It’s Spring Break Time! The Scariest Things has lined up some things for you to get ready for your Horror-Themed spring break!
– Robert advocates for Fright Rags for your Tee Shirt needs, before heading out for Festival Season.
– Mike has some great reading material for you from horror novelist Clay McLeod Chapman.
– Eric has found your Spring Break Horror Road Trip guide! And a wacky summer time horror camp.
Episode 9 Starts NOW!
In Episode 8 of Spooky Time:
– Mike and Liz Report back from their experiences at SXSW
– Mike, got a chance to do some Texas Chainsaw Massacre touring .
– Eric comes to the table with his review of the Variety Top 100.
– Liz finds another favorite book of hers that is being given the chance at a premium TV series.
– Eric reports on Guillermo Del Toro’s next Horror Movie. (It’s familiar)
The Scariest Things is heading down to Austin for SXSW and The Overlook Film Festival, two of the most influential festivals in America and we are previewing them for you in Episode 7 of Spooky Time!
Hello? I’d like a room for the night.
Famous. Last. Words.
If you are tired and driving down a remote desert highway, and are feeling a bit tired, you will know that the last thing you should do is check into a skeevy Motel at the side of the road. The Scariest Things pulls off on the side of the road to scout the dodgy lodging in advance for you in Episode 163: Hotel-Motel-BnB Horror.
It’s time for a zombie March Madness bracket fight! The scary ladies of The Jersey Ghouls, Marissa and Jacki, abducted Eric and Liz and forced us to participate in this fiendish experiment. And we had a BLAST! Check out the Jersey Ghouls Podcast, or click on the streaming feed on this post!
For the first time in its 117-year history, the venerable Variety, probably the most prestigious journal covering Hollywood has released its Critic’s ratings for THEIR Top 100 Films of all Time. And believe it or not, a HORROR movie is rated #1!
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
🩸🩸🩸
This is a grisly (not grizzly… the bear is a black bear) romp through the forest, amped up with narcotics and has some wildly entertaining moments. Elizabeth Banks continues her transformation from in front of the camera star to behind the camera, and she hit the comedic and gory tone just right with Cocaine Bear.
It’s the age old debate: Book vs. Movie. Which did it better? In the spotlight in Episode 6 of Spooky Time: Paul Tremblay’s novel: The Cabin at the End of the World vs. M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin.
It’s SPOOKY TIME! In this week’s episode:
Liz returns from Rome, with a report on the Profondo Rosso Store.
Robert found a highly curated horror book subscription service.
Eric announced a team up with the Jersey Ghouls for a Zombie March Madness Bracket Dance.
And… Mike was on a train to the great white oblivion.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
🩸🩸
The WWI trench warfare horror film Bunker follows a mixed squad of British and American doughboys who are trapped in a deserted German bunker and encounter something far more sinister than enemy forces waiting for them. With the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it’s only appropriate that movie goers return to the horror of trench warfare.
We now have a Gore Intensity Rating for our reviews! Being that we are your gateway to the trends and tropes of the horror genre, we need to be able to convey to the newcomers (and our gore hounds) what to expect with these movies. Keep an eye out for the 🩸 on forthcoming reviews.
Liz flees to Rome to escape the oncoming hordes of Mardi Gras invaders (and to go on a Dario Argento Pilgrimage), leaving Robert, Eric, and a freshly shaven Mike Campbell sans beard to carry on with Spooky Time.
Topics Include:
Deadstream, The Last of Us, Children of the Corn, and a Cronenberg TV Conversion.
Behold, the Horror Movie Mullet: Slow-Burn Horror!
It’s business (plot building) in the front, and a party (big third-act finish). You can thank Liz Williams for that analogy! The concept of the slow-burn horror movie is not new, but it is a prominent description for many contemporary horror movies. Break out the coffee, and try not to spill it in the shocking third act of Episode 162: Slow-Burn Horror!
In Spooky Time, our weekly roundup of horror musings from the world of film, TV, Books and games, this weeks topics are:
Eric talks about a really scary PC Video Game.
Robert found a collection of overseas Lovecraft graphic novels.
Mike recommends two movies with the word “DEATH” in the title.
Liz reviews Brett Easton Ellis’s (American Psycho) new book The Shards. And as a bonus talks about a movie she had to bail on.
