Search Results

Part 3/3 of the Universal Monsters Series By the end of the 1970s the formula for monster horror movies became stale; audiences knew what to expect and part of that expectation is that the monster is impervious to everything except Western Christian symbols…specifically. The world had changed dramatically from the original Universal Monster movies by the time the 1980s rolled around. Gone were the days of silent, black and white films that built suspense with the imagination. Horror in the 80s was dominated by showing it all, sometimes too much. Monsters were made of human flesh as the slasher craze continued, the villains could be vanquished via real-world weapons. The 90s then ushered in the days of closeups, special effects, huge box office revenues, and indie films from studios we consider big-dogs today like Miramax and New Line Cinema blowing up. Disaster movies like Independence Day ran alongside the Disney Renaissance animated films like The Lion King  (1994) and horror wasn’t as big of a thing, natural or supernatural. Although it wasn’t the biggest thing, some of the biggest horror things came from the time period including both Scream  (1996) and The Blair Witch Project  (1999), both changing the horror genre forever in their own rights. The lack of monster movies trend continued into the 2000s and horror focused on established titles becoming extended, never-ending franchises like Saw  (2004 to 2025), Hostel  (2005 to 2011), and Scary Movie  (2000 to an upcoming film) coupled with the increased use of CGI for special effects. Money towards movies increased alongside the box office returns for quite some time alongside general growth in Western countries throughout the 80s, 90s, and somewhat into the 2000s right up until the financial crisis of 2008. Almost 17 years ago now the United States and by extension the rest of the world went into the Great Recession, a period I’ll go into more detail about later on that impacted every facet of Western life. Coinciding with this, internet use became more widespread which led to faster communication and the invention of social media. Although in 2003 DVD rentals surpassed VHS tape rental revenues for the first time in history that soon became irrelevant with the invention of streaming services and the digital world making DVDs obsolete. Not only did this change the way that studios made money on movies but it changed the way movies are advertised, viewed, reviewed, and critiqued. It took only 6 years for a new goal to be set that signified the end of DVDs short reign when in 2009 movie ticket revenues surpassed DVD revenues for the first time. Unfortunately for studios that didn’t mean much because ticket sales also crashed in part due to  the increased use of the internet and the Great Recession limiting consumer spending. The start of the 2010s melded into the late-aughts due to the persistent global economic struggles. Following government changes America was able to begin recovering economically and interest rates remained low throughout the decade, making borrowing money easier than ever for everyone, including studios. For film the decade is marked by Cinematic Universes in particular, the Marvel  CU, DC Comic  Extended Universe, Harry Potter , X-Men  through Fox, Sony’s attempts with Spider-Man , and as will be mentioned later a failed project called the Dark Universe that intended to revive Universal Monsters from a modern perspective. Those following the MCU wanted to capitalize on the obvious success of superhero films and the nostalgia that Disney was able to tap into once again to draw huge, record breaking audiences throughout the decade. While doing this Disney also released a number of extremely successful animated projects including Frozen  (2013) as well as live-action remakes of their beloved titles like Cinderella  (2015) and The Jungle Book  (2016). On the other hand non-Disney movies only managed to be top grossing in box office revenues 2 times during the decade, Avengers: Endgame  (2019) being the highest grossing at $2.79 billion,  Star Wars: The Force Awakens  (2015) at $2.04 billion, and Avengers: Infinity War  (2018) grossing $2.04 billion dollars–all made by Disney. One Redditor commented on an r/flicks post, “You can define the 2010s by three letters: MCU,” in regard to what movies defined the decade in retrospect after the decade had ended. For horror in particular, new and inventive ways to be scary took over with movies like It Follows, Get Out, and Midsommar re-defining the genre. Diversity in production and storytelling also became a big focus of the 2010s as social movements like Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and the #MeToo movement. The #MeToo movement in particular had a strong impact on Hollywood due to it originating in the industry in reference to big-name producers abusing power to abuse female employees like Harvey Weinstein. That diversity paid off into a plethora of new and creative horror stories that felt fresher than decades past and breathed new life into the genre. While at the time we thought the 2010s to be weird, with circumstances like the scary clown craze that came and went without explanation, planking, Kony 2012, songs like “What Does the Fox Say?” and Pokémon Go-to the polls during the 2016 election, the decade has had nothing on the 2020s. We are seeing somewhat of a horror renaissance right now, huge projects and remakes or re-adaptations like The Invisible Man  (2020), Nosferatu  (2024), Wolf Man  (2025), Frankenstein (2025), Salem’s Lot  (2024), and Cuckoo  (2024), are bringing in mainstream audiences and films like Pearl  (2024), Longlegs (2024), I Saw the TV Glow  (2024), The Menu (2022), and Smile  (2022), have managed to crack through into the mainstream also. Some really good and exciting movies have come out or are rumored to come out with a lot having come out this past year alone. With this monster movies have risen alongside a return to world issues reminiscent of the 40s and 50s when they popped-off initially. Problems went from individual big-bads like a targeted attack on your home in the 2010s following the lack of feeling safe within one's self whereas now the big bad monsters are more abstract and focused on broader groups of people whom we perceive to have nefarious intentions. This is the one and only trigger warning in the video: horror movies are generally rated ‘R’ when they come out and thus cover topics that can be horrifying like murder, gruesome curses, apocalyptic circumstances, and hauntings of all kinds. If you are squeamish or troubled by dark and macabre topics this video and channel probably aren’t for you–which is more than okay. On the other hand if you like horror, find the macabre to be the most fascinating, and/or like historical context to media then welcome and carry on. The 1980s As mentioned in part 2 of the Monster series, the more modern the time, the more documentation of that time period. Exponential increases have occurred following advancements like cameras, phones, and so on–much of which was either invented in or re-designed in the 80s. By the 80s technology previously reserved for the military or government had become available for many consumers in the Western world. The technological advancements of the 80s onward directly impacted the film industry in huge ways with advancements in filming and sound capabilities as well as the addition of computer generated images or CGI in film. Ideas that once had to be created with the audience’s imagination could now play out in front of their very eyes, a big leap for horror in particular that often relies on visual elements to build and maintain horror. Technology is not the only thing that impacted films however, the growing push towards conservatism by the Boomer generation as they reached adulthood changed the direction of media and counter-culture media. Horror often challenges and pushes ideas and expectations surrounding social norms in particular and by the 80s the social norms had become far more conservative than previous decades. While older generations still wore the hippie liberal badge with honor, proud of their accomplishments in the Civil Rights, LGBTQ Rights, and Women’s Rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the younger generations wanted stability, comfort, and something more akin to the 1950s catalog cover that never was. Issues in the 80s like the Crack Epidemic and subsequent “War on Drugs” combined with the continued Cold War and emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic helped to push mainstream Western youth more conservative. This is heavily reflected in the media of the time with polar opposite extremes in either direction of media and the increased competition from cable network programming film studios had to rethink movies. Many horror comedies came out during the period which feels like it falls in step with keeping up conservative leanings in content while still trying to appeal to an array of audiences. Ultimately the problems Westerners wished were in the past didn’t bring audiences out, as they opted for comedies, dramas, and fantasies en masse. Movies As mentioned the 80s horror scene revolved around comedies, slashers, and huge, new titles premiering that we consider revolutionary or iconic today like Friday the 13th  (1980), Poltergeist  (1982), Gremlins  (1984), Fright Night  (1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Child’s Play  (1988); and the list goes on and on. Quintessential franchises like Halloween , Texas Chainsaw Massacre , and Dawn of the Dead solidified their contributions to horror during the decade and onwards while helping steer the genre (for better or worse) as recently as this decade. As far as monster movies they were few and far in between with only 3 quote-unquote “high profile” ones being made that will be covered in this video. I haven’t included horror comedies in this series and won’t be starting now–so although a handful of Universal Monster-esque horror films came out in the 80s as horror comedies they will not be covered. The Howling (1981)... ...which is an American film directed by Joe Dante, written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless and based on the novel also called The Howling  by Gary Brandner. Produced by Michael Finnell and Jack Conrad it became fairly successful, having received positive reviews and grossing $17.9 million at the box office in the United States and Canada. Three separate quote-unquote “high profile” werewolf horror movies came out in 1981 alongside The Howling , Wolfen,  and An American Werewolf in London . The last of which won’t be covered in this project because it is a horror-comedy. Karen White played by Dee Wallace, lives in LA and is a news anchor on TV. A serial killer, played by Robert Picardo, named Eddie Quist is stalking Kate and the police have her meet him in a porn theater in order to capture him. Kate is forced to watch films and the police shoot and kill Eddie once he enters. The trauma causes her to have amnesia about the incident and her therapist refers her to a place called the Colony, a resort where patients receive treatment. Kate and her husband, Bill Neill played by Christopher Stone, do go to the Colony where they meet people like Marsha. Marsha makes advances at Bill but when he rejects those advances he ends up getting scratched by a werewolf while returning to his cabin. Due to the attack Karen asks her friend Terry, played by Belinda Balaski, to come to the Colony where they connect Eddie to the resort, whose body isn’t accounted for at this point. In a reversal Bill ends up meeting Marsha in the woods by a campfire and the pair hook up then transform into werewolves while that’s happening. Terry is then attacked by a werewolf but is able to cut the monster's head off, escapes and makes it to the therapists’ office to call her boyfriend, Chris Halloran played by Dennis Dugan. Unfortunately, once Terry discovers the file that connects Eddie to the Colony he attacks her in wolf form and bites her neck. Having overheard this attack on the phone Chris sets off to the Colony with knowledge of what it really is and with silver bullets. Meanwhile Karen comes face-to-face with Eddie again and he transforms into a werewolf which causes her to splash acid on him and run away. When Chris arrives at the Colony he runs into the disfigured Eddie and Chris shoots him with a silver bullet upon seeing him try to transform. It’s revealed that everyone in the Colony is a werewolf that can shapeshift whenever they want, no full moon required. Having survived, Karen and Chris burn the Colony down. They start to drive away from the burning Colony. A werewolf survived the battle however and breaks into the car, bites Karen, and then is shot by Chris. The silver bullet turns the werewolf back into human form which reveals the werewolf that bit Karen was Bill. Karen decides she’ll warn everyone about werewolves and use her own transformation as proof. During the worldwide broadcast she’s shot by Chris in front of a live audience. People watching around the world assume it’s special effects. In a bar Marsha is with a man who orders a rare burger for her and Karen’s broadcast cuts away. As with many horror works the idea of, The Howling , being adapted from a book to a film was initially sparked by Stephen King and a blurb from him that Steven Lane saw on the cover of the book. The rights then got sold to Warner but upon Lane discovering the rights had been sold he partnered with that director, Jack Conrad and set the film up at Avco Embassy Pictures. Conrad left early on and drafts didn’t hit so the director Dante hired Sayles to rewrite the script. The finished script didn’t really align with the book but proved good enough as it followed a self aware tone that Dante also used in Piranha 1978. Special effects of the film were top of the line for the time, which the film is regarded for. Scenes included things like air bladders and latex facial applications to portray the werewolf transformations on screen. Not only were makeup and effects techniques used but also stop motion animation and puppets to further differentiate the werewolves from humans. Regarded as both silly and that the special effects are impressive, The Howling  will always be held in comparison to the other 2 big werewolf films that came out the same year. While An American Werewolf in London  is a horror-comedy so won’t be covered in this project, Wolfen  1981 isn’t and is the next film to be covered. Wolfen (1981)... ...is next up and directed by Michael Wadleigh and written by David M. Eyre, Jr. and Michael Wadleigh Wolfen; also based on a novel. The novel, The Wolfen , is written by Whitley Strieber and came out in 1978. The film follows Albert Finney as Detective Dewey Wilson, a former NYPD officer who is assigned to investigate the murder of a high profile individual, Christopher Van der Veer, his wife, and his bodyguard. All three were brutally murdered in Battery Park which kicks off the plot. The security firm that Van der Veer utilized blames the murders on left-wing anarchists but the condition of the large bodyguard’s body (which had been torn to pieces) Dewey doesn’t believe their story. Due to the high profile and violent nature of the crimes there’s a lot of pressure on Dewey to get the case solved quickly. Dewey starts working with a criminal psychologist on the case, Detective Rebecca Neff played by Diana Venora, to ensure the case gets solved. Meanwhile in the Bronx a man explores an abandoned church that Van der Veer’s company plans to demolish and is attacked and killed by a monster. The murder is connected to the Battery Park murders so Dewey and Rebecca are called in to investigate. Later after Rebecca escapes attack with the help of Dewey at the church the monster kills a bridge worker. The coroner, Whittington played by Gregory Hines, discovers non-human hairs on some of the victims so calls in a consult from Ferguson played by Tom Noonan, who is a zoologist. Ferguson identifies the hairs as coming from an unknown subspecies of Canis lupus or the gray wolf. He analogizes what wolves have faced to what Native Americans experience–both hunted and almost extinct due to colonization. Dewey goes to a Native activist he arrested years prior who works in construction, Eddie Holt played by Edward James Olmos, to try and find out more to help the case. Eddie says he’s a shapeshifter which makes them believe he’s the murderer and Dewey decides to tail him that night. While he does this Ferguson goes to Central Park to look for more clues and is killed in a tunnel. After spending the night with Rebecca, Dewey sees a man riding Ferguson’s motorcycle past while he’s leaving Rebecca’s place. After a failed sting operation that gets Whittington killed Dewey goes to a bar and learns from a group of Natives that the killer’s true nature is a wolf spirit called Wolfen. An elder informs that Wolfen only kills to protect their hunting ground but that it killed Ferguson due to not wanting friendship or understanding from non-Natives. Upon learning this Dewey and Rebecca want off the case but they and their superior are cornered by the Wolfen pack. Their superior isn’t able to escape but once Rebecca and Dewey do the pair goes to Van der Veer’s penthouse apartment where they are cornered by the pack’s alpha male. In an attempt to fix things Dewey smashes a construction model, representing what threatened their hunting grounds, but is now no longer a threat to them. The Wolfen flee once the police are about to arrive and Dewey tells police the attack was carried out by terrorists rather than werewolves. In the end Dewey believes that the Wolfen will continue to go after the weak and isolated in society but that it’s not dissimilar to what happens between humans through class conflict. Eddie and his friends look out over the city at the end, with the understanding that they will be invisible to humans while they predate them. The in camera effect that is used to show the wolf’s perspective is something notable about the film and the early techniques it utilized. It has been claimed however that the film had been over budget and over schedule which caused the studio, Orion Pictures, to attempt to fire Wadleigh. Despite being allowed to finish filming Wadleigh was let go and retained his director credit while Richard Chew oversaw putting together the film and wasn’t credited. Orion Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., released the film theatrically on July 24 and it grossed $10.62 million at the box office. Having been released just a few months after The Howling  and An American Werewolf in London,  both outperformed Wolfen at the box office. Critics have praised its handling of the subject matter which is quote-unquote “often exploited” in the horror genre. Nominated for 4 Saturn Awards despite being decently regarded it’s not nearly as well known as the other werewolf titles of the same year. Silver Bullet (1985)... ...the next film, came about after a markedly quiet time on the monsters front during the 80s, which came out 4 years after The Howling and Wolfen . Based on the Stephen King novel, Cycle of the Werewolf, the movie is directed by Dan Attias. Distributed by Paramount Pictures on October 11, Silver Bullet stars Gary Busey as Uncle Red, Everett McGill as Reverend Lester Lowe, Cory Haim as Marty Coslaw, and Megan Follows as Jane Coslaw. Jane and her paraplegic brother Marty have a contemptuous relationship they must overcome quickly when a series of murders takes place in their rural town. Obviously the town of Tarker’s Mills, where the 2 are from, is in Maine and the story takes place in 1976 rather than present day 1985. The victims include a decapitated railroad worker, a pregnant woman, and a shitty father are all killed. When Marty’s best friend, Brady, is also killed the town forms a vigilante group. The sheriff attempts to stop them but once confronted with Brady’s father he backs down and lets the townspeople’s witch hunt commence. Three of the people in the vigilante group are killed when they are hunting for the killer in the woods but the survivors claim they saw nothing out of the ordinary later on. With no resolution and murders on the rise, the town is put under a curfew that causes the 4th of July festivities to be cancelled. The Coslaws decide to have their own celebration in the yard, inviting Uncle Red, the mother’s alcoholic brother. Marty receives a custom motorcycle wheelchair from Red which he uses to sneak out and light fireworks on a bridge. The werewolf sees the display and goes after Marty who is able to fire a firework into the wolf’s eye. Now that the wolf is injured Marty gets Jane to help him find someone who has an injured eye. They soon discover that Reverend Lowe is missing his left eye, having had a terrifying werewolf dream earlier in the film. Marty decides to send anonymous notes to Lowe, telling Lowe that he knows his secret and encouraging Lowe to kill himself before more people get hurt. Now aware that Marty is onto him, Lowe tries to run him off the road and traps him under a bridge. Lowe rants about doing God’s work and tries to kill Marty who is saved by a passerby. Both Jane and Marty convince Red that Lowe is the werewolf and the killer. With Red on their side he then convinces the sheriff to do his job again and investigate Lowe. The sheriff ends up finding Lowe locked in his garage in order to stop himself from killing again but the sheriff ends up being the next victim before he can arrest Lowe or do anything further. Worried that the wolf will come after them next, Jane and Marty give Red silver items to take to a gunsmith who melts them down into a silver bullet. The next full moon the group waits for Lowe aka the werewolf who cuts power to their house and breaks in to attack Red. Marty gets the silver bullet and shoots the werewolf in the right eye which causes it to revert back to human form, revealing Lowe. He then dies and the trio embrace with the ending message that Jane can now tell Marty that she loves him. D espite the werewolf growl-talking in the novel that was taken out of the screenplay after being rewritten. Busey was able to ad lib his lines at times for his character Uncle Red, saying he felt particularly connected to him. King requested that the werewolf monster be more plain and camouflaged rather than the 1980’s quote-unquote “hulking monsters” in other films. Unfortunately this didn’t pay off and instead left the creature with few werewolf characteristics and resulted in some calling it a were bear rather than a werewolf. The actor who played Lowe, McGill, ended up performing most of the bear-suit scenes after the producers of the film were unhappy with a hired dancer's performance in the suit. Released theatrically by Paramount Pictures in October of 1985, the film grossed $12.36 million at the box office. Famous film critic Roger Ebert claimed he thought Silver Bullet had been a spoof of the Stephen King novel but enjoyed it for what it was. Overall however the movie is not well regarded, noting it doesn’t entertain or surprise for most of the plot. The appearance of the wolf–or rather the lack of wolf-like appearance–also contributed to the roasting of the film by fans and critics alike. Although as a horror film it didn’t impress much, Busey's performance and the trio of himself and the 2 children, one handicapped, made the film more endearing and enjoyable for some. No other high-profile, serious horror films focused on the Universal Monsters came out in the 1980’s. It’s not insane to wonder if the failures of the previous films contributed to the lack of motivation for studios to create more monster movies that aren’t comedies. It’s also possible that the circumstances at the time didn’t warrant audiences being drawn in by the macabre, cursed, and monstrous. The 1990s The 1990s started with the Berlin Wall falling in 1989, signifying the beginning of the end of both the Soviet Union and thus the Cold War; fifteen independent countries then existed throughout the Eastern Bloc and anti-western sentiment started to rise. At the same time new music genres gained popularity like grunge, Euro-dance, and hip-hop; reshaping and influencing culture for the youth in particular. In addition to political and cultural changes the internet became more advanced and offered the ability for users to self-publish and connect in new ways. The spread of the internet and more consumers having access to computers globalization increased which proved good in instances like education in safe sex curbing the HIV spread in the developing world. International organizing bodies also came to be as the world became more connected and shifted away from outright wars like the European Union in 1993 and the World Trade Organization in 1995. On the domestic front for the United States, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon in 1994, an AI computer beat the best chest player for the first time in 1996, and Google was founded in 1998—all of which still play huge roles in our lives today. Businesses became adopters of information technology, Viagra was approved by the FDA, and 2 famous standoffs between federal agents and civilians occurred as the threats from abroad diminished significantly. Movies The 1990s saw an increase in indie films and independent movie studios being able to be profitable and draw audiences. Studios like New Line Cinema and Miramax Films are notable for being leaders of the independent film studio success in the 90s despite them being the big studios that indie films go up against today. New filming techniques and animation technology helped Disney’s Renaissance peak during the decade, starting with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and peaking with The Lion King in 1994. The official end of that renaissance is considered 1999, animated musicals having lost some of their mass appeal by them. We can still see the impacts of this period today; Disney Adults for example, often children during this period, spend buckets of money on seeing new adaptations, purchasing merchandise, and visiting the parks. Only three animated musical films were able to compete with Disney in this regard despite countless attempts by competitors and those are The Nightmare Before Christmas, Anastasia, and The Prince of Egypt. Aside from indie and Disney, the demand for action movies saw a big increase following Die Hard. The success of the movie created a new formula for other action films: an everyman is placed in an environment, ranging from places like a presidential plane or a prison island, to go up against a villain that is going after innocents. Horror on the other hand was revitalized by Wes Craven in 1996 with the release of Scream, a film that satirized the genre and focused on critiquing how cliche the genre had become. Stereotypical characters played into the most well known tropes while featuring and appealing to high school to college aged demographics. During the 1990s skepticism of known or popular things grew, a belief that the popularity made it inherently bad. Frankenstein Unbound (1990)... By 1990 the appetite for monster movies returned with Frankenstein Unbound, directed and written by Roger Corman with F. X. Feeney is also credited as a writer. It’s a science fiction horror film based on Brian Aldiss’ 1973 novel also called Frankenstein Unbound. Corman had spent nearly 15 years away from directing and was paid $1 million to direct this film or about $2.4 million in 2024. The producer, Thom Mount, approached Corman to direct the project who then approached writers Wes Craven and Floyd Mutrux to handle the adaptation before going on to pick Feeney for the task. Taking place in 2031 the film opens on Dr. Buchanan, played by John Hurt, and his team are working on developing a weapon that is an energy beam. This beam is meant to destroy everything in its path and is the ultimate weapon. Buchanan’s hope is to create a weapon so powerful it ends war (which we all know now is not only impossible but very dangerous). He also aims to not impact the environment, something we haven’t seen in many, if any of the monster films covered thus far. The prototype they’re working on has side effects that cause global weather patterns to be impacted, rifts in time and space, as well as people all together vanishing. Buchanan is caught in a time-space rift on his way home from the facility and is transported back to 1817 Switzerland. Now in a village he meets Doctor Victor Frankenstein, played by Raul Julia, and the 2 talk about science and experiments over a meal. Frankenstein reveals his younger brother has been killed and that a trial will occur soon to determine if the boy’s nanny is innocent or guilty. By this point in the series it’s obvious that this movie’s tale picks up towards the end of the Frankenstein novel, just before Victor’s chase of his monster commences. Villagers are talking about a monster they claim to have seen in the woods and believe that the monster is the killer rather than the nanny. At the trial Buchanan sees a young woman taking notes that he becomes intrigued by. This woman ends up being Mary Shelley, played by Bridget Fonda, who is the actual real-world author of Frankenstein. The judge isn’t having the talk of monsters at the trial however and the nanny is found guilty of murder and sentenced to die on the gallows. Despite this ruling Buchanan knows that the monster is responsible rather than the woman and he tries to convince Frankenstein to come forward and reveal the truth about his monster’s existence and responsibility. Cowardly as always Victor refuses to do that so Buchanan goes to Shelley for help, confessing that he’s from the future. Despite liking one another Shelley and Buchanan part ways, Shelley not wanting to be more involved in knowing the future. Alone on his quest Buchanan drives his car to Frankenstein’s laboratory and finds him talking with the monster. This, also from the book and earlier movies, is the monster confronting Victor and demanding that Victor make him a female companion and without one has now deprived Frankenstein of his love also. Frankenstein begs Buchanan for help in resurrecting his fiancé and Buchanan does assist. Buchanan also re-routes some of the electrical currents they will collect from the lightning to power the laser in his car also. The lightning strikes and eventually the laser is fully charged and the previously-deceased woman is reanimated. A fire breaks out at the same time which destroys the castle but Frankenstein, Buchanan, and the 2 monsters are transported to the future via a rift in time and space. Landing on a snowy, remote mountain the monster and Frankenstein try to get the woman monster to come to them but Frankenstein is forced to shoot her. This sends the monster into a rage and he kills Frankenstein then goes off into the snowstorm followed by Buchanan. Buchanan aims to kill the monster once and for all and ensure he doesn’t attack other people. They both end up in a computer and machine filled cave and upon his entrance Buchanan is greeted by a machine that addresses him by name and welcomes him back. It is revealed that the cave is the brain of a nearby city that happens to be the last surviving city after Buchanan’s laser weapon destroyed the world. Buchanan uses the laser to kill the monster once and for all, burning him to death. While Buchanan walks to the nearby city in the snow the monster’s voice is heard saying he can’t be killed and that for now he is only unbound. The last line sums up the vibe–all the big studio tricks got pulled out of the bag and it was cringe and unappealing. The monster design was not well received although the performances and overall look of the film are considered good. Regardless, the movie bombed at the box office, grossing only $335,000 and the director stated when he went to see the film only 6 people were in the audience. All-in-all the film didn’t even recoup the salary of the director and could have contributed to why another Frankenstein film didn’t release until 1994 and took the concept back to its roots. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) Before that film came out Bram Stoker’s Dracula came out in 1992, two years after Frankenstein Unbound . Seeing as the wacky creative freedom of the 80’s and 90’s hadn’t translated into Universal Monster success this movie also takes the story back to its roots, focusing on the novel. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola the novel was adapted into a screenplay by James V. Hart. Theatrically released in the US in November of 1992 the film cost about $40 million to make and covers themes prevalent at the time like the AIDS epidemic and the making of quote-unquote “others” in society. The movie opens with Vlad Dracula, played by Gary Oldman, in 1492 returning victorious from a battle against the Ottoman Empire to discover his wife, Elisabeta, has died by suicide after his enemies tricked her into believing he died in battle. A priest informs Dracula that his wife is damned to hell forever due to her cause of death and in a rage Vlad desecrates the chapel, renouncing a Christian God that would curse him. He declares he’ll rise from the grave to avenge his wife’s death and use all powers of darkness that he can to accomplish this. He drives his sword into the chapel’s stone cross and then drinks blood that comes out from it, which transforms him into a vampire. Cut forward to 1897 and a solicitor named Johnathan Harker, played by Keanu Reeves, arrives at Transylvanian Count Dracula to take it as a client after his colleague, Renfield, went crazy. Renfield, played by Tom Waits, is now locked in an asylum run by Dr. Jack Seward, played by Richard E. Grant, as per the tale goes. Upon arriving at the castle Dracula finds a picture of Mina Harker, Jonathan’s fiancé played by Winona Ryder, in Johnathan’s belongings. She’s identical to his wife Elisabeta, leading Dracula to believe that Mina is the reincarnation of his wife. He immediately sets out to England with soil in tow and leaves his vampire brides to take care of Johnathan. Dracula goes after Mina’s best friend, Lucy Westenra, played by Sadie Frost, seducing and biting her. Mina is staying with her while Johnathan is away and after being bitten Lucy begins to act oddly and her health declines rapidly. Lucy’s former suitor Quincey, Dr. Seward, and her current fiancé Arthur Holmwood, all call upon Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, played by Anthony Hopkins, to aid them with the vampires. Meanwhile Dracula, looking young and handsome, finds Mina and charms her, even getting Mina to develop feelings for him. Mina goes out with Dracula on multiple occasions and then hears word from Johnathan that he’s escaped the castle and recovered in a convent. Despite the situation between Mina and Dracula she flees to Romania and marries Johnathan upon hearing he’s alive and well. Now heartbroken and mad Dracula turns Lucy into a vampire. This is short lived however as Van Helsing, Quincey, Arthur, and Seward all kill Lucy the next night. Mina and Johnathan then return to England while the crew of men goes to destroy Dracula’s soil reserves. Due to Renfield having warned Mina of his presence he kills Renfield and then visits Mina in Seward’s quarters to confess to killing Lucy and terrorizing Mina’s friends. She admits she still loves him and that she also remembers some of Elisabeta’s previous life. She insists that Dracula make her a vampire and he obliges but has to make an escape when Van Helsing’s group breaks into the room. Mina begins to transform and Van Helsing is able to hypnotize her. The group learns that Dracula is headed back to his castle in his last box of soil. They depart and intercept him but by reading Mina’s mind in reverse-hypnosis mind control he’s able to see them coming and escape. The group splits up with Mina and Van Helsing going to the castle while the others try to stop the ship they believe is transporting Dracula. That night Dracula’s brides descend on Van Helsing and Mina, chanting to her until she eventually tries to go after Van Helsing. He puts a communion wafer on her head that slows the transformation after leaving a mark and surrounds himself and her in a ring of fire to ward off the brides. They survive the night and Van Helsing kills the brides the next morning. Dracula arrives the next day with the hunters following him and the hunters end up in a battle with the Romani people. Quincey is stabbed while Dracula bursts back into action at sunset from his coffin. Jonathan and Quincey slit Dracula’s throat and stab him in the heart with a kukri knife and let Mina retreat with Dracula while Quincey succumbs to his wounds. Dracula lies dying in the same chapel from the start of the film and he and Mina kiss as the cross repairs itself. Reverting to his younger self he asks Mina for peace and she puts a knife through his heart, causing the mark on her forehead to disappear, symbolizing she’s free of the curse. She decapitates Dracula and gazes up to see Vlad and Elisabeta now going to heaven together. Unlike other Dracula tales this one more directly relates back to Vlad the Impaler who is often thought to be the inspiration for Count Dracula. In this 1992 adaptation of the novel Dracula’s backstory is portrayed in a way that makes him more sympathetic to the audience. One critic points out that this over the top rendition wipes away the campy portrayals of the character at the time. The performances are considered exceptional and big names like Hopkins, Oldman, and Ryder all appear. Keanu Reeves’ accent has caught a lot of heat and has been given the title of one of the worst movie accents of all time. Adjusted for inflation the worldwide gross at the box office makes this 1992 film one of the highest grossing vampire films of all time. