Tight, enclosed spaces generally make for fertile ground for claustrophobic scares in horror. The Descent, Devil, As Above, So Below, and 10 Cloverfield Lane all work, in part, because their characters have nowhere to go. Given its history and purpose, the Catacombs of Paris – a burial site for reportedly more than six million people […]
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Christmas is a time for family. For better or worse. And the time spent travelling from family event to family event accounts for much of the worst parts. Snowy and slippery roads, traffic, arguing siblings, and shortcuts that inevitably aren’t any shorter than recommended route. French horror movie – with an all-American cast – Dead […]
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In a year where previously delayed horror movies finally made it to theaters – often with underwhelming results – Shudder continued to deliver consistent horror programming. Some of this year’s standout horror movies – The Power, V/H/S/94, and The Boy Behind the Door – premiered on the horror streaming platform. Now as Christmas approaches, Shudder’s […]
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Four years ago Julia Ducournau blew critics and audiences away with the controversial and visceral Raw. Early comparisons made connections between Ducournau and legendary Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg. Not bad company to share for a young filmmaker. And if anyone was worried that Ducournau might hit a sophomore slump they can be rest assured that […]
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Following the breakthrough success of the intense Inside, French filmmaking duo, Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, have struggled to find the perfect follow-up project. While their Leatherface prequel boasted the same in-your-face shocks and violence, it failed to connect with Texas Chainsaw fans. Smaller projects, including Among the Living and Kandisha, were similarly mixed. But […]
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Insects – big or small – have historically made for creepy horror movie antagonists. In the atomic horror era of the 1950s’, giant, radioactive-infused bugs (Them, Deadly Mantis, Tarantula) crawled onto drive-in screens. Next, 1970s eco-horror gave us ridiculous movies like Squirm, Frogs, and the actually not bad Phase IV. As the 1990s and 2000s […]
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Though it was considered a box office success, Brotherhood of the Wolf has mostly languished in obscurity. Twenty years after its global release, the French-made movie isn’t available on any streaming platform. And Shout Factory just gave the movie the Blu-ray treatment it deserved. Perhaps the movie’s ‘difficult to summarize’ story made it a tough […]
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The latest horror movie out of France, from the director of the impressive Hostile, Mathieu Turi, combines two common fears. His latest effort, Meander, puts audiences into a claustrophobic setting with a series of elaborate death traps. Devil, As Above, So Below, The Descent, Oxygen, and Buried have all exploited our fears of being trapped. […]
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