Movie Reviews
History of Evil: Shudder Film Review
Paul Wesley and Jackie Cruz star in History of Evil, which follows an escapee of political prison in 2045 who’s on the run from the sinister theocratic government.
Bo Mirhosseni’s debut feature film is a personal and political ode to his parents, who were both human right activists during the Iranian revolution in the late 1970s. Mirhosseni has always had a desire to mix his love for the horror genre along with his political upbringing to make something he, and audiences, could relate back to the changing attitudes in society today. And ta-da! He’s managed to create the intensely quieting History of Evil. It’s a combination of the horror out in the “real” world along with supernatural elements. Think The Amityville Horror meets Battle Royale but very diligently streamlined to not be too over the top when it comes to the occult or gore. For a horror debut, it’s horrific (in the best way possible)!
Paul Wesley delivers an eerily good performance as Ron, the husband of Alegre (Jackie Cruz), an escapee of political prison, and father of six-year-old Daria (Murphee Bloom). Together, along with Trudy (Rhonda Dents), a trustworthy escort for their trip, they’re on the run and en route to an uncanny secluded safe house. History of Evil is meant to be set in 2045 but hauntingly could pass as the present day. In order to arrive at their hideaway, they must pass a checkpoint. Alegre and Daria climb inside cadaver pouches and wait for armed men to scan their ankle monitors, which will show a fake identity, so they can continue their journey in secrecy.
The four arrive at their safe house finally, constantly staying vigilant by wearing camouflage jackets so that the drones can’t spot them. They only plan on staying for 24 hours so don’t think too much of the only things to eat and drink being two bottles of water, a carrot, which Alegre gives to their dog, and slices of plastic cheese. They radio through to The Resistance, the opposing side to the government and the group in which Alegre is a part of, who are meant to be coming to their rescue but they’ve been delayed at the border. One night is what they initially planned so another can’t be too bad, can it?
What Ron, Alegre, Daria and Trudy are yet to realise is that the horrors outside might just be as bad as the history that the house holds within its walls. There’s no escape, and either way, they’ll be met with evil. History of Evil makes your blood run cold for the first half of the runtime, but loses momentum as the story reaches its climax. It’s cleverly created to make it an evil vs evil narrative where whatever decision the characters make they’ll be surrounded by misfortune, but that makes it feel a little bit too predictable. We know, whatever happens, it won’t be a positive outcome.
When Daria finds someone breathing through a plastic sheet in her wardrobe it creates such a sinister atmosphere, and I wish there was more of that imagery throughout. That image being on the poster makes you think that this will be a theme running throughout but it isn’t. Yes, there are ungodly horrors throughout, but visually, it needed to be more haunting. However, with that being said, the fundamental storyline and the commentary on society is nauseating, maybe enough to make up for the lack of hair-raising visuals.
Mirhosseni is not new to the directorial scene and his resume is already jam-packed with music videos that he’s directed for the likes of Mac Miller, Disclosure and Kehlani. With a debut like History of Evil, I can see his follow up films, especially if they are in the horror genre, being just as good if not better. Seek out History of Evil on Shudder and add it to your watchlist if you want a chilling thriller.
History of Evil will be available to watch on Shudder from February 23, 2024.
Movie Reviews
1986 Movie Reviews – Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit | The Nerdy
by | May 9, 2026May 9, 2026 10:30 am EDT
Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1986 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1986 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around, it’s May 9, 1986, and we’re off to see Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit.
Dangerously Close
I would love to tell you what the point of this film was, but I’m not sure it knew.
An elite school has turned into a magnet school, attracting some “undesirables,” so a group of students known as The Sentinels take up policing their school, but will they go too far?
The basic plot of the film is simple enough, but there is an oddball “twist” toward the end tht served no real purpose and somehow turns the whole thing into a murder-mystery. Mysteries only work when you know you’re supposed to be solving them, and not when you’re alerted to one existing with 15 minutes left.
Decent 80s music, some stylistic shots, absolutely no substance.
Fire with Fire
Oh wait… I may want to go back and watch Dangerously Close again over this one.
Joe Fisk (Craig Sheffer) is being held at a juvenile delinquent facility close a high-end all-girls Catholic school. One day while running through the forest as part of an exercise he spots Catholic schoolgirl Lisa Taylor (Virginia Madsen) and the two fall immediately in love because… reasons.
This film is just so incredibly lazy. The ‘love story’ really can just be chalked up to ‘hormones.’
Last Resort
Once again I am baffled how Charles Grodin kept getting work so much through out the 1980s.
