film.
My honest take on this movie is I would be hard-pressed to want to watch it again. So much of its power comes from that ending that knowing it means I am watching through this soap opera of a movie just to get to the messed up final act. I feel like if I were to rewatch it would be a Cineray double feature to show friends who have never seen the film and wait in eager anticipation of the final act to see how repulsed they become. But Society just does not seem to have a great amount of rewatch-ability.
On a final note, it’s impressive grotesque work by Screaming Mad George but if you want to see a film that is packed with his impressive work, check out Freaked; almost every moment of that one is filled with his work.
Cineray’s Killer Sequels Double-Feature!
All right, horror fiends! Today’s suggestion for a double feature will feature two of the best sequels in horror movie history. You may ask why not recommend the first movies in these series. Well, you almost certainly will either have seen them or already have plans to see those movies already; they are classics. But I will champion the opinion that these two sequels are better than the original films. I’m talking about Evil Dead 2, directed by Sam Raimi, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, directed by Tobe Hooper.
Continue reading “Cineray’s Killer Sequels Double-Feature!”A Most Horrible Library

A horrifically new literary podcast from the creators of The Horror Vision!
Join Chris and Shawn as they discuss all things Horror Literature/Comics. This first episode we divulge a bit of what led us to Horror Comics, then dive into a bunch of titles we wholeheartedly recommend.
Here’s what we discuss:
Miskatonic (Aftershock)
Red Mother (Boom! Studios)
Gates of Hell (Eibon Press)
Homesick Pilots (Image Comics)
Something is Killing the Children (Boom!)
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Cineray’s The Power of Women Double-Feature
Ready to get intense horror fiends? Today’s Cineray double feature recommendation is not just going to very time-consuming, but it will also be emotionally taxing. But some movies are worth it. Some films truly transcend entertainment and become emotionally courageous works of art that challenge our morals and ideas about right and wrong. Today’s two movies are Midsommar and Suspiria.

Directed by Ari Aster, Midsommar stars Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor. The film is an intense exploration of grief and family and the distance that grows between people. Pugh stars as Dani, a young woman in college dating Christian played by Reynor. Christian has reached a point where he feels the relationship over, and despite the ridicule he suffers from friends, he is still too cowardly to end the relationship. Christian and his friends see Dani as needy, while she is just seeking as much attention as Christian invests in everyone else. And then Dani is destroyed emotionally when her sister and parents are killed. A strained relationship becomes even more strained when Christian now does not know how to be there for Dani in her grief. When a trip to Christian’s friend Pelle’s home village comes up, she asks to go with, more as a distraction to her suffering. Christian wants to say no but doesn’t. So with his friends and Christian, Dani heads for the Midsummer festival in Hälsingland. At first, it seems like a harmless European trip with some drugs involved, but things seem off when they arrive in the commune. They will all discover something they were all unprepared for, and for Dani, something she may need more than she realizes.

Like Aster’s first feature, Hereditary, this is not a simple horror movie. Aster infuses his work with complex characters with real emotional trauma and fears. The film almost immediately gives one a sense of films like The Wicker Man, but this commune is not as simple as a group of pagans looking for a sacrifice. The first people we see die are suicides, as are the second, and it challenges in our cultural standard of understanding suicide versus the commune’s moral standard. The film continues in this manner, suggesting that moral concepts are a lot more fluid than we perceive. Pugh is fantastic and raw in her performance as Dani, a young woman trying to stifle her grief when its existence is real and life-changing.

The second feature is another journey of self-discovery for a young woman, Suspiria, directed by Luca Guadagnino. This film is a remake of the Argento classic but trust me, even though the original is a masterwork of beautiful horror, this is definitely worth giving a chance. Guadagnino’s film is a moody meditation on female sexuality, power, and self-acceptance. The film centers on Susie Bannion, a young dancer who has come to study at the Markos Dance Academy in West Germany. Meanwhile, she discovers her arrival coincides with another student’s disappearance after she revealed to her psychotherapist Dr. Josef Klamperer, that she believed a coven of witches known as the Three Mothers runs the school. Susie quickly rises in favor under the tutelage of Madame Blanc, the head dance instructor. Meanwhile, the rest of the coven conspires to make Susie the new host for their aging Madam Markos. Dr. Klamperer is also approached and aided by another student, Sara, as he investigates the school.

