- Horror Movie - Horror Homeroom

Posted on March 4, 2018

Midnighters, the Cost of the American Dream, and A Simple Plan

Dawn Keetley

Midnighters premiered in June 2017 at the Los Angeles Film Festival and saw its theatrical release in the US on March 2, 2018. It’s the feature-film directorial debut for Julius Ramsay, who has directed two episodes of AMC’s The Walking Dead—two very good ones, I might add: “Still” (s. 4, ep. 12 [2014]) and “Them” (s. 5, ep. 10 [2015])—as well as an episode of Scream: The TV Series (2015) and of Outcast (2016). The screenplay was written by his brother, Alston Ramsay, and the film’s four main leads are well cast: Alex Essoe from 2014’s Starry Eyes as Lindsey, Dylan McTee as her husband Jeff, Perla Haney-Jardine as Lindsey’s wayward sister, Hannah, and Ward Horton as alleged FBI agent Smith. While the plot is a little predictable (I definitely saw the final reveal coming and wondered why none of the characters seemed to), it is acted and directed extremely well. The pacing is perfect with each escalation of the tension happening at just the right time. You should watch this.

Posted on February 24, 2018

What do Bruckner’s The Ritual and Kusama’s The Invitation Have in Common?

Dawn Keetley

David Bruckner’s The Ritual is a wonderful film, which I review here, and which combines rich allusions to other horror films while also doing something quite distinctive. In my review, I mention some of the more obvious references of the film, but here’s a less obvious one: Karyn Kusama’s 2015 film, The Invitation.

Posted on February 19, 2018

Podcasts as Horror Storytelling

Elizabeth Erwin

You can’t expose yourself to grisly images and concepts on the daily and not have a strong stomach. And so it was with more than a little surprise that I found myself having to repeatedly take a break from episode 10 of the fantastic Charles Manson’s Hollywood podcast, which recounts in grisly detail the murders that took place at Sharon Tate’s home in 1969.

Now none of these details were new to me. In fact, I’d go so far as to say there may have been elements left out in the telling. But the very intimate nature of listening to the description of events instead of reading it or watching it impacted me in a way for which I was wholly unprepared. And so it got me thinking about the ways in which podcasts are revolutionizing the horror experience for fans. Read more

Posted on February 10, 2018

The Ritual: Best Horror Film of 2018 So Far

Dawn Keetley

The Ritual just arrived on Netflix US on February 9, 2018, after general release in the UK and Ireland last October. It’s directed by David Bruckner (The Signal, 2007, and the “Amateur Night” segment in V/H/S, 2012) and co-written by Joe Barton and Adam Nevill. Nevill wrote the fantastic novel of the same name (2011). (Aside: go and read the novel.) Since I loved the novel, I’ve been following the film with anticipation, and so part of me expected disappointment as I began it as soon as it was humanly possible for me to do so on the day it arrived on Netflix. I was not disappointed. Far from it. In fact, The Ritual is my favorite horror film of 2018 so far.

Posted on February 4, 2018

Better Watch Out and the Era of Trump

Elizabeth Erwin

Despite being filmed in Australia, Chris Peckover’s Better Watch Out (2016) is a film that very much feels like it belongs in Trump’s America. From the way wealth and privilege are leveraged to create a veneer of normalcy to the intersection of male privilege and childhood, this film’s messaging is situated directly in those conversations being held in the American cultural sphere.

The film’s storyline is a relatively simple one. Having arrived at the Lerner residence to babysit 12-year-old Luke (Levi Miller), Ashley’s (Olivia DeJonge) expected quiet evening takes a dramatic turn when she is forced to guard her charge and his best friend, Garrett (Ed Oxenbould), against a home intruder. But things quickly take a turn when Ashley discovers that her biggest threat comes from the person she’d least suspect. Read more