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) In 1994 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein released, a science fiction horror movie directed by Kenneth Branagh and written by Steph Lady and Frank Darabont. Kenneth Branagh portrays Victor Frankenstein, who in this adaptation is an obsessed medical student. This film is considered the most faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein even though there are several differences and changes in the adaptation. Released by TriStar Pictures, a subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, the studio that released Dracula 1992. Released in November of 1994 the film cost approximately $45 million to make, and despite not being as  successful as Dracula 1992 it still performed well. Opening in 1794 Captain Walton is leading an expedition by ship to the North Pole that has become trapped in ice. The crew of the ship sees a figure coming towards them after hearing a jarring sound. The man is Victor Frankenstein who tells them to grab their weapons and come with him, the crew releasing dogs that chase off into the distance. The sled dogs are killed by whatever creature made the noise earlier out of their sight. Victor finds out that Walton is also a little mad, wanting to continue the expedition despite being dangerously stuck in bad conditions. Due to this Victor tells Walton and the ships’ crew his life story which is presented via flashback. Growing up in Geneva, Switzerland, Victor and his adopted sister, Elizabeth Lavenza played by Helena Bonham Carter, fall in love. Before Victor leaves for medical school his mother dies giving birth to his brother, William. Due to this loss he vows to find a way to conquer death. Following this Victor and Henry Clerval, played by Tom Hulce, go to study under Shmael Augustus Waldman, a professor who has researched how to create life. Waldman warns Victor not to use such notes because he would create an abomination. The professor dies shortly after, killed by a patient he’s giving a vaccine to that is later hung in the square. Victor takes the criminal’s body, a leg from a peer, and Waldman’s brain to assemble a creature using Waldman’s notes. Completely engrossed in his work he pushes Elizabeth away when she comes to Ingolstadt to take him home amid a cholera epidemic. Victor is able to bring his creation to life but is instantly horrified by its appearance and attempts to kill it. The creature, confused and super fresh, steals Victor’s coat and gets out of there as soon as possible. The creature attempts to steal food but is driven out by the townspeople, appalled by his appearance. He takes up shelter in a family’s barn where he stays for months without being caught. The creature learns to read and speak by observing the family and tries to build a relationship with them by leaving food. He ends up killing a debt collector seeking to collect from the family and this allows him to speak with the blind, elderly man in the family. The family isn’t down with him when they return and chase him from the farm, then fleeing in his absence. He finds Victor’s journal in the coat and learns about his creation only to return to the farmhouse and see the family has fled. He burns the house down and vows to get revenge on Victor. Meanwhile Victor returns home so that he can marry Elizabeth but discovers that his brother has been murdered. The family believes it was a servant, Justine played by Trevyn McDowell, who grew up alongside Victor and Elizabeth. She is blamed and ultimately hanged for the murder but Victor knows that the creature is actually responsible. The creature abducts Victor and demands that Victor create a female companion for him in exchange for leaving Victor alone so Victor starts collecting the necessary tools. Things go too far for Victor when the creature insists that they use Justine’s body for the new creation and he breaks his promise to create a new creature. To get his revenge the creature breaks into Elizabeth’s on her and Victor’s wedding night and rips her heart out. Stricken with grief and urgency Victor races home with the intention of bringing Elizabeth back to life. He stitches Elizabeth’s head onto Justine’s body and is able to reanimate her, but of course she’s not fully herself. The creature arrives and demands Elizabeth is his wife and while the 2 fight about that Elizabeth sees her reflection and horrified by it she sets herself on fire. The mansion burns down and both Victor and the creature are able to get out, which returns the story to the start revealing that Victor chased the creature from there to the Arctic. Once he’s done telling his story he just dies of pneumonia and Walton then discovers the creature mourning Victor. They prepare a funeral pyre and invite the creature to stay with the ship but the creature decides to stay with Victor’s body and burns alive. Facing, literally, the consequences of blind obsession Walton, the ship’s captain, decides to turn back and return home. Originally the film’s script was sold to Coppola’s studio with the intention of Coppola directing the film, having also directed 1992 Dracula. Rather than direct he opted for an executive producer role and demanded that De Niro be cast as the creature. Branagh was chosen to direct the film by Coppola and he brought in Darabont to do a second draft of the script that included more novel elements and motifs. Seeing the film as a family tragedy similar to that of Shakespeare’s works but rather than embracing death the character Victor Frankenstein runs away from death. In preparation for the role as the creature De Niro reportedly studied stroke victims to create his voice. The original screenwriter for the film Steph Lady has said that the film was a quote-unquote “shocking disappointment” and that it had gone from a tragedy that made one think to a monster movie. The second writer has also stated that he doesn’t see the script he wrote portrayed on screen in the film. Both Lady and Darabont have said that the director Branagh made it more loud and big than it needed to be, believing the source material to be subtle. Critics were also unamused and found it to be more of the same in regard to the material and misses in the overall project coming together behind a vision. Some have stated that Branagh attempted more than he could handle and that this ruined the film. Despite these critiques the film grossed $112 million at the box office. Following this it would be 20 years until another serious adaptation of Frankenstein would be released. Wolf (1994)... The same year however Columbia Pictures released Wolf, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick. Starring Jack Nicholson as Will Randall and Michelle Pfeiffer as Laura Alden the film cost approximately $70 million to make and is also a Columbia Pictures released film. Will Randal is a chief editor at a New York publishing house and runs over a large wolf while traveling a Vermont country road. When he attempts to help the wolf he’s bitten which begins his story. Raymond Alden, a tycoon played by Christopher Plummer announces he’ll be taking over the publishing house that Will is a chief editor at. Now aging and sickly Will takes a demotion while his protege Stewart, played by James Spader, takes his position. Alden’s daughter, Laura, is introduced to Will just before he discovers his wife is having an affair when he smells Stewart’s scent on her. He surprises the 2 while they are hooking up at Stewart’s place, confirming his suspicions. He bites Stewart’s hand and then leaves, leaving Charlotte also. Laura and Will start seeing one another and Will spends the night at the Alden’s following a fainting spell. Awakening in a transformed body Will mauls a deer and wakes up later covered in blood. Will visits a pagan expert named Dr. Vijav Alezais played by Om Puri who informs him he’s transforming into a werewolf. He gives Will an amulet to help prevent him from completely transforming. He transforms that night anyway and breaks into a zoo and steals handcuffs from the police officer trying to arrest him and attacks a group. Will wakes up with no recollection of what happened the night before in a hotel room. Aside from the werewolf situation Will is still fighting the changes at his work and he organizes a group of writers that threaten to leave unless Will remains editor in chief. Alden agrees to let Will remain and Will then fires Stewart, pissing on his shoes to mark his territory while the 2 are in the restroom. After finding a person’s handkerchief from the attack the night before he realizes he’s hurt someone and cuffs himself to his hotel radiator. Laura arrives and makes him feel better and less afraid of transforming, then spending the night together. He slips out of the room later on in the night and goes around Central Park in his transformed state. The next morning it’s revealed that Will’s ex-wife has been found dead in Central Park with canine DNA on her. Later that night Will makes Laura lock him in a horse stable while she goes to the police. At the station she sees Stewart who now has golden eyes and is acting oddly, proceeding to attempt to assault Laura which gets him mauled by Will. Will had discarded the amulet that stopped a full transformation when he went to attack Stewart and after Laura shoots Stewart Will runs off into the woods. Laura ends up having heightened senses and then Will howls for her and it’s revealed her eyes have begun to change. The film grossed about $131 million worldwide and has been critiqued for having a good start to the film that fizzles out. Critics have also said that the werewolf aspects work better as metaphors than they do when they have Nicholson actually transform into the werewolf on screen. Despite a seemingly lukewarm reception amongst fans and critics the film was nominated for a Grammy and 6 Saturn Awards, winning 1 for Best Writing. The 2000s Unlike the start of the 90s the start of the new millennium is marked in the United States by the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The attacks resulted in a War on Terror used to engage in widespread conflicts around the world under the guise of eliminating terror groups which had the unintended consequence of only increasing and creating terror groups. Internet use continued to grow domestically alongside overseas wars and concerns about climate change caught on to mainstream culture and became more widely accepted. Video game consoles like the Play Station, Xbox, and Wii dominated markets and Christmas lists during the decade. Early on in the decade TiVi introduced people to the ability to control live TV that cable and satellite companies quickly adopted and developed. Although TiVo’s market domination was short lived it contributed DVR boxes. Once Netflix was created in 2007 and then Hulu in 2008 people quickly opted to choose them and began moving away from cable. Other sites wanted to compete by making their own versions some of which included Blockbuster, CinemaNow, iReel, Movieflix, Amazon, and iTunes. Having been created earlier on in the decade iTunes was announced by Apple and the iPod followed around the same time, two things that changed the music industry and digital media forever. Social media is another 2000s creation that has become ingratiated with our modern lives; the first, MySpace in 2003 and Facebook joined the space as a quote-unquote “social networking” site (which is a pretentious way to say the same thing) after it launched in 2004. Apps like Facebook, YouTube (officially launched in 2005), and Twitter (founded in 2006) have become essential pieces of the movie ecosystem. They are places to share opinions about movies, oftentimes having direct impact on initial box office success and failure, market upcoming movies via trailers and social media campaigns, and arenas for copyright law on the internet to play out. Movies Overall movies of the 2000s have been called quote-unquote “eclectic” and big successes ranged in genre from musicals, indie films, and documentaries to Lord of the Rings 3. Interest in documentaries in particular saw an increase the genre had not before following Moore’s Bowling for Columbine 2002, March of the Penguins 2005, and An Inconvenient Truth 2006. The 2000s marks the official beginning of blockbuster movies being expected to pass $100 million on opening weekend and $200 million in box office revenue to even begin to be considered successful. This helped limit the types of movies studios would invest in and thus what stories would be told with the focus on exponential returns. Horror movies of the decade veered towards what is sometimes called “torture porn” and graphic violence, not unlike the 1980s explosion of the same thing but with better, more realistic effects captured on higher tech equipment. Genres that we now consider core horror like found footage came about with the first big, well-marketed one being The Blair Witch Project 1999 followed by the best and most popular example of the genre’s success Paranormal Activity 2007. In addition to found footage the true crime horror also took off alongside psychological horror. Studios looked to gain lucrative profits by cheaply making and adapting horror movies which resulted in the genre becoming one of the most popular of the century. Being low budget, easy to make, and not requiring the pomp and circumstance of big names or marketing campaigns studios liked that horror has a built in audience. Although studios loved the films they were often disliked by critics and gained poor reputation as z-films. Dracula 2000 (2000)... Dracula 2000 came out in 2000 and is also known under the titles Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 and Dracula 2001 during international releases. Directed by Patrick Lussier the film is also co-written by him alongside Joel Soisson. The film builds on the Bram Stoker novel by making Count Dracula resurrect in modern day America. Produced by Dimension Films and Neo Art & Logic the film was distributed by Miramax Films and cost approximately $54 million to make. Gerard Butler stars as Dracula, Johnny Lee Miller as Simon, Justine Waddell as Mary Heller and Mary Van Helsing, Jennifer Esposito as Solina, and Christopher Plummer as Van Helsing. Starting in London in the year 2000 a descendent of Abraham Van Helsing named Matthew owns an antique shop over the Carfax Abbey site. Van Helsing’s secretary Solina and her boyfriend Marcus break into the antique shop’s underground vault along with their friends Trick, Nightshade, Dax, and Eddie. They are seeking valuables but instead find a coffin, silver and sealed. Eddie and Dax try to open the coffin and are impaled by spikes which causes their blood to spray over the coffin and also alerts Van Helsing to their presence in the vault. The group decides to take the coffin under the misguided belief it contains the valuables that they are looking for and board a plane to New Orleans. Van Helsing makes arrangements to pursue them and his apprentice Simon accompanies him. On the plane Nightshade unlocks the coffin which contains a dried up Dracula body. He’s awakened by the blood on his coffin however and soon attacks Solina, making her a vampire, along with her group. Now revived and satisfied Dracula has a vision of a woman, Mary Heller, who can also see him. The plane crashes into a swamp in Louisiana and believed to be dead the passengers are taken to the morgue. Dracula exits the plane crash and turns a reporter into a vampire and then travels to New Orleans in search of the woman from his vision. After Van Helsing and Simon get to New Orleans they are able to take out most of the new vampires that Dracula has created. Van Helsing then confesses that he’s not a descendent but the actual Abraham Van Helsing that defeated Dracula back in 1897. Since then he’s extended his life by injecting himself with Dracula’s blood but has not been able to find a way to permanently take Dracula out over the last century. What he has learned is that Dracula is enraged by God and Christian iconography and is vulnerable to silver. Van Helsing also reveals that Mary is his daughter and that she has a connection to Dracula due to being conceived after he started injecting himself with Dracula’s blood. After Mary’s mother learned the truth about Van Helsing she left with Mary. While this is going on Dracula finds Mary’s home via her friend Lucy that he then turns into a vampire. He ends up killing Van Helsing here at Mary’s place and upon her finding her father’s body Dracula ambushes her with his 3 new vampire brides, Solina, Valerie, and her friend Lucy. Simon arrives however and saves her momentarily as the pair rush into a church cemetery. Dracula abducts Mary and explains that he’s searched for a born creation like him rather than someone he turns into a vampire. Having taken her to a rooftop he then transforms Mary then reveals that he is Judas Iscariot, the Apostle that sold out Jesus to the Romans. After the crucifixion he claims to have hung himself in atonement and was revived and turned into the first vampire. Dracula claims his goal is to spite Jesus by spreading immortality through vampirism to all humans and corrupting them. Mary suggests he can’t die because he hasn’t asked God for forgiveness but Dracula states he will never ask either God or Jesus for forgiveness. Simon is then brought to Dracula by Solina and Lucy after he kills Valerie and Dracula offers his blood to Mary. She pretends to bite and then she and Simon kill the 2 remaining brides. The pair want to kill Dracula to avenge her father and Dracula ends up tangled in cables from a large, lit crucifix, after he tries to attack Mary. Dawn breaks as Dracula looks at the image of Jesus on the crucifix and the sunlight lights him on fire, killing him. Having released Mary from vampirism before he dies later on Mary is now the guardian of Dracula’s remains and makes sure he stays dead. Van Helsing (2004)... Four years after Dracula 2000 the action horror Van Helsing released, directed and written by Stephen Sommers. Rather than just about one monster it is based on Dracula by Bram Stoker, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and The Wolf Man by George Waggner. Starring Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing the film cost between $160 and $170 million to create and is a Universal Pictures production, the first in this Universal Monsters series that has been covered in a while. The film resulted in a video game of the same title released by Vivendi Universal Games on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance at the time. Following a similar plot to the film the character, Van Helsing in the game also voiced by Jackman, goes on the plot’s adventure. That plot opens in 1887 Transylvania with Doctor Victor Frankenstein, played by Samuel West, creating a monster alongside his assistant Igor, played by Kevin J. O’Connor, and Count Vladislaus Dracula, played by Richard Roxburgh. Dracula kills Frankenstein because he refuses to follow his plans for the creation and Igor watches on having been bought off by Dracula. A mob then storms the castle that causes the monster to flee to a windmill with Frankenstein’s body. As the mob burns the windmill the monster screams “why” while the mill burns to the ground, appearing to have killed him. A year after this Gabriel Van Helsing travels to Notre-Dame de Paris, working as a monster hunter with the Knights of the Holy Order. At the Notre-Dame, Van Helsing kills Dr. Jekyll after he has a battle with Mr. Hyde, taking his arm off with a circular saw blade. Back at the Vatican headquarters Van Helsing is given the task to go to Transylvania and kill Dracula. He’s also also tasked with ensuring Anna and Velkan Valerious who are the last surviving members of a Romani family that vowed their descendants would kill Dracula or spend all eternity in Purgatory. While in Transylvania Anna and Velkan battle a werewolf under Dracula’s control and Velkan falls into a gorge with it as it bites him and Velkan shoots it with a silver bullet. His death means Anna is the last living descendent. Friar Carl, played by David Wenham, aids Van Helsing and is also a weapons creator. The pair arrive at a village and come upon Anna fighting Dracula’s three brides, Verona, Marishka, and Aleera. This battle results in the death of Marishka that also causes the other 2 brides to flee from the village. Velkan visits Anna that night and warns her of Dracula’s plans but turns into a werewolf and gets away, Anna and Van Helsing pursuing him. Velkan ends up at Frankenstein’s castle where they find Dracula’s plan to use Frankenstein’s experiments to give life to thousands of vampire children. Dracula plans to use Velkan as the conduit for the electricity. Van Helsing and Dracula get into a battle and Dracula considers him an old foe. The vampire babies are brought to life with the experiments but due to not having the original monster the children soon combust one by one. Van Helsing and Anna come across the monster while escaping and the monster reveals he’s the key to the machine that would give life to Dracula’s babies. Velkan hears this information and returns to inform Dracula. On the group’s journey back to Rome the squad is attacked by the brides and Velkan near Budapest. Van Helsing is bitten by Velkan who dies in the battle alongside Verona, another bride. Aleera is able to abduct Anna however and offers to trade her for the monster at a masquerade ball happening that night. This sick party ends up being populated entirely by vampires but Carl and Van Helsing are able to rescue Anna anyways and detonate a blast that takes out the entire ball. The crew now goes to Anna’s castle where Carl explains Dracula’s lore, the son of Valerious the Elder who was killed in 1462 by the “Left Hand of God” and that he made a pact with the Devil to live again. Valerious was told he could kill Dracula and get salvation for his family but, unable to kill his own son, he imprisoned him in an icy fortress instead. Using a fragment given to Van Helsing by a Cardinal earlier in the film they are able to unlock the painting that tells the lore and it operates as a doorway to Dracula’s lair. Upon entering the doorway they find the monster who tells them that Dracula has the cure for lycanthropy, which Van Helsing needs, because only werewolves can kill Dracula. Anna and Carl are sent to get the cure while Van Helsing tries to free the monster. He’s unable to before the monster is struck by lightning and the children are animated. Both Dracula and Van Helsing transform into their beast forms and have an intense battle in the laboratory and the monster helps Anna escape Aleera. Aleera is killed by Anna with Carl’s help because Aleera tries to monologue instead of just killing Anna. Both Dracula and Van Helsing return to human form when the moon is blocked and while in that state Dracula tells Van Helsing that it’s him who killed Dracula and that he can restore his memories. Van Helsing doesn’t want that however and when he reverts back to werewolf form he kills Dracula. With Dracula dead his vampire babies also die and Van Helsing still in animal form lunges at Anna who uses the cure to stab him in the abdomen. She is killed in this process however and Van Helsing holds her body while crying in his human form. Him and Carl have a funeral pyre for her on a cliff overlooking the sea and Van Helsing sees her reunite with her family in heaven while the monster leaves town. Van Helsing and Carl are off on their next adventure. Universal Pictures set out to reinvent their iconic monster properties due to the success of The Mummy 1999 and The Mummy Returns 2001. They intended to replicate the formula of those films with these other properties. Since The Mummy had success with an action-adventure tone they wanted to create that for Van Helsing. The film saw success on opening weekend ranking #1 and going on to gross $300.25 million worldwide with $120.17 million coming from the US. Despite box office success, reviews of the film are generally negative. Fans and critics felt that it was a hollow attempt at a creature feature that utilized far too much CGI. While I love the callbacks to different horror films many hated that and felt it was cheap and just meant to be audience draws rather than real plot aspects. The 2010s The start of the decade followed the financial crisis of 2008, which the global economy was still recovering from. Despite this rough start the economy grew through 2019 and accelerated in the second half of the decade with investments in infrastructure and new tech proving to be fruitful. Similarly to the 2000s however the use of the internet and social media continued to grow, by the end of the decade being completely ingratiated into most American’s lives. More connection increased globalization that led to apps like Spotify and Apple Music meeting the demands for music variety and personalization by creating subgenres. Social media became an important tool for social movements that also increased during the decade. Movements like Occupy Wall Street in 2011, Black Lives Matter beginning in 2013, and the #MeToo Movement that blew up in 2017 benefited from social media which aided in making those movements nationwide. Along with the aforementioned targeted movements general rights for LGBTQ+ people rose in places like the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, while they were attacked in Russia and China. Disruption of industries with apps like Uber or Postmates became a big focus of new businesses in Silicon Valley that dominated app markets and the tech space by the end of the decade. By 2016 rising tensions had reached a fever pitch and culminated in the US electing Donald Trump as President despite losing the popular vote following the rise of his populist MAGA ideology, and England voted to leave the European Union in a 52% to 48% vote. The decade ended with the impeachment of Donald Trump for weaponizing the US government for political gain or abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, becoming only the 3rd President in America’s almost 250 year history to be impeached. Aside from politics but adjacent due to it being used as a political tool: terror attacks and mass shootings increased domestically during the decade in striking, shocking, and heartbreaking ways. Movies Disney came back with a vengeance and kicked every studio’s ass during the decade, releasing half of the 50 highest grossing movies at the worldwide box office. The main driver of Disney’s success was the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the countless  films they released and are still releasing that tie back to it. Major film studios wanted to replicate Disney’s box office success and establish their own unlimited cinematic universes; examples are Warner Bros. direct competitor the DC Extended Universe, Sony’s own competitor and Marvel property, Spider-Man, and Universal with an attempt to revive Universal Monsters into a universe, the Dark Universe. Aside from cinematic universes YA novel film adaptations dominated with franchises like Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games. The latter of which began a trend towards adaptations of YA dystopian fiction. Other studios attempted to replicate this success too but failed before it would be worth covering. General horror movies of the decade however followed the dark trends of the time and catered to the audiences fears; for example when no one felt safe in their homes anymore post-recession movies about break-ins increased. Religious horror saw a revival as more possession movie franchises gained popularity like Insidious and The Conjuring. For the most part monsters became people or people-like again rather than scary beings that live under your bed; more cannibals than vampires. The trend of studios remaking classics also continued with new additions to the Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. The Wolfman (2010)... It took 6 years for Universal to release another monster film and no other studios released big monster movies in that absence. Based on The Wolf Man 1941 film written by Curt Siodmak this movie is directed by Joe Johnston and written by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self. Despite assurances that Johnston could get the film done on budget and schedule it went over with re-shoots and a delay in when the film would be released multiple times. All of the changes added to an already large budget and cost $150 million to make. Ben Talbot is murdered in 1891 in the woods of Blackmoor by a humanoid wolf, later being found mutilated in a slaughterhouse. Lawrence Talbot, played by Benicio del Toro, his brother who is an actor living in America, returns home once he finds out about Ben’s death. Lawrence reunites with his estranged father Sir John, played by Anthony Hopkins, upon his arrival back home. When Lawrence is at the local pub he overhears people talking about the murders being a wild animals’ doing but others blame Romani people camped outside the town. Someone mentions that 25 years earlier a person had been murdered in a similar fashion and that was suspected to be a werewolf. Back at the estate Lawrence tours around and it becomes clear his mother died by suicide at the estate when he was a child. He recalls seeing his father standing over his mothers body and then he was sent to a hospital in London for a year due to delusions after the event. Wanting to get to the bottom of it Lawrence visited the Romani during the full moon and while there the townspeople raided the camp in search of a bear who they blame for Ben’s death. A werewolf then attacks the camp, killing Romani and townspeople before biting Lawrence and getting out of there. Maleva, played by Geraldine Chaplin, helps Lawrence and sutures his hand. Another Romani insists to Lawrence that he is now cursed and that he should be killed before he inevitably kills others. Maleva however informs that only a loved one can release him from the curse. After tossing and turning all night with bad dreams Lawrence is already healed and has developed vitality and heightened senses. An inspector, Francis, played by Hugo Weaving, arrives to investigate and suspects that Lawrence is involved due to his mental health history. Lawrence becomes scared that he’ll hurt Ben’s former fiancé, Gwen, played by Emily Blunt, if she continues staying at their estate and he sends her away. He then follows his father to his mother’s crypt and sees that Sir John locks himself in a room, giving Lawrence a cryptic warning before Lawrence starts to transform and flees into the woods. While in the woods he ends up killing hunters and the next morning he’s arrested by Francis. Lawrence is taken back to the asylum he’d spent a year at as a child and is forced to receive terrible treatments from Dr. Hoenneger, played by Anthony Sher. Sir John visits Lawrence and explains what happened 25 years prior, that he was bitten by a boy in India on a hunting expedition and became infected with lycanthropy. It’s revealed that not only did Sir John bite Lawrence but also killed Lawrence’s mother and brother, Ben. Sir John was able to get away with this with his employee locking him in every full moon and even considered suicide. Driven mad by his curse he now embraces it and lets loose during his transformations. He leaves a razor for Lawrence in case he considers the same during the impending full moon. Lawrence is paraded as a case study at Dr. H’s lecture and despite him warning the attendees of how dangerous it would be during the full moon they carry on. He transforms and kills the doctor and orderlies before he escapes and goes on a rampage. He visits Gwen at her antique shop the next day and asks for help, both admitting they love one another and kissing. Unfortunately, Francis is waiting at Talbot Hall and has armed himself and the local police with silver bullets. Gwen attempts to find Maleva and seek a cure for Lawrence but she is informed there is no cure and that the only way forward is for Lawrence to die. Lawrence arrives at Talbot Hall to find that Sir John has killed his loyal employee and one of Francis’ men but he loads a silver gun only to find Sir John removed the powder years ago, rendering it useless. The two get into a fight as the full moon rises which transforms both men into werewolves. The fight results in Talbot Hall being set on fire but Lawrence is able to decapitate Sir John, removing him as a threat. Gwen and Francis then arrive and Lawrence attacks Francis, biting him. Gwen grabs his gun and runs off into the woods with Lawrence chasing after her still in werewolf form. With Gwen cornered she pleads with Lawrence not to hurt her and he’s able to see through his wolf form and recognize her. Police and hunters arrive and distract Lawrence while Gwen shoots him, causing him to revert back to human form. Lawrence thanks Gwen for setting him free and he dies in her arms while Francis watches as the full moon rises. The film was announced in 2006 but after a revolving door of directors, actors, and writers, the film still hadn’t been filmed in early 2008, with the script still being reworked. Originally budgeted to cost $85 million the film was shot in England villages and estates that required on-location reshoots in 2009. The make-up for the film was created by Rick Baker who was eager to work on the project when he heard of Universal’s plans to remake the film. Baker and del Toro wanted the make-up created for the 1941 film to be the inspiration behind the 2010 remake’s make-up but after thousands of art renderings the 2nd option was chosen. The film had been planned to release in November 2008 but got pushed numerous times as production was delayed. The movie grossed approximately $142.6 at the worldwide box office which means it flopped in relation to the budget. Considered a monetary failure, the film also didn’t thrill watchers, with a 4.8 out of 10 as an average rating. Critics point to the lack of suspense as a failing point and felt that the CGI harmed the film rather than helped it like the creators thought it would. Even the president of Universal at the time, Ronald Meyer, called the movie quote-unquote “crappy” and that he felt it wasn’t a good move. The Dark Universe that Could've Been... Before covering the next film and the Universal films that followed it’s important to go over the Dark Universe that never was. Dracula Untold 2014 was meant to be the first of many in a plan from Universal to relaunch its Universal Monsters characters to compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe that had started taking over the market. Called the Dark Universe, this plan was announced in July 2014 and would include a new horror-focused take on the Universal Monsters. Dark Universe started to be developed as early as October 2013 and one of the core ideas was the films would be primarily horror to pull away from the action-adventure tone that many remakes of these monsters had taken. Originally Dracula Untold 2014 had been the intended first film to kick off this relaunch, coming out just months after the announcement. Unfortunately the film severely underperformed and missed meeting expectations so the connection between the film and the Dark Universe was downplayed and swept under the rug. The studio then decided The Mummy  2017, starring action star and personal one-sided-nemesis of mine, Tom Cruise, would be the official start of the relaunch (a hilariously corporate studio move). Listed now as a fantasy action-adventure film it officially released June 9, 2017 in the United States. This is funny because in May 2017 Universal dropped what monsters would have feature films, a website dedicated to the project, official logos, and special music. Before The Mummy came out it was announced who the cast of additional characters would be alongside the hero-character Cruise in The Mummy: Dr. Jekyll slash Mr. Hyde played by Russell Crowe, The Invisible Man played by Johnny Depp, and Frankenstein’s monster played by Javier Bardem. I’d argue that your Victor Frankenstein is far  more important than your monster but that’s just me. It was also revealed that movies would include Frankenstein, Wolf Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Van Helsing, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. None of those movies would come out. The Mummy definitely disappointed (which could’ve been predicted from the casting of an action star for a horror reboot) critics and fans alike. Despite making hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office the studio felt it did not perform well enough and postponed all of the plans for the Dark Universe. By early 2018 the studio decided to rethink the approach to Universal Monsters and opted for standalone adaptations rather than a cinematic universe. Dracula Untold (2014)... Despite Universal distancing itself from Dracula Untold 2014 being in the Universal Monsters cinematic universe, it is still a Dracula remake that had