This reimagining of the Suspiria concept has a lot of new and thoughtful material added to the mix. The film takes place in 1977, and the backdrop of political upheaval adds to the feeling of tension in the Academy. The violence and gore are intense and memorable and very well done. And the performances are outstanding all around. Dakota Johnson is fantastic as Susie, a girl seeming very driven and innocent hiding a lot of foresight and ability. Tilda Swinton is not just one character in this film as Madame Blanc but also Dr. Klemperer and Madam Markos, giving impressive performances under a ton of effects makeup. The dances are a lot more present in this version, and they also become a ritual hidden in plain sight by the witches. The witches’ power is rooted in their gender.
Now back to the lengths of these films. Horror films generally last about 90 minutes, with only the adventurous going longer. These two films, however, are a lot longer. Midsommer in the theatrical cut is 2 hours and 18 minutes, while Suspiria is 2 hours and 32 minutes. I know that sounds like a lot, but these films do not waste scenes or characters in telling the stories of these films. The stories do not languish, and both move at a great pace and are tension-filled.
These two together is going to be a trial but a rewarding one. It also may be a daunting challenge to anyone not ready for the level of emotional investment, especially in female-centric movies, these demands of a viewer. Then again, with our society moving towards female empowerment and battling toxic masculinity, these are movies for the times we live in now. These films can be found at various sources for rent or purchase, but your best resource is amazon prime as both films are available free, and if you have a UHD TV, they are available as both UHD and HD presentation. Oh, and stick around till the end of Suspiria for an after-credits scene.
Our Favorite Horror Films From 2020

It’s the end of the year (finally), and thus, time for the time-honored tradition of ranking our favorite Horror films from the last 12 months!
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Bad Santa vs. Bad Ass Kids Cineray
Happy Holidays, fiends! If you are like me, somewhere in an old family photo album or special holiday frame is a picture of a child version of you sitting on Santa’s lap while crying your eyes out. As we grow up, our parents tell us that Santa brings us presents and, therefore, we should not be afraid of him. But maybe that childhood instinct is correct. Perhaps, trusting a fat old man with beard dresses In a red suit who loves kids is a lot sketchier than we give the story credit. Today’s Cineray holiday recommendations are a couple of films about some very dangerous Santas and the badass kids who battle against them in Dial Code Santa Claus and Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.

Dial Code Santa Claus – AKA Deadly Games – is like a demented and scarier Home Alone with a kid that has watched all the best 80’s action movies. The story takes place on Christmas Eve in the home of Thomas. Thomas is a brilliant boy with a grand imagination and a wealthy mother that indulges him. He dresses for his day like a mini Rambo and spends his day capturing his dog in trap doors. Thomas has installed a camera system throughout his entire house and can see everything from a remote on his wrist.
Impressed?
The camera system is the least of his security measures.
Thomas also spends his days with Papy, his grandfather, and works to repair his mother’s old car while Julie, his mother, manages a department store. Meanwhile, a man spots the store is hiring for a Santa and takes the job. When a girl accuses Santa of being fake, the jolly bastard slaps her. Julie sees this happen and fires him immediately. He steals her address, though and after killing a delivery driver and stealing his van, goes to her home. When he breaks in, Thomas mistakes this criminal for the actual Santa until a brutal event shows him the truth. Thomas has to mount a defensive to save himself and his grandfather from the psycho Santa.
What makes this movie great is the motifs and sequences it borrows from 80s action movies we know and love. It’s not a movie with a lot of kills, but it’s smart with the kills it does have and fills in the gaps with action. I would even hazard that one kill can be downright polarizing for viewers and may anger them to consider stopping the film right there. But I think it’s a bold move to establish the unforgivable evil as the crazy man simply known as Par Noel and put him in a Santa suit. It creates an eerie undertone beneath those 80’s action motifs.

