• A Nightmare on Elm Street:  A Roundtable Discussion

    I recently had the pleasure of hosting a roundtable discussion with several members of the Horror Archives staff. We examined the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise in great detail in what made for a great conversation. Joining me for the roundtable were: Bronson West, Chris Flackett and Robert Chipman. Be sure to let us…

  • Night of the Creeps Is Incredibly Flawed and Incredibly Fun

    Horror films of the 80s were a different breed. That’s not a statement on modern horror, horror before the 80s, or an indictment of 80s horror. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a prime example of this. In 1986 TCM2 took a deeply dark and transgressive film and turned it into a horror comedy, an odd…

  • Scalper Puts an Insidious Spin on the Typical Slasher Formula

    I have to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of slashers. That might be surprising coming from a big horror guy, but it’s true. Movies like Friday the 13th, Final Destination, and Sleepaway Camp just don’t do it for me. Slasher films are probably my least favorite subgenres. Now, there are some exceptions. When…

  • 2023 had no shortage of weird movies. Sure, superheroes and lightsabers have dominated the box office for the last decade or so, but films like Barbie, Infinity Pool, and Dream Scenario proved that there’s still room for unique, outside-the-box storytelling in today’s cinematic landscape. It’s just a great time to be a movie fan, so…

  • Scream Killers Ranked: From Worst to Best

    Throughout six Scream films, there have been a combined 13 killers to don the mask. Some of them legendary, some overshadowed by their Ghostface peers throughout the years. A few with familial motives, a handful with desires for fame, and others with almost no motive at all, which makes them even more scary. But who…

  • T.I.M. Skillfully Explores the Dangers of Technological Integration

    I’m a sucker for AI films. Whether it’s an older classic like The Terminator and The Matrix or a newer gem like Upgrade and The Artifice Girl, if you give me a sci-fi thriller about artificial intelligence, I’ll probably be a happy man. Naturally, when I first heard about T.I.M., I knew I had to…

  • The Scream Queens of the ’80s and What We Owe Them

    The success of Halloween in 1978 and Jamie Lee Curtis’s performance therein, coming near the end of a decade of new ground broken in the themes, content, and storytelling approaches in horror (and film in general), marked the beginning of a surge in the popularity of scream queens and a concomitant change in the portrayal…

  • First Time Caller Is a Triumph of Minimalist Filmmaking

    Good dialogue is often underrated these days. I love action just as much as anybody, but I also don’t mind films that are all about people sitting around and talking. If the script and the performances are good enough, an interesting conversation can be just as captivating as any John Wick movie, so when I…

  • Five Awesome 2023 Horror Movies You Might’ve Missed

    2023 was another good year for horror on the big screen. Sure, there were a few duds along the way, but movies like Evil Dead Rise, Talk to Me, and Scream VI showed that the genre still has what it takes to wow audiences and win big at the box office. It’s a great time…

  • Ex Machina Is About Women, Not AI

    If an AI program was advanced enough, could it become genuinely conscious, or would it just act in ways that mimic conscious thought? Regardless of where you stand on that contentious question, this is a fascinating topic to ponder and discuss, and it lies at the heart of Alex Garland’s brilliant sci-fi thriller Ex Machina.…