Alex Pagliuca

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 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

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

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

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

In the last few decades, the slasher sub genre has been through the blender, mixed with all manner of other genres and sub genres. The simplicity of the formula allows plenty of other things to be grafted onto it (shout out to Samara Weaving as Laura Crane who references this in the opening of Screa

Note: There will be both a spoiler free review, and a more in depth discussion after. Spoiler Free Review If nothing else, Pearl is something different. It has most of the elements fans of the slasher sub genre are going to be looking for, and is simultaneously so much more than that. Earlier this y

Let's get something out of the way, This is not a good movie. There are some things about the film which are particularly good and do rise about a lot of what the lesser end of the standard horror film fall prey to. The cinematography is gorgeous. The whole thing looks great, and there are some trul