Horror being used as a social allegory is a tale as old as time, even if less informed audiences might try to convince you that it is an entirely new phenomenon. From the earliest days of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to… Read More ›
horror
Final Girls Berlin Film Festival Brings attention and exposure to many horror niches. [Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2020]
We can pretend like Greta Gerwig not receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Little Women is the end-all, be-all of discrimination against women in the film industry, but the misogynistic practices of this massive industry stretch much further… Read More ›
Bring some Lovecraftian horror into your home now with the home release of “Color Out of Space.”
If you’ve ever dabbled in the morbid or macabre, then chances are you’ve come across the works of H.P. Lovecraft. His tales of the strange, the weird, the supernatural, and the horrific have lingered in the cultural zeitgeist with the… Read More ›
“VFW” balances excellence on one end and absolute batshit crazy on another.
When it comes to the new world of film production, the world has been seeing a lot of big name companies saying “screw it” and making their own films rather than sitting around while putting out other companies’ films on… Read More ›
“The Lodge” is opening its icy doors. Do you dare go in?
Horror as a means of directly confronting human trauma is not a new concept that suddenly sprang out of nowhere with Hereditary. If anything, it’s arguably the basis for all horror dating back to the very beginning. What’s better for… Read More ›
“Doctor Sleep” called in your prescription for Mike Flanagan’s director’s cut. Watch it stat.
There’s something about Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shining that’s gripped audiences for nearly four decades despite factors which one might presume would detract from its popularity. Kubrick quite famously tortured Shelley Duvall on set to a… Read More ›
Upending conventions by combining trends with personal style, Richard Stanley creates the next best midnight horror movie in “Color Out of Space”.
I have a small connection with Richard Stanley which makes viewing Color Out of Space feel like a strangely touching moment. Stanley’s new film, based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft, is his first feature film to be produced… Read More ›
The home release of “It Chapter Two” includes a full curtain pullback worth checking out.
“You’ll Float, too.” Three innocuous words infused with horrible terror thanks to Stephen King’s 1986 novel It. Then, in 1990, a television mini-series adapted from the book shifted the way the average person looks at clowns, thanks in large part… Read More ›
Just keep telling yourself “Daniel Isn’t Real.”
For as big as the waves that SpectreVision is making in the indie horror scene with cult hits like The Greasy Strangler and Mandy, it’s a real wonder why a major distributor hasn’t taken a bigger chance putting their films… Read More ›
Peter Strickland’s Giallo-inspired “In Fabric” crafts an inspired modern tale out of vintage filmmaking. [Film Fest 919]
It’s no secret that Suspiria is one of my favorite films of all time, with the 2018 remake just ever so slightly edging out the 1977 original thanks to its expansion on the film’s themes and plot to make something… Read More ›
Director Mike Flanagan makes “Doctor Sleep” his own while keeping pace with Kubrick and King.
Doctor Sleep marks the fifth major adaption of a Stephen King work in 2019 alone, joining the theatrically released Pet Sematary and It: Chapter Two, Netflix’s In the Tall Grass, and Hulu’s original series Castle Rock. Adapting King novels and… Read More ›
Feeling brave? You can welcome “Annabelle Comes Home” into your own now.
When you hit the seventh installment of a series, you’re either scraping the bottom of the barrel or hitting your stride. What began with co-writers Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes and director James Wan in 2013’s The Conjuring is… Read More ›
Can you solve the Faun’s three challenges? With the new 4K UHD home release of “Pan’s Labyrinth” you can.
Though Oscar-winning writer/director Guillermo del Toro’s been working since the mid-’80s, the majority of audiences know him as the director of either Hellboy (2004), Pacific Rim (2013), and The Shape of Water (2017). In cinema-focused circles, however, del Toro’s more… Read More ›
“Artik” is gritty, over the top, and available on home video now.
When it comes to horror films, serial killer horror is often the easiest entry into the genre. With a decent prosthetics team and some creativity, a good horror film can be made on the cheap with some pretty chilling effects… Read More ›
Planning to check out “Bloodline”? Go in with an open mind and a stomach of steel.
The unrelenting, brutally realistic, and “Hard-R” feature, Bloodline, from director Henry Jacobson, examines the atrocities of a serial killer from a unique perspective. Rather than the stereotypical villain who inhumanely preys on the weak and helpless out of sheer wickedness,… Read More ›
Techno-thriller “Empathy, Inc.” puts the question of identity up for examination.
The things we want out of life don’t often go the way we planned. Sometimes it feels like planning is just a way people go about trying to control an outcome. Even now, with apps, gadgets, and tech of all… Read More ›
Be careful when you peel back the layers in “Freaks,” what looks back may frighten.
After spending some time on the festival circuit in 2018, and providing a fan screening during 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con, genre-bending Freaks finally gets the theatrical treatment. Freaks relies far more on character work than action and writing/directing team Zack… Read More ›
“It: Chapter Two” ends where It begins.
No matter how much we want it to, the past rarely stays behind. A song, a story, a face, anything which might elicit the slightly remembrance, and we’re right back in that moment like it’s yesterday. Of the many themes… Read More ›
Don’t Romjin Calm! Join the “Satanic Panic”!
Horror is one of those genres that never goes out of style. It draws inspiration from the things which we fear collectively and gives it form. 1978’s Halloween was born out of the move from city centers to suburbia. 1954’s… Read More ›
Generational conflicts play out as bloody mayhem in Richard Bates Jr.’s “Tone-Deaf”.
Probably for as long as there have been parents and children, there’s been a war waging between generations. Parents tend to think that the ones coming up have no regard for way things used to be and children think it’s… Read More ›