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[title] => IT: The 1990 Miniseries Ending Is Actually Better Than The Movies
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/it-the-1990-miniseries-ending-is-actually-better-than-the-movies/
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[creator] => Harry World
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[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 15:44:33 +0000
[category] => Scream AwayminiseriesMovies
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106652
[description] => While the 2017 and 2019 IT movies improved on the 1990 miniseries in many ways, the latter ultimately has a more satisfying ending. Over the years, it’s become a well-known refrain that Stephen King, as great and successful a writer as he is, has a real problem crafting satisfying endings. Many of his best stories ... Read more
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While the 2017 and 2019 IT movies improved on the 1990 miniseries in many ways, the latter ultimately has a more satisfying ending. Over the years, it’s become a well-known refrain that Stephen King, as great and successful a writer as he is, has a real problem crafting satisfying endings. Many of his best stories either seem to end without much fanfare or get too convoluted and hard to follow. King’s IT novel is an example of the latter, boasting a metaphysical conclusion that was always destined to be unfilmable in full.
IT has so far been adapted twice, first as a 1990 ABC miniseries and more recently as a pair of theatrical movies in 2017 and 2019. Both adaptations have their strengths and weaknesses, and both feature Pennywise the Clown performances by Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgard, respectively, that are great in their own ways. Both also took their own best shots at adapting King’s rather wild ending for the screen and met with varying levels of success.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
Related: Stephen King: The Outsider’s Shape-Shifting Monster Vs. It’s Pennywise
Outside of Curry’s Pennywise, though, most King devotees do seem to agree that the IT movies are overall closer to the spirit of the book, if only because they had more freedom to insert gory violence, foul language, and other adult content. Yet, IT Chapter Two is much less well regarded than IT 2017. A big reason for that is its ending, which while suitably loud and visually stimulating, introduces many of its own flaws with its interpretation of King’s prose. So many in fact that, for all its faults, the ending of IT 1990 is actually better.
Stephen King’s IT Has Never Received A Truly Great Ending
While he hasn’t always been a favorite of book critics, Stephen King is one of the highest-selling authors of all time, has millions of devoted fans, and it’s safe to say he is considered a master of horror by most. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, that mastery doesn’t always extend to knowing how to best conclude his stories. IT is no exception, as the book’s ending is overlong, overwrought, and takes what had been a simple battle between good and evil and turns it into a fight involving a giant cosmic turtle.
That’s not to say IT‘s ending ruins the book by any means, as it’s not necessarily awful in a vacuum; it just suffers compared to the amazing story King told on previous pages. Due to how out there King’s written IT ending is, both the 1990 IT miniseries and 2019 movie IT Chapter Two attempt to keep some parts of it while jettisoning others. Some aspects of both filmed endings are good, and some are bad, but neither is as good as IT‘s story deserves. For whatever reason, it just seems like writers, whether they be King or various screenwriters, can’t crack how exactly to craft a worthy conclusion to what had been a story so scary that it’s liable to make the reader/viewer’s blood run cold. Neither of the IT endings have been bad enough to make IT not worth watching or reading, but they can put a bit of a damper on the excitement one leaves with.
All The Problems With IT Chapter Two’s Ending
In many ways, the IT movies are better than the 1990 miniseries adaptation. The bigger budget allows for more complex and extravagant scare set-pieces, lots of special effects used to create Pennywise’s various transformations, and overall better actors playing the Losers’ Club as adults. The ending, though, is arguably where IT Chapter Two almost entirely falls apart. After a movie full of jarring tonal shifts, the ending is too packed with sarcastic one-liners, IT’s final form is a bit laughable, and worst of all is the Losers essentially defeating it by insulting the creature to death.
Related: Why Stephen King Almost Quit Horror After Writing IT
While the power of belief has always been a big part of King’s IT story, especially since children are the monster’s usual targets, the final fight between the Losers and Pennywise coming down to an insult barrage is a bizarre choice. In that respect, one wonders if this IT could be defeated by an angry internet comment section. Then to top the bad things off, IT Chapter Two‘s ending sees fit to include Stan’s notoriously problematic suicide note, which attempts to spin Stan taking his own life into a heroic, necessary act. In a world where many people with mental illness teeter on the brink every day, painting suicide as a good thing is just downright irresponsible, but even with that aside, it entirely changes Stan’s character arc. The fact that his friends smile while reading it is doubly as troubling.
Why The Miniseries Ending Is More Satisfying, Despite Its Own Flaws
When discussing anything about the 1990 IT miniseries’ ending, it’s all but required to address the elephant in the room: the absolutely dreadful looking giant spider that IT ends up turning into. The creature is part puppet, part stop-motion animation, and while a bit charming in a Ray Harryhausen-esque way, it’s hard not to chuckle at. Yet, aside from that admittedly rather large flaw, the 1990 IT ending is more satisfying than the 2019 iteration. Sure, it has less of a budget to work with by far, but it is also much more to the point, less convoluted and tonally inconsistent, and doesn’t try to turn Stan’s suicide into a happy ending.
Beverly Marsh using her slingshot to hurt IT before the Losers chase it down and rip out its organs is also more satisfying and cathartic than Pennywise deflating from being called names. There’s a lot less to the 1990 IT ending to be sure, and it’s a lot less flashy, but as the old saying goes, less is sometimes more. The 2019 IT Chapter Two ending may have a lot of sound and fury on display, but that fury is mostly just bluster at the end of the day. A few genuinely great moments like Richie saying goodbye to Eddie, a struggle for dominance with oddly placed references to The Shining, and a tacked-on Ritual of Chud subplot that ends up meaning absolutely nothing to the story overall. WhenITis inevitably adapted again, it’ll be interesting to see if whoever writes the next version finally gets the ending fully right. Until then, there’s always the HBO Max prequel, Welcome to Derry.
More: Pennywise vs. Randall Flagg: Which Is Stephen King’s Greatest Villain?
Will The Joker Be In The Batman 2? Deleted Scene Is The Perfect Set-Up
About The Author
Michael Kennedy (4380 Articles Published)
Michael Kennedy is an avid movie and TV fan that’s been working for Screen Rant in various capacities since 2014. In that time, Michael has written over 2000 articles for the site, first working solely as a news writer, then later as a senior writer and associate news editor. Most recently, Michael helped launch Screen Rant’s new horror section, and is now the lead staff writer when it comes to all things frightening. A FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and earned an AS degree in film production in 2012. He also loves both Marvel and DC movies, and wishes every superhero fan could just get along. When not writing, Michael enjoys going to concerts, taking in live professional wrestling, and debating pop culture. A long-term member of the Screen Rant family, Michael looks forward to continuing on creating new content for the site for many more years to come.
More From Michael Kennedy
We would love to give thanks to the writer of this post for this amazing material
)
[summary] => While the 2017 and 2019 IT movies improved on the 1990 miniseries in many ways, the latter ultimately has a more satisfying ending. Over the years, it’s become a well-known refrain that Stephen King, as great and successful a writer as he is, has a real problem crafting satisfying endings. Many of his best stories ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
While the 2017 and 2019 IT movies improved on the 1990 miniseries in many ways, the latter ultimately has a more satisfying ending. Over the years, it’s become a well-known refrain that Stephen King, as great and successful a writer as he is, has a real problem crafting satisfying endings. Many of his best stories either seem to end without much fanfare or get too convoluted and hard to follow. King’s IT novel is an example of the latter, boasting a metaphysical conclusion that was always destined to be unfilmable in full.
IT has so far been adapted twice, first as a 1990 ABC miniseries and more recently as a pair of theatrical movies in 2017 and 2019. Both adaptations have their strengths and weaknesses, and both feature Pennywise the Clown performances by Tim Curry and Bill Skarsgard, respectively, that are great in their own ways. Both also took their own best shots at adapting King’s rather wild ending for the screen and met with varying levels of success.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
Related: Stephen King: The Outsider’s Shape-Shifting Monster Vs. It’s Pennywise
Outside of Curry’s Pennywise, though, most King devotees do seem to agree that the IT movies are overall closer to the spirit of the book, if only because they had more freedom to insert gory violence, foul language, and other adult content. Yet, IT Chapter Two is much less well regarded than IT 2017. A big reason for that is its ending, which while suitably loud and visually stimulating, introduces many of its own flaws with its interpretation of King’s prose. So many in fact that, for all its faults, the ending of IT 1990 is actually better.
Stephen King’s IT Has Never Received A Truly Great Ending
While he hasn’t always been a favorite of book critics, Stephen King is one of the highest-selling authors of all time, has millions of devoted fans, and it’s safe to say he is considered a master of horror by most. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, that mastery doesn’t always extend to knowing how to best conclude his stories. IT is no exception, as the book’s ending is overlong, overwrought, and takes what had been a simple battle between good and evil and turns it into a fight involving a giant cosmic turtle.
That’s not to say IT‘s ending ruins the book by any means, as it’s not necessarily awful in a vacuum; it just suffers compared to the amazing story King told on previous pages. Due to how out there King’s written IT ending is, both the 1990 IT miniseries and 2019 movie IT Chapter Two attempt to keep some parts of it while jettisoning others. Some aspects of both filmed endings are good, and some are bad, but neither is as good as IT‘s story deserves. For whatever reason, it just seems like writers, whether they be King or various screenwriters, can’t crack how exactly to craft a worthy conclusion to what had been a story so scary that it’s liable to make the reader/viewer’s blood run cold. Neither of the IT endings have been bad enough to make IT not worth watching or reading, but they can put a bit of a damper on the excitement one leaves with.
All The Problems With IT Chapter Two’s Ending
In many ways, the IT movies are better than the 1990 miniseries adaptation. The bigger budget allows for more complex and extravagant scare set-pieces, lots of special effects used to create Pennywise’s various transformations, and overall better actors playing the Losers’ Club as adults. The ending, though, is arguably where IT Chapter Two almost entirely falls apart. After a movie full of jarring tonal shifts, the ending is too packed with sarcastic one-liners, IT’s final form is a bit laughable, and worst of all is the Losers essentially defeating it by insulting the creature to death.
Related: Why Stephen King Almost Quit Horror After Writing IT
While the power of belief has always been a big part of King’s IT story, especially since children are the monster’s usual targets, the final fight between the Losers and Pennywise coming down to an insult barrage is a bizarre choice. In that respect, one wonders if this IT could be defeated by an angry internet comment section. Then to top the bad things off, IT Chapter Two‘s ending sees fit to include Stan’s notoriously problematic suicide note, which attempts to spin Stan taking his own life into a heroic, necessary act. In a world where many people with mental illness teeter on the brink every day, painting suicide as a good thing is just downright irresponsible, but even with that aside, it entirely changes Stan’s character arc. The fact that his friends smile while reading it is doubly as troubling.
Why The Miniseries Ending Is More Satisfying, Despite Its Own Flaws
When discussing anything about the 1990 IT miniseries’ ending, it’s all but required to address the elephant in the room: the absolutely dreadful looking giant spider that IT ends up turning into. The creature is part puppet, part stop-motion animation, and while a bit charming in a Ray Harryhausen-esque way, it’s hard not to chuckle at. Yet, aside from that admittedly rather large flaw, the 1990 IT ending is more satisfying than the 2019 iteration. Sure, it has less of a budget to work with by far, but it is also much more to the point, less convoluted and tonally inconsistent, and doesn’t try to turn Stan’s suicide into a happy ending.
Beverly Marsh using her slingshot to hurt IT before the Losers chase it down and rip out its organs is also more satisfying and cathartic than Pennywise deflating from being called names. There’s a lot less to the 1990 IT ending to be sure, and it’s a lot less flashy, but as the old saying goes, less is sometimes more. The 2019 IT Chapter Two ending may have a lot of sound and fury on display, but that fury is mostly just bluster at the end of the day. A few genuinely great moments like Richie saying goodbye to Eddie, a struggle for dominance with oddly placed references to The Shining, and a tacked-on Ritual of Chud subplot that ends up meaning absolutely nothing to the story overall. WhenITis inevitably adapted again, it’ll be interesting to see if whoever writes the next version finally gets the ending fully right. Until then, there’s always the HBO Max prequel, Welcome to Derry.
More: Pennywise vs. Randall Flagg: Which Is Stephen King’s Greatest Villain?
Will The Joker Be In The Batman 2? Deleted Scene Is The Perfect Set-Up
About The Author
Michael Kennedy (4380 Articles Published)
Michael Kennedy is an avid movie and TV fan that’s been working for Screen Rant in various capacities since 2014. In that time, Michael has written over 2000 articles for the site, first working solely as a news writer, then later as a senior writer and associate news editor. Most recently, Michael helped launch Screen Rant’s new horror section, and is now the lead staff writer when it comes to all things frightening. A FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and earned an AS degree in film production in 2012. He also loves both Marvel and DC movies, and wishes every superhero fan could just get along. When not writing, Michael enjoys going to concerts, taking in live professional wrestling, and debating pop culture. A long-term member of the Screen Rant family, Michael looks forward to continuing on creating new content for the site for many more years to come.
More From Michael Kennedy
We would love to give thanks to the writer of this post for this amazing material
[date_timestamp] => 1650815073
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[title] => Insidious: 9 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About James Wan?s Frightening Horror Movie
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/insidious-9-behind-the-scenes-facts-about-james-wans-frightening-horror-movie/
[dc] => Array
(
[creator] => Harry World
)
[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 14:22:34 +0000
[category] => Scream AwaybehindthescenesFrighteningHorrorInsidiousJamesMovieWans
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106624
[description] => Despite not working on any projects together in the past several years, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell are known as an iconic duo for collaborating on some of the best horror movies in recent memory. One such title that would solidify their place in cinematic history is Insidious, which is celebrating its 11th ... Read more
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[encoded] =>
Despite not working on any projects together in the past several years, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell are known as an iconic duo for collaborating on some of the best horror movies in recent memory. One such title that would solidify their place in cinematic history is Insidious, which is celebrating its 11th anniversary in 2022.
This indelibly frightening and unique take on the haunted house movie subgenre stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne as a husband and wife whose family suddenly becomes plagued by otherworldly disturbances after their oldest son (Ty Simpkins) mysteriously falls into what seems to be a coma. This is such a relentlessly creepy and well-crafted thriller that I believe would still manage to scare just about anyone even after learning the secrets behind how it was made. Let?s put that to the test by taking a look at the following behind-the-scenes facts that may contain a few spoilers.
(Image credit: Lions Gate Films)
His Reputation From Saw Inspired James Wan To Make A Scary Movie Without Gore
For some moviegoers in 2011, it may have been hard to believe that a PG-13 supernatural thriller like Insidious was made by the same writer/director duo behind Saw. Well, for James Wan, that was kind of the point. When speaking with Making Of, the Australian filmmaker explained in the following quote how his graphic, feature-length breakthrough is partially responsible for the creation of Insidious:
Because of the reputation I?ve really built for myself with the Saw franchise, I really wanted to prove that I can make another scary movie that does not have an ounce of blood or guts or gore in it.
