Film Fests
Tokyo Horror Film Festival: ‘Black Spines’ (2024) Review
There’s an article I have coming out in August about a film called Jersey Shore Massacre. In said article, I discuss how Scream had an overall negative impact on the slasher subgenre. Also discussed is how there’s nothing wrong with a straightforward slasher film. The Scream Effect™ forced slashers into a corner where they had to be supremely meta and too smart for their own good. A title like Jersey Shore Massacre (and its accompanying cover) had set a low bar of expectation. Once the credits rolled, it reshaped how I look at, and receive, films in the slasher subgenre. Black Spines is the first slasher I have watched since Jersey Shore Massacre. And I could not have been more pleased.
Black Spines: A Gripping Slasher Story
Black Spines follows Cameron (Jan Luis Castellanos), a teen reeling from the recent loss of his father, Andy (Gilbert Owuor). Cameron’s loss is compounded by the excessive bullying he faces from a group of jocks (and his sister Kathryn’s (Tiana Le) boyfriend, Barcley (Cameron Wong). If that weren’t enough, the town of Page Hollow is being stalked by a masked killer named The Pill. “If you act up in this town, he’ll be your medicine.” As the dust settles after each kill, it seems more and more like Cameron is closer to the killer than he may realize. A series of VHS tapes begins to appear, leading Cameron down a dangerous road that he may not survive.
Jordon Foss’ Directorial Debut Shines
Writer/director Jordon Foss steps out of the shadowed alleys of Gotham City with his exceptional feature debut. Black Spines, while accepting certain unavoidable tropes, refuses to rest in the shadows of the slashers of yore. It’s unapologetically its own film. A slasher that doesn’t have overly snappy dialogue, takes its time, and understands its own pace is a breath of fresh air. Slashers that run the festival circuit, understandably, need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. I find a certain level of enjoyment with festival slashers like Founders Day, but it almost feels like they try a bit too hard. Seeing a film like Black Spines makes me feel like slashers are beginning to remember they can be grounded and still be impactful.
Exploring Grief in Black Spines
Foss’ script is beyond impressive with how it handles grief. One of the biggest complaints I’ve seen surrounding “elevated horror” is the frustration people feel with how grief-stricken the genre has become. Black Spines uses grief as a jumping-off point to explore the characters. Cameron and Kathryn live in their grief, and it defines them in different ways. Cameron is sullen and closed off while Kathryn bottles it up until she reaches a tipping point. There are no prolonged scenes of exaggerated keening; there are no Oscar-bait long shots of someone crying with tears streaming down their face. Foss hits the audience with genuine depictions of grief that leave you feeling slightly hollow, but hopeful overall.
A Haunting Score by Alexander Bornstein
Think of a modern slasher film. There’s a good chance a booming, guitar-riffed, drum-pounding score accompanies nearly every kill. Yes, there are some pulse-pounding moments throughout Alexander Bornstein’s score. But Bornstein’s score stands apart from others with how he handles the composition post-kill. Instead of moving on to the next tick on the kill count, we get the opportunity to sit with The Pill’s kill. Bornstein’s score ends each kill with an exclamation point of sorrow. Not only does it make the kill feel more impactful, it transports you to the scene of the crime. It’s a brutal bookend to the incredibly intense kills.
Memorable Kills and Special Effects
Speaking of kills, we all know that a slasher film is only as good as the kills. You can have a terrible story, but as long as the audience likes the kills, they will forgive abhorrent writing. On top of having an A+ story, Black Spines has some impressively effective kills. Seasoned Special Effects Makeup Artist Gary J. Tunnicliffe makes damn sure to awe the audience with his handiwork.
Minor Flaws in Black Spines
That’s not to say there aren’t some issues with Black Spines. My biggest issue with the film is the over-introduction of characters from the jump. Black Spines has a decently slow, albeit methodical, start where a plethora of characters are introduced and then forgotten about until it’s too late. Foss’ debut feels very confident in nearly every facet, but I feel he jumped the gun with the number of characters he wrote into the story. You can easily show quick transgressions here and there as a way to pad out slasher victims, without inundating the viewer with character after character. There are a few instances where a character dies, and then the film decides to go back and tell you who they were. This specific issue wasn’t enough to alter my overall appreciation of what the film does for slashers.
Overall, Black Spines is a well-crafted, silent meditation of grief that exists as a brilliant singular entity. Jordon Foss struck gold and created, what I think, one of the few capital ‘g’ ‘G’reat slashers of the 2020s. Chock full of incredible performances, a stellar script, a straightforward slasher, bloody kills, and a haunting score, Black Spines sets a new bar for modern slashers.
