269 | Presence

• Rated: R

• Runtime: 1hr 25min

• Directed by Steven Soderbergh

• Written by David Koepp

• Stars: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and Callina Liang

• Premiered at Sundance January 19, 2024

• Released in theaters January 24, 2025

• RT: 87% critics / 54% audience

Synopsis

A dysfunctional family moves into a new house and begins to suspect that it might be haunted.

Join us in three weeks when we review Oddity, currently streaming on AMC+.

Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

268 | Smile & Smile 2

Smile

• Rated R

• Runtime: 1hr 55min

• Written & Directed by Parker Finn

• Stars: Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner and Kal Penn

• Premiered at Fantastic Fest September 22, 2022

• Released in theaters September 30, 2022

• RT: 79% critics / 77% audience

Synopsis 

Psychiatrist Rose witnesses a disturbing event at work which leads her to believe that a demonic entity has malicious designs on her.

Smile 2

• Rated R

• Runtime: 2hr 7min

• Written & Directed by Parker Finn

• Stars: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt and Lukas Gage

• Released in theaters October 18, 2024

• RT: 86% critics / 81% audience

Synopsis 

A global pop star is next in line to be terrorized by the insidious Smile entity. However, her increasingly erratic behavior is seen as a drug relapse and career meltdown instead of the desperate cry for help that it is.

Join us in two weeks when we review Presence, which will be released in theaters on January 24th.

Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

257 | The Night House

• Rated R

• Runtime: 1hr 47min

• Directed by David Bruckner

• Written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski

• Stars: Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg and Vondie Curtis-Hall

• Premiered at Sundance January 24, 2020

• Released in theaters August 20, 2021

• RT: 88% critics / 69% audience

Synopsis 

A woman grieving the recent suicide of her husband experiences strange disturbances in her home and begins to believe that his ghost is attempting to contact her.

Join us in two weeks when we review Alien: Romulus, opening in theaters August 16.

Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

256 | Longlegs

• Rated R

• Runtime: 1hr 41min

• Written & Directed by Oz Perkins

• Stars: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage and Blair Underwood

• Premiered at Beyond Fest May 31, 2024

• Released in theaters July 12, 2024

• RT: 86% critics / 63% audience

Synopsis 

Rookie FBI agent Lee Harker uses her psychic abilities and apparent personal connection to help her catch elusive serial killer Longlegs, who has been implicated in several “family annihilator” murders over the past 30 years, and whose coded letters are the only physical connection to the crime scenes.

Join us in two weeks when we review The Night House, available on demand.

Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

253 | I Saw the TV Glow

• Rated PG-13

• Runtime: 1hr 40min

• Written & Directed by Jane Schoenbrun

• Stars: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine and Ian Foreman

• Premiered at Sundance Film Festival January 18, 2024

• Released in theaters May 17, 2024

• RT: 84% critics / 68% audience

Synopsis 

Shy teenager Owen is intrigued by a supernatural teen TV show and an older classmate named Maddy who is obsessed with the show. When they begin watching the show together, the lines between reality and television begin to blur.

Join us next time when we'll review In a Violent Nature, now playing in theaters.

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Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

247 | Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor

• Not Rated 

• Runtime: 1hr 38min

• Written & Directed by Stephen Cognetti

• Stars: Bridget Rose Perrotta, Destiny Leilani Brown and James Liddell

• Limited theatrical release October 24, 2023, premiered on Shudder October 30, 2023

• RT: 87% critics / 82% audience

Synopsis 

Faux documentary about an internet sleuth who, along with her partner and her brother, spends five nights in the notoriously haunted Carmichael Manor, the site of a brutal multiple murder in the late 1980s. Once there they find connections to the equally infamous Abaddon Hotel.

Join us next time when we'll review Stopmotion, available to rent starting March 15, 2024.

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Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

246 | The Others

• Rated PG-13 

• Runtime: 1hr 44min

• Written & Directed by Alejandro Amenábar

• Stars: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan and Christopher Eccleston

• Premiered August 2, 2001

• RT: 84% critics / 77% audience

Synopsis 

A woman who lives with her photosensitive children in the countryside and waits for her husband to return from WWII becomes convinced that their house is haunted.

Join us next time when we'll review Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor, currently available on Shudder and AMC+.

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Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

239 | Dark Harvest

• Directed by David Slade

• Written by Michael Gilio, based on the novel by Norman Partridge

• Rated R 

• Runtime: 1hr 36min

• Stars: Casey Likes, Emyri Crutchfield and Jeremy Davies

• Released October 13, 2023 on VOD

• RT: 71% critics / 48% audience

  Synopsis 

  The teenage boys in a small town compete in a macabre contest each Halloween to hunt down and devour a monster called Sawtooth Jack before he can make it to the local church. Fortune and fame come to the winning boy and his family. This year, the angsty brother of the last winner badly wants to compete and win his ticket out of town, despite his entry being against the rules.

Join us next time when we'll review Thanksgiving, currently playing in theaters.

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Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

238 | When Evil Lurks

• Written & Directed by Demián Rugna

• Unrated 

• Runtime: 1hr 34min

• Stars: Ezequiel Rodríguez, Luis Ziembrowski and Demián Salomón

• Premiered at TIFF September 13, 2023

• Released in limited theaters October 6, 2023 and on Shudder October 27, 2023

• RT: 99% critics / 57% audience

  Synopsis 

  Two brothers in a small village discover a possessed man on their neighbor’s property who is infecting the nearby livestock. When they attempt to move him they unleash the demon on everyone around them.

Join us next time when we'll review Dark Harvest, currently available for rent.

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Theme music: "Secret of Tiki Island" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/