Where Horror Lives
Two years removed and 2018 still remains the ‘Year of Blumhouse Productions’. While Insidious: The Last Key and Truth or Dare were critical duds, both films were box office successes. And the studio’s re-invigoration of Halloween in October of 2018 marked a major course correction for the dormant franchise. Somewhere in between, Jason Blum tided […]
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If there’s a horror franchise that needs to die, it’s the Amityville series. But Children of the Corn and the Hellraiser movies aren’t far behind. At present, there’s possibly at least 20 movies that have some – albeit loose – connection to The Amityville Horror. Though opinions may vary, the original 1979 movie is the […]
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Everything may be bigger in Texas, but that’s little comfort to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. After 40 years, Tobe Hooper’s original low-budget horror movie remains a disturbing classic. Even Hooper’s belated sequel has earned a critical re-appraisal. And about that 2003 remake – it’s better than most fans are willing to admit. Nevertheless, most […]
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Who would have thought that a modestly budgeted home invasion thriller would spawn one of the decade’s more successful franchises? In retrospect, The Purge, which hit theaters in 2013, was exactly the kind of movie upon which Blumhouse Productions has built their success – big concept, small budget. Even if The Purge wasn’t a great […]
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Controversial opinion – take away its ending and Sleepaway Camp is a forgettable B-grade slasher. But that ending is among the most shocking, creepy, and controversial in horror. No one should be surprised that sequels eventually followed. What is surprising is that it took roughly five years to make that first sequel, Sleepaway Camp II: […]
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Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was more than a box office sensation – it was a cultural phenomenon. Along with Star Wars, Jaws changed how movies were made, released, and watched. And just like Psycho turned people off of their showers, Jaws scared a generation away from the ocean. Still there was no reason to make a […]
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They can’t all be Friday the 13th, Halloween, or A Nightmare on Elm Street. To fill the void between A-list horror franchise releases, you need some B-list franchises – Child’s Play, Final Destination, or Resident Evil. Even Hellraiser had few decent theatrical sequels before churning out discount bin straight-to-video “hell” crap. And then there are […]
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They’re a Hollywood staple. Call them franchises or, the more en vogue term, ‘shared universes’. If you don’t have one, you want one. Already have one – develop more of them. Aside from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Warner Bros has their DC Extended Universe and the MonsterVerse. But the horror genre has always had franchises […]
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Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes studio has produced a handful of successful original horror movies (A Quiet Place, The Purge series). However, horror fans primarily know the studio for its assembly line of 2000’s remakes. Over the course of the decade, Platinum Dunes tackledThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, The Amityville Horror, and even VHS […]
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Slasher movies live or die based on their death scenes. No pun intended. When Wes Craven made A Nightmare on Elm Street, he created one of the genre’s most enduring classics. And he gifted horror with Freddy Krueger, an iconic boogeyman. With its ‘dreamworld’ premise, Craven also opened up a world of possibilities for the […]
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