Most fans would agree that Wan certainly achieved this goal with Insidious, as well as with the first of the Conjuring movies, in 2013. He also mentions in this interview how the explosion of the ?torture porn? trend after Saw?s 2004 release is ironic since, save the grisly ending, there is not that much gore to be seen in that particular installment of the Saw franchise. It is similar to the reputation that 1974?s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre accrued, despite being almost entirely bloodless, which is a comparison to be proud of in my book.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
The Concept Of Astral Projection Sparked The Idea For Insidious
The urge to make a horror movie that was refreshing and original (and not just to their own filmography) was also shared by James Wan?s partner-in-crime, Leigh Whannell – who would go on to have his own successful directing career with films like the third of the Insidious movies, and Blumhouse?s ingenious The Invisible Man remake in 2020. The fellow Australian writer and filmmaker was asked by Den of Geek if the idea for Insidious came out of wanting to make something like Poltergeist, but for the modern age.
Whannell acknowledges that comparisons to the 1982 horror classic from producer Steven Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper – in which a couple call upon the help of a medium to rescue their child from malevolent spirits – are valid. However, the true inception of the project was an interest in astral projection – a concept that had gone relatively unexplored in the genre. He and Wan wanted to tell a story about someone who failed to return from an out-of-body experience – in this case, Ty Simpkins? character, Dalton.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
The Initial Filming Production Cost Less Than A Million Dollars
Something that Insidious is often commended for is being one of the most profitable films of 2011, making more than $99.5 million dollars worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. To make those returns sound even more impressive: the movie?s overall budget equates to a very small fraction of that number – about $1.5 million, to be exact.
However, the principal photography alone for Insidious only cost about $700,000. James Wan revealed, in a 2011 interview with he and Leigh Whannell for Collider, that this was about the same amount that Saw cost to shoot initially before funding from Lionsgate brought it to $1 million. This just goes to show that even the smallest investments can result in large rewards, especially in the horror genre.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
Rose Byrne Was Creeped Out By The House Insidious Was Filmed In
One aspect of Insidious? modest budget is the minimal use of sets. The movie takes place almost entirely in two houses – one of which made a profound impression on star Rose Byrne. In an interview with The Cinema Source (via GaaaysInSpaaace), the Australian actress had this to say about her onscreen home:
The house that we filmed in was so scary. Like, I?m not particularly supernatural. I?m born of two skeptics, but I can definitely feel an atmosphere, you know, if there?s an odd, weird vibe. And that house had a very strange vibe. Clearly odd. Dark. Creaky. Weird. Strange smells. Just very bizarre. You could feel a little bit unnerved just sitting there, even surrounded by a film crew, which is loud and noisy and boisterous.
Rose Byrne, who had previously starred in other creepy thrillers like 28 Weeks Later and Knowing from 2008, gives a stellar performance as frightened wife and mother Renai Lambert. If the ?strange vibe? of the house in Insidious helped inform her performance at all, I would go so far as to call that a happy accident.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
James Wan Looked To Real-Life Father Patrick Wilson For Inspiration When Directing Family-Oriented Scenes
Another actor whose own experiences helped inform his performance in Insidious is Patrick Wilson, who plays Renai?s husband and Dalton?s father, Josh Lambert, and will actually make his directorial debut with Insidious 5. Not only is he a husband and father of two in real life, but he had previously played Ty Simpkins? father in the Oscar-nominated 2006 drama, Little Children. This expertise was not only valuable to him on the set of the film, but also to James Wan.
In a featurette included on the Insidious Blu-ray titled ?On the Set with Insidious,? the director admits that, having had no wife or children at the time, he relied a lot on Wilson?s own familial expertise when it came to directing the horror film, of which family is a very important theme, and even took his advice about how to communicate with the younger actors. Leigh Whanell also adds in the same doc that the actor was very helpful when filming scenes with the infant who played his daughter, especially to help comfort her during more intense scenes.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
Insidious Composer Joseph Bishara Also Plays The Main Villain
One of the least recognizable names in the Insidious cast is Joseph Bishara, but that is only because his face is covered in red and black makeup the whole time. Bishara actually made his acting debut as the Lipstick-Face Demon (who bears a resemblance to Darth Maul) before appearing as other frightening, otherworldly creatures in Annabelle and The Conjuring 2, to name a few.
Of course, he also had a very important job on all of these scary movies and more from behind the camera. Bishara composed the spine-tingling score for Insidious as well, which Patrick Wilson (while appearing on People Magazine?s web series Couch Surfing) likened to what it would be like if Star Wars composer John Williams had played Darth Vader.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
James Wan Had Ty Simpkins Sit In On Joseph Bishara?s Makeup Sessions To Make Him Comfortable With Filming Scarier Scenes
For only being his first acting gig, Joseph Bishara certainly made one unsettling and unforgettable villain in Insidious. Just ask Ty Simpkins, who – understandably – had trouble being near the actor on set.
James Wan was determined to help the young actor overcome his fear. As he explained on another Blu-ray featurette called ?Entities,? the director would take him into the makeup trailer so he could watch the artists artists apply makeup to Bishara in person. This way, he would know that underneath his demonic captor was just another human being.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
One Insidious Ghost Was Inspired By A True Story
Another creature profiled on the Insidious Blu-ray?s ?Entities? doc was one referred to as the Long Haired Fiend – a brutish spirit with jet-black hair and a leather duster and one of the first entities in the film to frighten Rose Byrne?s character (and the audience). Surprisingly, this character (played by The Righteous Gemstones and Saw III star J. LaRose) has some, allegedly, factual significance as James Wan explains here:
The Long Haired Fiend was, actually, a character that was inspired by a story that Leigh and I had heard from a friend of ours. He said, one night he woke up and saw a man dressed in a long trench coat with long hair pacing outside his room. So, that was where the image came from.
Technically, this means that we could include Insidious on our list of great horror movies based on true stories.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
Some Of The Further Sequence Was Filmed In The Basement Of An Abandoned Building
In reality, the most grounded element of Insidious is the concept of astral projection, which many have claimed to experience in their own lives. However, the design of the Further – a place between the living and the dead from where Josh must rescue Dalton – is more likely just a product of James Wan and Leigh Whannell?s imagination.
Translating the creepy, atmospheric realm to the screen was a relatively simply process as it turns out, especially in moments when you see Patrick Wilson surrounded by complete darkness. The actor told renowned horror magazine Fangoria that, when filming that particular portion of the sequence, he was really in the basement of an abandoned building that was darkened as much as possible by putting ?black felt and garbage bags up over the windows.?
I do not know about you, but out of all of James Wan and Leigh Whannell?s collaboration – and, perhaps, even of the individual artists? separate projects – Insidious tops the list. More than a decade later it is still one of the memorable and invigorating movie theater experiences of my life, and it never fails to thrill me upon repeat viewings. I will willfully go back into the Further again and again.
We wish to thank the writer of this post for this awesome web content
)
[summary] => Despite not working on any projects together in the past several years, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell are known as an iconic duo for collaborating on some of the best horror movies in recent memory. One such title that would solidify their place in cinematic history is Insidious, which is celebrating its 11th ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
Despite not working on any projects together in the past several years, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell are known as an iconic duo for collaborating on some of the best horror movies in recent memory. One such title that would solidify their place in cinematic history is Insidious, which is celebrating its 11th anniversary in 2022.
This indelibly frightening and unique take on the haunted house movie subgenre stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne as a husband and wife whose family suddenly becomes plagued by otherworldly disturbances after their oldest son (Ty Simpkins) mysteriously falls into what seems to be a coma. This is such a relentlessly creepy and well-crafted thriller that I believe would still manage to scare just about anyone even after learning the secrets behind how it was made. Let?s put that to the test by taking a look at the following behind-the-scenes facts that may contain a few spoilers.
(Image credit: Lions Gate Films)
His Reputation From Saw Inspired James Wan To Make A Scary Movie Without Gore
For some moviegoers in 2011, it may have been hard to believe that a PG-13 supernatural thriller like Insidious was made by the same writer/director duo behind Saw. Well, for James Wan, that was kind of the point. When speaking with Making Of, the Australian filmmaker explained in the following quote how his graphic, feature-length breakthrough is partially responsible for the creation of Insidious:
Because of the reputation I?ve really built for myself with the Saw franchise, I really wanted to prove that I can make another scary movie that does not have an ounce of blood or guts or gore in it.
Most fans would agree that Wan certainly achieved this goal with Insidious, as well as with the first of the Conjuring movies, in 2013. He also mentions in this interview how the explosion of the ?torture porn? trend after Saw?s 2004 release is ironic since, save the grisly ending, there is not that much gore to be seen in that particular installment of the Saw franchise. It is similar to the reputation that 1974?s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre accrued, despite being almost entirely bloodless, which is a comparison to be proud of in my book.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
The Concept Of Astral Projection Sparked The Idea For Insidious
The urge to make a horror movie that was refreshing and original (and not just to their own filmography) was also shared by James Wan?s partner-in-crime, Leigh Whannell – who would go on to have his own successful directing career with films like the third of the Insidious movies, and Blumhouse?s ingenious The Invisible Man remake in 2020. The fellow Australian writer and filmmaker was asked by Den of Geek if the idea for Insidious came out of wanting to make something like Poltergeist, but for the modern age.
Whannell acknowledges that comparisons to the 1982 horror classic from producer Steven Spielberg and director Tobe Hooper – in which a couple call upon the help of a medium to rescue their child from malevolent spirits – are valid. However, the true inception of the project was an interest in astral projection – a concept that had gone relatively unexplored in the genre. He and Wan wanted to tell a story about someone who failed to return from an out-of-body experience – in this case, Ty Simpkins? character, Dalton.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
The Initial Filming Production Cost Less Than A Million Dollars
Something that Insidious is often commended for is being one of the most profitable films of 2011, making more than $99.5 million dollars worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. To make those returns sound even more impressive: the movie?s overall budget equates to a very small fraction of that number – about $1.5 million, to be exact.
However, the principal photography alone for Insidious only cost about $700,000. James Wan revealed, in a 2011 interview with he and Leigh Whannell for Collider, that this was about the same amount that Saw cost to shoot initially before funding from Lionsgate brought it to $1 million. This just goes to show that even the smallest investments can result in large rewards, especially in the horror genre.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
Rose Byrne Was Creeped Out By The House Insidious Was Filmed In
One aspect of Insidious? modest budget is the minimal use of sets. The movie takes place almost entirely in two houses – one of which made a profound impression on star Rose Byrne. In an interview with The Cinema Source (via GaaaysInSpaaace), the Australian actress had this to say about her onscreen home:
The house that we filmed in was so scary. Like, I?m not particularly supernatural. I?m born of two skeptics, but I can definitely feel an atmosphere, you know, if there?s an odd, weird vibe. And that house had a very strange vibe. Clearly odd. Dark. Creaky. Weird. Strange smells. Just very bizarre. You could feel a little bit unnerved just sitting there, even surrounded by a film crew, which is loud and noisy and boisterous.
Rose Byrne, who had previously starred in other creepy thrillers like 28 Weeks Later and Knowing from 2008, gives a stellar performance as frightened wife and mother Renai Lambert. If the ?strange vibe? of the house in Insidious helped inform her performance at all, I would go so far as to call that a happy accident.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
James Wan Looked To Real-Life Father Patrick Wilson For Inspiration When Directing Family-Oriented Scenes
Another actor whose own experiences helped inform his performance in Insidious is Patrick Wilson, who plays Renai?s husband and Dalton?s father, Josh Lambert, and will actually make his directorial debut with Insidious 5. Not only is he a husband and father of two in real life, but he had previously played Ty Simpkins? father in the Oscar-nominated 2006 drama, Little Children. This expertise was not only valuable to him on the set of the film, but also to James Wan.
In a featurette included on the Insidious Blu-ray titled ?On the Set with Insidious,? the director admits that, having had no wife or children at the time, he relied a lot on Wilson?s own familial expertise when it came to directing the horror film, of which family is a very important theme, and even took his advice about how to communicate with the younger actors. Leigh Whanell also adds in the same doc that the actor was very helpful when filming scenes with the infant who played his daughter, especially to help comfort her during more intense scenes.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
Insidious Composer Joseph Bishara Also Plays The Main Villain
One of the least recognizable names in the Insidious cast is Joseph Bishara, but that is only because his face is covered in red and black makeup the whole time. Bishara actually made his acting debut as the Lipstick-Face Demon (who bears a resemblance to Darth Maul) before appearing as other frightening, otherworldly creatures in Annabelle and The Conjuring 2, to name a few.
Of course, he also had a very important job on all of these scary movies and more from behind the camera. Bishara composed the spine-tingling score for Insidious as well, which Patrick Wilson (while appearing on People Magazine?s web series Couch Surfing) likened to what it would be like if Star Wars composer John Williams had played Darth Vader.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
James Wan Had Ty Simpkins Sit In On Joseph Bishara?s Makeup Sessions To Make Him Comfortable With Filming Scarier Scenes
For only being his first acting gig, Joseph Bishara certainly made one unsettling and unforgettable villain in Insidious. Just ask Ty Simpkins, who – understandably – had trouble being near the actor on set.
James Wan was determined to help the young actor overcome his fear. As he explained on another Blu-ray featurette called ?Entities,? the director would take him into the makeup trailer so he could watch the artists artists apply makeup to Bishara in person. This way, he would know that underneath his demonic captor was just another human being.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
One Insidious Ghost Was Inspired By A True Story
Another creature profiled on the Insidious Blu-ray?s ?Entities? doc was one referred to as the Long Haired Fiend – a brutish spirit with jet-black hair and a leather duster and one of the first entities in the film to frighten Rose Byrne?s character (and the audience). Surprisingly, this character (played by The Righteous Gemstones and Saw III star J. LaRose) has some, allegedly, factual significance as James Wan explains here:
The Long Haired Fiend was, actually, a character that was inspired by a story that Leigh and I had heard from a friend of ours. He said, one night he woke up and saw a man dressed in a long trench coat with long hair pacing outside his room. So, that was where the image came from.
Technically, this means that we could include Insidious on our list of great horror movies based on true stories.
(Image credit: FilmDistrict)
Some Of The Further Sequence Was Filmed In The Basement Of An Abandoned Building
In reality, the most grounded element of Insidious is the concept of astral projection, which many have claimed to experience in their own lives. However, the design of the Further – a place between the living and the dead from where Josh must rescue Dalton – is more likely just a product of James Wan and Leigh Whannell?s imagination.
Translating the creepy, atmospheric realm to the screen was a relatively simply process as it turns out, especially in moments when you see Patrick Wilson surrounded by complete darkness. The actor told renowned horror magazine Fangoria that, when filming that particular portion of the sequence, he was really in the basement of an abandoned building that was darkened as much as possible by putting ?black felt and garbage bags up over the windows.?
I do not know about you, but out of all of James Wan and Leigh Whannell?s collaboration – and, perhaps, even of the individual artists? separate projects – Insidious tops the list. More than a decade later it is still one of the memorable and invigorating movie theater experiences of my life, and it never fails to thrill me upon repeat viewings. I will willfully go back into the Further again and again.