been intended to be so. Directed by Gary Shore and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless the film is based on Bram Stoker’s novel with the twist that Dracula is Vlad the Impaler from the Ottoman Empire, a prince known for his cruel and vicious nature. With a budget estimated between $70 and $100 million, the film released on both regular and IMAX screens and grossed approximately $217 million worldwide. Opening in the 15th century, Vlad Dracula played by Luke Evans, is a prince in Romania and Transylvania having been a ward of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and soldier for the Ottomans. Dracula wants to get away from his past and his actions as a soldier known for his ruthlessness so he minds his own business at his castle. After finding a helmet and following a stream Dracula and his soldiers are attacked by a creature in a cave that he barely escapes. He finds out that the creature had been a vampire, a former General from the Roman Legions named Caligula that had been tricked by a demon and stuck in the cave. After celebrating Easter with his family an Ottoman group arrives and demands that Dracula’s sons be given as tributes for the current Sultan. Obviously not wanting to do this Dracula goes to the cave seeking help and he is offered blood to get temporary access to the vampire's powers. As long as he doesn’t drink human blood, which he’s warned he’ll crave, he will become human again in 3 days. If he does drink human blood he’ll become a vampire and the vampire in the cave will be freed. Dracula is attacked by the Ottomans upon returning to his castle but is able to kill all of them and then sends his castle’s subjects away to a Monastery for their own safety, including his family. The Ottomans are able to attack that Monastery after tricking him into using his powers to defend against a decoy attack. Trying to stop the attackers from taking their son, Dracula’s wife is fatally wounded and asks Dracula to drink her blood in order to save their son with the vampire powers. Dracula does drink her blood and becomes a full-on vampire while also lifting the curse that contains the other vampire in the cave. He then goes back to the monastery and makes everyone a vampire also and then blocks out the sun with black clouds. Dracula tries to get his son back with his army of vampires but once he does he realizes the error of his ways when those vampires want to eat his son and have lost their ability to relate to humans. This makes him say goodbye to his son who is saved by a monk that has a cross, and his son goes on to be Prince of Wallachia. Dracula intends to kill himself and the vampires he’s created by moving the clouds away and burning them in the sun but someone who is inspired by Dracula and believes he is good intentioned saves his life with his own blood. Flashing to the present day it’s revealed that Dracula has met a woman named Mina in London, England and the Master Vampire aka Caligula aka cave vampire watches them from afar. It was a tad misleading to state that this would be Dracula in the present day when that present day is only arrived at in the end. Pre-production began in 2007 despite not being filmed until late 2013 after switch ups in deals, directors, and cast members. Dracula Untold 2014 ended up debuting at #2 after Gone Girl, one of my all time favorite movies. Box office aside however the film is not well liked by critics or fans. People walked away feeling that this version of Dracula did not frighten or suspend like previous versions while some felt it was just alright. Some critics pointed out that making him become a monster for noble reasons took something away from the fear-factor of the plot. Others didn’t love the battle scenes as the gore rather than more of the traditional stalking of individual people to drink their blood. Overall the studio and fans considered it a enough of a flop to change the entire studio’s Universal Monsters direction. Victor Frankenstein (2015)... Victor Frankenstein came out one year later in 2015, released by 20th Century Fox the film is based on the 1818 Shelley novel but not related to the Universal Monsters. Directed by Paul McGuigan and written by Max Landis the film stars James McAvoy as Victor, Daniel Radcliffe as Igor Straussman, Jessica Brown Findlay as Lorelei, Andrew Scott as Inspector Roderick Turpin, Charles Dance as Baron Frankenstein, and Freddie Fox as Finnegan. With a budget of $40 million the film had studio expectations to reach in terms of box office performance. The adaptation is told from Igor’s perspective unlike the source material and shows Victor becoming a legend rather than reciting his legend, a new twist. Beginning in 1860s London with Victor Frankenstein, a medical student with grand ambitions who attends a performance and helps save an aerialist named Lorelei. He’s able to save her with assistance from a hunchback named Igor, the film’s narrator, who is enslaved by the circus’ ringleader that has feelings for Lorelei. Victor is impressed with Igor’s knowledge of anatomy that he’s been able to gather on his own and decides to rescue him. Victor drains the cyst on his back which is causing him to be physically deformed and also gives him a corrective harness that will help improve his posture post-cyst. Victor gives him the name Igor Straussman after his roommate who’s never around. Feeling indebted to Victor, Igor becomes his assistant for his experiments which center around artificially resurrecting life. Victor’s experiments are very upsetting for the religious police force that views them as blasphemy. Taking body parts from dead animals Victor tasks Igor with reanimating them and then uses them to create a monstrous chimp creature he names Gordon. Victor is upset when Lorelei returns and he views her as a distraction for Igor. After an experiment goes awry and results in Victor and Igor having to kill Gordon, Lorelei tries to convince Igor to stop Victor. Igor doesn’t want to do that though due to feeling sympathetic towards Victor’s obsession rooted in feeling responsible for his brother’s death. Victor’s father blames Victor which adds to his guilt and thus his drive to succeed in his experiments. Due to the experiments’ bizarre nature Victor gets expelled from the university but does gain financing from a wealthy peer, Finnegan, who shares in Victor’s desire to create artificial life. While Igor and Victor begin making plans for a humanoid creature they named Prometheus their personal relationship becomes strained as Igor grows closer with Lorelei. Police eventually raid Victor’s lab, fed up with his experiments and hoping to destroy any inventions. During this raid Igor finds the corpse of Victor’s actual roommate Igor who appears to be dead from an overdose. Igor realizes that real-Igor’s missing eye is one that Victor provided for a previous experiment. Victor and Igor are able to escape when Finnegan sends a carriage for them and they arrive at his estate. Although Finnegan is offering them all they need to complete their Prometheus creation Igor is suspicious of him and still processing the discovery of real-Igor dead and mutilated. The pair end up falling out and Victor proceeds onto Scotland alone to finish the Prometheus creation. Finnegan then abducts Igor with the intention to kill Victor once he can weaponize the Prometheus creation for his own. Igor is thrown into the Thames River and left to drown but is rescued by Lorelei who saves his life. Now that Igor and Lorelei know Finnegan’s intentions they set out to save Victor who they find on the verge of finishing his experiment with the necessary lighting strike to animate the monster. Despite pleading with Victor not to, he turns on the machine which then causes a surge that kills Finnegan and his employees. The monster awakens and Victor believes Prometheus to be his resurrected brother, Henry. Prometheus doesn’t have consciousness however and can’t talk so Victor comes to the conclusion that his experiment is a failure. After an officer fires on Prometheus he goes on a rampage and kills the officer and almost kills Victor. Realizing that he needs to do something Victor helps Igor stab Prometheus in its 2 hearts. The next day Lorelei delivers a letter to Igor from Victor in which he apologizes for the suffering caused and wants Igor to live his life with Lorelei. Things are left open ended with Victor telling Igor to stay ready because he might come back one day and ask for assistance. He also states that Igor is a good creation, running off to the countryside to proceed experimenting. As mentioned before the film had a steep budget of $40 million but generated $34.2 million worldwide with only $5.8 million coming from North America. Projected to gross $12 million throughout the first 5 days of release it didn’t crack $200,000 on the first night so projections were drastically lowered to $3-$4 million over 5 days. It did break a record however, for having the lowest opening gross for a movie released in over 2,500 theaters, a title it held until Friend Request came out in 2017. The box office does match the sentiment in this movie’s case, with many believing the fresh perspective hadn’t been so fresh. Believing that other Frankenstein movies reigned superior, fans felt that it didn’t offer much for them, ultimately being regarded as a mid-film. The 2020s The 2020s have been…eventful so far, to say the least. Officially beginning in March 2020 for the USA, the globe shut down due to the COVID-19 virus. The virus spread rapidly, could be asymptomatic, and had no known treatments at the time, resulting in over a million deaths worldwide. Unfortunately the pandemic became politicized and wearing a mask to protect everyone or being vaccinated became a statement rather than a personal health choice. That same year the US Presidential Election proved to be a catalyst with Joe Biden winning and Donald Trump starting election denial claims before the election had occurred. These election claims culminated in an insurrection attempt at the US Capitol Building that aimed to interrupt official election proceedings and therefore attempt to steal the election using planted, fake electors from multiple states at Trump’s behest. This was just one of the anti-government protests and demonstrations in the world during the decade with the summer before being filled with anti-racism protests following the George Floyd murder by a police officer. Global conflicts have increased alongside domestic issues; Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and Hamas attacked Israel in 2023. Both conflicts have resulted in the seemingly stronger nations struggling to control the situation like the world had assumed they would, drawing into question national security and defense realities for every country. While not many crazy tech advances have occurred outside of AI concerns becoming more prevalent as it is starting to steal jobs from writers and tech professionals, cultural changes have been aplenty. During the 2023 strikes in Hollywood for example large parts of creative’s demands from studios centered around their jobs being protected from AI. Movies So far studios have continued to revive older titles or dip into pre-made fan markets to ensure big box office returns, and some examples are: Barbie 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2023, Dune: Part One, Two 2021 and 2024, Bad Boys for Life 2020, and Godzilla vs. Kong 2021. Disney has continued to expand the MCU and other studios have added new additions like: Spider-Man: No Way Home 2021, Inside Out 2 2024, Top Gun: Maverick 2022, Deadpool & Wolverine 2024, Jurassic World: Dominion 2022, and Despicable Me 4 2024. On the horror front there’s somewhat of a boost right now in the number and frequency of high-profile, blockbuster horror. Some of this has been through remakes of big titles like Candyman 2021 and Salem’s Lot 2024. There’s also been an increase in movies in general of diverse representation and storytelling that horror has benefited from which is a continued trend from the late 2010s. This is coinciding with the revival of Universal Monsters titles from studios like Netflix, Universal, and 20th Century Fox. The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)... Silence descended again on the monster movie scene until 2023 with The Last Voyage of the Demeter, a Universal Pictures film directed by André Øvredal. Written by Bragi Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz the film focuses on a specific part of Dracula by Bram Stoker rather than the novel itself. Adapted from “The Captain’s Log” portion of the book it stars Corey Hawkins as Clemens, Aisling Franciosi as Anna, Liam Cunningham as Captain Eliot, David Dastmalchian as Wojchek, Javier Botet as Dracula, Woody Norman as Toby, and Jon Jon Briones as Joseph. The majority of the movie takes place on a merchant ship named Demeter. Opening in August 1897 the ship washes ashore in England and police find a log that had been kept by the captain, Eliot, among the wreckage. A month earlier the ship had made port in Bulgaria and received cargo bound for London that included multiple large, wooden crates that the local Romanian workers refused to bring aboard due to needing to leave before sundown. Upon hearing that the Demeter needs more crewmen, a doctor named Clemens attempts to convince the crew that his medical skills made him valuable. Clemens is a black man who’s having trouble finding a place on a ship headed back to England and has to compete with ship crewmen for a spot. Another man is chosen over him for the open crew position but after he saves the Captain’s grandson, Toby, from being crushed and the man chosen over him leaves due to a dragon emblem being a bad omen he’s chosen as a replacement. Once on the ship Clemens discovers a woman inside a crate full of dirt, she’s barely alive and he performs a transfusion to treat what he believes is an infection. That night Clemens and another crew member see a figure hidden in fog on the deck. The next night all the animals being transported are dead along with the ship dog which causes the crew to believe there is a rabies outbreak. The woman who’s name is Anna wakes up and warns them about a monster aboard that came from Transylvania and feeds on blood. She informs them he’s called Dracula where she’s from and that she is actually a slave of his that provides him blood so that the town can live in peace. She shows the crew multiple bites on her body and informs them that Dracula is ready to feed and here now. Dracula bites the crew member that had seen the fog with Clemens and turns him into a vampire-like creature. Toby is also bitten by Dracula after being trapped in the captain’s quarters while running away from the vampire crew member. That crew member is then tied to a mast on the ship's deck and when the sun rises the next morning he bursts into flames. Clemens attempts to save Toby but he dies and they wrap his body in sailcloth to have a burial at sea for him. While having the funeral Toby’s body begins to move which causes the Captain to unwrap him, revealing Toby to the sunlight. Toby catches fire and burns the Captain who won’t let go, Clemens has to throw Toby into the ocean in order to end the ordeal. After all of the harrowing events the crew decides to destroy the ship and hopefully drown Dracula so he cannot reach London. Unfortunately things get off to a rocky start when Dracula kills the Captain and 2 other crew members while also biting Anna when she tries to save Clemens. Clemens returns the favor by rescuing her and hitting Dracula with an axe which allows Anna to cause Dracula to be crushed by part of the ship’s mast. Anna and Clemens then jump ship and believe they have killed Dracula but before the ship sinks it reaches the British shores. This allows Dracula to use his strength to push the mast off of his body that Anna had used to trap him and he shouts triumphantly. Anna and Clemens are then left floating on debris from the ship when Anna tells him that she’s becoming a vampire and that the transfusions simply delayed the process rather than cure her. She doesn’t want to become a vampire so she self-immolates when the sun rises, leaving Clemens adrift at sea. He eventually drifts to shore and arrives in London and ends up in a tavern. While sketching a portrait of Anna in his notebook he hears a signal knock from the Demeter’s crew only to see Dracula dressed up and laughing at him. Just as quickly as he appeared he disappears and Clemens is left searching around, leaving the pub he ends up seeing Dracula’s shadow following him. Clemens vows then and there that to honor his dead companions he’ll send Dracula back to hell himself. The writer of the film has said that he was inspired by a miniature of the Demeter and then adapted the Captain’s Log portion of the novel into what has been described as an Alien-inspired film. Having been in development since Bram Stoker’s Dracula that came out in 1992 the film changed hands and directions numerous times between the early 2000s and even up until early 2021. A multitude of production companies are credited with having worked on the film, including: DreamWorks Pictures, Reliance Entertainment, Storyworks Productions, Studio Babelsberg, Phoenix Pictures, and Wise Owl Media. Distributed by Universal Pictures in 2023 the film grossed a total of $21.8 million despite costing $45 million to create. Fans and critics are both mixed about this film, some saying the fresh angle works well and others believing that how the film came together left them wanting more. A Vulture writer saying it’s distinguished from other Dracula films because of its quote-unquote “delicious mean streak” in reference to the surprise cruelty faced by multiple characters. Werewolves (2024)... Not just one, not just two, and not even just three monster movies are coming out or have come out recently aside from The Last Voyage of the Demeter. December 6, 2024 Werewolves released, directed by Steven C. Miller, written by Matthew Kennedy and is about a super moon turning humans into werewolves. Distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment it was produced by Burke Management, Monty the Dog Productions, and Solution Entertainment Group, originally starting production in 2022. Although lesser known than some of the bigger titles coming soon it grossed $1.86 million on opening alone. Currently Werewolves is not available to rent and only to purchase for $19.99, which I’m not spending to review it. Without the plot available online there isn’t much else to say about it other than it’s available, it’s a modern werewolf movie, and if you buy movies without knowing if they’re good then have at it. Nosferatu (2024)... With much, much bigger fanfare Nosferatu hit theaters on December 25th, Christmas Day, with Focus Features distributing in the US and Universal Pictures internationally. Directed and written by Robert Eggers the film has been much anticipated as a remake and refreshed adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel as well as the 1922 German silent film that is also an adaptation of the novel. Although Nosferatu 1922 is about Count Dracula the creator, Henrik Galeen, changed details like names to differentiate it from the source material and avoid copyright infringement. Despite the changes they got sued anyway by Stoker’s widow for violating copyright and a court ruled that all copies of the film had to be destroyed. In horror community fashion even back then, some copies made it and the film went on to be considered a masterpiece and originator of the horror genre. The source material ensured horror audiences would be enthused while the star studded cast ensured mainstream audiences would take note. One of those draws is Bill Skarsgård, famous for his portrayal of the clown, It, in the recent remakes, plays Count Orlok also-known-as Nosferatu who is basically Count Dracula in the novel’s description. Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholaus Hoult are 2 other names familiar to audiences; Depp for her roles in Voyagers 2021 and familial connection to Johnny Depp and Hoult for his roles in Warm Bodies, Mad Max, X-Men, Renfield, The Menu, and so on with the pair playing husband and wife in Nosferatu, Ellen and Thomas Hutter. Willem Dafoe, the busiest man in Hollywood, is also in the film as the Van Helsing-like character, Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz. Dafoe has also been in Saturday Night, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Kinds of Kindness, Gonzo Girl, Pet Shop Days, Finally Dawn, Poor Things, The Boy and the Heron as a voice actor, Asteroid City, and Inside all within 2023 and 2024. Aaron Taylor-Johnson from Kick Ass, Craven the Hunter, and Bullet Train alongside Emma Corrin who played Princess Diana in The Crown are another couple in the film, Friedrich and Anna Harding. Familiar faces throughout the cast to a variety of audiences definitely helped generate organic buzz around the film. Despite a long line of recent box office failures this Focus-slash-Universal film grossed $156.4 million so far and is still in theaters almost a month from when it was released as I’m writing this. The budget is an estimated $50 million for the whole film, marking this as a change in tide for success of monster movies more akin to that of the original monster movie days. The intention to make a remake of Nosferatu 1922 was announced in July 2015 with Robert Eggers to direct and write the film. Between then and the film being made Eggers stated he’d been surprised that the remake of something so big would be given to someone for their second movie. Luckily for other horror fans Eggers has a deep connection to Nosferatu and became inspired by the novel also, even adapting it for a high school play. Originally Anya Taylor-Joy had been cast opposite Harry Styles as of 2020 but by 2021 scheduling issues caused Styles to drop from the project. Following negotiations and changing of parts within the group the final result in casting ended up exceeding expectations. The film finished 3rd in its opening weekend behind Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King but in terms of critical response most fans have been generally impressed. With an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes and an aggregate rating of 8/10 critics are impressed with Eggers, the script, and the cast that is able to build fear. Having captured the suspense that earlier monster movies had been able to portray it has been well regarded by most since the release. Nosferatu 2024 has been nominated for and won numerous awards already from critics associations and upcoming awards like Critics’ Choice and the British Academy Film Awards. Wolf Man (2025)... In a sign of the times another monster movie just came out this past weekend, Universal Pictures’ reboot of the 1941 film The Wolf Man. While less massive than the campaign and anticipation for Nosferatu 2024, Wolf Man has still had a decently sized marketing campaign leading up to its January 17, 2025 release in theaters. Originally meant to be part of the Dark Universe, the studio had shifted away from that approach and accepted a pitch from Ryan Gosling for the current Wolf Man with him as the lead and Derek Cianfrance directing. Cianfrance left the project however which caused Gosling to drop his main role and instead take a producer role and Whannell became the director with a new cast. Taking place in 1995 this Wolf Man is a modern take on the legend of the curse. In the mountains of Oregon a virus is linked to wildlife and during a hunting trip young Blake Lovell, played by Zac Chandler, and his father witness a creature lurking amongst the trees. Flash forward to 30 years later and Blake, played by Christopher Albott, his daughter, Ginger, and Wife, Charlotte, played by Julia Garner live in San Francisco. After receiving word that his father has been declared dead after being missing for an extended period of time Blake decides to take his family to see his home and vacation there to reconnect. This story is the basis for the film’s plot and I won’t be saying much more about it because it’s extremely new. Notable changes however are the locations, background, and names of the characters, opting for American rural mountain background rather than English estate in the forest of the originals. Despite taking place in Oregon the forest scenes in the film were shot in New Zealand in the South Island’s Queenstown with structures like the house being built in Lane Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand. The same composer for The Invisible Man 2020 came back to create the score for this film and Whannell has said he wanted the final song to end on an emotional note. Thus far Wolf Man has grossed $16.8 million worldwide and is up against a budget of $25 million for the studio to make returns on. Response to the film has so far been mixed from critics and fans, receiving a C- in a CinemaScore rating that polled audience members. Vulture has critiqued the focus in the film on the transformation rather than the story but that feels in line with The Wolf Man 1941. The Bride! (2025)... Slated to come out September 2025, The Bride! is written, directed, and produced by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Warner Bros. Pictures is behind distribution while a variety of studios are listed as responsible for producing the film including Domain Entertainment, Pie Films, First Love Films, Pilot Productions, and MGMT Entertainment. Jessie Buckley is cast as Frankenstein’s bride while Christian Bale as Frankenstein’s monster with actors Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Julianne Hough, and more cast alongside them. Announced in August 2023 the remake is intended to be Bride of Frankenstein 1935 from Netflix, but Netflix dropped the project allegedly because of the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Unable to keep both this film and their other Frankenstein remake, Netflix opted to keep the Guillermo del Toro directed latter film. Frankenstein (2025)... Not much is known about the other Netflix remake, Frankenstein, also set to be released this year. As mentioned, this film is directed and written by del Toro and based on the Frankenstein 1818 novel. Produced by Double Dare You, Jacob Elordi of Euphoria fame is the monster while Oscar Isaac is Victor. Mia Goth, Christopher Waltz, Felix Kammerer, and Lars Mikkelsen also play parts in this remake. In the past del Toro has said he wanted to make a quote-unquote “Miltonian tragedy” version of Frankenstein more similar to Frankenstein 1994’s original script. Starting in 2007 the project wasn’t revived until Netflix picked it up in 2023. Andrew Garfield had originally been cast as the monster but had scheduling conflicts that led to the casting of Elordi, which actually has me very excited. I love Garfield, he is my Spider-Man and I’m sticking by that, but he feels more like Victor than the monster to me. No official release date has been announced yet for the film but hopefully more information will be out soon. Conclusion More now than ever I believe that societal fears are rooted in change; the fear that things will never change, the fear that things will change, that they are irrevocably changed or changed in a way we didn’t like. Although Universal Monsters movie frequency rose and fell throughout the decades horror movies in general stayed fairly consistent, what those horror movies were about seemed to evolve. As much evolvement as we’ve had I think that change is more of a circle than we realize, that the feeling that the grass is greener on the other side creates discontent for fear to grow. Thank you! Thank you for reading and/or watching part 2 of this Monsters series!! I hope to finish the projects I’d set out to finish in 2024 (which is this series covering the history of big monster movies as well as the full iZombie review) ASAP. I don’t post on social media anymore so this site is the best way to see recent posts. This year, 2025, I'll be writing single reviews of horror movies that will be posted to this site. Irregardless of what I do with Red Rose Horror thank you for reading this article! If you're interested in the video for this article or other videos visit the homepage or https://www.youtube.com/@redrosehorror

A shallow dive into Justin Long's career in horror movies. Making an overall argument that Justin Long is a horror icon after watching his surprise appearance in the 2022 horror movie, Barbarian . Photo from Justin Long's Instagram Barbarian took a sharp turn into ‘what-the-fuck metropolis’ early on when we cut away from who we assumed to be the main characters, Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård , to Justin Long driving on the highway along the ocean with his top down. Seeing Justin Long appear immediately got me on board to find out what the hell is going on. All of the great Justin Long performances in horror movies combined with recent TikTok videos and various Reddit threads on the subject made it a no-brainer to pay some homage to someone I think is an underrated ‘scream queen’ who’s making a comeback onto the scene. Scream Queens of the past and now Fay Wray, one of the original 'scream queens'. Starred in the 1933 King Kong movie. According to the ever useful Wikipedia, ”a scream queen is an actress who is prominent and influential in horror films, either through a notable appearance or recurring roles” and even references a “scream king” as a name for the male counterpart, which I am disregarding in this article. Scream king feels diminishing to the power that those gentlemen bring to the movies, it doesn’t have that same “oomph” that scream queen does. I’m holding up Justin Long to the masters themselves, the true scream queens, because I consider him that good and influential in the genre. Women in particular have always been common in horror movies, usually the victim of the monster or awful event that the movie is about. The horror they experience, often shown to the audience through screaming (especially in earlier movies) is usually the horror aspect itself. The scenes are used in trailers, advertisements, and reviews of horror movies, a staple in the ecosystem. Jamie Lee Curtis Horror wouldn't be what it is today without scenes of screaming actresses running from chainsaw laden murderous maniacs seeking vengeance. Despite 'scream queens' often being innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time they are who we remember from the movies, who we mention in relation to the movie monters. Every other character is mentioned by archetype only, whereas the scream queen characters get name recognition. From Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween , The Fog , Prom Night , and Terror Train to Jenna Ortega in X and Scream (2022) , scream queens can make (or break) a horror movie. Justin Long Justin Long is a Millennial and older Gen z pop culture staple. Middle child that he is, Long finds himself in a variety of genres and pops up where you least expect him to be. His career began in one of my personal favorites, Galaxy Quest , a satire and homage to sci-fi, specifically Star Trek, that came out in 1999 playing a Galaxy Quest super fan. Less than two years later in 2001 Long played Darry Jenner in Jeepers Creepers , leading to a Saturn Award nomination for Best Performance by a Young Actor. Long’s upward trajectory didn’t stop there, in fact he has over 100 IMDB credits and three currently upcoming as one of my favorite podcast hosts would say, “he’s booked and busy” working in the industry. Just last year in 2022 he had two horror movies alone that came out, Barbarian and House of Darkness , both of which he crushes his performance in. For no other reason than I just happened to I previously associated Justin Long solely with comedies, and often thought of his performances as DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story , Pineapple Express , He’s Just Not That Into You , and other comedy movies he’s featured in. It didn’t click for me that he’s in Tusk , a movie I’m more familiar with than I’d like to be, until about a month ago. I had seen posts about Justin Long being a scream queen and finally during a conversation about it I connected that Long is in so, so, so many good horror movies, often as one of, or the only, protagonists. Not only that, but a lot of them are damn good movies. Justin Long in Jeepers Creepers (2001) Like mentioned before, Long is one of the two protagonists in Jeepers Creepers . A movie that is an instant horror classic, breaking box office records for Labor Day opening weekend. From start to finish I find it terrifying but critics have proclaimed that the second half crumbles and is ultimately a dud. Justin Long is hunted by the murdering demon thing, the Creeper, that awakens every so many years and is ultimately taken for his eyes by the aforementioned Creeper. His performance is a standout in the film and carries throughout despite the harsher criticism about the second half. Justin Long in Jeepers Creepers (2001) Following the success of the first movie Justin Long returned with a cameo in the sequel, Jeepers Creepers 2 , and in my opinion is still the scariest storyline of the franchise. Later in 2009 he had a main role as Clay Dalton in Drag Me to Hell , another underrated horror film. As the love interest to the main character, Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, he’s more of a scream queen by-proxy but the only surviving character at the end nonetheless. Justin Long in Drag Me to Hell (2009) Unfortunately now I must address Tusk , a “horror comedy” I’ve seen very few say is funny, but rather only horrifying. The premise of this film is Justin Long’s character, a podcaster named Wallace Bryton, who is captured by a retired seaman that wishes to turn him into a walrus due to his obsession with one named, Mr. Tusk. It is just as disturbing as it sounds, culminating into a confusing and bizarre ending. Scene from Tusk (2014) The reviews for this movie on Rotten Tomatoes is one of the funniest review sections I’ve ever seen, I highly recommend checking it out. It is half praise for the film whether that is on behalf of the acting performances or special effects and the other half is rage filled rants speckled with hilariously creative insults. Polarization aside, I believe Justin Long’s performance in Tusk is great, too great in fact, far too realistic for my liking. Him screaming at the table with the haunting man who turns him into a walrus turning into his girlfriend’s monologue is wickedly disturbing. Justin Long in Tusk (2014) Wallace does survive at the end kind of sort of so I suppose it also moves him to that hallowed upper tier (in yet another movie) of a surviving scream queen. After spending the next seven or so years doing mostly comedy films Justin Long returned to the scream queen screen as Hap Jackson in House of Darkness in 2022. House of Darkness is a slow burn like Hereditary . Most of the plot is tension filled with a few red herring scares leading up to the big plot reveal. After that the last ten-ish minutes are pure insanity. Scene from House of Darkness (2022) The plot reveal for House of Darkness took so long I started to question if I had even put on a horror movie but once it did come things escalated very quickly with a lot of gore and carnage. There isn’t time after the big events to catch your thoughts so you’re left with a “that’s the end?!” moment as the credits start to roll. Scene from House of Darkness (2022) Long gives a good performance as a “nice guy” similar to the vibe in Promising Young Woman . He could be either a fine enough guy or an evil, incel maniac waiting to reveal himself at the slightest hint of rejection or embarrassment. That tension is built throughout the movie as Mina, played by Kate Bosworth , toys with Hap, intending to teach him a “morality lesson” like she and her sisters have done to sexual predators for a very long time. Though traditional screaming isn’t common in this film, Justin Long’s performance is full of a rollercoaster of fearful moments and a man’s want to hook up blinding him. Until it’s too late of course, when they straight up tell him their story only to kill him brutally directly after. Justin Long in Barbarian (2022) Long’s current, and still growing, scream queen career led to him starring in Barbarian alongside Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård late last year. Without saying too much Barbarian takes many turns and has both jump scares and emotional shocks throughout. Ultimately I finished Barbarian yelling at my screen and glad the ride had come to a stop so I could catch my breath. Justin Long is an underrated scream queen of the 2000’s, 2010’s and so far the 2020’s, that deserves his flowers. There isn’t a year since his career began in 1999 that he hasn’t had a project release, most years he has more projects come out than it seems possible to. Justin Long Long is cast to play a supporting role in Dear David , a supernatural thriller, and Goosebumps , a TV series based on the iconic book series of the same title, both projects with unannounced release dates. Despite his busy schedule he has given audiences some truly stellar performances in horror movies both blockbuster and cult-classic. He’s more than a scream king, he’s a scream queen and based on his two recent performances its only up from here.

