“Composer Alan Howarth Discusses Legendary Scores Ahead Of Coolidge Horrorthon”

Okay, well, this was awesome. Continue reading →

“The Best Slasher Films Ever Made”

I felt like making friends and getting positive comments, so I decided to do a ranking list. Continue reading →

“The 15 Best Horror Movies of 2018”

Well, you can’t win ’em all. Thought exercise: Even if I did like Suspiria and Hereditary (they’re bad), I’d probably put Mandy ahead of them both. Mandy is a distinct horror throwback, but the film feels current, of the moment, a time capsule for reviewing its era sans wistful nostalgia, and it frankly stands to move the genre forward in … Continue reading →

Be Reel Podcast: “The Horror of John Carpenter”

On episode 107 of the great, wonderful, and very good Be Reel podcast, hosted by the splendiferous Chance Solem-Pfeifer, we talked Halloween. And the Halloween franchise. And John Carpenter’s career as a whole. And “elevated” horror, a buzz phrase that nearly makes me Hulk Out™, because boy is it just the worst buzz phrase. It’s so bad I might … Continue reading →

“Would ‘Halloween’ Be Revered If It Were Released Today?”

Upfront: Questions like these, at face value, don’t have good answers, because we can never know with 100% certainty what those answers might be. That said, I think horror, at least “horror” that does not satisfy the genre’s growing prestige among critics and check respectability boxes, is on a sort of decline among tastemakers, and … Continue reading →

Is the Slasher Movie Dying?

Friday the 13th only rolls around so often; in the case of 2017, “so often” means “twice,” and we’ll stick to that pattern until Donald Trump (or, who knows, maybe Mike Pence) gets voted the fuck out of office. But how cool is it that our second Friday the 13th this year happens to fall … Continue reading →

When a Horror Movie Shows Too Much

Let me tell you a story about a guy named me who just got his first piece up in The Hollywood Reporter. It was a good piece, and in fact still is, and you should go read it. I’m not sure what else I’m doing here, really. I’m too excited by my THR debut. Sue … Continue reading →

TV Review: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Episode 4.05, “Halloween IV”

I’m starting to sound like a broken record with Brooklyn Nine-Nine – “Predictable! Predictable!” – and it’s not just in the show’s fourth season. “Predictable” is exactly how I described the show’s Halloween episode back in 2015, too! The thing is, predictable isn’t the same thing as bad, and so, just like with last year, predicting … Continue reading →

The Most Spookiest Time of the Year: My Picks for Halloween

Tomorrow is All Hallow’s Eve. All Saints Eve. Samhain. You know–Halloween, the time of year when youngsters take to the streets in costume and seek out to reap a huge candy windfall from neighbors participating in the spooky celebration of ghouls, ghosts, gremlins, and other such unsavory creatures of the night. For some, it’s an … Continue reading →

A Useful Review: Trick ‘r Treat (DVD), 2008, dir. Michael Dougherty

I wasn’t aware that Halloween was a holiday that needed its own version of A Christmas Carol, the seminal literary classic celebrating that most commodified of holidays. Decades of horror efforts give those into skeletons, spirits, and haunts* plenty of films to choose from to last through the entire month and then some as they … Continue reading →

Something Useful: My Fall Preview

Summer has come and gone, and with it a plethora of truly excellent movies (as well as some truly awful ones). I missed the cut-off point at which composing a list of my favorite movies of the summer season would still be acceptable, and am now in the dreaded “so late that it’s painful” territory. … Continue reading →