We wish to thank the writer of this post for this awesome web content
[date_timestamp] => 1650810154
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[2] => Array
(
[title] => Elevated horror: elitist or smart rebranding? The horror movie genre dividing fans
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/elevated-horror-elitist-or-smart-rebranding-the-horror-movie-genre-dividing-fans/
[dc] => Array
(
[creator] => Harry World
)
[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 11:38:39 +0000
[category] => Scream AwaydividingElevatedelitistfansGenreHorrorMovierebrandingSMART
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106484
[description] => As any dedicated horror fan knows, there are many different subsections that make up one of the most popular cinematic genres in the world. Be it paranormal, slasher, zombie, gore or comedy, horror has pretty much embraced every aspect of moviemaking to add a dark or terrifying twist to the handful of traditional plot lines. ... Read more
[content] => Array
(
[encoded] =>
As any dedicated horror fan knows, there are many different subsections that make up one of the most popular cinematic genres in the world. Be it paranormal, slasher, zombie, gore or comedy, horror has pretty much embraced every aspect of moviemaking to add a dark or terrifying twist to the handful of traditional plot lines.
In recent years, the term ?elevated horror? has come to the forefront, creating a new category often referred to as ?horror for non-horror fans.? But is this new classification a way to divide the horror community, or attract new fans to create a wider audience?
What is elevated horror?
Most genres of horror are pretty self-explanatory. Comedy horror encompasses films such as Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and Jennifer?s Body. Even relatively tame films such as Ghostbusters and The Addams Family fall into this category, albeit at the gentler end of the spectrum.
The slasher category features A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween; gore has the Hostel and Saw series; psychological horror boasts The Shining and The Others, and The Blair Witch Project fits terrifyingly well into the paranormal mould.
Elevated horror meanwhile, is used to refer to films that explore themes beyond the blood.
Family drama, mental illness, and social commentary or injustice, when incorporated into a film in a meaningful way, are the devices that take a film from simply horror to elevated horror.
What films are considered elevated horror?
‘The Witch’, 2015, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, is credited with establishing the term ‘elevated horror’, which some critics say is simply a modern rebranding of the traditional psychological horror genre. Photo: A24
The term itself is relatively new. Applied by critics to Robert Eggers?s 2015 scare-fest The Witch, it was used to set apart the new crop of horror films it influenced from the traditional movies with their obvious villains and jump scares.
Jordan Peele?s Oscar-winning 2017 film Get Out, and his follow-up, 2019?s Us, are considered perfect examples of elevated horror, tackling themes beyond the purely macabre, such as systemic racism and trauma.
?Time and time again you realise that the more truth you?re hitting on that people haven?t seen put in this way, the more successful it is,? writer-director Peele told Variety, of messaging through the medium of horror.
Hereditary, starring Toni Collette, with its focus on familial trauma and motherhood, as well as grief and loss, found itself a natural heir to the 1968 Oscar-winner Rosemary?s Baby.
Midsommar, starring Florence Pugh, remains critically acclaimed thanks to its portrayal of an emotionally abusive and manipulative relationship between the protagonist Dani (Pugh) and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Hereditary and Midsommar were written and directed by Ari Aster, who, along with Peele and Eggers, have mastered the genre.
Snobby or smart business: why some fans don?t like the term
Elevated horror is like an artisanal cheeseburger. Make the goddamn cheeseburger. If it?s delicious, nobody will care what adjective you put in front of it.
Having found its niche at the intersection where horror meets satire, 2022’s Scream, the fifth in the series, used its famous opening scene to skewer the elevated horror genre.
In her phone conversation with Ghostface, when Jenna Ortega?s character Tara Carpenter is asked the perennial question: what?s your favourite scary movie? She replies: ?The Babadook. It?s an amazing meditation on motherhood and grief.
?It?s elevated horror ? Scary but with complex emotional and thematic underpinnings. It?s not just some schlocky, cheese ball nonsense with wall-to-wall jump scares.?
Dismissed as simply a modern term for the psychological horror genre which has been around for as long as cinema, the rebranding has been credited with drawing in audiences who might otherwise not care for these films in the traditional sense.
In doing so, the term has become somewhat divisive in the horror fan world.
?Elevated, of course, refers to something being above others, and this is exactly how it?s used ? to separate those who prefer a ?more sophisticated? film over a typical slasher or creature feature,? said Lor Gislason of horrorobsessive.com. ?Some filmmakers still find the genre of horror to be almost a dirty word; it is as though they are trying to escape it and use something else rather than embrace it.?
Updated: April 24, 2022, 4:55 AM
We would love to thank the author of this article for this incredible content
)
[summary] => As any dedicated horror fan knows, there are many different subsections that make up one of the most popular cinematic genres in the world. Be it paranormal, slasher, zombie, gore or comedy, horror has pretty much embraced every aspect of moviemaking to add a dark or terrifying twist to the handful of traditional plot lines. ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
As any dedicated horror fan knows, there are many different subsections that make up one of the most popular cinematic genres in the world. Be it paranormal, slasher, zombie, gore or comedy, horror has pretty much embraced every aspect of moviemaking to add a dark or terrifying twist to the handful of traditional plot lines.
In recent years, the term ?elevated horror? has come to the forefront, creating a new category often referred to as ?horror for non-horror fans.? But is this new classification a way to divide the horror community, or attract new fans to create a wider audience?
What is elevated horror?
Most genres of horror are pretty self-explanatory. Comedy horror encompasses films such as Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and Jennifer?s Body. Even relatively tame films such as Ghostbusters and The Addams Family fall into this category, albeit at the gentler end of the spectrum.
The slasher category features A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween; gore has the Hostel and Saw series; psychological horror boasts The Shining and The Others, and The Blair Witch Project fits terrifyingly well into the paranormal mould.
Elevated horror meanwhile, is used to refer to films that explore themes beyond the blood.
Family drama, mental illness, and social commentary or injustice, when incorporated into a film in a meaningful way, are the devices that take a film from simply horror to elevated horror.
What films are considered elevated horror?
‘The Witch’, 2015, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, is credited with establishing the term ‘elevated horror’, which some critics say is simply a modern rebranding of the traditional psychological horror genre. Photo: A24
The term itself is relatively new. Applied by critics to Robert Eggers?s 2015 scare-fest The Witch, it was used to set apart the new crop of horror films it influenced from the traditional movies with their obvious villains and jump scares.
Jordan Peele?s Oscar-winning 2017 film Get Out, and his follow-up, 2019?s Us, are considered perfect examples of elevated horror, tackling themes beyond the purely macabre, such as systemic racism and trauma.
?Time and time again you realise that the more truth you?re hitting on that people haven?t seen put in this way, the more successful it is,? writer-director Peele told Variety, of messaging through the medium of horror.
Hereditary, starring Toni Collette, with its focus on familial trauma and motherhood, as well as grief and loss, found itself a natural heir to the 1968 Oscar-winner Rosemary?s Baby.
Midsommar, starring Florence Pugh, remains critically acclaimed thanks to its portrayal of an emotionally abusive and manipulative relationship between the protagonist Dani (Pugh) and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor). Hereditary and Midsommar were written and directed by Ari Aster, who, along with Peele and Eggers, have mastered the genre.
Snobby or smart business: why some fans don?t like the term
Elevated horror is like an artisanal cheeseburger. Make the goddamn cheeseburger. If it?s delicious, nobody will care what adjective you put in front of it.
Having found its niche at the intersection where horror meets satire, 2022’s Scream, the fifth in the series, used its famous opening scene to skewer the elevated horror genre.
In her phone conversation with Ghostface, when Jenna Ortega?s character Tara Carpenter is asked the perennial question: what?s your favourite scary movie? She replies: ?The Babadook. It?s an amazing meditation on motherhood and grief.
?It?s elevated horror ? Scary but with complex emotional and thematic underpinnings. It?s not just some schlocky, cheese ball nonsense with wall-to-wall jump scares.?
Dismissed as simply a modern term for the psychological horror genre which has been around for as long as cinema, the rebranding has been credited with drawing in audiences who might otherwise not care for these films in the traditional sense.
In doing so, the term has become somewhat divisive in the horror fan world.
?Elevated, of course, refers to something being above others, and this is exactly how it?s used ? to separate those who prefer a ?more sophisticated? film over a typical slasher or creature feature,? said Lor Gislason of horrorobsessive.com. ?Some filmmakers still find the genre of horror to be almost a dirty word; it is as though they are trying to escape it and use something else rather than embrace it.?
Updated: April 24, 2022, 4:55 AM
We would love to thank the author of this article for this incredible content
[date_timestamp] => 1650800319
)
[3] => Array
(
[title] => Paramount+: The Best Horror Movies to Stream
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/paramount-the-best-horror-movies-to-stream/
[dc] => Array
(
[creator] => Harry World
)
[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 07:32:14 +0000
[category] => Scream AwayHorrorMoviesParamountStream
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106334
[description] => As we already know, Paramount+ houses some of the most successful and best movies you can watch now. The obvious draw in the newly emerged streaming service is its ability to incorporate films that viewers can’t seem to find on other streaming networks, thanks to the rich archives of Paramount Pictures dating back a century ... Read more
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(
[encoded] =>
As we already know, Paramount+ houses some of the most successful and best movies you can watch now. The obvious draw in the newly emerged streaming service is its ability to incorporate films that viewers can’t seem to find on other streaming networks, thanks to the rich archives of Paramount Pictures dating back a century ago.
For fellow horror fanatics, the fact that the company tends to stream a wide variety of projects, going back to the ’50s and earlier, is an apparent pro in paying for the monthly subscription. It’s not just the fact that Paramount+ has earlier released films, but it’s also the mixture of both new and exclusive releases (including original TV shows on Paramount), along with the incorporation of cult classics that makes the membership worthwhile.
With a recent announcement that all Paramount distributed movies would specifically stream on the Paramount+ app by the start of 2024, it’s evident that the company is intentionally trying to diversify their range of content in order to cater to a wider array of audience members. For horror fans, this is a ‘plus.’ Keep reading for some of the best horror movies streaming on Paramount+.
7 Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
Paramount
The Paranormal Activity franchise in itself is completely terrifying due to the realism of the filming techniques, the presence of supernatural entities, and the family backstory interconnected to the series of films. Paramount+ successfully resurrected the franchise with Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, in which Margot travels to an Amish community, along with a documentary film crew, as she searches for answers about her mother. Abandoned by her mother as a newborn, Margot hopes to meet any of her existing relatives, but she’s actually in for a rude awaking, (aka demonic spirits).
Related: Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin Trailer Resurrects the Franchise on Paramount+
6 A Quiet Place 2
Paramount
Following the success of the first film, A Quiet Place 2 picks up with the Abbott family as they come face to face with the unknowns of the outside world. After the horrific events that took place at their family farmhouse, the group must fight for survival in complete silence as they travel through a sand path. The family quickly realizes there are creatures nearby who pursue their prey by sound. Directed by John Krasinski like the first film, the sequel doesn’t have the emotional and allegorical resonance of the first film but makes up for it by upping the horror ante in some impressive ways in this excellent movie with almost no dialogue.
5 The Town That Dreaded Sundown
American International Pictures
This horror masterpiece is completely terrifying, and a quick heads up, if you watch it before bedtime there’s an elevated chance that you won’t be able to sleep for the whole night. The Charles B. Pierce horror classic The Town That Dreaded Sundown is based around the account of a 1946 killing spree, where an unidentified hooded madman stalks the lovers’ lanes of a small Texarkana town in Arkansas. One of the more woefully underseen slasher movies, it is nonetheless a spooky Southern gothic that capitalizes well on the ‘ripped from the headlines’ approach of Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Remember, there’s always a hooded man in the bushes just waiting to pounce… Joking, probably…
4 The Ruins
Paramount
Whenever there’s a horror movie about vacations gone wrong, personal retreat planning can get a little terrifying (if any of you can relate, thank goodness). In search for endless fun during a holiday vacation in Mexico, Amy (Jena Malone), Stacy (Laura Ramsey), Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), and Eric (Shawn Ashmore) are in store for more than they bargained for when visiting a remote area in the jungle. When animalistic vines attempt to entrap the group, each of them must fight to stay alive, in the weird little nightmare of a film The Ruins.
3 Pet Sematary
Paramount
If you take nothing else from this article, please try to remember that if you ever plan on moving to an unfamiliar area, try to refrain from it being next to a graveyard, or a new property built on top of an existing one (unless you’re into that kid of thing). This classic adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary depicts the lives of Dr. Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) and his wife, Rachel (Denise Crosby), as they move from Boston to Maine with their two small children.
Related: Pet Sematary Prequel Brings in Genre Icons Samantha Mathis & Henry Thomas
Tragedy strikes, and once the Creed’s notice a burial ground hidden within the woods of their new home, evil presences rapidly unleash terror on the family. While lacking the sophistication and finesse of the best King adaptations, Pet Sematary is a gruesome gem in its own right; plus it has a killer song from The Ramones.
2 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Allied Artists
Local Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is in shock when his patients begin to come to him with the concern that their family and friends have been replaced with imposters, who seem to give emotionless responses. As the truth behind these complaints rears its ugly head, Bennell, Becky (Dana Wynter), and his friend Jack (King Donovan) soon realize that the suspicions of his patients stem from an alien species taking over the town. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is simply one of the greatest movies ever made, and has a plot so conducive to allegory that it’s been remade again and again.
1 Rosemary’s Baby
Paramount Pictures
Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her aspiring actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move to a mysterious New York City apartment building with a known reputation for being slightly odd, alongside odder neighbors. Once Rosemary finds out that she is pregnant (with the couple’s first child) she begins to feel more and more isolated as time passes. Rosemary’s Baby follows the titular character through her pregnancy as she learns darker and darker secrets about the people surrounding her, and the person growing inside her.
Two New South Park Movies Will Arrive on Paramount+ Before the End of the Year
Read Next
About The Author
Latecia Joiner (88 Articles Published)
More
From Latecia Joiner
We would love to say thanks to the writer of this write-up for this incredible content
)
[summary] => As we already know, Paramount+ houses some of the most successful and best movies you can watch now. The obvious draw in the newly emerged streaming service is its ability to incorporate films that viewers can’t seem to find on other streaming networks, thanks to the rich archives of Paramount Pictures dating back a century ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
As we already know, Paramount+ houses some of the most successful and best movies you can watch now. The obvious draw in the newly emerged streaming service is its ability to incorporate films that viewers can’t seem to find on other streaming networks, thanks to the rich archives of Paramount Pictures dating back a century ago.
For fellow horror fanatics, the fact that the company tends to stream a wide variety of projects, going back to the ’50s and earlier, is an apparent pro in paying for the monthly subscription. It’s not just the fact that Paramount+ has earlier released films, but it’s also the mixture of both new and exclusive releases (including original TV shows on Paramount), along with the incorporation of cult classics that makes the membership worthwhile.
With a recent announcement that all Paramount distributed movies would specifically stream on the Paramount+ app by the start of 2024, it’s evident that the company is intentionally trying to diversify their range of content in order to cater to a wider array of audience members. For horror fans, this is a ‘plus.’ Keep reading for some of the best horror movies streaming on Paramount+.
7 Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin
Paramount
The Paranormal Activity franchise in itself is completely terrifying due to the realism of the filming techniques, the presence of supernatural entities, and the family backstory interconnected to the series of films. Paramount+ successfully resurrected the franchise with Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, in which Margot travels to an Amish community, along with a documentary film crew, as she searches for answers about her mother. Abandoned by her mother as a newborn, Margot hopes to meet any of her existing relatives, but she’s actually in for a rude awaking, (aka demonic spirits).
