★★.5 out of ★★★★★
Part joke. Part satire. Part experimentation. Part loving homage to the Grindhouse era. A dash of RiffTrax. ALL Full Moon and Charles Band lunacy. Corona Zombies has many of these things and weirdly more.
Spooky Time Episode 4
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.
Festival Favorite THE BUNKER Hits Theaters on February 24th
World War I-set horror feature The Bunker, which I listed in my “Top 10 Horror Films of 2022” article, is […]
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode 162: The Sloooowww Burners
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!
Spooky Time Episode 3
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.
Mike’s Review: House of Usher (1960)
★★★.5 out of ★★★★★
Since Netflix recently teased out a new Mike Flanagan series based upon Edgar Allen Poe’s haunting short story, the Fall of the House of the Usher, we decided it was high time to jump in the way-back machine and give its 1960 forefather a discerning look. Turns out Flanagan may be on to something by following this chilling story.
Joseph’s Review: Daughter
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
This claustrophobic chiller provides viewers with plenty of meat to mull over while delivering a nerve-wracking battle of wills between a kidnapper who heads up a twisted family unit and his victim.
Horror Infographics: The Most Popular Movie Genres 1910-2021
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.
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode 161: The Worst Horror Movies of 2022
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!
The Scariest Things Podcast: Spooky Time #2
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!
Joseph’s Review: Blood
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
The latest from renowned director Brad Anderson, Blood takes the familiar horror story of a parent who will go to any lengths to save a dying child and succeeds in setting itself apart from the pack thanks to solid direction and acting.
Liz’s Review: Infinity Pool
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Put on your bathing suit and jump into the Infinity Pool with Brandon Cronenberg.
Eric’s Review: Knock at the Cabin (2023)
★★★★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.
Robert’s Review: The Outwaters (2022)
⭐️⭐️1/2 out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
An experimental, kaleidoscope of shaky-cam weirdness. Lovers of slow burning, stream of consciousness film making, this one’s for you!
Eric’s Review: You Won’t Be Alone (2022)
★★★★ 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.
The Scariest Things Podcast: Spooky Time with The Scariest Things
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
Mike’s Book Report: What Moves The Dead (2022)
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
HP Lovecraft dug writing short stories. Edgar Allen Poe did too. Even the great Stephen King has been known to clack out a short story or two (hundred). Most horror writers have the keen ability to take a simple concept and extemporarily expound the idea in fairly concise and confined was. Sometimes this works and sometimes there’s a lot of questions begged and a lot more exposition that’s required.
Liz’s Review: M3GAN
★★★★ out of ★★★★★
M3GAN brings fun, scares and great dance moves from the uncanny valley to the big screen.
Dead List: Weird and Wonderful Horror Movies 1990-2022
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!
Mike’s Review: Schizoid (1980)
★★★ out of ★★★★★
Sleazy, greasy, grimy, grindhouse fare. It’s all here. Right down to a chilling and rather off-putting performance by one of the more odd actors to ever grace a horror film, Klaus Kinski. Hot on the heels of one of the all-time great horror performances in 1979’s Nosferatu the Vampyre, Kinski sleazes his way throughout SCHIZOID!
Joseph’s Book Review: Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide
★★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Graham Skipper’s “Godzilla: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide,” from Welbeck Publishing, is a thing of beauty, and a volume that Godzilla and monster-movie fans of all stripes should consider required reading and owning.
The Scariest Things Podcast Episode 160: What we are Looking forward into 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!
Joseph’s Review: There’s Something Wrong with the Children
★★★3/4 out of ★★★★★
Kids can be little devils, as fright-fare fanatics well know, and There’s Something Wrong with the Children does a fun, eerie job of further proving that adage to be true.
Liz’s Review: Sick
★★★ out of ★★★★★
The perfect movie to shelter in place with, you’re going to want Sick in your quarantine bubble!
Cryptids, Killers, and Creepiness Abound in MidWest WeirdFest’s First Programming Wave for 2023
MidWest WeirdFest delivers another flurry of the mystical and the mind-boggling this year with its first-wave announcement for its seventh edition. Taking place March 3–5, 2023 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the fest presents thought-provoking documentaries and cutting-edge narrative films.
Joseph’s Review: Wolf Manor
★★★1/2 out of ★★★★★
Lycanthrope lovers take note: This humorous British romp is chock full of loving references to favorite fright fare of the past, as well as grue-filled action boasting plenty of solid-looking practical effects.
Dead List: Weird and Wonderful Horror Movies 1920-1989
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….
All the Exorcist Films Ranked!
In 2020, at the height of the global pandemic, the braintrust over at Morgan Creek Entertainment, announced — with very minimal fanfare, that they’d be taking a crack at one of the most vaunted franchises of all time — The Exorcist.
To get the Scariest Things Podcast ready for 2023, and potentially the most polemic film in years, we sat down and poured through the entire EXORCIST universe. Some brilliant, some soup-soaked, some awfully-awful, and some filled with the most horrifying images ever put to film.
Robert’s Review: Mad Heidi (2022)
🧀🧀🧀1/2 out of 🧀🧀🧀🧀🧀
A splatterrific swissploitation film chock full of mayhem, fascists and, above all, dairy products.
Robert’s Top 10 Horror Films of 2022
The Golden Age of Horror continues to churn out fun, exciting, imaginative, shocking, and innovative delights for all!