Ethan Vestby

[Fantasia Review] 24 Exposures

In trying to think of what contemporary American director supposedly has the most interest in what it is exactly that gets people off (at least outside the real...

[Fantasia Review] Big Bad Wolves

In supposing that there’s entertainment to be found watching torture onscreen, a horror/thriller subgenre was created that emphasized it to “pornographic” heigh...

[Fantasia Review] Big Ass Spider!

The feat of articulating what it is exactly that actually separates Big Ass Spider! from recent SyFy channel monster mockbusters like Atlantic Rim or the tired ...

[Fantasia Review] The Dirties

If the found-footage concept relies on the belief that hand-held images will instantly signal reality, then it’s refreshing that The Dirties has the intelligenc...

[Fantasia Review] Lesson of the Evil

Is it possible for images to swallow each other whole? Meaning a process in which each progressive striking composition not just tops the other, but rather summ...

[NYAFF Review] Countdown

Horror’s popularity amongst academics has to do with what’s often seen as signifiers of the juvenile -- ghosts, zombies and vampires standing in for our everyda...

Live Fast, Die Young, Bad Girls Do it Well: ‘The Bling Ring’ and ‘Spring Breakers’

The comparisons between Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers and Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring have been completely inevitable; as both are the new offerings from Gen X auteurs dealing with “bad girls” and their pursuit of a dream based on materialism and ergo celebrity culture. Though in putting each side-by-side brings up specificities as to why exactly each director chose their subject; that of the successive generation....

Ethan Vestby