Related: Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin Trailer Resurrects the Franchise on Paramount+
6 A Quiet Place 2
Paramount
Following the success of the first film, A Quiet Place 2 picks up with the Abbott family as they come face to face with the unknowns of the outside world. After the horrific events that took place at their family farmhouse, the group must fight for survival in complete silence as they travel through a sand path. The family quickly realizes there are creatures nearby who pursue their prey by sound. Directed by John Krasinski like the first film, the sequel doesn’t have the emotional and allegorical resonance of the first film but makes up for it by upping the horror ante in some impressive ways in this excellent movie with almost no dialogue.
5 The Town That Dreaded Sundown
American International Pictures
This horror masterpiece is completely terrifying, and a quick heads up, if you watch it before bedtime there’s an elevated chance that you won’t be able to sleep for the whole night. The Charles B. Pierce horror classic The Town That Dreaded Sundown is based around the account of a 1946 killing spree, where an unidentified hooded madman stalks the lovers’ lanes of a small Texarkana town in Arkansas. One of the more woefully underseen slasher movies, it is nonetheless a spooky Southern gothic that capitalizes well on the ‘ripped from the headlines’ approach of Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Remember, there’s always a hooded man in the bushes just waiting to pounce… Joking, probably…
4 The Ruins
Paramount
Whenever there’s a horror movie about vacations gone wrong, personal retreat planning can get a little terrifying (if any of you can relate, thank goodness). In search for endless fun during a holiday vacation in Mexico, Amy (Jena Malone), Stacy (Laura Ramsey), Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), and Eric (Shawn Ashmore) are in store for more than they bargained for when visiting a remote area in the jungle. When animalistic vines attempt to entrap the group, each of them must fight to stay alive, in the weird little nightmare of a film The Ruins.
3 Pet Sematary
Paramount
If you take nothing else from this article, please try to remember that if you ever plan on moving to an unfamiliar area, try to refrain from it being next to a graveyard, or a new property built on top of an existing one (unless you’re into that kid of thing). This classic adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary depicts the lives of Dr. Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) and his wife, Rachel (Denise Crosby), as they move from Boston to Maine with their two small children.
Related: Pet Sematary Prequel Brings in Genre Icons Samantha Mathis & Henry Thomas
Tragedy strikes, and once the Creed’s notice a burial ground hidden within the woods of their new home, evil presences rapidly unleash terror on the family. While lacking the sophistication and finesse of the best King adaptations, Pet Sematary is a gruesome gem in its own right; plus it has a killer song from The Ramones.
2 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Allied Artists
Local Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is in shock when his patients begin to come to him with the concern that their family and friends have been replaced with imposters, who seem to give emotionless responses. As the truth behind these complaints rears its ugly head, Bennell, Becky (Dana Wynter), and his friend Jack (King Donovan) soon realize that the suspicions of his patients stem from an alien species taking over the town. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is simply one of the greatest movies ever made, and has a plot so conducive to allegory that it’s been remade again and again.
1 Rosemary’s Baby
Paramount Pictures
Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her aspiring actor husband Guy (John Cassavetes) move to a mysterious New York City apartment building with a known reputation for being slightly odd, alongside odder neighbors. Once Rosemary finds out that she is pregnant (with the couple’s first child) she begins to feel more and more isolated as time passes. Rosemary’s Baby follows the titular character through her pregnancy as she learns darker and darker secrets about the people surrounding her, and the person growing inside her.
Two New South Park Movies Will Arrive on Paramount+ Before the End of the Year
Read Next
About The Author
Latecia Joiner (88 Articles Published)
More
From Latecia Joiner
We would love to say thanks to the writer of this write-up for this incredible content
[date_timestamp] => 1650785534
)
[4] => Array
(
[title] => 9 Extreme Horror Movies You Should Watch If You Liked ?X?
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/9-extreme-horror-movies-you-should-watch-if-you-liked-x/
[dc] => Array
(
[creator] => Harry World
)
[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 06:10:29 +0000
[category] => Scream AwayExtremeHorrorMoviesWatch
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106295
[description] => No genre is as notorious for being disturbing, uncomfortable, and violent as the horror genre. While not every entry in the canon has to feature copious amounts of blood, gore, and disgusting images to strike fear into an audience, it is one way the genre can deliver scares and thrills. While a certain level of ... Read more
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(
[encoded] =>
No genre is as notorious for being disturbing, uncomfortable, and violent as the horror genre. While not every entry in the canon has to feature copious amounts of blood, gore, and disgusting images to strike fear into an audience, it is one way the genre can deliver scares and thrills. While a certain level of violence is expected, some go above and beyond and push the boundaries of horror (and even taste) further than expected.
RELATED: All the Kills of Ti West’s ‘X,’ Ranked
Ti West’sXis one of the latest examples of this kind of extreme horror movie and makes for an entertaining and confronting watch. It essentially tells you that from its title alone, and from its premise, which involves a film crew shooting an adult movie at a farmhouse owned by a mysterious elderly couple who don’t react well when they find out what’s happening. The following nine films all offer similarly shocking and gruesome rides for the most devoted horror fans. They’re not for the faint of heart, but they’re easy to recommend to those who enjoyed X.
Titane (2021)
Winning the Palme d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Titane is a radical and unique horror film that ends up being as touching and emotional as it is confronting and disturbing. To try and summarize the plot is difficult, but broadly, it involves a woman who has a unique fascination with metal, has apparently been impregnated by a car, is a serial killer, and fakes her identity when she goes on the run, forming a unique bond with a firefighter who himself is struggling with the loss of his own son.
RELATED: The New French Extremity, Explained: Why This Subgenre Is More Than Simply Horror
The fact it’s so relentless and shocking and out there in its first half makes the emotional pull of the film’s second half that much more impactful. With its bizarre imagery and graphic violence, it may not be for everyone (the Academy Awards included, where it didn’t even get a Best Foreign Film nomination), but its ambition and gutsiness ensure it’s one of the most memorable films of 2021.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
Midsommar (2019)
Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditarypushed things even further when it came to shocking visuals and in-your-face horror. While Midsommar may lack the despair and visceral trauma of Hereditary, it makes up for it with its unpleasant sights and sounds.
With its story about a cult in Sweden terrorizing a group of American tourists playing out almost entirely in daylight, there are no shadows to hide the film’s more grisly scenes. Things kick off with a bizarre and shocking ritual involving people leaping off of cliffs, and it never really lets up after that. Due to its slower pace and focus on characters, those scenes might not be as frequent as they are in other horror movies, but whenever it wants to disgust its audience, Midsommar succeeds almost a little too well.
Revenge (2017)
Revengetakes a well-worn horror premise and does it far better than any movie that came before it. After a woman is physically abused and left for dead by several men in the middle of the desert, she tracks down and seeks vengeance on those who are responsible, refusing to stop until they’ve all paid for what they’ve done.
It sounds like it’s been done before, but with its bold visuals, relentless pacing, and incredibly brutal violence, Revenge is far and away the best of the “lone woman seeks revenge on men” horror sub-genre that had its origins in the infamous and flawedI Spit On Your Grave. In fact, it might be one of the best revenge-themed films period. Director Coralie Fargeat’s ability to do something phenomenal with an often mishandled premise is remarkable, and it’s a must-watch for all strong-stomached horror fans.
The Fly (1986)
Featuring one of Jeff Goldblum’s most famous roles in what might be horror legend David Cronenberg’s best film, The Flyis the rare remake that’s even better than the original. At its simplest, it’s about a science experiment that goes wrong, which slowly begins to transform Goldblum’s character into a fly.
It might sound silly, but the special effects and genuine tragedy of the story make The Fly hold up as a gripping and genuinely disturbing horror film. The practical effects that are used to demonstrate the awful metamorphosis still look disturbingly real, and while the 1950s original still makes for a fun watch, Cronenberg’s remake still stands as a genuinely great film.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is definitely not to be mistaken forIron Man, the first film in the MCU. Rather than being a fun, franchise-starting superhero film, Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a low-budget body horror movie about a man who day by day finds more and more of his body parts turning into metal.
The look of this movie is unlike anything else, and the low budget doesn’t make things look any less real or horrifying. Its distinct visual style and editing are as much of an assault on the senses as the horrifying black and white imagery, and as great as it is, it’s so relentless that it only being 67 minutes long is something of a relief.
Mother! (2017)
Darren Aronofsky has a knack for putting intense and nightmarish imagery on screen, so to say Mother! might be the hardest film to watch in his whole filmography is really saying something. A story about one woman whose quiet home life is disturbed by a constant stream of unwanted guests (that is probably also a feature-length biblical analogy), to call Mother! a stressful film would be an understatement.
RELATED: Darren Aronofsky’s Movies Ranked from Worst to Best
It’s hard to put into words why the film is as horrifying as it is, as it really has to be experienced and to describe the most stomach-churning scenes would be giving too much away. It’s the kind of film you might watch once but never again, and for as bad as it might feel to sit through, it is an undeniably memorable experience.
Braindead (1992)
Braindead(orDead Alive in North America) might be Peter Jackson’s most famous film made before The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It’s notorious for being one of the goriest films of all time, and lives up to its reputation and then some.
RELATED: The Best Zombie Movies of All Time
While most zombie films are bloodbaths, Braindead manages to make most zombie films look like Sesame Street, particularly in its final 20 minutes. The tone is comedic enough and the violence so over the top that it’s not too horrifying, but it is undeniably gross and extreme. 30 years later, nothing really matches it in terms of sheer, over-the-top carnage.
Raw (2016)
Before winning the Palme d’Or for Titane, director Julia Ducournau made the cannibal/coming-of-age film, Raw, which is just as wonderfully intense and in-your-face as her 2021 film. Raw works so well because it feels sufficiently grounded and relatable, and works as a character drama, and then it introduces the whole… cannibal element to shake things up.
While it is confronting in parts, it’s not only confronting, and it’s definitely not the kind of movie that shocks for shock’s sake. Raw’s a film with important, very down-to-earth themes, and at the same time, it has some of the best and most shocking horror scenes of the 2010s. It truly is the best of both worlds.
Eyes Without A Face (1960)
Perhaps not as shocking as many films that followed it decades later, but for 1960, the French horror film, Eyes Without A Face, is incredibly disturbing. Psychomight be widely considered the most shocking horror film of that year, but Psycho doesn’t have a plot that involves facial transplants and genuinely sickening surgical procedures that still look real 60+ years later.
The moody black and white cinematography and sadness of its characters make it a tragic and bleak horror movie, too, evoking the classic Universal monster movies of the 1930s and 1940s. Many older horror movies can be appreciated as extreme for their time, but few hold up as extreme decades later the way Eyes Without A Face does.
NEXT: Best Horror Movies That Aren’t Too Bloody
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Featurette Explores Its Mind-Bending Frightening Side
Read Next
About The Author
Jeremy Urquhart (31 Articles Published)
Jeremy is an omnivore when it comes to movies. He’ll gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU. When he’s not writing lists for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile and Instagram account.
More
From Jeremy Urquhart
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up for Collider’s newsletter for exclusive news, features, streaming recommendations and more
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We would love to say thanks to the writer of this write-up for this outstanding web content
)
[summary] => No genre is as notorious for being disturbing, uncomfortable, and violent as the horror genre. While not every entry in the canon has to feature copious amounts of blood, gore, and disgusting images to strike fear into an audience, it is one way the genre can deliver scares and thrills. While a certain level of ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
No genre is as notorious for being disturbing, uncomfortable, and violent as the horror genre. While not every entry in the canon has to feature copious amounts of blood, gore, and disgusting images to strike fear into an audience, it is one way the genre can deliver scares and thrills. While a certain level of violence is expected, some go above and beyond and push the boundaries of horror (and even taste) further than expected.
RELATED: All the Kills of Ti West’s ‘X,’ Ranked
Ti West’sXis one of the latest examples of this kind of extreme horror movie and makes for an entertaining and confronting watch. It essentially tells you that from its title alone, and from its premise, which involves a film crew shooting an adult movie at a farmhouse owned by a mysterious elderly couple who don’t react well when they find out what’s happening. The following nine films all offer similarly shocking and gruesome rides for the most devoted horror fans. They’re not for the faint of heart, but they’re easy to recommend to those who enjoyed X.
Titane (2021)
Winning the Palme d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Titane is a radical and unique horror film that ends up being as touching and emotional as it is confronting and disturbing. To try and summarize the plot is difficult, but broadly, it involves a woman who has a unique fascination with metal, has apparently been impregnated by a car, is a serial killer, and fakes her identity when she goes on the run, forming a unique bond with a firefighter who himself is struggling with the loss of his own son.
RELATED: The New French Extremity, Explained: Why This Subgenre Is More Than Simply Horror
The fact it’s so relentless and shocking and out there in its first half makes the emotional pull of the film’s second half that much more impactful. With its bizarre imagery and graphic violence, it may not be for everyone (the Academy Awards included, where it didn’t even get a Best Foreign Film nomination), but its ambition and gutsiness ensure it’s one of the most memorable films of 2021.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
Midsommar (2019)
Ari Aster’s follow-up to Hereditarypushed things even further when it came to shocking visuals and in-your-face horror. While Midsommar may lack the despair and visceral trauma of Hereditary, it makes up for it with its unpleasant sights and sounds.
With its story about a cult in Sweden terrorizing a group of American tourists playing out almost entirely in daylight, there are no shadows to hide the film’s more grisly scenes. Things kick off with a bizarre and shocking ritual involving people leaping off of cliffs, and it never really lets up after that. Due to its slower pace and focus on characters, those scenes might not be as frequent as they are in other horror movies, but whenever it wants to disgust its audience, Midsommar succeeds almost a little too well.
Revenge (2017)
Revengetakes a well-worn horror premise and does it far better than any movie that came before it. After a woman is physically abused and left for dead by several men in the middle of the desert, she tracks down and seeks vengeance on those who are responsible, refusing to stop until they’ve all paid for what they’ve done.
It sounds like it’s been done before, but with its bold visuals, relentless pacing, and incredibly brutal violence, Revenge is far and away the best of the “lone woman seeks revenge on men” horror sub-genre that had its origins in the infamous and flawedI Spit On Your Grave. In fact, it might be one of the best revenge-themed films period. Director Coralie Fargeat’s ability to do something phenomenal with an often mishandled premise is remarkable, and it’s a must-watch for all strong-stomached horror fans.
The Fly (1986)
Featuring one of Jeff Goldblum’s most famous roles in what might be horror legend David Cronenberg’s best film, The Flyis the rare remake that’s even better than the original. At its simplest, it’s about a science experiment that goes wrong, which slowly begins to transform Goldblum’s character into a fly.
It might sound silly, but the special effects and genuine tragedy of the story make The Fly hold up as a gripping and genuinely disturbing horror film. The practical effects that are used to demonstrate the awful metamorphosis still look disturbingly real, and while the 1950s original still makes for a fun watch, Cronenberg’s remake still stands as a genuinely great film.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is definitely not to be mistaken forIron Man, the first film in the MCU. Rather than being a fun, franchise-starting superhero film, Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a low-budget body horror movie about a man who day by day finds more and more of his body parts turning into metal.
