Thom Ernst

It seems Refn is primarily interested in making a film that he is interested in making, and really doesn’t care a whole lot if the audience doesn’t follow. He does have fun with some unexpected martial art fight sequences, some clever comic-book slashes of violence and one or two meltdowns crazier than a Norma Desmond outtake, But it’s never enough to make the film feel like something with which the audience is welcome to play along.

Vanicek delivers the pain, the brutality, and the technical craftsmanship. What he doesn't quite recapture is the mischievous spirit that made audiences grin even as they watched through their fingers.

Leviticus announces Adrian Chiarella as a filmmaker of remarkable confidence and control. It's a horror film that trusts its audience, trusts its characters, and trusts the power of what remains unseen. In doing so, it becomes one of the year's most unsettling — and impressive — genre debuts.

Affection remains intriguing throughout, and often admirable in its ambition, but it never quite trusts the very themes that make it worth caring about in the first place.

By the end, Obsession proves itself far smarter, crueler, and more emotionally devastating than its straightforward title initially suggests.

From the first act straight through to the third, the film engages on a level far higher than it needs to. Which is what happens when you put real craft behind a premise that could have coasted on novelty.

If Hokum proves anything, it’s that McCarthy isn’t just part of this new wave of horror filmmakers—he’s carving out his own narrow corridor within it. A place where folklore, psychology, and just enough chemical suggestion collide.

Cronin doesn’t just show you something disturbing—he insists you sit with it until it becomes personal.

There’s a particular confidence to Undertone that doesn’t announce itself with spectacle, but with restraint. It’s the confidence of a film that knows exactly how little it needs to show you in order to get under your skin.

It’s messy. It’s excessive. It overstays its welcome. But like any good dysfunctional family gathering, you don’t leave early.