When Wes Craven made Scream he kickstarted a more self-aware approach to horror. It was a self-reflective work Craven had tried previously with New Nightmare. Initially, Scream begot a wave of slasher-lite knockoffs that kind of missed Craven’s point. But the meta-slasher would eventually gain traction. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Tucker […]
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Before M Night Shyamalan rehabilitated his image with back-to-back successes in The Visit and Split, he hit rock-bottom with 2010’s The Last Airbender. Oh, Shyamalan would still drop one more bomb called After Earth. But the divisive filmmaker took a small step in the right direction by stepping back. Though the story wasn’t necessarily original, […]
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Sometimes movies just fall through the cracks. When it hit theaters in 1981, Dead & Buried barely made a ripple at the box office. One can even forgive older horror fans for missing this one in the VHS years. Despite making the UK’s ‘Video Nasty’ list, Dead & Buried went against the grain for 80’s […]
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Happy Canada Day! To celebrate the nation’s birthday, we’re re-visiting The Great White North’s contribution to the ‘Golden Era’ of slasher horror. Most horror fans know the original My Bloody Valentine was a Canadian export. Shortly after My Bloody Valentine scared horror fans, another Canadian slasher made its way to theaters – Happy Birthday To […]
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Over the course of his career, the late Bill Paxton put together an impressive list of credits. A small, but memorable appearance in Terminator, led to star-making supporting roles in Aliens and Near Dark. By the 1990s, Paxton scored roles in several blockbusters including Apollo 13, Twister, and Titanic. But Paxton only got behind the […]
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By the mid-2000’s, audiences were wise to horror rules and conventions. Wes Craven’s Scream pulled the curtain on tired tropes and re-invigorated the genre. But Hollywood was slow to change and the slasher-lite renaissance that followed recycled the same narratives without Craven’s self-awareness. And remakes and ‘Torture Porn’ characterized horror for most of the aughts. […]
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For a brief period of time, Hollywood studios were obsessed with Japanese horror. What followed was a glut of J-horror remakes that quickly saw diminishing returns. Things started off promising with the successful, and very scary, The Ring remake in 2002. Though The Grudge remake made money at the box office, critics were less impressed […]
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Kids are evil. Anyone who has stepped on a random LEGO piece or been forced to watch Paw Patrol knows this to be true. Okay, kids aren’t really evil but there’s certainly something creepy about children doing terrible things. This in part reflects our attributing innocence to childhood. As such, the corruption of innocence is, […]
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