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Retrospectives

Why Jason Lives is a Near-Perfect Horror Comedy

Audiences were disappointed with Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning. They wanted Jason, doing what he does best. Despite the film’s other merits, they couldn’t get over the absence of the franchi...

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4

‘A Nightmare On Elm Street 4’: How Freddy Became The Pop Culture Boogeyman

A Nightmare on Elm Street was a success that spread through word of mouth. It was made for very little money and was released on a limited number of screens. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 was a hit in c...

Return of the Living Dead

Why ‘Return of the Living Dead’ Is the Ultimate Punk Rock Horror Movie

Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Dead is, in many ways, the 1980s horror film. It represents everything about the decade boiled down into one complete package. The movie originated afte...

Behind the Mask

Why Behind the Mask is Still One of the Smartest Horror Films of the Past 20 Years

It’s hard to believe that Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is already 17-years-old. Unlike many horror films released in the 20 years, I saw this one when it was still relatively new. It was...

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...

Patriotic Horror to Binge Watch This Summer. I know What You Did Last Summer Banner Image

Why ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Deserves Greater Acclaim

The 1990s gave us a lot of great films. From big studio releases like Silence of the Lambs, Candyman, and Jacob’s Ladder, to smaller, more obscure releases like Castle Freak, The Ugly, and Audition. I...

Alien (1979) The problem with sub-genres - label makers

How Alien Raised the Bar for Visuals in Horror

Throughout most of the 1970s, horror was very focused on realism. There was a transition period in the previous decade that moved the genre away from the Gothic Hammer films, truly cementing horror in...

Nosferatu 1979

Why Werner Herzog’s ‘Nosferatu’ is Actually the Better Movie

F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu is a masterpiece of silent cinema. It’s one of the all-time great horror films. While it did not get the rights to the characters of the novel Dracula from the Stoker family, i...

Dead Ringers

Truth and Fiction Aren’t Identical in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers

In Death: On July 19th, 1975 Stewart and Cyril Marcus—the twin gynecologists who inspired Bari Woods and Jackie Gleasand’s novel Twins, which in turned inspired David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers — were ...