Spookiness from The Damned
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Feeling cold and isolated this time of year? The Damned (2024) will happily add paranoid and hungry to your list! Icelandic folk tales and psychological horror combine in this frosty tale of desperate 19th century survival.
The horror world just lost an icon. Olivia Hussey has passed away at age 73. Known to most for her portrayal of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1968), at the peak of her career, Hussey starred in one of the most pivotal movies in horror history, Black Christmas (1974). Before Laurie Strode and Sally Hardesty, there was Jess Bradford. Jess became the standard for the modern final girl in horror slasher films.
If "meh" was a year...it'd be 2024. Post pandemic, political strife, the lingering effects of the writer and director's strikes, the rise of AI, and the violation of the most sacrosanct American icon -- Mickey Mouse. While there was a lot of great genre content being churned out in 2024, the highs weren't really high and the lows weren't terrible low. This year sat right in the middle of a rather tepid bell curve.
Horror Musicals: When they work they are next-level works of art. It's some of the worst material ever created when they don't work. Eric cajoled/dragged Liz and Mike to participate in evaluating one of his favorite sub-genres, the Horror Musical. A spotify soundtrack list is included in this post for you to hear the songs from the films we discuss in Ep 191.
Crust in Crust
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Obviously, the world has been yearning for a monster made from the forgotten socks left at a laundromat. Yearn no longer, world!
Aliens Expanded small
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If you or someone you know is still quoting lines from Aliens (1986) or gives it a regular re-watch, this is the perfect accompaniment you didn't know you were missing.
Once upon a time, the major broadcast television networks used to produce feature films for their movies of the week. Many of the great made-for-tv horror movies have found new audiences with restored Blu-Ray issuances and streaming options, giving some long-lost classics a new lease on viewing life.
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Blackout is a fair-to-middling werewolf movie. With much respect to horror Godfather Larry Fessenden, this movie struggles to get out of second gear. The werewolf makeup is effective, and there are some gory scares, but weak supporting characters and excessive exposition bogs down this effort.

★★★★★ out of ★★★★★

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The Girl with the Needle is one of the darkest, most haunting, and most moving horror-adjacent films in recent memory.

Samara Weaving in Azrael
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Movies with no dialog. Are we calling this a trend now? It seems like making a movie isn't enough of a challenge for some folks so they're upping the ante and going speechless. Albeit with mixed results.

★★★★.5 out of ★★★★★

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Be. Careful. What. You. Wish. For. The most quaint and playful of all the horror tropes is on full display in this masterful piece of body horror. Not your run of the mill body horror either. This is capital “B” body horror that would even make David Cronenberg blush. 

Daniel Jordan as Jitters
We've got the first look teaser trailer for writer-director Marc Zammit’s new feature film Jitters as it nears the end of production. Let's go, British horror!
Naomi Scott in Smile 2
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The first installment focused on world building and investigating the great mythology behind the story. This time around writer/director Parker Finn gives us spectacle.
Cinephiles and physical media collectors, this episode is for you! The Criterion Collection has been the premiere distributor of cinematic excellence for decades. Did they find room for horror? Yes, they did! It is a very select group of films, but you might be surprised at some of the inclusions. Here are our picks from their horror library.
★★★.5 out of ★★★★★

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The Letter sumptuously recreates the era of H.P. Lovecraft's 1930's New England. This languidly paced mystery feels like a Call of Cthulhu adventure, set in an elaborate mansion, and stocked with scheming characters with old grudges. This little indie film has big aspirations and ambitions but could have used a little streamlining. Prepare yourselves for lots of exposition and dark musings in period dialogue, while appreciating the fine details and rich textures.

The Horror Community lost a Titan on Friday. Tony Todd, The Candyman, passed away at age 69 from complications of a lingering illness. He was the most iconic black character horror actor in history. The gravelly-voiced performer boasted over 256 IMdB acting credits to his name, but he will be remembered mostly for his horror roles that he was in from 1986 up to this day. The Scariest Things presents a review of his most iconic roles.

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Things Will Be Different mashes together three tropes that require finesse and careful mechanics. The film fuses a bank heist, a time paradox, and a "don't cheat fate" theme, creating an intricate and complex plot. The story strings together an array of plot threads that could throw time out of balance. It elegantly presents its plot, but inevitably it challenges the audience to keep pace with the story.

Aaron Moorhead is one half of the prolific writing/acting/directing duo of Moorhead and Benson. The acclaimed duo produced some of the past decade's most mind-bending cosmic horror movies. It was only appropriate that he would serve as the keynote speaker at this year's H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, and he took some time out of his busy festival schedule to talk with Eric Li about his Cosmic theories and theses.
★★★★★out of ★★★★★

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Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire documents a string of unsolved grisly murders in California's Inland Empire. This faux documentary is at once both sensational and plausible, treated as a real account of a heinous cosmically influenced serial killing spree. This film is hugely disturbing and is coated with a thick layer of bloody possible sauce.

★★★★ out of ★★★★★

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Cosmic Horror meets found footage in the parasomnia-infused Dream Eater. Documentarian Mallory and her boyfriend Alex retreat to a snowy cabin, celebrating Alex's 30th birthday. There, they hope to relax and get relief from Alex's violent sleepwalking episodes. Unfortunately, fate would have it that something ancient and evil is behind his psychological traumas, and Mallory struggles to make sense of it before it destroys them both.

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