At face value, The Puppet Masters had a lot going for it. For starters, its source material was a well-regarded, influential novel. Donald Sutherland headlining your movie is never a bad thing. And its premise, while familiar, touched on themes that translate across time. Too bad none of these made The Puppet Masters a better […]
Read More
After over forty years of filmmaking, John Carpenter stands amongst the masters of the genre. From the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, Carpenter’s output includes Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, They Live, and In the Mouth of Madness. Few horror directors can boast that kind of résumé. But even the best can have […]
Read More
As the 1980s gave way to the early 90s, horror was waning amongst audiences. The golden age of the slasher had come and gone. By 1991, audiences were more interested in stylish psychological thrillers in the vein of Sleeping with the Enemy or Cape Fear. And it was this cinematic atmosphere that welcomed Steve Miner’s […]
Read More
In a decade best known for Scream and the brief slasher-lite renaissance along with the Silence of the Lambs-inspired serial killer thrillers, you’d be forgiven for not remembering Wishmaster. Like its evil genie, The Djinn, Wishmaster has languished in a prison of obscurity. Believe it or not, Wes Craven himself produced this forgotten 90’s horror […]
Read More
Wes Craven’s Scream led to an unexpected slasher revival … with a twist. First, these late 90s and early aught’s slashers lacked the explicit gore of their ‘Golden Era’ predecessors. And, by and large, they also lacked the self-aware humour of Scream. Oddly enough, it was Kevin Williamson himself who penned the first of the […]
Read More
Aside from John Carpenter, Hollywood has re-imagined George A Romero’s work more frequently than just about any other horror filmmaker. To date, we’ve re-visited Day of the Dead twice with diminishing returns (see Day of the Dead: Bloodline). Zack Snyder got more right than wrong with his “fast zombies’” 2004 Dawn of the Dead. And […]
Read More
For 90s horror fans, it doesn’t get much more nineties than 1999 horror-comedy, Idle Hands. From its soundtrack to its young, up-and-coming cast, this story of a boy and his possessed hand is like a fun cinematic time capsule. Too bad audiences and critics didn’t think much of it when it was first released. Despite […]
Read More
Horror wasn’t always at its best in the 1990s. But the music was fantastic. Take your pick of the 1960s or 1990s for best music decade. And horror movies had one thing going for them in the 1990s – their soundtracks featured songs by actual bands. Unless you loved the disco scene from Prom Night, […]
Read More