I’m a huge fan of spider cinema, and I’m not talking about superhero silliness. I mean flicks like Tarantula (1955), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977), Kingdom of the Spiders (1978), Arachnophobia (1990), Spiders (2000), Eight Legged Freaks (2002), and a dozen others you’ve probably never even heard of. Like most people, I have a natural wariness of spiders, but like most horror fans, I love to see the creepy little buggers wreak havoc safely within the world of movies. Of course sometimes the spiders aren’t so little, and that’s when I know I’m dealing with a flick I’ll probably enjoy. More

A film like Randy Moore’s certifiably bizarre Escape from Tomorrow comes bearing a rather unique history. Suffice to say that Mr. Moore and a few colleagues decided that instead of shooting their black & white character study / psychological thriller / film noir homage on the streets or in a studio — they’d shoot Escape from Tomorrow on the down-low, all throughout Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney World in Florida.   But wait. You can’t just shoot an indie film in Disney parks without their permission! (Which they’d never give!) Especially not an arcane, downbeat, and almost trenchantly satirical indie film that presents the company’s beloved characters in an insidious light! That’s just crazy. Yet that’s precisely what Moore spent three years on. More

One does not walk lightly into a criticism of Italian filmmaker Dario Argento. The lovable auteur behind horror classics like Deep Red, Suspiria, and Tenebre, Mr. Argento is inarguably one of the most influential genre filmmakers imaginable. Yes, right up there with Romero, Craven, and Carpenter. So even when the man turns out a bad movie, there should always be a degree of respect. More

As usual, let’s begin with a brief history lesson.

 Fright Night (1985) arrives from Columbia Pictures and writer/director Tom Holland (he’d later go on to direct Child’s Play, The Temp, and Thinner), becomes a modest box office hit, and goes on to become a nostalgic favorite among horror fans of a certain age. (Like me.) Essentially a teenager vs. vampire rendition of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the original Fright Night was about a kid who discovers that his new neighbor is a murderous bloodsucker — but of course nobody believes him. More

Cinematic appreciation is all a matter of perspective. To some viewers, the new indie sci-fi horror flick The Last Days on Mars will feel like a patently familiar or even simplistic rehash of themes, ideas, settings, and characters we’ve all seen before. To others, including me, The Last Days on Mars will come across more like one of those (virtually countless) sci-fi (mis-)adventure films from the 1950s; films in which the promise of visiting a distant planet was almost as interesting as the people and the creatures who spend time on that planet.  More

If you’re getting a little sick of haunted house movies by now, you can blame a man called James Wan. He hit the movie world with the original Saw before moving on to flicks like Dead Silence and Death Sentence, but he had the second big hit of his career in 2010 with a lovable “haunted house” throwback movie called Insidious. Oh, he also directed this year’s The Conjuring (before coming back with Insidious: Chapter 2). Clearly this is a man who loves his horror stories. More

It’s safe to say we’ve seen the “home invasion” thriller thrown at us from every conceivable angle by this point. The premise is nothing new, of course, as those who remember the original Straw Dogs (1971) can remind you, but over the last several years we’ve seen a whole lot of foreign and/or independent films that involve A) a house, B) some killers, and C) a siege of some unpleasant variety. More

We never seem to get sick of haunted house movies, do we? It has to be considered one of the most reliable (not to mention profitable) sub-sections of our beloved horror genre. From The Old Dark House (1932) to The Haunting (1963) to The Amityville Horror (1979) to Poltergeist (1982) to recent hits like Sinister, Paranormal Activity, and Insidious — to say nothing of their sequels — audiences never seem to tire of things that go bump in the night, especially when it happens in a location that seems familiar, safe, and comfortable. More