Letterboxd — Your life in film

Directed by Mario Bava, "Five Dolls for an August Moon" is a swinging-but-listless, Italian thriller involving folks getting knocked off one by one at a secluded manor. There are the standard Bava visual flourishes, like eye-popping use of color, but the film lacks a developed story and real tension. A post-climax reveal is interesting, but does not salvage the overall experience.

"Island of Despair" is the name given to the truncated, Netflix-streaming-available version of "99 Women," a film where some people are in prison. Then some of them try to escape. Also, there's a sadistic female warden. In all seriousness, the film is not a complete waste of time, but there is very little here to speak of narratively or cinematically.

Perhaps the full-length version is more fun.

Heavy on the gore, but light on intrigue, Mario Bava's "Bay of Blood" is horror thriller that may attract genre fans thanks to the name of its director and his trademark visual flourishes. The film has enough shocks and twists to make it watchable, but the exercise feels ultimately less-than-compelling.

As an aside, it is interesting to see how much American slashers, like "Friday the 13th," borrowed from this film.

I should appreciate this film for telling the story of a young man, his dog, and their post-apocalyptic quest on such a small scale, but "A Boy and His Dog" is too underdone to generate any such appreciation.

Bearing the washed out look of a historical photograph, the overwrought and unsubtle "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" collapses under the weight of its silly and ludicrous concept. Now, if you can divorce yourself from said silly and ludicrous concept, the film may be experienced as overwrought, unsubtle, and altogether trashy fun. Good luck with that.

"Absentia" is an independent horror film whose micro-budget veneer may scare away some audiences. For those willing to penetrate that veneer, however, the film is a gem. Slowly engrossing, "Absentia" is more about subtle scares and trying to peer into the darkness than visceral frights and gore. It is a rich and thematically layered, unpolished find that deserves an audience.

A staid drama of repressed desires and psychoanalysis from David Cronenberg, "A Dangerous Method" must be commended for its attention to period detail and performances by Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen. Containing a few token drippy-gooey Cronenebergian images, the film is interesting but rarely manages to ever heat up.

Short and sweetly endearing, "A Goofy Movie" is a straightforward and colorful, musical father-son flick. Its animation may never compete with Disney's A-listers, but the film is fun and energetic; plus, its nineties-tastic soundtrack is hummably infectious.

Building a semi-stylized reality out of small-town American cliches, David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" is a pressure-tight thriller that features the always-great Viggo Mortensen. With tension that is taut and unwavering, the film plays each of its beats neatly, cleanly, and violently.

There are one or two belly laughs to be had, but, once the warm glow of nostalgia burns out, "American Reunion" offers nothing but recycled, tread-worn schtick and hijinks from the previous chapters of the American Pie saga. The call-backs to the first film are nice, but there is nothing fresh to be served here.

Talking heads and vintage tape-quality clips populate this documentary detaling American television's so-called horror hosts from the latter half of the 20th century. The film is not grounbreaking or necessarily deep, but it paints a loving portrait of the quirky personalities who brought horror flicks into the homes of Americans before the days of VCRs, video stores, DVDs, and Netflix. "American Scary" is an interesting and light look at a televsion staple of a time that, unfortunately, has now passed.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.