The best horror movies can usually be described in a sentence. A killer shark terrorizes a beachfront community. A knife-wielding masked killer stalks horny teenagers. A young woman gets pregnant with the anti-Christ. They’re simple setups that use that brevity of plot to either wring terror out of the mundane or explore some deeper thematic […]
Jared Rasic
Film critic and author of food, arts and culture stories for the Source Weekly since 2010.
Posted inCulture
May the Source Be With You
July Edition
Holy heck, everyone! We’re right in the middle of it now. Summer is here, with her arms blissfully stretched out, cracking her back and, I dunno, maybe playing some cornhole while eating a brat and sipping a honey-colored microbrew. That sounds like what she’d do. And you too, maybe! But when you’re not doing that, […]
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The Frogurt is Also Cursed
Child’s Play reboot steals too much
I realize that most of the people headed to see the reboot of “Child’s Play” aren’t really going to care about this, but indulge me in a quick rant about the state of remakes, sequels, reboot-quels, pre-makes, re-imaginings and se-boots. The original “Child’s Play” came out in November 1988 and focused on a mortally wounded serial […]
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Trash or Toy?
Toy Story 4 Embraces Existential Despair
Look, Pixar has always been pretty good about finding moments of genuine humanity within their movies about flying houses, sentient toys and cute robots, but they’re masters at unearthing the sadness at the core of the human condition. Animated movies about anthropomorphic toys shouldn’t be so gut wrenchingly honest and upsetting, but here we are. […]
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Small-Town Lives
“Phoenix, Oregon” captures the beauty in the mundane
Bobby Hoffman has a bad haircut and a worse mustache. He wakes up every morning in a classic Airstream trailer surrounded by empty boxes of Pop Tarts. He vapes and jogs simultaneously and is condescended to by just about everyone he meets, including his festering prick of a boss at a terrible Italian restaurant where […]
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From First to Last
"Dark Phoenix" tries to reignite the X-franchise
“The Dark Phoenix Saga” changed how I viewed comic books. Released from January to October 1980 and written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, “The Dark Phoenix Saga” showed me that not all comics would have happy endings. Jean Grey, arguably the kindest and most empathetic X-Man, gets exposed to a solar flare which turns […]
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A-Ska-Calypse Now
Local filmmaker creates a documentary about the ska music genre
As I sat down to watch local filmmaker Taylor Morden’s ska documentary, “Pick it Up!,” I realized I knew nothing about the genre—other than the fact I liked it a lot in middle/high school for about five minutes. I would have liked it longer, but I was young and fickle (but mostly because I discovered […]
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Kings of the Multiplex
The summer blockbusters have arrived
Last week we took a look at some of the best indie movies of the year that you might have missed, since the giant mega-blockbusters get released all year long now instead of just in the summer. When you live in a town that doesn’t have multiple multiplexes and “Avengers: Endgame” is playing on six […]
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Motorcycles, Dogs and Horses, Oh My
John Wick 3 is a wall-to-wall murder party
Since “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” raked in around $100 million across its opening weekend, it’s obvious audiences haven’t gotten tired of watching our man Keanu Reeves murder hundreds of faceless bad guys in new and original ways. Personally, I’m glad they haven’t, because not only is this installment of the franchise the best […]
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Now Their Watch Has Ended
The Iron Throne
Spoilers This final season of “Game of Thrones” has been divisive to say the least. With fans starting petitions for HBO to “try again but better this time” and even members of the cast speaking out about their disappointment, it’s easy to see why. But, aside from a few massive and sloppy continuity errors and […]
