Director: Can Evrenol
Year released: 2015
THE CHARGE: Serving up 31 frosty flavors... of TERROR.
THE EVIDENCE: Foreign horror films can make for interesting viewing. Sometimes it reveals universal themes that are frightening regardless of your nationality or background, like the extreme horror of the French films Martyrs and Inside. Sometimes it reveals unique motifs to specific to the culture of the film's origin, like the dark humor of the Israeli film Rabies or the socio-economic motives behind the violence in the Japanese film Dream Home. Baskin, filmed in Turkey, falls between those two ends of the spectrum, giving what seems to be a very local flavor to universally nightmarish concepts.
Director: Michael Steves
Year released: 2015
THE CHARGE: Being the only horror movie I know of that's named after dingleberries.
THE EVIDENCE: Peanut butter and chocolate. Beer and pretzels. Jennifer Lopez and Judge Hammer. They're all examples of things that go great together. Clinger wants to check if the same applies to to teen Disney comedies and graphic horror, and the results are pretty much what you'd expect.
Director: Roger Corman
Year released: 1962
THE CHARGE: You got Edgar Allan Poe, Vincent Price and Roger Corman and can't come up with a better title than that?
THE EVIDENCE: Tales of Terror is one of several collaborations between Vincent Price and director Roger Corman to bring the works of Edgar Allan Poe to the big screen. This one’s a little different from their other films in that it doesn’t focus on one story. Rather, it’s an anthology that presents three Poe tales: Morella, The Black Cat and The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Price appears in all three and provides a voice-over introduction to each of the stories as well.
Director: Colm McCarthy
Year released: 2010
THE CHARGE: Appropriation of Irish folklore to create a mash-up of Twilight, Beauty and the Beast, and a Lucky Charms advert.
THE EVIDENCE: I know what you're thinking and I'll get this out of the way right off the bat: Outcast does not feature Andre 3000 anywhere in the movie. So those of you hoping for a few rollicking choruses of "Hey Ya" will have to look elsewhere. I know, I was disappointed too.
Director: Chad Ferrin
Year released: 2006
THE CHARGE: Hiding brightly colored painted eggs... of DEATH.
THE EVIDENCE: Today, Film Verdicts continues its recent foray into the world of holiday horror. There have been plenty of horror movies centered around holidays: Halloween, Black Christmas, My Bloody Valentine... heck, there have been no less than two horror films centered around Mother’s Day. But to my knowledge, no one has tackled a fright flick that takes place on Easter (unless you count Mel Gibson’s religious splatter flick The Passion of the Christ). It’s a bit surprising, considering the holiday’s major theme of resurrection of the dead. But Easter hasn’t quite turned the corner from a religious holiday to a secular one and the thought of a gorefest centered around a holy day is still considered taboo to some.
