Films That Matter
Ohm My God
Finding an intriguing milieu somewhere between the recent popularity in witch related films over the past decade (think The VVitch, Hereditary, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and Weapons) and a spooky atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of the Stephen King room related 1408, Hokum (2026), written and directed by Damian McCarthy, is another worthy entry in the horror genre. In many ways about battling your own demons, Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is a successful writer with a very troubled past – making him a bitter, cantankerous, and bluntly rude human being, he is currently writing the trilogy-ender to his successful Conquistador series (which serves as a bookend for this film). Suddenly haunted by his parents’ ashes sitting upon his mantle (as well as being hit with a form of writer’s block), he decides to fly to Ireland to spread them at one of the places he knows they loved – a kitschy inn called The Bilberry Woods where long ago they honeymooned.
-
Rack and Ruin
Blue RuinApril 15, 2026In your prototypical revenge movie, something heinous happens, after which the protagonist spends the rest of the narrative trying to exact vengeance upon the person/people who committed the act... but in this curve-ball of a thriller, Blue Ruin (2013), written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room), that is not the case. Following the struggling Dwight (Macon Blair – Green Room), ever since his parents were murdered, he has been living a form of homelessness out of his beat up, rusting 90s Pontiac Bonneville. Almost as silent as a monk, the first conversation he has had in some time is when he is notified that the man put behind bars for killing his parents ages ago is getting released.
-
Left in the Dark
All the Colors of the DarkApril 10, 2026Hovering somewhere between haunting past and menacing present, or perhaps even better described as a fever dream leaning more towards a feverish nightmare, the Sergio Martino (The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail; Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key) 1972 giallo All the Colors of the Dark – sometimes known as Day of the Maniac and They’re Coming to Get You! (both titles also work quite well), transports its audience into a paranoid mystery. This Italian film moves abroad to London, England, following tortured Jane Harrison (Edwige Fenech – Strip Nude for Your Killer; Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key), a woman with a rather rough not wholly revealed past.
-
A Flash Finnish
Sisu: Road to RevengeApril 7, 2026If you’re in the mood for more persistent rational determination in the face of much adversity, then you are in luck, for our driven protagonist is back for his second near impossible mission in writer/director Jalmari Helander’s Sisu: Road to Revenge (2025). Following a somewhat similar path to its predecessor, this Finnish, over the top action packed adventure once again follows the rather unlucky Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) and his trusted dog. With the last adventure finding numerous pesky Nazis in his way, this time World War II has come to an end and it finds the man returning to his home that is now located in territory ceded to the Soviet Union as part of the peace treaty.
-
Everyone Fong Fung Tonight
The Iceman ComethApril 3, 2026Not to be confused with the famed Eugene O’Neill play, nor the tv movie and theatrical film that were released and based upon it (1960 and 1972 respectively), the Hong Kong actioner The Iceman Cometh (1989) – sometimes known as The Time Warriors, directed by Clarence Fok, jumps into a go for broke time travel narrative that covers many a varied genre. Dramatically starting in the Ming dynasty (the sixteenth century), a vile murderer and rapist, Fung San (Wah Yuen), has forsaken the Emperor (Anthony Yiu-Ming Wong) by killing his beloved Princess (Yin San Lai) and stealing the magical artifact known as the Black Jade Buddha.
-
Unwelcome Caller
The Coldest CallerMarch 30, 2026Ah, Death, sometimes known as the Grim Reaper, has been depicted in so very many unique ways, with the most traditional being of the lineage of Victor Sjöström – who made the silent horror film The Phantom Carriage (1921)... which then inspired his protégée Ingmar Bergman (who watched the feature every year – usually on New Year’s Eve) with making his classic Black Death plague set film The Seventh Seal (1957). Having a laugh at that always winning Reaper, the 2011 horror comedy short The Coldest Caller, written and directed by Joe Tucker, is a four minute humour-filled foray into one such harrowing scenario. Exhuming some fun in a Monty Python-like sketch (specifically Monty Python’s Meaning of Life), when the ominous list-carrying Grim Reaper (Noel Byrne) – your typically towering, hidden gaunt figure dressed in all black, arrives on the cozey doorstep of one Mrs. Evans (Sheila Reid), the punctual old lady almost seems like she has already been waiting for him all day.
-
Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are
Ready or Not 2: Here I ComeMarch 26, 2026It almost felt like Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come – a sequel to the original horror-comedy hit, were playing the very game it references in the title, as it has been a surprisingly long seven years since the original was released in theatres. Despite the wait, this one starts up literally right where the first concluded, with smoking survivor Grace MacCaullay (Samara Weaving) being brought to a hospital, after which the police would like to question her on all the Le Domas carnage. But, unknowingly to anyone except a select few, her defeat of the satanic gaming family has set in motion a most unique event that will bring together the other elite families that are members of the same Council (that, for all intents and purposes, run the world) – who are all called forth by the head of the table, Chester Danforth (David Cronenberg – yes, the famed horror director).