Dripping with dread and chilling in its nihilistic infused horrors, When Evil Lurks proficiently and graphically presents a demonic possession movie told within a world removed from God’s grace.

Directed by Demián Rugna, When Evil Lurks follows Pedro (Ezequiel Rodriguez) and Jimi (Demián Salomon), brothers who are shocked to find that their nearest neighbour is harbouring a demonically possessed person who if mishandled or killed incorrectly will enter a human or animal within its vicinity. When the brothers are tasked to move the “possessed one” away from their village, they unleash a chain reaction of violence and horror.

Rugna pulls no punches in his depiction of the demonic at their most savage, with murder at its most vile their method of carnage and the consumption of souls their endgame. The shocking violence as portrayed in scenes of graphic body horror is coupled with a palpable dread that is almost overbearing in its weight, Rugna never allowing the tension to cease.  

 

Filmed on a limited budget in the Northern European country of Estonia, Deliver Us certainly does not feel like an independent feature, with directors Lee Rou Kunz and Cru Ennis delivering an incredibly crafted horror feature that more than equals most major studio fare.

Set in Russia, Deliver Us tells the story of Sister Yulina (Maria Vera Ratti), a nun who claims immaculate conception when she gives birth to twin boys: one alleged to be the new coming of the Messiah, and the other the Anti-Christ. Ordered to investigate by the Vatican is Father Fox (Lee Roy Kunz) who uncovers a sinister conspiracy.

While certain plot points in Deliver Us have previously been explored in The Omen and Prince of Darkness, there is a stern seriousness to the philosophical and theological supernatural worldbuilding of Deliver Us that increases the stakes of good versus evil to William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist) levels of Catholic influenced religious horror.

 

Director Brandon Cronenberg’s latest movie Infinity Pool continues to cement the Canadian filmmaker’s position as a unique and uncompromising voice in horror sci-fi cinema.

Infinity Pool stars Alexander Skarsgard as a struggling writer who while on vacation at a luxurious island resort is guided by a mysterious woman (Mia Goth) into a nightmare fuelled playground of consequence free hedonism. Clones, tripped-out orgies, and messed up body-horror hijinks follow.

A surreal and disturbing yet utterly captivating descent into a world of narcissism and madness drown the soul, Infinity Pool also features terrific performances from Skarsgaard and Goth who go all out to achieve Cronenberg’s vision.

    

Not since Memento has there been a neo-noir as engrossing and original as Psychosis. A concoction of George Romero, David Lynch, and John Huston squeezed into a 4:3 aspect ratio frame and presented in stark black and white, Psychosis is the brainchild of South Australian filmmaker Pirie Martin who makes quite the statement with his feature film debut: a genre film with rich artistry and a knack for the surreal.

Psychosis stars Derryn Amoroso as Cliff Van Aarle, a criminal fixer burdened by auditory hallucinations and the responsibility of taking care of his comatose sister. When Cliff agrees to take on a high paying case involving a pair of upstart drug dealers caught in a dangerous situation, he finds himself in the crosshairs of Joubini (James McCluskey-Carcia) a drug kingpin and sadistic hypnotist who seems more monster than man.

With Psychosis, Martin takes traditional neo-noir elements and contorts them to fit his unique vision of a gum-shoe odyssey through the strange and surreal, where costumed vigilantes and masked villains occupy a dark and paranoid world that is as horrific as it is darkly comedic.

 

One of the best and terrifying recent examples of found footage horror filmmaking, Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor engrosses with its storytelling and dread filled scares making it a must watch for any horror fan.

The fourth film in the Hell House LLC franchise, …The Carmichael Manor focuses on a group of internet sleuths (Bridget Rose Perrotta, Destiny Leilani Brown, and James Liddell) who investigate the grizzly unsolved murder of an affluent family at an abandoned Manor, only to find a different hell awaits them.

Featuring the return of original Hell House LLC director Stephen Cognetti, Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor displays an excellent exercise in restraint in its dread filled scares while also featuring a clever use of world-building in what is sure to be a long continuing horror franchise.

 

A chilling and thought-provoking example of fine religious horror filmmaking, Nefarious stars an excellent Sean Patrick Flannery as a demonically possessed serial killer awaiting execution, who in his final hours tries to convince a non-believing psychiatrist (Jordan Belfi) into delivering his manifesto to the world.

Written and directed by Cory Solomon and Chuck Konzelman (Unplanned), Nefarious provides a welcome alternative to the usual demonic possession movie tripe: dialogue driven, intelligently written, and foreboding Catholic-infused horror that takes the insidious and corrupting nature of evil seriously.

A commanding performance from Sean Patrick Flannery elevates the spiritually and thematically compelling Nefarious into upper echelons of faith-based horror that will haunt the soul.

 

Godzilla Minus One – the reboot of the famed and prolific Godzilla franchise – proved to be the blockbuster surprise of the year, made at the fraction of the average big-budget Hollywood movie.

Set in the aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, Godzilla: Minus One stars Ryunosuke Kamiki as a disgraced kamikaze pilot who tries to put back the pieces of his life together, only to find another war awaits him when a nuclear-infused rampaging mega-monster sets its sights on Japan.

Director Takashi Yamazaki (Ghost Book) delivers a monster movie that not only delivers a truly epic and scary spectacle, but also has an engrossing dramatic core that makes Godzilla Minus One that rare beast that delivers on the intimate and the epic.

 

Those who believe there is no more creativity in cinema must watch Moon Garden and heal their movie-loving hearts.

Directed by the multi-talented Ryan Steven Harris, Moon Garden tells the story of comatose 5-year-old girl Emma (Haven Lee Harris) who journeys through an industrial fantasy world to find her way back to consciousness. Every bit the horror fantasy, young Emma is haunted by a dark spectre with chattering teeth who feeds on the tears of the young.

Shot on 35mm camera and created with hand-crafted practical effects, Moon Gorden is a visual marvel that has a pulsating heart at its core; a film where fantasy, reality, and memory converge to create a world of dreams and nightmares, and emotions rich and vibrant.

 

A fantastically gory and frightening splatterfest, Evil Dead Rise continues the Evil Dead franchises’ reputation as a blood drenched and innovative horror spectacle.

After a frightening prologue that sets the tone for the intense and bloody horror to follow, the Lee Cornin directed Evid Dead Rise moves to an urban setting (the first for the franchise) of a soon to be torn down Los Angeles apartment building, in which a family reunion between divorced single mother Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her estranged sister Beth (Lily Sullivan) is interrupted by an evil force that transforms Ellie into a homicidal demon that has its sights on devouring her family.

Cronin delivers a suitably gruesome horror experience that is as intense as its is entertaining. Blending the franchises infamous grindhouse madness with a modern-day horror polish, Evil Dead Rise doesn’t so much reinvent the Evil Dead series as reinvigorates it for a new era.

 

A frightening and innovative tale of grief, loneliness, and the dire consequences of messing with the dark arts, Talk to Me could very well be a generational classic that can have an impact on the mainstream.

Talk to Me stars Sophie Wilde as Mia, a teenager still grieving the loss of her mother a year prior. When Mia takes part in a unique séance ritual involving the amputated hand of a psychic encased in a clay cast, demonic spirits begin to exploit Mia’s fragile psyche leading to unspeakable horrors.

The feature film directorial debut of brothers Danny and Michael Philippou (who are also known by their YouTube channel RackaRacka), Talk to Me in its basic form is a demonic possession movie, yet the filmmaking skill and approach to storytelling brings a new lease of life to a worn-out subgenre of horror.