Take the opening scene of Thomas suiting up with boots, toy knives, and camouflage, all laced up and strapped on to a knock-off hard rock soundtrack. These shots would usually be close-ups on the tight, rippling muscles of a Stallone or Schwarzenegger, but here they’re of a kid whose only resemblance to those 80s action stars is a spectacular mullet. And considering the odds and events Thomas has to deal with, he’s a total badass. It’s not a perfect film by far; there’s an opening that is heavy with exposition, and some of the callbacks overstay their welcome. But it’s a French take on over-the-top American Cinema, so it kind of makes sense.
Next, we move from a psychotic Santa to a demonic one.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale is an extremely original concept that is really brought to life by a fantastic cast. The story starts with a survey crew on a mountain. They’re using a drill to take soil samples and find what they’re looking for when the foreman presents Riley, the man finding the operation, with soil that contains sawdust. Riley is excited as he explains the dust’s presence as evidence of something trapped in ice. Riley tells his crew they are close to finding what they set out to find, none other than Santa Claus, or at the very least the being that the Santa myth is based on, frozen in this ice.
Nearby, local boys Jusso and Pietari are sneaking around the site, listening to all of this. They hurry home, and Pietari begins to read up on this creature buried in the mountain. He discovers old folklore about a horned man with goat’s feet who once ran free, whipping and sometimes eating children who misbehave. The next day during the town’s annual reindeer hunt, Pietari’s father Rauno and some other men discover the corpses of hundreds of reindeer, all gnawed and eaten. They believe wolves have been driven wild by the mountain’s excavation, but when the disappearance of some local children follows this, it’s Jusso and Pietari who know the truth. The kids know better than the adults because adults are conditioned to disregard folklore, while the children are open to the fantastic.

Rare Exports‘ crisp, sharp cinematography and excellent production and set design make it a joy to watch. Nothing here looks fake, and similar to John Carpenter’s The Thing, this entry into the “monster thawed from the ice” subgenre feels very original.
Again these are both foreign films with subtitles, one being French and the other Finnish, and they both are great. As is usually the case with a good foreign film, at some point, you forget you are reading as you watch and just start doing it automatically and enjoying the movie. To watch these, you can stream Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale from several places, with options to watch for free with ads or with the cost of a rental or subscription but as usual, it’s on Shudder along with Dial Code Santa Claus so why not watch there.
Cineray XMas with the Family
Well, it’s that season again, fiends! That time when we get crap for watching horror movies during the “holidays.” It’s also when we get together with family and take part in that thinly veiled dance where we try not to get angry at family members we have not seen for a while. So why not watch a couple of horror movies that take all those thoughts about the holidays we have and take them to the violent nth degree. Today’s Cineray holiday recommendations are Red Christmas, directed and written by Craig Anderson and Secret Santa, directed and co-written by Adam Marcus, and co-written by Debra Sullivan.

Red Christmas is a slasher movie with an unusual killer and a mixed political message. This one starts at an abortion clinic that is bombed by a pro-life activist. In the aftermath, the bomber finds and takes with him the surviving result of a late-term abortion. Flash forward 20 years to Diane, played by Dee Wallace, hosting her family at her home in Australia. Tensions are high and old wounds show as the festivities begin. Her daughter Ginny is nine months pregnant and likes to smoke pit with her husband, supplied by her uncle, and her sister Suzy arrives with her pastor husband. The two clash and argue a lot with the family between them. And then a mysterious stranger named Cletus, wrapped in bandages, wearing a cloak arrives, and before they understand what’s happening, he is picking them off one at a time.
The slasher element of Red Christmas is pretty inventive, and once the kills start, they are pretty brutal. In typical slasher fashion, the killer has come for revenge, except here, his origin and rationale are pretty inventive. The kills could be a little more revealing, especially for a slasher, but it being an independent film, maybe that was the best way they felt they could keep down the cost. The special effect on the barely seen Cletus is cheesy looking, and honestly, the mystery of how he looks should have held for the entire film, but it’s quick and easy to see past. Finally, it’s a little muddled in its politics.