It’s not a shock that there’s a horror movie lineup for the upcoming year, but what is surprising is how good it looks. Maybe it’s just me but for a while there it seemed like really, genuinely good new horror movies came by less and less frequently but the last few years have broken that curse and 2024 is looking strong as well. For this post I’ve only included the relatively big horror drops through midsummer but I plan to post about more 2024 releases as the year gets going.  MOVIES COMING OUT IN 2024 1. Night Swim  - in theaters January 5, 2024 An evil spirit haunting a residential pool terrorizes and tries to murder unsuspecting swimmers. Directed by Bryce McGuire , Written by Bryce McGuire  and Rod Blackhurst Starring Wyatt Russell  as Ray, Kerry Condon  as Eve, and Amelie Hoeferle  as Izzy Childhood summers spent in my grandma’s in-ground pool have prepared me for this niche fear. Despite some concerns that there won’t be a movie’s worth of story here I’m excited to see this concept play out and am pleasantly surprised by the high budget production value in the trailer.  2. Imaginary - in theaters March 8, 2024 After returning to her childhood home a woman finds that her imaginary friend hadn’t been imaginary afterall and is Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey  pissed that she left.  Directed by Jeff Wadlow, Written by Greg Erb , Bryce McGuire , and Jason Oremland Starring Tom Payne  as Max, DeWanda Wise  as Jessica, and Veronica Falcon  as Dr. Alana Soto Many of us had imaginary friends in childhood and I can’t be the only one that has thought what would happen if they had been real . I’m not sure what I think about this one quite yet and have the same concern as Night Swim , that there might not be enough there for a full movie.  3. Lisa Frankenstein  - in theaters February 9, 2024 A teen love story mashup between Frankenstein , Heathers , and The Loved Ones  this Diablo Cody  written movie is about a girl who brings her crush back to life and the two go on a journey of love and sourcing missing bodyparts.  Directed by Zelda Williams , Written by Diablo Cody Starring Kathryn Newton , Liza Soberano , and Jenna Davis I love Diablo Cody, I love turning coming of age tropes of their head, I love feminine rage (and the journey out of naivety), and I love spunky, weird comedy that is so good you don’t even realize it upon first watch–so I am definitely looking forward to watching this.  4. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2  - releases February 16, 2024 Currently no plot released; Winnie-the-Pooh   and his band of other abandoned imaginary friends stalk the forests outside of London after being abandoned by Christopher Robin when he went off to college is the premise of the first movie.  Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield , Written by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, Matt Leslie , and A.A. Milne ; Starring Scott Chambers , Ryan Oliva , and Tallulah Evans I’m not stoked about this one, though I do think they made some big changes with the mask for Winnie-the-Pooh that I think could help but overall I’m suspending my thoughts until I see it.   5. The First Omen  - releases on April 5, 2024 After starting a life of devotion to the church in Rome an American woman begins to question her faith amid discovering darks, nefarious actions with the intent of creating the antichrist. A prequel to the 1976 movie The Omen , this is a highly anticipated release.  Directed by Arkasha Stevenson , Written by Tim Smith , Arkasha Stevenson, and Keith Thomas ; Starring Bill Nighy , Ralph Ineson , and Nell Tiger Free Lately exorcism movies and really any movie that relies on our respect of religion and the braking of that respect for the true scares hasn’t hit for me. It’s entirely possible that my lack of excitement for this is more of a me-thing than a movie-thing.  6. Horroscope  - releases on May 10, 2024 or June 28, 2024 (not official) College friends have their horoscopes read and then begin to die in ways similar to those horoscopes and attempt to change the outcomes of their fates.  Directed by Spenser Cohen  and Anna Halberg , Written by Nicholas Adams , Spenser Cohen, & Anna Halberg; Starring Humberly Gonzalez, Avantika, and Jacob Batalon Two things I love, horror and horoscopes, combined into a movie with an excitingly good cast including Jacob Batalon  from Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming  adaptation. This movie is in post-production and doesn’t have a trailer yet so it’s nearly impossible to know if this is looking like more of a hit or a miss but it’s a fun thing to see on the distant horizon.  7. The Strangers: Chapter 1  -  releases on May 17, 2024 The long anticipated third installment for The Strangers  and it’s a prequel. A young couple seeking a new life drive cross-country to Oregon where their car breaks down forcing them to stay in a secluded Air BnB. While there three masked strangers arrive to terrorize the couple.  Directed by Renny Harlin , Written by Alan R. Cohen , Alan Freedland , and Amber Loutfi ; Starring Madeline Petsch , Rachel Shenton , and Gabriel Basso It has always been a shame that there’s only two other movies in The Strangers  franchise, one that came out in 2008 and one in 2018, almost six years ago now. I’m looking forward to this coming out especially with Madeline Petsch as the lead.  8. The Watchers  - releases on June 7, 2024 An artist in her late 20’s becomes stranded in the Ireland forest and the shelter she finds is actually a place of captivity where alongside three strangers she’s watched and stalked every night. Directed by Ishana Shyamalan , Written by Ishana Shyamalan and A.M. Shine Starring Dakota Fanning , Georgina Campbell , and Olwen Fouere Dakota Fanning can do little wrong as far as I’m concerned so I’m automatically adding this to my Watch List but the added setting of Ireland and the mystery surrounding who the Watchers are also have me intrigued and planning to go see this when it comes out.  9. A Quiet Place: Day One  - releases on June 28, 2024 Currently the plot is underwraps and no trailer is out. The movie franchise is about a family trying to survive in a creature infested post-apocalyptic world where they must be silent in order to stay undetected.  Directed by Michael Sarnoski , Written by Michael Sarnoski, John Krasinski , and Bryan Woods ; Starring Djimon Hounsou , Alex Wolff , and Lupita Nyong’o I’m not a huge fan of this franchise, while I think they are good movie this style isn’t my style so I watch just to be part of the conversation but I’m more stoked to see the absolutely fire cast than to find out exactly how the blind creatures took over the world.  10. Speak No Evil  - releases on August 9, 2024 A remake of the 2022 movie  with the same title, a family is invited to spend a weekend vacationing with friends in a country house. Unfortunately things take a turn for the worst as the vacation devolves into a nightmare. Directed by James Watkins , Written by Christian Tafdrup , Mads Tafdrup  and James Watkins; Starring Mackenzie Davis , James McAvoy , and Scott McNairy Definitely interested after seeing what the 2022 one is and wondering what will be changed and adapted in this remake since it’s coming out so closely following the original. I’m anticipating it’s the American version of the Danish movie rather than a completely parred down and rebuilt remake however which is still interesting and something to look forward to for summer time.

Although a New Year’s Eve night out is a fun and memorable way to ring in a new year sometimes staying in is just the better option. Over 4,000 years of history shows that New Year’s Eve and Day have been celebrated   by various cultures and people.  Both the flu  and COVID  have started an upward winter trend as illness spreads within schools systems and the temperature keeps dropping. The likelihood I would’ve had a horror marathon regardless of getting sick at Christmas is pretty high but the sickness definitely ended any questions about my plans.  The movies I’d planned to watch originally are horror movies about New Years or that noticeably take place over the New Year period or directly after Christmas. A few problems with that–firstly most of the movies about New Years aren’t great or actually have nothing to do with New Years at all, secondly the ones that did look good either weren’t available online at all or had to be rented.  Rather than force myself to suffer through movies just because they are New Years relevant I decided to watch things I actually wanted to watch. The list ended up being a handful of the 2023 released horror movies I hadn’t watched yet, which is a shockingly long list. So long in fact that I already started before NYE night, because why not and also being sick really clears up your plans and responsibilities.  Without further adieu this is my New Year’s Eve In Marathon: 1. Attachment   (2022) Gabriel Bier Gislason  directorial debut, Danish romantic horror produced by Thomas Heinesen  that released on Shudder in February 2023 where it is still available to watch . Two women meet and instantly fall for one another but one has an overbearing mother she lives with and a new injury that requires her to be at home. The two attempt to navigate a new relationship under the watchful eye of the Orthodox Jewish community they now live in.  2. The Wrath of Becky  (2023) Premiering in 2023 this revenge film sequel follows Becky as she faces off with a new group of monstrous men who cross her path. A bloody, gruesome, black comedy unfolds featuring a personal horror fave delivering another stellar performance Jill Larson , aka Deborah Logan .  3. Brooklyn 45  (2023) A group of WWII American Veterans get together to be there for their friend who recently lost his wife, also a member of this friend group and fellow veteran. Their grieving friend convinces them to do a seance and things go awry from there with visits from the ghosts of their past.  4. Follow Her  (2022) Without a Wiki page this movie is sourced as coming out in 2022 starring Dani Parker  and Luke Cook  who carry a shaky plot with good acting. Streamer Jess has dreams of being an actress and answers a casting call with the intention of also filming it for her stream. The casting call isn’t what it seems when Tom, the man who hired her, starts acting insane.  5. Sister Death  (2023) Directed by Paco Plaza  and released in 2023 on Netflix, where it’s still available to watch , the plot follows a new nun who had been marked by a miracle in childhood as she completes her training to become a nun. Unfortunately for her the nunnery she’s been placed in harbors dark secrets that could have an impact for generations to come.  6. The Conference  (2023) During a team conference in Sweden a group of coworkers reckon with their interpersonal issues and unethical business practices after a masked killer starts targeting them and the staff at their retreat and is available to watch now  on Netflix.  7. El Conde  (2023) Mixing real life figures and history with fictionalized retellings this movie follows an old vampire who has decided he wants to die. His children and loved ones gather at his estate after their political fortunes take a turn for the worst to be by his side in his final days or extend those days far into the future. Available now to watch on Netflix  be warned the whole film is in black and white.  8. Huesera: The Bone Woman  (2022) Although this movie is actually a 2022 film it released in the United States in February 2023 on Shudder, where it’s still available to watch . The movie is a Spanish speaking film that takes place in Mexico following a newly pregnant woman who’s struggling with her pregnancy despite having really wanted to be pregnant.  9. Perpetrator  (2023) A bizarre teen moves to a new town to live with her aunt and begins to experience bizarre, blood related mishaps and odd interactions with her new classmates and family. After girls in her new town go missing she learns how to harness all of the new and strange things happening to go up against evil forces. Coming out on Shudder this year Alicia Silverstone  and Kiah McKirnan ’s awkward chemistry lightens the dark and gruesome plot.  10. You ’re Killing Me   (2023) In an attempt to get a recommendation letter a young woman decides to go to a themed party out of her league only for the night to devolve into terror and morally conflicting occurrences for everyone, perpetrators and victims alike. Although this movie is available to watch now  on Showtime I can’t say that I recommend it.  More than a few movies are still on my list from 2023 and even 2022 that I missed, skipped, or just got too distracted to watch. I still want to watch a lot more of the movies that I missed but  I’m really, really excited about the movies coming out in 2024, 2025, and even those that are rumored to be in the works for those years and beyond. The horror genre seems to be experiencing it’s own boom right now off of some really successful theatrical releases and renewed interest in the genre and I’m definitely in support of that.

Warning & Introduction Warning—the following is a mini-part and the introduction to the full iZombie video which will be posted in September. This is just a brief background and overview that will introduce the larger project and video. In addition spoilers for iZombie will be throughout. If life is like a box of chocolates then the perfect TV show is like a well crafted steak and veggie dinner—a whole meal. Shows can be good meals, bad meals, meals that start off good but make your stomach upset, and so on. Like with many other things it seems to be a personal theme that if I avoid something, when I eventually end up watching it I not only love it but kick myself for having wasted so much time not loving it. iZombie is a perfect example of one of those shows for me, a perfect meal I wish I’d tried sooner. The Meal Most meals start with the base, the ingredients and the plan, not much if it’s not transformed, a setting. In iZombie’s case that setting is Seattle, Washington; a known city still in the PNW like the comic book series but in a larger city that has tropes to play into without overpowering the story or playing too big of a role, like a New Orleans, LA, or New York setting. This serves as the vegetable and spice foundation, the oil or butter you’ll decide to use to get things going. The source material, a DC Comic of the same name, tells Halloween-esq tales of a zombie and her supernatural squad from her perspective. Typically we anticipate zombie movies to be apocalyptic dystopias told through the eyes of the survivors, the humans who seek to eliminate the zombies and return to human life. In iZombie however the zombie virus and thus zombie characters is transformed into something more akin to what we expect from vampire and werewolf characters. Rather than the only focus being brains it’s a part of the equation that can be influenced by the still-human parts. The infection although similar in ways like how it’s spread, has more limited impacts on the victim in iZombie rather than a death sentence. The zombie virus is adapted to change people enough that they are undead but not enough that they are mindless killing machines that immediately usher in the apocalypse…unless they don’t get regular brains, then they definitely do all the aforementioned. The concept, which is drawn from the source material, is how the meal is started, the first transformation of ingredients and the approach to that process, something necessary but also something that can’t stand alone. The POV being from a zombie’s perspective, her even narrating the show to provide us glimpses into her inner world, had been a unique concept. Generally we view zombies as sub-human, creatures rather than people anymore and definitely something to eradicate rather than understand but the show takes that notion and flips it a cute 90 degrees off kilter. Because no one wants to eat only sautéed onions and spices, like a half-made idea...like Game of Thrones season 8, we add some more ingredients to the mix like the vegetables which in this case is the dark-horror-comedy genre and style. The comedic elements lighten the often dark subject matter and keep the show grounded in The CW’s universe of silver linings and attractive villains. Obviously the subject matter is horror related in that it’s about zombies and a homicide detective but it also leans into horror elements by orchestrating gruesome action sequences, opting for a scary but still themselves version of a full-on zombie makeup and CGI, and the gnarly crimes that draw the team out to begin with. Finally, we get to the meat of the show, which you would probably assume is the zombie portion but I’d argue the meat to this show is Liv and Team Z’s storyline and the way that they adapt to live in the still-human world and then the walled-off zombie-run Seattle world in the final season. If that isn’t enough, which frankly it would be for most meals, we Get the stunning cast that has immaculate chemistry. Not only do they stay together for all five seasons, they grow and adapt and build history beautifully throughout and challenge you to love and hate all of their characters at various points in the series. This is how that meat is cooked and I’d argue iZombie is perfectly butter based with sprigs of rosemary and a seared crust. In this universe eating brains as a zombie also provides the side effect of experiencing the consumed brain’s memories and adopting traits and abilities from the deceased—which allows for the week to week case format of the show. All of this makes for a well plated, balanced and garnished meal. iZombie isn’t done however, it has created all the parts of a great meal but the execution is everything, which of course it sticks perfectly in seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 stands on it’s own as a whole piece but season 2 takes things to a higher level and solidify the essence of the show in a way that is hard to replicate. This well served dish called iZombie, is based on a comic book series of the same name written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Michael Allred. Later in the series the comic books will be covered after season 5 and compared to the show. It inspired then head of development Susan Rovner when she needed a female-led CW show that would fit with the other big titles of the time like Vampire Diaries. She specifically approached Rob Thomas, creator of Veronica Mars, was specifically asked by her to write a show based on the comics that would be like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At the time Rob Thomas had written another zombie show but around then in 2010 The Walking Dead premiered and it became the standard for zombies. He has said he felt it would’ve been redundant after TWD premiered and that this caused Thomas to cancel the series. Initially hesitant, he did agree to write the show and co-developed it with Diane Ruggiero-Wright. Although no one director is credited with iZombie as a whole two directors did direct a good portion of the episodes, Michael Fields and Jason Bloom. In addition to Ruggiero-Wright and Thomas writing episodes writers like Deirdre Mangan, Kit Boss, Bob Deadren, and John Enbom also contributed heavily. As mentioned the cast has amazing chemistry, able to vibe and riff off one another naturally in scenes and stick some shaky comedy landings. Rose McIver is the show’s lead as Olivia “Liv” Moore, Malcom Goodwin plays her partner and Seattle Police Department Homicide Detective named Clive Babineaux, and Rahul Kohli plays Ravi Chakrabarti, Liv’s boss at the morgue and former CDC employee. Outside of SPD Major Lillywhite played by Robert Buckley is a social worker and Liv’s ex-fiancee, David Anders who plays Blaine DeBeers, the person who turns Liv into a zombie and drug dealer, and Peyton Charles who is played by Aly Michalka, Liv’s best friend since college and roommate. All five of the main characters are extremely successful, young, attractive Seattleites who are at pivotal turning points in their lives wrought with touch decisions that could change everything. While already facing life’s challenges they come face to face with the zombie apocalypse and often being the only thing standing between normalcy and hell-scape. Seventy-percent of the time they are solving homicides in Liv, Ravi, and Clive’s case, mentoring the youth and picking themselves back up in Major’s case, and reaching for justice amid threats and tribulations in Peyton’s case, all while the zombie thing is happening. The characters and the stories between them are interesting enough to have been a drama-comedy series without much zombie goings ons. The zombie goings ons however are so creative, thought provoking, and interesting in what they say about people and the brains. Both the expected and unique show elements exist in harmony and balance, in particular with seasons 1 and 2. Following this intro mini-part I will be going over each season in detail including the meals that Liv makes with the brains in each episode, and the cases they are used to solve. I’m hoping to have this video posted before the middle of September. After the iZombie videos I’ll be posting a 2024 of Horror video on October 6th and will, as of now, briefly go over 69 different horror movies coming out this year including Longlegs, MaXXXine, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and short, spoiler-free reviews of the majority of movies that will already be out by 10/6. All of these projects are part of Red Rose Horror, which is a review website focused on the genre mainly in article and video format by me, Rose. On the website are related topic deep dives, watchlists based on likes, taste, and platform, and article versions of videos like the American Horror Story review series parts. Every month of 2024 I'm posting a video, in part to grow my skills and also as a creative outlet, hence the project and end of month deadlines. Thank you for reading this article! If you want to support RRH check out articles on the website, subscribe on YouTube by visiting YouTube.com/@redrosehorror  or click the subscribe button if you’re on the YouTube app. I also post on Instagram and TikTok which are both @redrosehorror But regardless of if we meet again or not, or even if you disliked the video, thank you for watching and I appreciate it!

Welcome to 2024 of Horror! This article post will overview and review 70 of the roughly 138 horror titles coming out this year. I started working on this during the summer but had to stop updating the list at some point and forewarn that things have and will change, from release dates to how the movie will be released, the industry is ever changing. Depending on what list of 2024 movies is referenced the number of horror films coming out this year varies. I started with the Wikipedia page of horror movies coming out in 2024 which includes about 138 titles at the time of doing the research for this video. After removing ones that either weren’t coming out this year anymore or just simply not even arguably horror the list I have includes 131 titles. To start I eliminated titles that were only horror vaguely but more adequately represented a different genre and that got to the list to 118. I then limited that list even further by removing titles that are international and/or in a first language other than English which left me with 70. So, in 2024 there are 70 English language horror movies coming out that fit the criteria for this video and will be covered. Full List of 2024 Horror Releases Scream Queens & Kings of the 2020's Before jumping into each movie I want to overview the horror film industry at the moment and some events that contributed to trends in the film industry. Although not as prominent as decades like the 70’s and 80’s we still have identifiable Scream Queens & now even Kings that one can expect to see on their spooky season screens. Some Scream Queens  this decade include Jenna Ortega  who’s stared in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , Scream VI , American Carnage , X , Studio 666 , Scream , and The Babysitter: Killer Queen , Mia Goth  from Maxine , Infinity Pool , Pearl , and X , Kiernan Shipka  from Longlegs , Totally Killer , and Treat , Melissa Barrera  from Abigail , Your Monster , Scream VI , Bed Rest , and Scream , Samara Weaving from Azrael , Scream VI , and  Babysitter: Killer Queen , Kathryn Newton  from Lisa Frankenstein , Abigail , and Freaky , Maika Monroe   from Longlegs , God is a Bullet , Significant Other , and Watcher , and Taissa Farmiga  from The Nun II , John and the Hole , and The Conjuring: Last Rites. Some Scream Kings are   Bill Skarsgård  from Nosferatu , Welcome to Derry , and Barbarian , Patrick Wilson  from The Nun II , Insidious: The Red Door , and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It , Kyle Gallner  from Strange Darling, Mother, May I?, Smile, Scream, and Ghosts of War , Justin Long  from Spin the Bottle , Goosebumps , It’s a Wonderful Knife , Dear David , Barbarian , and House of Darkness , and Devon Sawa from Consumed , Black Friday , Death Rider in the House of Vampires , and Hunter Hunter. Historical Context & Examination The Impact of the 2023 Strikes An overview of the film industry wouldn’t be complete without the mention of the 2023 Hollywood Strikes. The Writers Guild went on strike first, starting May 2nd and the Actor’s Guild followed suit on July 14th . Both strikes ended before the end of 2023 but not before weeks of industry standstill while union heads and studio execs negotiated new terms. Writers felt that they could no longer make a living off of just scriptwriting and many SAG actors made less than $26,000 , meaning they did not qualify for healthcare. Due to the strikes reality TV saw a boost, which is another video for another day. One way to measure the impact is looking to the numbers from reports that have been compiled since then. Some of those reports have indicated that losses of roughly $5-$6 billion and a California specific impact of $1.5 billion can be attributed to the shutdown. The historic strikes began with the 1st staged walkout in 15 years and first time that both unions, WAG and SAG, went on strike at the same time since 1960 . The change can also be measured by looking to the current industry environment, which is looking bleak right now. During the strikes LA employment alone dropped 17% and even past the strikes studios have restructured, particularly by laying off staff and having fewer jobs available. Unfortunately, new work isn’t swift either, some noting deals take longer to close and that there are less deals overall . Despite the bleak outlook currently, the negotiations between the studios and both unions went well for each of them. Unions secured increased transparency around streaming numbers and residuals . In recent years this has become a point of contention, as private streaming platforms aren’t required to publicly share their streaming numbers despite touting record profits around $30 billion a year for the streaming industry that rakes in the CEOs a whopping salary of $1 billion total . Unions also ensured protections against the use of AI without informed consent in contracts. Studios are also required to hire a minimum number of writers , in particular if they intend to use AI writing to ensure jobs continue to exist in light of advances in artificial intelligence capabilities. As of right now the main uses of AI in film are to make actors look younger, removing curse words, and in algorithms that generate recommendations to users . Although studios intend to save money with AI where they can most costs due to the new deals will likely be passed onto streaming platform users, see Netflix. Number of Horror Movies Each Year To better understand how this year of horror matched up to other years of horror I looked at number of movies each year. I didn’t have any idea how many movies got made each year let alone for just horror, and according to Statista between 1995 and 2023 in the US and Canada 775 horror movies have released . Comparatively to 5,664 Dramas and 1,269 Thriller/Suspense movies from the same data set. Looking at Box Office Mojo # of movies released each year shows a spiked increase between 2017 and 2018 that then dropped in 2019 and then dramatically fell again in 2020, but that time due to pandemic. Wikipedia also tracks how many horror movies have come out each year which I used to start generating a list of 2024 horror movies and also to see what this decade is looking like so far.  According to that information there were 52 horror movies that came out in 2020, 147 movies in 2021, 172 movies in 2022, and 147 movies in 2023. Things are looking fair as far as horror is concerned when looking at pre-strike numbers and 1 year out from the strike. Despite the strikes 147 horror movies still got made in 2023 and we’re on track for 138 this year. Genre Trends (Favorites, Revenue, etc.) With so many horror movies this decade it’s not hard to identify trends and patterns. Some of those trends SAE.edu  has recognized are non-liner plots, social media platform marketing, an increased desire for diverse storytelling, the use of VR and AI, changes to release strategies, and more money being put towards original content from streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney . Those three spent $5.8 billion, $7 billion, and $10.5 billion respectively , all with the goal of gaining a competitive edge over the others. Despite the money being poured into original content the highest grossing horror film last year, in 2023, according to a Statista report is Five Nights at Freddy’s grossing $137.28 million. Second highest last year, Scream VI, grossed $108.39 million, and the third highest, M3GAN, grossed $95.16 million. In 2024 so far A Quiet Place: Day One grossed $138.93, second highest is Alien: Romulus grossing $105 million, and the third highest, Longlegs, grossing $74 million. Things are slightly worse but still fine this year compared to last year thus far but some of the biggest drops haven’t happened yet like Smile 2  and Nosferatu  which could shake up the top 3. Backgrounds & Reviews Spoiler and Content Warning Almost all of the reviews are spoiler light with comments kept semi-vague. If a review will have actual spoilers I’ll give you a heads up before then. For the full list with links visit my website linked in the description or by typing www.redrosehorror.com  into your browser. Fair warning that triggering topics will be covered–if you don’t like horror related subject matter you won’t like this and that’s alright. I decided that due to the number of movies and the variety of quality I would not force myself to finish a movie if I disliked it or think it sucked. With that being said you might love those movies, and while I may not agree I’m sure your arguments for why you liked it are valid and I’d most likely just respond, “fair enough” to those endorsements. I tried to go into each watch as blind as possible, even avoiding watching trailers, so reviews on the ones that I have watched are from that perspective. For movies that I didn’t watch I’ll be talking about the trailers and what the general sentiment is from those who have seen the film. Skip the List to the 1st Review If you want to skip ahead to a movie click the below list Night Swim – January 5 Jack in the Box Rises – January 11 Destroy All Neighbors – January 12 Sunrise – January 19 There is a Monster – January 30 Lisa Frankenstein – February 7 Skeletons in the Closet – February 9 History of Evil – February 23 Camp Pleasant Lake – February 27 Imaginary – March 8 Dead Mail – March 9 Immaculate – March 22 Slay – March 22 Blood and Honey 2 – March 26 The First Omen – April 3 Festivals of the Living Dead – April 5 Lowlifes – April 11 Sting – April 12 Arcadian – April 12 Abigail – April 19 Bloodline Killer – April 26 Humane – April 26 Tarot – May 3 Silence of the Prey – May 14 I Saw the TV Glow – May 17 The Strangers: Chapter 1 – May 17 In a Violent Nature – May 31 The Watchers – June 7 All My Friends Are Dead – June 8 Latency – June 14 The Exorcism – June 21 Blackwater Lane – June 21 A Quiet Place: Day 1 – June 28 MaXXXine – July 5 Longlegs – July 12 The Inheritance – July 12 The Beast Within – July 26 Trap – August 2 The Mouse Trap – August 6 Cuckoo – August 9 Milk and Serial – August 9 Alien: Romulus – August 16 Stream – August 21 Afraid – August 30 The Deliverance – August 30 The Front Room – September 6 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – September 6 Speak No Evil – September 13 The Substance – September 20 Bagman – September 20 Never Let Go – September 27 Azrael – September 27 Apartment 7A – September 27 Oddity – September 27 House of Spoils – October 3 Salem’s Lot — October 3 V/H/S/Beyond – October 4 Little Bites – October 4 Things Will Be Different – October 4 Terrifier 3 – October 11 Smile 2 – October 18 The Radleys – October 18 Your Monster – October 25 Don’t Move – October 25 Time Cut – October 30  Heretic – November 15 Nightbitch – December 6 Get Away – December 6 Nosferatu – December 25 Return to Silent Hill – 2024 The Strangers: Chapter 2 – 2024 Witchboard – 2024 Starting with the first big title of 2024 and then continuing in chronological order… Night Swim  released January 5th in theaters directed by Bryce McGuire and also written by him and Rod Blackhurst. Night Swim was produced by big names Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster and distributed by Universal Pictures. Starring Wyatt Russell from Black Mirror  and Kerry Condon  from Better Call Saul  did not dazzle audiences in theaters and hasn’t seen much change since hitting streaming platforms for rent. I’ll give credit where credit is due, I did not think they’d be able to pull off an entire movie centered around a pool. Myself and many others thought to ourselves, “just don’t go into the pool,” but they managed to at least try to overcome those limitations. Wyatt Russell is a gem that is the reason this movie isn’t a total flop. The concept has the legs of a short story but Russell’s performance gives it some much needed gas. Jack in the Box Rises  released January 11 directly to VOD and is directed by Lawrence Fowler, written by him and Geoff (Jeff) Fowler and starring Nicholas Anscombe, Isabella Colby Browne, and Leona Clarke. The film was produced by Fowler Media and I couldn’t find a solid source for distribution. This is the first on the list that I didn’t fully watch, which is now part of my critique. I have the attention span of a lab mouse after succumbing to TikTok algorithms so I reserve high praise and credit to movies that make it impossible to pick up my phone or laptop. Unfortunately this isn’t one of those but in it’s defense it’s like the 3rd or 4th installment in a franchise that I’ve never watched. The start is a bit corny, an older un-introduced man assigns a teen girl to infiltrate a private boarding school in order to acquire the relic which contains the Jack in the Box demon. All in all it’s a helluva lot less awful than I thought it’d be from acting to special effects and I didn’t turn it off but rather just tuned in and out. It’s a good background horror movie that you don’t intend to be fully immersed within but that opinion could swiftly change if I watched the other installments. The Shudder original, Destroy All Neighbors  released January 12th directed by Josh Forbes. The film is written by Mike Benner, Jared Logan, and Charles A. Pieper and starring Jonah Ray, Randee Heller, Pete Ploszek, and Kiran Deol (Keer-an Dee-ohl). As mentioned this is a Shudder production in association with RLJE Films whom also distributed it and Counterpart Pictures. Fair warning this one might include spoilers and that this type of humor and gore is not my cup of tea. I found the film foul–but I think that was meant to be part of the charm and would appeal to some. Josh Forbes is giving Ryan Reynolds in Voices  and it’s a less serious rendition of the same concept. I found Forbes’ character extremely less endearing however and his overall goal and driving force pissed me off. I couldn’t tell if it was trying to say that the guy is a shitty serial killer who thinks he’s always the victim despite being a murderer and that those dead bodies re-animate or if it’s in his head. Granted I tuned out frequently from this one, mostly due to disgust. This is for the Anchorman comedy crowd that like a touch of Terrifier gore without as much blatant misogyny. Sunrise   released January 19th in limited theaters  and on VOD. It is directed by Andrew Baird and written by Ronan Blaney and stars Alex Pettyfer, Crystal Yu, William Gao, Kurt Yaeger, Olwen Fouéré, and Guy Pearce. Lots of companies produced including Grindstone Entertainment Group, 23ten, Source Management + Production, and Northern Ireland Screen. The film was distributed by Lionsgate in the US and UK. If I had to describe Sunrise  in one word it would be slow. It’s a perfectly fine horror movie, it’s just really…really slow. Alex Pettyfer gives the character Fallon a brooding teen Bat Man like silence. Unfortunately this intense silence is more action-movie than scary-movie in the case of Sunrise . The juxtaposition of Pettyfer and the Guy Pearce as Reynolds, the town’s unelected patriarch that reigns more terror than assistance, pushes things close to cringe territory. It felt like two different movies occurring at the same time, a western and a midwestern tale both fighting for center stage, a new approach and an older approach despite Pearce not being old. The slowness and need to be watching every scene in order to get the bulk of the story makes this not a movie I’d recommend for most. If you like a lot of nature shots and slow B-roll between short scenes with little to no dialogue then this is your movie. If you’re