William Lustig’s 1980 horror flick Maniac has enjoyed a long and healthy shelf life as a cult favorite among horror geeks, be they curious youths or nostalgic old coots, so it should come as no surprise to learn that, yep, someone went and remade the damn thing. The original was a grungy, sweaty, and virtually plotless excursion into the mind of a madman who savages women and takes their scalps home to his harem of mannequins. While the film is very effective at delivering the garish visual display it is plainly going for, it’s simply not that good of a horror flick on a visceral or psychological level. As a framework on which to hang some truly amazing special effects from a young Tom Savini, Maniac deserves a place of honorable mention, but beyond that it’s little more than a nasty little grindhouse relic. More

One of the cool things that horror films can do is take topical and timely cultural issues, and then expand upon them in a variety of generally unpleasant ways. Pick any “based on actual events” film about a serial killer, Silence of the Lambs for example, or think of films like Battle Royale or The Strangers: horror movies that use today’s headlines as a jumping-off point. The gloomy, moody, and simply effective new Irish movie Citadel falls into the latter category: it takes the simple inner-city issue of “dangerous youth” and delves into its cultural impact through the use of a basic but well-crafted terror tale. More

Every time I feel beaten down by a rash of mediocre new “found footage” horror flicks, I have to remind myself that HEY, I actually do like this gimmick. (Yes, still!) If I have to struggle through Area 407 and Crowsnest and Hollow to find buried treasures like [REC], Paranormal Activity, and Grave Encounters, then that’s just fine with me. But just as this “DIY” approach to storytelling lends itself exceedingly well to lazy first-timers with no ideas and no money, it can also evolve into something quite novel and creepy when handled by smart, clever, and/or experienced filmmakers. Thankfully that’s what has happened in the case of The Bay, a simple enough horror flick that could have easily become just another chintzy eyesore were it not for some clever writing, crafty editing, excellent special effects, and (best of all) a seasoned filmmaker who may by new to the horror game, but is obviously still a gifted storyteller. More

It’s one of the most familiar stories in the realm of horror cinema: a studio purchases a solid indie horror film, makes a pretty penny on the deal, and then settles down for a sequel parade. Paramount did it with Friday the 13th and then Paranormal Activity, Lionsgate did it with Saw… and it sure looked like they were about to franchise the heck out of Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism (which earned strong reviews and solid box office), but for some reason the sequel arrives courtesy of CBS Films. I’ve strayed from the original point: once a low-budget horror film rakes in some huge profits the sequels are inevitable, and that even holds true for horror movies that have the word “last” in the title. Three years after The Last Exorcism comes, of course, The Last Exorcism Part II — and I bet it makes just enough money to warrant a Part 3, even if it is one that’s released straight to DVD. More

When it comes to the films he produces but does not direct, Guillermo Del Toro seems to enjoy helping young filmmakers to create “old-fashioned” genre films. Films like The Orphanage, Julia’s Eyes, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, and even Splice (to a point) seem to hearken back to an earlier era in which scares were classier, plots were simpler, and audiences were a lot more open to bumps in the night and playful chills. The producer’s latest effort, an intermittently effective horror thriller called Mama, fits squarely among those other projects: it has a basic premise that won’t win many awards for originality, but there’s an attention to detail, several quiet moments of effective eeriness, and just enough earnest intent to push the flick across the finish line. More

Once in a while we hear a horrific story about a mentally deranged kidnapper who abducts someone, and simply keeps them. No ransom, no murder; just time spent as someone else’s plaything or reluctant companion. When they pop up in the newspapers, these tragic stories hit home in a dark, personal way. We ponder (hopefully for not very long) how we might deal with such a terrible ordeal, and it’s that sort of communal fear that always seems to seep into horror cinema. A recent (and rather solid) indie called Bereavement tackled this tale, and now comes Chained, the latest in dark genre fare from Jennifer Lynch, whom most FEARnet readers may remember from films like the absurd Boxing Helena, the amusing Surveillance, or the bizarre Bollywood import known as Hisss. More

Why are we so obsessed with celebrity? Obviously it makes sense to admire a talented person, and if that person finds fans all over the world, then they’ve earned that spotlight. But beyond that, why do we care if Brad Pitt gets a divorce or if a troublesome starlet goes to jail? Why are there TV shows who employ photographers to prowl airports and emergency rooms so that maybe we can get a new “candid” photo of a popular actor? That’s a question for the sociologists, the psychiatrists, and (in this case) the filmmakers. Antiviral, the stark and disturbing debut feature from Brandon Cronenberg, offers a science fiction concept, a film noir vibe, and a horror flick soul, and if it seems like the writer/director is starting off on the same thematic foot as his dad, that’s because he is. More

Some movies are just born weird, plain and simple, and thank the movie gods for that. Sometimes weirdness and absurdity hit the screen like a lead weight, like a few of us saw in last year’s Branded, and other times the cinematic weirdness clicks into place and serves a purpose besides that of simple, well, weirdness. This is to say that Don Coscarelli’s adaptation of David Wong’s celebrated cult novel John Dies at the End is all sorts of odd, but it also (somehow) all comes together into a satisfying whole. What begins as a seemingly indecipherable collection of bizarre anecdotes about a new drug that allows its users to do magical things slowly and confidently congeals into a satirical sci-fi horror film that, despite all its weird trappings, has the soul of a 1950s b-movie.  More