Where Horror Lives
Regardless of its critical reception, Friday the 13th is one of the most influential horror movies produced. While ‘Camp Blood’ didn’t create the slasher subgenre, it certainly crystallized the distinctly 80’s approach to horror. Sequels and remakes spanning three decades, cross-over media, a video game, and fan-made movies – few horror franchises can claim this […]
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Friday the 13th is one of the most successful horror franchises of all time. Not as critically appreciated as some of its horror peers, it’s still one of the 80’s ‘Big Three’. Jason Voorhees is as engrained in mainstream consciousness as Dracula or Frankenstein. But we haven’t seen a new franchise entry since the 2009 […]
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By 1986, the ‘golden age’ of the slasher movie was coming to a close. Sure the major franchises, like Friday the 13th and Halloween, kept pushing out more sequels. An the occasional independent slasher film would sneak into theatres. But the peak of the glory years had past. April Fool’s Day was one of the […]
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Has it really been a decade? Times flies by fast. Or maybe it’s just knowing that this will be the first decade without a Friday the 13th movie since the original. Indeed, it’s been 10 years since Jason Voorhees slashed his away across a movie screen. And the last time we saw him it was […]
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Indie horror movie The Ranger generated some low-key positive buzz in 2018. A fun retro-trailer that harkened to old school PSA’s undoubtedly helped. Critics also seemed mildly impressed with The Ranger when it debuted at SXSW. Of course, ‘lost in the woods’ horror movies are a familiar genre staple. But The Ranger promises a refreshing […]
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And on the eleventh day of our 12 Days of Christmas Carnage, it’s low-budget slasher All Through The House. Todd Nunes wrote and directed this DIY-indie horror movie that enjoyed some success on the festival circuit. Yes, it’s one of growing number of horror movies basking in ‘80’s film-making aesthetics. But can All Through The […]
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When I decided to include a section of the blog entitled The Vault, the intent was to explore movies that have significantly impacted horror. In the last 25 to 30 years, has any horror movie had as much impact as Wes Craven’s Scream? Released on December 20, 1996, Scream is arguably one of the most […]
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As 2018 comes to a close, You Might Be The Killer promise one last un horror entry for the year. A favourite at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, this Brett Simmons’ horror-comedy is the latest horror movie to play hard and fast with the slasher movie’s familiar tropes. But can Simmons’ movie distinguish itself […]
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre premiered 44 years ago on October 1st, 1974. With the sequels and remakes, it’s hard to believe that Tobe Hooper’s original movie was banned in several countries. I grew up in the videostore era of the 1980’s, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was not a video cassette cover I readily recall. […]
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By the year 2000, the slasher-lite revolution ironically kickstarted by Scream was already running out of gas. Knock-off films like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend had already produced inferior sequels. A new cycle of horror, ‘Torture Porn’, was also just around the corner. There were undoubtedly a lot of mediocre […]
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