By the late 1980s, the slasher subgenre was long past its expiry date. At this point, most slasher movies were campy straight-to-video efforts that barely qualified as B-movies. Occasionally, a high concept slasher, like Child’s Play, still broke out and found success. But not even Wes Craven could really revive the slasher in 1989. He’d […]
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The Devil has proven to be a reliable go-to villain for horror movies. From the Satanic panic movies of the 1970’s to demonic possession flicks, Satan – whether as a physical entity or a psychological mechanism – is tried and true horror narrative. IFC Midnight release – and one of 2019’s better horror movies – […]
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At the start of his career, Neil Marshall immediately turned heads with his first two feature length movies. His werewolf-meets-soldiers thriller, Dog Soldiers, is amongst the best werewolf movies ever made. And Marshall’s sophomore effort, The Descent, is one of the best horror movies of this century. Even Marshall’s period piece, Centurion, was an underappreciated […]
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In what was its biggest year for original content, Shudder released Damien LeVeck’s The Cleansing Hour in October 2020. Audiences and critics in kind responded positively. Now if you’ve watched enough horror movies, there’s a better than average chance you’ve seen a demonic possession movie. Since The Exorcist shocked audiences in the 1970s, the horror […]
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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 […]
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Before M Night Shyamalan rehabilitated his image with back-to-back successes in The Visit and Split, he hit rock-bottom with 2010’s The Last Airbender. Oh, Shyamalan would still drop one more bomb called After Earth. But the divisive filmmaker took a small step in the right direction by stepping back. Though the story wasn’t necessarily original, […]
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Just over 20 years ago, The Blair Witch Project mixed ‘faux documentary’ movie-making with more traditional horror story-telling. Following its success, found-footage horror took over in the 2000’s. Indie horror offering, Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, isn’t likely to have the same impact on the genre. After all, its gimmick – a cursed movie […]
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During the remake-crazy 2000’s, Hollywood largely focused on 80’s slasher movie titles. Occasionally, studios have opted to re-imagine classic horror movies – a Dawn of the Dead or Suspiria. Another case in point was Warner Bros attempt to resurrect The Omen franchise. There was no Gregory Peck this time around, but The Omen remake had […]
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