Alex Pagliuca

Deborah Ann Woll came to the attention of the horror community/crowd in True Blood as Jessica Hamby, a fledgling vampire trying to navigate the various dramas of it's multi-season run. The large ensemble cast introduced a number of new faces the mass audience of a prestige show on HBO. Woll's Hamby

Brian Duffield has amassed a career writing and directing films using genre conceits as the doorway to some of the most difficult of human emotional states and experiences, without them being grueling or punishing. Along with a lengthy resumé as a screenwriter, Duffield directed Spontaneous, and No

Josh Hartnett has had no fear of genre fare in his career, and its arguably his consistent return to horror that's helped keep his career on a solid footing. Introduced to audiences in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in the same year he'd be among the ensemble of The Faculty, Hartnett solidified his p

I should be clear up front, I'm not a super fan of the Resident Evil game franchise. I'm a very casual gamer. I enjoy video games, but very rarely do they inspire the depth or intensity of interest/obsession in me that movies, reading and music have. I've played a few of the Resident Evil games, and

One of the more rare experiences for those of us obsessed with storytelling, and maybe with on screen storytelling more than any other variety, is to be confronted with something genuinely new and different. There are some good reasons for this. Movies and television, and the audiences for them, hav

A short explanation of the important of low budget, independent film has to the horror genre, and a few recommendations. You can see where you can rent, buy or stream the titles I'm suggesting behind the links below. The Deeper You Dig Hellbender Where The Devil Roams Mother of Flies Lake Mungo The

Laurie Strode has been a part of pop culture, and an icon within the section of that culture most interested in horror, for almost 50 years. As Halloween is seen as the film that introduces mass audiences to the slasher sub genre, popularizing it through it’s runaway success, Laurie is also consider

This is going to be a series of videos I'll be releasing weekly on Saturdays or Sundays, going through the symbolism, themes, and how to develop a read on what a number of older horror films have to say. With the popularity of horror growing in the last five or so years, I thought it might be useful

Perplexed, and confused, so I figured I'd just ask.

The Evil Dead franchise is one of horror's most popular franchises. Like a number of other horror franchises, it has a strange, circuitous history. The first film was a straight forward, grab the audience by the throat horror film. The tagline on marketing material when it was released was, "The Ult

The small screen hasn’t ever really been as comfortable with the horror genre as the big screen. In some part due to broadcast standards for network television, and then even cable, which could be pressured by advertisers. The invention of the subscription exclusive channels, like HBO, Showtime and

There's a whole lot of handwringing going on right now about what is happening with the business of movie theaters, horror's consistent success, and the number of people who were involved in sketch comedy and short films making the leap to feature films. 90% of what's being written and centered in t

Having gone through John Marshall's sense of his masculinity, its foundations, and the personal issues it's causing him in Part 1 of this series, then the way the film presents the spectrum of masculinity in the town of Snow Hollow in Part 2, it's time to take a look at the way the film presents an

In Part 1 of this series, I went through the ways The Wolf of Snow Hollow depicts its protagonist, John Marshall, in how his inability to see beyond his conception of masculinity was creating havoc and conflict in every area of his life, including getting in the way of the murder investigation he's

That’s exactly it. It’s this earnest, threatening urgency, of people who have a huge amount of testosterone as well as a desire to find justice and do the right thing. I’ve met a lot of law enforcement officials, and their favorite movies—you can ask any of them—are Batman, Superman, and “Fast & Fur

From the first time I saw it, the thing that impressed me most about The Wolf of Snow Hollow was the combination of incisiveness, honesty and accuracy with which it's protagonist John Marshall is portrayed. It is accurate and little too plain to say, The Wolf of Snow Hollow treats John Marshall as a

Horror television is hard to make effective. Sustaining tension, suspense, dread over the length of a season is very different from the ninety minutes to two hours of the average film. Additionally, the history of the medium, in relation to broadcast standards and censorship, meant it wasn't a desti

