Where Horror Lives
Last Halloween, Netflix released Mike Flanagan’s outstanding, The Haunting of Hill House. Oh, Netflix also released paranormal docu-series, Haunted. Of course, calling it a ‘docu-series’ is pretty generous. That is, no episode had any investigation or, you know, evidence. Haunted borrowed an infotainment format to put scary stuff up on screen to cash in on […]
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Hellraiser, Children of the Corn, Puppet Master, and The Amityville Horror. What does these horror franchises all have in common? An endless supply of sequels of which only the most dedicated fans would be aware. At this point, I’ve lost count of how many sequels, prequel, and remakes constitute The Amityville franchise. Just earlier this […]
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When I created the ‘Worst Movie Ever’ column, Thir13en Ghosts was exactly the kind of horror movie I had in mind. Critics ripped it apart on its release. And while it made decent money at the box office, it fell just short of recouping its production budget. But Thir13en Ghosts has developed a fanbase over […]
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Maybe you remember seeing trailers for a movie about a ‘killer Polaroid camera’. And then … nothing. For whatever reason, Polaroid was delayed and delayed. Following Harvey Weinstein’s criminal charges and The Weinstein Company’s bankruptcy, Polaroid was permanently shelved. But along came independent studio Lantern Films. Now, along with distributor Vertical Entertainment, Polaroid is streaming […]
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This past decade has been something of a new ‘golden era’ for horror. And one of the added benefits of this quality influx has been a trickle-down effect. That is, we’ve seen more horror-themed content for younger audiences. Call it ‘gateway horror’. Goosebumps, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and Are You Afraid of the Dark have […]
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Nobody’s perfect. Even the best have an off-day once in a while. Critics and horror fans alike regard John Carpenter as one of the genre’s greatest filmmakers. Certainly, the praise is well placed. Carpenter’s filmography includes bona fide classics – Halloween, The Thing, and Escape From New York. And his smaller movies – Assault on […]
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The ‘haunted house‘ is a staple of the horror genre. Vast hallways. Cobwebs. Creepy paintings. Eccentric caretakers. A bloody history of tragedy. These familiar tropes have coalesced into some eerily fantastic horror movies from The Innocents to The Amityville Horror to Poltergeist. Undoubtedly, one of the best haunted house movies is Robert Wise’s The Haunting. […]
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Aside from a couple of poorly received entires, The Conjuring franchise has been box office gold. Arguably it’s one of the more successful shared filmr-verses outside of Marvel. Even the critically underwhelming The Nun qualified as a box office hit. But recently released Annabelle Comes Home is now the seventh movie in the series, including […]
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Cannibal Holocaust introduced the idea of ‘found-footage’. Nearly 20 years later, The Blair Witch Project fully embraced the concept. And when Paranormal Activity replaced the Saw franchise as the annual Halloween tradition, the found-footage horror (FFH) was officially its own subgenre. Though over-saturation has led to FFH fizzling out, hidden gems occasionally surface. Nigel Bach’s […]
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The ‘haunted house’ movie is a staple of the horror genre. From The Uninvited and The Haunting to the more recent Insidious, each generation of horror fans can claim their own classic. For 80’s kids, Poltergeist was our haunted house classic. The 1982 movie brought together an impressive collection of talent. Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw […]
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