Retrospectives
How ‘Poltergeist’ Destroyed the American Dream (And Why That’s Great)
Filmmakers in the 1980s had a serious obsession with the American dream. Part of it, I think, was due to the fetish-like obsession with ‘50s Americana. People wanted a very Norman Rockwell view of mid...
The Boy Who Lived: What Makes Tommy Jarvis a Fan-Favorite Horror Hero
Michael Myers has Doctor Loomis. Freddy Krueger has Nancy Thompson. And Jason Voorhees has Tommy Jarvis. The difference here is that while most heroes originate in the same film as the villain, we don...
‘The Haunting of Hill House’ Remains Perfect Five Years On From Release
A lot can happen in five years. Personally, I went from a youngish guy with tons of dreams and aspirations, to being five years older with those exact same dreams and aspirations. My point is that tim...
‘Campfire Tales’ is an Unexpectedly Great Anthology (That No One Remembers)
The ‘80s is sort of remembered as the heyday of horror anthology films, giving us classics like Creepshow 1 & 2, Twilight Zone: The Movie, From a Whisper to a Scream, Cat’s Eye, and many more. But...
Jennifer’s Body May be Based on This True Story
Following its initial release in 2009, Jennifer’s Body became an immediate stand out for its bloodthirsty take on the Queen Bee troupe, eventually becoming what Roger Ebert would describe as the...
Psycho II is Almost as Good as the Original: Here’s Why!
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is one of the best horror movies ever made. It’s often cited as the best and for good reason. It’s the kind of feature that was not getting made in America at the time. It br...
Bram Stoker’s Dracula Helped Define the Gory Excess of the 1990s
So many people, even now, believe the 1980s to be a golden age in horror history. By extension, the 1990s is believed to be an incredibly dull period. Many people say that horror was dead in that deca...
Why King Kong ’76 is a Bizarre Remake (But Not a Terrible One)
King Kong may not be remembered as such, but it is one of the biggest horror movies of all time. When it hit theaters in 1933, people had not seen anything quite like it. It was full of adventure, ful...
Why ‘Escape from New York’ Worked So Well Without Backstory
Escape from New York is one of John Carpenter’s best films. After the double horror hits of Halloween and The Fog, Escape from New York returned Carpenter to the sci-fi and action roots he’d establish...
