Freddy Krueger and the Elm Street franchise are horror royalty. Wes Craven’s ‘boogeyman’ sits with Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers as part of the contemporary ‘holy trinity’ of horror. Across four decades, the Elm Street movies have grossed approximately $370 million. But like most horror franchises, each successive sequel generally saw a drop in quality. […]
Read More
Scream 4 would have been a better film if it had been Scream 3. Okay so that’s not the only problem with the belated entry into the Scream franchise. Butit’s definitely one of the bigger issues with a film where the whole doesn’t end up being greater than the sum of its parts. Scream Re-Invigorated […]
Read More
By 1986, the ‘golden age’ of the slasher movie was coming to a close. Sure the major franchises, like Friday the 13th and Halloween, kept pushing out more sequels. And the occasional independent slasher film would sneak into theatres. But the peak of the glory years had past. April Fool’s Day was one of the […]
Read More
Happy Spring Break! Hundreds of parents will be herding their kids into cars to brave traffic for a March Break getaway. To celebrate March Break, in Re-Animated, I’ll be looking at the Wes Craven’s classic ‘family vacation gone wrong’ movie, The Hills Have Eyes. Released in July 1977, The Hills Have Eyes was a modest […]
Read More
When I decided to include a section of the blog entitled The Vault, the intent was to explore movies that have significantly impacted horror. In the last 25 to 30 years, has any horror movie had as much impact as Wes Craven’s Scream? Released on December 20, 1996, Scream is arguably one of the most […]
Read More
Thirty years ago, New Line Cinema released the fourth film in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, The Dream Master. To date, it remains the third highest grossing film in the franchise, behind Freddy vs. Jason and the 2010 remake. The Dream Master marked a turning point for the series. For the first time, Freddy Krueger […]
Read More
It’s hard to believe that one of horror’s masters has been gone now for almost three years. A glance at Wes Craven’s filmography offers a staggering reminder of the contributions he made to the genre. In fact, Craven re-imagined horror in three different decades. The Last House on the Left was one of a handful of 1970’s […]
Read More
Horror movies resonate with audiences in part because they allow us to explore our fears in the safety of theatres. The Jetsons may have promised a future where technology and humanity lived in harmony, but our reality is entirely different. The interconnected digital world has given us instant content-on-demand where almost no aspects of our lives […]
Read More