Category: Film
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John Carpenter and Debra Hill had no idea back in 1978 that they were changing the horror genre. They set out to make a scary movie about babysitters being stalked on Halloween night. They werenโt thinking about sequels – let alone 12 of them. They werenโt thinking about Corey Cunninghamโs awful night of babysitting, heavy…
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I was lucky enough to be there on the opening night of Grove Productionsโ show Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a run starting at the perfect time of year. Throughout, it was spooky, intense, and incredibly well–acted. The colours and lighting used perfectly accentuated the seasonal feel of the performance, and the special effects were…
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By 1959, Hammer had become an empire of beautiful decay. The blood of Frankenstein had dried to a glossy crimson, The Hound of the Baskervilles had wrapped dread in civility, and the studio was now looking inward โ away from monsters, toward manโs most intimate horror: the fear of dying. The Man Who Could Cheat…
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There seems to be an overall critical appreciation for Black Phone 2, the sequel to the horror/thriller film The Black Phone. The first movie featured excellent performances all around, especially from actors Ethan Hawke and Mason Thames. It also starred Madeleine McGraw as Gwen Blake, the sister to Thames’ character, Finney. Hawke starred as “The…
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After The Revenge of Frankenstein, Hammer had nothing left to prove. The blood had already been spilled, the moral lines blurred beyond recognition. What came next wasnโt escalation โ it was refinement. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) wasnโt about gore or monstrosity. It was about atmosphere. About dread that slithers rather than strikes. This…
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By the time The Revenge of Frankenstein hit screens in 1958, Hammer was no longer testing the waters โ it was baptizing itself in blood. The Curse of Frankenstein had shattered the old order, turning the genteel Universal monsters into something vivid, violent, and human. The Abominable Snowman had cooled the chaos, testing the moral…
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Sometimes, instead of delivering you from reality, a film forces you deeper into your nightmare, pushing you, along with the characters, beyond the edge. Such was my experience with POSSESSION. I was in the throes of a divorce when I saw the film, and it left its mark on me. With its visceral anguish, hysteria,…
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After the blood and blasphemy of The Curse of Frankenstein, you might expect Hammerโs next foray into horror to keep that arterial flow going โ another plunge into the lurid, the violent, the gothic. But instead, they went cold. The Abominable Snowman (1957), directed by Terence Fisher and written by Nigel Kneale, is the quiet,…
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When I watched the UK premiere of YuriyanโฏRetrieverโsย Mag Mag on Saturday, the directorโs name was relatively new to me, although well known in Japan and more recently in the USA. I had read it was going to be a โweird and wild satire of J-Horrorโ, which Iโve been fond of since discovering Urotsukidลji, Ring and…
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If you were thinking that Saint Patrickโs Day is a unique backdrop for an alien invasion horror movie, youโd be right. Historically, the few horror movies that do center around the holiday usually have a โkiller leprechaunโ plot, which makes the body-swapping alien concept of Huluโs โCrawlersโ so unique. Set in the town of Emerald…