Jyanween: Over the Garden Wall (McHale, 2014)

Though much of the fun of Halloween is the spooks and frights, one of my favorite elements of the holiday is the aesthetic. Fall leaves, pumpkins, the orange of the dying light over withering trees, it’s all an exhilarating part of the experience. “Over the Garden Wall” understand this aesthetic, utilizing it to create a […]

JyanWeen: Ghostwatch (Volk, 1992)

Many people call “The Blair Witch Project” the beginning of the found footage craze, but a few years before that film was a little British broadcast on BBC, “Ghostwatch”. Airing in 1992, the faux news program follows a crew as they investigate what’s declared as the “most haunted house in Britain”. What begins as a […]

Jyanween: Angel’s Egg (Oshii, 1985)

There are few films in this year’s Jyanween that may not always feel like horror films, but are so bizarre that they defy categorization. Anyone who watches Angel’s Egg will see, it is certainly one such film. Even if it doesn’t quite scare you, there’s an unnerving obscurity and uncertainty that you just can’t shake. […]

JyanWeen: Idle Hands (Flender, 1999)

There are certain films that act as a snapshot for a certain moment in time. Just one look at Taxi Driver tells everything we want to know about 70s New York; Smithereens gives you a warts and all look at punk life in the 80s; the 40s noir is soaked in the LA of their […]

Anything Can Happen on Jyan-ween: The Devil (Zulawski, 1972)

Andrej Zulawski is a filmmaker like no other. Now, we say that about a lot of directors, but the moment you begin watching a Zulawski film, you’ll know there’s no other way to describe him. His most famous film, a Lovecraftian freak out called ‘Possession” could be summed up by some as “Sam Neill yelling […]

JyanWeenV: Anything Can Happen on JyanWeen: Ginger Snaps

Welcome to Anything Can Happen on Ryan-ween, where I watch (at least) 31 horror/thriller films in October, and chronicle my thoughts on them here. These be can be anything from horror comedies, slashers, Blumhouse-style 21st Century jump scare horror, Italian giallo, melancholy European horror, Japanese acid horror, and anything in between. Hopefully you guys will […]