looking for a vampire tale steeped in bloody tension this isn’t that. Next up, There is a Monster  became available on VOD  January 30th and can be watched on Prime now. Directed and written by Mike Taylor the film stars Joey Collins and Ena O’Rourke and distributed by Gravitas Ventures, which is a red flag for me. The combination of makeup/costume, acting, audio, filming quality, and transitions pissed me off from jump. I highly disliked watching this and even decided to restart it because I’d gotten so annoyed and felt the reason must be that I missed something. The story was unfollowable for me with the aforementioned issues, everything is choppy and weird with a tinny quality to the audio that takes you out of any world building that the film attempts. The whole thing is a movie made paint-by-numbers style with generic scene setups and very you-speak, pause, then you-speak, then you-laugh, then you-speak style dialogue that distracts from the substance of the conversation meant to drive the plot further. It distracts from any quality that could be derived from it. I probably wouldn’t have watched this if not for this project and I’m glad I didn’t spend money to rent or go see this film. If you have Prime it’s available to watch for free and if this style is your thing then have at it. I however get annoyed when I watch movies of this quality that money got put into projects like it when stunning stories languish in the bottom of a pile on someone’s desk. This is the second film that I decided to shut off fairly early on. I don’t want to give it a 0% but it’s got a super low one from me. The next movie I did watch the trailer for and went in having watched some of the PR interviews from the cast. Lisa Frankenstein  released February 7 into theaters starring Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, and Liza Soberano. The story is written by Diablo Cody, who also wrote Juno and Jennifer’s Body, and directed by Zelda Williams, director of Kappa Kappa Die and a plethora of acting credits in both film and TV. Produced by MXN Entertainment and distributed by Focus Features in the US and Universal Pictures internationally. This is the first 2024 horror movie that I saw in theaters and I personally went in ecstatic due to Cody having written the script. The following will most likely include some spoilers for this film.To compound on my excitement I’ve loved seeing Cole Sprouse in acting roles beyond The Suite Life. Some of the things from the trailer that I worried would be cringey turned out to be on a sliding scale of silly to hilarious but all endearing. The story features often clever tactical ways to keep the on-screen gore at a minimum while still adding that gore as a main story cornerstone for the 2 evolving characters, Lisa and Taffy. The choices in set design, costumes, how shots are framed, and the special effect details with the monster keeps the mood lighter and quirky despite the gruesome things occurring. This reinforces the teen-like mindset and perspective of the events in the plot exceptionally well. I found myself chuckling about easter eggs that reminded me of teen experiences like Pabst Blue Ribbon beer showing up in her subconscious. Releasing directly to Shudder on February 9th, Skeletons in the Closet  is directed by Asif Akbar and story by  Al Bravo but written by Joshua A. Cohen and Koji Steven Sakai. Terrence Howard starts in the movie alongside Cuba Gooding Jr., and Udo Kier. Produced by Al Bravo Films, Beno Films, and One Dollar Studios and distributed by Allblk I really wanted to like this film. Upon going to watch it however it became apparent that it felt rushed and cheap in a cutting corners kind of way. They clearly had money for some things like wardrobe and hair but skimped on things like CGI and special effects that completely take a viewer out of the film upon appearing on screen. The film feels like a student project with the lack of attention to detail that if included would draw you into the film more and make the horror impactful. I’m convinced it’s a project made by friends who wanted to make a movie together but not sure if anyone took the actual movie portion seriously. This is another movie of the 84 that I just flat out turned off and refused to watch due to the frequency of physical cringe I sustained before even getting to the meat of the story. The review of the next one, History of Evil , will be full of spoilers, it’s available now to watch on Shudder and is excellent but it would be hard to explain why without at least some spoilers. Releasing February 23rd the film was directed and written by Bo Mirhosseni and stars Jackie Cruz, Paul Wesley, and Rhonda Johnson Dents. Wesley’s ability to be the knight and shining armor as well as the most unhinged Dexter-like demeanor in the same character is alive and well. Similarly to the Stefan versus Silas and humanity-turned-off-Stefan in The Vampire Diaries, the Ron at the start of the film is slowly eroded away by the racist and vengeful spirit of the house they seek refuge in. I enjoyed the story elements that provided insight into the fictional 2040’s version of America and The Resistance to that dystopia through people like Alegre and Trudy. Ron Dyer, her husband, becomes seduced and infected with Cain’s, played by Thomas Francis Murphy, worldview. They sound like bottom feeding right-wing grifters trying to convince one another there’s nothing wrong with just wanting to be back on some imaginary top. A KKK robe hangs in a dedicated-to-racism bomb shelter in Cain’s backyard and a tree stands on the property adorned with strings of film blowing in the wind. Rope is in the cellar, presumably used to lynch people in said tree on the property. It’s mentioned earlier in the film that the property is a good hiding spot due to the fear surrounding it, which becomes apparent and obvious as the film continues. The melding of post-apocalyptic Handmaid’s Tale America style of horror with supernatural slash possession horror works really well and creates a compelling tale that’s horrifying in the usual ways but also in a way that is truly American. On February 27 Camp Pleasant Lake  released in some theaters and directly to platforms  via Starz. Written and directed by Thomas Walton the film features a plethora of actors in various roles including Jonathan Lipnicki, Bonnie Aarons, and Andrew Divoff. I haven’t watched this one yet so my slight review is based on just the trailer. I truly cannot tell what the vibe of this movie is supposed to be from the trailer, it simultaneously seemed like a joke but also that they were taking it seriously. It’s a terror show at a camp with a dark history, fairly standard seeming, and during the trailer we literally see someone with the slasher’s mask pulled above his head like he’s the killer, which could be a spoiler or a misdirect. The next big horror film of the year, Imaginary , released in theaters  March 8, and the trailer left audiences wary initially. Directed and written by Jeff Wadlow and also written by Greg Erb, and Jason Oremland the film does not have a good reputation. Starring DeWanda Wise as the lead Jessica, Tom Payne as Max, Taegan Burns as Taylor, and Pyper Braun as Alice. It was produced by big name studio Blumhouse Productions and Tower of Babble Entertainment, and then distributed by Lionsgate. The following review will contain spoilers. What seems fairly straightforward, a scary imaginary friend, is given much more depth in Imaginary . I really enjoyed the unique perspective of a step mother who wants to become integrated with her family. In addition to that a reluctant teen daughter and a happy but hurt young daughter have a complicated relationship with their mother. Their father, a musician named Max, is Jessica’s husband and he quickly departs for a tour with his band which is insane because of the current circumstances with his daughters openly struggling in the recent life changes, including the move to Jessica’s childhood home, and he leaves the new stepmother to deal with those challenges on her own. After moving back to her childhood home Jessica’s nightmares intensify and the youngest daughter, Alice, and finds an old teddy bear she calls Chauncey. That old bear is actually a conduit for a spirit type demon thing that pretends to be an imaginary friend while actually trying to consume the imagination of Alice like it tried to with Jessica. We discover that Jessica’s own father sacrificed his sanity and eyesight to save her from Chauncey. Despite the bad ratings and reviews I enjoyed watching this movie. I loved the layer that is added to the concept of an imaginary friend to create a whole separate universe with it’s own rules and challenges. I want to see more of the universe created around the portal to the this other realm and Chauncey’s seeming connection to a multitude of children’s imaginations—particularly keen on Jessica’s due to it’s expansiveness. I wanted to know more about the reality which Chauncey can create to trap others in this other realm. I’d recommend this one, there aren’t huge shocks or surprises from a standard horror movie but I really enjoyed the visual effects, characters and actors who portrayed them, and the story of the blended family. Next up is a lesser known title, Dead Mail , that released on March 9 and I haven’t watched it yet. Some of the movies in this video I didn’t go out of my way to watch due to lack of interest but this one I really hoped would become available sooner rather than later. Directed and written by both Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy the film was produced by Alarmist Entertainment and Contact Light Films. The film stars Sterling Macer Jr., John Fleck, and Tomas Boykin and is a project with lots of big endorsements from publications like Variety. From the trailer the concept is really interesting—a man is being held hostage but manages to momentarily break free and shove a letter into a mailbox. Once the letter is inside it ends up getting mailed, blood and all. The letter is a desperate request for help which ends up as a case given to a savant of a detective. Without anything but the letter informing that there’s a captive in an unspecified location the detective is on the case. I will be watching it when it’s available to rent and am excited to see it but anticipating a possible slow burn. On March 22nd Immaculate  released in theaters  and is more liked than disliked but not really loved. It’s directed by Michael Mohan and written by Andrew Lobel; produced by Black Bear Pictures, Fifty-Fifty Films, and Lupin Films and distributed by Neon, an indie leader in film distribution. Starring Sydney Sweeney as Sister Cecilia and other church figures played by Álvaro Morte, Dora Romano, Benedetta Porcaroli, Girogio Colangeli, and Simona Tabasco all serving at a Catholic convent in Italy that assists dying nuns. This review will contain spoilers to discuss some of the best elements of the movie in more detail. Sister Cecilia arrives at the convent only to begin noticing things are a little off there, like more intense versions of rituals and everyone being normal while extremely bizarre things are happening, like they’re in on a secret she doesn’t know. The viewer also doesn’t know the secret and this creates some kinship between audiences and character but is annoying in her approach or rather lack of approach to the weird behavior and occurrences for most of the movie. After falling pregnant despite claiming to be a virgin Cecilia is lauded as a Holy figure in the convent, the next Virgin Mary. The child is considered a blessing to the religion and they begin to restrict her and look past her personhood in favor of bringing the next Jesus into the world. Cecilia works tirelessly to free herself from the circumstances, even pretending the baby is in danger so that she’s taken to the hospital. We learn that the convent is a little more organized in their approach to this “blessing” than they had let on. The father is a former geneticist that has been experimenting with the nuns to try and manufacture a new messiah. After being branded with the very crucifix mark that she’d seen scarred on nun’s soles of their feet around the convent, she fights her way out of captivity. While she’s fighting, her water breaks and she manages to get into the catacombs beneath the convent to try and escape. She lights the geneticist man on fire and struggles with him until she’s able to kill him with an important relic. Cecilia breaks out of the catacombs into daylight and gives birth. After that she bites the umbilical cord and after seeing the baby and hearing strange noises coming from it—harkening back to alluded to monsters in the catacombs. She crushes the baby with a rock after this and Sweeney gives such a good performance that I actually ended up on the edge of my seat, uncomfortable, but riveted with the emotional display and the ability to story tell with just acting and sound effects. Story points like the lack of consent around impregnation, religious zeal surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, and robbing expecting mothers of their personhood mirror issues surrounding reproductive health rights in the USA. It also mirrors the inherent struggle between science and religion when it comes to literally everything about fetuses. Shortly it will be clear that Tubi is crushing the game and doing it for free, the next title the first one I liked but not the last. Slay   released on Tubi March 22nd , both written and directed by Jem Garrard. I normally don’t watch comedy horror outside of projects but I am glad that this project exposed me to this movie and all of the drag horror on Tubi. Produced by Blue Ice Pictures the plot centers around a 4 queen drag family whom travel around performing gigs, like the one that brings them to the Dusk Till Dawn like bar in the middle of the desert. Starring Trinity the Tuck, Heidi N Closet, Crystal Methyd, and Cara Melle the camped out journey begins with stunning performances from the queens and a cast of characters, figuratively and literally, who occupy the bar. Things go south when vampires descend upon the bar and the group plus other patrons have to hide out inside. There isn’t a ton to spoil, this is more comedy than outright horror and even features some interesting and complicated relationships between the characters. While battling the vampires the audience is treated to one-line quips and downright filthy reads. When I heard a second Winnie-the-Pooh horror movie being made I shuddered in disbelief. How could something so horrendous get a sequel? A…sequel? Less than a year after the first monstrosity with the corniest of corny masks for the main villain, Pooh Bear,  Blood and Honey 2 , the sequel with an updated Pooh mask became available on VOD March 26. As part of The Twisted Childhood Universe the movie is intended to be a horror version of the books. Blood and Honey 2 is directed and written by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and stars Scott Chambers, Tallulah Evans, and Ryan Oliva. I will admit that the production quality is increased from the first film, this one being produced by ITN Distribution and Jagged Edge Productions. Some aspects are redeeming, I liked the other Pooh-universe characters like Owl and Tigger, even with the cheesy one liners. The story is more coherent in this one compared to the first one. Similarly to Terrifier 3 I can imagine that this has its audience but the overly grotesque, the edgy to be edgy kills, and hyper sexualized horror films. The constant joking coupled with attempts to have something deeper happen is stiff and clunky, feeling like dad jokes but in murder font. The two main actors are genuinely talented and the scenes that centered around their story and characters were the best parts. Obviously they are making a third film and I imagine that they will continue to make them as long as someone pays and someone else wants to watch it—which seems to be the case. At the end Owl proclaims that he’ll bring everyone back to exact revenge against their vanquishers. The second Catholic nun movie of 2024, The First Omen  released in theaters on April 3rd . As a prequel to the movie, The Omen , that came out in 1976 the film is set 5 years earlier in 1971 Rome, Italy and the review will contain light spoilers. Directed by Arkasha Stevenson and written by Nell Tiger Free, Tawfeek Barhom, Sônia Braga, Ralph Ineson, and Bill Nighy the plot is focused around a woman, Margaret, who arrives at an orphanage as a hopeful nun. Produced by Phantom Four Films and distributed by 20th Century Fox, is a well received prequel, receiving an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer and 70% from the audience, 2 favorable scores especially when considering it’s a prequel. Carlita, a troubled orphan, has awful visions and after Margaret befriends her the Father warns her. Carlita shows a drawing of a restrained pregnant woman to a nun, Anjelica, at the orphanage. Right after Anjelica commits suicide in a gruesome way which leads into the revelation that some within the church aspire to bring the Antichrist into the world. In a small man kind of way the church hopes that by bringing the antichrist to Earth people will become fearful and turn to Christianity for salvation. Margaret continues to uncover information about the orphanage, the church, and the radicals within it. She believes that she’s helping potential victims and taking down an evil cohort of rouge Catholics but things aren’t as they seem. I won’t spoil further but I recommend watching but would also note that I don’t remember anything about the original movies to compare this one to. Set in the aftermath of the Night of the Living Dead  universe, Festival of the Living Dead  became available on Tubi starting April 5th . Directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska the reimagining of the universe picks up years after the zombie apocalypse, so long after that the grandchildren of Ben from the first film know legends and tales of those times but no personal experiences. Starring Ashley Moore, Andre Anthony, and Cameron Bicondova the Enlighten Content produced film centers around a festival that Ash, played by Moore, wants to sneak out and attend with a group of peers. Written by Miriam Lyapin and Helen Marsh, Festival of the Living Dead is fairly corny and plays into most teen-horror movie tropes. Despite being corny it did make me chuckle and I loved the details that called back to the original 1960s film, even the shotgun that Ben uses makes an appearance in the story. This movie isn’t one I’d go into looking for a reinvention of the wheel but it is interesting enough to maintain watching and lands enough to not need to turn it off. Yet another Tubi original, Lowlifes , came out April 11th directly to the platform. Tesh Guttikonda and Mitch Oliver both directed it and it’s written by Al Kaplan. I don’t want to say too much about this because I think going in blind made it 10X cooler and more clever. Ranked really well on average around 70% approval the plot opens with a family, Amanda Fix, Matthew MacCaull, Elyse Levesque, and Josh Zaharia, on vacation in their RV. Produced by Front Street Pictures and Lowlifes Productions the twisty had me questioning my own judgement and constantly changing my outlook. Highly, highly recommend if you add any of these to your list to add it—it’s literally free. Back to the theaters real quick with Sting , directed and written by Kiah Roache-Turner the monster flic released on April 12th . A variety of studios are involved in the production of this film: Screen Australia, Align, Screen NSW, Cumulus VFX, Spectrum Entertainment, See Pictures, and Pictures in Paradise. There’s less mystery surrounding this one than the former title and when broken down it’s extremely straightforward—a young girl, Alyla Browne, raises a spider that is actually a monster intent on destroying anyone who dare get too close to his metaphorical web. Ryan Corr, the young girl’s father, is forced into dealing with Sting the spider when multiple residents in their apartment building and an exterminator are attacked by the creature. This is another one that didn’t need to re-invent the wheel and by not getting weird or fancy with it that just works. The exterminator, played by Jermaine Fowler, is hilarious and endearing alongside a host of other characters that the girl and her spider regularly come into contact with. Another theater release, Arcadian , came out on April 12th and ended up on Shudder and AMC+ since. Arcadian was directed by Benjamin Brewer and written by Mike Nilon but the big draws of the film are Nicolas Cage (who also stars in Longlegs, a movie that’ll be covered soon) and Stranger Thing’s Jaeden Martell. Alongside them Maxwell Jenkins plays Cage’s other son as the three of them navigate a post-apocalyptic world. Produced by Saturn Films, Redline Entertainment, and Highland Film Group all produced the movie and RLJE Films distributed it. The family hides every night from creatures following a mass event that wiped out vast numbers of people. The brothers start to diverge in personality as they grow in this new world, one favoring being rational and putting survival above all else as opposed to the other wanting to take more risks in the hopes that they push past just survival and can thrive. This seemed like a good movie and it started to get a little spooky once we saw what the family feared so much—which is a really slow build. Action is not my vibe and I found this to be more action dystopian YA novel vibe but for boys than horror movie. The monsters give horror but the actual movie itself doesn’t so much, and it’s entirely possible that it didn’t intend to be a horror movie when putting the plot and focal points together. I would recommend this to dudes that I know but it wasn’t for me so I turned it off about 1/3 of the way through. The star studded cast and seemingly full reveal in the trailer of Abigail  made me suspect this would suck. I felt like it might be a cash grab at the upcoming vampire and monster craze. On April 19   Abigail  released in the US and I regret not going to see it in the theater. It’s directed by Matt Battinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and produced Project X Entertainment, Vinson Films, and Radio Silence Productions, and distributed by…UNIVERSAL PICTURES. That’s right—we’re back baby. The cast includes Scream Queens Melissa Barrera and Kathryn Newton, Dan Stevens, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud (Rest in Peace—Abigail was filmed prior to his tragic passing July 31, 2023), Alisha Weird, and Giancarlo Esposito. Abigail kept me interested despite seeming to be the most revealed plot ever based on the trailers. I went in wondering how they could stretch the story to 90 minutes when we knew that Abigail was a vampire and that the band of criminals hired to abduct her had actually been set up in a cage of sorts for Abigail to consume–yes, they actually gave all of that away in the trailer. I loved the ending and discovering that not only is Abigail not what she seemed (though she is a vampire) but that there might be more to explore with the characters and universe they have created around them. This is another that I don’t want to give much spoiler to other than what is already known from the trailer because I think going in not knowing some details makes the viewing experience more enjoyable. More than pleasantly surprised by Abigail, and wanted to give a standing ovation for Barrera, Stevens, and Weir’s performances. Barrera and Stevens are 2 members of the hit squad hired to abduct a little girl and watch her for one night while her parents are extorted for ransom. It’s an easy enough job for the criminals and they all come in not knowing anyone else or any details about their new co-workers. Quickly it becomes obvious that rather than the little girl needing protection from them that they need protection from her—she’s a vampire and she likes to play with her food, which is currently the hit squad. The house they’ve been instructed to stay in becomes their fortress and for some of them it also becomes their tomb. Again, this pleasantly surprised me despite being knee deep in old Universal Monster movies most of this year. With a limited theatrical debut mostly focused on VOD release, the next movie: Bloodline Killer  became available April 26th . The movie is directed by Ante Novakovic and written by Anthony Gaudioso and James Gaudioso. It’s billed as starring Bruce Dern, Tyrese Gibson, Shawnee Smith, and Taryn Manning. I’d argue however that Bloodline Killer is mostly about Smith and her family’s storyline which is a more than welcome circumstance. Multiple production studios made the film: Gaudioso Twins Films, Twelve 83 Entertainment, Jars Media Group, and Novakovic Brothers Productions and is distributed by Vertical Entertainment. The plot is very TV show format with story A being the main through thread story, about the serial killer terrorizing the community around Halloween, and then stories B and C running consecutively sort of in the background then converging. It truly feels like a seasons worth of stuff happens during the movie. Despite this it’s another that pleasantly surprised me and wasn’t nearly as bad as I had thought upon learning of it’s existence. Just want to appreciate Tubi and PlutoTV for a moment, they provide free access to channels upon channels of TV and film in exchange for watching ads while the costs of streaming services, cable, and cable alternatives like YouTube and Apple TV are all the same at this point price-wise. Next on the list, Humane  also released April 26 but in a very limited way and then became available in July to stream . Directed by Caitlin Cronenberg and written by Michael Sparaga I am so thankful I went in blind to this movie. Production companies Victory Man Productions, Prospero Pictures, Telefilm Canada, Red Jar Capital, XYZ Films, and Crave it’s distributed by IFC Films in the US. In a dystopian not-so-distant future where the environment has reached it’s limit society has resorted to unique ways to maintain order and relative peace. All of the starring cast Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire, Sebastian Chacon, Alanna Bale, Sirena Gulamgaus, Uni Park, Enrico Colantoni, and Peter Gallagher bring their A-game. The writers have built a world that you learn about seamlessly as the plot drives forward, you solving the mystery of the circumstances as you go. It feels natural and well timed to discover the depraved vision of the future that doesn’t feel that radical now that Project 2025  is a possible reality. Throughout the film depending on which character’s point-of-view you’re getting insight into it’s easy to see how that character could see themselves to be in the right. If you take each characters world view and apply it in a vacuum devoid of emotion and guilt they don’t sound as crazy. I think Humane  is a good challenge to one’s morality and how harshly judgement is passed onto society while also absolving oneself of involvement…even when involved. I loved this movie and I can’t recommend it enough, especially if you already have a Shudder/AMC+ subscription. Humane is a film on this list that had me putting my phone away, taking my constant AirPod out, and closing my laptop to watch. Regardless of watching Humane if you’re in the USA and can still register to vote for the upcoming Presidential election—please register to vote. Start by visiting Vote-dot-Gov and even if it’s too late for this election be prepared for your local elections and midterms; so basically it can’t hurt and tis our civic duty. May started off with Tarot  releasing on May 3rd, a Spenser Cohen directed film written by himself, Anna Halberg, and Nicholas Adams. It’s release was moved up  from an original late June release date planned. The production companies Screen Gems, Alloy Entertainment, and Ground Control all produced the film and Sony Pictures Releasing distributes it. The main plot follows Haley, played by Harriet Slater, and a group of her friends including her recent ex-boyfriend Grant, played by Adain Bradley. She uses a spooky deck of tarot cards to read each person’s fortune while celebrating their friend’s birthday at a mansion. The group’s sun signs are also incorporated into the lore surrounding the tarot deck and haunting. After having their fortunes read they start to die in ways associated with the fortunes they’d been told. Once they realize this it’s a game against time as the entity attached to the deck comes to fulfill their fortunes. Despite a critical and negative response to the film from moviegoers it is considered a box office success, making over 6 times as much as the budget for the film. I think in large part due to a lull during April and May of large scale theatrical horror releases despite that untapped market of moviegoers existing. Next title — Silence of the Prey  released May 14th in the US. Directed by Karyn Kudzina and Michael Vaynberg and written by Karyn Kudzina and Saro Varjabedian and I’m pretty certain it went straight to VOD. The film is produced by Savant Artists and now distributed by Tubi and other streaming platforms. We enter to a high key illegal and suspicious operation of providing undocumented maids to rich clients. Despite the man whom the woman has brought the main character, Mary, played by Lorianna Izrailova, to work for not wanting children he eventually agrees to let Mary and her daughter stay with him while Mary is in his employment. A desperate Mary looks beyond red flags the old man is waving in her face and can’t blame her. I liked the start of the film but started feeling lost in the plot and unsure what even happened. I started tuning out past that initial start that piqued my intrigue. The seemingly too good to be true employment set up ends up being just that and soon enough Mary and her daughter have to fight psychologically, emotionally, and physically to regain freedom. By mid-May the horror roster picked up and I Saw the TV Glow  dropped on May 17th in a limited theater release  that quickly rolled into it’s streaming release by June. Both written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun the Lovecratian feeling horror is stunning. It’s stunning visually, how the story is told, and the superb acting that the leads Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine lend to the main characters’ journeys. The 1996 set story is told from the perspective of 2 teens struggling with their identities as they discover who they are. They bond over their shared love of a TV show called, The Pink Opaque. I’m eternally grateful I went into this only knowing the above details and started getting teary eyed early on. I am not transgender but the effective story telling and silent, unspoken tension between the character’s and themselves is palpable. I related to the characters raw emotions and how they communicated their struggles through their show fandom, being reminded of my when I’ve felt those feelings and relating in ways only art makes possible. The two characters find solace in their similarities and in the show which mirrors the culture around Buffy the Vampire Slayer , a show that many teens enjoyed and featured a lesbian main character who had on screen relationships. Produced by Fruit Tree, Smudge Films, Hypnic Jerk, and Access Entertainment distributed by the indie juggernaut A24, Schoenbrun has said in interviews that Emma Stone and her husband fell in love with the script immediately which started the process of getting the film made. I’m so tragically happy and thankful that movies like this are made and that stories like this can become an expansive representation of the commonalities in the human experience. The much anticipated The Strangers new installment The Strangers: Chapter 1  released widely in theaters May 17th . Directed by Renny Harlin the first part of a trilogy of movies intended to be a relaunch of the franchise starring Madelaine Petsch from Riverdale and Froy Guiterrez from Teen Wolf. The pair play a young couple who stop in Venus, Oregon on their way to Portland only to be hunted by a 3 person group wearing masks. I’m loving the Oregon and Pacific Northwest love the last 5 years in horror, with movies like Longlegs  and Antlers  tapping into the spooky, foggy region full of supernatural lore, particularly that of Indigenous peoples from the area. Produced by a list of companies: Lionsgate, Fifth Element Productions, Stream Media, Sherborne Media, and LipSync the movies are being distributed by Lionsgate. I’m not fully sure what the intentions of the reboot are in the sense that not much new information is learned about the trio, which is what I mistakenly thought it would be about. I didn’t go in blind to this one due to being a fan of the first movie and anticipating this release like many others. Chapter 1 is widely not loved, getting below an average of 50% by large collections of reviews. Despite being relatively lackluster it still delivered enough on it’s promise to make almost 6x the budget during the theatrical release. I love Petsch and will still be watching the other 2 installments in the franchise, one slated to drop before the end of this year that will be included later in this list and the 3rd to come out in 2025. Finishing off the month with a May 31 theatrical  release, In a Violent Nature  was written and directed by Chris Nash. The out of the box film was produced by Shudder Films, Zygote Pictures, and Low Sky Productions and is distributed by IFC Films in theaters, it’s largest release yet and on the Shudder streaming platform following that. Starring Ry Barrett as Johnny, a serial killer slasher who reanimates in search of a locket that had been hanging on a fire tower at the start of the film. This drew critical acclaim for it’s unique story telling through the POV of the slasher, with limited dialogue and a lot of slow walking in the forest. Many of the murders Johnny subjects his victims to are absolutely gruesome and gnarly, with the added point that he goes after the entire friend group with equal venom over the locket—something they believed to be innocuous. I think basis is clever and often have seen forum posts or been part of conversations mulling over a horror movie from the slashers perspective. The narrative is told in a way to make neither Johnny or the friend group well known to the audience, so the draw is more about seeing how the circumstances we see in slasher films play out from the POV of the killer. The killer deciding to go after one victim rather than another, or slowly approaching while they have slightly off screen conversations that are normally the focal point in horror films. I think it’s great for what it is but is one that isn’t my cup of tea. Something that I thought would be my cup of tea, the highly anticipated movie, The Watchers , released via  a wide theatrical release on June 7 . The Ishana Shyamalan directed film kicked off summer horror releases is her directorial debut. Written by Ishana Shyamalan based on the acclaimed A.M. Shine novel of the same title. The large production garnered attention from the start, in part due to the cast that includes my girl, Dakota Fanning (happy as hell to have her back on my screen and been a fan of her acting since Uptown Girls ). The cast also includes Georgina Campbell from Black Mirror  and Barbarian , Olwen Fouéré from Sunrise  and Tarot  just this year alone, and the most recent Sally Hardesty from the 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Oliver Finnegan from Outlander  but fairly newer actor on the scene. Produced by New Line Cinema, Blinding Edge Pictures, and Inimitable Pictures then distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures the film barely cleared it’s $30 million budget with a $33 million box office result. The initial trailers had many intrigued, including myself, but I definitely planned off rip to wait until this hit streaming to watch. This is available on Max currently and I tuned out working on other stuff because the plot never picked up steam for me. I felt confused while fully tuned in and then couldn’t tell you the gist after that. I honestly don’t know if this is great or not because I got bored—which could just be a me thing but I feel slightly less bad about that due to the low ratings that fans and critics alike have given to the film. The next up, All My Friends Are Dead   released at Tribecca Film Festival on June 8  then later on demand in August. The thing that I knew about this movie going in was that JoJo Siwa was in it to some capacity. Directed by Marcus Dunstan and written by Josh Sims, Jessica Sarah Flaum, and John Baldecchi I thought it would be way worse than it turned out to be. Produced by Roundtable Entertainment and Film Mode Entertainment then distributed by Cineverse it’s performed as expected, not an instant classic or anything but not the worst thing I’ve seen or even close to the worst on this list. Jade Pettyjohn is the star of the movie who is attending a festival that is a revamp of a previous festival that ended in a serial killer committing murders based on 7 deadly sins. There’s another story going on simultaneously with the current friend group, whom are all influencers, that lost a friend to suicide not long ago. Upon arriving where they’ll be staying they receive a text from someone claiming to be that friend, Collette, Siwa’s character. This starts off another version of the 7 deadly sins killings with each of them representing a sin. I don’t want to say too-too much because the twists are the most interesting thing but it’s truly 2-3 movies smashed into one. It makes it a little hoaky but it also works in making the overall story at the end better which makes the movie not so bad after all. A break in one’s I’ve seen, Latency  came out June 