Sputnik Review: Sci-Fi Creature Feature Sputters Out
With a clear reverence for sci-fi horror landmarks, principally Alien, the new Russian feature Sputnik looks to crash-land into the genre with high ambitions. ...
Mike Mazzanti
Relic Review: Three Generations of Women Face Familial Terror
At the very core of Relic is an image of family as a myopia of terror. Perhaps more importantly, buried underneath, is compassion in the face of decay. Family ...
Becky Review: Kevin James Terrorizes in Blood-Spattered Home Alone Riff
The line between vengeance and murder is illusory at best, and outright deceptive at worst. This means that, in cinema, there can be no revenge without bloodlu...
Z Review: The Creepy Kid Horror Canon Gets a Chilling New Entry
The creepy kid horror canon is extensive. Often paired with the possession film or another supernatural subgenre, many of these pictures look to mine the commo...
The Invisible Man Review: Elisabeth Moss Commands an Empathetic Horror Film That Reaches Maniacal Heights
The innate horrors of the unseen are given fresh life in The Invisible Man, a reinvention of the H.G. Wells’ novel that was first brilliantly adapted by James ...
Mike Mazzanti’s Top 10 Films of 2019
Following our top 50 films of 2019, we're sharing personal top 10 lists from our contributors. Check out the latest below and see our complete year-end coverag...
‘The Death of Dick Long’ Director Daniel Scheinert on the Explosion of the Nuclear Family & the Emotion of 2000s Rock
We sat down with Scheinert to talk about establishing character dynamics, working once again with members of Manchester Orchestra, the terrors of nuclear families and faking it, and getting to do your own version of a Quentin Tarantino scene. Also, trolling fans of the long-forgotten band Hinder....
‘3 From Hell’ Review: Rob Zombie Shows the Carnage of an America Let Loose
After more than a decade, writer-director Rob Zombie returns to finish his sadistic Firefly Family Trilogy, reanimating their spree of murder and mayhem after H...
‘The Fanatic’ Review: John Travolta Gets Absurd in Fred Durst’s Misguided Thriller
Over shots of Los Angeles, Fred Durst’s The Fanatic opens with an apathetic diatribe about the soul-sucking nature of the City of Angels. It's a“city of bullshi...
‘Crawl’ Review: Alexandre Aja’s Alligator Horror is Precise, Tense, and Satisfying
After forays into horror-comedy (Piranha 3D) and dark fables (Horns), New French Extremity director Alexandre Aja comes full circle with straight-forward, gnarl...
Mike Mazzanti
Mike Mazzanti is a content project manager at a digital marketing firm by day and a screenwriter at heart. A lover of the outré and the everyday, he is the Resident Genre Enthusiast at The Film Stage and is currently based out of Washington, D.C.