Friday, April 4

825 Forest Road Film Review

Halfway to Halloween Presented by Shudder

April showers bring May flowers – and the month of April brings us halfway to Halloween! This April, Shudder is celebrating with four new horror films debuting each week this month.

April 4 – 825 FOREST ROAD
April 11 – SHADOW OF GOD
April 18 – DEAD MAIL
April 25 – FREWAKA

I’ll be giving you the lowdown on each film before you tune in weekly.

The first up is 825 FOREST ROAD.

From the creator of the HELL HOUSE LLC franchise, Stephen Cognetti, 825 FOREST ROAD centers on Chuck Wilson starting a new life after a family tragedy when he moves to the town of Ashland Falls with his wife Maria and little sister Elizabeth. But he quickly discovers that the town has a dark secret. The ghost of Helen Foster has terrorized residents for decades, since her own suicide back in the ‘40s.

Finding Helen’s old home is key to ending the hauntings, but the address they have doesn’t match any of the town’s existing streets. When Chuck realizes his family might be in danger of Helen’s wrath, he takes it upon himself to locate 825 FOREST ROAD before it’s too late.

825 FOREST ROAD is slow burn ghost story, featuring three different viewpoints on one timeline before converging in the final timeline for the conclusion. At times, it can feel a bit repetitive but you do get to see varying perspectives of the ghost, Helen Foster.

There are several spooky moments and attempts at classic jump scares, but they left me wanting a little more. However, the use of a mannequin was quite entertaining and the fact that the majority of the intense hauntings occurred during the day helped to drive home the helplessness of the situation.

As the story continued to unfold, it became very hard to root for any of the characters as because they all came off as one dimensional and the ending only left me with more questions.

I felt 825 FOREST ROAD had some decent meat to it but ultimately, it needed more time to cook to become a savory story that would haunt you afterwards.

If you like slow burns with a mystery to solve and take care of, give 825 FOREST ROAD a view to see how it hold ups to your standards and share with me your perspective.

2025 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Thursday, April 3rd

Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2025 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711

JIMMY AND STIGGS – Directed by Joe Begos

Filmmaker Jimmy’s (Joe Begos) downward spiral into booze, dope and all sorts of ill shit is unceremoniously interrupted by an alien abduction in his L.A. apartment. Fearing they’ll return, he enlists the help of his estranged and recently sober friend, Stiggs (Matt Mercer) to prepare for war against his nightly invaders.

I had this sort of idea a few years ago, primarily inspired by the films of Joel Potrykus (APE, BUZZARD, RELAXER), that there exists a small niche subset of films that I have began referring to as “Dirtbag Cinema”. Essentially, lowlife characters attempting to overcome obstacles and triumphing over challenges, while ultimately remaining largely unchanged. I’ve considered many Begos’ films in this category as well. And I would hope that the contextual clues provided by everything else I’ve ever written make it clear that this phrase was always meant as a term of endearment. JIMMY AND STIGGS certainly fits this description. It kind of defines it, even.

The film is book-ended by these very long and fun POV sequences. First, the pre-title scene that sets the stage of Jimmy’s apartment, his substance abuse and general attitude projected to those on the other end of his phone introduce us to his character. The final scene, by switching back to POV serves to nicely juxtapose the two contrasting visuals, accenting just how much has gone wrong in this small space over the course of just one day. This was a neat trick, and I think it also shows how much creativity, care and craftsmanship went into the film overall. While some specific aspects come off as very camp and low budget, there are plenty of times this film pulls off effects and techniques that prove an experienced hand. The artistry in films like this is too often overlooked. I hope to highlight this in my writing as much as possible.

The overall look of the film, established by Brian Sowell & Mike Testin’s cinematography and the lighting of the set was hyper kinetic and gave no room for the audience to take a breath. The set looked as if it was lit entirely by a combination of neon beer signs and black light posters (although I’m sure there was much more to it than that). And the shots were primarily long single take handheld, floating around the action quickly, but not to the point of confusion or disorientation. Everything that happens in this film, happens on camera, in your face and in clear view.

The pace is powerful here as well. It comes and goes with the exact same intensity. And at only 80 minutes, the whole thing is over before you really know what hits you. I’m usually one to commend a film for its softer touches, for the wisdom and beauty of moderation, prudence and sobriety. You don’t get any of that stuff here and we’re all better for it. Sometimes it’s nice to have a film slap you in the face with reckless abandonment and absolutely zero restraint, to remind us that in fact sometimes, more is more. In the end, this may be the gooiest movie I’ve seen since Peter Jackson’s DEAD ALIVE.

As I bring this back to my previous ramblings, I did have to wonder a few things: Has there ever been a film that could be categorized as “Lovecraftian Dirtbag Cinema”? And more importantly, did they get their security deposit back?

Tuesday, April 1

2025 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – Monday, March 31st

By Emery Snyder - @leeroy711

THE STAMP THEIF – Directed by Dan Sturman

THE STAMP THEIF is a documentary that tells the story of a group of Americans pretending to make a film (ARGO style) in order to gain access to a Polish apartment building that they suspect has a buried valuable stamp collection, stolen from Holocaust victims.

It's apparent early on that this film, although a documentary, was written and composed by someone who’s worked extensively in fiction. It plays out like a heist film or a spy novel. I actually found it fascinating at how the plot to an actual heist so closely resembles the making of a Hollywood film.

I was also struck that this story gives us an entirely different look at Poland than what we saw in Jesse Eisenberg’s A REAL PAIN last year. The community showcased in that fictional film was far more welcoming to outsiders. In this film, we see how the country has been affected by the global rise in this new brand of populism.

With this in mind however, I found the overall arch of the film to be one of hope. In spite of the region’s growing ideas of nativism and antisemitism, it was encouraging to find so many people ready and willing to do the right thing and to honor history’s ugly truths. There was real value in this discovery.

CHAIN REACTIONS – Directed by Alexandre O. Philippe

Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe intervies Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King and Karyn Kusama about the cultural, societal and personal impacts of Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE.

It’s difficult to review Philippe’s films. I’ve seen all of them and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. But I don’t know that there is a whole lot of his actual direction that I’m responding to. The entire premise is typically to have a handful of filmmakers or critics that most of us cinephiles adore sit down and discuss an amazing film or filmmaker. Then, overlay clips from a bunch of our favorite cinematic moments and call it done. It’s a formula that works for me and tons of my community. It makes me wish I was sitting in the room with them, deeply diving into the entries of this medium that we all celebrate.

The ingredients of the recipe are simple, and they make a fulfilling experience. But how much of Philippe’s creativity is actually imposed onto celluloid? I don’t know. I guess I don’t really care either. But the thought that we may have not ever seen one of Takashi Miike’s films if the screening to Chaplin’s CITY LIGHTS hadn’t been sold out is certainly a haunting and chaotic allegory to the world created by Tobe Hooper in 1975.