14 and was originally titled Hana’s Game. Directed and written by James Croke the movie stars Sasha Luss as Hana, an agoraphobic game tester. Produced by Grindstone Entertainment Group and Kaos Entertainment the film is an example of an increase of VR and/or AI being incorporated in horror trend during this decade. Hana receives her next assignment to review a game, which is a VR simulator and helper called Omnia. It claims to analyze the users brain in order to improve their lives like an AI assistant of sorts. The device quickly causes some horrifying side effects like uncontrollable realistic hallucinations and spasms. You might be wondering why I didn’t give a spoiler warning and that would be because all of the aforementioned was in the trailer for the film. Latency is definitely a film I worry that too much is given away from the trailer to make the viewing experience enjoyable. I don’t know this however so this critique is only based on my limited knowledge from the trailer. A movie about exorcism movies simply titled The Exorcism  had a theatrical release on June 21 . Directed by Joshua John Miller and written by Miller and M.A. Fortin, it was produced by Miramax and Outerbanks Entertainment and distributed by Vertical. With a big name like Russell Crowe and a good trailer it’s not surprising why it made $9.5 million at the box office despite being broadly disliked. The film also stars Ryan Simpkins as Crowe’s character’s daughter, and Chloe Bailey as a TV actress that the daughter befriends. From just the trailer without having seen the movie myself I felt that it was an interesting concept, a cursed movie starts impacting the new lead and his family. Rather than just acting in a possession film he actually starts showing signs of possession while his troubled daughter acts as his personal assistant on set. The trailer confirms that an exorcism will occur but whether that is within the movie within the movie, nightmares, or apparitions is unclear. Unfortunately that might be the only thing unclear from the trailer which could lend to the critiques that it plays too heavily into cliches. Blackwater Lane  is a movie that was released both in theaters and onto VOD on the same day, June 21 . The tandem technique to hit both markets of audience members while still offering a limited release is becoming an increasingly popular trend in horror as mention in the introduction. Directed by Jeff Celentano and written by Elizabeth Fowler and based on the book by B.A. Paris, Blackwater Lane  is a supernatural horror film. Starring some recognizable faces Minka Kelly, Maggie Grace and Dermot Mulroney star in the film. The books that the story is based on came out in 2017 and is titled The Breakdown. The film was produced by Grindstone Entertainment Group, Clear Pictures Entertainment and distributed by Lionsgate Films. This release quietly came and went, not even detectable to me when starting this project earlier in the year. The trailer jumps right into action displaying that jump scare horror elements will be alive and well. It also alerts to the questioning of the lead’s mental health and whether what she’s experiencing is in her head or she’s actually in danger and being haunted. Now that I see it’s available on Peacock Premium I’ll most likely watch this between recording and posting this video—it looks like the perfect mix of horror and thriller for a fall afternoon. The much anticipated blockbuster horror movie, A Quiet Place: Day 1  hit theaters on June 28th  and is now available to watch on Paramount+ streaming. The 3rd film in the Quiet Place franchise that’s intended to be a prequel and spinoff is directed and written by Michael Sarnoski with the story also by John Krasinski. Produced by Platinum Dunes and Sunday Night Productions and then distributed by Paramount Pictures, not a ton about the characters is known from the trailer and I think that is a superb way to watch. To basically go into watching it knowing at most that it stars award winning actress Lupita Nyong’o as the lead alongside actors Joseph Quinn from Stranger Things, Alex Wolff from Hereditary and Oppenheimer, and Djimon Hounsou from A Quiet Place Part II, Black Adam, and Guardians of the Galaxy. This movie is another example of a stunning movie including the special effects, the truly phenomenal acting, the smaller details woven throughout coupled with mad symbolism, and the somehow uplifting spirit in light of the apocalyptic circumstances. I loved that characters don’t start off the way that you think they would, that you see the hope, pain, and confusion surrounding the start of the silent universe from A Quiet Place. I loved the setting of New York and all of the interesting expansions on the lore for the creatures that became possible with the change in setting. It’s brilliantly put together and felt like a roller coaster ride despite knowing the outcome of the world and the invasion of these creatures. We are truly spoiled this year, the Ti West directed and written trilogy came to a heart racing end with MaXXXine  that hit theaters July 5th . We finally get to see more of Mia Goth as Maxine Minx from X  the 2022 film that kicked off the trilogy before the sequel, Pearl , that time jumped back to 1918 Texas and also came out in 2022. Maxine isn’t the only interesting character however, Leon played Moses Sumney, and Elizabeth Debicki playing a British director who casts Maxine in The Puritan II, a sequel horror film that Maxine hopes will put her on the map and take her out of porn. No idea what to expect when I went into the Motel Mojave and Access Entertainment produced film not knowing what to expect other than an 80’s LA set slasher film—which is what they delivered and then some. Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon also star in the film. I liked this more than I anticipated I would and found myself sad when it ended, wanting to keep following the characters as they navigate the fallout from the movie’s rising action and climax. A24 strikes lightning again with MaXXXine and created an interesting and surprising film that embodies the excess, glamour, and grittiness of LA eighties horror tropes. The next big theatrical release of the summer, Longlegs , employed unique tactics I haven’t seen in a long time to encourage ticket sales for the July 12th released movie . Aside from the first trailer the villain, monster man is mostly hidden which is an effective way to create fear, at least it was for me. In addition to this they employed heart rate monitor in the trailer and Nicolas Cage character reveal to heighten the anticipatory fear. Directed and written by Osgood Perkins this weird film has garnered a cult following online—my partner being one of those followers. Staring a 20’s Scream Queen Maika Monroe and household name Nicolas Cage The 1974 set movie stars Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, and Blair Underwood from a number of huge movie and TV shows like Quantico , City of Angels , and Rules of Engagement . As mentioned during The Strangers: Chapter 1  review earlier in the video this is another film that takes advantage of the spooky PNW setting, taking place in Oregon. Starting with a small girl in a wide, clear, snow filled side yard of a suburban home, the film puts viewers at unease from the opening scene From the opening scene the tenseness builds, causing shoulders to raise and confused fear to spread. Produced by C2 Motion Picture Group, Traffic., Range, Oddfellows, and Saturn Films the Neon distributed film cost under $10 million to create and made over 10x that in the box office generating revenue of $108.9 million. Receiving mostly favorable reviews around 70%-ish in general there are definitely some who did not appreciate the risks that the film takes. Originally slated to drop on Netflix pre-2023 The Inheritance  ended up releasing July 12  of this year and is distributed by Vertical whom acquired the rights. The movie was directed by Alejandro Brugués and written by Chris LaMont and Joe Russo. Produced by Paul Schiff Productions the movie’s plot sounds kinda wild. A billionaire, played by Bob Gunton, invites his family (including actors Peyton List, Briana Middleton, Rachel Nichols, Austin Stowell, and David Walton) to his estate and inform them he’s sent the staff and security home in light of an expected attempt on his life at midnight. After assuring the group that he is hated enough to have evil entities coming after him. The trailer reveals that one of the sisters dies in a swimming accident and seemingly becomes possessed according to the trailer. If the group can keep the patriarch alive he’ll give them his $2 billion fortune. It’s a concept that could have legs and variety considering the diverse group of upper class snobs that make up the group. According to reviews however it doesn’t seem like it became more than a low or mid tier horror movie available to rent, receiving ratings generally less than 40%. I still intend to watch this one however because I do like the premise and trailer as well as Knives Out like circumstances and settings. I like the mystery portion and that it has the family turned against it rather than one another. I do worry though that that would make it more sad than it needs to be if they make the family too endearing and likable only for the mysterious entity to kill them off one by one. The Beast Within  came out on July 26th  and is called a quote-unquote “box office dud” raking in $51.8k at it’s opening week. Directed by Alexander J. Farrell and written by him and Greer Ellison, the mystery horror movie has finally released on VOD to rent but I have yet to watch it. The movie stars the man who played the man who knows nothing, Kit Harrington, Ashleigh Cummings, James Cosmo, and Martina McClements. They play family members who live in an isolated compound located in England. Despite having a seemingly happy childhood the daughter witnesses Harrington transform which opens her up to her family’s lifestyle. With a rating of 4.1 out of 10 on IMDb I’ll most likely wait until this is on a platform for free in order to watch it. M. Night Shyamalan followed his daughter’s earlier horror release with a release of his own horror movie, Trap  on August 2nd as a theatrical release . Both written and directed by him the movie plays with the concept of contained horror that is full of limitations to the plot and filming. The fact that it works so well is a testament to M. Night Shyamalan’s talent and how well it is coupled with Josh Hartnett’s talents. Hartnett’s portrayal of a serial killer trapped at a concert with his young daughter while a manhunt ensues to capture him is different than what I’d normally expect from him. The movie was produced by Blinding Edge Pictures and is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and it cleverly keeps interesting and high paced throughout despite the limitations of concept and environment. Hartnett is able to convey a wide range of emotions with exquisite authenticity and a very Dexter aptitude about himself. I loved watching him figure out his next moves just as much as having oddly toned conversations with other concert goers as he navigates trying to escape without his daughter becoming aware of his serial killing. The fact that we know from the trailer that he is the serial killer they are after, and even that he has a victim in captivity during this whole escapade intrigued me. I wanted to know how a concert’s worth of shenanigans could occur without everyone realizing something is amiss but it still be high stakes enough to be engaging. The movie has tricks up it’s sleeve left and right to keep the high intensity and put you on the edge of your seat determining if they are close to nabbing him or rather that he’s close to his escape. The film made a little under 3x at the box office what it cost to make the film, $82.7 million compared to $30 million respectively. Less big screen and more meme-screen, The Mouse Trap  released on August 6th straight to VOD  by Gravitas Ventures after a previously scheduled theatrical release of the film got cancelled for reasons unknown. Directed by Jamie Bailey and written by Simon Phillips the movie was originally titled Mickey’s Mouse Trap after the subject matter, Mickey Mouse. Following the copyright for the 1928 Steamboat Willie animation  went to public domain at the start of the year this horror adaptation got revealed to the public. Produced by Into Frame Productions and Bailey Phillips Productions it’s better than it should be. The basis for The Mouse Trap  being a man, Tim Collins played by Simon Phillips, becoming entranced when watching Steamboat Willie and then donning a mask he has in a glass case that he hears talking to him. A group of young adults throw a surprise birthday party that same night that provides a plethora of potential victims to the trance controlled Mickey Mouse mask wearing murderer. The film is a slasher and it’s not too bad in comparison to the 2 horror adaptations of Winnie-the-Pooh and the sometimes silly lore associated with it. This could’ve been so much worse but it’s rather a decent B-horror film that just makes sense when watching. I don’t hate it and it’s definitely worth a watch on a streaming platform if you don’t mind a little less polish to your horror films. There is a sequel scheduled to come out in 2025, similarly to the other modern horror versions of Disney characters if there is an audience they will make them now. Around the August 9th release  of Cuckoo  I had started going to the theaters more and had been seeing trailers like that for this movie. The second the trailer finished the first time I saw it I knew I’d be back in theaters to see it when it dropped—and I did. The movie is directed and written by Tilman Singer and stars Hunter Schafer from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes , Jan Bluthardt, Martin Csokas, Jessica Henwick, and Dan Stevens. It’s received mixed reviews that are mostly positive. It’s an acquired taste and I have that taste cause this movie was great. Produced by Neon, Fiction Park, and Waypoint Entertainment while being distributed by Neon the film is a joy to watch. The plot transports watchers to the German alps where the resort that the blended family is moving to. The environment is eerie from their arrival but Schafer’s character, the family’s teen daughter, begins having bizarre and scary encounters with resort guests after accepting a job at the reception desk there. Schafer’s performance is absolutely magnetic and I both cried and got frustrated alongside her. Every time I thought I knew what would happen next they pulled a “yes…and” with things taking a turn. Highly recommend this weird one, it’s captivating and scary at the same time. Milk and Serial  is next up and quite an interesting horror movie that released August 9th onto YouTube. Directed and written by Curry Barker he also produced the film himself for $800 and released it for free onto YouTube—where this video also is so think about giving this movie a watch after you watch this. Starring Curry Barker, Cooper Tomlinson, and Adith Alvarado it is a found footage style film around a birthday prank that becomes more horror movie than comedy movie between social media influencers. This really does feel like found footage put together by internet sleuths posthumously of YouTubers involved with a crime. Since YouTube’s inception in 2005 it’s grown to be the largest video hosting platform on the internet connected to Google, the popular search engine. This movie is a perfect example of the vast use of the platform including as a movie publishing and distributing method. The fact that such a great movie could be made with less than $1,000 makes me raise an eyebrow to every multi-million dollar production that flopped horribly. In a weird way it felt like the close future, lower budget but higher quality films published in nonconventional ways. The plot reminded me of the real life Sam Pepper and Sam Colby “KILLING BEST FRIEND PRANK” video posted to Pepper’s YouTube channel as a supposed prank gone wrong that ended up being a hoax on all fronts. The plot of Milk and Serial feels like the dramatization adjacent version but way more intelligent and layered than a bad and dark internet prank. While watching I didn’t realize the budget or that it had only released to YouTube, I just assumed that it was a smaller production that didn’t have restrictive copyright and got uploaded. On the furthest away, opposite end of the 2024 horror movie spectrum Alien: Romulus   officially released on August 16th in theaters  around the US. With a whopping budget of $80 million I came into this with an eye roll, having seen the action-sequence-packed trailers when going to see other movies this summer. In my defense the IMDb page has it’s own custom red color scheme, which is just…a lot if you’re being a hater. My occasional cynicism tugged me to believe this was a cash grab without much care about the quality aside from the space action—I knew a little bit about Prometheus and most of what I’d heard wasn’t exactly good. You might be wondering why I’m saying all of this and that would be so I can eat my own words and then glaze this movie without feeling like as  much of a hypocrite. Directed and written by Fede Alvarez it is also written by Rodo Sayagues, and based on the characters created by Dan O’Bannon. The production companies Scott Free Productions, Brandywine Productions, TSG Entertainment did their big one in my humble opinion. Distributed by 20th Century Studios the marketing for this film was intense and flashy . Starring Cailee Spaeny from Priscilla and The Craft: Legacy, David Jonsson from Industry, Archie Renaux from Shadow and Bone, Isabela Merced from Transformers: The Last Knight, Spike Fearn from Tell Me Everything, and newer actress Aileen Wu all delivered stellar performances. This coupled with the interesting backdrop of the people suffering on the colonies in the future dystopian Alien universe are in hindsight obvious reasons this would pop off. Regardless of the writing on the wall I reluctantly went to see Alien: Romulus  in theaters–I shit you not I had planned once the trailers ended to gauge when it would be acceptable to go to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom I planned to put a show on YouTube or Netflix to listen to via one AirPod while I sat through a space alien movie—2 things I am genuinely afraid of and don’t enjoy watching. Less than 5 minutes into the opening however I suddenly realized that it had the same vibe as the original Alien  movies but filmed on high-tech equipment which is my absolute favorite combo. Romulus  gives Stranger Things  and Fear Street while serving a heartfelt tale of resilience that truly displays the desperation of these colonists and adds context to the original movies. On the one hand it’s retro while being futuristic but it’s following stories we wish  we had from the time period following Alien . The installment takes place between the events of the first and second movie in the universe, so colonists aren’t aware of the Xenomorph yet but it’s destined on a collision course of fate that the viewer knows about and can dread despite on screen celebrations. Immediately I wanted to know more about Rain and Andy, the Android and human sibling pair played by Spaeny and Jonsson respectively. The plot comes together seamlessly, making each of their often teenage brained decisions make sense despite the viewer knowing the outcomes and potential risk-reward analysis that would stop someone from doing what they’re doing. Watchers go into watching Romulus  with no secrets about the Xenomorph or face huggers, we know about the implantation of eggs as well as the birth of the creature from within the chest cavity of it’s victim. Even that however gets a clever rejuvenation that elevates the story while making the universe even richer. Wu’s character, Navarro, gives a stunning performance coupled with creative special effects that make even that iconic sequence more horrifying than ever. More than a few times I had my jaw hung open and my hand covering my agape mouth in absolute shock of what I was seeing in the best and worst ways. I started Team Andy and won’t say where I ended up–but even Fearn’s character, Bjorn, became endearing at points, his misguided rage understandable and relatable once we learn about his past. I’m not a huge Alien  franchise fan and have barely watched the movies so take this with a grain of salt but I loved the references and almost homage to things that happened in the original movies. I enjoyed this watch and became truly terrified of whatever the hell that is–and if you’ve seen this you know what I mean. Actually jumped and gasped in the theater. This is now one of my new favorite movies and I can’t recommend it enough, even if you’re not a huge Alien  fan. Stream  released theatrically to much less fanfare on August 21. The movie is directed by Michael Leavy and written by himself, Robert Privitera, Jason Leavy, and Steven Della Salla. Produced by Fuzz on the Lens Productions and distributed by Iconic Events the movie is Tim Curry’s return to the big screen. The film also stars Jeffrey Combs, Charles Edwin Powell, Tim Reid, David Howard Thornton, Dee Wallace, Danielle Harris, and the iconic Tony Todd. Focused on a family who are seeking to reconnect and spend time together decide to stay somewhere that turns into a nightmare for them. They must survive what is a murder game competition put on by a deranged man, whom is Combs’ character. It looks like it’s mid-tier and I’d expect it’s more than a little unpolished, probably something I’d put on in the background rather than set time aside to watch in a dedicated way. Afraid  released into theaters on August 30  and is directed and written by Chris Weitz. Starring John Cho as the father character, Katherine Waterson as the mother, Lukita Maxwell as their teenage daughter, and Wyatt Linder and Isaac Bae playing the family’s 2 sons.  This is an example of AI making an impact on media, the plot is about an AI assistant that opens the door to seemingly supernatural forces and coercive control of susceptible family members. The movie was produced by Columbia Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and Depth of Field and is distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The combination of supernatural and science fiction is one I really enjoy and I would’ve gone to see in theaters if life had been a little less busy at the time. I’m looking forward to watching it when it comes to streaming, which could be soon due to the film costing $12 million and only making $12.6 million—which is admittedly a lot if you haven’t already spent $12 million. The Deliverance  released onto Netflix on August 30 and I honestly don’t want to spend much time talking about it. Directed by Lee Daniels and written by David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum it’s just pretty odd. It simultaneously attempts to recognize the harm of tropes while playing so heavily into them that the original intention is obscured. Starring Andra Day and Glenn Close the biggest takeaway is the viral clip that I can’t believe they kept in the movie. The Deliverance  wasn’t too bad up until about half way, granted the mother was abhorrent but it is horror after all. It got weird however when the solution was blind belief in religion without any action to back it up in order to stop possession. I probably won’t watch this again due to the last half of the film and the permanent what-the-fuck expression that overcame my face during it. The response to The Front Room  that released into theaters  on September 6th , has me nervous for Brandy. I’ve seen many a trailer for this movie as it’s also an end of summer release that got a decently large promotional campaign. The Max Eggers and Sam Eggers written and directed movie is considered a psychological horror and is based on a short story of the same title by Susan Hill. Produced by Two & Two Pictures and 2AM and then distributed by A24 the film stars Brandy, Andrew Burnap, Neal Huff, and Kathryn Hunter. Making only $3.6 million at the box office I cannot imagine that covered a national social media ad campaign coupled with salaries for people like Brandy. It’s unclear if the source material even focuses on race but the movie certainly hones in on it and the challenges of an interracial marriage. Which by the way if you didn’t know there are legislators who sit in Congress right now that have openly stated this year  that they believe the Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia that legalized interracial marriage in the USA should not have been decided the way it was. They have claimed they want to send the decision back to the states the similarly with how abortion rights. As we’ve seen with the issue of reproductive healthcare access states can complicate the lives of and punish their own constituents in the pursuit of winning a culture war only they are fighting. All of that to say please go vote, even if you don’t want to watch this movie that I also haven’t seen, at least register to vote. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice  is another theatrical horror release but this one is for most of the family. The sequel hit theaters as one of the biggest horror blockbusters on September 6th . Of course it will never be able to beat the original I will say that for a sequel that is 36 years after the original it was stellar. The real seller, draw, and high point are the actors that came back from the original, Michael Keaton, Wynona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara to reprise their roles as Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz, and Delia Deetz. 2020’s Scream Queen Jenna Ortega joins them as Astrid, Lydia’s teen daughter. The family, extremely successful and wealthy, come back to the iconic house in Winter River on the hill. This go around we get out of the house more and experience more of the world around it as well as the underworld that it sometimes serves as a portal to. I loved the traversing through dimensions and space that the plot follows, as well as all of the lore we got to learn that was missing from the first one. Back in the 80’s the lore of something wasn’t as big a deal but now it can be a seller or detriment to a piece of media. For the most part I liked the lore that this movie added to the universe, expanding it with more characters, settings, and abilities of the recently deceased. A couple of scenes made me go, “seriously…?,” because they felt out of place and a touch too far in particular around the baby Beetlejuice thing. I also didn’t love the Soul Train of stuck 1970’s black folk dancing for all eternity to usher you to the train to the beyond but never going themselves. It exceeds expectations aside from those things and the extra long song sequence in the chapel. Speak No Evil  came out September 13  via theatrical release and is still in some theaters upon recording this. I haven’t gone to see this and am waiting for the streaming release and/or for it to be available to rent rather than just buy. Based on the 2022 film of the same title this version is directed and written by James Watkins. Starring James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Leflet, Dan Hough, and Scoot McNairy the story is a psychological horror movie. A family from the US stays with a British couple who is also vacationing in Italy but the patriarch of that family, played by McAvoy, starts to push boundaries and behave in odd ways that cause discomfort and discontent to the family staying with them. The trailer reveals that the young boy that is McAvoy’s son has had his tongue cut out. That tracks with what appears like abuse towards him from McAvoy right in front of the family in the same trailer. It seems obvious and clear that it will be a “how far will he actually go?,” plot that escalates with intermittent releases of energy and lulling back into a false sense of safety or brushing aside concerns. The body horror movie, The Substance , released into theaters September 20  and was met with disgusted walkout. That of course just made me more interested in seeing this, albeit from the comfort of my home to audibly express disgust and to pause-slash-fast forward if needed. Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat the movie stars horror icon Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley from Maid , Poor Things , and Kinds of Kindness , and the uber famous Dennis Quaid who’s career spans back to 1975. I want to go in as spoiler free as possible so the most I know is: the movie is about a mysterious substance that provides youth and vibrance of some sort to people grappling with aging called The Substance. I’ve seen some review headlines and starts of TikTok’s about the film that mention the commentary on the standards that women face and the lengths that some will go to to keep their grasp on the limelight despite grave consequences. Bagman  released in theaters September 27 and stars Sam Claflin from Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Directed by Colm McCarthy and written by Josh Hulme the movie is about a childhood threat returning. Something that previously tormented Claflin’s character in his childhood is now coming for his family, forcing him to not only confront it but defeat it and/or protect his family from it. Currently there is no release date for when this movie will be available by VOD or streaming platform but I am really hoping it’s before Halloween. Never Let Go   also hit theaters on September 27th  but is now available to buy which leads me to believe it will be available to rent soon. The film is directed by Alexandre Aja and it’s written by Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby. Starring Halley Berry as a woman who must keep herself and her 2 children alive in a remote forest cabin. They are running from something called The Evil that has forced the world to end and them being the only survivors. The one thing I’ll remember about this movie is Halle Berry doing promo with Rob from this summer’s Love Island, which doesn’t make much sense to me. I don’t care much for this style of survival horror especially with kids involved so I probably will skip this one unless my partner puts it on or something. Azrael  originally released in theaters on September 27 , distributed by IFC Films and it’s set to be available to stream on Shudder later this year. Directed by E.L. Katz and written by Simon Barrett, the action horror movie takes place after the Rapture. Survivors left have to now deal with humanoid demons that prefer to eat humans. Samara Weaving from, Ready or Not? , Is the lead character who is part of a cult focused on not speaking to the extent of having their vocal cords surgically removed. When things fall apart they are ousted from the cult which kicks off the events of film, of which I have little idea. Produced by Traffic. and C2 Motion Picture Group the film made around $554k at the box office. I will watch any survival anything with Weaving and the likelihood of it being available on Shudder within the next few months is something I’m looking forward to. Going into watching the Paramount Pictures created film Apartment 7A  after i t’s September 27 release  onto the Paramount+ platform I knew very little. I only knew that it took place in NY sometime in the past and followed an aspiring creative played by Julia Garner, who is exceptionally good in a variety of roles like those in The Assistant , Ozark , and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For . If I saw her ankle roll and/or snap one more time however I don’t know if I could’ve finished the meal I was eating, because ouch. Garner does an amazing job delivering the quiet desperation and naivety that lead the main character to take up the too-good-to-be-true hospitality from a wealthy elderly couple played by Dianne Weist and Kevin McNally. A broadway producer played by Jim Sturgess lives in the same building as the couple.His character, who Garner follows to the building serves as a fluid segue way into all 3 being involved in the main characters life despite her being extremely down on her luck and about to give up her dreams. I had no idea this was a Rosemary’s Baby prequel and I know very little about that film but this made me want to watch that one. I love period pieces especially in cities like New York City and especially especially around entertainers like the dancer at the center of this movie. I liked how the danger that this new life poses is obvious if you read between the lines but can feel like a jump scare shock if you aren’t paying close enough attention. I think it was well paced towards the end of the movie but it definitely felt like it was missing something, maybe a little more meat to the story arc of the main character. I recommend giving this a watch, especially if you have a Paramount+ subscription already. Oddity  released initially in theaters on July 19 in the US but became available on Shudder September 27th . Directed and written by Damian McCarthy this film is a slow burner mystery with a medium at the center of it. Following her twin sister’s murder Carolyn Bracken’s character, Darcy Odello, goes to see Johnny French’s character, Ted, her sisters husband, in order to glean more about the unsettling death of her sister. A former patient of Ted’s is blamed for the murder after he came to the country house when Darcy’s sister was there seemingly alone. He warns her that someone with nefarious intentions is near and Darcy’s abilities have led her to believe there is more to the story than Ted or the authorities have let on. Using a wooden mannequin from her oddity collection Darcy visits Ted’s country home, the setting of her sister’s murder, to better utilize her abilities to solve the case. Ted’s new girlfriend is horrified by the whole situation and serves as the first person to notice supernatural and odd things occurring particularly around the weird mannequin. I think I need to watch this like 2 more times to truly appreciate the attention to detail with the story telling and building fear. Now going back to the original content with House of Spoils  that released on Amazon Prime on October 3rd . Directed and written by Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy the movie was produced by Blumhouse Television, Divide/Conquer, and Secret Engine. Distribution is of course Amazon MGM Studios as it’s an example of original content that came out this year. The first half struck me as horror, the rotten food, super mold, and rampant bug infestation coupled with our protagonist starting to lose it. The lines between supernatural, reality, and psychological are heavily blurred early on but with more clarity the horror elements subsided for me. I enjoyed the characters a lot and loved the portrayals by all 3 main characters. The outcome isn’t necessarily what I expected and it did leave me wanting more, to close up literally any storyline. I’m not sure if it even has a horror ending or just…well..it’s free with subscription if you have Amazon Prime, and I would recommend a watch. The new Salem’s Lot  finally released onto Max on October 3rd and if you have been following along it’s been years  of pushing back for this release. It’s been so long that the main characters went from young boys to whole teenagers. After fears it would be shelved entirely Stephen King, one of the writers, publicly commented on the delays which is believed to have made the final push to get the film released directly to streaming. I had figured it sucked because Warner Bros. Pictures, one of the production companies alongside New Line Cinema, Atomic Monster, Vertigo Entertainment, and Wopler Organization didn’t seem to want people to watch it. I was very, very wrong. This movie is so good? Questionably good in fact. Directed by Gary Dauberman with a screenplay also written by him the film is well written, well cast, and the effects fit within the realm of possibility while still being intensely effective. It reminded me a lot of Doctor Sleep in the best ways and carried that eerie Northeastern aura that many of King’s projects possess. I don’t want to spoil this much as I don’t know how popular the original is and I managed to go almost totally blind into this which made learning about the universe more fascinating while I watched. This is a great movie for Halloween season and I’m glad that it got released in time to be enjoyed this year. The newest V/H/S  installment, V/H/S/Beyond  dropped on Shudder October 4th . This one is 5 segments that exist within another narrative—similar to other V/H/S movies with this one having a particular lean towards extraterrestrials and alien encounters. The segment tapes for this movie are provided by a Redditor who claims they purchased the set of tapes at a market and that they prove an alien encounter. The mockumentary is the interlude narrative between segments and I thought the idea was interesting and fresh for the franchise, it made it more believable for today’s found footage culture as opposed to thieves recording themselves or someone live streaming something dangerous. The newest anthology movie was produced by Shudder Original Films, Bloody Disgusting, Cinepocalypse, and Studio71 that is now available to watch on Shudder. The first segment, “Stork,” is directed and written by Jordan Downey and also written by Kevin Stewart, the second segment is titled “Dream Girl” and is directed and written by Virat Pal and written also by Evan Dickson, the third is “Live and Let Dive” directed by Justin Martinez and written by both Ben Turner and Martinez, the fourth titled “Fur Babies” is directed and written by Christian and Justin Long, and the fifth is “Stowaway” that is directed by Kate Siegel and written by Mike Flanagan. Not going