This latest “Draw” in the Nightmare Deck marks the fourth iteration (an important iteration, I’d say). We officially cross the 200 movie mark of horror (or horror adjacent) reviews logged on Nickelbib.com.
With my review of the 2018 reboot of Halloween added, I now complete David Gordon Green’s Halloween reboot trilogy. Although, chronologically, the 2018 film is obviously the first film, I feel like it is the best note to close it out on. Although the film series started promisingly, offering one of the best sequels in the franchise, it was mostly downhill after that. I liked Halloween Ends more than Halloween Kills, but most of them end up with a modest 2.0 out of 5.0 for their effort. David Gordon Green is a filmmaker who is lucky enough to have directed more Halloween films than anybody else, and although the results were middling at best, that is still one hell of a splash into the horror genre. Since then, he has gone onto direct Exorcist: Believer, a film meant to kickoff a new trilogy of Exorcist movies. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The film received negative reviews and had a disappointing box office run, resulting in David Gordon Green ultimately being replaced with the more experienced (and frankly, better) horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan. I hope Green takes it in stride and uses this as an opportunity to direct an original horror film later on. He was really fed to the wolves as a first time horror director and the results weren’t always bad. (All three of the Halloween movies were major successes at the box office, after all).
Bong Joon-ho adds his second film to the final Nightmare Deck. Snowpiercer was fantastic. Parasite is fantastic. Bong Joon-ho is fantastic. I can’t wait to log more reviews of his work.
John Krasinski adds his first film to the final Nightmare Deck. A Quiet Place was a great film and a fantastic freshman debut for the fledgling filmmaker. His second film A Quiet Place 2 was also very good, but I didn’t like it enough to add it to the final draw, unfortunately. Still, a 3.5 is a very good feather to a person’s cap with how I review things. Hope he kills it with A Quiet Place 3, and continues to explore the horror genre.
By reviewing Killjoy Goes to Hell (Killjoy 4) and Killjoy’s Psycho Circus (Killjoy 5), I complete John Lechago’s Killjoy trilogy. I hadn’t really thought about it when I did it. Truth be told, I was ‘under the influence’ on my days off and I wanted to watch and review a movie, but I didn’t want to have to pay too much attention. It wasn’t the best series, which is expressed by the 1.5, 2.5, and 1.5 scores (in release order), but I do enjoy Trent Haaga as Killjoy and I do think there is mileage to be brought from the character. Killjoy Goes to Hell was the most entertaining film of modern Full Moon Features fare, but Psycho Circus exemplified everything wrong with their catalog since the turn of the millennium. As for director John Lechago, I have now reviewed four films from him (counting the Killjoy’s and Blade: The Iron Curse – which received a 1.5).
Speaking of Full Moon Features directors, David DeCoteau has a redemption with Puppet Master III. Although I hated his film The Killer Eye (a blunt statement I almost never say about a film), Puppet Master III may very well be the best film in the Puppet Master franchise, and is my third favorite Full Moon Feature logged so far (behind The Creeps and Head of the Family). I really want to find a filmmaker from Full Moon Features / Empire Pictures that can at least give the Nightmare Deck a run for its money. I was assuming that the filmmakers to do that would be Stuart Gordon (for Re-Animator, and so on) and Charles Band (for his full body of work), but I would love to be surprised. For David DeCoteau, I see myself reviewing Curse of the Puppet Master, Retro Puppet Master, and Puppet Master: Axis of Evil, and I also see myself reviewing Prison of the Dead, Creepozoid, and Shrieker before I move on from him. I highly doubt any of them with substantially move the needle for him, but I am hoping at least one of them measures up to Puppet Master III.
And, also, Charles Band logs his fourth film (with him as director, that is) and it is awful. I could honestly see myself logging hundreds of Charles Bands movies before it is over with, and that might help him earn recognition for his body-of-work, but movies like this, they hurt his chances, also.
A Guillermo Del Toro film is drawn for the first time in the Nightmare Deck. As a filmmaker, I have a lot of respect for Del Toro. I have seen a lot of his movies, but I haven’t written a lot of reviews for them (I have a review of The Shape of Water someplace, somewhere I need to add). It has been over a decade since I have seen Pan’s Labyrinth and I know I want to say something about The Devil’s Backbone, so he and I will meet again. Crimson Peak is a pretty decent film. I saw it in theaters when it was released and was enamored by the special effects and visuals (which are usually places a Del Toro film will shine).
