The Misuse of Dissociative Identify Disorder & Demonization of Homosexuality in High Tension (2003)
So far in The Haunted and the Sick, I have praised multiple films on their ability to portray various illnesses properly and mentioned how they could do better. However, writers can learn by example,...
Written in Blood: Introducing the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow (1999)
As were most teenagers in the late 90s, I was a Tim Burton fan. It was hard not to be given his striking aesthetic and proclivity for telling dark fairy tales in a way...
Desires of Blood in the Folktale Horror of The Witch (2015)
There are some movies that just feel dangerous. As if they’re capable of anything. Movies that seem to be constructed more of dread than plot. Nightmarish windows into a different world, foreign to us...
Toku Tuesday: Project Nemesis, the Series
In the past we discussed the comic adaptation of Jeremy Robinson's novel Project Nemesis, this week we're discussing the series as a whole. Lasting five books with one prequel novel Project Nemesis is a...
Fact Versus Fiction: Trusting a Killer in Happy Face Killer (2014)
In 1990, Keith Hunter Jesperson would turn thirty-five years old. He had recently received two major blows to an already dangerously fragile ego. The first disappointment was getting rejected by the Royal Canadian Mounted...
Introducing ‘Holy Horror,’ a new column by Rachel Bolton
Hello readers of Scriptophobic! As we head into a new year and a new decade, I decided it’s time for something different. Starting in January, I will be writing a new monthly column, Holy...
The Cinematic Faces of Ed Gein
In this week’s Serial Killer Celluloid, we’re going to cheat— just a little. Ed Gein isn’t classified as a serial killer. The man was a proper ghoul, having robbed and desecrated graves for some...
A Hand, Broken Dishes, and a Chainsaw in Evil Dead II
Lend me a hand?
I came upon the first Evil Dead (1981) while researching influential horror movies online. I had heard the title before and had previously assumed it to be a schlock oddity, something...
It Comes at Night and the Art of Opening Strong
Setting the Stage
A few days ago I finally broke the plastic on my Blu-ray of It Comes at Night (2017) and sat down for blind watch. I had managed to avoid any spoilers or trailers and...
Good VS Evil: Murphy’s Death in Robocop (1987)
The pop culture zeitgeist is a machine that can metamorphose its icons into something digestible. Safe. Crowd— and therefore family— friendly. The more press and entertainment space awarded to a figure, the more familiar...
Scream Writing Questions with Andy Mitton
Here on Scriptophobic, we believe that studying screenplays and discussing the writing process are of vital importance to a Scream Writer's growth. That's why we here at Scriptophobic are proud to bring you a new...
An Apocalypse of Our Own Design; or, Designing the Apocalypse.
In years past, apocalyptic scenarios were most commonly seen in cult classics and midnight drive-in movies. These pieces of art could be incredibly influential, sure, but they stood out amongst a crowd of other...
Opening a Door on Scream (1996)
One fateful sleepover in the summer of 1998, my friend Erich opened his father’s VHS cabinet and invited the group of us to peer inside and make a selection. It was late by then,...
Using Decay to Develop Your Characters and Worlds
A bullet might be the fastest way to develop character (or end it). Similarly, dropping a bomb on a city is the most surefire way to change the landscape of a fictional world. But...
Blood, Laughs and Yard Work in Tucker and Dale VS. Evil (2010)
I had been hearing about Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010) for over a year when it finally hit Netflix in late 2011. I was deeply entrenched in the horror genre then— scouring...
The Start of a Plague: Zombieland (2009)
As a burgeoning horror fan in the mid-2000s, it became rather apparent fairly quickly that not everyone in the world was as into the genre as I was.
Sure, these days horror seems to be...
Deep Red (1975), a Bloody Good Mystery
Here in Everything But Bone, we’re heading back to the horror subgenre giallo, or Italian horror-thriller-slashers. It’s been awhile, last time I wrote about one was Zombie 2 last summer. I believe a return...
Dracula (1992), the Ultimate Hot Mess.
In today’s Everything But Bone, we are entering bold new territory, writing about a film that’s bad. But why do that, you might say. Because, while the plot, characters, and acting isn’t the best,...
After a 100 Years, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Still Scares
Horror movies are in the middle of a renaissance. Sure, us fans know they have always been valued forms of entertainment, now horror is being taken a little more seriously. But let’s...
David’s Transformation in An American Werewolf in London (1981)
A HOWLING GOOD TIME
When I was in college, rather than saving my money for practical things like groceries or bills, what little I was able to scrimp and save went directly to horror DVDs....
The Dog Kennel from The Thing (1982)
OBEDIENCE TRAINING GONE WRONG
It was the summer of 2004. As burgeoning horror fans, my brother and I used our freedom from school and responsibility to digest as much genre cinema as we possibly could....
Choking on Day of the Dead (1985)
I placed the DVD down on the table excitedly, bright yellow and featuring the jutting out visage of a forlorn looking zombie. I had watched Dawn of the Dead (1978) only the night before...
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) Finds Beauty in a Gory Dystopia
If you were a gothy/emo/nerd teen in the mid to late 2000’s like me, chances are you were obsessed with a horror musical. If might have been The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), or Tim...
The Absurd Punk Energy of PSYCHO GOREMAN (2020)
Tokusatsu has a wide influence and it is never more clear how wide-reaching it is than when you see a film like Psycho Goreman (2020). It is a love letter to the inventiveness found...
Location as Character with The Witch (2015)
Welcome back, Scream Writers. Have you ever noticed that some films are set in locations that feel as much, if not more, of a character than the rest of cast? Just think of The...