Contemporary Horror
Turistas is…a Film [Quarantine Retrospective]
While we’re on lockdown, I’ll be working on a series of retrospectives as I watch through my library. Many will be films I love but I may veer into less favorable territory from time to time to keep t...
Fifteen Years Later, House of Wax Still Boasts Impressive Set Design and Great FX
House of Wax (2005) turns fifteen in April. So, what better time to take a look back at the oft-maligned slasher redux to determine if it deserves the hate that is so often thrown its way. For th...
Why Chastity Bites Was Years Ahead of its Time [Editorial]
Thankfully, feminist horror films and female-positive cinema are becoming more and more commonplace of late. And we owe a debt of gratitude for the shifting paradigm to movements like Me Too and Time&...
The Intensity of High Tension: A Look at Plagiarism in Horror
In a time of remakes, reboots, re-imaginings and so forth, the genre fan has a narrowed selection in terms of originality. This debatable lack of creativity divides audiences on a regular basis. Wheth...
Fifteen Years Later Hostel is Still Plagued by Awful Characters and Cringeworthy Dialogue [Editorial]
Hostel marks Eli Roth’s second feature film directorial effort, with Cabin Fever being his first. Roth amped up the gore for his sophomore outing. Following in the footsteps of films like Saw, Hostel ...
Planet Terror is a Neo-Grindhouse Classic [Retrospective]
This homage to the grindhouse cinema of the ‘70s is set in the present but it has plenty of throwbacks to the days of the drive-in cinema. The crackling picture, the exploitative nature of the film, m...
Dracula 2000 is a Noticeably Flawed but Often Enjoyable Update [Retrospective]
Upon its initial release, the majority of critics panned Dracula 2000. The film was accused of being a shameless rip-off of superior material and not brining anything new or noteworthy to the table. T...
Midnight Movie is Tragically Flawed [Retrospective]
Midnight Movie follows the employees and patrons of a rundown theater on the night the cinema is screening Ted Radford’s The Dark Beneath. Though it was never a major hit, The Dark Beneath is the sour...
Silent Night (2012) is a Remake that Actually Justifies its Own Existence [Editorial]
In Silent Night, a small, midwestern town Sheriff discovers that a vigilante maniac in a Santa suit has set off on a murder spree. The madman is killing off the residents of the town that he deems ill...
