Tempos Modernos 

The Christmas Horror section of films is growing, and today we present a bold selection of new and old Christmas horror films to celebrate this macabre union.

The trouble with Yara (2021) is that in its attempt to tell the whole story, it struggles to tell a consistently engaging story.

Netflix’s Shadow and Bone has a complicated relationship with race. It has a diverse cast, but not without its problems. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s two book series, the show features characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which is very straight and white, and the Six of Crows duology, which is much more diverse. When bringing together a cast and writing about these characters, the team behind the show expanded upon some of the representation missing from the first trilogy, then seemed to take away representation from the duology. Shadow and Bone seems to play a bit of a push and pull game when it comes to portraying diversity onscreen.

Netflix’s new mystery thriller, The Marked Woman (released originally as La Desconocida), is confusing. More critically, though, it commits the worst mistake a movie can make: it’s boring. From Spanish director Gabe Ibáñez, the film squanders its premise at every turn, fills the story with unlikeable characters, and lacks emotional payoff.

Villeneuve’s Dune is a masterpiece for its crafting process, but references to David Lynch's picture are sometimes too obvious.