The next feature Secret Santa follows with more of a family killing spree but a lot more killing and some excellent dark humor. The film follows a family who meets for Christmas Eve dinner and their annual Secret Santa Ritual. Though blood, these are all different people with histories and issues between them. Tensions are high because, well, old wounds often do not heal. During a tense argument, violence ensues, and people start attacking others and complaining of feeling hot while others try to protect themselves and escape. But one of them has engineered the events of this evening and secretly knows what is going on.
The humor and violence of this film are entertaining, and the actors are great. It’s easy to hate some characters as the film progresses, but there’s a complicated family narrative afoot as well. Take the shrewish family matriarch Shari, played here in spiteful, vengeful glory by Debra Sullivan. Even though it’s an independent feature, the film spares no expense with the practical effects. The kills are fantastic, and some are outright funny. There is one WTF moment of particular gruesomeness in the film that will make you laugh out loud.
Now, to be completely honest, my fondness for Secret Santa transcends how great I think the movie is. This is because, when the Horror Vision podcast was only into its fifth episode, we got the chance to sit down and interview Adam Marcus and co-writer and star Debra Sullivan, and the film’s producer Bryan Sexton about the film. They were all excellent guests and very personable and open about the film process. Adam is generous in his advice and very positive, and Debra could not be farther from her character onscreen. She is very friendly and a great actor, considering how much you hate her character onscreen. That being said, more people need to see this horror film, and it’s always part of the reason I pick my Cineray features. Red Christmas can be rented from all the usual places but is free with Prime, Peacock, and Shudder, while Secret Santa is available for rent or purchase through Prime and YouTube.
Castle Freak, Freaky, Max Brook’s Devolution, and the joys of Audio Books!

Chris, Ray, and Shawn meet up to talk about all things Horror! First, hear Chris talk about the joys of not only Max Brooks’s new novel Devolution, but the full-cast Audio Book performance of both that and Brooks’s seminal zombie novel, World War Z! Next, Shawn has seen the new, Barbara Crampton-Produced Castle Freak remake and he LOVES it! Hear why. And Ray continues to methodically educate himself on Shudder’s entire catalog; this week he talks about Fulci’s New York Ripper, Bava’s The Body and the Whip, and the not-for-the-weak-of-heart Angst! Plus… Christopher Landon’s Freaky, and a lot more!
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Cineray Goes Fishing
Hey, there horror fiends! Today I am going to recommend a couple of movies with monsters. But not just any monsters. Nope, today I am recommending two films that feature monsters from the briny deep. No sharks, octopus, or Cthulhu either, although watch for the future on the later. No, today we are watching two movies that feel like sequels of each other. Today’s fishy Cineray recommendations are Creature from the Black Lagoon directed by Jack Arnold and Humanoids from the Deep directed by Barbara Peeters.

First up is Creature from the Black Lagoon, a classic tale of a forgotten monster and the explorers who have found him. The Gill Man, as the creature is known, is a creature who has evolved from fish over millennia hidden away in the Amazon undiscovered. When a fossilized fin with claws that looks a lot like a human hand with webbing is found, Dr. Carl Maia enlists the aid of his friend and former student Dr. David Reed to help along with Reed’s boss Dr. Mark Williams and Reed’s colleague and girlfriend Kat Lawrence in finding more fossils. What they find is more than they bargained for in the living Gill Man. Before they know it, the monster has killed members of their party. He also has taken an interest in Kay, and they resolve to leave. But the Gill Man traps them, and they must protect Kay and themselves from the murderous creature.
It may seem like a cliched story, but that’s because this is the film that originated this particular trope. Movies like Rogue, Anaconda, or even Aliens, to an extent, have borrowed the “explorers caught by a monster and desperately try to escape” story from this film. And as the story in those films progresses, so too does Creature from the Black Lagoon. The monster’s attraction to a human woman is not all that original even in 1954, but where the motives of the Gill Man’s interest in Kay in this film are not explained but only hinted at, the monsters’ motives in Humanoids from the Deep are very clear.

