Movie Review- Insane Like Me?

 DeskPop Entertainment is excited to kick off their summer slate with the North American VOD release of Insane Like Me?, a twisted supernatural thriller where no one trusts what they think they see. Insane Like Me? debuts on Cable and Digital VOD June 4, 2024, including Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Fandango At Home, Comcast, Dish, and DirecTV.

Insane Like Me? is a supernatural thriller about a combat veteran who returns home after a tour of duty overseas. He becomes the lead suspect in his girlfriend's disappearance and is subsequently wrongly convicted and incarcerated. Nine years later he is released from the mental asylum, and he returns home to find the truth and settle the score.

On Halloween night, Jake, (a recently returned veteran) and his girlfriend Samantha, (the sheriff's daughter) join her brother and his girlfriend to party at what the locals call the massacre hotel, an abandoned building that is said to be haunted and responsible for over 200 deaths and mysterious disappearances.

The party is crashed by vampires and although Samantha puts up a valiant fight she is dragged off and we do not see her fate. Later at the sheriff's station where Jake is being grilled about the incidents at the party, the sheriff (played by Eric Roberts) exclaims "It was supposed to be you!" which lets us know he was somehow in on this attack but was not expecting his daughter to be taken instead of Jake. He pretends not to believe Jake's story about the vampires and has Jake committed to an insane asylum. Upon his eventual release, he sets out to find Samantha and kill the vampires. Reluctantly he allows Samantha's sister in on his plans.

Keep an eye out for dancers in the background of a party in the woods scene. I'm not sure if it was meant to be funny or whether they purposely chose people who can't dance at all but either way it gave me a laugh.

The first few attacks at the hotel were on the cheesy side. Excessive use of growling and what I call demonic voice syndrome sometimes made it difficult to understand what was being said. Later attacks looked more realistic and blood splatter effects were good.

Overall it had a decent plot instead of relying solely on gore. It wasn't scary but it did entertain me. If you like vampire movies it's worth a watch.

I gave it a 7 out of 10 on IMDB

Watch the trailer here

Their Hearses by E.L. Giles

Years ago, John Berryman was responsible for the deaths of his two children and their nanny. But John Berryman was never seen or heard from again. He simply...vanished.

Now, decades later, someone has finally purchased John Berryman's rambling old house.

Marc Larose is no stranger to loss. He hopes to bring the decaying structure to its former glory, a warm place where his family can heal and begin anew, but if these walls could talk, they'd speak of death. Only, Marc isn't listening.

Something vengeful still lingers in the shadows of the old willow, and it has its eyes set on Marc. It isn't long before he is caught in the tangles of mystery, fear, and deceit, where forces beyond his control are vying for his very soul.

Will Marc figure out who...or what...is haunting his new home before he becomes its next victim?
 

Mired in grief over the death of his son, Marc Larose leaves his wife and daughters behind while he works on a decrepit old house where he hopes to move them for a fresh start away from the tragedy that has broken their family. 

The house has had its own share of death. It was the site of a brutal mass murder, and something there still hungers for death. There is an entity that feeds off suffering and grief, and Marc is a plentiful source. It has plans for him and his family. At first, Marc tells himself that the creepy happenings could be chalked up to the locals playing pranks, but before long he is totally under the influence of the house and ready to give in to its horrific requests.

The backstory of the house and the multiple tragedies that occurred there gave this story a well-constructed beginning. It was atmospheric, dark, and terrifying. The concept of a haunted man buying a haunted house was brilliant.

As the book progressed, there were some missing details that I felt were pertinent to the story and created a bit of a plot hole. I can't say much about that without spoiling it for you so I'll just say it has to do with the disappearance of the murderer. I feel that it would have been better to address that instead of Marc's strange proclivities.

3 out of 5 stars

My Thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing.

Get a copy 

About the author

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima

 

At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and writes stories for him about things both impossible and true. Stories I Wrote for the Devil lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil, where they’ll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of living people. Ananda Lima speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences―of ambition, fear, longing, and belonging―and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home.

I wanted to love this book. It's clever in theory but the execution left something to be desired. 

It started off well enough, at a Halloween party where a woman is waiting for the man she loves who is actually in a relationship with her friend. How depressing right? 

While she is waiting she meets the devil himself who offers to split up the happy couple and shows that he can do it. After spending a night together she continues to see the devil in various spots...and she writes stories.

I would have preferred it if she just told those stories in a linear fashion. Instead the stories are broken up in a disjointed way. There are pages of story critiques that serve only as an interruption.

The devil was charming and I would have liked him to play a larger role.

I did enjoy some of the stories, especially Antropofaga in which tiny humans are purchased as snacks from a vending machine among all the other junk foods.

And Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory where someone's ultimate hell is Penn Station.

This was just an ok read for me. You may enjoy it more than I did.

3 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Tor Books 

Available for preorder

About the author

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,” from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”  
 
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay. 
 
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling.  
 
But Other Mommy needs an answer. 
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.
 

Eight-year-old Bela is the only child in a dysfunctional family full of secrets. Bela has also been keeping her own secret from Mommy and Daddo. She's been talking to an entity that hides in her closet. An entity she calls Other Mommy that at first seems friendly and benign but is now becoming increasingly bold and aggressive. Other Mommy is growing more powerful and no longer confined to Bela's room. It grows angry and frustrated that Bela will not answer its question "Can I go into your heart?" Now it follows Bela everywhere and has no fear of showing itself to others. It knows things about the family and uses it against them. It can be anywhere.

Told from Bela's point of view the story is even more terrifying when portrayed through the eyes of a child who is learning that her parents can't always protect her. She struggles on her own to understand the meaning of this entity wanting to go into her heart and her sadness at the loss of what she once considered to be a companion who was there for her when her parents were not.

This is not one of those books that I couldn't put down. Incidents Around The House is a book that I had to put down more than once.  I had to take a break because it was scaring me. It brought back every childhood nightmare I had ever managed to forget. It will land on my Best Horror Novel of the Year list.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Del Rey Books

Available for pre-order

About the author