One of the more interesting sidenotes for horror in 2014 just happened to be two movies that bombed with critics but scored at the box office. Neither Annabelle nor Ouija were remotely good scary movies. And the fact that they both got follow-ups isn’t a shock – they made money. However, each of these movies […]
Traditionally, horror movies, particularly the slasher genre, have played fast and loose with rules the serial killer that populate their movies. Neither Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers are supernatural killers. Yet that hasn’t stopped the Friday the 13th and Halloween series from bringing their respective killers back from sequel to sequel. Other horror movies skirted […]
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 […]
People have a fascination with true crime and the macabre. Look no further than what’s streaming on Netflix at any given times. Odds are there’s are least one documentary or docu-series focused on a brutal crime or serial killer. One of the most infamous murder cases in American history – a century before the 24-hour […]
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 […]
The Black Phone has taken a bit of a winding road to get to theaters. Filmed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Blumhouse production was twice delayed before getting its release today. It’s also worth noting that director Scott Derrickson jumped on this project after leaving the Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness production. Based […]
Sometimes timing is everything. When supernatural horror movie Umma released on Amazon Prime earlier this year, Ti West was blowing away horror fans with his subversive slasher flick, X. On its own merits, Umma is a completely different horror movie focused on the supernatural and featuring one of the better actors of the last 20 […]
Religious horror has a long history in the genre. An increased fascination with the occult in the 1970s – and the success of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist – saw Hollywood studios scaring North American audiences back into the pews. In addition to this pro-faith horror movement, filmmakers have often used the horror genre to […]