Sean Patrick
Bio
Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.
Stories (289/1969)
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Movie Review: 'Godforsaken' is a Wild Ride of a Horror Movie
Godforsaken looks as if it was made on cellphone cameras on a budget of maybe two bucks. And yet, despite the low budget aesthetic, it’s as bracing and terrifying as any horror movie released in the last several years. This extremely DIY zombie movie crosses horror subgenres and aesthetics and through ingenuity and gusto manages to craft some of the most genuine scares that I have experienced since I became a cynical, seen-it-all before film critic.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'X' is One of the Best of 2022 So Far
X takes the idea of aesthetic homage to its best possible place by evoking the look and feel of the best of 1970s horror while not forgetting to tell its own story. X is the story of a group of low level hustlers trying their hand at making low budget pornography. The success of Debbie Does Dallas inspired hundreds of copycats and the characters of X feel that they have a terrific chance for success with their sexy strippers and a ‘talented’ male star.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Classic Movie Review: 'The House of the Devil'
Merely emulating the style of another era of film is not an idea, it’s an aesthetic. The 2009 horror movie, The House of the Devil, a breakout for director Ti West impressed a lot of people with its aesthetic. The film’s grainy cinematography evoked the early 1980s and the horror aesthetic of that time. Indeed, in style alone, The House of the Devil is quite impressive. Every last retro touch from the clothes right down to the heroine’s walkman looks perfectly of the period.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Heckle' starring Steve Guttenberg
It’s almost hard to believe that at one time, Steve Guttenberg was a major Hollywood star. Coming off of his terrifically fun role in Police Academy in 1984, Guttenberg became a highly marketable talent. He got more than sequel out of The Police Academy movies, to declining interest each time and managed to squander the significant goodwill he’d accrued in Police Academy, a movie many people still love today.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'The World Ends at Camp Z'
World Ends at Camp Z is a low budget zombie movie that, though it may look like a horror comedy, takes its premise deathly seriously. Directed by Ding Wang, what looks like it should be a wild horror comedy quickly establishes itself as a dire waiting game as interchangeable characters are introduced, bicker in desperately unfunny fashion, and wait for zombies to show up and make a meal of them.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Studio 666' Gets Horror Comedy Right
Studio 666 walks a remarkably slim tight rope between comedy and bloody horror and manages brilliantly to stay upright. This wildly fun and playful horror movie starring the rock band, The Foo Fighters, is such a jovial delight that even when someone dies horrifically you can sense they did so with the glee of a child enjoying a theme park ride. Dave Grohl and company are having an absolute ball sending up horror tropes and playing them straight for scares at the same time and I loved every moment of it.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)' is Utter Trash and We Deserve Better
“Do something and you are totally canceled bro!” Random Leatherface victim in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022. Allow me to set the scene: A bus filled with Zoomers partying late into a rainy Texas night. Leatherface, the famed chainsaw killer boards the bus wearing his adopted mother’s face and carrying his chainsaw. Slack-jawed soon to be dead, Zoomers point cellphone cameras at Leatherface and victim number 1 threatens the lunatic killer with cancel culture. A generation that has lived through multiple school shootings is here portrayed as so dimwitted and P.C that they believe cancel culture would stop a chainsaw wielding maniac.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'The Long Night' is a Bore
The Long Night is a remarkably dull and derivative horror movie. This story about a couple trapped in a southern plantation home by some form of powerful demonic cult paints itself into multiple corners that it has no hope of getting out of. The villains have too much power and our protagonists are a bickering couple who have zero chemistry. So that’s fun. Then the movie builds to an ending that features character motivations that shift so fast you may get whiplash trying to keep up with the silliness.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'Nocturna Side A' and 'Nocturna Side B'
After watching Noctura Side A and Nocturna Side B, I sent a message to my Everyone’s a Critic Movie Review Podcast Co-Host, Bob Zerull, that indicated what I had watched and that I would have trouble sleeping that night. So haunting, engrossing, and agonizing is the Side A-Side B duo of Nocturna movies in their psychological horrors and soul aching sadness that I was unsure I was capable of sleep anymore. Nocturna Side A and Nocturna Side B are the kind of movies that etch themselves into your subconscious.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'The Curse of La Patasola'
Some movies are just impossible to care about. They may have a scene or two that is pretty good or even a good idea or two in the storytelling and yet, they fail to engage your mind. The Curse of La Patasola is such a movie. Despite there being at least one legitimately good scene, the film from director A.J Jones never rises above mediocre to downright terrible. The low budget provides some excuses for the low rent nature but it can’t excuse the overall throwaway aspect of The Curse of La Patasola.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'The Free Fall'
Content warning, this review mentions suicide and discusses a character attempting to take their own life. If depictions of suicide are a trigger for you, please either read with caution or click away from this review. I don’t recommend the movie The Free Fall which is far from a sensitive depiction of suicide, among many, many other failing elements.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
Movie Review: 'The Legend of La Llorona' is an Unintentional Laugh Riot
The Legend of La Llorona is a laugh riot. I busted a gut watching The Legend of La Llorona but, unfortunately, that’s not exactly what the makers of the film had in mind for an audience response. The latest iteration of the Mexican legend of the weeping woman who curses and steals children is not intended to be a comedy. The intention was to make a horror movie and the team behind The Legend of La Llorona failed this intention in spectacularly silly fashion.
By Sean Patrick4 years ago in Horror