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas occupies an interesting place in the landscape of contemporary horror. She has been at the forefront of an academic movement treating horror and exploitation film as not just worthy of interrogation, but as important to interrogate as sociopolitical work. Moreover, she's ma

If you've seen the two pieces I posted last week, you know the first Ready or Not is a film I have a deep affection for. In that piece, I argued it is a perfect film. I also posted a spoiler free review for the new sequel that hit theaters last Friday, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. I wouldn't go so f

In 2019, the film cooperative known as Radio Silence debuted Ready or Not. It was a surprising, fresh, excellent entry in the horror comedy sub genre. It gave theatrical audiences their first chance to discover Samara Weaving in a lead role, proving herself a genuine talent with a combination of aut

Maggie Gylenhaal is one of the few people in the world who can say, “I am a director, and I played one on tv.” Gylenhaal. After a respectable career, where she’d demonstrated her talent and an eye for interesting characters as an actress, it was playing a sex worker turned porn director that gave he

Amanda Seyfried has been in the business of making movies on our screens for twenty-five years now. She was a teenager, a few years into her career, in 2004, she had a supporting role in Mean Girls, one of the most successful and beloved comedies of its era. Mamma Mia! would also go onto financial s

In 1984, Silent Night, Deadly Night was released to theaters. It wasn't the first evil Santa film, by any means. It may have been the first to have its television commercials run during in the daytime, early evening and during nationally televised football games though. This led to it becoming an un

In 2025, twenty-three years after the iconic 28 Days Later became an international hit, and revitalized the zombie sub genre, 28 Years Later was released to critical and box office success. When it was announced director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland were coming back to the long stagnant franc

In circles of people interested in the history of horror on film, it's generally accepted that the evolution of the slasher sub genre flows through films like Peeping Tom, Psycho, Black Christmas and Halloween, but it's 1980's seminal Friday the 13th that cements those elements in the public imagina

In July of 2016, Netflix debuted Stranger Things, and it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. That series mixed elements of horror, science fiction, and fantasy with the influence of the kids and young adult adventure films of the eighties period it was set. Over ten years and five seasons, the cre

I've been trying to come up with a way to avoid falling down the rabbit hole of scrolling social media during my day, but still try to keep some presence that is transparent and authentic. When I go to post on social media in the midst of writing, it's usually because what I'm writing has lead to th

In 1999, The Blair Witch Project introduced mass audiences to first person point of view filmmaking. Blair Witch wasn't the first, as Cannibal Holocaust and films like Spinal Tap incorporated first person POV into their faux documentary structures, but it was the first to suggest mass audiences woul

[Note: I don't spoil any specific events in plot of the film here, but I am talking about it in a way that describes and details its thematic bent, which may be more than some would like to know ahead of viewing The Long Walk. The plainest thing I can confer is that it's worth seeing, and thematical

What makes this movie an enduring masterpiece, is that it's thesis seems to be, "America is a madness, and I want you to look at it, and experience it." And there's art that works in a more polite setting, but ultimately I think most great art is a punch in our complacent faces. That movie expands m

[NOTE: Since this film was released in 1968, I'm not going to attempt to avoid spoilers. It's a great film, worth the time, so go watch it before you read this.] In 1966, Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the clock tower at University of Texas Austin with a bevy of firearms. In the ninety-six mi

A friend once said, "Being a horror fan is like prospecting for gold. You dig through the mud and muck, looking for flecks of gold, and you find enough of those, to make it worth it, but it takes work. You have to watch a fair amount of shit. Then, once in a while, you come across a whole nugget, an

Hampton Bays, NY, 1986 Christopher shakes out a cigarette with his right hand, lights it with his left, and doesn't takes his eyes off the small TV sitting on the counter behind the bar. The Knicks aren't going to make the playoffs, but they are giving the Cavaliers a good run, and when the home tea

Well, the Philippou brothers really know how to make a horror film that's emotionally engaging. It’s clear now, their first film wasn’t a fluke of beginners luck. They didn’t stumble into the achievement of making an excellent debut film out of that odd luck that sometimes comes to those who don’t k

