As the Hays Code receded and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rating system too over, Western cinema took a drastic turn into the experimental in the late 60s and 1970s. Briefly, this was an era that saw a rise in more risky story-telling. Art-house sensibilities mixed with box office mainstream in movies like […]
Read More
As the 90s gave way to the 2000s, the serial killer psychological thrillers that dominated the decade began to recede. Too many thrillers tried, and failed, to recreate the horror of Silence of the Lambs and Se7en. Moreover, Torture Porn and the New French Extremity were just off in the distance. Somewhere in between these […]
Read More
After Silence of the Lambs took the Oscars and box office by storm, serial killers were all the rage. Copycat, Body Parts, Jennifer 8, Ghost in the Machine – without exception none of these movies approached Hannibal Lecter. By the late 1990s, the serial killer moral panic had largely faded. But that didn’t stop filmmakers […]
Read More
From the New French Extremity and splatter flicks to ‘nature strikes back’ horror, Alexandre Aja has amassed an impressive filmography. To date, Aja’s highs – High Tension, Crawl, Piranha 3D, The Hills Have Eyes – outnumber his career lows – Mirrors. But Aja’s latest release, Oxygen, marks a significant departure from past work. What looks […]
Read More
Let it be known, Unhinged was the first movie to do a wide theatrical release amidst COVID. That may be a good, bad, or completely indifferent fact. But in a year where studios delayed our most anticipated movies, Russell Crowe and company braved the pandemic and hit our local cineplexes. It’s April and I’m just […]
Read More
Since Audrey Hepburn fought off violent criminals in 1967’s Wait Until Dark, the home-invasion thriller has been a staple of horror. From Straw Dogs to The Strangers, Hollywood has exploited the suburban nightmare of ‘others’ invading the domestic sphere. And just when the subgenre was losing steam, a handful of filmmakers found ways to subvert […]
Read More
We’re living in a ‘Golden Age’ of content. No longer do we have to wait for the major studios to produce movies we want to see. Over the last several years, streaming platforms like Netflix, Apple, and Amazon have increasingly moved into content creation. Most recently, Netflix emerged as a big winner when the Oscar […]
Read More
In addition to awful Christmas movies, Netflix specializes in cheap, knockoff psychological thrillers. Once upon a time, sexualized psychological thrillers – Basic Instinct, Sliver, Fatal Attraction – were hallmarks of the late 80s and early 90s. Too bad Netflix isn’t making those movies. Instead, Netflix thrillers have strayed towards bland and formulaic. Like their Christmas […]
Read More