Horror loves its ‘terrible places‘. The looming Gothic castles of Hammer horror movies. Remote cabins in dense woods. Haunted houses with creaking doors and dimly lit halls. According to American professor Carol J Clover, the ‘terrible place’ was one of several necessary ingredients for horror. Though they may not immediately come to mind, hotels have […]
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By the mid-1980s, Hollywood studios were scrambling through Stephen King’s work to find the next big adaptation. When Cat’s Eye was released in 1985, eight movies based on King’s work had already made their way to the big screen. Even Children of the Corn – a pretty short story in King’s Night Shift collection – […]
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In 1992, across two back-to-back months, two Stephen King movies made their way to theaters. One of those movies, The Lawnmower Man, bared little resemblance to King’s short story. Clearly unimpressed, the author sued to remove his name from the credits. As for the second movie, Sleepwalkers, King conjured up the story of ‘shapeshifting feline […]
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Horror fans have gone over a decade without a Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Yet the universe continues to give us Hellraiser, Puppet Master, and Leprechaun sequels. Sometimes life isn’t fair. For further proof, look no further than the Children of the Corn series. Included in his Night Shift anthology, […]
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Happy Father’s Day! It’s time to wrap that tie or finish painting the clever “Dad Rocks” on a rock. Today, we celebrate all those hardworking fathers who threaten to ‘turn this car around right now’ and play catch with you in the backyard. For this edition of The Chopping Block, I take a look at […]
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Across his massive body of work, The Stand holds a special place amongst Stephen King fans. It’s an epic, sprawling story of good vs evil that remains one of King’s best books. But it’s scope made a big-screen adaptation unlikely. Back in the 1990s, when made-for-television movies and mini-series were a thing, ABC actually pulled […]
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Happy National Puppy Day! Since 2006 we’ve set aside March 23 to celebrate our furry friends, big and small. After all, dog is man’s best friend. That is, unless you fancy yourself to be a cat person. While ‘killer dogs’ fall under the larger ‘killer animal‘ movie umbrella, there’s certainly a handful of movies where […]
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Years before the ‘Killer Clown‘ moral panic from Fall 2016 and Twisty the Clown from Season 4 of American Horror Story, there was Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Author Stephen King popularized the ‘evil clown’ in mainstream circles with Pennywise from his novel, It. Of course the idea of killer clowns has a long history going […]
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