Matt Donato

I bet you didn't think we'd ever cover a Steven Spielberg movie on the podcast, didja? This week's special guest, author Max Evry, found a loophole: the 1972 made-for-television feature Something Evil. It's fitting, since Max's new book Stranded on…

Josh Lobo's Night After Night is an atmospheric psychological horror film led by Scott Poythress, blending existential dread.

Takashi Yamazaki holds the antidote to sequelitis: Godzilla Minus Zero. I can’t stress how taken I was by Godzilla Minus One, rating it a near-perfect 4.5/5 skulls for Bloody Disgusting. Yamazaki had so little room to rank higher by critical terms, yet here we are, with my first five-star review of 2026. I sat there […]

YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Alex Goyette (aka “JOULETHIEF”) has mastered the art of going viral; take Breeder. The concept is buzzworthy: Eugenics. The approach doesn’t hold back in treating humans like livestock; Goyette strips civilization down to its naked animalism. Enter the imposing ex-athlete Dot-Marie Jones as a towering villain you cannot deny. Goyette assembles pieces that make […]

There's plenty to appreciate about Christmas at the Kringles—until you actually watch the movie. Kevin Lewis, best known for Willy's Wonderland, assembles a crackerjack cast of funnymen and women for a Christmas Horror slasher with sour Christmas Vacation vibes. On paper, sign me up. But Christmas at the Kringles is as appetizing a genre offering […]

Gabrielle Christensen's Mountain King delivers a charming Scandinavian horror-comedy, blending folklore and a literal monster-in-law.

'Rubberhead' chronicles the remarkable career of special effects legend Steve Johnson in a funny documentary about monsters & Hollywood.

There's a lot we don't want to say about Jordan Downey's The Cycle because if you haven't been spoiled yet, stay that way. So, yes. It's this week's topic for an Uncertified review. Deborah Ann Woll kicks ass as the lead forensic pathologist. Jeffrey…

We love a hangout horror movie with transfixing vibes, don’t we (say yes, humor me)? That’s Nicky Murphy’s I Love Paris, a found-footage bloodsucker with hints of Only Lovers Left Alive, Suck, What We Do in the Shadows, and a smidge of Luca Guadagnino’s coolest streaks. It’s as much a music-industry commentary as it is […]

The glory of comic books as a medium is the vast array of genres any franchise can explore. Marvel Zombies exists, so why are modern spandex-and-cape flicks so entrenched in their formulas? It's a burning question I've had for a while, and James Watkins' Clayface finally offers a counterpoint. All it took was the right […]

For nearly two decades, Marvel’s Disneyfied Cinematic Universe has swaddled audiences in a cozy lil’ family-friendly safety blanket. Comic book adaptations, at least in theaters, resemble a dependable brand of PG-13 squeakiness. That’s why Clayface is such an exciting antidote to modern capes-and-spandex flicks. It’s like watching Swamp Thing for the first time; superhero features […]

Did I miss when a law was enacted that requires at least one new scary spider movie set in an apartment building every Halloween? Infested, Sting, now Crawlers—which might as well be an American Infested remake. I Can't Believe It's Not Infested?, since it's the Lite version? I kid, but only slightly so. Angel Gómez […]

Street Fighter is a video game adaptation in the arcade sense: pop in a coin, button-mash for quick thrills, then move on to the next machine. That's not (wholly) a diss. Filmmaker Kitao Sakurai helms a 90s action goober that revels in manchild humor…

Welp, incoming bummer alert. My enthusiasm for Whalefall’s existence and my reaction to the film don't match. Brian Duffield’s adaptation of Daniel Kraus’ swallowed-by-a-whale thriller was one of my most anticipated flicks this year. Duffield’s a marksman with offbeat horror fare (Spontaneous, No One Will Save You), so if anyone could do this preposterous aquatic […]

When you're a kid, candy is candy. Sure, we'd flock to the "King" cul-de-sac in the affluent part of town first, but we didn't pass by the "Fun Size" households along the way. KitKats and Milky Ways still taste great in bite-sized form, much like Hallowarrior, Ben Sottak's "Fun Size" Halloween indie. Its budget probably […]

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…