George Lollar (Grodin) is a salesman in Chicago in need of a vacation. He loads up the family and takes them to Club Sand, which turns out to be a swingers resort as well as surrounded by barbed wire to keep rebels out.
There are a lot of talented people in this movie such as Phil Hartman and Megan Mullally, but the film lets them down at every turn with half-baked ideas of jokes. Supposedly, Grodin rewrote nearly the entire script and I think that explains a lot about how this film feels like unfinished ideas. It’s a Frankenstein monster of a script with half-complete ideas that feel like they are from completely different movies.
Short Circuit
Lets just get this out of the way: What in the world was Fisher Stevens doing?
NOVA Laboratory has come up with a new series of military robots called S.A.I.N.T. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport). Following a successful demonstration for the military, Five is struck by an electrical surge and finds itself needing ‘input.’ After inadvertently escaping the lab, it wands into the life of Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy), who cares for animals and takes Five in. Dr. Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) is trying to get five back, while the security team wants to destroy it.
Overall, the film is thin, but harmless. The 80s did seem to love a ‘technology being used for the wrong reasons’ theme, and this falls into that camp. What is mind-blowing, however, is Stevens as Ben Jabituya, Crosby’s assistant. Not only is he wearing brown face, but he’s doing a horrible Indian accent and later reveals he was born and raised in the U.S.
His whole character is mystifying.
Honestly, a couple of decades ago I may have recommended this movie, but it’s a definite pass now just for being offensive.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on May 16, 2026, with Sweet Liberty and Top Gun.
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer
Posted: May 8th, 2026 / 08:34 PM
AFFECTION movie poster | ©2026 Brainstorm Media
Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross, Julianna Layne
Writer: BT Meza
Director: BT Meza
Distributor: Brainstorm Media
Release Date: May 8, 2026
AFFECTION is an odd title for this tale. While it is about a number of topics and emotions, fondness isn’t one of them. Obsession, definitely. Love, possibly. The kind of general warm fellow feelings associated with “affection”? No.
There have been a lot of movies lately in which characters – mostly women – are grappling with false identities and/or false memories imposed upon them, mostly by men.
Let us stipulate that the protagonist (Jessica Rothe) in AFFECTION is not an android or in an artificial reality. However, we can tell something is way off from the opening sequence. A car is stalled on a tree-bordered highway. Rothe’s character is lying face down on the asphalt beside it, possibly dead.
But then the young woman rises, dragging a broken ankle. She experiences a full-body seizure. Fighting to recover, she sees oncoming headlights and tries to run, only to be hit by a car.
The woman wakes up in a bed she doesn’t recognize, next to a man (Joseph Cross) she likewise is sure she’s never seen before. One big confrontation later, the man says his name is Bruce – and that the woman is his wife, Ellie.
Ellie insists that her name is Sarah Thompson, and she is married to someone else, with a son. When she sees her reflection in a mirror, she doesn’t relate to the face looking back at her.
Bruce counters that Ellie has a rare neurological condition that causes her to block out her waking life and believe her dreams are real. This is why they agreed, together, to move to this isolated house, without the kinds of interruptions that can hinder Ellie’s recovery.
The set-up is presented in a way where we share Ellie’s skepticism. But Ellie and Bruce’s little daughter Alice (Julianna Layne) immediately identifies Ellie as “Mommy!” Alice appears to be too young to be in on any kind of deception, so what is going on here?
AFFECTION eventually explains this via a helpful videotape, though it’s so convoluted that viewers watching on streaming may want to replay the sequence to make sure they understand the exposition.
Writer/director BT Meza musters a sense of menace and lurking weirdness, as well as making great use of his location.
We still have a lot of questions, many of which are still unanswered by the film’s end. It may not matter to the points AFFECTION is trying to make, but a better sense of exactly how all this started might help our investment.
As it is, despite a heroically versatile performance by Rothe, a credible and anguished turn by Cross and appealing work from Layne, we’re so busy trying to piece together what’s important and what’s not and how we’re supposed to feel about all of it that it can be hard to keep track of the action as it unfolds.
Agree or not, Meza’s arguments are lucid and illustrated clearly by AFFECTION’s events. However, the movie is structured in a way that becomes more frustrating as it goes. We comprehend it intellectually but can’t engage viscerally.
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — In this episode of 8News Reel Talk, digital producer Julia Broberg is joined by anchor Deanna Allbrittin and reporter Allison Williams to talk about “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
The hosts gave their reviews and assigned the following star ratings:
Deanna: ★★★★.5
Allison: ★★★.25
Julia: ★★
To watch more livestreams and digital video content, head to the WRIC+ Originals page. You can also watch full on-demand videos on your smart TV using the WRIC+ app.
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