SXSW 2024

‘Sasquatch Sunset’ SXSW Review – Cryptid Comedy Overstays Its Welcome with Gross-Out Humor

Meagan Navarro Reviews, Riley Keough, Sasquatch Sunset, SXSW, SXSW 2024

There’s a lot to appreciate about co-directors David Zellner and Nathan Zellner‘s unique cryptid comedy, Sasquatch Sunset. A slice-of-life chronicling of a nomadic sasquatch family, possibly the very last of their kind, bridges the short gap between humans and cryptids in its showcasing of family drama to comedic effect. That the fiercely committed cast remains completely unrecognizable under head-to-toe prosthetics […]

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‘Civil War’ SXSW Review – Alex Garland’s Anti-War Movie Provides a Sensory Assault

Meagan Navarro A24, Alex Garland, Civil War, Kirsten Dunst, Movies, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024

“Every time I survived a war zone, I thought I was sending a warning home: don’t do this,” Kirsten Dunst’s veteran photojournalist Lee tells another in Civil War. “But here we are.” The sentiment sums up writer/director Alex Garland‘s anti-war messaging, told through a visceral assault on the senses as it plunges its characters on a road trip […]

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‘Cuckoo’ Review – High-Concept Horror Movie Gets Weird, Quirky, and Playful

Meagan Navarro Cuckoo, Dan Stevens, Hunter Schafer, Movies, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024, Tilman Singer

Writer/Director Tilman Singer continues his streak of experimental high-concept horror with his sophomore effort, Cuckoo. The filmmaker boldly marches to the beat of his own drum, examining heady themes of grief, reproduction, and gendered expectations through inventive, playful horror. That Cuckoo plays it fast and loose with details and plotting means that this body horror entry will likely polarize, […]

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“Fallout” – Walton Goggins on Developing the Ghoul Through Tone and Practical Effects [Interview]

Meagan Navarro fallout, Interviews, Prime Video, SXSW 2024, TV, Walton Goggins

Among the many races in post-apocalyptic video game series Fallout is the Ghoul, posthumans severely mutated by prolonged exposure to radiation, which greatly extends their lifespans but gives them a zombie-like appearance. In the upcoming Prime Video “Fallout” series, Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight, Predators) is almost unrecognizable as The Ghoul. Bloody Disgusting caught up […]

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‘Dead Mail’ – How the Cast and Crew Brought Authenticity to Fictional ’80s Psychological Thriller

Meagan Navarro Dead Mail, Interviews, SXSW 2024

Writers/Directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s lo-fi ’80s psychological thriller, Dead Mail, anchors its offbeat story, characters, and retro style around profound loneliness. Bloody Disgusting spoke with the filmmakers along with stars Sterling Macer Jr. and John Fleck at SXSW, where the film made its world premiere, about their unique approach to the genre-bender. Dead Mail leans […]

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‘Immaculate’ SXSW Review – Sydney Sweeney Gets Fierce in Conventional Religious Horror Film

Meagan Navarro Immaculate, Movies, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024, Sydney Sweeney

A horror movie set in an Italian convent with a title like Immaculate communicates all there is to know about the plot. A young American nun, Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), travels to her new post in the remote countryside, only to discover she’s miraculously pregnant soon after taking her vows. Director Michael Mohan and screenwriter Andrew […]

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‘Monkey Man’ SXSW Review – Myth and Ultra-Violence Collide in Dev Patel’s Bloody Actioner

Meagan Navarro Dev Patel, Monkey Man, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024

Dev Patel (The Green Knight, Slumdog Millionaire) has much more on his mind than straightforward action homage with his high-octane directorial feature debut, Monkey Man. At the SXSW world premiere, Patel told the enrapt audience that he poured his soul into his hyper-violent actioner, and broke two toes, a hand, tore a shoulder, and battled an eye infection […]

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‘Arcadian’ SXSW Review – Nicolas Cage Creature Feature Highlighted by Inventive Monster Designs

Meagan Navarro Arcadian, Movies, Nicolas Cage, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024