Michael Dougherty is drawn a second time for the Nightmare Deck. His last film Trick R Treat was a real feather in his cap (3.5 out of 5.0), but his third film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, although larger in scope, I found it to be less enjoyable. I still need to log my review of Krampus one of these days, but, otherwise, I am left hoping Dougherty will one day finally grace us with a sequel to his best film.
Gore Verbinski has his first film drawn. I enjoyed The Ring, even if I didn’t love The Ring. One can’t understate its importance either. The film was one of the defining horror films of the 2000s. It kicked off that Japanese remake era we had going (for better and for worse) and the film remains relevant in popular culture. Maybe one day they will come out with a sequel film that finds some of the original (original remake, I mean) film’s breakout success. As for Gore, I don’t know when the next time I will write about him in the horror-sphere, but I will go through and review all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies one day (Personally, I remember really liking them).
My third Hammer Horror movie review has now been logged with Nightmare. Thus far, I haven’t had very much luck with Hammer Horror. However, I am a persistent person, and I am hopeful when I start digging into the mainline Dracula movies, etc., that I will find some that I enjoy.
Paul Verhoeven logs his first film. In some ways, I believe that Hollow Man walked so that Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man could run. It isn’t a great film, but I do offer a modest recommendation for it. As for Paul Verhoeven and what the future holds for him on the Nightmare Deck, he is a famous director with a lot of revered classics under his belt like Total Recall and RoboCop, but I don’t see myself talking about him in the near future.
Lars Von Trier logs his first film. Trier is a dark and interesting filmmaker. Although Antichrist didn’t have the stuff to make it in the final Nightmare Deck in my opinion, it had ambition and intrigue in droves, which is exactly the kind of thing that I like to look for. The director is controversial and has had an allegation brought up against him in the past (but, left as an allegation without evidence, I refuse to scorch a person on the face of the Earth like some people do) and his sense of humor has gotten himself in trouble, but I find myself very intrigued by him. Thus far, I have only reviewed one film from the filmmaker’s filmography, but I have seen more than that and I do plan to write about them. The House That Jack Built is one that will be prolific on a future Nightmare Deck draw. Meanwhile, I will surely one day write about Nymphomaniac and, maybe even, the Europa trilogy.
Scott Derrickson logs his third film. Dude directed The Black Phone and Sinister, earning himself placement twice on the Final Nightmare Deck. Thus far, he and Joon-ho are the only two filmmakers who have ever done that. With Deliver Us From Evil, he doesn’t do it a third time. Instead, this film does a modest, but solid 2.9 out of 5.0 for its troubles. Truth is, I saw this film in theaters when it was first released and I was positive for it than how I actually feel. I went and re-watched it and didn’t care for it. At the same time though, I never wrote a new review for the film and I don’t plan to anytime soon. As for Scott Derrickson, I recently bought The Exorcism of Emily Rose and I will write a review for Hellraiser: Inferno once I make it up to that film in the series. I don’t think any of them is a contender for the final Deck or anything, but it will help fill out his filmography and I sincerely look forward to revisiting Hellraiser: Inferno again (I remember it as my favorite in the series).
Denis Villeneuve logs his first film. Unfortunately, I didn’t like Enemy very much. I have earmarked it as a film I one day want to sit around and revisit, on the chance that I maybe didn’t offer it enough thought and consideration. I say this only because I know how talented the filmmaker is. I will surely review Prisoners, the Dune movies, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival sooner or later as well.
I logged my first Alien film. Unfortunately, if you go back and read what I wrote in 2014, you won’t want to be my friend anymore. Basically, long story short, I criticized Sigourney Weaver as being annoying in the first half of the film, which is already enough for some people to bring out the pitchforks. In my defense, I did mention that she became better the longer the movie had time to unfold. This is a film that is so influential and so legendary that I almost hesitate to even post this cobweb-infested review to the Nickelbib database. My opinion has no doubt changed and become more thoughtful and considerate, and I think this is a film that will benefit from a re-watch and a reevaluation on my behalf. At the same time, I can more or less assure you that the 3.5 rating it received will be final. For what it’s worth, that is a very high rating on The ‘Bib and only just misses the cutoff for consideration in the final Nightmare Deck. That will bother some of you, but I always preferred Aliens over its predecessor, and although I can appreciate the finer elements more now than I did ten years ago (when I wrote the Alien review), that score was pretty generous for how I felt. I plan to review all the Alien movies eventually.
