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
Werewolves are one of the most enduring pieces of horror pop culture iconography. And although they’re considered to be one of the quintessential mascots for the genre, and for the Halloween season, I would wager that the vast majority of people have never actually seen a werewolf movie. Well, a good one, anyhow. Twilight, Underworld, and Van Helsing all feature the beasts in some capacity, … Continue reading Bad Moon Rising: Horror’s Most Fantastically Ferocious Werewolf Flicks
You know what’s really creepy? Ventriloquist dummies. Seriously, look at this little bastard: There’s no way that thing hasn’t killed a child. I hate those things with a fiery passion. As a child, I was shown Bride of Chucky at a waaaay too early age by a nefarious cousin, and it messed me up pretty bad, sparking a decade-long fear of anything remotely in the … Continue reading ‘Dead Silence’ is Horror For Dummies, And I Kind of Love It
I consider myself to be a fanatic for the works of Wes Craven, who gave us such iconic horror films as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and The Last House on the Left, among many, many others. As such, I was arrogant enough to assume that I had seen everything that he had either written and directed (well, mostly everything; You couldn’t pay me … Continue reading Mile-High Danger in Wes Craven’s ‘Red Eye’
I’ve talked a lot on this site about found-footage horror films. It’s probably my favorite subgenre of horror. I’ve also been equally vocal about my love of anthology horror films, serving up bite-sized, easily digestible chunks of spooky goodness without running the risk of boring the audience with unnecessary narrative beats. And luckily, these two flavors of horror mix together wonderfully, working in tandem to … Continue reading ‘V/H/S 99’ is Flashback, Millennial Horror Fun
Would you like to play a game? One of the most popular subgenres of horror in recent years, if it can really be called one, is the game movie. Popularized mostly by films like Saw, these are films in which our unlucky heroes and victims find themselves trapped in the midst of some clever psychopath’s demented puzzle room or game parlor, having to solve some … Continue reading High-Stakes Horror: The Genre’s Best Game Movies
At the turn of the millennium, Robert Zemeckis (along with producers Joel Silver and Gilbert Adler) formed a new production label called Dark Castle entertainment. This new enterprise, a division of Warner Bros’ Silver Pictures, was created with one singular goal: To remake the classic horror films of legendary filmmaker William Castle. The results were… well, let’s say ‘mixed.’ For those of you who don’t … Continue reading ‘House of Wax’ and the Wonderful Mediocrity of Dark Castle Entertainment
…why are bees in so many horror movies? No, seriously: Why? There are certain animals I understand as a source of fear that would naturally lend themselves to being the basis of a horror film. Sharks? Totally get it. They can literally eat you. Granted, there’s only ever really been one good shark movie, but, you know, I can see why people would still try. … Continue reading Bees?
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
The Blogger Under the Stairs 