A couple of articles ago, I described a “process of excitement” that filmgoers experience with each new release, especially if the film is the next entry in a franchise or directed by one of Hollywood’s top auteurs. We need everything that will help us bide our time until the film’s impending release date, and each …
Occasionally older, strong-willed women creep into the sex-saturated narrative of horror that traditionally wallows in the terrorizing and disposing of young ladies. There is something to the fact that whether their presence maintains, twists or rebukes the genre’s stereotypically repressive lessons about female sexuality that so often end in the punishment of women acting out …
People have a pretty intimate relationship with music. The song that was playing when you had your first slow dance, broke up with that certain someone, or lost your virginity will rank higher for you than it will for some random listener. Even bad songs have a way of causing flashbacks, for better or worse. …
If anyone in Hollywood says that they are retiring or done with a certain something, take it with a grain of salt. Last year after the release of Insidious Chapter 2, James Wan said that he was done with horror movies, but we now know that isn’t happening, thankfully. Deadline reports that Wan will return …
Not two weeks ago, famed auteur and Pacific Rim director Guillermo Del Toro set the internet ablaze when he announced the confirmation of a follow up to his 2013 robots vs. monsters film Pacific Rim and dated Pacific Rim 2 for April 7, 2017. The biggest surprise wasn’t the official announcement of the sequel though, …
They’re back!!! Sam Raimi and Gil Kenan are remaking the horror classic Poltergeist, and not even Hollywood rumors about a deadly curse are enough to stop them. What makes the original 1982 version so terrifying? Let’s recap. An average everyday family, living in a run-of-the-mill suburban house, begin to notice some strange things are happening in …
There’s a wonderfully maddening moment early on in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining where Danny Torrance is perusing the corridors of the Overlook hotel on his tricycle. He swings round corners, the camera obsessively following him in a locked in third person perspective angle. The skin crawling score by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind swells up …
Insidious: Chapter 2 joins the less than stellar ranks of films like The Descent: Part 2 in being an immediate continuation of a horror film that, though ending with a looming threat, did not call for a sequel. After a prologue set in 1986, the film kicks off on the night its predecessor ended, with Rose Byrne’s Renai Lambert questioned by police over the supernatural events that led to the murder by strangulation of psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye).
Filmmakers have continued to push boundaries and find new innovative ways to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust and horror from viewers. Since Alfred Hitchcock directors strived to provoke viewer’s nightmares, hidden fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Although a good deal of it is about the supernatural, others have focused more on a …
We here at Sound On Sight are big fans of Insidious, perhaps the only decent horror film so far of 2011. Michael Waldman, Justine Smith and myself all gave it a fairly positive review on episode 21 of the Sordid Cinema podcast. Joshua Youngerman wrote a raving review saying, “Insidious is a superior horror film …
Hollywood needs a hit Actually, Hollywood needs a bunch of hits. Actually, Hollywood needs a bunch of big, fat, through-the-roof hits. And with the summer – and the year – half over, the time to come up with them is running out. The movie business finished 2010 with the second highest domestic box office on record: $10.2 …
James Wan, widely known for directing the horror film Saw, creating Billy the puppet and helming last year’s surprise hit Insidious, has signed on to direct another home haunting in The Conjuring. It makes sense considering Insidious received positive reviews from critics and fans alike, and grossed over $75 million against a budget of …
Insidious Directed by James Wan 2010, United States, 102 mins. Insidious is great fun and proof that you can make a PG-13 horror movie that is plenty scary without relying on gore. In fact, there are really no gruesome images in the film, which might disappoint fans of director James Wan’s debut, Saw. Wan has …
The South By Southwest (SXSW) Festival has really improved their line-up over the years, and this year they have once again outdone themselves. The lineup for the Midnight features and shorts have been announced, and there are some exciting premieres featured. If you are a fan of genre films, you will want to keep a …