Film Jury

This week, The Film Jury dives into the 1974 horror classic Black Christmas, the original slasher that helped define the genre long before Halloween or Friday the 13th. Directed by Bob Clark and written by A. Roy Moore, this cult favorite blends holiday cheer with chilling suspense, a creeping sense of dread, and some of the most iconic early slasher techniques in cinematic history.

Starring Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, and John Saxon, the film follows a group of sorority sisters who begin receiving terrifying phone calls and threats during the Christmas holiday. As tension mounts and...

The Film Jury is back with a festive blood-soaked verdict as James, Kristina, and Heidi take on the cult favorite Anna and the Apocalypse (2017), the wildly inventive Christmas zombie musical directed by John McPhail and written by Alan McDonald and the late Ryan McHenry.

Starring Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Ben Wiggins, Marli Siu, and Mark Benton, this genre-blending film mashes up holiday cheer, high-school drama, infectious musical numbers, and a full-scale zombie outbreak—and somehow makes it all work.

In this episode, the Jury breaks down:
– Why the film's musical sequ...

The Losers' Club returns to Derry—older, traumatized, and still bound by a childhood nightmare they hoped they'd escaped. This week on Film Jury, we dive deep into IT Chapter II (2019), directed by Andy Muschietti and based on Stephen King's legendary novel.

Stacked with an impressive adult cast including James McAvoy (Bill), Jessica Chastain (Beverly), Bill Hader (Richie), Isaiah Mustafa (Mike), Jay Ryan (Ben), James Ransone (Eddie), and Bill Skarsgård returning as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the film attempts to blend cosmic horror, emotional closure, and surreal creature spectacle into one massive final chapter.

But...

The Film Jury returns to Derry as we dive into IT: Chapter One (2017) — the blockbuster Stephen King adaptation that redefined Pennywise for a new generation. Directed by Andy Muschietti, this modern retelling shifts the story fully into the 1980s, blending coming-of-age adventure with some of the most iconic horror imagery of the decade.

Starring Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown and a phenomenal young cast including Jaeden Martell, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, and Wyatt Oleff, the film follows the Losers' Club as they uncover the ancient evil ter...

The hunt is on.

The Film Jury assembles for a brutal new hunt in Predator: Badlands (2025) — the latest Predator film directed by Dan Trachtenberg.

Starring Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek (a young, exiled Yautja) and Elle Fanning as Thia (a damaged synthetic), the film throws survival horror into overdrive on a hostile alien world.

Hosts James Patrick, Kat Stratford, and Alabama Deer break down:

The shift in perspective — for the first time, a Predator is the protagonist.

The visual style and world-building of Trachtenberg's direction.

How Dek and Thia...

The Film Jury resurrects a classic tale for Episode 5 as we review Frankenstein (2025) — the bold new reimagining of Mary Shelley's iconic story. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, this modern adaptation pushes the legend of Victor Frankenstein into darker, more psychological territory while honoring the spirit of the original novel.

Starring Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi as the Creature, and Mia Goth as Elizabeth, the 2025 version reinvents the dynamic between creator and creation with emotional intimacy, striking production design, and a tone that blends gothic horror with contemporary moral dread.

Hosts James Patrick, Meagan Jone...

The Film Jury heads back to Derry, Maine, to revisit the iconic 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's IT. Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and starring Tim Curry, Jonathan Brandis, Richard Thomas, Seth Green, and Annette O'Toole, this TV classic terrified a generation — but how well does it hold up over three decades later?

Hosts James Patrick, Kristina Patrick, and Heidi Romans dive deep into the two-part structure, the limitations of network television horror in the early '90s, and the enduring legacy of Curry's legendary performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The panel debates the film's pacing, ch...

The Film Jury is back in session to rule on Oddity (2024), the acclaimed Irish supernatural horror film from writer-director Damian Mc Carthy. Hosts James Patrick, Meagan Jones, and Kristina Patrick dive into one of the year's most talked-about genre entries — a chilling, stylish blend of grief, revenge, and the uncanny.

Starring Carolyn Bracken, Gwilym Lee, and Caroline Menton, Oddity follows a blind medium who returns to confront her sister's killer, armed with a mysterious wooden mannequin and a growing sense that something otherworldly seeks justice of its own.

The panel dissects the film's inventive scares, me...

The Film Jury returns to the courtroom of cinema for its second case: Dangerous Animals (2025) — a dark psychological thriller that slithers between ambition, obsession, and survival. Hosts James Patrick, Meagan Jones, and Denise Black sink their teeth into the film's moral tension, unpredictable twists, and slow-burn performances to determine whether this creature of a movie is a predator or just all bark.

Written and directed by David Farr, Dangerous Animals stars David Dastmalchian, Katie Leung, and Tuppence Middleton in a tense story of a journalist drawn into a deadly web while investigating an enigmatic tech billionaire. The ho...

The Film Jury is officially in session! In our debut episode, hosts James Patrick, Kat Stratford, and Kristina Patrick take on the haunting new supernatural horror film Shelby Oaks (2024 / 2025) — the long-awaited directorial debut from filmmaker and YouTuber Chris Stuckmann.

The trio dives deep into the mystery behind the movie's production delays, its ambitious story of grief and trauma, and whether the hype surrounding Stuckmann's first feature was ultimately justified.

Starring Camille Sullivan, Michael Beach, Robin Bartlett, Keith David, and Brendan Sexton III, Shelby Oaks follows a woman's desperate search for her missing sister — one of the...