Rue Morgue Magazine

Rue Morgue Magazine is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer® when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Anton Bitel, Barrett Hooper, Carolyn Mauricette, Chris Alexander, Dave Alexander, Deirdre Crimmins, Isaac Feldberg, Jovanka Vuckovic, Laura Di Girolamo, Michael Gingold, Rod Gudino, Shannon McGrew
Rating Title/Year Author
Curse of Aurore (2020) Michael Gingold Aurore's specific backstory doesn't inform the present-day story in any meaningful way...and there isn't enough novelty to the horrific/supernatural ingredients to compensate. EDIT
Posted Jan 15, 2021
Grizzly II. Revenge (2020) Michael Gingold Grizzly II was subtitled The Concert at one point, though its balance of those subjects is so lopsided, it suggests the movie should have been called The Concert II: Grizzly. EDIT
Posted Jan 8, 2021
Shadow in the Cloud (2020) Michael Gingold SHADOW trades visceral plausibility for rousing exaggeration in its final act and pulls it off. EDIT
Posted Jan 4, 2021
Monster Hunter (2020) Michael Gingold This is just supposed to be a mindless-fun monster bash, which would be fine except that the creatures aren't interesting either, or terribly original. EDIT
Posted Dec 18, 2020
The Bloodhound (2020) Deirdre Crimmins It is cunningly confusing and deceptively simple. A strong debut from Picard that makes one wonder what he might have for us next. EDIT
Posted Dec 11, 2020
Asylum: Twisted Horror and Fantasy Tales (2020) Michael Gingold If the sum of the parts is greater than the whole...a high enough percentage of those parts are choice to put it in the win column. EDIT
Posted Nov 17, 2020
Kindred (2020) Michael Gingold The horrors in Kindred are psychological, simmering under the surface for most of the running time, yet they hold your attention throughout. EDIT
Posted Nov 6, 2020
Freaky (2020) Michael Gingold The true achievement of Freaky is that it incorporates its extra levels seamlessly into a raucously entertaining movie...that can be enjoyed by the hardest-core horror fan. EDIT
Posted Nov 2, 2020
Spell (2020) Michael Gingold Subtlety is clearly not on the plate here...the film makes everything too obvious too early to generate honest tension or scares. EDIT
Posted Oct 30, 2020
The Craft: Legacy (2020) Michael Gingold A frustrating near-miss, bearing so many good intentions that you wish the movie as a whole had more impact. EDIT
Posted Oct 28, 2020
The Empty Man (2020) Michael Gingold Not at all the movie that its trailers are selling--and in this case, that's a good thing. EDIT
Posted Oct 22, 2020
Love and Monsters (2020) Michael Gingold It's paced well and colorfully told, even as it doesn't bring many fresh ideas to the table. EDIT
Posted Oct 16, 2020
An Unquiet Grave (2020) Michael Gingold It generates its chills simply, by presenting an unnatural and uncanny situation in very human terms. EDIT
Posted Oct 14, 2020
Frank & Zed (2020) Michael Gingold It is entirely possible to truly admire the technical craft and effort that went into Frank & Zed while wishing that equal care had been taken with the script. EDIT
Posted Oct 12, 2020
Detention (2019) Michael Gingold The fact that this is ultimately a human story first and a horror story second in no way diminishes its impact in the latter area. EDIT
Posted Oct 11, 2020
Run (2020) Michael Gingold Newcomer Allen holds her own throughout Run. opposite the gifted Paulson, adding another calculating villain to her rogues' gallery. EDIT
Posted Oct 9, 2020
The Lie (2018) Michael Gingold If, like this viewer, you realize that there's only one way this story can end...you'll likely feel that the bulk of The Lie is just marking time. EDIT
Posted Oct 8, 2020
Black Box (2020) Michael Gingold Heady themes of scientific manipulation merge seamlessly with down-to-Earth concerns regarding family and responsibility, and Athie adroitly tackles his multifaceted role. EDIT
Posted Oct 8, 2020
Possessor: Uncut (2020) Michael Gingold Abbott is just as skilled as suggesting the presence of another within Colin as Riseborough is at portraying the ways Tasya is losing her soul. EDIT
Posted Oct 7, 2020
Alone (2020) Michael Gingold The filmmakers make simplicity a virtue in telling their elemental story, keeping everything on the right side of realistic. EDIT
Posted Sep 18, 2020
Slaxx (2020) Deirdre Crimmins It is possible to have a ton of fun watching a pair of haunted, autonomous pants on an overnight killing rampage, and Slaxx shows us how it is done right. EDIT
Posted Sep 15, 2020
The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020) Michael Gingold It clearly strains to come up with a reasonable follow-up...and when all else fails, which is often, they throw in another vintage film reference or past top 10 hit. EDIT
Posted Sep 10, 2020
Come True (2020) Michael Gingold Burns consistently does a lot with a little, as he delves into big ideas and increasingly unsettling territory. EDIT
Posted Sep 10, 2020
() Deirdre Crimmins Bleed With Me is not flashy or gory and monstrous. However, it does stand as an example of what can happen in a cabin in the woods that would shake you to your core. EDIT
Posted Sep 4, 2020