1.) Parasite – review originally written in 2019 (4.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Bong Joon-ho (2)
2.) A Quiet Place – review originally written in 2018 (4.0 out of 5.0)
directed by John Krasinski (2)
3.) Alien – review originally written in 2014 (3.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Ridley Scott (1)
4.) Antichrist – review originally written in 2015 (3.1 out of 5.0)
directed by Lars Von Trier (1)
5.) Killers – review originally written in 2020 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by The Mo Brothers (1)
6.) The Ring – review originally written in 2019 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Gore Verbinski (1)
7.) Tokyo Ghoul S – review originally written in 2019 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Takuya Kawasaki & Kazuhiko Hiramaki (1,1)
8.) Lights Out – review originally written in 2020 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by David F. Sandberg (1)
9.) Crimson Peak – review originally written in 2015 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Guillermo Del Toro (1)
10.) Kong: Skull Island – review originally written in 2018 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts (1
11.) Confessions of Murder – review originally in 2015 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Jung Byung-gil (1)
12.) Halloween – review originally written in 2018 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by David Gordon Green (3)
13.) Love Lies Bleeding – review originally written in 2024 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Rose Glass (1)
14.) Splice – review originally written in 2015 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Vincenzo Natali (1)
15.) Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge – review originally written in 2024 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by David DeCoteau (2)
16.) Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich – review originally written in 2018 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Sonny Laguna & Tommy Wiklund (1,1)
17.) 13 Sins – review originally written in 2020 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Daniel Stamm (1)
18.) Goosebumps – review originally written in 2014 (3.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Rob Letterman (1)
19.) Deliver Us From Evil – review originally written in 2016 (2.9 out of 5.0)
directed by Scott Derrickson (3)
20.) Monsters – review originally written in 2014 (2.8 out of 5.0)
directed by Gareth Edwards (2)
21.) Hollow Man – review originally written in 2014 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Paul Verhoeven (1)
22.) Godzilla: King of the Monsters – review originally written in 2019 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Michael Dougherty (2)
23.) Hatchet – review originally written in 2018 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Adam Green (1)
24.) Tusk – review originally written in 2015 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Kevin Smith (1)
25.) Terrifier – review originally written in 2018 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Damien Leone (2)
26.) P2 – review originally written in 2015 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Franck Khalfoun (1)
27.) Sympathy for the Devil – review originally written in 2024 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Yuval Adler (1)
28.) Enemy – review originally written in 2014 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Denis Villeneuve (1)
29.) Killjoy Goes to Hell – review originally written in 2024 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by John Lechago (4)
30.) Megan is Missing – review originally written in 2024 (2.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Michael Goi (1)
31.) Nightmare – review originally written in 2021 (2.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Freddie Francis (1)
32.) The Burning – review originally written in 2016 (2.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Tony Maylam (1)
33.) Trespassers – review originally written in 2020 (2.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Orson Oblowitz (1)
34.) There’s Someone Inside Your House – review originally written in 2024 (2.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Patrick Brice (1)
35.) The Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust – review originally written in 2020 (1.6 out of 5.0)
directed by William Butler (1)
36.) Weedjies: Halloweed Night – review originally written in 2020 (1.6 out of 5.0)
directed by Danny Draven (2)
37.) The Forest – review originally written in 2015 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Jason Zada (1)
38.) Assimilate – review originally written in 2019 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by John Murlowski (1)
39.) Wolf Creek – review originally written in 2024 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Greg McLean (1)
40.) Skyline – review originally written in 2014 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Greg and Colin Strause (1,1)
41.) The Curse of Llorona – review originally written in 2018 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Michael Chaves (2)
42.) The Veil – review originally written in 2015 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Phil Joanou (1)
43.) Missing – review originally written in 2016 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Kim Sung-hong (1)
44.) The Crazies – review originally written in 2015 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Breck Eisner (1)
45.) Poltergeist (remake) – review originally written in 2016 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Gil Kenan (1)
46.) The Gingerdead Man – review originally written in 2020 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Charles Band (6)
47.) Killjoy’s Psycho Circus – review originally written in 2024 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by John Lechago (4)
48.) Reel Evil – review originally written in 2016 (1.5 out of 5.0)
directed by Danny Draven (2)
49.) Evil Bong 420 – review originally written in 2016 (1.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Charles Band (6)
50.) Hollow Man 2 – review originally written in 2015 (1.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Claudio Fäh (1)
51.) Necropolis: Legion – review originally written in 2020 (1.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Chris Alexander (1)
52.) Corona Zombies – review originally written in 2020 (0.0 out of 5.0)
directed by Charles Band (6)
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