Just how popular is Horror? Data analyst Bo McCready has done a fascinating Tableau (An excellent infographics generator!) analysis of the history of film, and the relative popularity of each movie genre. The trick here is to recognize what the context of “popular” is here. For this table, this is the number of films produced in any given year, for EVERY year since 1910, according to our favorite resource, IMDb.
THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
A bit of clear eyed truth here. Within our beloved horror genre, we will get subjected to some pretty lousy films. Though we believe in 2022 there were more good movies than bad, some of the bad movies really disappointed, and some had a stink that will be hard to be rid of. What movies you ask? Listen and find out in Episode 161!
All the new buzz from your friends at The Scariest Things! Our new weekly format continues, as we do a quick session of weekly musings on happenings in horror this week! Check out Episode 2, now in both a YouTube and Podcast format!
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
For those of you curious and wondering about M. Night’s latest offering? Fear not (or fear a lot)… Knock at the Cabin is good. REALLY good. A cabin in the woods home invasion with an and of the world apocalypse central theme with undercurrents of LGBT targeting, and the emotional fortitude of what it means to be a family. It’s all there, and the plot twist is not a surprise, but a promise, this time.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
You Won’t Be Alone is a Brooding story of a young witch cast into a 19th Century Village and learns about humanity by assuming the form of the agrarian townsfolk. A smart and melancholy tale, for those who love a good story and have a lot of patience.
New Years Resolution time! The Scariest Things has resolved to get you MORE CONTENT. So, we are introducing Spooky TIme with the Scariest Things. It’s a shorter format of news, reviews, and musings. PLUS: VIDEO CONTENT! (Check out our YouTube as well!) A caution though, this recording has a bit of a weird dynamic to it, so
The temptation of producers to rinse and repeat and cash in has a long and dubious history with horror. But, horror also provides the opportunity for filmmakers to take BIG chances. Smaller budgets not only provide better profits, but also the opportunity for allowing bigger chances and bolder ideas. If you are a creative mind starting out in Hollywood and are looking for a conduit for wild ideas, go for the weird. Go for horror.
Check out this Dead List for the Weird and Wonderful Horror from 1990 to 2023!
The New Year is here! These are the 2023 films that The Scariest Things is anticipating the most. Granted, our track record for having our predicted favorites are a bit spotty, there are a number of promising titles coming out… that we know of so far! Listen to Episode 160 and find out what’s coming!
Lets’ go crazy! Forget your sequels, your prequels, your reboots. Give me something unique, and the weirder the better. Call me obsessed, as this dead list supplants one that I did three years ago, as I expand from ten movies to FIFTY. A list so big, I had to divide it into two posts! Enjoy….
Horror Movies have once again hit full stride, and 2022 oozed with originality and purpose. There were so many films to pick from, most of our crew, when assigned to pick a top 10 went with 11! (Cheaters!) That’s how good it was this year. So listen in to our extended super sized Episode 159 and get wise to what was great in 2022!
What a great year for the genre. It feels like both the studios and the indies have hit full stride again, and there were a bunch of really original and entertaining horror movies to watch this year. Eric picks his top 10 and had room for probably 10 more that could have made it.
Want to know what it’s like filming getting buried alive? How do you capture the quintessential ’90s look for a found footage horror film? V/H/S/99 cinematographer Alexander Chinnici tells the Scariest Things his experiences working on this famed anthology franchise.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Agatha resides at the intersection of an experimental art piece and a horror movie. Knowing that, you know how to proceed with this film. Agatha is visually stunning but ultimately difficult to process at times. It is mesmerizing and dreamy and entirely devoid of dialogue, so your attention span will be tested. Ultimately if you like visually poetic and painterly films, this will be your bag.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Night of the Bastard is fun. Stupid fun. Be ready for a low-budget B-Movie brawler of a picture. A desert trailer-trash and Satanic Cult mashup awaits.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A crumbling relationship leads a couple to take their frustrations out on a jog around a nearby pond, but they get trapped in a mysterious Mobius loop that becomes a private hell for the two of them. A smart,, if repetitive (of course) time paradox tale that explores the truly destructive nature of a breakup in some very clever ways.
Sometimes, you only need to see a horror movie once. That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad movie, (Some are actually quite good) but perhaps it was a bit too much, or the twist made the movie, or it made us feel bad. These movies made our to-do list, but then we said “Thanks, once is enough.”
