★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Osgood Perkin’s horror take on the children’s fairy tale is a brooding and moody spin on the most familiar of stories. It has some gorgeous art direction, and a winning performance by Alice Krige, but the plodding script tries to mask the intent of the story. It tries very hard to provide new wrinkles to the old fable, but ends up feeling over-long even at a fairly short run time of 82 minutes.
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A worthy reboot of a much-beloved gateway horror fan favorite. Anne Hathaway chews up the scenery in the Robert Zemekis helmed adaptation of the Roald Dahl dark fantasy classic.
Do you like your horror with a side order of bullets? Do you find that horror and kung fu are completely compatible? Do you wish there were more superhero horror tales? This week we’re talking action-horror in episode 117! Lights! Camera! Start the squibs!
If you listen to our podcast or read our posts, you are already somebody looking to know more about horror. If you really have an appetite for horror knowledge, check out these documentaries, all of them hugely entertaining. Welcome to the world where all the movies have a colon in the title: Horror Documentaries.
Print Maker Pop Chart has taken the interactive nature of scratch-off lottery tickets and applied it to horror movies! Now you can track the progress of seeing the essential horror canon by scratching off the movies you’ve seen.
In a literal and figurative sense, one of the biggest genre films to arrive in 2021 is Godzilla vs. Kong, and we just got the first trailer. The fourth installment in the Monsterverse, like its predecessors, looks visually splashy as all hell. The fate of studios, or at least their decision making, is at stake with this blockbuster. Legendary, Warner Brothers, and HBO Max are all hoping for big things out of this effort.
We’re back for more horror movie trailer talk! The discussion about The Scariest Things continues, with the help of trailer writer/producer John Foley.
When criminals on the run collide with true evil, what could possibly go wrong? Check out the trailer for the upcoming heist/witchcraft film from Director Kris Roselli, coming out later this year.
Coming soon, to a theater near YOU! Are you the type of person to check out a trailer as soon as it hits the internet? Well, this episode is tailor made for you. The Scariest Things is joined by John Foley, a veteran trailer producer and horror fan, to discuss our favorite horror trailers.
Provocateur, carnival barker, secret intellectual, comedian, and instigator: the great Lloyd Kaufman is joining The Scariest Things to talk about his latest and greatest offering, #Shakespeare’s Shitstorm! Never boring, often crass, but always gracious, it was fantastic for the Scariest Things to spend some with the Mayor of Tromaville.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The Cthulhu Mythos gets a spin from current horror writers, in the way that Lovecraftian tales should be told, in an anthology. There’s a lot of variety packed into this compilation and features some notable writers, including Neil Gaiman, John Langan, and Joe R. Lansdale.
When the great 2020 pandemic got its hooks into the world in April, and the Cinemas across the country were shuttering their doors, I was guessing that we were going to have really slim pickings for great horror films this past year. I’m so happy to be wrong! There were some absolutely fantastic horror films released, but you had to get to most of them via streaming festivals.
Well, that was a year, wasn’t it? True life horror didn’t need much help, but independent horror came to the rescue. Many of the most anticipated studio productions like A Quiet Place 2, Spiral, Halloween Kills, and Antlers never made it to the big screen this year, but thanks to streaming Festivals, there were some great offerings to be had this year if you knew where to look.
![Eric’s Review: The Last Thanksgiving (2020) [Another Hole in the Head FF]](https://scariesthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Last-Thanksgiving-Cleaver.jpg)
★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
The Last Thanksgiving is a gory ’80s style slasher film that works on the decidedly soft premise that the Pilgrims succumbed to cannibalism to make it through the first Thanksgiving, and their descendants continue that tradition 400 years later. It delivers well on the hyper-violence, but it falls rather flat with character and plot. This is an empty calorie Thanksgiving feast.
★1/2 out ★★★★★ If you have a conventional sense of social norms.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★ if you are a Troma fan and appreciate trashy and depraved satire.
Lloyd Kaufman and team Troma return to their Shakespearean roots and turn this loose-bowel take on The Tempest into a skewering of the social norms of today’s culture. This is the strongest, funniest, and most consistent Troma film I have seen since the ’80s Troma glory days but it also pushes the censorship limbo bar so low that there may not be room to go more lowbrow than this.
