How I ended up watching this film was something bizarrely like kismet. My boyfriend Tom woke up one Sunday morning, and immediately (and inexplicably) started describing scenes from a movie he’d seen a long time ago, asking if I knew what movie it was. It didn’t sound familiar to me, but then he suddenly remembered … More Movies: Brimstone and Treacle (1982)
I think I speak for most horror fans when I say that there are few things in life more gratifying and joy-inducing than stumbling across a movie pretty much randomly that you’d never heard of, and discovering that it’s one of the most entertaining things you’ve seen in ages. Such was the case with 2020’s … More Movies: Bloody Hell (2020)
Horror comedies are a genre I have something of an uneasy relationship with. On the one hand, when done well, the humor of the film in question can enhance the fright factor immensely, making the movie greater than the sum of its parts. I’m talking here about fun, smart, and over-the-top grisly films like Shaun of … More Horror Comedy Double Feature: Welcome to Willits (2017) and Ava’s Possessions (2015)
So how’s this for a bizarre coincidence? I had been perusing the films that Shudder had been adding all throughout the past couple of months that I hadn’t got around to watching yet, with a view to putting them on the docket for my August series of reviews, when I happened upon a 2010 film … More Movies: All About Evil (2010)
So I’ve been writing about horror for a while now, rabbiting on the way I do, reminiscing about some of my favorite books and movies from my youth and trying to figure out what made certain things stick with me over the years. But in all that time, it never occurred to me to write … More Movies: April Fool’s Day (1986)
Victor LaValle was yet another author that I had been sadly remiss in hearing about it until his work was recommended on several book review channels I watch. Other than being a novelist, LaValle is also a writing professor at Columbia, as is his wife. They have a son named Geronimo, which I thought was … More Books: The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
Grady Hendrix is an author who gets recommended a lot by reviewers on YouTube, and it’s really easy to see why: his books are not only immensely winning and heartfelt horror stories laced heavily with comedy, but he also usually has the books designed in such a way that there’s a whole gestalt going on … More Books: Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
While author Dean Koontz sells nearly as many books as Stephen King, and has actually been writing for longer than King has, there have been significantly fewer film adaptations of Koontz’s works, and none that have garnered all that much recognition or critical praise. 1977’s Demon Seed is pretty fantastic, and Watchers from 1988 is … More Movies: Odd Thomas (2011)
As my previously stated love of the novels Horrorstör and My Best Friend’s Exorcism will attest—not to mention my undying admiration for the absolutely stellar and beautifully-designed nonfiction work Paperbacks From Hell (which explores the horror paperback boom of the 1970s and 1980s)—Grady Hendrix has become easily one of my favorite horror writers working today. … More Books: The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
The Scare Salon 