Category: Film


  • The Morality and Philosophy of Jigsaw

    Anyone who has seen the Sawfranchise knows how laughable the serial killer Jigsawโ€™s logic can be. So much so that itโ€™s become widely memed. Forgot to wash the dishes when itโ€™s your turn? Time to remove your arm with a cleaver! Cut someone off in traffic? Get ready to wake up in a reverse bear…

  • Of Hedonism and Repentance: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

    Forever young, I want to be forever young Do you really want to live forever? Forever, and ever So goes the lyrics for the popular ’80s balled “Forever Young” by the band Alphaville. It sums up the idea of many who wish they could remain youthful forever; to experience the world and all it has…

  • Five Underrated 2023 Horror Movies That Deserve Way More Love

    If youโ€™re a horror fan, you know the critics donโ€™t always get it right. And Iโ€™m not just talking about movies that undergo extreme reappraisals a la The Thing or The Shining. A lot of film critics simply donโ€™t care much for horror, and while that bias against the genre is thankfully waning, it hasnโ€™t…

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

  • 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

    Iโ€™m a sucker for AI films. Whether itโ€™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, Iโ€™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 Curtisโ€™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 donโ€™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…