Not to be outdone by The Conjuring’s use of historical hauntings, British haunted house thriller The Banishing rips its subject from the history books. The Borley Rectory, upon which The Banishing loosely bases its story, is Britain’s Amityville Horror. With its large Gothic structure, Downton Abbey period setting, and stately British accents, The Banishing promises […]
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As 2021 marches on, Shudder continues to lead the way in original horror programming. To date, Shudder has added new feature length horror movies each and every Thursday. While some of these releases have missed the mark (Shook), Violation, Hunted, Lucky, and Slaxx delivered solid chills early in the year. In addition to offering horror […]
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Since Audrey Hepburn fought off violent criminals in 1967’s Wait Until Dark, the home-invasion thriller has been a staple of horror. From Straw Dogs to The Strangers, Hollywood has exploited the suburban nightmare of ‘others’ invading the domestic sphere. And just when the subgenre was losing steam, a handful of filmmakers found ways to subvert […]
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Tobe Hooper directed several memorable horror movies over the course of his career. Though he’s best known for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hooper’s eclectic filmography included Poltergeist, Salem’s Lot, and ‘hillbilly’ horror Eaten Alive. To say that his 1985 movie, Lifeforce, might be his most bizarre would be an understatement. Based on a novel called […]
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British science fiction-horror hybrid Await Further Instructions has finally arrived on Netflix. To date, I’ve seen no marketing materials outside of a handful of trailers. Nonetheless, the British sci-fi thriller promises to mix Black Mirror ideas with the familiar narrative of a handful of survivors trapped and pitted against one another in a confined space. […]
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This is the first edition of the Blu-Ray Bin, a new column I hope to post once each month. My goal here is to provide some quick bullet-reviews of horror films recently released on Blu-ray. The column will serve as a round-up of what’s been released each month. Since this is the first edition of […]
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In his original review, Roger Ebert referred to Clive Barker’s Hellraiser as a ‘bankruptcy of imagination’. Despite Ebert’s role in elevating the art of film criticism, he most certainly got it wrong with Hellraiser. There may be many things wrong with the movie, but a lack of creativity is not one of them. Hellraiser premiered in […]
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Older horror fans recall Amicus Productions and the British horror anthology films they released in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Some of these old-school British chillers included classics like Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum, and Tales from Crypt. Horror legends like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing regularly appeared along with […]
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