to say much because half the fun of watching these is figuring out what the hell is going on in the snippet of tape included. What I will say however is that I like the segments “Stork” and “Fur Babies” the most. I didn’t care much for “Live and Let Die” or “Stowaway” but again, that is a me not loving aliens thing I think. I think that “Dream Girl” is mid but I do like the commentary on celebrity and paparazzi that it provides even if the story didn’t hit for me. A short theater release has transitioned into a streaming run for Little Bites , starting with an initial release of October 4th . Written and directed by Spider One the RLJE Films and Shudder project is about a mother who decides to offer a demon in her basement victims that she procures instead of said demon taking her daughter. I haven’t watched this one yet but based on the trailer I will be watching it this spooky season. I like the focal point of motherhood and usually love horror movies that expertly delve into the subject matter. I will caution it does look on the grosser side. Things Will Be Different  released October 4th in theaters and at the same time on streaming  by Magnet Releasing. Directed and written by Michael Felker it is about estranged siblings played by Adam David Thompson and Riley Dandy, who come back together after a failed robbery that successfully acquired them $7 million and a high likelihood of being caught. The home they intend to hide in is said to have a closet that transports people which ends up working for the duo.A well rated release so far, Things Will Be Different is a reality bending space time continuum focused film that I can’t wait to watch. Terrifier 3  came out recently on October 11 , we all know what Terrifier is at this point. Art the Clown gruesomely murders a skewed female plethora of victims just because he comes into contact with them. I didn’t make it through the 1st movie and I have not put another on since because it is the exact opposite of most of what I look for in a horror movie. I think if you like these movies have at it but I’m not forcing myself to watch something I know I’ll strongly dislike. Smile 2  is set to hit theaters October 18  and has been virtually impossible to not see a trailer for. I will say however that the trailer looks really good and I like the continuation of it with 2020’s Scream King Kyle Gallner reprising his role in the franchise. Naomi Scott plays the lead who is a pop star, opening up the possibilities for the Smile demon exponentially while also being the 2nd film that includes stadium shows this year. I don’t know much about the story yet but this will likely be my Halloween time theater visit. The Radleys  is set to release in theaters and on VOD via Sky Cinema on October 18  and is based on the 2010 novel of the same title by Matt Haig. Directed by Euros Lyn and screenplay by Talitha Stevenson this British horror comedy is the tale of a family of vampires that abstinent until their teens blood thirst becomes no longer hide-able. Starring Damian Lewis, Kelly Macdonald, Harry Baxendale, Bo Bragason, Jay Lycurgo, Siân Phillips, and Shaun Parkes I am not in a personal rush to see this film. I love vampires and have noticed the recent trend of talking about the connection between vampires and the recession—which is fascinating. Despite this love I am just not as inclined to watch movies with strong comedy elements over other subgenres of horror. Your Monster  is coming out on October 25  via theatrical release. The film is both directed and written by Caroline Lindy and follows Melissa Barrera’s character Laura, an actress who discovers a monster that charms her in her time of need. Tommy Dewey is the monster and actors Kayla Foster, Edmund Donovan, and Meghan Fahy also star in the film. Produced by Bombo Sports and Entertainment and Merman the Vertical Entertainment distributed film is already being reviewed favorably. This is on my list to go see in theaters once it releases, especially as a romantic-y Halloween horror movie. Releasing on Netflix the same day, October 25 , Don’t Move  is directed by Adam Schindler and Brian Netto and written by T.J. Cimfel and David White. Starring Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock, and Daniel Francis it follows a killer who used a drug to paralyze his victims. It particularly focuses on one of his victims, played by Asbille, who quote, “run, fight, and hide,” before she’s physically unable to. I have a Netflix subscription so I think I’ll watch this at some point but I’m not rushing to put it on my list or itching to see it. I am interested in seeing Wittrock from American Horror Story  as the killer however which will be the driving force behind my decision to watch. Time Cut  is also coming out on Netflix but 5 days later on October 30 . Hannah MacPherson directed and wrote the screenplay alongside Michael Kennedy who is also credited with the story. Produced by ACE Entertainment it will only release to Netflix. Starring Madison Bailey, Antonia Gentry, and Griffin Gluck not much was known about it until very recently to recording this video. The premise of Time Cut really sounds like Amazon Prime’s Totally Killer movie that came out in 2023 except instead of a mother-daughter pair it’s a sister duo and the younger sister travels back to 2003 instead of the 80’s. I’m in my late 20’s and remember 2003 so it feels weird as hell that we’re already time traveling back there in media and that’s just normal sounding. I, of course like many of the other Netflix releases, I’ll watch this movie heading into Halloween and am cringe-excited to see 2003. Heretic  is a blockbuster horror film set to hit theaters on November 8 . Starring award winning actor Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher from Yellowjackets, Chloe East from Generation, and the Topher Grace from a household favorite, Spider Man 3 . The plot seems straightforward: 2 Mormon missionaries visit a home to proselytize to the seemingly open owner who actually has nefarious intentions. What is completely mind bending is that the man’s home is actually a labyrinth that challenges the 2 women in more ways than one. Both directed and written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods it was produced by A24, Beck/Woods, and Shiney Penny and being distributed by A24. I’ll be going to see this in theaters and I have high hopes and expectations. Following the theme of motherhood horror this year, Nightbitch  is expected to release December 6  in theaters after previously being set to release onto Hulu.  The film is directed by Marielle Heller who also wrote the screenplay based on the book by Rachel Yoder with the same title. Production companies Annapurna Pictures, Archer Gray, Defiant by Nature, and Bond Group Entertainment produced the film that is being distributed by Searchlight Pictures. Starring Amy Adams and Scoot McNairy the plot follows a stay at home mom with the propensity to turn into a dog. The trailer highlights her Adam’s characters challenges with being a stay at hoe mom and shows the transformation into dog beast as a  way to let loose and be free and in control, a metaphor. Werewolves is set to release December 6th but not much is known about it and no trailer has released. What is known is that it’s directed by Steven C. Miller, written by Matthew Kennedy and stars Katrina Law, Frank Grillo, and Lou Diamond Phillips. The plot is said to be 2 scientists stopping people from mutating into werewolves after being touched by a super moon the year prior. Get Away  is also set for a theatrical release on December 6 , produced by Wayward Entertainment, Resolute Films, Film Service Finland, and XYZ Films. The film stars Nick Frost, Aisling Bea, Sebastian Croft, and Maisie Ayres who all go on a vacation to a Swedish island. Once they get to said island they are downtrodden to discover that a serial killer is doing his killing there. The film is set to release on Shudder in 2025 for those that miss the IFC Films theatrical release this winter. The big and much anticipated Nosferatu  remake is slated to hit theaters on Christmas Day, December 25 . From my Universal Monsters project I know that Nosferatu is based on the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker and had to be renamed due to copyright issues with Universal Pictures in the 30’s. It’s really cool to see the story coming to life again this year and this film is what inspired me to re-look at the Universal Monsters project. I personally think that watching some of the older Dracula movies and Nosferatu will make viewing the new movie even better. I love knowing the details that they are and aren’t including and the artistic interpretations that are easily comparatively analyzed against similar pieces from the past. I’m super excited but I tend not to go to the movies on Christmas out of principle that I don’t think theaters should be open on a holiday, especially when everything  else is closed. I will however see this immediately after Christmas and am hoping to avoid reviews until then so I can go into it with just my perspective coloring my viewing. Several movies are slated to come out this year but the closer we get to the end of the year with no news the less likely that becomes. Those movies are: Return to Silent Hill – 2024 The Strangers: Chapter 2 – 2024 Witchboard – 2024 Conclusion That is all 70 of the ones I’ll be going into detail about. So, what do I think so far of the movies that I’ve seen in 2024 and what I know about the upcoming ones? One word I’d use to describe this year of horror is “refreshing” especially in regard to the creative chances that are being taken across the board. Alongside risks are tried and true reboots and remakes of famous franchises or titles that draw large audiences to the theater, “butts in seats,” as they say. More than 140 horror films will probably come out this year barring major changes in the release lineup. The average caliber is way higher than I would’ve guessed for that many movies of the same genre coupled with some studios and producers taking on multiple horror projects of varying size. Despite not being able to cover every movie I am excited about the plethora of options both domestic and internationally for the genre. I have the desire to watch as many of this year’s movies as possible as a personal goal which I might post about on Instagram. Examples of Genre & Audience Trends As mentioned earlier in the video some of this decade’s film trends are: an increase in non-linear plots, film marketing on social media, audience desire for more diverse storytelling, the use of AI and VR, release strategies with streaming as a forethought rather than an afterthought, more money being spent on original content by streaming juggernauts, and the favorite subgenre amongst young adults in the USA being psychological horror. Examples of non-linear story telling from 2024 are All My Friends Are Dead, The Watchers, and Milk and Serial. All 3 incorporate timelines that assist in story telling by obscuring details about the plot while also revealing everything due to the order in which the action is viewed and what information the viewer has as that action occurs. I think this is effective because the lack of context can heighten the fear around innocuous things and cause fears to subside about things that you shouldn’t let your guard down around. Social media marketing has become so normalized it’s easy to forget that not too long ago. During my own marketing education even knowing how to effectively use each platform was a highly coveted skill as opposed to something that populates a search query with pages upon pages of AI articles explaining the industry from top to bottom and back again. Most theatrical releases are coupled with some degree of social media marketing now. Great examples are Trap , Longlegs , Smile 2 , Never Let Go , and MaXXXine , that all preceded their releases with large ad campaigns and press tours. A growing desire for diverse storytelling has also provided guidance to the industry. Examples of diverse storytelling in 2024 horror alone are Your Monster  about a cancer patient, Oddity  about a blind psychic medium using a mannequin to solve her sisters murder, The Substance  about a Hollywood queen struggling with aging and suffer grotesque things to turn back the clock, The Deliverance  a mixed family religious film, and I Saw the TV Glow  a stunning and relatable portrayal of the inner struggle to be oneself despite society’s urging for you not to. In no surprise to anyone the incorporation of virtual reality and artificial intelligence is on the rise in the film industry. As we make advancements in the real world it’s no wonder that that has bled into media and that the fears surrounding those advancements have inspired horror concepts. Movies like Latency, Stream Afraid, and It’s What’s Inside (which isn’t covered in detail but is seriously so enjoyable to watch and sort of horror adjacent). Another trend, release strategies can be identified when looking to how studios have approach releases based on past successes and failures. I’m particularly highlighting films that released in theatre but with the intention of a quick turnaround to releasing on VOD or streaming platforms. Movies from 2024 of Horror lists that fit that criteria are Sunrise , I Saw the TV Glow , Humane , Oddity , Blackwater Lane , and Things Will Be Different . In the case of Sunrise , Blackwater Lane , and Things Will Be Different  didn’t seem to benefit from this release strategy. On the other hand I think the strategy lent to the virality and potential for virality that the movies I Saw the Tv Glow,   Humane , and Oddity  have using the same strategy. The streaming platforms have poured more money into creating original content for a variety of reasons including the ownership of the copyright and the added loyalty it can provide to users paying subscriptions in order to maintain access to that media. Some streaming originals from 2024 are Festival of the Living Dead  and Slay both Tubi originals, History of Evil and V/H/S/Beyond that are Shudder releases, Apartment 7A  is a Paramount+ original and House of Spoils is an Amazon original movie. With psychological horror being the most liked and least likely to be disliked by surveyed movie watchers it makes sense that there will continue to be a high number of psychological horror films. The high interest in horrors of the mind matches the trends we’re seeing of increase mental illness and lack of resources for mental illness treatment in the US. I like the current trends and want to see more of what I’m seeing but I’m sure there’s many a fan that can’t wait for the pendulum to swing back to slow-mo running scenes, silent art films, or PG-13 cash grabs. Final Thoughts I’ve noticed and enjoyed the reboots of famous franchises and staple films like Alien: Romulus , Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The Strangers: Chapter 1, Salem’s Lot, Apartment 7A , and Festival of the Living Dead  already coming out and Faces of Death and Return to Silent Hill anticipated soon. Owned intellectual properties that have built in audiences and recognition being (for lack of a better word) recycled is a smart and easy way to ensure you’ll make at least some money back as a studio. In light of the strikes that followed the  Global Pandemic it would be weird if Hollywood studios weren’t turning to tried and true, fan loved works to remake In addition to the reboots, revivals, and new installments in older franchises sequels are also big this year. Titles like Smile 2, Terrifier 3, The Platform 2, V/H/S/Beyond, and Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. Complicated leading ladies have taken center screen this year also, Maika Monroe in Longlegs, Hunter Schafer in Cuckoo, Kathryn Newton in Lisa Frankenstein, Glenn Close in The Deliverance, and Mia Goth in MaXXXine are examples and I think it paid off for almost all of them. These titles stick out in my mind as some of the creative risks mentioned earlier. In addition to complications some things have gotten easier, like coveted copyrights expiring on big Disney characters like Bambi, Mickey Mouse, and Winnie-the-Pooh. All of the aforementioned have horror movie franchises being built around them with titles coming out this year and more slated for 2025. It’s within reason to figure that whenever another character’s copyright expires the horror movie adaptations with universes built around them will start to be made. Sort of in the same spirit I’ve noticed more experimentation like the slasher POV from In a Violent Nature , a self made and self published film Milk and Serial , a big stakes and high intensity escape film Trap , a dystopian family drama that commentates on where some of the cultural subsets would end up in this dystopian universe, represented by a family and employees we follow in Humane , a transgender coming-of-age partial homage to Buffy I Saw the TV Glow , a film that is confined to a backyard pool Night Swim , and a reimagining of Lisa Frankenstein from the most unsuspecting creator—a teenage girl in the 80’s. I’d wager the most common story themes center around dystopian, alternate realities following calamitous and disastrous events. The vibe directly relates to the real world right now and how many are feeling especially in light of natural disasters like Hurricane Helene and Milton or the wildfires that ravage swaths of forest at an alarmingly increased rate. It makes sense to me that we’d find comfort in pretend dystopian realities while fearing possible real versions of dystopian realities. Thank You! On that note, make sure you register to vote and take a look at your local politics goings-ons. The dystopian realities are a little easier to enjoy watching when the possibility of a Kamala Harris presidency is right around the corner. Regardless of what genre or movie or studio you think is the real highlight of 2024 thank you for watching this 2024 of Horror video. I don’t even want to know how many hours I spent on this project and the burnout is definitely real. Last month my intention was to post the full iZombie video but life happened instead. So, this video is being posted obviously after you’re listening and then sometime before the end of the year I’ll be posting the iZombie video (fingers crossed) and at least  part 2 of the Universal Monsters  series if not part 3 depending on how well I can bounce back from the other projects. What is RRH? Red Rose Horror started as a hobby passion project. Following my official completion of my degree in 2020 (ha…ha) I felt that I wasn’t prepared with the types of skills the jobs I wanted required me to have. I couldn’t figure out how my peers seemed to be showing up just full of knowledge, experience, and cool things like portfolio websites. Anyways, I started RRH as a way to try and have those things myself, especially the ability to use different tools and platforms that jobs expect. About three years deep this past August I am really glad I started the website and putting myself into something just because I wanted to. Where to Follow If you can relate to that or are interested in horror reviews give this YouTube a follow. I intend to make my videos more of a blend between serious overview and more of my own thoughts, another skill I’m now working on, starting with this video. If you’ve made it this far you’re probably my partner, which if you are thank you for always supporting me! If not, then thank you, seriously I appreciate it and would love to know what you think in the comments, even if it’s negative feedback. Selfishly because posting online can be like shouting into a void wondering if it’s just bots “shouting” back at you. My Instagram used to be more personal but I transitioned to more content focused which has in a lot of ways zapped the fun out of it, so with that being said I’m most likely going to transition back to more personal posts and using it as a dual account that’s my personal account in combination with Red Rose Horror. If you are interested in more horror there are 3 part AHS series, a Midsommar review, a 2 part Coming-of-Rage series, and part 1 of Universal Monsters videos posted to this YouTube channel now. Article versions of this video and others are up on this website now.

Total honesty here, this is a safe space: I had never watched the original horror movies that helped build the genre like Count Dracula or Frankenstein's Monster. Frankly, I hadn't watched many original, old horror movies at all, opting for those 90's and beyond over anything else. From the time that I started Red Rose Horror I knew I wanted to remedy that flaw, and boom--this series...which I had originally planned as an article back in 2021 when I first started this website as a blog. The article below is part 1 of 3 and I WILL get this series done this year, come hell or high water. This, like most other projects, is divided up by era and historical circumstances at the time that influenced the productions of the films. The Hayes Code Era heavily influenced Hollywood for a long period of time and the wild Golden Era that preceded it featured more stories, sometimes harkening back to literary classics like Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man. The Universal Monsters that are widely recognized and known worldwide today started as adaptations of gothic literature during the Golden Era as part of the wider goal to make studios, especially smaller ones like Universal Pictures, relevant and generating profits during this boom of unchecked control of the movie industry. Part 1 of the project goes over the Golden Age time period and the transition to the Hayes Code era while giving background and plot synopsis for each Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man movie included in the series. Originally the historical aspects interested me more than the specific movies and I've found that it's hard to stay passionate about this project on top of busy times at work and an attempt to touch grass every now and again. If you're really interested in this series however please leave a comment or like on the YouTube video, which is embedded at the bottom of this article, to let me know; if there is more interest in this I will definitely get it done sooner over other things. INTRODUCTION Markedly a time of great struggle in United State’s history, the period between 1929-1939 is known for the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, both historically significant periods of economic and cultural collapse. The Golden Age of Hollywood period occurred around the same time, considered to have begun in 1915 with the historically inaccurate movie The Birth of the Nation, it was actually a time of more liberal approaches to subjects of cultural interest. It is often associated with “glitz and glamour” being marked by first the Silent Era from 1915-1929 before audio became possible for film and secondly the Pre-Code Era from 1929 to 1934. During the Pre-Code era studios had all the creative freedom that sound provided with little of the puritanical, religiously influenced oversight that would come to be once the Hay’s Code began negatively impacting films. The Hay’s Code made such an impact on Hollywood to signify a pre and post period of film and the types of films made during both periods. “ Remembering Hollywood’s Hays Code, 40 Years On ,” by Bob Mondello on NPR describes the pre-code time up until 1922 as quote, “come to seem like a moral quagmire, even by the bathtub-gin-and-speakeasy standards of the Roaring 20’s,” referring in particular to the scandals that had overtaken Hollywood at the time. Some of the scandals that created enough outrage for the Hay’s Code to take hold of the industry are noted in the NPR article as Fatty Arbuckle being charged with manslaughter of a fellow actress, various stars dying of drug overdoses, and other murders linked directly to the community. The article goes on to state that under Postmaster General Will Hays the Hollywood studios decided to self-impose restrictions but due to this list having no real consequence nothing much came of it. The Wexner Center for the Arts notes that in 1933 the movie I’m No Angel starring Mae West simultaneously saved Paramount from bankruptcy and took things far enough for calls, both manufactured and real, internal and external, for studios to crack down on the Hay’s Code restrictions. Mondello went on to write that the Hay’s Code had strong influence from the religious community and stated to want to have a production code that considered what they felt to be good taste. During this time a great push to not negatively influence audiences grew, drawing a connection between movies and perceived failing societal morals, quote, “that no picture should ever “lower the moral standards of those who see it,”” and implying that depicting evil, crime, and wrongdoing would cause audiences to emulate that behavior in the real world. Bans on the “don’ts” and “be carefuls” with included bans on nudity, mocking religion, drug use, addiction, interracial relationships, revenge, crimes that could be imitated, and so on. To enforce this code American theaters, owned at the time by the studios that wanted to enforce the code to avoid government censorship, did not allow a movie to be played that didn’t meet the standards and receive a certificate. In some of the movies after Hay’s Code became enforced around 1934 you can still see the certificate numbers listed on the title pages of some films, indicating they complied with the regulations. Something else of note at the time of these movies creation and original popularization is the culture that film studios did want to have on audiences and the significant role that media had become in shaping society. According to The Kennedy Center’s “ Part X: Hollywood and Radio in the 1930’s ,” movies became an escape during this decade. While being relatively affordable, movies often depicted lives dissimilar to the harsher realities of the viewer’s circumstances. The same article goes on to explain that at time theaters became the only place for people to get warm and rest. Movies provided a literal escape; escape from hunger, dust, misery, and various other anxieties of the time. Movies began to serve another purpose during this time, bringing communities together and inspiring people to believe in the American Dream again. Escape movies became a trend and the portrayals of excellence and success helped to boost Hollywood, California’s reputation of being a quote, “haven of opportunity,” also from Jayne Kristen. UNIVERSAL MONSTERS Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolf Man The Universal Horror Monsters movies in this video, the first of a three part series, are all Universal Studios made movies based on gothic fiction elements. In contrast to the happy, light image of life that escape movies portrayed Universal Pictures Studios, newly headed by Carl Laemmle (Lem-Lee) Jr, became the leading producer of horror films during the 30’s. Britannica details how these movies, the Universal Monster movies, became characteristically low budget films that allowed Universal, one of the Little Three studios at the time, stay afloat during financial hard times. Commercially successful in the box office, the movies created a genre out of necessity that would go on to transform cinema forever. Having created the horror movie niche with the various monsters Carl Jr., less than respectfully known as Uncle Carl around the studio, helped transition the studio into “talkies” after they faced challenges under his father’s management. Article “ Universal Studios and the Rise of Horror films ” notes that Universal was financially strapped and took advantage of gothic elements on sets that they could use for various projects. In a 1998 documentary Kingdom of Shadows: The Birth of Cinema  the word “monster” is explained as having derived from Latin meaning “divine warning,” connecting this to not only the way that the authors Shelley, Stoker, and Wells used the monstrous characters in the stories they wrote but the way those stories are reimagined for various other media and time periods. The Birth of Cinema makes a clear distinction between what does and does not qualify as a monster, stating that monsters have  to be displayed, are a warning that lessons can be learned from. The idea being that the threat of the monster is a tool to govern and encourage people to behave in ways the community sees as morally and ethically good. For example, Frankenstein, is a lesson in the negative outcomes to defying God and trying to upset the natural order, something of great concern when the novels were written in the nineteenth century. The nineteenth century, or the period between 1800 and 1899 according to “ Decade by Decade Timeline of the 1800s ” on ThoughtCo.com , has similar themes to those that tinge society today. The Victoria era in particular, described as 1837-1901 is one of quote-“expanding horizons of education and literacy, as well as by an increased desire of the people to question religion and politics,” from British Literature Wiki . In the 19th century though rather than restrictions to reproductive healthcare they battled women’s sexuality, instead of slashers and true crime they became fascinated with reanimation, immortality purchased with blood, and curses that chain you to the moon. More importantly people became enthralled with the immoral actions, the wicked whims, and the lure of the dark side; the dark side of you revealed take while under the influence of the supernatural. The potential impacts (both perceived and otherwise) associated with women’s liberation had become a hot button topic during both 1818 when Shelley’s Frankenstein published and in 1897 when Bram Stoker’s Dracula published. During the 19th century women’s suffrage started to become a reality in western cultures, challenging long held social structures based on male led systems. According to the page “ The Long Road to Women’s Suffrage ” on the Historic England website regional groups of women had become increasingly involved in the suffrage movement by the late 19th century. The first major event of note on the same site the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage moving outside of their city in 1877 to begin more regional organizing that included public meetings in the northern parts of England. All three of the novels that would go on to become the first horror movies monsters originated in England aside from all being published in the 1800’s. Despite Mary Shelley’s novel being published a whopping 79 years prior to both Stoker’s and Well’s own monster creations Count Dracula is regarded as the character with the most adaptations of all time. From Guinness World Record’s website the character Count Dracula from Bram Stoker’s novel had been portrayed in 538 films as of August 2015 with the closest literary character being Sherlock Holme’s created by Arthur Conan Doyle appearing in 299 films. Not only is Dracula the most portrayed character but in addition Bela Lugosi’s Count Dracula from the 1931 film is often cited and praised as a key and iconic horror character portrayal that sparked countless others. Despite the image of Dracula being that of Lugosi’s the actual appearance in the book is more similar to that of Nosferatu when utilizing his vampire abilities than a charming, intense but handsome gentlemen with a cape and painfully slow advance on prey. Frankenstein is the only character I’d have thought to be most common if Dracula hadn’t have become synonymous with horror. It’s a perfect tale in part due to it’s creation during the Year Without a Summer during 1816, in Geneva, Switzerland. Inspired in large part by the ideas at the time surrounding death, women’s place in the world, science, and the nature of life in combination with a challenge issued to a group of friends spending their summer stuck inside reading German ghost stories. John Polidori, another friend in the same group would write and publish a short story titled The Vampyre  in 1819, about fears surrounding “corrupt aristocracy” according to From Monsters to Victims: Vampires and Their Cultural Evolution from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century  by Caitlyn Orlomoski with the University of Connecticut. The idea that monsters could hide among those with status, money, and influence became a theme amongst the Universal Monster movies of this time. Orlomoski also states that this is the first portrayal of a vampire as a gentlemen or noblemen, a way to depict vampires which is later replicated in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. While Shelley’s novel started with more intellectually and creatively pure intentions, Stoker’s on the other hand is the 7th book published by the author who’s friends claimed he only wrote for money but not seeking fame as a writer; rather he worked in the theatre and sought success in his career there. The themes of the 19th century had persisted throughout the decades and the anxieties surrounding change and the perceived threat from that change, although different, can still be felt in Dracula as much as Frankenstein. Dracula is purely superstitious and supernatural, delving into religion as a weapon against the undead whereas Frankenstein is mostly scientific with hints of supernatural elements when it comes to the origin of life, and the question of morality surrounding our actions and divine responsibility for those actions. In a same-but-different-font situation these books’ themes embody the tension and trends in society at the time. Both are considered to be Gothic fiction of the romantic period. One of the definitions of the word “romantic” is “of, characterized, or suggestive of an idealized view of reality” from Oxford Languages. All three monsters’ stories have romantic tones and the three based on literature generate from novels considered to be part of the Romantic, Neo-romantic and Gothic movements. The Romantic Movement is described as artistic and intellectual lean of literature, art, music, etc. from 1790 through 1850 on Britannica’s Arts & Culture page dedicated to Romanticism. Originating in Europe, the movement is marked by individualism, awe for the mysteries of life and introspection to name a few. The New York Public Library article “A Brief History of Gothic Horror” by Amanda Pagan describes gothic fiction as a subgenre typically featuring morality, philosophy, and religion. Pagan also writes that the endings are not always considered good and cites Mary Shelley’s work as a shift in the genre—a switch to the human reflection in the villain. It’s easy to draw the connection between this display of monstrosity in the original novels as well as later movie adaptations that warn people to avoid the scarier aspects of life. Lessons to avoid potential harm to your fellow citizens, to respect laws of nature, and sometimes to accept fates worse than death in exchange for a safe and peaceful society—or so the stories go. Welcome to the Universal Monsters series, where I’ll be diving into the topics already mentioned, some real world context to the books and movies, as well as reviews of the movies themselves. This article is a general overview of three Universal Monsters, Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolf Man. The movie Frankenstein being based upon Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and then on the other hand the Wolf Man character and backstory is studio made. At the end of this December the final part of the series will be posted. The final video will cover related video games, some other interpretations of vampires and the Dracula story, twists on Frankenstein movies like Frankenweenie and Lisa Frankenstein, and werewolf movies like Underworld and Van Helsing. Included in this video will be a Nosferatu 2024 review and any information available about the upcoming Wolf Man 2025 movie release. In contrast to the monsters inspired by literature the Wolf Man monster is solely studio created and reflects the sentiment of the studio and Hollywood at the time looking to create commercial successes. Much of the character’s struggles have to do with human nature, what lies beneath a man’s societal exterior. Man as himself is the problem, amplified to deadly levels by the werewolf curse, acquired from surviving the bite of a werewolf. At the hands of one man another meets his own destruction and that same motif plays out in most of the Universal Wolf Man portrayals. By the time that The Wolf Man premieres in 1941 the studio is extremely different, in the clutches of being approved for Hay’s Code compliance certificates in order to play in most theaters and a necessary Supreme Court decision that required the Big 5 studios in Hollywood, which Universal hadn’t been a part of, to address their monopolization of the film industry. Universal Monster films associated with the earlier part of that time period gone over in this video include Dracula and Frankenstein 1931, Werewolf of London in 1933, Bride of Frankenstein 1935, Dracula’s Daughter 1936, and later on The Son of Frankenstein which released in 1939. Despite the horror films being a product of the Laemmle reign of Universal Pictures they’d proven to be commercially successful and continued into the 40’s and even 50’s with the Count Dracula films Son of Dracula 1943, House of Frankenstein 1944, House of Dracula 1945, the Frankenstein movies The Ghost of Frankenstein 1942, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man 1943, The Curse of Frankenstein 1957, The Revenge of Frankenstein 195, and Wolf Man movies with the character Larry Talbot including The Wolf Man 1941, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman 1943, House of Frankenstein 1944, and House of Dracula 1945. All of the movies mentioned so far will be gone over in this video