Horror | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: The Thing [1982]

2016/12/152019/01/20 Jared Mobarak

“That’s going to win someone the Nobel Prize” It may not be the first adaptation of John W. Campbell Jr.‘s novella Who Goes There?, but John Carpenter‘s The Thing is definitely hailed as the most definitive. Unlike The Thing from Another World‘s humanoid adversary, Bill Lancaster (who took over screenwriting duties from an uncredited Tobe Hooper) writes the alien force wreaking havoc on his Antarctic research team as originally envisioned. The terror therefore isn’t conjured as a result of what it is as much as what it can do. An…

REVIEW: Abattoir [2016]

2016/12/052016/12/10 Jared Mobarak

“Better living through sin and sacrifice” You have to admire Darren Lynn Bousman‘s ambition because he could have just kept going with the Saw franchise after taking over the reins from James Wan. Instead he jumped ship to work on a passion project developed with Terrance Zdunich and Darren Smith entitled Repo! The Genetic Opera. Here was a science fiction horror musical based upon a short produced two years previously with enough character and originality to become a cult favorite. Since then he wrote a couple films that didn’t go…

REVIEW: SiREN [2016]

2016/11/282016/12/01 Jared Mobarak

“You can’t miss a memory you’ll never remember” Adapted from the segment “Amateur Night” from anthology film V/H/S, Gregg Bishop‘s SiREN intrigued me mainly because he didn’t create the original. That’s how impactful producers felt this vignette proved, enough to spark interest for an expansion beyond its creative team. David Bruckner—the source material’s director and co-writer with Nicholas Tecosky—stayed on as an executive producer while working second unit, ultimately passing the baton to Bishop in order to focus on his own feature Southbound. In that respect this project could be…

REVIEW: Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens [Nosferatu] [1922]

2016/11/202016/11/22 Jared Mobarak

“Does this word not sound like the deathbird calling your name at midnight?” Every copy of F.W. Murnau‘s Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens [Nosferatu] should have been destroyed. It was with good reason too considering the German based production house Prana hired Henrik Galeen to “loosely” adapt Bram Stoker‘s Dracula without permission. The estate sued and eventually won, pushing the studio into bankruptcy and the prints to destruction. Luckily for us some survived—two other early adaptations, one Soviet and the other Hungarian, did not. It’s insane to think that Max…

REVIEW: Night of the Slasher [2016]

2016/11/10 Jared Mobarak

“I can wait until you’re dressed” You’re the sole survivor of a horror movie incident that has literally left you speechless with an ear-to-ear scar across your throat. Do you continue your life with straight-edged celibacy to ensure you never commit the genre sins that got you cut in the first place? Or do you do whatever is necessary to bring your assailant back to wreak some revenge? Well, if you’re like Jenelle (Lily Berlina) the answer is always going to be the latter. So you work out what it…

REVIEW: Pigskin [2016]

2016/11/092016/11/09 Jared Mobarak

“Go Magpies!” Their publicists would be remiss not to mention that the same school Pigskin director Jake Hammond and co-writer Nicola Newton attend is that which graduated It Follows creator David Robert Mitchell. I personally couldn’t stop thinking about the latter while watching thanks to the horror underpinnings of a creepily deformed figure trailing high school cheerleader Laurie (Isadora Leiva) around. Mix that sense of dread with a poppy synth soundtrack a la Drive and you can get a feeling for what Hammond and Newton deliver. The vision is impeccable,…

REVIEW: The Greasy Strangler [2016]

2016/10/222016/10/23 Jared Mobarak

“He likes to shout. I like to smile.” My description of Jim Hosking‘s feature directorial debut The Greasy Strangler: a gross-out, darkly obscure comedy centered on a father and son duo akin to Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne from Dumb and Dumber that exists in a deranged parallel universe to Napoleon Dynamite as directed by John Waters. On some level that sounds amazing. On another it makes my skin crawl. I love Dumb and Dumber, hate Napoleon Dynamite, and appreciate Waters whether I enjoy his trash cinema aesthetic every outing…

REVIEW: The Monster [2016]

2016/10/202016/11/08 Jared Mobarak

“I wish you listened more” Monster movies are tough because there’s a desire to go full bore into cat and mouse chaos or metaphorical symbolism. Things get muddled when both are attempted at once without the correct balance. I’m not saying picking one or the other always spells success—writer/director Bryan Bertino‘s debut The Strangers ultimately failed at mysterious chaos for me despite some effective scares—but it does often allow a filmmaker the opportunity to focus and reinforce his/her idea with less chance of getting distracted. Bertino’s third film The Monster,…

REVIEW: Jack Goes Home [2016]

2016/10/112016/10/12 Jared Mobarak

“Artists write poetry. Assholes just complain.” There’s no question that Thomas Dekker‘s sophomore effort as writer/director is a head-scratcher. What you as a viewer must decide is whether or not to keep scratching. I don’t think anyone outside of Dekker himself can truly unpack the type of psychological chaos occurring within Jack Goes Home and I like that notion. This is an artist using his medium as an outlet to exorcise demons without necessarily factoring in audience expectations. It doesn’t supply easy answers, leaves a ton of loose ends as…

REVIEW: Phantasm [1979]

2016/09/242016/09/25 Jared Mobarak

“You think when you die, you go to heaven. You come to us!” Of course J.J. Abrams would initiate the process of remastering Don Coscarelli‘s seminal Phantasm. Anyone who’s seen “Lost” will quickly notice similarities in their worlds shrouded by mystery devoid of a need or desire to provide explanation. This is what makes them great: they’re intentionally left open to interpretation. We don’t need to watch as the Island is constructed (although subsequent seasons did delve into its history at the behest of fans). And we don’t need to…

REVIEW: Don’t Breathe [2016]

2016/09/222016/09/23 Jared Mobarak

“If we do this right we never have to do this again” The best thing you can do to distance yourself from the big budget remake of a cult classic that serves as your feature directorial debut is to pare things down and deliver an original gem of your own. Fede Alvarez took the criticisms of his Evil Dead—gore for gore sake (something many of its proponents surely use to also explain its greatness)—and decided to utilize them during the writing process on Don’t Breathe. The supernatural aspect is gone…