Special thanks to Tokyo Horror Film Festival for letting us remotely cover their film festival!
Haunted house stories are a staple in the horror genre. But it’s not often that a haunted house film digs its way under your skin and stays there long after the credits roll. Enter Recluse, celebrating its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.
A Disturbing Return Home Fuels Recluse’s Story
Joan Wyatt, a young and troubled audio engineer, is called back to her childhood home following a bizarre accident in which her father, the famous artist Lawrence Wyatt, was engulfed in flames and left in critical condition. Joan has been estranged from her father for quite some time, so when his longtime housekeeper Lydia leaves a voicemail telling her that he likely doesn’t have a lot of time left, she ignores it. But then Lawrence himself calls, telling Joan that he’s been seeing her mother—who disappeared when Joan was a child—around the house.
Joan arrives to find Lydia armed with a crossbow to ward off Lawrence’s obsessive fans. Her father is bed-bound with severe burns, and is being cared for by a hired nurse around Joan’s age named Emily. Lawrence, who notoriously experimented with psychedelics and occult practices during his career, is barely coherent and keeps his face concealed underneath a crude plaster mask. He keeps asking about his “little spider.” It’s disturbing and deeply upsetting, especially since Joan already has a lifetime of trauma associated with the house. Now that she’s back, she begins to suspect that these “ghosts” aren’t metaphorical. Lawrence was not a good man… but something even more sinister may be lurking in the house.
Henry Chaisson Reinvents the Haunted House Formula
Recluse, written and directed by Henry Chaisson, is a masterfully crafted debut feature that takes familiar elements of the haunted house genre—like a remote mansion as the setting, traumatic family secrets, and supernatural mischief—and twists them into something fresh and, well, twisted.
Sasha Frolova Leads an Exceptional Ensemble Cast
Sasha Frolova stars as Joan, delivering a performance that is both believable and compelling. She’s easy to root for throughout the film, especially as she contends with her father’s unwaveringly loyal housekeeper Lydia, brilliantly played by Toby Poser. Mia Vallet’s portrayal of Emily is also noteworthy, commanding attention from her first appearance all the way to the end. Kimball Farley plays Lydia’s son and Joan’s friend Todd with the perfect balance of levity and tension. Frankie Seratch is enjoyable to watch as the opportunistic nepo baby art dealer Tom. Rounding out the cast is Xander Berkeley as Lawrence; even from behind a mask, his performance is intense and chilling. Berkeley even provided some of his own art to be used in the film.
Sound Design and Cinematography Create Unrelenting Terror
The cast is far from the film’s only strength, though. Sound design by Matthew Rollins will have you death-gripping your seat in the best way, and serves as an integral part of the story itself. Production designer Yulanda Yo-Rong Shieh and art director Ana María Kalvo absolutely nailed the set and made the Wyatt family mansion simultaneously sprawling and claustrophobic.
Finally, we have the beautiful and (appropriately) haunting cinematography by Bryce Holden, supported by the editing prowess of Nik Voytas, Josh Lobo, and Henry Chaisson. Not only did they maintain an air of unrelenting suspense throughout the entire film, but they also executed some of the most disturbing and bone-chilling jump scares I’ve seen in recent years.
Seriously: One of those jump scares made me feel physically ill. You’ll know it when you see it for yourself.
Recluse had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2026.
“I promise, no one’s leaving here smarter tonight,” laughs Frank from the stage as he kicks off Cabane à Sang for its 9th annual trash horror film festival. The programming delivers an eclectic mix of gory, comedic, and bizarre short films from around the globe to a dedicated audience of enthusiastic fans.
What Is Cabane à Sang? A Quebec-Born Underground Horror Festival
Cabane à Sang (which translated to English means “Blood shack”, a play on the Quebecois termphrase cabane à sucre / sugar shack) is a homegrown festival based in Hochelaga, a densely populated working class neighborhood on the east side of Montreal, Québec. For $18 (CA$), you can enjoy hours of meticulously curated madness. A can of local microbrew is $6, a can of soda is $2, and you are guaranteed to see some shit you’ve never seen before in your life.
