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The Ugly Stepsister: What Are We Trying to Say?
The Ugly Stepsister has a lot of hype right now. It’s an interesting take on Cinderella told from the perspective of an “ugly” stepsister. The elements of body and psychological horror are used to emphasize the themes of body image, societal standards, and fantasy vs realty. But in the end, I was left feeling conflicted. …
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Final Destination 1-5: Why We Like Watching People Die
I am beyond hyped for Final Destination: Bloodlines. To refresh my memory on the series, it seemed like a good time for a rewatch of the first five. While there are definitely high and low points in the franchise, I was left with a much bigger question: Why do I like these so much? Despite…
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They Call Her Death: Genre Mash-Up Madness
They Call Her Death is a unique experience. It takes considerable courage to make a spaghetti western in 2025 that looks and feels like it’s straight out of the early ‘60s. From the grainy film stock to the warbling soundtrack, this is a modem version of the old low-budget classics. How you feel about it will largely…
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Prom Night 1980: A Mixed Bag of Other Movies
Prom Night is one of the “childhood pranks and/or bullying results in a lot of murders” kind of slashers. It’s also Jamie Lee Curtis’ third horror movie, between The Fog and Terror Train. Her involvement in the film secured the funding needed and helped propel the slasher to cult classic. Prom Night got a couple of sequels in 1987 and 1990,…
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Blood Fest: This Was Better the First Time
Blood Fest is one of my favorite concepts: horror fans are caught in a deadly live action haunt where the actors are trying to kill the attendees. The set-up for this horror comedy does so much right. I even enjoyed it the first time I watched it. So how does a movie with so much…
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Fear Street Trilogy: Nostalgia Fueled Teen Horror
Okay, I’ll admit, I didn’t read the Fear Street books as a teen. Although I was aware of R. L Stine’s famous series, my friends and I were more fans of Christopher Pike. Pre-teen loyalty runs strong, no matter if you’re talking about boy bands or YA Horror writers. My interest in the Netflix trilogy…
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The Slasher M.O.: Why Kills Matter
H3 (Horror Hating Husband) asked me the other day why it mattered if in a slasher movie the kills happened mostly off screen. He was genuinely interested, and it got me thinking about all the different reasons why we want to see killers kill. Like everything with entertainment why we love what we love is complex. Impact for…
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Sinners: Real Elevated Horror
With Sinners, Ryan Coogler proves you don’t have to reinvent a classic monster to make it compelling. All you need to do is surround it with a stellar story, cast, and themes. Oh, and a breathtakingly gorgeous soundtrack doesn’t hurt either. Sinners has all these elements and more. So much so that it’s one of the few movies that…
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Silver Bullet: Underrated or Past its Prime
Silver Bullet is one of the less frequently discussed Stephen King adaptations. It’s also one of my favorite stories from him. In 1983, Stephen King released a novella illustrated by Bernie Wrightson called Cycle of the Werewolf. It was a different format from King, combining short stories revolving around a small town dealing with werewolf preying on its residents…
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I Know What You Did Last Summer: Pretty People in Peril.
I feel a certain sense of loyalty to I Know What You Did Last Summer; after all, much of it was filmed in my current home state. While there are quite a few horror movies that filmed scenes in the area—some of those locations I’ve visited already—I Know What You Did Last Summer takes place in a…