After the success of Halloween, the slasher sub-genre capitalized big time with other holiday-themed body count flicks, films like My Bloody Valentine, April Fool’s Day and Mother’s Day coming along to ensure that every big date on the calendar had a horror movie of its very own. Released in 1980, New Year’s Evil is unique …
UK-based label Death Waltz Recording Company dropped a little treat down the proverbial chimney this holiday season in the form of Silent Night, Deadly Night‘s very first soundtrack release, on both vinyl as well as CD. The limited edition two-disc affair, which quickly sold out, served to celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary, and boy does …
You’re unlikely to find a year-end ‘Best Of’ list that doesn’t have The Babadook on it, a film that was particularly impressive given the fact that it marked the directorial debut of Jennifer Kent. Another film garnering much praise on those same lists is Housebound, which is also noteworthy for introducing us horror fans to …
Earlier this year I started a series of posts about my favorite episodes of HBO’s Tales from the Crypt, which I kicked off with Season 2’s Cryptkeeper origin story, ‘Lower Berth.’ We continue the series today by shining the spotlight on a timely episode of the show, which brought a little horror to the holiday …
Depending on who you ask, this year’s horror output was either awful or exceptional. For those who only watch movies outside of the home, it was awful. But for those who prefer to stay indoors and nestle up on the couch like hermits, horror was downright exceptional in 2014. There was a time, not all …
Looking at the work-in-progress list of my favorite 2014 horror films, I’ve noticed that many of them share the common trait of taking familiar ideas and injecting fresh life into them. Both The Taking of Deborah Logan and The Babadook, in particular, did just that, and so too does my latest addition to the list. …
I consider myself somewhat of a Bigfoot enthusiast, endlessly fascinated by the potential existence of the beast and eager to devour any film that promises to bring him to life. Unfortunately, horror movies featuring Sasquatch have been pretty bad over the years – and that’s kind of an understatement. It’s for this reason that I …
As a tie-in with their recent Blu-ray release, Vinegar Syndrome brought Christmas Evil to the Alamo Drafthouse’s New York location this past Friday night, allowing me to cross a big time goal off my holiday bucket list. And boy was it a treat. Directed by Lewis Jackson, Christmas Evil (originally released as You Better Watch …
As a hardcore fan of Black Christmas, I am inherently wired to hate Black X-Mas. Why? Because it’s a fucking terrible remake of Black Christmas. But I don’t hate it. In fact, I kind of love it. In last week’s 40th anniversary retrospective of the original Black Christmas, I talked rather extensively about the connections …
The best movie monsters are oftentimes metaphors for real world issues, whether we’re talking about the zombies in George Romero’s films or that big green dude in Godzilla. This year, you can add Mister Babadook to that list, as well as any list that collects together the horror genre’s most memorable icons. Written and directed …
