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The decision to make the most recent installment of Hell House LLC, titled Lineage, a regular movie rather than a found footage movie raised doubts and questions from initial announcement. Unfortunately I spent the night of August 20th confused what I was even watching. Very few times in my life have myself or my husband decided that a movie wasn't worth sitting in the theater to complete it and instead left but this is one of those time, I walked out about 40 minutes into th

In this post I argue the thesis: the audience driven success of Get Out (2017) encouraged more money invested in making black horror. This investment resulted in more black voices successfully telling black stories through the genre which helped push the genre forward while validating unspoken pains experienced by many in the community and generating large return on investments.

Opening with the final product Faceless After Dark released in 2023 starring Jenna Kanell as Bowie, a B-horror movie actress who has just broken into the industry. While the movie itself is not the biggest blockbuster of horror films it has more care and reverence for the subject matter it covers than the fake movie in the film. The movie follows Bowie as she grapples with building parasocial expectations from the movie’s fan base and feeling like she has pigeon holed herself

Prior to Paranormal Activity (2007) found footage success was limited to the first Blair Witch Project movie that premiered in 1999 with the caveat that the 2nd movie flopped hard. Like its predecessor in the subgenre the first Paranormal Activity movie relied heavily on guerrilla marketing. That term, guerrilla marketing, refers to marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing or straight up advertising despite being just that.

On the surface The Skeleton Key (2005) comes off as an average horror thriller film of the time, taking audiences along to question the main character’s sanity and if supernatural elements could be the root cause. Kate Hudson portraying Caroline Ellis is a 25 year old who recently lost her dad while pursuing the roadie tour life which is the reason for her sudden career shift. For the pay of $1,000 a week she moves into this mansion to care for an elderly man but the job isn'

The revival of the Scream franchise 11 years after the last installment feels like a confirmation that a new era of horror has arrived and solidified itself into the horror ecosystem. Modern horror tropes take center stage as a new group of teens in Woodsboro face a new Ghostface copycat killer. The 5th installment simply titled Scream (2022) is the first in the series not directed by Wes Craven who passed away in 2015.

Available to watch now on Shudder by clicking here, Hellbender is a 2021 horror movie that bends tropes while creating a broad supernatural world. A protective mother and her adolescent daughter live in rural woods near mountains and bodies of water that they utilize. Living off of foraged plant life Izzy, portrayed by Zelda Adams, and her mother, portrayed by Toby Poser, play in a 2 person metal band together when Izzy isn’t being homeschooled or wandering the woods.

Not too long ago in a place not so far away Black horror meant low budget, badly scripted, comedy-adjacent, straight to TV projects. Rather than a subgenre of horror it was simply a punchline with some notable good additions that tried to break out of that stereotypical box to no longterm avail. From the widespread introduction of the concept the movie stood apart from others immediately in an obvious way: it spoke to Black audiences rather than about Black audiences.

Into the Dark: My Valentine (2020) is a Scott Pilgrim vibe that has collided with the post social media music landscape of fandoms mixed with murder. This well lit anthology installation in the Into the Dark franchise uses comic book style editing and sound effects to give a neon feeling to a tale of abuse.

1BR isn't perfect but it does provide an interesting story that is told from multiple perspectives at different points in time throughout Sarah's indoctrination. I like that the indoctrination is shown before going into the tactics used, it made them feel more impactful as a viewer that I too had been tricked by their methods. So often we brush off noises as our own paranoia or eccentricities in particular if that individual is a woman that lives alone like Sarah is when she