“We want everyone to be able to come to the fest. Shows for $18 don’t really exist anymore,” insisted organizer Marc-Antoine in a franglais conversation between him, myself and Frank before Saturday’s “Keep It Weird” show (note: some quotes have been translated to English). Frank tells me about the festival’s early days as a road show. “It was a total fucking flop!” he laughs, but the branding was strong, so after taking a year off to regroup, the 2nd edition had people lining up early to attend, surprising even the organizers.
Photo Courtesy of Cabane à Sang
How Cabane à Sang Adapted During COVID and Found a Permanent Home
The pandemic forced the team to adapt again (Quebecers faced some of the harshest COVID restrictions in North America), and they ended up live streaming a jerry-rigged MTV-style projection screen to show the films while audiences participated in the chat. After moving around to a few locations and struggling with a host of technical difficulties, they landed at Productions Jeun’Est, an old church that’s since been turned into an event space. “This year is really next level,” says Marc-Antoine. “We need to highlight the tech crew here, who are just hallucinant (incredible),” as well as the venue, he continued, who’ve “really welcomed us and helped us out.”
This year’s edition features 5 evenings of madness spread out over two weekends. The first weekend hosted the events SCIF’HIGH (promising the “best and worst” of science fiction), RE-Animation (exploring a “wide range of animation styles”), and their signature event, Keep It Weird (a mix of “proudly off-putting short films”). The second weekend will feature Mixed Meats (an “unhinged mix of every corner of horror”) and their infamous 200$ or less film competition – the Party Pooper Spectacular (this year, the theme is Pizza Horror). A $20 virtual pass to the whole fest is available online for those with the misfortune of missing the in person experience.
Why Filmmakers and Fans Take This “Trash” Horror Festival Seriously
Despite the goofy themes, the team of ten-ish organizers take their roles seriously, and are thrilled to have landed in a venue that can give the films the respect they deserve. “Our setup is a bit punk, but I just think about the filmmakers,” insists Marc Antoine. “They put in so much work, it’s normal that we do them justice with a good screening.” Frank echoes this sentiment. “Some stuff [we get] is not necessarily gory or cheap or whatever. They’re just, like, oddities, and they deserve to be seen, you know? And tonight we’re going to see some of them!”
People are already showing up when I arrive an hour early to Saturday’s show (unheard of in a city like Montreal, where showing up 45 min after doors open is the norm). The vibes stay immaculate, thanks to the team’s guiding motto: Don’t be an asshole. “Like legit, this is our only fucking rule here,” laughs Frank, and it applies to everyone, including the filmmakers. “I think we all love this project because it allows us to showcase stuff that we personally like and that we don’t see anywhere else,” says Marc-Antoine.
‘Dom’s Spaghetti’ Courtesy of Cabane à Sang
Weird, Gross, and Brilliant: Inside Cabane à Sang’s Most Bizarre Short Films
True to their words, the evening’s programming features some truly mind bending films, grouped together under ‘themes’ like ‘films that feature bread’ or ‘films that start with the letter D’. For every serious film about war or depression, there are five that are totally absurd. (Frank assures me that they’ve got “plenty of movies with dicks and poop and stuff like that!”) There’s the lesbian eldritch love story inspired by The Thing (The Fling), and there’s a meat-witch orgy movie (Plant Mom). One film is simply about a haunted bidet (Bidet), another features every cinematic iteration of Vin Diesel (Dom’s Spaghetti). Then there’s the mixed media movie Dog Shit, described perfectly as “parfum de caca, marteau dans les couilles” (I’ll leave you all to translate that one yourselves).
As the evening wraps up, Frank reminds the audience to return the following week, before yelling “Shout out bébé Jésus!” to enthusiastic applause, given that we are all sitting in a church. “Over the years, people have come from all over, from Abitibi, from the US,” Marc-Antoine tells me. “Ya, they fly in!!” adds Frank, “we don’t have the money to fucking pay for their flights!” Marc-Antoine continues, saying, “that shows that this really connects with people, locally, yes, but people all over are moved by what we’re doing. We’re going up against some big machines, some big productions, but we’re able to connect with people all the same.”
Cabane à Sang Proves That Micro-Budget Horror is More Important Than Ever
“People are fed up also, and I don’t want to get into the whole fucking AI thing,” Frank adds, “but I think a lot of people are irritated about it. We’re sitting in a great position right now.” When talking about the upcoming film competition on May 9th, I learned that they’ve got 22 unique micro budget works lined up, with an additional slate of films that will soon be on their streaming site, Caban à Sang TV. “AI cannot fucking make this shit up,” Frank says. “This is honest, this is real.”
