Lauren Humphries-Brooks is a writer, editor, and media journalist. She holds a Master’s degree in Cinema Studies from New York University, and in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh. She regularly contributes to film and pop culture websites, and has written extensively on Classical Hollywood, British horror films, and the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres. She currently works as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader.
The atmospheric horror film tends to get shorter shrift from fans of horror than its more blood-thirsty brothers and sisters. It’s more understated, more psychological, more interested in establishing a sense of horror than in actually showing horrific things. Lenny Abramson’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’s Gothic novel The […]
Casino Royale opens with credits that just seem to keep going, and going, and going, which is a good benchmark for what this film will be. It lists a whopping five directors (plus an “additional sequences” credit) that include John Huston and Robert Parrish (better known for his […]
Josephine Decker’s beautiful Madeline’s Madeline shows at Fantasia 2018 this week, and once again I am at a loss of how to describe it with justice. Told primarily from the close perspective of its main character, it’s both narrative and experimental, a dive into the complicated psyche of […]
One of the opening scenes of Issa Lopez’s magical realist fabula Tigers Are Not Afraid depicts a group of Mexican schoolchildren discussing with their teacher the elements of a fairy tale. After they go through the litany – princesses and princes, castles, magic, tigers, three wishes – the […]
We toss the phrase “Hitchcockian thriller” around an awful lot. It’s become standard term for any thriller that uses clever plot devices, claustrophobic locations, or techniques that vaguely resemble something Hitchcock tried. But for once, there is a film that actually deserves the comparison. Nosipho Dumisa’s Number 37 […]
With the rise of so-called “prestige horror” and the mainstream establishment beginning (yet again) to take the genre seriously, contemporary horror films have the unenviable task of measuring up to a multitude of competitors for audience attention. But the increased emphasis on horror as a viable mainstream genre […]
I have been sitting here for the past five minutes, trying to decide how the hell to go about reviewing Rokuroku: The Promise of the Witch, now showing at Fantasia 2018. And I still don’t know how I feel. Did I like it? Hate it? Was I impressed […]
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