Retrospectives
Tiny Terrors: Remembering McFarlane’s Movie Maniacs
I was a monster kid dating back to my earliest memories. I loved the Universal Monsters from pretty much first sight. By the first grade, my friends had already introduced me to the new wave of h...
Dawn of the Dead Painted the Perfect Picture of a Consumer Apocalypse
George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was an absolutely revolutionary horror picture. It was made for no money but you wouldn’t know that by looking at it. And people latched onto i...
I’m Loving IT: Seven Best Moments from the 1990 Miniseries
In my excitement for the upcoming film adaptation of It, it has definitely appeared to some readers that I’ve come down pretty hard on the 1990 miniseries. But that simply comes out of my love ...
The Hannibal Time Forgot: Why Manhunter Needs More Love
After the cult success of Hannibal, there are now two generations who embrace their own version of Hannibal Lecter as the one true representation of the character in their eyes. For some people, Mads ...
Why The Shining is Just a Ghost Story (And Why That’s Okay)
Stephen King’s chief influence for his novel The Shining was Shirley Jackson’s classic book The Haunting of Hill House. He speaks clearly about this in introductions to the book and in i...
Grave Encounters is One of the Smartest Movies of the Found Footage Boom
I have to be honest, I didn’t mind the found footage boom when it first started. Paranormal Activity really got to me in the theater. They turned out all the lights right at the end and left us...
White Horse Whisperer: Why Zombie’s Halloween II is (Almost) a Masterpiece
There aren’t many horror films that are more immediately divisive than Rob Zombie’s remakes of Halloween and Halloween II. Some people love them more than the original—I donȁ...
A Drinking Problem: Why Return to Salem’s Lot is One of the Most Bats–t Sequels Ever Made
Despite being a made-for-TV miniseries, Salem’s Lot is one of the pinnacles of the vampire genre. It’s iconic. Often hailed as one of the best Stephen King adaptations, as well as one of...
Many Strings Attached: The Troubled History of Puppet Master
Puppet Master is one of the most successful independent horror film franchises of all time. It’s spawned an action figure series, Halloween costumes, T-shirts, comic books and even a reboot fro...