Where Horror Lives
At the peak of the 2000’s ‘Torture Porn‘ craze, Australian director Greg McLean (Rogue, The Belko Experiment) released Wolf Creek. Despite its modest box office success, critics were divided by the movie’s extremely graphic violence. Far removed from silly slasher violence, Wolf Creek shared more DNA with New French Extremity movies like High Tension, Martyrs, […]
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Blame The Blair Witch Project, and its shaky camera work. But once The Paranormal Activity franchise took off, horror filmmakers increasingly turned to the found-footage format. Between 2010 and 2015, the horror genre churned out dozens of found-footage titles including The Den, Unfriended, and even a Blair Witch sequel/reboot. One of the better found-footage offerings […]
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During the remake-crazy 2000’s, Hollywood largely focused on 80’s slasher movie titles. Occasionally, studios have opted to re-imagine classic horror movies – a Dawn of the Dead or Suspiria. Another case in point was Warner Bros attempt to resurrect The Omen franchise. There was no Gregory Peck this time around, but The Omen remake had […]
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Happy Father’s Day! It’s time to wrap that tie or finish painting the clever “Dad Rocks” on a rock. Today, we celebrate all those hardworking fathers who threaten to ‘turn this car around right now’ and play catch with you in the backyard. For this edition of The Chopping Block, I take a look at […]
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Despite not being a huge exporter of horror movies, Ireland has offered some impressive and understated additions to the genre. In just the last few years Irish filmmakers have given us Let Us Prey, The Cured, and the impressive A Dark Song. Now the critically well-received The Hole in the Ground has hit several VOD […]
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On this day, in 1987, 20th Century Fox released the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Predator. Little did film-goers at the time know but Predator was much more than just another Schwarzenegger vehicle. One of the best mixes of action, horror, and science fiction genres, Predator is widely regarded today as a classic from the decade. Time, a mixed […]
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Cannibal Holocaust introduced the idea of ‘found-footage’. Nearly 20 years later, The Blair Witch Project fully embraced the concept. And when Paranormal Activity replaced the Saw franchise as the annual Halloween tradition, the found-footage horror (FFH) was officially its own subgenre. Though over-saturation has led to FFH fizzling out, hidden gems occasionally surface. Nigel Bach’s […]
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Eli Roth is one of the more divisive filmmakers in the horror genre today. Though his filmography is relatively small, Roth has had his hand in numerous projects, including AMC’s recent Eli Roth’s History of Horror. In the early 2000’s, Roth emerged alongside filmmakers noted for pushing the envelope of onscreen violence including Rob Zombie […]
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The 1950’s, the Atomic Era, was the ‘Golden Age’ of mutated horrors. This was the decade that gave us Godzilla, The Deadly Mantis, Them, and The Blob. It was a time of drive-in theatres and B-movies. Flashforward to the 1990’s, the era of Blockbuster and straight-to-video movies. Many of these movies tried to emulate the […]
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Art is pain. At least that’s what horror movies would have you believe. In less than a year, Suspiria twisted limbs in a dance academy, and Velvet Buzzsaw gave us evil paintings. And now Netflix wants to invest the world of classical music with horror. The streaming giant’s latest release, The Perfection, orchestrates a twisting […]
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