Brian Reeves

Very, very rarely a movie comes along that transcends the perceived limitations of being a “horror” or “scary” movie and becomes a full-fledged work of art. The Exorcist, Silence of the Lambs, and The Shining are some examples, and now you can add The Babadook, showing exclusively in Kansas City starting Friday at Screenland Armour, to that list as well.

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The ABCs of Death 2 moves quickly and most of it is ultimately very forgettable, but I still find myself drawn toward its desire to be different and truly artistic in its approach.

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A mother of a newborn baby is tormented by a demon attempting to hurt her child while skeptical father has no interactions with said demon. Add a dash of Satanic cult members, a priest, and an older woman who instantly understands of her predicament, mix thoroughly, and bake at 666 degrees until done.

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Can a horror movie that’s all atmosphere and zero coherent plot really satisfy? That’s the question I was left with once the credits started rolling on At the Devil’s Door. Writer/Director Nicholas McCarthy‘s take on the classic horror trope of selling one’s soul to the Devil oozes with dread and menace.

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Ti West’s found-footage horror flick ‘The Sacrament’ is not always great, but it’s much better than most of its genre counterparts.

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This weekend the Screenland Armour is the home of Panic Fest, a horror and thriller film fest with vendors that acts as general celebration of everything creepy, crawly, and scary. It’s a great fest for people who like their horror a little more off the beaten path than the latest uninspired remake of whatever classic horror film Hollywood is butchering next.

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This is Machete as a comic book character, rather than just one tough hombre. He’s gone full Superman here — nothing can kill him. This Machete belongs in the kid’s toy section next to the Robocop and Predator action figures that somehow crossed over from R-rated movies to Saturday morning cartoons.

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Insidious: Chapter 2 is not as good as director James Wan’s critically acclaimed release from earlier this year, The Conjuring. It is, however, the rare sequel that surpasses its predecessor in quality and entertainment value.

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When it comes to home invasion, most people think of The Strangers, or maybe even this year’s The Purge. You’re Next is no different than those films from a plot standpoint, but is worlds apart in tone. This is a twisted Looney Toons nightmare.

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V/H/S/2’s attempt to try and provide an overarching narrative that proves to be its biggest downfall, for two reasons. First, the multiple parts that make up this connective short film are easily the worst of this anthology. The second reason is that these “found VHS tapes” obviously don’t exist in the same universe.

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‘The Conjuring’ very much feels like a 1970s horror film, before slashers were haunting teenage dreams and well before found footage became the way to make a story feel real.

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In short, The Purge becomes just what the trailers promised — another Hollywood home invasion movie. It wants you to believe it’s more than that, and early on it is, but it doesn’t keep it up. It’s unfortunate, because somewhere inside the premise of The Purge there is a great movie, but this isn’t it.

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“What a terrible idea.” That’s all I could think when I first heard they were remaking The Evil Dead. Once the credits started rolling however, a completely different phrase was in my mind: blood poetry.

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It was a night filled with blood splatters, laughter, demon chicken zombies, musical numbers, Toxie, and a man who deserves to be called a legend of independent film.

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The ABCs of Death is a compilation of short films from 26 different directors, each assigned a letter of the alphabet. They were each given free reign to to choose any word they wanted beginning with that letter, and tasked with making a short film about death.

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