Humanoids from the Deep has all that you can want from a monster movie: a great monster and lots of monster attacks. The film starts with fishermen being attacked by an unseen creature, which causes an accidental explosion that kills everyone. At the fishing village in Noyo, California, the explosion is ruled an accident. A company named Canco is moving forward with their plans to open a cannery in the town while attacks on people near the water intensify. In each attack, the men are killed and mutilated while the women are attacked and raped by the humanoid fish creatures. As the time for the town’s annual festival approaches, a villager named Jim and Canco scientist Dr. Drake deduce what is happening and fear the attacks are about to get much worse.
This film has a great monster, and the effects and action are excellent. The monster looks like an evolution of the Gill Man, with longer arms, larger fangs, and much more prominent fins. It’s all practical, and there are several monsters. They also do not choke their victims to death; they mutilate what they kill.
The movie is thin on characters, but it has many monster attacks, which is exactly what you want in a monster movie. This movie plays to its strengths. The monsters are also a lot more clear in their intentions for the women. They are here with a strong biological compulsion to assert themselves by reproducing with women and killing men. The ending also has a twist that has since been copied.

Finally, I think I picked these films because they are fun. Creature from the Black Lagoon may be my favorite of the Universal Monster movies. The Gill Man is so clear in his intention, and the movie moves so well. These men have invaded his territory, and he is going to assert himself and take their woman. And Humanoids from the Deep follows in that tradition and includes a critique on science. Creature from the Black Lagoon is available for rent on all the usual streaming services, while Humanoids from the Deep is free on Prime and Shudder and Tubi and Shout TV if you can stand the ads that will run during the film.
Porno, Run & So Much More!

Anthony, Tori, and Shawn meet up to talk about all they’ve been reading and watching. Big review this week is Shudder’s Porno, which dropped just before the holiday. Worth a watch? You betcha! Hear Shawn’s review of that and new HULU suspense flick Run, as well as Tori’s admiration for Jim Jarmusch’s much-maligned The Dead Don’t Die. Anthony helms the time machine and revisits Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions and Hellraiser V: Inferno. Plus: Eibon Press’s Fulci Comics and a whole lot more!
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A Thanksgiving CineRay!
Hey horror fiends! This week was Thanksgiving, and if you are like me, you had enough turkey to last you a while. But thankfully, we never get tired of horror. For this week’s Cineray double feature, I have decided on a couple of slasher movies. One is legitimately set on the Thanksgiving holiday while the other is not, but there is a theme that ties them together I will reveal later. Today’s recommendations are Blood Rage, directed by John Grissmer, and The Mutilator, directed by Buddy Cooper.

Blood Rage is a great slasher that happens to take place on Thanksgiving. The story focuses on twin brothers Todd and Terry and their mother, Louise. One night while at a drive-in, Louise, played by Louise Lasser, begins to make out with her husband while her sons sleep in the back of the station wagon. Terry wakes up and wakes his brother and tells him to sneak out of the car with him. While out looking in car windows and around, Terry finds an ax. He happens upon a couple having sex in their car and gets caught pepping with Todd standing behind him in the distance. Terry hacks the man’s face to death, then gives the ax to Todd and smears blood on him. Todd is traumatized and left catatonic and institutionalized. Ten years later, after Louise visits on Thanksgiving, Todd escapes. Meanwhile, after Louise announces her engagement to her boyfriend, Terry gets triggered into a killing spree at the apartment complex where they live.
Blood Rage is a fantastic slasher movie with lots of gore and a pretty inventive plot. Once Terry starts offing people, it’s pretty great. He hacks and slashes his way through his victims, and the effects are all practical and excellent. The dismembered hand clutching a can of beer is pretty memorable. Mark Soper plays the twin brothers Todd and Terry, and he does a great job of it. Terry is ruthless and cruel in his actions, while Todd, by comparison, is soft-spoken and just kind of lost in how to stop his brother. As the film progresses, there is an indication that there may be an incestuous Oedipal relationship between Louise and Terry. From a man killing to eliminate competition for his mother’s love, we shift to a movie whose action focuses on a man’s accidental murder of his mother.

