For the last several years, we’ve had plenty of serial killers, elevated horror, ghosts, and exorcisms for Halloween season. Last year, the new Halloween trilogy concluded with Halloween Ends, while Smile teased a potentially new supernatural franchise. And this year Saw and The Exorcist surprised with new, belated series entries. But it feels like a […]
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Early in the pandemic, in between different stretches of lockdowns, theaters tired and struggled to stay open. Not surprisingly, studios were reluctant to release big movies for fear of losing potential box office dollars. Studios occasionally experimented with hybrid releases – putting movies in theaters and on streaming platforms simultaneously. Alternatively, some movies received shortened […]
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Days before Halloween, Amazon Prime follows up its original movie, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, with another original release, Run Sweetheart Run. Like a lot of movies, Blumhouse Tilt originally scheduled Run Sweetheart Run for a theatrical release. But the COVID-19 pandemic derailed those plans and its sat on the shelf for two years. Promotion for […]
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Amidst a current ‘Golden Era’ of horror, it’s hard to remember that the genre experienced lean times in the 90s and early aughts. Yes, Wes Craven’s Scream sparked a brief neo-slasher trend. And several years later, Saw kicked off the ‘Torture Porn‘ craze while Hollywood raided VHS shelves for remakes. In between these trends, studios […]
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In a year where Jordan Peele’s third movie, Nope, was released, and Halloween Ends promises to end the story of Laurie Strode and Michaels Myers, Smile has received quite the push from Paramount. Trailers have been playing for several months. And Paramount went the extra mile with some clever viral marketing at a handful of […]
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You’d be forgiven if you thought The Invitation was another quiet attempt at re-booting a ‘Dark Universe’ of classic monsters. The premise sounds like a contemporary spin on a ‘Brides of Dracula’ concept complete with its Gothic British manor setting. But this is a Sony Pictures release, not Universal Pictures, so if there’s vampires no […]
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Several years ago filmmaker B. Harrison Smith helmed the ambitious, but flawed, Death House. His latest movie, Where the Scary Things Are, promises to be just as ambitious. Just hitting VOD platforms this week, no reviews are circulating for this one yet. But it promises to mix urban legends, monsters, viral social media, and a […]
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Follows its debut at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, Finnish horror movie Hatching has generated considerable buzz. Just the premise and accompanying promotional material are enough pique curiosity. Its premise of a young girl ‘hatching’ a monster from an implausibly large egg conjures up allusions to something written by The Brothers Grimm. From first time […]
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