Where Horror Lives
Babysitting is probably one of toughest gigs in the horror genre. Halloween, The House of the Devil, The Amityville Horror, Better Watch Out – babysitters have it tough in horror movies. Mixing the ‘babysitter-in-peril’ narrative with the ‘killer is in the house’ trope, When a Stranger Calls was a minor 1970’s box office success. Critics […]
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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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Contrary to popular opinion, Hollywood has been remaking movies for decades. Even Charlton Heston’s 1959 classic, Ben-Hur was a remake of a 1925 movie. Another case in point – 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. To date, Hollywood has adapted Jack Finney’s novel, The Body Snatchers, four times. In fact, director Don Siegel first adapted […]
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Technically, Millennium Film’s 2008 Train isn’t a remake of Jamie Lee Curtis slasher, Terror Train. That was the original idea. Apparently, writer and director Gideon Raff took the concept in a new direction. This is probably a nice way of saying that the producers took note of the box office receipts for ‘torture porn’ horror. […]
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) announced the Child’s Play reboot almost two years ago, prompting instant backlash. Not surprisingly, series fans balked at the idea. First, creator Don Mancini and Brad Dourif, the voice of Chucky, had no involvement with the project. Even stranger was the fact that Mancini had recently revived Chucky with two well-received movies – […]
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During the remake-crazy 2000’s, Hollywood largely focused on 80’s slasher movie titles. Occasionally, studios have opted to re-imagine classic horror movies – a Dawn of the Dead or Suspiria. Another case in point was Warner Bros attempt to resurrect The Omen franchise. There was no Gregory Peck this time around, but The Omen remake had […]
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On April 25 1953, Warner Bros Studios released House of Wax. It was the first Hollywood color film to use 3-D technology. Additionally, it marked Vincent Price’s first foray into the horror genre. What followed was a legendary career for the horror icon. Its story of a brilliant wax sculptor, driven mad by betrayal and disfigurement, […]
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Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead is one of the greatest horror movies of all time. If you grew up in the ‘80’s, there’s a good chance you saw it for the first time at a sleepover party. This is a cult classic whose reputation literally grew out of basements. Simply put, it’s a testament to […]
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And so the Stephen King renaissance continues. Though there’s been the odd misstep, Gerald’s Game and the It remake reminded us how much we missed Stephen King horror movies. Aside from the next chapter of It, Pet Sematary has been one of the more hotly anticipated King adaptations. Yet questionable marketing decisions and lukewarm critical […]
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Happy Spring Break! Hundreds of parents will be herding their kids into cars to brave traffic for a March Break getaway. To celebrate March Break, in Re-Animated, I’ll be looking at the Wes Craven’s classic ‘family vacation gone wrong’ movie, The Hills Have Eyes. Released in July 1977, The Hills Have Eyes was a modest […]
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