The Mutilator focuses on the story of Ed and his father, Big Ed. One day while his father is out, Ed is cleaning one of his father’s hunting rifles to surprise him when the weapon accidentally discharges and shoots his mother in the next room, killing her. When Big Ed comes home, he blames Ed and has a psychotic break. Many years later, Ed is now in college and decides to go with his college friends to his father’s beach home for Fall Break. What they don’t know is that Big Ed is hiding at the beach house, waiting to exact his revenge on his son after all these years.
What makes this film fun is how odd of a slasher movie it is. It’s fairly formulaic in its plot and structure, with the killer ramp up in violence and the characters indulging in episodes of making out. But the tone of this film is bonkers. It starts with the very stark, almost overly dramatic mother’s death and then cuts to the friends meeting and deciding to go to the beach house, which is a very light-hearted scene. And then the film’s original title Fall Break, comes on screen over a music montage more fitting for a cheesy 80’s comedy. The film does this more than a few times. It will be a slasher movie one moment and then decide it wants to be a teen sex comedy for a moment or two.

These films are worth a watch because they have largely been forgotten about, even amidst the increased market for regional slasher movies. Plus, both films both focus on killers motivated by family relationships and anger. If you have been on either a zoom call or a small family gathering, this season chances are you may feel homicidal too. The Mutilator is on Amazon prime video, and Blood Rage is on Prime, Kanopy, and best of all Shudder. Now you can watch Blood Rage all on its own, but as I always do, I recommend it watched as part of the
New Mutants, Itsy Bitsy & After Midnight!

Anthony and Shawn spend a calm afternoon catching up on recent viewings. Josh Boone’s New Mutants, Micah Gallo’s Itsy Bitsy, Jeremy Gardner’s After Midnight, and Shudder’s Cleansing Hour. Also, our reaction to the news about Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator and Ridley Scott’s next Alien movie! Plus, a helluva lot more!
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The Dark & the Wicked, AHS 9 Season Marathon & a Tribute to Movies that feature Drive-Ins!

Tori spent her October doing the unthinkable – watching ALL 9 seasons of American Horror Story start to finish. Hear her talk about the experience. Ray does a tribute to Drive-ins in cinema with Psycho Beach Party and Chillerama, and Shawn watched The Dark and the Wicked! Plus, Joe R. Lansdale’s The Drive-In, The Driller Killer, Shudder’s WNUF Halloween Special, and a bloody lot more. (Really bloody!)
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Cineray at the Drive-In!
All right, all you hip horror hounds, it’s time for another groovy Cineray double feature. If you are picking up what I am putting down daddy-o’s, today’s recommendation is a couple of films that celebrate the hay days of 60’s drive-in horror movies with a modern twist. But first, perhaps I should offer a little backstory on how all this got started.
Movie theaters are still shut down here in Cali for the most part. Yours truly and Shawn – who is kind of the Horror Vision podcast group CEO – have recently attended a handful of drive-in presentations. For me, it’s been many years since watching a movie from the car, and these recent experiences have rekindled a lot of great old memories. So in celebration of the drive-in experience, today’s double features are Chillerama and Psycho Beach Party.
Before I get into each movie, let me get into a bit of drive-in trivia and the movies of the drive-in. For those too young to have experienced the drive-in experience or did not have one in your area, the drive-in is a pretty different experience from the theater. For one thing, you are in a car with whomever you have come with and are somewhat isolated from the other patrons. This isolation allows you to make comments or even talk during the movie without worrying about bothering other parties (But not too much, Ray! – Shhh!ing Shawn).
The Drive-in was also known as a popular make-out spot, something which both films I will talk about today showcase. And there was a particular type of cinema that thrived at the drive-in. These films were second-run, independent ones, not the big, new releases that played at the then-burgeoning multiplexes. So giant monster movies and the more schlocky or cheesy movies were the more popular fare. Therefore, I wanted to make both films I recommend today homages to that time and those types of films.

First up is Chillerama, a horror anthology featuring the directing talent of Adam Rifkin, Bear McCreary, Adam Green, Joe Lynch, and Tim Sullivan. The connection to the drive-in is both the setting, the framing device, and the subjects of the short films within the film.
The wrap-around or ‘framing’ story surrounds a group of characters at the drive-in for the last night before it is closed and demolished to watch a presentation called Chillerama, a set of short films we as an audience watch along with them, checking in between films to see their story as it unfolds.

