The Crazies (2010) a remake of The Crazies (1973) is a classic in its own right. Both films are highly revered, but my review will only be covering the 2010 remake which in my opinion is the better film. A small quite farm town in Iowa is plagued by multiple random attacks from their own citizens infected by an unknown chemical. More and more people are affected and it turns into a battle for survival against friends family and the government? The Crazies is like a good old zombie film with a big twist.

Cabin Fever (2002) is the original film before Cabin Fever (2016) an unneeded remake of a film only 14 years old at the time and still considered quite good. I will only be covering the original 2002 version. You’ve got your basic setup, group of clueless teens, cabin in the middle of nowhere, and a flesh eating disease!? Cabin Fever sets itself up as what seems to be a basic slasher film but with a major twist the killer is an unseen enemy, disease. It truly is a disgusting film, if you are not a fan of body horror then I wouldn’t recommend this film.

Afflicted is an original found footage type film. Afflicted uses found footage style for their film, I know there are people that dislike found footage, in a really tasteful and non-disorienting way. Even if you are not a fan of found footage I would give this one a try, because more than the film style the story here really stands out. A couple of friends go out on a trip across the world because Derek may not be alive much longer due to a tumor. Derek decides to spend the night with a foreign woman in an unknown country and Derek gets sick due to it that’s all I really want to say without spoiling anything.

And our winner is Spring, of course directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead two of the best minds in film to date. Watching this film again made me wonder in anticipation for their next film. When it comes down to it Spring, in my opinion, is the definite stand out film in Benson And Moorheads filmography. The Night Eats the World is a fantastic film too but it has some very stand out flaws in comparison to Spring. I truly hope you enjoy this review as much as I enjoyed writing it.

First of all I’m just going to take a second to appreciate how beautiful this film looks… with the breathtaking Italian country side setting or the dark foreboding caves and alleyways that Louise stalk her prey from. Now the story of Spring isn’t too complex, Evan is having a shitty day, he gets fired and his mom dies, so Evan decides drop everything and go to Italy. Evan meets a girl in Italy and falls in love very quickly (we do find out that it might just be pheromones but whatever its love). basic love story right? Nope turns out Louise is a kind of prehistoric mutant (I’m not completely sure they were quite vague about it) this fact makes the film a lot more entertaining, but does not take away from the fact that this is a beautiful love story.

Spring’s protagonist Evan is great, and is given strong dialogue to work with. Louise, the love interest, does a great job playing a mysterious woman with many secrets. I think Spring’s strong suit is its sci-fi elements. Evan walks into Louise’s house only to find a mutated Louise writhing on the ground tentacles growing out of her Evan, terrified, grabs the medicine she needs to revert her. An amazingly grotesque scene that only shows how strong Evan’s love is for Louise. I hope you enjoyed this review and remember to leave your own thoughts in the comments.

Down to two films on the watch list and room for first and last place spots only. Could this film be the best or the worst of the bunch, well only in my opinion I guess. Directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are two of my favorite directors of the current age, so it comes as a surprise to me that one of these two films actually takes last place. When it comes down to it thought The Night Eats The World was just a bit better than one of these final films. I thoroughly hope you enjoy this review as well as last.

The Endless is a damn interesting film to say the least, films about cults have always peeked my interest. The Endless brings you on a journey of knowledge as you find out more about this cult and what exactly they are worshiping in these woods. Is it paranormal or is this group another run of the mill crazy cult? Not to far into the movie do we get our questions answered through a series of interactions with people trapped in time loops, some being a day, others a few seconds, some have people within just living there lives as best they can in the time given, while others are trapped killing themselves for eternity in their five second time loop. There is plenty of interesting stuff going on but our two main character brothers really don’t seem too blown away by any of it and just end up driving away from the cult just before the next time loop starts, giving a kind of boring and generic ending.

The endless does its job as a creepy homage to H.P. Lovecraft but really that’s about it. I felt very interested in this creepy forest cult but throughout the film it seemed like they were never going to reveal anything more about them. The ending of the film finally reveals the cults overall goals, immortality, really just the most generic thing I could think of. I really want to love this film but there’s something about the dialogue and information that is given to the viewer, its just too vague, which is why unfortunately I have to put endless as our loser of the batch. Next review will be over Spring our first place holder and possibly my favorite movie of all time.

