Category: Horror

TSJ Considers Telling a Truth … or Taking a Dare

 

TSJ Reviews TRUTH OR DARE and Ruminates on Blumhouse Productions

FILM: TRUTH OR DARE
Stars: Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane
Director: Jeff Wadlow (KICK ASS 2, CRY WOLF, NEVER BACK DOWN)
Writers: Michael Reisz, Jillian Jacobs
Production Co.: Blumhouse Productions
Budget: $3 500 000

I purchased TRUTH OR DARE on Blu/DVD/Digital Download for roughly $25.00 at the local Best Buy. It’s how I watch many films. The price is right, especially when you’re getting both a physical copy along with a digital download. I picked TRUTH OR DARE this week not because of the title or concept, but more because of the producer’s track record.

TSJ Reviews CAMP DEATH III in 2D!

 

Review:  CAMP DEATH III in 2D!

I had the opportunity to review this “camp” horror film (see what I did there?) by director Matt Frame and starring Dave Peniuk and Angela Galanopoulos. The film is currently making the horror festival circuit, and campy is actually an understatement when describing this horror farce. Crowdfunding helped with the movie’s $35 000 budget, and apparently the filmmakers spent four years working on it.

Radio Interview with TSJ on Writing Thrillers, Managing a Busy Life, STAR WARS, and THE WAR BENEATH

 

Radio Interview with TSJ on 106.9 THE X’s Your Life, Your Way with Host Gail Barker

TSJ and Gail Barker, 8 August 2018

On 8 August I participated in the radio show YOUR LIFE, YOUR WAY at local radio station 106.9 THE X. The topics of conversation ranged from managing a busy life while also writing thrillers to my new underwater adventure THE WAR BENEATH. Gail Barker and I also discussed

TSJ’s List of the Best Science Fiction Movies of the 1970’s

The Best Science Fiction Movies of the 1970’s

I should clarify that a film’s presence on this blog post is entirely subjective based on my experiences growing up. These were my creative formative years, during which I was discovering genre books, television shows, and movies. I was born in 1970, so really the 80’s were my true introduction to Science Fiction Horror, Thriller and Adventure — books by Asimov and Crichton and films by Cameron, Spielberg, Carpenter, and Verhoeven — but the 1970’s played a huge role in my love for the genre. Detroit Channel 7 broadcast most of the films I saw. Many had poor effects, but the stories were so powerful and the actors so committed that the movies rose above the rest of the stories that were available at the time. The themes were relevant, the plots compelling and interesting, all the base human emotions like revenge and lust and greed and hate were on full display, they spoke of issues that people dealt with every day, and they featured powerful scores and incredible directing. They were gripping.

TSJ Reviews Shout! Factory’s BluRay Release of John Carpenter’s “Lost” Film SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME!

 

TSJ Reviews John Carpenter’s “Lost” Film SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME!

Shout! Factory has been releasing John Carpenter films on Blu for a few years now. Each features additional special features that previous discs did not, many including interviews and brand new commentaries not on previous iterations. Their releases of THE THING and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK are real standouts in their Carpenter library.

Carpenter wrote and filmed SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME! for television broadcast in 1978. Two weeks after the ten-day filming concluded, he was off doing HALLOWEEN, a movie that blasted his career into the stratosphere. (See my articles on it here and here, and I spoke about it on a radio show here.)

The GLASS Trailer is Here

 

GLASS — Coming January 2019

POSSIBLE SPOILERS about UNBREAKABLE and SPLIT below. You’ve been warned.

M. Knight Shyamalan exploded onto the movie scene with THE SIXTH SENSE in 1999. The movie was not just a hit; it was a pop culture phenomenon. He followed up the supernatural thriller with UNBREAKABLE in 2000, a movie many found even better than THE SIXTH SENSE. UNBREAKABLE featured an everyday man (Bruce Willis, playing David Dunn) who was the lone survivor of a train crash that killed hundreds.

TSJ Reviews the Videogame THE EVIL WITHIN

 

TSJ Reviews the Videogame THE EVIL WITHIN

THE EVIL WITHIN
Creator: Shinji Mikami, Tango Gameworks
Studio: Bethesda Softworks
Console: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Windows
Year Released: 2014

I’ve been working on this one for a while now, following the fantastic ALIEN: ISOLATION (see review here) that I finished in December 2017. THE EVIL WITHIN is effective in terms of setting, mood and mystery. In fact, it might be the goriest game I’ve played.

The First Time I Saw JURASSIC PARK

 

The First Time I Saw JURASSIC PARK

It’s hard to believe that JURASSIC PARK was released 25 years ago this week. I still remember seeing it at the Galleria. My friend Adam turned to me as the lights went down and said, “So what’s this film about?” He had no idea. It was a Friday night and our group of friends always hung out on the weekends.