While Nicolas Cage gets a proper hero’s moment or two in director Benjamin Brewer and writer/producer Mike Nilon’s Arcadian, the post-apocalyptic creature feature belongs to its young stars. Playing like a cross between a poignant coming-of-age story and intense survival horror, Arcadian does just enough to set itself apart from similar fare. However, its ultimate appeal and magic lie in the inventive monster […]

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‘Things Will Be Different’ SXSW Review – Family Bonds Get Tested in Engaging Sci-Fi Thriller

Meagan Navarro Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024, Things Will Be Different

Writer/Director/Editor Michael Felker knows his way around time-shifting, metaphysical labors of love, having edited Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Something in the Dirt, Synchronic, The Endless, and Spring. Felker’s feature directorial debut, Things Will Be Different, seamlessly fits into the Benson/Moorhead cinematic universe, introducing a fractured sibling relationship put through the physical and emotional wringer when they play with forces they don’t quite […]

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‘Kryptic’ SXSW Review – A Goopy, Esoteric Cryptozoology Psycho-Thriller

Meagan Navarro Kryptic, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024

Bigfoot isn’t the only elusive cryptid in horror. Director Kourtney Roy‘s feature debut, Kryptic, centers around an amnesiac in pursuit of a missing cryptozoologist and the Canadian cryptid she was pursuing. Don’t expect a straightforward approach to this cryptid tale, though. Kryptic earns its title and then some, unfurling an esoteric psycho-thriller that uses its forest dwelling […]

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‘Dead Mail’ SXSW Review – An Offbeat, Lo-Fi ’80s Thriller

Meagan Navarro Dead Mail, Reviews, SXSW 2024

Obsession and profound loneliness drive writers/directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s lo-fi psychological thriller, Dead Mail. On paper, the premise reads like a familiar crime tale, yet the filmmakers’ execution quickly proves Dead Mail to be anything but conventional. A reinvention of the ‘80s aesthetic, a deft genre blend, and intimate empathy afforded to all of its unique […]

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‘Family’ SXSW Review – Esoteric Arthouse Horror About Grief and Fear Induces Visceral Chills

Meagan Navarro Benjamin Finkel, Family, Reviews, Ruth Wilson, SXSW, SXSW 2024

The attention-grabbing opening scene in writer/director Benjamin Finkel’s Family effectively establishes the film’s peculiar, esoteric, yet bone-chilling tone. Evoking Relic or Ari Aster’s Hereditary, the cold open sees preteen protagonist Johanna (Cameron Dawson Gray) banging on the locked doors of a synagogue, pleading to be let in, only for her mother, Naomi (Ruth Wilson), to stalk across the lawn, […]

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‘Desert Road’ SXSW Review – A Roadtrip Thriller with an Affecting Sci-fi Twist

Meagan Navarro Desert Road, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024

A woman finds herself trapped in a harrowing nightmare in writer/director Shannon Triplett’s feature debut, Desert Road, but not in the way you’d expect. While the road trip thriller traps its protagonist in place on a desolate stretch of highway, tossing harrowing encounters and obstacles her way against a ticking clock, a sci-fi twist and a […]

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‘Y2K’ SXSW Review – A24’s Teen Comedy-Horror is a Party Worth Rewinding the Clock For

Meagan Navarro A24, Jaeden Martell, Kyle Mooney, Rachel Zegler, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024, Weta Workshop, Y2K

Ah, Y2K. The millennium bug that induced widespread fear over the possibility of a worldwide infrastructure crash once 2000 arrived becomes infectious fodder for a teen comedy infused with horror and nostalgia. Armed with a pitch-perfect, game-for-anything ensemble and great practical effects behind the carnage and calamity, A24’s latest offers up the most entertaining, apocalyptic funny-bone-tickling […]

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‘Birdeater’ SXSW Review – A Nail-Biting Deconstruction of Identity and Abuse

Meagan Navarro Birdeater, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2024

A blurred image of a Wake in Fright poster in an early shot in Birdeater cuts right to the heart of directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir’s feature debut, a hat tip to the style and tone of madness ahead. Like Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 classic thriller, Birdeater utilizes horror and thriller mechanics and tropes to deconstruct Australia’s masculine identity, one at odds with today’s […]

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