Over the past few years, there have been a slew of slasher films trading on eighties nostalgia. It’s a Wonderful Knife, Totally Killer, both trade on the period for laughs. In a Violent Nature finds a new narrative framework to put a spin on the Friday the 13th formula. Even as it’s not set in the e

Horror is the art of fear, the uncomfortable and the taboo. This is to say it's the storytelling genre we use to explore those things. This can mean very specific, individual fears. It can also mean collective fears. It also means exploring ideas, themes and topics that sit at the nexus of that rela

SPOILER FREE REVIEW 28 Years Later is a brilliant, beautiful and deeply humane film. It is both a lament and a warning about the retreat into traditionalism. Its beauty is in escaping pedantry and didactic lecturing because a deep sadness is laced fully through it. In choosing this, it also evades a

NOTE: I've avoided spoiling plot or character points, as this is still opening weekend for this film. There are a few references to themes. In 2015, writer/director Ryan Coogler made a splash on the festival circuit and with critics, with his feature film debut Fruitvale Station. A film documenting

"It’s all a mess. The one out there. The one in here. The one that’s coming. Why is everyone so ready to think the worst is over?” - Susie Bannion (as played by Dakota Johnson) It’s chilling to consider this line today, originally delivered to theaters in 2018 by Dakota Johnson, as Susie Bannion, in

When the release of Heart Eyes was initially announced, I couldn't help but be interested in what three filmmakers who clearly have such a love and respect for horror (slashers particularly) and rom-coms could put together. Though their combined filmography is a mixed bag, for me personally, I was s

Certain premises and tropes are just too much for genre filmmakers to leave alone for very long. Part of the joy of being a genre fan is watching new filmmakers bring their personal perspective to them. What fans like me hope for, is a filmmaker finding some way to bring something so new and refresh

Heretic gets an unusual place in the record of my experiences with film. I can't remember the last time I came out of a film with such a negative response, on first viewing, only to have it completely turned around in a second viewing. When the credits rolled the first time, I thought it had committ

The older I get, the more I appreciate Kurt Vonnegut. The absurdity of this life, maybe particularly American aburdity, has become an inescapable presence, towering over everything. Twain was the first satirist to be celebrated for it, and Vonnegut replaces Twain’s bucolic America with one where TV,

Make the stake thick, the bonds stiff on my innocent wrists. Burn me the same way you burned her: do it because we took the plain thoughts from our own heads into the square, and spoke. From "How to Burn a Woman" by Claire Askew It’s been some year, hasn’t it? I recently saw someone invoking the uni

This is spoiler free in that it does not contain plot details, though I will discuss some of the themes. Zoe Kravitz isn't unknown to movie fans or celebrity gossip hounds. She is the daughter of Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz, stepdaughter of Jason Momoa, with a handful of impressive acting credits u

“Dark sides are important, they should be nurtured like nasty black orchids.” Gillian Flynn One of the reasons I fell in love with storytelling (and the arts more broadly) is that it is a way we express our experience of being human, in all it's complication and nuance. It's why story and the arts d

As I'm aging, and giving myself the permission, the freedom, to spend more time and energy considering storytelling, I've been taking a new look at things I have taken as givens, maybe taken for granted. Among them is the fact that storytelling, and the arts as a whole, are one of the ways we commun

NOTE: There will be no attempt to avoid spoilers for the 1978 Halloween. On the surface, John Carpenter’s Halloween is an elegant, stylish, low budget horror film. It's charismatic cast, and an iconic villain help it achieve a level of financial rare for any low budget film. More than forty-five yea

NOTE: There will be spoilers for the original 1978 Halloween. There will be no attempt to avoid them. This is written with the assumption the reader has seen the film. The original Halloween is an achievement in independent filmmaking. It spawned three characters who have become part of the pop cult

Are you familiar with the idea that if you live in a city, and you're ever in peril or having an emergency of some kind, you should yell "fire" and not "help"? The idea is that in cities especially, if you yell help, no one will come because they're too self involved. They don't want to get involved