The first story in Chillerama is a giant monster movie called Wadzilla, followed by I Was a Teenage Werebear, a monster movie called Diary of Anne Frankenstein, and the wrap-around story called Zom-b-movie. All of the shorts are filled with humor that verges on parody. Sometimes the jokes get a bit juvenile, but ultimately they are all gruesome fun with gobs of modern gore.

Similarly, our second feature, Psycho Beach Party starring Lauren Ambrose and Nicholas Branden, is also infused with a lot of humor. The film centers on Florence, a 16-year-old girl in the 1960s who enjoys going to drive-in movies with her best friend. One night a girl is murdered at the drive-in, and the police investigate. Meanwhile, Florence is invited by the popular Marvel Ann (Amy Adams) to the beach and sees Starcat (Brendan) and his friends surfing. She asks to learn, but they laugh her off. Florence goes to the surf guru the Great Kanaka and, after freaking him out by exhibiting an alternate personality, intimidates him into teaching her. While the bodies pile up, Florence earns the nickname Chicklet as her surfing improves, and she experiences more strange episodes.
These films are enjoyable without any prior knowledge of the genres referenced but even more so with said knowledge. It’s worth your time and enjoyment to watch some old horror movies for those looking for some of that knowledge. Particularly giant monster movies like Them, Tarantula, or similar giant monster movies, Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, the early zombie movies of George Romero, I was a Teenage Werewolf and the teenage Beach movies of Annette Funicello. Knowing these films enhances your perspective of how well these movies reference the material and help with some of the more subtle jokes. The first time I watched Chillerama, I only liked it a bit; however, after viewing a lot more of the material it references, I enjoyed it a whole lot more.
Finally, if nothing else, I hope these films serve as a jumping-off point to consider more of the classic cinema that has become the road some of our beloved movies have walked down. The filmmakers who made movies like Hatchet and Mayhem that we love now grew up on these older movies and informed who they are and what they created. Also, consider finding where your nearest drive-in is and having a night at the drive-in. Besides the other great attributes I already listed, drive-ins usually feature double features and allow you to bring in your own refreshments, which is a tremendous deal over the theater experience. Both of these movies can be found on Prime video, Chillerama is free, but you will have to rent Psycho Beach Party.
His House & The House on Haunted Hill ’99

Mark it – the first in-person episode of our show since COVID began! Anthony and Shawn gather under the same room but at a safe social distance to watch Scream Factory’s BR of William Malone’s 1999 remake of The House on Haunted Hill! Also, Netflix’s new haunter His House, which is really just fan-freakin’-tastic! Also also, Shudder’s new Creepshow Animated Special, NOTLD, Halloween, and a whole lot more!
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The Short Version
One thing this past Halloween really highlighted for me is the fact that there is an abundance of short films in the Horror Genre, and as such, there are more vehicles out there to deliver them to us than I’d ever realized. This includes fests, but also, there are shorts on Shudder, Amazon Prime, umbrellaed within series on streaming services, and online. After attending Joe Bobs Haunted Drive-In on October 27th, I formulated a plan to begin seeking these out and posting them here in a new column.
Welcome to The Short Version!
With the help of The Horror Vision’s new Facebook Discussion Group – I’ve been falling down a bit of an Internet Rabbit Hole on Horror Shorts. Here then, are some of the most recent shorts I’ve seen or trailers for series that host them. Seek this stuff out – there are often times when I don’t have enough time to watch a full flick, and Shorts can deliver the same intensity and wonderment that a full-length does.
To start, here’s what I considered the best of the short films I saw on October 27th at Joe Bob’s Haunted Drive-In:
Next, here are some I’ve found or been pointed at by fellow Horror Vision Discussionairies (yes, I totally just made that word right the hell up. Deal with it!)
Blight was directed by FX gurus Kate Walshe and Christopher Goodman.
Miners Mountain was written and directed by Bennett Pellington. There’s a Part Two in the works, the trailer for which can be viewed HERE.
Next, here are the trailers to two shows I stumbled across on Amazon Prime lately. The First, By Night: Origins is the first in what I hope will be more seasons of an anthology show, each episode unique unto itself and very different in tone and
The Second, a Spanish-produced anthology that continually sees the same actors and creators making low budget but very well executed Horror shorts:
I don’t know much about either By Night: Origins or From Beyond the series, however, both are short enough seasons to knock out in little time, and both definitely pressed the “Happy Horror Joy Buzzer” in me.
More next time in The Short Version! See you then.
A Cineray Anthology Halloween!
Hey fiends! So Halloween has come and gone, and if you were like me, it was somewhat uneventful while you sat at home being safe. But maybe you are not ready to let the season go by quite just yet. So why not take in a couple of great anthologies that are perfect for saying goodbye for the season with Scare Package and Tales of Halloween.

