Where Horror Lives
Horror is often most potent when it touches a nerve. Yes, jolts and jumps make for good popcorn horror. But when a movie pulls back the curtain on social anxiety or ill, it has the power to disturb. By now most of us have heard somewhere that millennials will be the first generation to fare […]
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Two years removed and 2018 still remains the ‘Year of Blumhouse Productions’. While Insidious: The Last Key and Truth or Dare were critical duds, both films were box office successes. And the studio’s re-invigoration of Halloween in October of 2018 marked a major course correction for the dormant franchise. Somewhere in between, Jason Blum tided […]
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Few things are better-suited for one another than horror, heavy metal, and Satan. Much has already been written about the Satanic moral panic that emerged in the 1980’s. Heavy metal bands that infused their music and public image with Satanic themes – Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motley Crüe – drew the ire of moral entrepreneurs […]
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Over 20 years ago, Deep Blue Sea surprised audiences with its B-movie mix of action and CGI shark thrills. Though critics were split, audiences made it a surprise box office hit. No, it’s no Jaws, but Samuel L Jackson’s death scene remains a hilariously surprising subversion of genre expectations. Yet in spite of its success, […]
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Outside of sharks and spiders, crocodiles (or alligators) rank pretty high among nature’s scariest predators. They’re basically living, breathing dinosaurs. Not surprisingly then, the horror genre every so often trots out the reptilian predator for another go around. Last summer, Crawl scored a surprising box office take against a modest budget. Twenty years ago, Lake […]
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As summer winds down, what better way to close it out than with a road trip. Who doesn’t like getting into the car, driving with the windows down, and blasting your favourite tunes? If you have a good roadside assistance plan, what could go wrong? Well, horror fans know that plenty can go wrong. From […]
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If there’s a horror franchise that needs to die, it’s the Amityville series. But Children of the Corn and the Hellraiser movies aren’t far behind. At present, there’s possibly at least 20 movies that have some – albeit loose – connection to The Amityville Horror. Though opinions may vary, the original 1979 movie is the […]
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In 2013, Sharknado, a SyFy Network movie, became a cult sensation. For six years, bad-movie lovers anticipated a new addition to the schlocky franchise. But one year before Sharknado, the Aussie-produced Bait 3D swam into theaters with a similar premise. A sudden tsunami submerges a grocery store, leaving its shoppers to fend off some Great […]
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Following Francis Ford Coppola’s successful updating of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it’s not surprising that Hollywood would go back to the same grave … or well. After all, this was the same decade that gave us two volcano movies and two killer asteroid movies. And so Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was pegged for a glossy, big budget […]
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Timing is everything. And Canadian slasher Random Acts of Violence perfectly situates itself to address a divisive issue. Last year some critics accused Joker of celebrating toxic male rage and violence. Following George Floyd’s tragic murder, debate quickly turned to movies and television shows that glorified police officers. Now Canadian actor and director Jay Baruchel’s […]
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