The look of this movie is unlike anything else, and the low budget doesn’t make things look any less real or horrifying. Its distinct visual style and editing are as much of an assault on the senses as the horrifying black and white imagery, and as great as it is, it’s so relentless that it only being 67 minutes long is something of a relief.
Mother! (2017)
Darren Aronofsky has a knack for putting intense and nightmarish imagery on screen, so to say Mother! might be the hardest film to watch in his whole filmography is really saying something. A story about one woman whose quiet home life is disturbed by a constant stream of unwanted guests (that is probably also a feature-length biblical analogy), to call Mother! a stressful film would be an understatement.
RELATED: Darren Aronofsky’s Movies Ranked from Worst to Best
It’s hard to put into words why the film is as horrifying as it is, as it really has to be experienced and to describe the most stomach-churning scenes would be giving too much away. It’s the kind of film you might watch once but never again, and for as bad as it might feel to sit through, it is an undeniably memorable experience.
Braindead (1992)
Braindead(orDead Alive in North America) might be Peter Jackson’s most famous film made before The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It’s notorious for being one of the goriest films of all time, and lives up to its reputation and then some.
RELATED: The Best Zombie Movies of All Time
While most zombie films are bloodbaths, Braindead manages to make most zombie films look like Sesame Street, particularly in its final 20 minutes. The tone is comedic enough and the violence so over the top that it’s not too horrifying, but it is undeniably gross and extreme. 30 years later, nothing really matches it in terms of sheer, over-the-top carnage.
Raw (2016)
Before winning the Palme d’Or for Titane, director Julia Ducournau made the cannibal/coming-of-age film, Raw, which is just as wonderfully intense and in-your-face as her 2021 film. Raw works so well because it feels sufficiently grounded and relatable, and works as a character drama, and then it introduces the whole… cannibal element to shake things up.
While it is confronting in parts, it’s not only confronting, and it’s definitely not the kind of movie that shocks for shock’s sake. Raw’s a film with important, very down-to-earth themes, and at the same time, it has some of the best and most shocking horror scenes of the 2010s. It truly is the best of both worlds.
Eyes Without A Face (1960)
Perhaps not as shocking as many films that followed it decades later, but for 1960, the French horror film, Eyes Without A Face, is incredibly disturbing. Psychomight be widely considered the most shocking horror film of that year, but Psycho doesn’t have a plot that involves facial transplants and genuinely sickening surgical procedures that still look real 60+ years later.
The moody black and white cinematography and sadness of its characters make it a tragic and bleak horror movie, too, evoking the classic Universal monster movies of the 1930s and 1940s. Many older horror movies can be appreciated as extreme for their time, but few hold up as extreme decades later the way Eyes Without A Face does.
NEXT: Best Horror Movies That Aren’t Too Bloody
‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Featurette Explores Its Mind-Bending Frightening Side
Read Next
About The Author
Jeremy Urquhart (31 Articles Published)
Jeremy is an omnivore when it comes to movies. He’ll gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU. When he’s not writing lists for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile and Instagram account.
More
From Jeremy Urquhart
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up for Collider’s newsletter for exclusive news, features, streaming recommendations and more
Click here to subscribe
We would love to say thanks to the writer of this write-up for this outstanding web content
[date_timestamp] => 1650780629
)
[5] => Array
(
[title] => ?The Batman? and Beyond: Five Dark Superhero Horror Movies to Stream This Week
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/the-batman-and-beyond-five-dark-superhero-horror-movies-to-stream-this-week/
[dc] => Array
(
[creator] => Harry World
)
[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 04:48:31 +0000
[category] => Scream AwayBatmanDarkHorrorMoviesStreamsuperheroWeek
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106200
[description] => Horror anthology films have the good fortune of hosting several stories. Audiences can find something to like even if the entire collection is not up to par. As for anthologies on the small screen, usually these series are limited to one story per episode. Focusing on only one plot at a time has its advantages; ... Read more
[content] => Array
(
[encoded] =>
Horror anthology films have the good fortune of hosting several stories. Audiences can find something to like even if the entire collection is not up to par. As for anthologies on the small screen, usually these series are limited to one story per episode.
Focusing on only one plot at a time has its advantages; the full attention makes for better writing. Yet, variety also has value in anthology shows. A multi-storied episode, such as the following five, can keep the audience just as engaged, if not more entertained.
The Twilight Zone (1985-1989) Gramma/Personal Demons/Cold Reading
Unlike the original show, episodes of the 1980s Twilight Zone revival were divided into two or three segments during the first two seasons. Season Three then saw the series adapt a more standard format.
This episode from Season One kicks off with its strongest offering; Barret Oliver from The Neverending Story plays a boy deathly afraid of his ailing grandmother. As his mother leaves the house during a stormy night, Georgie stays behind with the namesake of ?Gramma?. Stephen King?s short story provides the basis for this creepy chapter. Without giving too much away, the opener accumulates a glut of dread without showing too much of the sickly woman who strikes fear into her grandson?s heart.
?Personal Demons? finds an aging TV writer (Martin Balsam) in distress when he sees demons wherever he goes. Of course they are invisible to everyone else. Showing too much of the creatures gradually dulls their effect, but this middle story is a creative way of inspiring someone who suffers from writer?s block.
The last tale steps away from horror and runs toward absurdity. Taking a page out of the War of the Worlds incident from 1938, the humorous and imaginative ?Cold Reading? follows a 1940s radio show where everything read aloud materializes inside the studio.
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (1997-2002) House of Shadows/One Hand in the Till/Teasdale?s Motor Car/ The Vision/The Grave
The challenge of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction was determining the authenticity of five different stories. The series is not thoroughly horror, but the genre appeared in just about every episode. Even if a vignette was not exactly scary, it was at least weird.
The most suspenseful portion of this Season Four episode is served up first; a house-sitter experiences the scare of a lifetime in ?House of Shadows?. The TV continues to switch to video of a man mixing concrete in a strange room. The sitter then recognizes the footage?s location.
?One Hand In the Till? features a case of astral projection; a father does the impossible to prevent his son from making a huge mistake. In ?Teasdale?s Motor Car?, a man?s dream car becomes the source of his nightmares. ?The Vision? is a classic case of someone trying to stop a portent coming to pass. Finally, ?The Grave? is a low-key ghost story about a wronged dead man whose cemetery plot remains grass-free so long as his crooked wife and ex-partner are alive.
Of all the stories presented, host Jonathan Frakes claims only two are based on factual events. Both of these supposed incidents occurred sometime in the 1980s, according to the show.
Night Visions (2001) The Maze/Harmony
After being rerun on the now-defunct Chiller network, Night Visions slipped back into obscurity. Today it is unclear if the 2001 show will see the light of day again. It would be a shame to have an anthology of this caliber be forgotten.
Fox simply had no faith in Night Visions, and as a result, it was discarded without much afterthought. The Sci-Fi Channel briefly came to the rescue in the days before the Syfy rebranding; several stories were compiled into a standalone feature called Shadow Realm. This collection includes ?The Maze? and ?Harmony?, which originally aired together as one episode in 2002.
Tobe Hooper does something odd in ?The Maze?, and it is not the kind of oddness he was known for. Hooper actually gave the protagonist, played by Thora Birch, a happy ending with no dark strings attached. Her character is a shy college student who is afraid to step outside her comfort zone. Yet, getting trapped in a frightening alternate world after entering a hedge maze on campus scares her into changing. Hooper and writer Steve Aspis take the road less traveled in Night Visions; they leave on a hopeful note rather than a bleak one.
Meanwhile, ?Harmony? is the complete opposite of the previous short. Timothy Olyphant?s car breaks down in a small town where music is forbidden. Rulebreakers are also unduly punished. When this outsider challenges the status quo and questions the townsfolks? unusual beliefs, he gets the rudest awakening. The conclusion of this tale is an all-timer for Night Visions.
Two Twisted (2006) There?s Something About Kyanna/Finding Frank
Two Twisted is a sequel to the 1996 Australian anthology Twisted Tales, and it is produced by actor Bryan Brown. The stories in the 2006 show are paired up, with two to each episode. The premiere starts off with a seaside haunter called ?There?s Something About Kyanna?.
Melissa George?s character has moved into a secluded beach house along with her husband (Sandy Winton). The home, named Kyanna by its architect, has a secret underneath its beautiful exterior. Unbeknownst to its current occupants, this secret is why the house was on the market for so long.
The problem with having several standalone stories in one episode is the inevitable comparison. ?There?s Something About Kyanna? is merely average when put up against something like ?Finding Frank?, but scheduling it first helps smooth things over. The most glaring problem, though, is the underwhelming twist.
?Finding Frank? is definitely the better of the two segments. The title character (Garry McDonald) is set to retire from his security job, and on his last night, he is menaced by an unknown threat inside the building. The outcome is genuinely shocking.
Black Mirror (2011-2019) Black Museum
Black Mirror is a large reason why anthologies are in fashion again. While it is unclear if the series will return in the near future, creator Charlie Booker helped revolutionize how people view self-contained narratives on television today. For many, his work is the new gold standard.
Booker switched things up in the finale of Season Four by having a trio of sub-stories as well as a wraparound. In ?Black Museum?, Letitia Wright?s character has time to waste as her car recharges, so she takes a tour of a nearby medical museum. The tour guide (Douglas Hodge) presents his one and only guest with three bizarre cases, with each one more disturbing than the last.
The first exhibit relates to a doctor (Daniel Lapaine) who tested an experimental implant; the device allowed him to feel others? sensations. The doctor eventually becomes addicted to pain ? be it someone else?s or his own. From body horror to sadistic violence, this segment does everything in its power to make the viewer uneasy. The next story recalls a comatose mother and wife (Alexandra Roach) whose consciousness is transferred to a part of her husband?s brain (Aldis Hodge). While this tale comes across as lighthearted, it still works in a sad ending.
The final case criticizes those who find pleasure in other people?s misery. In this piece, a death row inmate?s holographic image (Babs Olusanmokun) is available for torture at the Black Museum. How everything then wraps up only reaffirms how pessimistic Black Mirror is.
Series of Frightsis a recurring column that mainly focuses on horror in television. Specifically, it takes a closer look at five episodes or stories ? each one adhering to an overall theme ? from different anthology series or the occasional movie made for TV. With anthologies becoming popular again, especially on television, now is the perfect time to see what this timeless mode of storytelling has to offer.
We wish to say thanks to the writer of this article for this outstanding material
)
[summary] => Horror anthology films have the good fortune of hosting several stories. Audiences can find something to like even if the entire collection is not up to par. As for anthologies on the small screen, usually these series are limited to one story per episode. Focusing on only one plot at a time has its advantages; ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
Horror anthology films have the good fortune of hosting several stories. Audiences can find something to like even if the entire collection is not up to par. As for anthologies on the small screen, usually these series are limited to one story per episode.
Focusing on only one plot at a time has its advantages; the full attention makes for better writing. Yet, variety also has value in anthology shows. A multi-storied episode, such as the following five, can keep the audience just as engaged, if not more entertained.
The Twilight Zone (1985-1989) Gramma/Personal Demons/Cold Reading
Unlike the original show, episodes of the 1980s Twilight Zone revival were divided into two or three segments during the first two seasons. Season Three then saw the series adapt a more standard format.
This episode from Season One kicks off with its strongest offering; Barret Oliver from The Neverending Story plays a boy deathly afraid of his ailing grandmother. As his mother leaves the house during a stormy night, Georgie stays behind with the namesake of ?Gramma?. Stephen King?s short story provides the basis for this creepy chapter. Without giving too much away, the opener accumulates a glut of dread without showing too much of the sickly woman who strikes fear into her grandson?s heart.
?Personal Demons? finds an aging TV writer (Martin Balsam) in distress when he sees demons wherever he goes. Of course they are invisible to everyone else. Showing too much of the creatures gradually dulls their effect, but this middle story is a creative way of inspiring someone who suffers from writer?s block.
The last tale steps away from horror and runs toward absurdity. Taking a page out of the War of the Worlds incident from 1938, the humorous and imaginative ?Cold Reading? follows a 1940s radio show where everything read aloud materializes inside the studio.
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (1997-2002) House of Shadows/One Hand in the Till/Teasdale?s Motor Car/ The Vision/The Grave
The challenge of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction was determining the authenticity of five different stories. The series is not thoroughly horror, but the genre appeared in just about every episode. Even if a vignette was not exactly scary, it was at least weird.
The most suspenseful portion of this Season Four episode is served up first; a house-sitter experiences the scare of a lifetime in ?House of Shadows?. The TV continues to switch to video of a man mixing concrete in a strange room. The sitter then recognizes the footage?s location.
?One Hand In the Till? features a case of astral projection; a father does the impossible to prevent his son from making a huge mistake. In ?Teasdale?s Motor Car?, a man?s dream car becomes the source of his nightmares. ?The Vision? is a classic case of someone trying to stop a portent coming to pass. Finally, ?The Grave? is a low-key ghost story about a wronged dead man whose cemetery plot remains grass-free so long as his crooked wife and ex-partner are alive.
Of all the stories presented, host Jonathan Frakes claims only two are based on factual events. Both of these supposed incidents occurred sometime in the 1980s, according to the show.
Night Visions (2001) The Maze/Harmony
After being rerun on the now-defunct Chiller network, Night Visions slipped back into obscurity. Today it is unclear if the 2001 show will see the light of day again. It would be a shame to have an anthology of this caliber be forgotten.
Fox simply had no faith in Night Visions, and as a result, it was discarded without much afterthought. The Sci-Fi Channel briefly came to the rescue in the days before the Syfy rebranding; several stories were compiled into a standalone feature called Shadow Realm. This collection includes ?The Maze? and ?Harmony?, which originally aired together as one episode in 2002.
Tobe Hooper does something odd in ?The Maze?, and it is not the kind of oddness he was known for. Hooper actually gave the protagonist, played by Thora Birch, a happy ending with no dark strings attached. Her character is a shy college student who is afraid to step outside her comfort zone. Yet, getting trapped in a frightening alternate world after entering a hedge maze on campus scares her into changing. Hooper and writer Steve Aspis take the road less traveled in Night Visions; they leave on a hopeful note rather than a bleak one.
Meanwhile, ?Harmony? is the complete opposite of the previous short. Timothy Olyphant?s car breaks down in a small town where music is forbidden. Rulebreakers are also unduly punished. When this outsider challenges the status quo and questions the townsfolks? unusual beliefs, he gets the rudest awakening. The conclusion of this tale is an all-timer for Night Visions.
Two Twisted (2006) There?s Something About Kyanna/Finding Frank
Two Twisted is a sequel to the 1996 Australian anthology Twisted Tales, and it is produced by actor Bryan Brown. The stories in the 2006 show are paired up, with two to each episode. The premiere starts off with a seaside haunter called ?There?s Something About Kyanna?.
Melissa George?s character has moved into a secluded beach house along with her husband (Sandy Winton). The home, named Kyanna by its architect, has a secret underneath its beautiful exterior. Unbeknownst to its current occupants, this secret is why the house was on the market for so long.
The problem with having several standalone stories in one episode is the inevitable comparison. ?There?s Something About Kyanna? is merely average when put up against something like ?Finding Frank?, but scheduling it first helps smooth things over. The most glaring problem, though, is the underwhelming twist.
