In spite of its workmanlike quality, The Headmistress proves to a rather effective little thriller. Yes, Micklos and Sapiro rely on tried and true setups for their scares. For instance, loud noises almost always accompany their scares. Yes, it’s a lazy way to deliver your jolts. Yet at the same time, The Headmistress almost always successfully delivers on those scares.
Even after nearly 50 years, the Amityville Haunting may be one of the most instantly recognizable ghost stories and urban legends in America. In November of 1974, 23-year-old Ronald DeFeo Jr., shot and murdered his mother, father, and four siblings at 112 Ocean Ave in Amityville, Long Island. Shortly thereafter, George and Kathy Lutz moved […]
Sixty years after its release, Robert Wise’s 1963 adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House remains a horror classic. In addition to Wise’s haunted house chiller, author Shirley Jackson’s Gothic novel provided the source material for the critically acclaimed Netflix series. Somewhere in between those two interpretations, action director Jan de Bont (Speed, Twister) delivered […]
From the ‘Based on a true story’ files of horror, low-budget indie flick The Haunting of Julia Fields surfaced on Tubi earlier this year. In all likelihood, we can take the ‘true story’ with something of a grain of salt. Don’t confuse this 2023 release with the 70s British supernatural horror, The Haunting of Julia, […]
Somewhere in the mid-2010s, as found-footage was stalling a bit, Spanish found-footage thriller Hooked Up quietly debuted at a small film festival. Roughly two years passed before the iPhone-shot thriller made its way to VOD platforms. Unlike another Spanish found-footage movie, [REC] and its sequels, Hooked Up never found much of an audience. Based on […]
Apparently a lot of people don’t like Internet personalities. Just in the last few years, several horror movies have taken shots at various aspects of Internet and social media culture. From last week’s Sissy to The Seed to Tragedy Girls, horror has increased shifted its gaze onto the pitfalls of interactive digital media. To date, […]
Earlier in 2022, supernatural thriller Those Who Walk Away premiered simultaneously in select theaters and on VOD platforms. It’s the latest movie to shoot its story in a single continuous take (or at least edited to look like one). From director Robert Rippberger and starring Twilight-alum Booboo Stewart, Those Who Walk Away mixes a familiar […]
Do you know what’s scarier than creepy old houses? Cellars of creepy old houses. Horror has no shortage of haunted house movies. And plenty of bad things in horror movies happen in dank cellars. Don’t Breathe. The Amityville Horror, The Conjuring. There’s even scary movies with ‘cellar’ or ‘basement’ right in the title. The Basement. […]