I hope you enjoyed these three films as much as I did on first viewing. Of course they are not all master pieces, but I see them at least as extremely entertaining films, which in the long run is really all a movie has to do. Re watching these films was a blast, and really helped clarify which of these was the true stand out film of the three. This is your only warning this review list will contain full spoilers for “The Night Eats The World”. I have decided that instead of cramming three full film reviews into one post I’m going to do one film at a time to increase the quality of each films review.

The Night Eats The World in my opinion has to be one of the realist feeling zombie films out right now, it deals less with the carnage of the zombie apocalypse and more with the mental health of someone surviving alone in it. Our protagonist Sam is literally just thrown into this world without any warning, waking up in a sound proof room after a party, alone, everyone he knows dead, hordes of zombies outside, and no hope of rescue Sams mental state starts to decline as he tries to survive in this crazy new world. At first glance it seems Sam is actually starting to adapt to this new life of hiding in an apartment complex but as time goes by the real killer starts to set in, true loneliness, Sam starts talking to a zombie trapped in an elevator looking for any type of entertainment or companionship. In the middle of the night Sam, sleeping with shotgun in hand, hears something outside his door and well he does the thing any sensible person would do in a zombie apocalypse, he shoots through the door hitting what turns out to be another survivor! Sam quickly patches her up and it looks like things have finally turned around for him and he wont be so alone after all.

Bonding occurs between the two characters until your hit with one whopper of a twist, that being the lady Sam shot and “patched up” didn’t really make it after all as we see Sam snap back into reality looking down at the rotting corpse of the woman he thought he saved, the woman he cared for, well this woman was apparently just a hallucination the whole time. The ending of the film is nothing special just Sam finally making the decision to leave the apartment and search for more people, and though I thoroughly enjoyed this film it had some passing issues and to be honest there is a very scarce amount of zombies in this zombie film. While I like the more realistic depiction of someone who’s to scared of the horrors of the outside world to leave the safety of an apartment with supplies, it makes for some pretty boring downtime moments in the film and lots of extended periods of time with no dialogue at all. Overall I really enjoy this film though it can be a bit slow and methodical at times I’d say out of the three films I would put this film… in second place. That leaves two more films, I wonder which one you think should win.

The Night Eats The World is a french zombie film that study’s the physiological aspect of being alone in a completely ravaged world. I have personally already seen this film along with the other two films on this list. Without giving anything away about the film I would describe this film as an untrustworthy story, narrated by an untrustworthy protagonist. At the very least I believe this film will keep you guessing about what exactly is going on.

What can I even say about this film, its… trippy to say the least. Directed by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, a directing duo who’s first film will also appear on this list . This film definitely fits the Freaky Films namesake by being an endless mind-blowing adventure that’s sure to make you say “whaaaaaaaaat”. Two brothers return to a cult they were in a time ago only to discover there may be more supernatural elements to the world than once thought. This film has a very odd story and is not for everyone, but that’s okay, I would love to hear your opinion and personal review of the movie.

Moorhead and Benson are back at it with this fever dream induced romance. If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft I have no doubt in my mind that you will at least be intrigued by this film. Don’t you just hate it when you travel to another country, find a girl, and then find out that shes a prehistoric living anomaly… yeah me too. Spring holds a special place in my heart and I’m sure my end of the week review will reflect that, that’s why I would love any constructive criticism toward my subjective reviews. Lemme know what your thoughts are on this film at the end of the week.

Hello there my name is Jacob Thompson and I’ll be your personal guide through weekly movie watch-lists and review updates. I want to create a place where I can share my love for weird and macabre movies while also giving you my thoughts and opinions on the film. Posts will be made at the beginning and end of the week, posts at the beginning of the week will have a 3 film watch list for you to view over the week and posts at the end will be thorough reviews of each. I’ve always loved film more than any other entertainment medium. My end goal here is to create a space for new Cinephiles to find very different and out of the norm films, from what you’d see on or off the silver screen. 

If I absolutely had to decide a favorite movie genre I have to admit it would have to be horror. I do plan on reviewing all different genre of film but horror definitely holds a special place in my heart, so circumstantially a heavy theme in most of my watch lists will be horror or just generally disturbing movies. If you are not interested in horror or are generally squeamish I would not recommend my movie selections. At the end of each week, when you’ve hopefully watched all three films, I will post a short but in depth review of each film. I will also be watching/re-watching the films along with you, as well as short tweets over the films as I watch.

Hopefully at some point I will branch out to new and different film territory such as, blockbuster reviews, or large recommendation lists. I hope you join me and watch along as we explore the weirdest films the industry has to offer. If you enjoy the website and would like to reference an ever growing list of films follow me on Letterboxd and hey, while your at it why not follow my Twitter.