?Finding Frank? is definitely the better of the two segments. The title character (Garry McDonald) is set to retire from his security job, and on his last night, he is menaced by an unknown threat inside the building. The outcome is genuinely shocking.
Black Mirror (2011-2019) Black Museum
Black Mirror is a large reason why anthologies are in fashion again. While it is unclear if the series will return in the near future, creator Charlie Booker helped revolutionize how people view self-contained narratives on television today. For many, his work is the new gold standard.
Booker switched things up in the finale of Season Four by having a trio of sub-stories as well as a wraparound. In ?Black Museum?, Letitia Wright?s character has time to waste as her car recharges, so she takes a tour of a nearby medical museum. The tour guide (Douglas Hodge) presents his one and only guest with three bizarre cases, with each one more disturbing than the last.
The first exhibit relates to a doctor (Daniel Lapaine) who tested an experimental implant; the device allowed him to feel others? sensations. The doctor eventually becomes addicted to pain ? be it someone else?s or his own. From body horror to sadistic violence, this segment does everything in its power to make the viewer uneasy. The next story recalls a comatose mother and wife (Alexandra Roach) whose consciousness is transferred to a part of her husband?s brain (Aldis Hodge). While this tale comes across as lighthearted, it still works in a sad ending.
The final case criticizes those who find pleasure in other people?s misery. In this piece, a death row inmate?s holographic image (Babs Olusanmokun) is available for torture at the Black Museum. How everything then wraps up only reaffirms how pessimistic Black Mirror is.
Series of Frightsis a recurring column that mainly focuses on horror in television. Specifically, it takes a closer look at five episodes or stories ? each one adhering to an overall theme ? from different anthology series or the occasional movie made for TV. With anthologies becoming popular again, especially on television, now is the perfect time to see what this timeless mode of storytelling has to offer.
We wish to say thanks to the writer of this article for this outstanding material
[date_timestamp] => 1650775711
)
[6] => Array
(
[title] => Nothing In ?We?re All Going To The World?s Fair? Is Scarier Than The Internet As It Really Is | Defector
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/nothing-in-were-all-going-to-the-worlds-fair-is-scarier-than-the-internet-as-it-really-is-defector/
[dc] => Array
(
[creator] => Harry World
)
[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 03:26:15 +0000
[category] => Scream AwayDefectorfairInternetScarierWorlds
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106159
[description] => We?re All Going To The World?s Fair is being marketed like a horror film, and if you come across this movie its branding and threateningly ambiguous title will likely make you think it is one. But it?s probably better for your expectations if you approach it as, like director Jane Schoenbrun says, ?a movie about ... Read more
[content] => Array
(
[encoded] =>
We?re All Going To The World?s Fair is being marketed like a horror film, and if you come across this movie its branding and threateningly ambiguous title will likely make you think it is one. But it?s probably better for your expectations if you approach it as, like director Jane Schoenbrun says, ?a movie about someone who loves horror.? There are no jump scares, screechy music cues, blood and gore, or any of those maximalist elements that define most standard horror experiences. If you?re looking for that, you?ll likely come away disappointed. But viewers of this buzzy indie film might come away haunted, just the same, by the dangers that lurk within it.
Schoenbrun has traced the beginning of this film to the 2014 ?Slenderman Stabbing? in suburban Milwaukee, in which a pair of 12-year-old girls attacked a friend because they said they believed the meme horror character Slenderman would kill their families if they didn?t. This statement from the local police chief in the midst of the moral panic this violence caused aptly describes the motivating anxiety underneath World?s Fair:
?The Internet has changed the way we live. It is full of information and wonderful sites that teach and entertain. The Internet can also be full of dark and wicked things.?
Casey, the film?s lead character played by newcomer Anna Cobb, actively seeks out that darkness and wickedness. The film begins with the high schooler, talking to a webcam in her bedroom, announcing that she?s going to take ?The World?s Fair Challenge.? This involves saying ?I want to go to the World?s Fair? three times, drawing blood from a finger, and watching a flashing video online. As Casey waits for ?symptoms? from this challenge to manifest, we see through her eyes as she watches videos of other people who have taken the challenge, and who have documented disturbing and unnatural changes in their minds and bodies. While it gradually becomes clear to the viewer that this is a creepypasta-like community, in which people use horror mythology as a backbone for their artistic hobbies, it?s less clear if Casey herself understands the nature of what she?s participating in. As the film progresses, her videos get more and more intense: she dances robotically to a pop song and starts to scream madly in the middle of it; she smears glow-in-the-dark lotion on her face and destroys her childhood stuffed lemur before leaving the room and returning shocked and horrified, with no apparent memory of what she?s done; she mumbles threats of violence against herself and others while wandering a busy street on New Year?s Eve. Are we watching a theater kid?s inspired performance art? Or a true unraveling?
Casey?s a loner, to the extent that the viewer never sees her with another person?her father appears once, as an angry off-screen voice. She?s not a particularly known figure online, either, with her videos only getting at most a few hundred views. And though much of her life is left outside the frame, we?re shown more than enough to question her mental well-being. Cobb plays Casey with the familiar precociousness a kid possesses when they?ve seen a bunch of movies and want to emulate them, mixed with the awkwardness of a still-developing person. She has many standout scenes, but perhaps the most harrowing comes early on, after Casey has taken the challenge, when she describes why she did it. Not only has she always loved horror movies and wants to be in one, she says, but she hopes to recapture a feeling she had when she was younger and used to sleepwalk?this feeling of being able to see your body from a distance, like on a TV across the room, but not be able to control it, even to move out of the way of a car in the road.
It?s important to note here that Schoenbrun is trans, and Casey?s monologue stands out quite distinctly as a description of possible dysphoria. In fact the entirety of the movie, to me at least, echoes what is at least anecdotally a common experience for young trans people of a certain generation, from before they fully understood themselves. It stems from that hard-to-verbalize feeling that something about your life is a little wrong, and needs to change. The internet beckons as a universe through which you can remake yourself or find yourself or lose yourself, with endless paths leading to something else, perhaps something you?ve been craving without being able to name. That?s why Casey takes the challenge.
But the inherent freedom of the internet is also a danger, as every step carries the threat that you can go too deep, at too young an age. (Sites like Youtube have practically made this their business model.) For Casey, that threat is personified by a lonely man in his 50s named JLB, played by Michael J. Rogers, into whose perspective the film sometimes teleports. We?re first introduced to him one night when Casey, who can?t sleep, unlocks her father?s shed, examines a gun he owns, and then lays down while watching an ASMR sleep video projected onto the wall. When that video ends, another one autoplays, showing a classic horror-movie message made by JLB warning Casey she?s in danger. He and Casey then videochat with each other, his face hidden to her, where he knowingly plays the role of supernatural expert to further Casey?s experience with the challenge and within the community. He presses her to keep making videos ?so I know you?re OK.? If an older man initiating contact with a high school girl isn?t creepy enough in its implications, then a later shot of JLB watching Casey?s dance video with his pants around his ankles on the toilet hammers home that the threat here is something realer and more familiar than any kind of demonic possession.
Without giving too much away, the film?s climax is invigorating because of how much it leaves ambiguous, and I?m left questioning who is or isn?t telling the truth. But more personally, I?m terrified by the mirror held up by Casey?s arc, reflecting my experience and that of so, so many others, who reached privately from our bedrooms out to the rest of the world, crossing in our search for answers those dark and wicked things. I?m thinking about how my early encounters with transness were sexualized, and therefore pathologized, building more unhappiness and shame instead of brokering understanding. You can find the good communities if you know where to look, but at that age you don?t know where to look. The path of least resistance, paved by the JLBs of the world, is to see yourself as a fetish, as a vessel for someone else?s fantasies, before seeing yourself as a person.
I believed for a while that things had gotten better since I was a kid, but it?s easy to imagine how bad things will get if people keep trying to legislate trans kids out of the real world, pushing them further online, where they think they can actually manage to exist. When my trans peers and I were young, we recognized the darkness and wickedness for what it was, absorbed it, and then either internalized or ignored it. In some cases, perhaps, we followed the trail for a while but managed to escape before the witch cooked and ate us. But in the scariest and most upsetting of cases, we let it become a warped replacement for reality, and more hours than not when I think about World?s Fair, I believe that?s what happened to Casey. In this movie, and on the internet, there are no horror-movie monsters. What?s actually out there in the darkness is much worse.
We wish to thank the author of this post for this outstanding web content
)
[summary] => We?re All Going To The World?s Fair is being marketed like a horror film, and if you come across this movie its branding and threateningly ambiguous title will likely make you think it is one. But it?s probably better for your expectations if you approach it as, like director Jane Schoenbrun says, ?a movie about ... Read more
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We?re All Going To The World?s Fair is being marketed like a horror film, and if you come across this movie its branding and threateningly ambiguous title will likely make you think it is one. But it?s probably better for your expectations if you approach it as, like director Jane Schoenbrun says, ?a movie about someone who loves horror.? There are no jump scares, screechy music cues, blood and gore, or any of those maximalist elements that define most standard horror experiences. If you?re looking for that, you?ll likely come away disappointed. But viewers of this buzzy indie film might come away haunted, just the same, by the dangers that lurk within it.
Schoenbrun has traced the beginning of this film to the 2014 ?Slenderman Stabbing? in suburban Milwaukee, in which a pair of 12-year-old girls attacked a friend because they said they believed the meme horror character Slenderman would kill their families if they didn?t. This statement from the local police chief in the midst of the moral panic this violence caused aptly describes the motivating anxiety underneath World?s Fair:
?The Internet has changed the way we live. It is full of information and wonderful sites that teach and entertain. The Internet can also be full of dark and wicked things.?
Casey, the film?s lead character played by newcomer Anna Cobb, actively seeks out that darkness and wickedness. The film begins with the high schooler, talking to a webcam in her bedroom, announcing that she?s going to take ?The World?s Fair Challenge.? This involves saying ?I want to go to the World?s Fair? three times, drawing blood from a finger, and watching a flashing video online. As Casey waits for ?symptoms? from this challenge to manifest, we see through her eyes as she watches videos of other people who have taken the challenge, and who have documented disturbing and unnatural changes in their minds and bodies. While it gradually becomes clear to the viewer that this is a creepypasta-like community, in which people use horror mythology as a backbone for their artistic hobbies, it?s less clear if Casey herself understands the nature of what she?s participating in. As the film progresses, her videos get more and more intense: she dances robotically to a pop song and starts to scream madly in the middle of it; she smears glow-in-the-dark lotion on her face and destroys her childhood stuffed lemur before leaving the room and returning shocked and horrified, with no apparent memory of what she?s done; she mumbles threats of violence against herself and others while wandering a busy street on New Year?s Eve. Are we watching a theater kid?s inspired performance art? Or a true unraveling?
Casey?s a loner, to the extent that the viewer never sees her with another person?her father appears once, as an angry off-screen voice. She?s not a particularly known figure online, either, with her videos only getting at most a few hundred views. And though much of her life is left outside the frame, we?re shown more than enough to question her mental well-being. Cobb plays Casey with the familiar precociousness a kid possesses when they?ve seen a bunch of movies and want to emulate them, mixed with the awkwardness of a still-developing person. She has many standout scenes, but perhaps the most harrowing comes early on, after Casey has taken the challenge, when she describes why she did it. Not only has she always loved horror movies and wants to be in one, she says, but she hopes to recapture a feeling she had when she was younger and used to sleepwalk?this feeling of being able to see your body from a distance, like on a TV across the room, but not be able to control it, even to move out of the way of a car in the road.
It?s important to note here that Schoenbrun is trans, and Casey?s monologue stands out quite distinctly as a description of possible dysphoria. In fact the entirety of the movie, to me at least, echoes what is at least anecdotally a common experience for young trans people of a certain generation, from before they fully understood themselves. It stems from that hard-to-verbalize feeling that something about your life is a little wrong, and needs to change. The internet beckons as a universe through which you can remake yourself or find yourself or lose yourself, with endless paths leading to something else, perhaps something you?ve been craving without being able to name. That?s why Casey takes the challenge.
But the inherent freedom of the internet is also a danger, as every step carries the threat that you can go too deep, at too young an age. (Sites like Youtube have practically made this their business model.) For Casey, that threat is personified by a lonely man in his 50s named JLB, played by Michael J. Rogers, into whose perspective the film sometimes teleports. We?re first introduced to him one night when Casey, who can?t sleep, unlocks her father?s shed, examines a gun he owns, and then lays down while watching an ASMR sleep video projected onto the wall. When that video ends, another one autoplays, showing a classic horror-movie message made by JLB warning Casey she?s in danger. He and Casey then videochat with each other, his face hidden to her, where he knowingly plays the role of supernatural expert to further Casey?s experience with the challenge and within the community. He presses her to keep making videos ?so I know you?re OK.? If an older man initiating contact with a high school girl isn?t creepy enough in its implications, then a later shot of JLB watching Casey?s dance video with his pants around his ankles on the toilet hammers home that the threat here is something realer and more familiar than any kind of demonic possession.
Without giving too much away, the film?s climax is invigorating because of how much it leaves ambiguous, and I?m left questioning who is or isn?t telling the truth. But more personally, I?m terrified by the mirror held up by Casey?s arc, reflecting my experience and that of so, so many others, who reached privately from our bedrooms out to the rest of the world, crossing in our search for answers those dark and wicked things. I?m thinking about how my early encounters with transness were sexualized, and therefore pathologized, building more unhappiness and shame instead of brokering understanding. You can find the good communities if you know where to look, but at that age you don?t know where to look. The path of least resistance, paved by the JLBs of the world, is to see yourself as a fetish, as a vessel for someone else?s fantasies, before seeing yourself as a person.
I believed for a while that things had gotten better since I was a kid, but it?s easy to imagine how bad things will get if people keep trying to legislate trans kids out of the real world, pushing them further online, where they think they can actually manage to exist. When my trans peers and I were young, we recognized the darkness and wickedness for what it was, absorbed it, and then either internalized or ignored it. In some cases, perhaps, we followed the trail for a while but managed to escape before the witch cooked and ate us. But in the scariest and most upsetting of cases, we let it become a warped replacement for reality, and more hours than not when I think about World?s Fair, I believe that?s what happened to Casey. In this movie, and on the internet, there are no horror-movie monsters. What?s actually out there in the darkness is much worse.
We wish to thank the author of this post for this outstanding web content
[date_timestamp] => 1650770775
)
[7] => Array
(
[title] => A quiet queer star. An 80s horror romp. Did people know it?s this gay?
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/a-quiet-queer-star-an-80s-horror-romp-did-people-know-its-this-gay/
[dc] => Array
(
[creator] => Harry World
)
[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 02:04:39 +0000
[category] => Scream Away80sGayHorrorpeopleQueerquietrompStar
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106130
[description] => Fright Night Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch. The Queerty Rockin? Roddy Double Feature Part I: Fright Night Why does Roddy McDowall not get more love? The quiet, whisper-voiced actor appeared in a whopping 270 movies & TV shows ... Read more
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[encoded] =>
Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.
The Queerty Rockin? Roddy Double Feature Part I: Fright Night
Why does Roddy McDowall not get more love? The quiet, whisper-voiced actor appeared in a whopping 270 movies & TV shows before his death in 1998. He also became one of Hollywood?s most renowned film historians, amassing a collection of more than 1,000 films at a time before most movies were even available on videocassette.
