After dominating the 1980’s, Friday the 13th closed out the decade with a whimper. Jason Takes Manhattan, which hit theaters in 1989, remains the lowest earning movie in the series. And its ending didn’t seem to leave much direction for future sequels. Toxic waste that first regresses you to childhood and then melts you tends […]
If Friday the 13th is the A-lister and The Burning is the cult alternative, Madman is the ugly stepchild of 80s camping slasher movies. Though all three movies share obvious similarities, The Burning and Madman are clearly spiritual cousins. Both slashers share the same story DNA – the Cropsey urban legend was the influence for […]
After Wes Craven completed his Scream trilogy, horror fans waited several years for the director’s next movie. By 2005, the wait was over – Craven released two movies that year. One of those movies was a decent thriller, Red Eye, that enjoyed some success. As for the second release, Craven’s werewolf thriller Cursed lived up […]
In 1992, across two back-to-back months, two Stephen King movies made their way to theaters. One of those movies, The Lawnmower Man, bared little resemblance to King’s short story. Clearly unimpressed, the author sued to remove his name from the credits. As for the second movie, Sleepwalkers, King conjured up the story of ‘shapeshifting feline […]
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is an unparalleled masterpiece. As a franchise, however, Jaws may offer the best illustration of diminishing returns. Three years after Jaws scared people away from the beach, Jaws 2 reminded it us it still wasn’t safe to go back in the water. Though it never came close to approaching the original’s quality, […]
When Stephen Sommers (Deep Rising) re-imagined The Mummy as a mix of flashy CGI horror and swashbuckling Indiana Jones–esque adventure, it became a surprising box office smash. Anyone who saw Tom Cruise’s Mummy knows Sommers’ approach wasn’t a sure thing in 1999. Following a successful sequel, Sommers opted to take on a handful of Universal […]
When Mirimax Films released The Crow it became an instantly iconic pop culture classic. Brandon Lee’s tragic death only lent a further sense of grief to the movie’s story. Arguably, the soundtrack was also the perfect time capsule of the eclectic alternative music scene from the era. Given its box office success, The Crow inevitably […]
No, they’re not Gremlins. Different movie. These are Critters … similar concept, different monsters. While Gremlins occupies a warm spot in movie fans’ hearts, Critters is a bit more niche. Even if director Stephen Herek intended no overlap – and the movies are in fact quite different – it’s not hard to see why some […]