Stigmata a Forgettable Attempt to Cash In On the Late 90s Millennium Panic

Along with Bless the Child, End of Days, and Lost Souls, Stigmata was a religious-themed horror movie produced in anticipated of the Millennium. In the months proceeding the calendar flipping to the year 2000, there were plenty of Y2K-themed moral panics. Never one to miss a bandwagon, the horror genre obliged by producing a slate […]

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Consecration A Messy and Empty Attempt at Religious Horror

Maybe after nearly three years of a pandemic that kept us sheltered and separated, we’re feeling a little more introspective. Whatever the reason, just two months into 2023, and we have yet another religious horror movie. From the British filmmaker behind cult classics Severance and Triangle, Christopher Smith’s latest Consecration explores the confrontation between indifference […]

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Candy Land an Unflinching Grindhouse Look at Religious Extremism

In the opening week of 2023, M3gan looks to kick off the year for horror at the box office. Meanwhile a handful of indie horror movies have made their way to streaming and VOD platforms. On Vudu and Apple TV, an indie mix of slasher, Grindhouse, and religious horror, Candy Land became available today to […]

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American Gothic a Late 80s Slasher Best Left Forgotten in the Past

As the slasher – and horror by default – slowly lost steam by the latter half of the 1980s, plenty of horror titles saw either limited theatrical releases or went straight to video. One of those movies, American Gothic, had the kind of VHS cover art that should have embedded itself on horror fans’ brains. […]

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On The Third Day Strives for Poignancy, Settles for Middle-of-the-Road

Following on the surprisingly good Virus: 32, Shudder recently began streaming another Argentinean horror export, On Third Day. As its title implies, the thriller’s mysterious story revolves around some religious cult or conspiracy. Aside from its basic premise, which involves a mother’s son who goes missing after a car crash, On The Third Day comes […]

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Sin Eater Can’t Exorcise The Limits of its Budget

Religious horror has a long history in the genre. An increased fascination with the occult in the 1970s – and the success of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist – saw Hollywood studios scaring North American audiences back into the pews. In addition to this pro-faith horror movement, filmmakers have often used the horror genre to […]

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Fallen Tests The Faith of Even the Most Devout Horror Fans

No, not that Fallen. This isn’t that Denzel Washington “police procedural meets evil” from the 1990s. Not even close. Rather this 2022 Fallen is a an Italian export that recently made its way to some VOD platforms. With no advance buzz and few reviews, what we have are promotional materials that promise very different things. […]

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