Oh yeah, McDowall was gay and threw some of Tinseltown?s most notorious gay beach parties. So, there?s that.
In honor of the late, great, Mr. McDowall, we?ve devised this weekend?s Screen Gems double feature. We begin with one of the actor?s most popular films?and one of his best performances. Director Tom Holland?s (no, not that Tom Holland) Fright Night became an unexpected hit back in 1985 thanks to its unique mix of horror, humor and Jungian undercurrents. It remains a classic of the era to this day.
The story follows Charley (William Ragsdale), one of those prototypical 80s, male geeks obsessed with horror movies, and Peter Vincent (McDowall), a horror host very much in the vein of Elvira or Svengoolie. A handsome bachelor named Jerry (Chris Sarandon) moves in next door and begins to romance Charley?s single mom. Charley begins to notice a few details that suggest Jerry is actually a vampire. Since nobody will believe that vampires actually exist, Charley reaches out to Peter Vincent for help in defeating his mother?s undead beau.
Of course, horror and hilarity ensue. Sarandon and Ragsdale may get higher billing, but the success of Fright Night rests on the shoulders of Roddy McDowall. The actor sinks his teeth (pardon the phrase) into his role, playing Vincent as a bitter old coot of middling talent who finally finds purpose in his life: to use all the bad horror movies he?s seen as ammunition against the undead. Other actors would have played the character as an action-movie badass or shrieking pansy. McDowall hits those notes and everything in between, and also adds an extraordinary quality of his own. There?s something touching about watching his Peter Vincent, an actor of limited success, find a mission in battling real monsters. Over the course of the film, he begins to actually like himself, possibly for the first time ever.
Fright Night also succeeds thanks to its toying with subtext and latent anxieties of the era. Divorce was rampant in the 1980s; plenty of kids, regardless of gender, had to deal with the stress of watching mom or dad date. That made for some severe feelings of intrusion into the safe space of the home. Whether Jerry was a vampire or not, we have a feeling Charley would have rejected him as an intruder.
The movie also leans into homoeroticism: Jerry seems to want to seduce Charley as much as his mom. Several other scenes of the vampire dealing with his henchman, Billy, suggest a gay relationship?one quite blatantly. Does that fall into the trap of the gay villain/80s homophobic exploitation? Maybe?though watching sissy Peter Vincent battle it out with Jerry adds another layer of complexity. In a sense, Fright Night is really about two coded gay characters dueling for Charley?s soul. We love that, and have to wonder what a sequel or remake that fully embraces the gay elements would look like.
Fright Night doesn?t aspire to be a horror classic on par with, say, Rosemary?s Baby. On the contrary, it revels in its shlockiness, but has the good sense to make the dreck about something deeper. We recommend it for the gayness, the nostalgia, and above all, for Roddy McDowall?s iconic performance. Go figure that a gay actor could make something so scary and funny at the same time.
Streams on Amazon, YouTube & VUDU.
We wish to give thanks to the writer of this write-up for this remarkable material
)
[summary] => Fright Night Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch. The Queerty Rockin? Roddy Double Feature Part I: Fright Night Why does Roddy McDowall not get more love? The quiet, whisper-voiced actor appeared in a whopping 270 movies & TV shows ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.
The Queerty Rockin? Roddy Double Feature Part I: Fright Night
Why does Roddy McDowall not get more love? The quiet, whisper-voiced actor appeared in a whopping 270 movies & TV shows before his death in 1998. He also became one of Hollywood?s most renowned film historians, amassing a collection of more than 1,000 films at a time before most movies were even available on videocassette.
Oh yeah, McDowall was gay and threw some of Tinseltown?s most notorious gay beach parties. So, there?s that.
In honor of the late, great, Mr. McDowall, we?ve devised this weekend?s Screen Gems double feature. We begin with one of the actor?s most popular films?and one of his best performances. Director Tom Holland?s (no, not that Tom Holland) Fright Night became an unexpected hit back in 1985 thanks to its unique mix of horror, humor and Jungian undercurrents. It remains a classic of the era to this day.
The story follows Charley (William Ragsdale), one of those prototypical 80s, male geeks obsessed with horror movies, and Peter Vincent (McDowall), a horror host very much in the vein of Elvira or Svengoolie. A handsome bachelor named Jerry (Chris Sarandon) moves in next door and begins to romance Charley?s single mom. Charley begins to notice a few details that suggest Jerry is actually a vampire. Since nobody will believe that vampires actually exist, Charley reaches out to Peter Vincent for help in defeating his mother?s undead beau.
Of course, horror and hilarity ensue. Sarandon and Ragsdale may get higher billing, but the success of Fright Night rests on the shoulders of Roddy McDowall. The actor sinks his teeth (pardon the phrase) into his role, playing Vincent as a bitter old coot of middling talent who finally finds purpose in his life: to use all the bad horror movies he?s seen as ammunition against the undead. Other actors would have played the character as an action-movie badass or shrieking pansy. McDowall hits those notes and everything in between, and also adds an extraordinary quality of his own. There?s something touching about watching his Peter Vincent, an actor of limited success, find a mission in battling real monsters. Over the course of the film, he begins to actually like himself, possibly for the first time ever.
Fright Night also succeeds thanks to its toying with subtext and latent anxieties of the era. Divorce was rampant in the 1980s; plenty of kids, regardless of gender, had to deal with the stress of watching mom or dad date. That made for some severe feelings of intrusion into the safe space of the home. Whether Jerry was a vampire or not, we have a feeling Charley would have rejected him as an intruder.
The movie also leans into homoeroticism: Jerry seems to want to seduce Charley as much as his mom. Several other scenes of the vampire dealing with his henchman, Billy, suggest a gay relationship?one quite blatantly. Does that fall into the trap of the gay villain/80s homophobic exploitation? Maybe?though watching sissy Peter Vincent battle it out with Jerry adds another layer of complexity. In a sense, Fright Night is really about two coded gay characters dueling for Charley?s soul. We love that, and have to wonder what a sequel or remake that fully embraces the gay elements would look like.
Fright Night doesn?t aspire to be a horror classic on par with, say, Rosemary?s Baby. On the contrary, it revels in its shlockiness, but has the good sense to make the dreck about something deeper. We recommend it for the gayness, the nostalgia, and above all, for Roddy McDowall?s iconic performance. Go figure that a gay actor could make something so scary and funny at the same time.
Streams on Amazon, YouTube & VUDU.
We wish to give thanks to the writer of this write-up for this remarkable material
[date_timestamp] => 1650765879
)
[8] => Array
(
[title] => 10 Highest Grossing ?80s Slasher Movies (According to Box Office Mojo)
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/10-highest-grossing-80s-slasher-movies-according-to-box-office-mojo/
[dc] => Array
(
[creator] => Harry World
)
[pubdate] => Sun, 24 Apr 2022 00:40:15 +0000
[category] => Scream Away80sBoxGrossingMojoMoviesOfficeSlasher
[guid] => https://movieshere.movs.world/?p=106048
[description] => For a genre that only really came into existence a few years before, slashers really managed to carve out a name for themselves in the 1980s. Every single year of the ’80s saw multiple slasher movies released and, while they all couldn’t reach the heights of Halloween, many of them actually made a lot of ... Read more
[content] => Array
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[encoded] =>
For a genre that only really came into existence a few years before, slashers really managed to carve out a name for themselves in the 1980s. Every single year of the ’80s saw multiple slasher movies released and, while they all couldn’t reach the heights of Halloween, many of them actually made a lot of money.
Related: Every Main Character In Halloween (1978), Ranked By Intelligence
As for what classifies as a slasher, aside from Box Office Mojo categorizing them as such, there’s generally a masked or scary character killing people, often in gory ways, throughout the runtime. Plenty of times the low grossing ones are still very good, but this batch of high grossing slashers largely features the big three: Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger.
10 A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Box Office: $25,504,513
When A Nightmare on Elm Street came out in 1984 Wes Craven managed to turn a nightmare he once had into a shared experience with millions, and the film wound up making millions as a result. Robert Englund’s well-received portrayal of Freddy Krueger was quite different from the other high grossing slashers of the ’80s in that it was very personality-based. Freddy doesn’t just stalk and slash, he has things to say.
Budgeted at $1.7 million (per AFI), A Nightmare on Elm Streetwould up grossing 15 times that amount domestically and made a cultural icon out of Freddy Krueger. New Line Cinema existed before A Nightmare on Elm Street, but the success of the film, and its sequels, lead to the studio rightly being referred to as “The house that Freddy built.”
9 Halloween II (1981)
Box Office: $25,533,818
Set on the same night as 1978’s Halloween, this sequel continues the Michael Myers murder saga. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, but she spends most of the film recuperating in a hospital room (a story choice that 2021’s Halloween Kills repeats). John Carpenter’s booze-fueled writing process and general disinterest in the sequels, as detailed by Vulture, are well known, but money is money.
Related: 8 Best Kills Halloween II Kills, Ranked
While it didn’t match the original in reception or earnings, ultimately Halloween II‘s budget of $2.5 million (via AFI) was made back 10 times over, earning the studio a pretty penny. The other Halloween movies released in the ’80s delivered diminishing returns, but the franchise eventually rebounded and has Halloween Ends scheduled for release this October (per Screen Rant).
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
8 A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
Box Office: $29,999,213
Opening less than a year after the first film debuted, this sequel actually managed to earn more at the box office than the original – a rare accomplishment. With a male lead in Mark Patton (an outlier for a slasher) and queer subtext, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is widely known as one of the gayest horror movies ever made. There’s even a documentary, 2019’s Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, about its homoeroticism.
This $2.5 million production (per AFI) went on to make 12 times the budget and cemented Freddy Krueger’s money-making value to New Line Cinema. Despite this film’s success, none of these characters reappear in any future installments, making this the sole film of the series with the only repeat character being Freddy himself.
7 Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Box Office: $32,980,880
Friday the 13th‘s fourth installment is largely known as the one with Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis, but die-hard fans also remember it for the return of make-up legend Tom Savini (previously from Friday the 13th). It was as popular with film critics as a machete to the face, but these movies aren’t made for the Siskel & Eberts of the world.
Despite the finality of the film’s title, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter proved to be far from the end. A sequel actually came out less than a year after this one opened, because when a movie makes 15 times its $2.2 million budget (via AFI) there will absolutely be another one.
6 Child’s Play (1988)
Box Office: $33,244,684
Chucky carves out a spot for himself on the list of highest-grossing slashers of the ’80s with the one and only Child’s Play movie released that decade. Of all ’80s slashers, the Child’s Play/Chucky series is the only one still building on the original continuity thanks to writer/director Don Mancini, who has been with the franchise since day one. The 2019 reboot is legally a separate beast, so it isn’t included.
In contrast to the rather tiny budgets of most slashers on this list, Child’s Play cost around $13 million to produce (per AFI). Even with that comparatively huge budget, it earned enough to kick off a seven movie and one TV series franchise that’s still chugging along today (Chucky S2 premieres later this year). The combination of the creepy doll and Brad Dourif’s foul-mouthed voice work turned out to have quite the staying power.
5 Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Box Office: $34,581,519
Friday the 13th Part III is notable for being the sequel that gave Jason his hockey mask (as opposed to the silly sack he wore on his head previously). This is also the only time a director returned to do a second Friday the 13th film, so Steve Miner actually ended up being responsible for both bringing adult killer Jason in the mix as well as his iconic look.
Related: Ranking Every Friday The 12th Movie According To Rotten Tomatoes
Although Friday the 13th had already jumped the shark multiple times by this point, Part III managed to bounce back up to nearly $35 million after Part 2 topped out with just under $22 million. So, while the dated 3D effects are mostly just good for a laugh nowadays, the gimmick proved rather effective at the time.
4 Psycho II (1983)
Box Office: $34,725,000
Sequels might be commonplace today, but Psycho II coming out 23 years after Psycho was a trailblazer in that respect. Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles both returned from the 1960 Hitchcock classic, but some of the creative choices in regard to how Miles’ character was written might leave a bad aftertaste for fans of the original.
Related: 10 Movies & TV Scenes That Parody Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
While not a unique horror movie premise, on a $4 million budget (per AFI) Psycho II was able to ride that slasher craze and gross more than enough to justify 1986’s Psycho III. That installment proved to be less lucky, making well less than half of this while costing twice as much to produce, according to the AFI.
3 Friday the 13th (1980)
Box Office: $39,754,601
If there was any doubt about slashers being a profitable genre after 1978’s Halloween made an obscene amount of money, Friday the 13th laid those concerns to rest with a bloody arrow through Kevin Bacon’s throat. As far as gore and body counts go, Friday the 13th definitely set the standard for cheap and profitable slasher fare for years to come – and even features a somewhat sympathetic horror movie villain.
Produced for just $650,000 (via AFI), Sean Cunningham’s tale of camp counselors being graphically murdered went on to make over 61 times its budget. That’s a ridiculous return on investment that nobody could have ever predicted, but many tried to replicate.
2 A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Box Office: $44,793,222
A third film was inevitable after the success of the first two, but with Heather Langenkamp returning as Nancy and Wes Craven returning as a writer, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors had a couple of things working in its favor. Having a young Laurence Fishburne (or “Larry” as he’s credited here) didn’t hurt, either.
Even with an increased budget of about $4.5 million (per AFI), the film made 10 times its cost and managed to increase in gross from the previous film once again. No other horror franchise of the ’80s (or ever, really) displayed as much upward mobility.
1 A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
Box Office: $49,369,899
With the number one spot, A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Master is the fourth film from this franchise to place in the ranking of highest-grossing ’80s slashers. Turns out A Nightmare on Elm Street was able to increase in gross one last time, making it the unmatched king of horror franchise growth.
With a budget of $6.5 million (via AFI), this was the most expensive film to produce so far, but based on the huge success of the previous three it was almost a sure thing. Even though the fifth of the series crashed down to about 22 million the following year, New Line Cinema was already “The house that Freddy built” and nothing could take that away.
Next: 10 Freddy Krueger One-Liners That Have Aged Poorly
Next 10 Movie Endings So Bad They Ruined The Film, According To Reddit
About The Author
Adem Cohen (2 Articles Published)
Adem Cohen and his husband live in an Arizonian city with their pet(s). Adem has no desire for any social media presence, but he enjoys all the silly animal videos the internet has to offer. Also, he and his husband would like to visit Tokyo one day.
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We would like to say thanks to the writer of this write-up for this outstanding web content
)
[summary] => For a genre that only really came into existence a few years before, slashers really managed to carve out a name for themselves in the 1980s. Every single year of the ’80s saw multiple slasher movies released and, while they all couldn’t reach the heights of Halloween, many of them actually made a lot of ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
For a genre that only really came into existence a few years before, slashers really managed to carve out a name for themselves in the 1980s. Every single year of the ’80s saw multiple slasher movies released and, while they all couldn’t reach the heights of Halloween, many of them actually made a lot of money.
Related: Every Main Character In Halloween (1978), Ranked By Intelligence
As for what classifies as a slasher, aside from Box Office Mojo categorizing them as such, there’s generally a masked or scary character killing people, often in gory ways, throughout the runtime. Plenty of times the low grossing ones are still very good, but this batch of high grossing slashers largely features the big three: Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger.
