Marvel Revives the Universal Monster Movie With ‘Werewolf By Night’

There is a staggering amount of overlap between horror films and superhero movies. James Wan (Aquaman), Sam Raimi (Spider-Man/Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness), Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange), Jon Watts (Spider-Man: Homecoming), David F. Sandberg (Shazam!), and James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), among others, all got their starts directing major horror movies. There’s something about the genre that the studios behind these big-budget … Continue reading Marvel Revives the Universal Monster Movie With ‘Werewolf By Night’

‘Smile:’ A Heart Attack With a Friendly Face

So, in full transparency, today’s post was supposed to be about Deadstream, a new found footage horror-comedy that premiered this on Shudder this week. It’s a fun, if somewhat cliché takedown of Youtuber/Twitch-streamer culture, filtered through the lends of a first-person Evil Dead film, featuring some fantastic practical effects and some clever uses of streaming technology like chat feeds and facecams. But coincidentally, on a … Continue reading ‘Smile:’ A Heart Attack With a Friendly Face

The Best in New and Returning Releases this Halloween

Happy First Day of October, everyone! Got something relatively short and simple for you today, but super important nonetheless (we’ll get to the overly long, self-indulgent ranting stuff you come here for tomorrow, I swear). I thought it would be a good idea – a public service, really – to give you a list of all the big releases coming out this month. There’s plenty … Continue reading The Best in New and Returning Releases this Halloween

Ti West Crafts the Perfect Prequel With ‘Pearl’

Earlier this year, director Ti West and A24 gifted us with the wonderfully subversive X, a stylish, thoughtful send-up of 70s slasher and grindhouse sensibilities. It was a clever, brutal film, dripping with subtext and artistry, yet still managed to deliver on the requisite kills and thrills in a way that even the most disinterested of horror audiences could appreciate without feeling bogged down by … Continue reading Ti West Crafts the Perfect Prequel With ‘Pearl’

‘Barbarian’: You’ll Never Use Airbnb Again

Horror films can often come from the most unexpected of people. And perhaps surprisingly, a lot of these people end up being comedians. Bobcat Goldthwait gave us the excellent Bigfoot found-footage film Willow Creek. Danny McBride was responsible in part for bringing Halloween back from the dead in 2018. And who would have thought the man behind this gem would go on to make such … Continue reading ‘Barbarian’: You’ll Never Use Airbnb Again

The Predator Gets Some Much-Needed Redemption in Hulu’s ‘Prey’

The older I get, the more I realize that my taste in movies is probably the direct result of having been raised by people who had absolutely no idea what was appropriate for a child to watch. Some of my earliest, fondest memories as a kid revolve around watching a revolving cavalcade of sex, violence and adult language that I had no business whatsoever experiencing, … Continue reading The Predator Gets Some Much-Needed Redemption in Hulu’s ‘Prey’

Jurassic World: Dominion Manages the Impossible: Makes Dinosaurs Boring

When I was growing up, I was pretty much the textbook definition of what you’d call a “dinosaur kid.” I was obsessed. I’m pretty sure there’s some old home movies floating around of me, as a small toddler, just casually rattling off Latin names for the extinct beasts, surely much to the chagrin of my poor parents. I was convinced, for the first several years … Continue reading Jurassic World: Dominion Manages the Impossible: Makes Dinosaurs Boring

Nic Cage Soars as Nic Cage in Stellar Love Letter to Nic Cage ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’

I feel like I’ve gone on the record more than enough times on this site in defense of Nicholas Cage. The movies of his that I’ve explicitly covered, Mandy, The Color Out of Space, and Pig, are all amazing films because they exist in what I like to call the “Post-Cage” era. That is, the age of cinema where we’ve all sort of collectively identified … Continue reading Nic Cage Soars as Nic Cage in Stellar Love Letter to Nic Cage ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’

‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once’ is Wonderful, Beautiful Madness

Coming off of last month’s X, I didn’t think it was possible for me to love A24 any more than I already did. Boy, was I wrong about that. If you have even a casual interest in film, odds are you’ve been hearing quite a bit of buzz about Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s (or simply Daniels, as the duo call themselves) new film Everything, … Continue reading ‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once’ is Wonderful, Beautiful Madness

Sex and Violence as an Art Form in Ti West’s ‘X’

Ah, A24. You bring us so much wonderful, weird horror. From slow, understated supernatural dramas like It Comes at Night and Witch to visceral, chaotic nightmares like The Lighthouse and Midsommar, A24’s horror selection has touched on just about every subgenre that could comfortably fit within the boundaries of what some critics have (somewhat obnoxiously) dubbed ‘elevated horror.’ These are ‘respectable’ horror films, movies that … Continue reading Sex and Violence as an Art Form in Ti West’s ‘X’