As a young horror movie fan, I was always taken aback by photos from Nosferatu, a silent and unauthorized film version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula made in 1922. What struck me most was the strange appearance of the vampire, played by Max Schreck. He seemed too weird and unlike theContinue Reading
1999’s The Mummy was one of the more pleasant summer films to come along in quite some time. It took an old film — the original 1932 Universal horror movie, The Mummy — and updated it for a new generation of filmgoers without ruining the concept or disrespecting the originalContinue Reading
After what looks like a UFO lands in small field in Iowa, strange things begin to happen in a nearby town. A group from a secret government agency, led by Andrew Nivens (Donald Sutherland), moves in to investigate the scene. Nivens’ son, Sam (Eric Thal), who is also in theContinue Reading
The original Scream ushered in a new era for teen slasher films, in which the on-screen participants were clued in to the many clichés of the genre. By the time the first sequel was released, a plethora of copycat movies that used the same formula to varying degrees of successContinue Reading
Loosely based on Shirley Jackson’s novel, “The Haunting of Hill House,” this 1999 sleeper hit puts Liam Neeson in charge of an experiment gauged to measure the human reaction to fear. Taking three insomniacs into an old mansion under the guise of an experiment involving sleep disorders, Neeson’s Professor MarrowContinue Reading
Ever since Jaws turned sharks into Mother Nature’s ultimate villain, countless attempts have been made to cash in on their appeal to moviegoers. Whether it be the three sequels to the original Jaws, which degraded in quality with each outing, or 1981’s now impossible-to-find virtual remake of Jaws, Great WhiteContinue Reading
Tim Burton has directed some of my favorite films, including Ed Wood and Big Fish. Even if a project he’s worked on doesn’t quite work, like Mars Attacks! or Batman, the resulting film still is interesting to look at from a cinematic point-of-view and always full of his unique stylisticContinue Reading