Where Horror Lives
By the mid-2000’s, audiences were wise to horror rules and conventions. Wes Craven’s Scream pulled the curtain on tired tropes and re-invigorated the genre. But Hollywood was slow to change and the slasher-lite renaissance that followed recycled the same narratives without Craven’s self-awareness. And remakes and ‘Torture Porn’ characterized horror for most of the aughts. […]
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Canadian slasher movie, Girl House, made a “blink and you’ll miss it” debut at a small film festival. Afterwards, the Entertainment One slasher made a quiet transition to VOD platforms where it faded into obscurity. On one hand, Girl House was a relatively straightforward approach to the subgenre. Additionally, its “camera in every room” premise […]
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Let’s take a trip back to the 1980’s. As the decade was coming to a close, the ‘Golden Era’ of the slasher had passed. Aside from major franchise sequels, Hollywood relegated the B-movie slasher to straight-to-video hell. Older horror fans may recall the obscure Destroyer from the top shelf of their local video story. Though […]
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From 2006 to 2010, the After Dark Horrorfest gave diehard horror fans the ‘8 Films To Die For’. Most of the movies released have probably been long forgotten. Of course, a couple of horror gems came out of the festival including Frontier(s) and Lake Mungo. At its core, the After Dark Horrorfest was intended to […]
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A close cousin to ‘Creepy Kids’ horror, high school horror movies have always enjoyed a small niche in the genre. After all, most people would agree that high school is generally pretty awful. And the angst, brooding, and narcissism that characterizes adolescence makes it fertile ground for horror. From the dark snark of Heathers and […]
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Few things are better-suited for one another than horror, heavy metal, and Satan. Much has already been written about the Satanic moral panic that emerged in the 1980’s. Heavy metal bands that infused their music and public image with Satanic themes – Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Motley Crüe – drew the ire of moral entrepreneurs […]
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Following the slasher ‘Golden Age’ of the 1980’s, Wes Craven’s Scream re-ignited a brief a slasher-lite renaissance. However, this brief resurgence produced a handful of polished, teen-friendly PG-13 horror that lacked Craven’s insight. Several years later, slasher movies returned, taking one of two approaches. In some cases, movies like Final Girls, Cabin in the Woods, […]
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After ruling horror for the early half of the decade, slashers had declined – in quality and success – by the latter half of the 80’s. Major slasher franchises, including Friday the 13th, were starting to run out of steam. And many of the later slasher movies were straight-to-video efforts. That’s not to say that […]
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Sometimes simple is better. After roughly four decades of slasher movies, there’s probably not much else that can be done with the subgenre. But sometimes there’s nothing wrong with just a straightforward ‘stalk and slash’ movie. Case in point, the 2017 limited release, Pitchfork. With a generic horror movie title and some equally run-of-the-mill promotional […]
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At one point in their careers, most big-name action stars dipped their toes into horror. Schwarzenegger fought demonic evil in End of Days, while Stallone tried his hand at slashers in Eye See You. Long before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wesley Snipes was Blade. Jason Statham fought Martians in Ghosts of Mars and […]
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