The Columnist (2020) Deirdre Crimmins The Columnist is a sharp condemnation of those hiding behind their keyboards, hidden inside a hilarious look at a woman pushed to her breaking point. EDIT
Posted Sep 4, 2020
The Mortuary Collection (2019) Isaac Feldberg Self-reflexive in the playful spirit of Wes Craven, its stabs at genre resurrection finding new ways to twist the knife that both heighten Spindell's scream-weaving approach and modernize it. EDIT
Posted Sep 2, 2020
The Block Island Sound (2020) Isaac Feldberg A well-constructed psychological horror vessel, chilly and personal in the right places, keyed into a frequency that's hard to shake. EDIT
Posted Sep 2, 2020
The Dark and the Wicked (2020) Michael Gingold The true horror lies the way Bertino inexorably undercuts the safety nets we all traditionally rely upon, from family bonds to religion. EDIT
Posted Sep 1, 2020
Lucky (2020) Deirdre Crimmins [Satires] can heighten reality, amplify the absurd, and challenge cultural structures, all in the name of making their argument. Lucky does all of those things, while keeping true to the emotional experience of women in the world. EDIT
Posted Aug 27, 2020
Hunted (2020) Deirdre Crimmins The interplay of nature and civilization, lore and reality sculpt Hunted into a beautifully rich world of wolf versus woman. The tension is palatable, and the fear is real. EDIT
Posted Aug 27, 2020
Open 24 Hours (2018) Michael Gingold Reynolds prioritizes shock moments over psychological acuity, and occasional implausibilities--like the roomiest gas-station bathroom you'll ever see--don't help. EDIT
Posted Aug 19, 2020
She Dies Tomorrow (2020) Michael Gingold The film has emerged at a time when its themes are especially relevant, but it taps into timeless anxieties about fate and the future. EDIT
Posted Aug 7, 2020
() Michael Gingold Traucki builds a mounting sense of claustrophobia and menace, and giving us only fleeting glimpses of the croc adds to the horror. EDIT
Posted Aug 7, 2020
Random Acts of Violence (2019) Michael Gingold Along with a potent meta look at the genre, Jay Baruchel has also crafted a full-blooded horror film. EDIT
Posted Jul 30, 2020
Amulet (2020) Michael Gingold It carries us into eventually surreal territory that nonetheless remains rooted in workaday reality--Ken Loach meets Ken Russell. EDIT
Posted Jul 24, 2020
The Oak Room (2020) Deirdre Crimmins The stories themselves, though well executed, are not nearly engaging enough to carry the entire film. EDIT
Posted Jul 17, 2020
The Beach House (2019) Michael Gingold With a modest budget and scope, Brown nonetheless elicits a sense of engulfing biological apocalypse. EDIT
Posted Jul 9, 2020
Homewrecker (2019) Michael Gingold Demonstrates what can be achieved with one principal setting, two skilled performers, a tight, sharp script and a director who brings pace and color to the material. EDIT
Posted Jul 6, 2020
Relic (2020) Michael Gingold Quiet and measured in the way it generates fear, the movie is built on a base of acutely observed character. EDIT
Posted Jul 3, 2020
Followed (2018) Michael Gingold It's shot and assembled well, and there's still, even after so many other movies like this, a built-in tension to the first-person immediacy of the presentation. EDIT
Posted Jul 1, 2020
Scare Package (2019) Michael Gingold When a movie's primary goal is to demonstrate that it's smarter than the genre's run-of-the-mill, comparison with others of its type is unavoidable. EDIT
Posted Jun 26, 2020
You Should Have Left (2020) Michael Gingold Writer/director David Koepp has taken on familiar genre themes and personalized them in compelling ways. EDIT
Posted Jun 18, 2020
Dreamland (2019) Michael Gingold It doesn't add up to much more than the sum of its eccentric parts, and it doesn't go whole hog enough into its craziness. EDIT
Posted Jun 9, 2020
Becky (2020) Michael Gingold Wilson provides a spark that the plotting, and some of the other performances, could have used more of. EDIT
Posted Jun 3, 2020
The Jack in the Box (2019) Michael Gingold Everything that happens in the movie is as inevitable as the jack popping out of the box at the end of "Pop Goes the Weasel." EDIT
Posted May 6, 2020
Why Don't You Just Die! (Papa, sdokhni) (2018) Deirdre Crimmins Why Don't You Just Die! has enough blood in it to make Herschell Gordon Lewis swoon. It is fun, fast, and a good reminder that so much can happen in one apartment with endless buckets of blood. EDIT
Posted Apr 23, 2020
Behind You (2020) Michael Gingold The kind of horror film whose plot depends on its central characters being remarkably uninformed. EDIT
Posted Apr 17, 2020
Butt Boy (2019) Michael Gingold Its matter-of-factness about its bizarre premise is part of what makes Butt Boy oddly engaging. EDIT
Posted Apr 14, 2020
Sea Fever (2019) Michael Gingold It proves startlingly well-timed given what's going on in the world today. But it has more than timeliness on its side. EDIT
Posted Apr 10, 2020
The Room (2019) Deirdre Crimmins The Room is not a gorefest nor is it an atmospheric spooktacular. It is an unnerving tale of the rules of our world breaking, and it does not hesitate to show the dark consequences. EDIT
Posted Apr 9, 2020