Slasher Renaissance? A Closer Look at the Sub-Genre That Never Went Away

This holiday season’s release of Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is cause for celebration amongst slasher fans. It’s been a hot minute since mainstream horror audiences have been able to watch a wide-release slasher that feels gruesomely throwback *and* is based on a wholly original concept. Thanksgiving is a contemporary reinterpretation of cheesy 80s midnighters about masked […]

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‘Don’t Suck’ Review – Vampire Horror-Comedy Is Soulless and Uninspired

It’s a shame Don’t Suck doesn’t take its own advice [comic rimshot]. Sorry, are you not a fan of plucking low-hanging fruit? Don’t expect anything more from RJ Collins’ soulless vampire standup horror comedy that tries to manufacture edginess with faceplant jokes about Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Jeffrey Epstein in the first however many […]

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‘Godzilla Minus One’ Review -Toho’s Latest Raises the Bar for Godzilla Movies and Kaiju Cinema

Godzilla Minus One is a blessing to Toho’s kaiju franchise and a towering accomplishment for the entire kaiju subgenre. Director and writer Takashi Yamazaki respects the balance between monster mashes and human perspectives, unlike our blockbuster domestic efforts, which oftentimes lean toward larger-than-life action thrills (although Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is off to […]

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How ‘The Crazies’ Reinterprets a Romero Classic for a New Generation [Revenge of the Remakes]

There’s a solid chance this month’s edition of “Revenge of the Remakes” ends up as one of my favorite column entries. George A. Romero’s The Crazies and Breck Eisner’s The Crazies inspire an exceptional case study about the peaceful coexistence between remakes and originals. Both filmmakers choose unique perspectives when dooming small-town America, even though […]

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‘Do Not Disturb’ Review – Psychedelic Anarchy Is Unleashed in This Vacation Freakout

John Ainslie’s Do Not Disturb portrays what nastiness festers behind locked hotel room doors in this heavy dose of psychedelic anarchy. What feels like a stripped-down mashup of Bones & All, Very Bad Things, and The Hangover sends broken people on a bad and bloody trip. It might not look that way at first, because […]

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‘Killer Book Club’ Review – Netflix’s Spanish Slasher Is a Pale Imitation of ‘Scream’

Carlos Alonso Ojea’s Killer Book Club doesn’t hide its intentions to remix Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s Scream — you’ll see both Scream and It referenced by name in the Netflix synopsis. The problem is, over two decades later, who hasn’t attempted to bottle that meta-slasher magic anew? Tyler MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls and Scott Glosserman’s […]

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‘Haunting of the Queen Mary’ Review – Gary Shore Chills the Bones with an Overstuffed Supernatural Voyage

The retired RMS Queen Mary docked in Long Beach, California is considered one of the most haunted locations in the world — which only somewhat shines through in Gary Shore’s Haunting of the Queen Mary. Any wishes to relive Dark Castle Entertainment levels of production design in Ghost Ship won’t be fulfilled, but that said, […]

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Seeing Red Again: An Appreciation of Horror’s Greatest Visual Storytelling Tool

Frantic campers scavenge a park ranger’s rucksack inside his abandoned jeep. A shipwrecked sailor drags their waterproof emergency kit ashore. Apocalypse survivors raid a hardware depot after zombies chase civilization far away. Three different horror movie scenarios, all adding a holy grail item to whichever characters’ arsenal. Maybe loaded into a chamber, possibly as a […]

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‘Brightwood’ Review – Minimalist Relationship Thriller Gets Lost in Its Own Time Loop

The prickliest challenge for indie time-loop thrillers like Dane Elcar’s Brightwood to overcome is simple: can you entertain an audience with minimalist repetition? Elcar utilizes nothing more than a suburban pondside trail, two actors, and the temporal puzzlement of purgatorial duplication. Your mileage will vary with an almost 90-minute mindbender that’s as barebones as a […]

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Sadako vs. Samara – Why ‘The Ring’ Is Terrifying in Either Language [Revenge of the Remakes]

Gore Verbinski’s The Ring led the first wave of early 2000s horror remakes that partially defined the era’s landscape alongside Saw torture-porners and other reactionary post-9/11 subgenres. Granted, remakes have always been a foundational pillar that keeps horror reinventing itself decade after decade — but the 2000s were different. Production companies like Platinum Dunes and […]

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‘Cocaine Shark’ Review – Too Little Creature Feature Mayhem Sinks This Schlocky Throwback

If you’ve sought out any of Mark Polonia‘s previous microbudget (at best) horror releases, you know what quality ceiling to expect from Cocaine Shark. The movie costs as much as the animation to manipulate Cocaine Bear’s left paw for thirty seconds, maybe even less. Polonia’s signature is churning out poster-perfect titles like Amityville in Space or Sharkula with table-scrap resources, […]

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How the ‘Mother’s Day’ Remake Properly Updates a Low-Budget Troma Film from the 1980s

No Troma remake should attempt to match Troma at its revolting, boundary-demolishing, trigger-happy game. Take 1980’s Mother’s Day, for example. Troma Entertainment ringleader Lloyd Kaufman let his brother Charles Kaufman shoot a rape-revenge exploitation sleazefest no mamma would applaud. Darren Lynn Bousman’s 2010 remake abandons Tromaville signatures almost entirely for a mean-mugging reinterpretation rooted in […]

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‘Funny Games’ vs. ‘Funny Games’ – One of the Most Curious Remake Experiments of Them All

Watching two Michael Haneke features back-to-back doesn’t sound all that outrageous, right? What if they’re Funny Games (1997) and Funny Games (2007)? You start with one of the more disturbing flicks in Criterion’s closet, then immediately follow it with an American shot-for-shot remake that relives the same nightmare. My inner masochist couldn’t skip on tackling […]

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‘Night of the Killer Bears’ Review – Thai Slasher Is a Highlight Reel of Gory Kills

The bizarre Thai slasher Night of the Killer Bears is a mixed bag filled to the brim with blood and guts, so storytelling miscues are easier to stomach. Kanphong Banjongphinij’s directorial debut comes with the tagline “Ted meets Terrifier,” which I want to get ahead of — there is no walking, talking Thunder Buddy that […]

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Why Fede Álvarez’s ‘Evil Dead’ Is a Gonzo and Gore-Soaked All-Timer

To credit Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead as the motivating force behind “Revenge of the Remakes” wouldn’t be an audacious claim. By golden template standards for reanimating beloved horror franchises, it remains a remarkable exemplification alongside titans like Maniac or The Blob. As an underworldly standalone feature, it’s one of the fiercest, scare-you-senseless releases since its […]

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