10 A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Box Office: $25,504,513
When A Nightmare on Elm Street came out in 1984 Wes Craven managed to turn a nightmare he once had into a shared experience with millions, and the film wound up making millions as a result. Robert Englund’s well-received portrayal of Freddy Krueger was quite different from the other high grossing slashers of the ’80s in that it was very personality-based. Freddy doesn’t just stalk and slash, he has things to say.
Budgeted at $1.7 million (per AFI), A Nightmare on Elm Streetwould up grossing 15 times that amount domestically and made a cultural icon out of Freddy Krueger. New Line Cinema existed before A Nightmare on Elm Street, but the success of the film, and its sequels, lead to the studio rightly being referred to as “The house that Freddy built.”
9 Halloween II (1981)
Box Office: $25,533,818
Set on the same night as 1978’s Halloween, this sequel continues the Michael Myers murder saga. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, but she spends most of the film recuperating in a hospital room (a story choice that 2021’s Halloween Kills repeats). John Carpenter’s booze-fueled writing process and general disinterest in the sequels, as detailed by Vulture, are well known, but money is money.
Related: 8 Best Kills Halloween II Kills, Ranked
While it didn’t match the original in reception or earnings, ultimately Halloween II‘s budget of $2.5 million (via AFI) was made back 10 times over, earning the studio a pretty penny. The other Halloween movies released in the ’80s delivered diminishing returns, but the franchise eventually rebounded and has Halloween Ends scheduled for release this October (per Screen Rant).
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
8 A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
Box Office: $29,999,213
Opening less than a year after the first film debuted, this sequel actually managed to earn more at the box office than the original – a rare accomplishment. With a male lead in Mark Patton (an outlier for a slasher) and queer subtext, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is widely known as one of the gayest horror movies ever made. There’s even a documentary, 2019’s Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, about its homoeroticism.
This $2.5 million production (per AFI) went on to make 12 times the budget and cemented Freddy Krueger’s money-making value to New Line Cinema. Despite this film’s success, none of these characters reappear in any future installments, making this the sole film of the series with the only repeat character being Freddy himself.
7 Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Box Office: $32,980,880
Friday the 13th‘s fourth installment is largely known as the one with Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis, but die-hard fans also remember it for the return of make-up legend Tom Savini (previously from Friday the 13th). It was as popular with film critics as a machete to the face, but these movies aren’t made for the Siskel & Eberts of the world.
Despite the finality of the film’s title, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter proved to be far from the end. A sequel actually came out less than a year after this one opened, because when a movie makes 15 times its $2.2 million budget (via AFI) there will absolutely be another one.
6 Child’s Play (1988)
Box Office: $33,244,684
Chucky carves out a spot for himself on the list of highest-grossing slashers of the ’80s with the one and only Child’s Play movie released that decade. Of all ’80s slashers, the Child’s Play/Chucky series is the only one still building on the original continuity thanks to writer/director Don Mancini, who has been with the franchise since day one. The 2019 reboot is legally a separate beast, so it isn’t included.
In contrast to the rather tiny budgets of most slashers on this list, Child’s Play cost around $13 million to produce (per AFI). Even with that comparatively huge budget, it earned enough to kick off a seven movie and one TV series franchise that’s still chugging along today (Chucky S2 premieres later this year). The combination of the creepy doll and Brad Dourif’s foul-mouthed voice work turned out to have quite the staying power.
5 Friday the 13th Part III (1982)
Box Office: $34,581,519
Friday the 13th Part III is notable for being the sequel that gave Jason his hockey mask (as opposed to the silly sack he wore on his head previously). This is also the only time a director returned to do a second Friday the 13th film, so Steve Miner actually ended up being responsible for both bringing adult killer Jason in the mix as well as his iconic look.
Related: Ranking Every Friday The 12th Movie According To Rotten Tomatoes
Although Friday the 13th had already jumped the shark multiple times by this point, Part III managed to bounce back up to nearly $35 million after Part 2 topped out with just under $22 million. So, while the dated 3D effects are mostly just good for a laugh nowadays, the gimmick proved rather effective at the time.
4 Psycho II (1983)
Box Office: $34,725,000
Sequels might be commonplace today, but Psycho II coming out 23 years after Psycho was a trailblazer in that respect. Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles both returned from the 1960 Hitchcock classic, but some of the creative choices in regard to how Miles’ character was written might leave a bad aftertaste for fans of the original.
Related: 10 Movies & TV Scenes That Parody Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
While not a unique horror movie premise, on a $4 million budget (per AFI) Psycho II was able to ride that slasher craze and gross more than enough to justify 1986’s Psycho III. That installment proved to be less lucky, making well less than half of this while costing twice as much to produce, according to the AFI.
3 Friday the 13th (1980)
Box Office: $39,754,601
If there was any doubt about slashers being a profitable genre after 1978’s Halloween made an obscene amount of money, Friday the 13th laid those concerns to rest with a bloody arrow through Kevin Bacon’s throat. As far as gore and body counts go, Friday the 13th definitely set the standard for cheap and profitable slasher fare for years to come – and even features a somewhat sympathetic horror movie villain.
Produced for just $650,000 (via AFI), Sean Cunningham’s tale of camp counselors being graphically murdered went on to make over 61 times its budget. That’s a ridiculous return on investment that nobody could have ever predicted, but many tried to replicate.
2 A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Box Office: $44,793,222
A third film was inevitable after the success of the first two, but with Heather Langenkamp returning as Nancy and Wes Craven returning as a writer, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors had a couple of things working in its favor. Having a young Laurence Fishburne (or “Larry” as he’s credited here) didn’t hurt, either.
Even with an increased budget of about $4.5 million (per AFI), the film made 10 times its cost and managed to increase in gross from the previous film once again. No other horror franchise of the ’80s (or ever, really) displayed as much upward mobility.
1 A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
Box Office: $49,369,899
With the number one spot, A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Master is the fourth film from this franchise to place in the ranking of highest-grossing ’80s slashers. Turns out A Nightmare on Elm Street was able to increase in gross one last time, making it the unmatched king of horror franchise growth.
With a budget of $6.5 million (via AFI), this was the most expensive film to produce so far, but based on the huge success of the previous three it was almost a sure thing. Even though the fifth of the series crashed down to about 22 million the following year, New Line Cinema was already “The house that Freddy built” and nothing could take that away.
Next: 10 Freddy Krueger One-Liners That Have Aged Poorly
Next 10 Movie Endings So Bad They Ruined The Film, According To Reddit
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[title] => 5 90s Horror Movies That Still Hold Up Perfectly
[link] => https://movieshere.movs.world/scream-away/5-90s-horror-movies-that-still-hold-up-perfectly/
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[pubdate] => Sat, 23 Apr 2022 23:15:16 +0000
[category] => Scream Away90sholdHorrorMoviesPerfectly
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[description] => It almost goes without saying that the 1996 horror movie Scream aged well and that horror fans are still enjoying watching this film several decades after it first hit theaters. The movie has teens, the perfect location of Woodsboro, and Neve Campbell’s groundbreaking role as Sidney Prescott. While some ’90s horror movies feel incredibly awkward ... Read more
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[encoded] =>
It almost goes without saying that the 1996 horror movie Scream aged well and that horror fans are still enjoying watching this film several decades after it first hit theaters. The movie has teens, the perfect location of Woodsboro, and Neve Campbell’s groundbreaking role as Sidney Prescott.
While some ’90s horror movies feel incredibly awkward and dated to watch, as some plotlines fall flat, characters seem boring, and filmmaking style can be corny, there are a few scary films from this time period that are still excellent.
GAMERANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
RELATED: 5 90s Horror Movie Twists That Stand The Test Of Time
Based on the 1988 book by Thomas Harris, the 1991 movie The Silence of the Lambs will always be a frightening movie watching experience. The characters are a study in contrasts, as Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and the iconic cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) play a game with each other throughout the entire movie.
The Silence of the Lambs still holds up today as Clarice interviews Hannibal to see if he can help her understand a serial killer named “Buffalo Bill.” Hannibal is a downright chilling and incredibly creepy character. The movie’s ending holds up better than almost any horror movie’s as Hannibal shares that he invited a friend over for dinner. Of course, fans know what that means…
The 1992 film Candyman is a woke horror movie about Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) who comes across the story of Candyman. The movie is as unsettling today as it was back then, and it holds up well. The 2021 direct sequel is also worth sitting down to watch.
It can be tricky to balance a story that needs backstory and explanations along with scary scenes and good characters, but this is something that Candyman excels at. As Helen gets deeper into the mystery, audiences are unable to look away. After a Black man who was born in the 1800s was tragically killed, his spirit became called the Candyman.
Scream 2 holds up as a horror sequel and also as a movie in its own right. There are several parts of this second film in the popular slasher franchise that still work: Sidney’s new life at college, her relationships with her peers, and her desire to escape the horrible things that occurred in Woodsboro while realizing that it might not be so simple.
From Cici Cooper’s (Sarah Michelle Geller) death scene to seeing Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) again, there’s a lot to enjoy about Scream 2. While it’s inevitable that some ’90s horror movies will feel a bit dated, this one still works, with as many scares and jokes as the rest of the franchise. It might not be the best movie in the whole franchise, but it’s one of the more entertaining scary films from this decade.
Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer TV series feels lackluster when compared to the original 1998 movie, which is one of the best and most enjoyable ’90s horror movies. It has it all: a close friend group who drift apart, a love story, and an examination of what happens after a horrifying incident.
Jennifer Love Hewitt’s career-making role as Julie James saw her and her pals killing someone by accident after partying on the night of their high school graduation. The movie has tropes that horror fans like seeing: unexpected deaths, main characters with secrets, and the feeling that someone is watching, stalking, and waiting to kill. Julie also becomes depressed after being haunted by what she and her friends did, and the movie touches on how a “final girl” can get through the rest of her life. Ben Willis feels like a horror villain who can’t be killed as he shows up in the sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, which was released in 1998.
The Faculty is a great teen science-fiction/horror movie and it’s also a film from this time period that holds up well.
When a group of teenagers discover that aliens have taken over the teachers at their school, audiences can’t help but laugh at this perfect concept. It seems amazing that a movie like this hadn’t been made before, as high schoolers are always complaining about their strict, rigid and tough teachers and wondering how they can get the time to pass faster so they can graduate. When people watch this movie today, they can see common themes that still make sense: teenagers struggling to seem cool and wondering what authority figures they should listen to and who they should ignore so they can be who they want and create the future that they’re looking for.
NEXT: 5 Nostalgic ’90s Kids Horror TV Shows
8 Meta Horror Movies To Watch If You Love The Scream Movies
Read Next
About The Author
Aya Tsintziras (131 Articles Published)
Aya Tsintziras is a freelance writer who writes about TV, movies, and has a particular interest in the horror genre. She has a Political Science degree from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Journalism from Ryerson University. She loves coffee, reading, working out, and watching TV. She lives in Toronto.
More
From Aya Tsintziras
We would like to thank the author of this post for this amazing web content
)
[summary] => It almost goes without saying that the 1996 horror movie Scream aged well and that horror fans are still enjoying watching this film several decades after it first hit theaters. The movie has teens, the perfect location of Woodsboro, and Neve Campbell’s groundbreaking role as Sidney Prescott. While some ’90s horror movies feel incredibly awkward ... Read more
[atom_content] =>
It almost goes without saying that the 1996 horror movie Scream aged well and that horror fans are still enjoying watching this film several decades after it first hit theaters. The movie has teens, the perfect location of Woodsboro, and Neve Campbell’s groundbreaking role as Sidney Prescott.
While some ’90s horror movies feel incredibly awkward and dated to watch, as some plotlines fall flat, characters seem boring, and filmmaking style can be corny, there are a few scary films from this time period that are still excellent.
GAMERANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
RELATED: 5 90s Horror Movie Twists That Stand The Test Of Time
Based on the 1988 book by Thomas Harris, the 1991 movie The Silence of the Lambs will always be a frightening movie watching experience. The characters are a study in contrasts, as Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and the iconic cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) play a game with each other throughout the entire movie.
The Silence of the Lambs still holds up today as Clarice interviews Hannibal to see if he can help her understand a serial killer named “Buffalo Bill.” Hannibal is a downright chilling and incredibly creepy character. The movie’s ending holds up better than almost any horror movie’s as Hannibal shares that he invited a friend over for dinner. Of course, fans know what that means…
The 1992 film Candyman is a woke horror movie about Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) who comes across the story of Candyman. The movie is as unsettling today as it was back then, and it holds up well. The 2021 direct sequel is also worth sitting down to watch.
It can be tricky to balance a story that needs backstory and explanations along with scary scenes and good characters, but this is something that Candyman excels at. As Helen gets deeper into the mystery, audiences are unable to look away. After a Black man who was born in the 1800s was tragically killed, his spirit became called the Candyman.
Scream 2 holds up as a horror sequel and also as a movie in its own right. There are several parts of this second film in the popular slasher franchise that still work: Sidney’s new life at college, her relationships with her peers, and her desire to escape the horrible things that occurred in Woodsboro while realizing that it might not be so simple.
From Cici Cooper’s (Sarah Michelle Geller) death scene to seeing Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) again, there’s a lot to enjoy about Scream 2. While it’s inevitable that some ’90s horror movies will feel a bit dated, this one still works, with as many scares and jokes as the rest of the franchise. It might not be the best movie in the whole franchise, but it’s one of the more entertaining scary films from this decade.
Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer TV series feels lackluster when compared to the original 1998 movie, which is one of the best and most enjoyable ’90s horror movies. It has it all: a close friend group who drift apart, a love story, and an examination of what happens after a horrifying incident.
Jennifer Love Hewitt’s career-making role as Julie James saw her and her pals killing someone by accident after partying on the night of their high school graduation. The movie has tropes that horror fans like seeing: unexpected deaths, main characters with secrets, and the feeling that someone is watching, stalking, and waiting to kill. Julie also becomes depressed after being haunted by what she and her friends did, and the movie touches on how a “final girl” can get through the rest of her life. Ben Willis feels like a horror villain who can’t be killed as he shows up in the sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, which was released in 1998.
The Faculty is a great teen science-fiction/horror movie and it’s also a film from this time period that holds up well.
When a group of teenagers discover that aliens have taken over the teachers at their school, audiences can’t help but laugh at this perfect concept. It seems amazing that a movie like this hadn’t been made before, as high schoolers are always complaining about their strict, rigid and tough teachers and wondering how they can get the time to pass faster so they can graduate. When people watch this movie today, they can see common themes that still make sense: teenagers struggling to seem cool and wondering what authority figures they should listen to and who they should ignore so they can be who they want and create the future that they’re looking for.
NEXT: 5 Nostalgic ’90s Kids Horror TV Shows
8 Meta Horror Movies To Watch If You Love The Scream Movies
Read Next
About The Author
Aya Tsintziras (131 Articles Published)
Aya Tsintziras is a freelance writer who writes about TV, movies, and has a particular interest in the horror genre. She has a Political Science degree from the University of Toronto and a Masters of Journalism from Ryerson University. She loves coffee, reading, working out, and watching TV. She lives in Toronto.
More
From Aya Tsintziras
We would like to thank the author of this post for this amazing web content