Scare Package is a fun anthology of horror shorts all tied together by a couple of framing devices and tons of fun horror and gore. The film is not just an homage to the horror genre but is also how most horror fans over the age of 30 were first introduced to horror movies, the local video store. The film’s primary framing device is Rad Chad’s video store, where the stories usually have their genesis as either a story or a videotape being played or discussed. Rad Chad is the know-it-all horror guy, and Sam is one of his customers, the attention-seeking horror nerd. Later Chad acknowledges his role as a know-it-all horror guy and that he is a part of a horror movie. Most of the characters in the meta situations are easily recognizable in horror, and the way they are used and displayed is comic and fun.
Many genres of horror are referenced, and usually, every short references more than one. From slashers to monsters to devil worshippers to body melt to black government scientists, so many troupes are referenced and made fun of but in the most loving of ways. The people involved in this love horror movies and wanted to create something that showed that love. There is a fun reference early on to a horror icon who later makes a cameo as a character. Among some of my favorite moments are a short involving body melt and a secret government experiment. There is also a wrap-around framing device and an entertaining character in it.

Tales of Halloween is a lot less meta but still pays its share of homage while utilizing a more cemented location and a fun run start to finish. The film takes place on Halloween in a suburban town. A local DJ, played by Adrienne Barbeau, narrates and is heard throughout the film when characters listen to the radio. For fans of the Fog, you will live the use of Barbary. Some of the stories are very horror focused while others are horror-comedy. Among the genres referenced are urban legends, vengeful ghosts, devils and imps, slashers, aliens, witches, and demons. I tend to like the more comedic, but a couple took me by surprise with their twists.
I think the order of Scare Package and then Tales of Halloween is the better choice because of how the stories are presented. Scare Package tends to ramp up and even ends with a bang. Continuing with Tales of Halloween is a good way to end the night because it’s almost a cool down and all of the tales take place on Halloween night. If you feel ambitious or just have lots of time, you could always make this a triple feature with Trick-r-Treat if you did not already watch it this past Halloween season. I would probably place it right between the two or after Tales of Halloween, but that one I will leave for you to decide.

Finally, both Scare Package and Tales of Halloween are available on Shudder, where I suggest watching them. For one, they are both conveniently streaming in one place, so whether you are watching from a computer or smart tv you can stay in one application. Tales of Halloween is on the main page under a Shudder Halloween and Scare Package is in the separate category Exclusive and Original. But I would recommend looking up the Last Drive-In presentation of Scare Package just to add another element of fun with Joe Bob Briggs.
50th Episode Just in time for Halloween: Bly Manor, The Mortuary Collection and More!

Ray, Anthony, and Shawn hit Zoom to talk about all their pre-Halloween watches. We talk about The Mortuary Collection, Tremors 7: Shrieker Island, The Haunting of Bly Manor, French New Extremity flicks Sheitan and Ils (Them), Haun and Luckert’s new comic Red Mother, the glory and thrift of region-free Blu Ray players, and Modern CG as the new schlock! That’s not everything, but it’s a lot of it!
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Joe Bob Briggs’ Haunted Drive-In Review/Reaction
Ray, Kirsten, and Shawn bring you their immediate review/reaction to the nine short films and plethora of awesome trailers that Joe Bob Briggs, Darcy the Mail Girl, and Felissa Rose hosted at Joe Bob’s Haunted Drive-In tonight at the Roadium in Torrance, CA. Tickets are still available for several shows this week – go HERE to buy them now!
Our favorite from the fest:
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