Tina’s Death in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
ANALOG NIGHTMARES
The first time I watched Wes Craven’s seminal masterpiece, I was huddled around a 22’’ tube TV sitting on the shaggy carpeted floor of a friend’s spare bedroom. The room was full of...
Just Hanging Around in Urban Legend (1998)
I have a confession: I didn’t always get horror.
You see, the horror genre and I have a long, sordid relationship. Sure, everything is all wine and roses now, but, like most great romances, it...
Finding the Killer Shark Slasher Movie in JAWS 2 (1978)
I avoided the Jaws sequels for many years before I finally succumbed to the inevitable franchise marathon that lies in wait for all horror completists. Admittedly, my mindset was somewhat condemning from the start....
Pretending to be Alive: The Zombies of Land of the Dead (2005)
My imagination was running wild.
The menacing heads of encroaching zombies stretched as far as the yellow and black horizon, under the shadow of a dimly lit cityscape. Floating above it all in large red...
Explosive Cruelty in THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)
“The first monster that must frighten you is the filmmaker himself”
—Wes Craven
In the earliest days of my horror movie explorations, there were a handful of directors whose work rose to the very top of...
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...
Fruits, Brains and Bats in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Sequels come with a certain degree of baggage. That is to say, the sequel’s greatest enemy is expectation, more often than not brought on by the love and adoration which accompanies its predecessor. After...
Speaking the Curse to Drag Me to Hell (2009)
You Shamed Me
It was early summer in 2009. Friday night. I was sitting in a movie theater, as I was prone to do and I was excited. No, scratch that… ecstatic. I was there...
The Butchered Remains of CHERRY FALLS (2000)
Much like the seemingly indestructible nature of their antagonists, the slasher sub-genre has a way of resurrecting itself every generation to terrorize a new batch of teenagers who just want to drink, have sex...
Drenched in Blood: Exploring the Vampires of Waxwork (1988)
The bulk of my experience with horror as a kid can be summed up by all of the unreasonably disconcerting VHS covers I nervously studied while passing by them in the video store. The...
Eddie’s Transformation in Howling (1981)
Everything transforms eventually, in one way or another. But, let me back up…
While 1981 saw the release of three rather large in scope werewolf films, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling and Wolfen,...
Babysitting Jud in Pet Sematary (1989)
Even as a child, with no knowledge or interest in the more horrific stories that the world had to offer me, I was aware of the name: Stephen King.
The moniker felt more like a...
A Congregation of Werewolves in Silver Bullet (1985)
There’s this place in horror that exists somewhere in between the innocent and wholesome and the brutal and disturbing. A place that feels so familiar, so welcoming and yet… quietly dangerous. It’s the sort...
Facing Down a Mack Truck: Severen in Near Dark (1987)
At first glance, I thought I was staring at a copy of Twilight (2008).
The pale, brooding face staring down from the top right corner of the key art was a dead ringer for Robert...
The Queen Attacks in THE FACULTY (1998)
As a high school student in the late 90s and early 2000s who was only peripherally aware of horror, even I knew the name Kevin Williamson. Not only had he helped to usher in...
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...
Clowning Around in Krampus (2015)
“He left me, as a reminder of what happens when hope is lost, when belief is forgotten, and the Christmas spirit dies.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking: it’s Christmas and, conceptually speaking, a dead...
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...
Zombie VS Shark, What Else Needs to be Said?
I’m not ashamed to admit that as a budding horror fan, my first obsession— my first love— was zombie flicks.
George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) ignited a passion within me for...
THIRTEEN GHOSTS (2001) and a Lawyer Split in Two
As the decade shifted and the 90s became the 2000s, my taste in movies was shifting too. I was in high school then, taking in movies every weekend and contributing to the box office...
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....
A Lullaby for Mrs. Voorhees: Friday the 13th (1980)
Long before I had ever seen a horror movie in full, I was well aware that a man wearing a hockey mask and brandishing a sharp weapon was bad news.
I can’t quite pinpoint it,...
Don’t Get Them Wet: Birthing Adorable Monstrosities in Gremlins (1984)
It was late and it was snowing. I was wrapped in a blanket that smelled sort of funny, you know, a musty sort of smell that led me to believe it had been balled...
An Electrifying Hot Tub in Valentine (2001)
In the early 2000’s, for my friends and I, Friday nights were reserved for the movie theater. It didn’t matter what movie it was— if it was playing, my friends and I would see...
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...