Some horror franchises are seemingly as unkillable as their murderous antagonists appear to be. No matter how many terrible sequels, how many box-office bombs, how many needless reboots and remakes, they just keep on coming (for better or for worse). There’s loads of false starts, lulls and breaks between installments, but they always return, in one form or another. And a lot of these films … Continue reading Missing in Action: Horror’s Dormant Icons
There is, perhaps not surprisingly, scarce overlap between children’s programming and horror. It turns out that both parents and network censors aren’t too fond of introducing children to monsters, murder, and mayhem at an age where most of them still can’t sleep without a nightlight, which tends to hinder any real exposure to the genre early on. With the exception of a Halloween episode here … Continue reading ‘Gravity Falls’ is Disney’s Greatest Contribution to Horror Pop Culture
Some films have reputations built on infamy. These notorious pieces of forbidden art, which may be banned in certain countries and shunned by polite society, are spoken of in hushed whispers, and subject to endless debate. They’re often urban legends, full of rumors and hearsay, their legends bolstered by decades of myth-making by third-person accounts shared by those too scared to see it for themselves. … Continue reading ‘Cannibal Holocaust’: A Legacy of Depravity
For the most part, I love the streaming age. Sure, the business mechanics involved are sometimes frustrating (seriously Netflix, stop raising your prices), but as of right now, the pros still outweigh the cons in my eyes. Between Netflix, Prime, Hulu, and HBO Max, as well as newer services like Paramount+, there’s a massive library of content out there to peruse through, more than any … Continue reading Trapped in the Algorithm: How Streaming Killed the Chance Encounter
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise is… not in a great place right now. Despite the original film, released in 1974, being one of the most influential and revered slashers of all time, not a single installment out of the eight films that followed it would even remotely live up to its legendary reputation. From bizarre, self-parody sequels to bloody, over-the-top remakes, filmmaker after filmmaker has … Continue reading Horror Life Support: How to Revive ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’
(Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on the cultural elements I’m going to be discussing in this piece, and freely accept and apologize for any mistakes or misconceptions contained herein. Please feel free to correct me for any inappropriate or outdated terminology and information.) From a storytelling perspective, mythology is a well. A deep well, but one that gets shallower and shallower by … Continue reading Hollywood Horror’s Problematic Approach to Indigenous Folklore
You know, it’s a shame that it’s taken me so long to talk about ‘The People Under the Stairs’, considering that it’s the film that this site is literally named after. But since I’ve been cranking out so much content in preparation for Halloween this year, I figured I really have no excuse at this point. And, frankly, the film is as topical now as … Continue reading ‘The People Under the Stairs’ and its Complex Legacy as a White-Helmed ‘Urban’ Horror Story
This week, after years of fan demand, internet crusading, and overwhelming amounts of baseless speculation and theorizing, Zack Snyder’s near-deified cut of 2018’s Justice League was released to streaming services. Zack Snyder’s Justice League, otherwise known as “The Snyder Cut,” is a 4-hour, massively ambitious, and extremely anticipated operatic epic that takes the same basic plot and structure of the officially released theatrical cut, and … Continue reading The Consequences of Zack Snyder’s Justice League
If you’re anything like me, the only reason you’re still paying for Disney+ is The Mandalorian. It’s amazing how, after the divisions and rifts caused by the (at best) mixed reception to the Disney-era Star Wars sequel films, a piece of media in the franchise could be so overwhelmingly acclaimed. And the praise is well deserved, as The Mandalorian is pretty much the perfect distillation of what makes Star Wars so enduringly … Continue reading Dave Filoni and the Magic of Star Wars Animation
If there’s one thing people love to complain about in reference to cinema, it’s Hollywood’s apparent lack of originality. It seems that every film to hits theaters these days (assuming, of course, the theaters are actually open) is either an adaptation, a sequel, or a remake of an existing property. Two seconds on any film blog or entertainment news site will more likely than not yield … Continue reading Rebootquels, and How to Properly Revive a Franchise
The Blogger Under the Stairs 