It’s getting late! Do you have your present for your horror fan family member or friend? If you’re looking for some unique and well crafted horror themed items, here are some suggestions.
Oh, you’d better watch out, you’d better not cry! You’d better not pout I’m telling you why! Santa Claus has a wood axe, for you! It is mind-boggling how many Santa themed horror movies there are. Do we all have deep-seated childhood fears of Saint Nick? Yes, yes we do. Listen to the Scariest Things for some Christmas-themed horror films for you to watch when you’re on holiday.
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
After failing to crowd-fund their board game “Murder Bury Win”, three young game designers get the opportunity of a lifetime to present their ideas to a scion of the game industry and finally get the big break they have been looking for. After initial fun and games, their dream pitch turns into a nightmare with tragic (and comic) consequences. Great characters + unique concept + greed motives = cinema gold!
And you thought you had family issues! Parenting issues. Spouse issues. Mutant parent issues. Demonic spouse issues. You know, normal stuff. The Scariest Things invites you to discover the shocking sub-genre that is dysfunctional families!
Cinematic horror for most its history has been a story almost exclusively told by men. After miniscule progress from 1980 to 2010, the door has opened and a stream of great women directors has been arriving on the horror scene. Partly due to social change, partly due to networking and contacts, but this movement is mostly due to pure talent and merit. These ladies are very good at what they do. And with each success story, another door opens. Here are terrific 30 distaff directors you should know about.
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Boys from County Hell is a slice of blue-collar Irish horror-comedy, where a road construction crew is tasked with the removal of a stone cairn marking the grave of a vampire that gave inspiration to Bram Stoker. Why is it that characters in Irish comedies always want to leave the isle? It might be the vampires.
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
What separates a truly iconic horror film and raises it above its peers? Master documentarian Alexandre Phillipe makes a compelling argument that adhering to classical and even ancient themes can make the difference, and he casts Alien into a whole different light. Phillipe once again delivers a beautifully crafted breakdown and makes for a really compelling watch for fans of Alien.
Just in time for a Pandemic Thanksgiving, it’s time to talk food-themed horror! There exists a special and not often seen niche in the horror genre, and these films range from throwaway light and silly movies to unforgettable acts of disgusting digestive distress. You might not want to eat before watching these movies. It’s Scariest Things Podcast Episode 112: Edible Horror!
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Is it a ghost story? A time travel story? The Return is a bit of both. Director BJ Verot’s first feature film is a tightly scripted sci-fi and haunted horror production, and it was one of the highlights of 2020’s H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.
We have seen the future of Horror Film Festivals, and it was the big Nightstream festival. While it was disappointing not to be able to go to these events in person, the streaming digital festival delivered a wealth of great movies, shorts, and special events that both horrified and delighted us. Listen in to the Scariest Things team report on our favorite moments.
“Something’s wrong with Cujo, Mom!”
I guess you can call that an understatement. Dogs have a proud history in horror movies as both monsters and heroes. Here are some of the most notable pooches in the genre. WOOF!
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Ray Harryhausen would be proud! Love and Monsters defies expectations with more emotional resonance, visual wizardry, and storytelling surprises than you would expect. The monsters are spectacularly rendered, and convincingly animated. Dylan O’Brien is a joy to watch, in the best role of his young career. The most important thing to know is that this movie is worth the premium price for streaming entry.
★★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
A grifter with good intentions, but in need of a lucky break, signs up for a job that seems too good to be true. Lapsis is a dystopian parable for the treadmill of old-fashioned hard work and the fear that technology is going to make you obsolete.
Trick or treat! Smell my feet! Give me movies to repeat! It’s that time of year, to binge scary films. So, it’s time for the Scariest Things to recommend some highly thematic Halloweeny films for you to watch while you eat your (or your kid’s) excess candy.
★★ out of ★★★★★
The Doorman is a throwback action movie, starring Ruby Rose as an ex-special forces soldier turned doorman battling Jean Reno and his squad of art thieves. The film gets bogged down in stale clichés and surprisingly bland action pieces. Not everything on Nightstream was awesome, or even horror.
