Let's start things off with a quote from COMINGSOON.NET about the new horror flick SEANCE - "Scream Meets Black Christmas." The first thought that pops into my mind is, "Which Black Christmas are they talking about?" Is it the classic 1974 film that everyone seems to love? Or is it the underrated 2006 gorefest remake? (Yes, I said underrated!) Or is it the in-name-only, godawful 2019 remake? As for Scream, are they referring to the 1995 film or its lackluster sequels? Even after viewing the film, I'm still not sure what they meant. It's more like a magicless version of The Craft meets The House on Sorority Row.

Why do I waste my time reading reviews written by the mainstream media? I rarely read other reviews before writing my own, but tonight I found myself reading a few for the vampire-flick Jakob's Wife. I usually don't care what a critic thinks of a horror film, but a specific Variety review from March ticked me off. The critic, who I won't name, stated Jakob's Wife is nothing more but "a cheap and cheerless vampire movie knock-off." Why does a vampire movie have to be cheerful? I take it this so-called critic has never watched a vampire movie? And, no, the Twilight Saga doesn't count. Cheap? It's a low-budget, B-grade horror film, enough said. A knock-off? Of what? Sure, the vampire looks a hell of a lot like Count Orlok from Nosferatu and Kurt Barlow from Salem's Lot, but I would never call it a knock-off. Good grief! Ever heard of a homage?!

The horror genre has changed significantly throughout the last decade. Minus a few supernatural flops, like this year's The Unholy, only studio-proven IPs (Halloween, The Conjuring, Saw, etc.) receive the red carpet rollout in theaters. The rest typically head straight to VOD or the $5 DVD bin at Walmart. With so many new low-budget horror films, it can difficult for me to keep up with all the release dates. RLJE Films released the occult-thriller SON (Not Rated; 98 minutes) to DVD and Blu-ray on May 18th. If I hadn't received a press release, I wouldn't have even known about this movie, which stars Andi Matichak, who co-starred in 2018's Halloween and will appear in its sequel Halloween Kill later this year.

For many months there has been a lot of talk & hype around the Canadian indie horror-comedy PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN (Not Rated; 94 minutes) from writer/director Steven Kostanski (The Void, Leprechaun Returns). The film was to debut at the South by Southwest film festival last Spring, but the premiere got canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later in 2020, the film was screened at the Beyond Fest, Monster Fest, and the Sitges Film Festival. RLJE Films and Shudder (owned by AMC Networks) bought the distribution rights and released the film to theaters and VOD in January 2021. The film landed on DVD and Blu-ray on March 16th, 2021.