Laura R. Kremmel Bestselling author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is indeed fortunate to have been rescued from a near-fatal car accident off a remote Colorado road in the middle of a blizzard. He is even more fortunate that his rescuer is a nurse with years of experience and a home well equipped to care for […]
Cody Parish and Kristen Ann Leer Aside from its infamous “hobbling scene,” the most indelible moment of director Rob Reiner’s 1990 film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, Misery (1987), occurs when fictional writer Paul Sheldon “sees” his dead captor and obsessed fan Annie Wilkes again months after his escape from her remote mountain home.[i] While […]
Black mold is spreading through contemporary popular culture: Mark Samuels’ short story, “The Black Mould” (2011), Jill Ciment’s novel, Act of God (2015), Osgood Perkins’ film I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), Ben Aaronovitch’s graphic novel from the Rivers of London series, Black Mould (2017), Jac Jemc’s novel, The Grip […]
Bruce Davison’s turn as Willard Stiles, the vengeful misfit with an uncanny ability to commune with rodents in the 1971 horror-thriller Willard (Daniel Mann), bears obvious resemblance to Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. Blonde hair and hammy delivery aside, he possesses the same beakish face and boyish shyness pierced through occasionally by a seething rage. His […]
Kristen A. Leer and Cody Parish Introduction At the time of its release, Misery (1990) was one of only a few horror films that depicted female psychosis, with actress Kathy Bates receiving critical acclaim and an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of former nurse and obsessed fan Annie Wilkes. […]
The long-awaited follow-up season to The Haunting of Hill House has finally arrived to overwhelmingly positive reviews. The Haunting of Bly Manor, although similar to its predecessor on the surface, is actually a far cry from Hill House. A young American woman named Dani (Victoria Pedretti) takes on the position of an au pair for […]
Zombies have become ubiquitous globally in film and television. This undead ghoul keeps returning and finding new ways to infect our screens. Here, I look at Cholo (John Leguizamo) from George A Romero’s Land of the Dead (2005), one of the few Latinx zombies in film, delving into what this ghoul represents. In 1968 the […]
When Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) stumbles down a hallway in Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977), we sense that the crimson flocked wallpaper is participating in a spell. In a blinding white flash punctuated in Goblin’s score by the word “witch,” a shard of mirror illuminates the dust that permeates the space with cognitive and respiratory menace. […]
When autumn rolls around horror movies awake. Among the most enduring of stories for fall frights is the short story by Washington Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The story is simple: an outsider schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, comes to Sleepy Hollow and is smitten by Katrina Van Tassel. Katrina’s beau, Brom Bones, frightens the credulous […]