It's Italian-American Heritage Month, so we at Certified Forgotten decided to... lol, well, have a little fun. You see, co-host Matthew Monagle publicly skeeted that there's only one good horror-comedy. That prompted CF's other half, Matt Donato, to…

At its core, Other Mommy is a bedtime lullaby gone haywire. Marketing and trailers try to insinuate otherwise by packing in jump scares and loud musical stings. There's a disconnect between Universal's hopes of scoring big October box office numbers and the softhearted, sparkle-dusted, sorta-scary tale Rob Savage musters. It’s comparable to Andy Muschietti's Mama […]

Aaron Sorkin’s a helluva screenplay wizard whose director resume just got spottier. The Social Reckoning misses Jesse Eisenberg’s talents, but misses David Fincher’s vision even more. Jeff Horwitz’s Pulitzer-awarded Wall Street Journal reporting on…

Some horror franchises mature; V/H/S seems to be growing more rebellious with each entry. V/H/S/Mixtape continues Shudder’s stellar anthology run behind producer Josh Goldbloom, tuning into audio horror frequencies. Most segments theme around music: an 80s-era metal video; armageddon compositions; songs made by the dead. It’s a madcap moshpit of filmmaking talent, from Wu-Tang leaders […]

We're playing a little post-festival rewind here at Certified Forgotten, which means the Matts are finally tackling Resident Evil (2026). On paper, Zach Cregger's horror-comedy take on Capcom's nightmare franchise should divide your co-hosts. Matt…

Sometimes, inspiration falls into your lap. Take this month’s remake analysis, for example. There are plenty of marquee titles I haven’t hit yet (Pulse,

It's been a decade since Na Hong-jin directed his last feature film, The Wailing, and it's been two weeks since we recorded our episode on his recent Neon release, Hope. Blame Donato, and blame film festivals. But better late than never, your two…

Filmmaking brothers David and Nathan Zellner march to a beat no one else can hear. Sasquatch Sunset is their most idiosyncratic: a grunted Bigfoot family drama. Their latest, Alpha Gang, is far more commercial but equally, undeniably weird. Any teases of a broader science fiction thriller about an alien invasion are quickly dismissed by the […]

Give me a divisive film over a safe, 3-stars-across-the-board title any day. At Fantastic Fest this year, that movie is Compliance.  A quick gander at Letterboxd shows my mutuals in two camps—either the 1-star, erase-it-from-my-memory lows, or 5-star gushes that deem it a modern classic. Kyle Mangione-Smith’s surveillance-state, Anonymous-like slice of found footage and Screenlife […]

Starry Eyes is a star-making breakout; Pet Sematary (2019) is a remake I’ll stand behind. I'm clearly a fan of filmmaking duo Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer, which makes their latest mucky eco-thriller—Fantastic Fest's closing night title, The Swallow—such an outstanding disappointment. It's like The Blob and The Ruins had a quicksand baby with a […]

Christmas Horror titles tend to be based on festive themes (duh). A killer St. Nick; nefarious elves; sabotaged presents. Ilja Rautsi's Nordic addition to the ever-growing Xmas massacre canon, Red Snow (aka Punaista lunta), is about one mean Santa—but not in the typical presentation. Rautsi blends familial dysfunction that's exacerbated by holiday socializing with vampiric […]

As India's horror output grows in popularity, films like Samjad's South Indian Half will pave the way. Underrepresented regions with unique voices all have their stories to tell. In this case, Samjad and co-writer Praveen Viswanath pen a contemporary supernatural western featuring action choreography from Very Tri Yulisman (The Raid 2, The Night Comes for […]

As Maika Monroe solidifies her legacy as a modern genre queen, Victorian Psycho shoots to the top of her resume. Zachary Wigon's unruly period horror flick features the actress at her most unhinged—a blood-splattered treat. Virginia Feito pens a satirical examination of gender dynamics in 1850s British high society, where boys were considered heirs while […]

I walked out of Joko Anwar’s Ghost in the Cell at 2 AM charged with enough energy to wrestle King Kong off the Empire State Building. Anwar’s scared us senseless with Indonesian imports like Santa’s Slaves, Impetigore, and Grave Torture, but Ghost in the Cell reveals another weapon in the filmmaker’s arsenal: laugh-out-loud comedy. Not sure […]

Hurt people hurt people; life is cruel and, at times, unfair. At their core, straightforward adages. In Adam Egypt Mortimer’s deliriously heartrending Pathetic Fallacy, they’re the impetus for karmic cosmic catastrophe.  Mortimer has never played safe and doesn’t start now. His latest is a music-driven existential breakdown in the key of sadness, manifesting grief and […]

If Him reignited the sports horror subgenre, I'll do a touchdown celebration. That means we'll get more gnarly films like Nikias Chryssos' Bloody Tennis. Chryssos takes competitive sports and survival-of-the-fittest mentalities to gruesome degrees, pitting competitors against one another for more than a trophy. It's reminiscent of Him, Suspiria, Girls With Balls, and The Novice […]

'In A Violent Nature 2' doubles down on its gimmick and its kills. But bloodier is not necessarily better.

Joshua Giuliano's slasher debut, River, has made quite the splash on the festival circuit. The IFC and Shudder production unexpectedly sold to Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster for $10 million in an unprecedented move, and I now understand why. It's giving cult-kissed The Strangers vibes but afloat: "Because you were on a boat" should be […]

Nicolas Curcio does not, as they say, throw away his shot. Play House is the product of Fantastic Fest's inaugural Fantastic Pitches, where Curcio took top honors. The result is an effectively chilling commentary on the housing market (among oodles more), featuring felt puppets, black mold, and psychic realators. James Urbaniak slam-dunks Creepypasta vibes as […]

[SPOILER WARNING: If you want to be fully surprised by the creature-feature reveal, DO NOT read this review.] - - - In a just world, filmmaker Jordan Downey’s career would have blasted off after The Head Hunter in the same way Dan Trachtenberg became the Predator whisperer. May The Cycle ignite that ascension. Downey and […]