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
Sometimes, less is more. …but sometimes, you want a little extra. I think things like YouTube and Tiktok have warped what the ‘short’ in ‘short film’ means to a lot of people. In our first showcase of the month, we looked at shorts that were under three minutes. That’s usually the lower end of what people generally attribute to being ‘short,’ with the upper end … Continue reading Short Film Showcase Sunday: On the Longer Side of Short
Right now, thanks to Disney properties like Marvel and Star Wars, shared universes are all the rage. An IP can’t just exist as a single film, or even a series. No, everything has to have movies, a long-form television show, an animated spin-off on a streaming service, and two or three YouTube channels that post random clips from all three. Movies are about as commodified … Continue reading Small-Screen Spin-Offs: Major Horror Franchises on TV
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
Last year, we talked about how horror and comedy inherently work in tandem better than almost any other genre combination. They’re like cinematic chocolate and peanut butter. Or peanut butter and jelly. Or peanut butter and… well, anything. The point is, horror and comedy just inherently mesh together, for a number of reasons. I’ll spare you a repeat of that particular rant, which you can … Continue reading Frights and Funnies, Part II: Five More Great Horror/Comedies
I don’t think there’s a horror franchise out there with a bigger disparity between quality and quantity than Hellraiser. Ten films, over three decades, from a whole host of different writers, directors, and creative teams, and yet not single installment, save the original, comes anywhere close to being what a sane individual would consider ‘good.’ Which is a damn shame, really, because the first film, … Continue reading ‘Hellraiser’ Has Some Sights to Show You, and Not Much Else
The Blogger Under the Stairs 