Where Horror Lives
As we roll into October, what better way to kick off the Halloween season then with one of the genre’s classics. Believe it or not, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre premiered 46 years ago on October 1st, 1974. With all the sequels and remakes, it’s hard to believe that several countries outright banned Tobe Hooper’s original […]
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Metal maestro Rob Zombie has a somewhat checkered history as a horror filmmaker. Critics complained that House of 1000 Corpses was too derivative. Fast forward several years and Zombie turned in a half a good movie with his Halloween remake. Though Zombie flashed some cool ideas with the sequel, his tendency towards ugliness overpowered the […]
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Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was more than a box office sensation – it was a cultural phenomenon. Along with Star Wars, Jaws changed how movies were made, released, and watched. And just like Psycho turned people off of their showers, Jaws scared a generation away from the ocean. Still there was no reason to make a […]
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Years before the ‘Killer Clown‘ moral panic from Fall 2016 and Twisty the Clown from Season 4 of American Horror Story, there was Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Author Stephen King popularized the ‘evil clown’ in mainstream circles with Pennywise from his novel, It. Of course the idea of killer clowns has a long history going […]
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For anyone who came of age in the 1990s, The Crow is an instantly recognizable movie. Based on James O’Barr’s graphic novel of the same name, The Crow was a surprise critical and box office success. Its dark visuals and sullen atmosphere distinguished it from the action movies of the 80s. And the tragic death […]
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Franchises are a staple of the horror genre. From the beginnings of horror cinema, Universal had their ‘Monsters’ and Hammer Films’ pumped out their Frankenstein and Dracula sequels for over a decade. During the ‘Golden Era’ of slashers in the 1980’s, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels ruled. But by […]
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In addition to ‘Torture Porn‘ and remakes, the early 2000’s was defined by a brief fascination with J-horror. As compared to Saw and the movies it inspired, Japanese horror, or J-horror, dismissed gore in favour of atmosphere. With its stories of ghosts, or Yurei, and haunted technology, J-horror was stylistically unique. Everything from use of […]
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Today, we have certain expectations of superhero movies. In the era of shared cinematic universes, we want mid- and post-credit scenes, connections to existing movies, and set-ups for future intellectual properties. But in 2005, Sam Raimi was one year removed from Spider-Man 2, Batman Begins was just hitting theaters, and we were a year away […]
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Trends come and go in horror, as with other film genres. Slashers dominated the 1980’s, while ‘Torture Porn’ and found-footage took turns in the 2000’s. Over the last few years, critics have coined the term ‘elevated horror’ for movies like Midsommar and The Witch. And since the early 2000’s, genre enthusiasts have found their ’horror-fied’ […]
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To date, Misery remains one of Stephen King’s best works. Undoubtedly, the book’s success owes in part to its memorable villain, Annie Wilkes. But Misery’s status also stems from its relevancy. Like the best fictional works, King’s story of an obsessed fan eerily forecasted the current state of toxic fan culture. Similarly, Rob Reiner’s 1990 […]
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