January 4, 2022.Reading time 7 minutes.
Before Scream, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, and In The Mouth of Madness, a small slasher movie called Popcorn experimented with meta-horror. Today meta-horror is common enough to sometimes wonder if straightforward horror wouldn’t be more revolutionary. But in 1991, Popcorn was just taking a risk daring to recycle tired slasher tropes. Adopting films-within-a-film was a […]
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July 15, 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.
Out of the blue, Netflix suddenly seems vaguely interested in horror again. From the outset of July, the streaming giant has released the the two Fear Street movies with the third due this Friday. And viewership numbers seem to support this creative direction. Grace: The Possession, Oxygen, the Black Summer series, and Army of the […]
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March 15, 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.
When Wes Craven made Scream he kickstarted a more self-aware approach to horror. It was a self-reflective work Craven had tried previously with New Nightmare. Initially, Scream begot a wave of slasher-lite knockoffs that kind of missed Craven’s point. But the meta-slasher would eventually gain traction. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Tucker […]
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