with a brief review of each. A lot has changed since the 1930’s and 40’s but the attraction to the darker side is a prevalent theme in all Universal Monster movies and that more gloomy and shadowy tilt to the world mirrors sentiments of the 2020’s just like they did in the past. Obviously with hindsight we can assess some of those quote-unquote “lessons” as self serving creations. Many of them, like female sexuality leading to societal collapse, or homosexuality being the ultimate sin, to be based on certain people’s beliefs rather than universally held truths about humanity. Despite how they are sometimes portrayed to be. DRACULA 1931 & NOVEL The first pivotal and prime example is the OG king of the Universal Monsters, Dracula, first officially featured in the 1931 film under the same name. Most literature and documentaries on the subject agree that Dracula, a foreigner and outsider to England (which is the main setting of the novel and many movie adaptations) with nefarious intentions lures women away from their English men and turn them from pious and pure virgins to sexually open and ravenous women who are overtaken with their thirst for blood. The first Dracula movie simply titled Dracula  premiered in 1931 and said to be based on the 1924 stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. Bela Lugosi famously plays Dracula in the film which is also the first sound film version of Stoker’s novel. The novel begins in Transylvania, Romania following Johnathan Harker who is visiting a castle atop a small village in the Carpathian Mountains. The noblemen that Harker has come to assist with a real estate transaction is Count Dracula, who the town fears and reveres from the safety of their village using superstitious techniques like lining entrances in garlic and wearing crucifixes to protect against being fed upon by the Count and ward off attacks. Unfortunately for Harker he doesn’t heed the warnings (which fair—they are in Romanian and he’s an English man), and becomes Dracula’s prisoner before he puts two and two together that Dracula and his three wives are vampires. As an epistolary novel, or a narrative told through letters or other documents rather than one cohesive narrative, we jump from Harker’s POV as a prisoner in Dracula’s castle to his fiancé Mina Murray’s letters with Lucy Westenra. The two women correspond about Lucy’s three suitors who later become part of the Dracula hunting party, and they come across the wrecked Russian ship that carried the 50 boxes of dirt from Transylvania. Mina informs Harker that she saw Lucy sleepwalking in the cemetery with red eyes over her, only to discover that Lucy had 2 tiny red marks on her throat of unknown origin. Due to the weird circumstances surrounding Lucy’s ailments and behavior Dr. Seward, one of her suitors and a doctor at the asylum Mina works at, calls in his mentor Professor Van Helsing for assistance. Van Helsing immediately identifies that not only are the weird circumstances with Renfield, the raving lunatic who ominously warns that he is coming but won’t say who, and Lucy are the result of vampires but the  vampire that he’s been hunting his whole career, Count Dracula. In an attempt to save Lucy’s life the men perform blood transfusions that fail and the situation worsens when Lucy’s mother succumbs to a heart attack induced by shock. All of their efforts are for naught when Lucy is attacked and killed by a wolf. On the other side of Europe Harker is taken in by nuns while suffering brain fever post-Castle escape and has recovered, now sending for Lucy to join him in Budapest so they can be married. Back in England Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, and Lucy’s two other suitors go to her grave under concern that she is going to transition to an undead vampire which the men accompanying Van Helsing don’t believe. Van Helsing is obviously right and Lucy has attacked a child and is in fact not dead and resting in her tomb. They all decide to release Lucy’s soul by killing her in a rather brutal way and ensuring she can’t rise from the dead again. Upon Mina and Johnathan’s return to Western Europe they join in the efforts to stop Dracula which includes burning his supply of dirt from his homeland, necessary for him to rest in during the daylight hours at risk of perishing otherwise. Assuming his next move the hunting crew chases Dracula back to Transylvania and kill his wives before he arrives and intercept him and ultimately kill him. Modernity allows for advancements that make moving internationally with 50 boxes of dirt much easier, even sending for a business man from England to assist in the completion of the transaction. Similarly today we grapple with fears about AI and technological advancements that connect us but could potentially bring greater harm by doing so. Like in the novel and adaptations connection brings out some of our most ugly instincts, including fears about people we aren’t familiar with from places we know little about. The character Dracula is a representation of the fears during the 19th century in England that immigrants would bring with evil with them that would spread to English society through susceptible, virginal women. For example Lucy is written like a plant of sorts to no fault of her own. Similarly to Mina she’s considered a commodity with a hunting party’s worth of protectors and avengers but unlike Mina her succumbing to what they believe is the dark side, symbolized by her being with Dracula rather than them, instantly turns their plan deadly. Rather than saving Lucy they’d rather destroy her under a belief they are doing it for her own good. The 1931 movie differs in some big ways, for starters Renfield is the man who goes to carry out the transaction with the Count in Transylvania. The story begins with him as a red herring protagonist who goes through Harker’s experiences at the castle. Renfield ends up being alive on the ship that Dracula uses to transport himself and his 50 boxes of dirt to England and now raving madly he is taken to a sanatorium. Van Helsing uses wolfsbane in the movie as an essential tool to protect against vampires, something not mentioned in the book. Crucifixes are the other essential tool used in the movie with dramatic ends to drawn out attacks from Dracula. In the film Dracula takes the form of mist and a bat in addition to a wolf we don’t see but hear howling to call Renfield. Lucy is not in this film adaptation and only Mina is preyed upon by Dracula, him sneaking into her room through her window and drinks her blood, turning her into one of his minions. Eventually Dracula flees back to his coffin and upon hearing Van Helsing and Harker arrive believes Renfield betrayed him and kills him by breaking his neck. Sunrise arrives causing Dracula to seek refuge in his coffin which allows Van Helsing and Harker to drive a stake through his heart which frees Mina from his control. The portrayal is vastly different than the novel including the character Count Dracula. After Laemmle legally acquired the rights Universal Pictures owned the character but took inspiration from the stage play and the illegal Nosferatu adaptation of the novel. According to The Art of Costume  article “Designing Fear: Bela Lugosi’s Dracula” Raymond Huntly is actually who first slicked their hair back and wear a tuxedo cape combo when portraying Dracula in Hamilton Deane’s 1924 stage play adaptation of the book. The article on The Art of Costume  also states it’s possible that either the costume designers or Lugosi bought the look from the stage to the play. In contrast to this Stoker’s novel describes Dracula as having quote, “a hard-looking mouth, with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory,” on page 9. Not long later on page 17, “The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy mustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly shrimp white teeth; those protruded over the lips.” Dracula is also said to have a broad strong chin, nasty breath, being generally pale with pointed ears, he is overall thin, has pointed, sharp, long nails and when Harker looks more closely he notices hairs in the center of Dracula’s palms. Upon Dracula touching Harker he physically shudders and becomes nauseated before being rushed off to his own quarters. On page 36 we learn that Dracula’s eyes turn from a blue to a red glow when he becomes angered, in this instance with his wives going after Harker who he is says belongs to him, offering them a child instead. Later in the novel once many events have transpired Van Helsing explains to the men who Dracula is and the things the myriad of signs he’s a vampire. He never eats with others because he consumes blood which allows him to become younger and replenish depleted abilities. In addition Van Helsing goes on to tell them that he becomes “elemental dust” in the rays of moonlight, so he can essentially enter any place no matter how small the entry due to this and can see in the dark. Genuinely he’s OP according to Stoker which no shock people would be afraid of. It’s rather mundane that the only ways to take him out are to destroy his connection to his homeland, attack him during daylight hours when he’s weakest, garlic, and religious symbols. When upset his originally blue eyes become red and every time he appears he looks younger. No matter the age however he’s always able to do things outside the realm of possibility like scaling the wall to climb out of the castle (a truly spooky description in the novel). Similar to much of the superstitions and folklore of the area surrounding Transylvania and the Romanian people, specifically those who lived nomadically, the Count has no reflection and shape shifts into animal forms as well as mist slash fog. FRANKENSTEIN 1931 & NOVEL Despite Dracula being the most portrayed character Frankenstein also came out in 1931 and the Frankenstein story is arguably the one that weaves all of the other Universal Monsters together. The full title of the novel by Mary Shelley is Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, a figure in Greek mythology known for defying the Gods by stealing fire back from Zeus, a trickster. The creation of Frankenstein’s monster is a trick on nature, one of the central themes and driving forces behind character’s struggles throughout the plots of the Frankenstein movies. The opening chapter of the book is about the book’s background and what inspired the story in the first place—the challenge issued by Shelley’s friend Lord Byron in Geneva, Switzerland, the setting of the book. The first version of the book published didn’t reveal Shelley’s identity, but upon the second publication she is noted as the author of the book. While the first film adaptation covers the main plot points in similar ways to the book much of the story is changed to fit the Golden Hollywood story rather than the Gothic fiction version. Similarly to Dracula, Frankenstein is an epistolary novel, starting with Captain Walton’s 18th century letters to his sister Margaret while he explores the North Pole. The movie on the other hand begins in a Bavarian Alps village with a nearby medical college where Henry Frankenstein has built a laboratory in a watchtower. Henry has become so engrossed and obsessed with his highly secret experiments that he’s gone ghost. In Captain Walton’s letters back in the novel we get more of a backstory and build up that arguably enhances the fear elements of the story ten-fold. A few letters deep Walton explains that his ship got trapped in ice only to notice a huge figure driving a sled in the Arctic. Upon getting free from the ice the ship and it’s crew led by Walton decide to rescue a man on the ice, tired and weathered from a long arctic journey. Victor informs them that he’s been pursuing the large figure they’d seen earlier and recognizes the same obsession forming in Walton that he has for tracking the creature. In an attempt to warn Walton, Victor starts to tell the story of how he came to be on the ice and this then becomes the novel’s main plot told from Victor’s perspective for a decent portion. Unlike in the 1931 movie we learn a lot of detail about Victor’s life and what led him to become the man he is, starting with his birth into a wealthy Genevan family who has a pension for scientific exploration. During his childhood his parents adopt Elizabeth, the daughter of an Italian nobleman who is now orphaned. All’s well and according to plan until Victor’s mother dies of scarlet fever and he continues with his plan to attend the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. While at university Victor develops a secret way reanimate non-living matter and decides to create a humanoid creature. The creature is planned to be tall and proportionally large due to Victor’s inability to recreate the details of human bodies. Around this time in the novel the movie picks up a parallel plot line to the story. In the book Frankenstein’s monster is made from parts stolen from buildings where dead bodies were stored, mortuaries, and even animals to acquire the organs and parts he couldn’t by other means. The first scene in the movie is of a funeral, Henry Frankenstein rather than Victor hides nearby with his hunchback assistant, Fritz, to rob the new grave. It’s revealed that him and Fritz have secured parts from graves along with hanged criminals in the town nearby. He exclaims to his assistant that he believes electricity is the key to life, omitting the events in the book that led Frankenstein to discover a secret but essential technique for reanimation. The last piece, arguably the most essential in the film series, is the brain that will go into the monster which Henry sends Fritz to retrieve from his former mentor’s class, an average, healthy brain. Dr. Waldman, Henry’s former mentor, has two brains to demonstrate to the class differences between a depraved criminal brain and a normal one. Fritz manages to bungle the operation and decides to take the criminal brain rather than the normal one. Meanwhile, Henry’s fiancé Elizabeth goes to their friend Victor Moritz, which is an interesting callback to Victor from the novel. Her, Moritz, and Waldman rush to Henry’s lab once Waldman informs them that Henry does intend to create life. As they arrive they are invited to watch the reanimation experiment as Henry and Fritz complete it with the lightning storm raging outside. Following the experiments successful completion the famous, “It’s alive!,” lines are delivered with mad scientist exuberance. The monster itself is the most different aspect between the novel and the 1931 Universal adaptation. The book’s monster is described as having dull, watery eyes, yellow skin that’s transparent enough to see the blood vessels underneath, flowing black hair and black lips. He’s extremely strong and physically capable but has the mind of a baby. In the movies however Frankenstein’s monster is green with a flat head, stitches all over his body, short cropped hair with black lips and electric conducting bolts sticking out of his neck. The movie version is the version we commonly think of to represent Frankenstein’s monster, or as the creature is colloquially known, Frankenstein, eliminating Victor/Henry all together. The novel differs so much from the movie so much that I’ll pick back up talking about it in a later video when I go over Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein the 1994 film. Once the movie monster is made Henry and Fritz end up restraining him, fearing what his violent outbursts could lead to. When Fritz goes to the monster he’s attacked and the other men lock him in, coming up with a plan to let the monster go and then use a drug to kill him when he inevitably attacks. Similarly to the book Henry is horrified by his creation, scared that himself or someone else could be hurt or killed by the monster. They carry their plan out and the monster is presumably dead after falling to the floor unconscious and Waldman reassures that he will perform an autopsy and then destroy the monster. When he goes to perform said autopsy he’s strangled by the Monster who’s not dead at all. Henry is none the wiser to this development as he prepares for his wedding to Elizabeth occurring the next day. The Monster escapes the tower laboratory and makes his way through the woods, coming upon a lake with a house nearby. A little girl says goodbye to her father at the house and goes to play by the lake, inviting the Monster to join her with childlike innocence. At first things are fine but then he becomes upset about the flower having no more petals and throws the little girl into the lake. Unable to swim to shore the little girl drowns and the Monster runs away into the woods. Another famous scene occurs next, the little girl’s father walks through town with the girls wet, limp body to Castle Frankenstein. As he’s walking and people in the town realize what’s happening they join him and form an angry mob that demands answers from the Frankensteins for the girl’s death. It is discovered that Waldman has been strangled by the Monster who has made his way to the castle. The sight of the Monster causes Elizabeth to pass out and he escapes with the mob following him. Henry is then attacked by the Monster and hurled over the side of the windmill as the mob demands justice below. The dummy body breaks it’s fall off the windmill by hitting one of the blades and the people below carry Henry back to the village. The Monster goes down with the burning windmill, anger mob members cheering below at his fear of the fire and eventual demise. Everyone thinks the Monster is dead and the Frankensteins proceed with a wedding and Henry’s father toasts to a future grandchild. WEREWOLF OF LONDON 1935 The movie Werewolf of London premiered in 1935 and originally had Lugosi cast as Dr. Yogami and Boris Karloff as Dr. Wilfred Glendon. Despite it being not about Lawrence Talbot, the version of the werewolf monster that I’ll be covering in this series, it is the first werewolf movie that Universal made and precedes The Wolf Man character by about six years. Wilfred is a botanist from England who is in Tibet searching for the mariphasa lupina lumina, a rare plant that is legendary for being powered by the moon. During his journey he’s bitten by a humanoid creature but is still able to collect the specimen from the plant he’d been searching for. Some of the nastiest but well done effects occur in Wilfred’s conservatory with the butt looking creature with tentacle arms moving around inside a cage with people observing through bars. The plant consumes a frog which is just as gross as it sounds. During this time Wilfred is dedicating his focus to the plant specimen from Tibet, with the goal to trick the plant to bloom. While he’s showing someone the plant his hand begins to grow fur and upon seeing this he rushes the man out. Yogami is another doctor who approaches Wilfred about the flower, requesting that he provide him with 2 blossoms of the plant by the full moon. He wants the flowers due to them being an antidote  to lycanthropy, a man who believes that he is transforming into a werewolf during the full moon. Unwilling to help him Wilfred isn’t convinced by the two examples Yogami gives of men in London having been bitten by werewolves, surviving the bite, and then becoming a werewolf themselves. Although Wilfred didn’t feel inclined to help Yogami he does use his pro-tip and harvests sap from the plant in order to stop his own transformation. Wilfred’s wife, Lisa played by Valerie Hobson, goes to her Aunt Miss Ettie Coombes’ party with her childhood sweetheart, Paul played by Lester Matthews, who has intentions to try and get Lisa back. Wilfred stays back and he proceeds to undergo a painful transformation into a werewolf humanoid form. Howling erupts on the streets which the partygoers hear from inside but due to only Ettie, known for being a drunk, seeing the werewolf no one else believes her and Wilfred prowls the streets instead of targeting his wife Lisa. The partygoers only learn the grim truth that a woman got mauled to death on the London streets and some of them begin to piece together something supernatural at foot. Paul informs his uncle, a police chief, about his supernatural suspicions but the superstitious beliefs are brushed off. In attempts to not go on a murderous rampage and with no flower blossom antidote options Wilfred believes he can lock himself away during the full moon. He breaks out once he’s transformed and searches the streets for a victim, settling on a young woman meeting up with a lover. Once there’s confirmation something supernatural is going on the police offer to seize the flower from Wilfred in order to stop him transforming into a werewolf. A worry grows that the werewolf curse could become an epidemic that takes over London. Things escalate when Wilfred breaks out of metal bars to choke his wife only to be run off when Paul and the policemen at the home chase him off. In a technique I hadn’t seen in prior films of this time footage of multiple characters making phone calls are cut over one another to show the efforts the extent to which the group is taking to track Wilfred down over a short period of time. Yogami and Wilfred go back and forth over the flower, Wilfred slicing him and choking him to death, far more violent than I would’ve expected from a 1930’s movie but this is right around the time that the Hay’s Code would’ve been making ripples in Hollywood without fully controlling it yet. Wilfred makes it onto the roof and jumps off to attack Paul in a rather funny chase scene and crouch from Wilfred on the roof. Finally Wilfred is shot from behind and he thanks them for killing him, giving a speech and then dying. Upon his death Wilfred transforms back into his man form and the group decides to cover everything up rather than let London know how close they’d come to a werewolf epidemic. THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN 1935 Following Werewolf of London the Hay’s Code had  first sequel to Frankenstein titled, The Bride of Frankenstein, released in 1935 with Elsa Lanchester playing Mary Shelley in the beginning as well as the Bride later in the film. Directed by James Whale this Carl Laemmle Jr. production has garnered much praise and fanfare over the decades. In a neat and tidy continuation the events of the film pick back up with the ending of the first movie, the windmill is burning with Frankenstein’s monster atop it. This is Shelley continuing the Frankenstein tale to a group of friends on a stormy night in the present and the movie being her telling. It’s expressly stated by the fictional Shelley that she intended for the story to be a moral lesson and that a common misconception is calling the monster himself Frankenstein. The townspeople believe that the monster died in the fire that burned the mill to the group but the father of the little girl who drowned In the first film wants confirmation. Hans, the father, travels into the ruin only to fall right into the monster’s hiding place, the monster strangles Hans and his wife to death, wiping out their entire family in less than 48 hours. Having thought Frankenstein had died Elizabeth is overjoyed to learn he’s still alive, so much so that upon a warning that the monster lives no one listens. Henry is sticking steadfast to his mission however and still feels destined to unlock the secrets of life and renounces his creation without relinquishing his obsession. Henry’s mentor Doctor Septimus Pretorius arrives to the castle and shows him what he calls “homunculi” which are small, fully formed humans popular during the times of alchemy. Pretorius convinces Henry they should work together to create a second creature but this time Pretorius intends to grow an artificial brain. Henry is tasked with getting the body parts while Pretorius works on the artificial brain. While in the woods the monster saves a woman from drowning but this is confused for attacking her when two hunters happen upon them and chase the monster after shooting him. Upon catching him he’s chained only to display the strength and ability to break and escape. This ends up with the monster finding an old hermit who’s blind and just happy to have a friend in the vicinity. The man teaches him the word “friend” and feeds him but the lost hunters stumble upon them and end that union. The cottage is burned down in the scuffle and the hunters and hermit are safely outside, aware now that the monster is near and more incensed and fearful. While they lead the hermit away the monster hides out in a crypt only to witness Pretorius and his two henchmen robbing the grave of a young woman. The men leave and Pretorius stays, ending up talking to the monster about his plans to create a second creature. Henry refuses to complete the work and Pretorius reveals that the monster is involved and also demands that Henry help. Pretorius signals to the monster to carry out a plan to abduct Elizabeth, Henry’s wife as of very recently, in order to force Henry to complete the creation. Once Henry has agreed to assist in the experiment they prep and a storm rolls in for them to take advantage of. Lightning strikes on the contraption above the raised metal table, electrifying the body of the creature wrapped from head to toe in bandages. When she reaches the ground again they realize they have a success—the bride is alive. Pretorius and Henry unwrap her revealing an absolutely stunning character, the Bride of Frankenstein, which Pretorius shouts upon confirmation she lived. Black hair swept up behind her head with white streaks in it sprouting from her electrified temples, she’s twitchy and hesitant, dressed in a floor length gown with a sharp stitch line carving her jaw she is fabulous. The monster arrives shortly after her reveal, reaching for her and saying, “friend?” In a hopeful manner. Unfortunately for everyone the bride is less than impressed with the monster and she recoils away from him towards Frankenstein. Her rejection causes him to state that she hates him and is like the others, realizing that he can’t force someone to accept him. The monster decides to smash the lab up, shouting to Elizabeth and Henry that they should go because they live. In contrast the monster tells Pretorius and the bride that they belong dead and are staying. The monster pulls the lever that brings on the castle tower’s destruction along with the laboratory and the experiments inside. DRACULA’S DAUGHTER 1936 Following the commercially successful Universal Pictures horror films Dracula’s Daughter premiered in 1936. It is debated what the actual source material for the movies is, American Film Catalog’s page  dedicated to the film states that it’s thought to be based on an unpublished story from the novel titled Dracula’s Guest while other, more modern sources claim it’s based on the 1872 novel Carmilla   by Sheridan Le Fanu which is famous for it’s subject matter of lesbian relationships, the first novel of it’s kind in British fiction. By 1936 when this movie premiered various other monster movies had premiered to varying degrees of success. One thing rang true for Universal towards the end of the Great Depression: horror movies are cheap to make and turn a profit, even during the worst of times. Not only are they cheap to make but source material from the Gothic era made perfect blueprints for the base stories of each monster. After the initial monster movies stories expanded in the pre-code and early code time periods. Dracula’s Daughter is known to have themes of homosexuality and patriarchy, focusing on Countess Mayra Zaleska whom is the daughter of Dracula seeking to cure her thirst. She seeks help from Dr. Garth, a man she meets at a society party once she arrives in town, who instantly falls for the Countess. Garth walks the Countess through a type of conversion therapy but she succumbs to her urges and attacks a young woman that her helper, Sandor, recruits for her. Under the guise of needing models for her paintings the Countess is able to lure in victims who are more likely to trust her because she is a woman of nobility. It’s obvious from the first few scenes that the Countess isn’t as proud of her vampirism as her father the Count had been. Rather than wanting to completely indulge in her blood thirst she hopes that when he dies and she burns his body she’s free from his curse. This is a common story amongst those that have survived conversion therapy tactics—and using the word loosely—treatments. Struggling against one’s nature is known to end in heartache nine times out of ten but that false hope of being the tenth and fulfilling the impossible goal to change who you are. Towards the three fourths mark of the movie the tone from the Countess changes. She becomes more sure of herself and definitive about after succumbing to her blood thirst and attacking a woman that ends up recounting the tale to the Doctor and authorities before passing. Dr. Garth and his secretary have an unusual relationship to say the least and in order to lure him to the Dracula castle in Transylvania. Garth chases the Countess to the castle, realizing he cares about his secretary despite their more antagonistic than harmonious relationship. The Countess demands that Garth becomes her eternal partner and become a vampire in exchange for letting Janet, Garth’s secretary, free. The plan isn’t carried out though, the Countess is killed by her now disloyal servant Sandor because she had promised him eternal life only for her to take on this side quest. Before Sandor can kill Garth and Janet as well he’s killed by a policeman accompanied by Van Helsing. Dracula’s Daughter is one of my favorites of these thirties and forties monster movies. Gloria Holden’s performance as the Countess is spectacular and hard to look away from, giving the sense that she possesses a hypnotic glare even stronger than her father’s. The approaches are just as slow as Lugosi’s but amplified in fear factor that has withstood the test of time. Holden’s magnetism and chemistry can be felt in each scene regardless of who she’s acting with. The only actors with more chemistry are Otto Kruger who played Dr. Jeffrey Garth and Marguerite Churchill who played Janet Blake, the doctor’s secretary. Something I’ve noticed about older movies that is a bit of viewing-learning-curve for me and it’s that key details will be given one time only through something like a sign in the background or a random conversation. While taking notes I’d note the relationships between the characters only to check websites to confirm and find out I’d completely missed key details that answered much of my confusion. I had thought that older movies just didn’t care as much about the details and lore but in fact they just display it to the audience in far different ways. Once I’d realized how off I’d been things made much, much more sense as far as plots, monster’s abilities, and especially character’s relationships and histories. SON OF FRANKENSTEIN 1939 At the end of the previous Frankenstein movie the monster burned the lab down with both himself and the bride inside with the mad scientist. We flash forward years after that event with Henry Frankenstein’s son Baron Wolf von Frankenstein played by Basil Rathbone. The new generation of Frankenstein’s arrive back in their ancestral home only to realize the entire town despises them and is wary of their arrival. The policeman Inspector Krogh lost his arm as a child to the Frankenstein monster but befriends the family in spite of his history. The Inspector does however warn Baron Wolf that his attempt to repair his father’s reputation in the village won’t be met with acceptance from the townspeople. When Baron Wolf arrives at the castle with his wife Elsa and son Peter he finds Ygor who is a man hung for grave robbing that survived the hanging with a neck deformity. He also finds the monsters body in the crypt that he decides to revive in his families name. Despite Wolf being able to revive the monster it is under Ygor’s command who is directing it to murder all of the men in town that sentenced him to death. Due to the obvious connection Wolf puts two and two together and confronts Ygor and shoots him. In revenge for killing Ygor the monster takes Peter, Wolf’s son. A fight ensues after the men, Inspector Krogh and Baron Wolf, chase the monster to the laboratory. The monster is knocked into the molten sulphur pit that is underneath the lab after he tears off Krogh’s arm—poetic justice for the Inspector. Following the events the Frankenstein family decide to leave the village after all which causes the townspeople to cheer. In a gesture of good faith Baron Wolf leaves the castle to the village people who he believes are the rightful owners and protectors. THE WOLF MAN 1941 One monster I find to be not scary with no hope of having fixed it on the other hand is The Wolf Man, or Lawrence “Larry” Talbot, first appearing in the 1941 film of the same name. It might be due to the makeup of the time or of the direction of the performance not feeling like it always matching the actor Lon Chaney Jr. It might’ve been due to Hay’s Code or maybe just capabilities and technological advancements but the Wolf Man looks like a caricature to my modern mind. It comes off as the safe version of the Universal Monster movies. The story is created entirely by the studio in this case however, a deviation from the other films source materials. In spite of this the story is decent and still accomplishes the gothic themes and elements like the other movies. Larry Talbot returns to his home in Wales after his brother dies to be there for arrangements and to reconcile with Sir John, his father and the lord of the estate. Shortly after arriving he meets Gwen Conliffe, played by Evelyn Ankers, who works at a local antique store and is instantly smitten with her. Under the guise of looking for a new walking stick he attempts to flirt with Gwen and ends up purchasing one with a giant silver wolf handgrip. The local superstition states that a werewolf is a man that becomes a wolf and also mentions that they see a pentagram on the palm of their next victim. Gwen nonetheless agrees to meet with him after work to go get their fortunes told by Romani people who are nearby. Gwen brings her friend Jenny and they visit Bela who sees a pentagram in her hand when he goes to give her a palm reading in his caravan. Meanwhile Gwen and Larry are walking around chatting about her engagement and are interrupted by Jenny screaming. They rush to her aid as she’s being attacked by a wolf and Larry jumps in to try and rescue her. Larry is able to kill the wolf with his new walking stick but sustains a bite from the wolf who is revealed to be Bela the fortune teller. Gwen and Bela’s mother, Maleva, take the injured Larry back to his estate where his chest wolf bite heals within the night. Now that the wolf has turned back into Bela upon his death the people at the scene believe that Larry killed him. Things get worse for Larry when his bite heals and he’s lost most if not all of his proof of battling a wolf and not a man. Gwen and Larry end up getting suspicion from the town about potentially having engaged in adultery when Jenny died, showing a stark consequence for the flirtation. Maleva tells Larry about the curse and Bela along with warning him he’s also cursed now, giving him a pendent that he regifts to Gwen. He doesn’t take Maleva seriously but transforms the next night running out and killing a villager. Due to the attacks resembling that of a wolf a hunting party is formed to track down the wolf. When things reach a fever pitch Larry confesses to his father that he’s the werewolf but his father doesn’t believe him and instead straps him to a chair believing he’s lost his mind. Upon the full moon he transforms however and attacks Gwen, a pentagram having shown on her palm earlier, and his father not recognizing him kills him with his silver wolf headed walking stick. This Universal Monster represents what the studio felt would be most successful during this time, what story and character could they create that is low budget but a box office hit. That makes the character an important control variable when examining what audiences connected with and looked for in horror movies during this time. THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN 1942 Despite Frankenstein leaving at the end of Son of Frankenstein the town left behind is famished at the start of The Ghost of Frankenstein, released in 1942. The townspeople staunchly believe that the monster caused a curse on the town that can only be resolved by blowing the castle up. The mayor tries to intercede on their plan but is threatened he won’t be reelected if he stands in the way of this matter. Ygor is still in the castle, and in fact not dead, sending pieces of stone from the top of the castle onto the townspeople below. The plan to blow up the castle is brought to fruition and Ygor survives the blast. From the rubble a hand is sticking out, the monster survived the pit and is now encased in material from the pit. Ygor notes that the pit damaged but preserved him and breaks him free, both escaping the castle into the graveyard nearby while the townspeople continue destroying the castle. While Ygor and the monster flee through the graveyard and woods beyond it lightning strikes his neck bolt which at first Ygor believes is bad but proves to be good. Ygor exclaims that Frankenstein might’ve been his father but lightning is his mother. The two plan to find Doctor Frankenstein, the other son of Henry Frankenstein’s father in order to help the monster. Doctor Frankenstein has a practice in Vasaria where he sees those with quote-unquote “diseased minds” and is performing a first of it’s kind brain surgery with his two assistants. One of the assistants, Bohmer, is Frankenstein’s former teacher having made a serious error resulting in being Frankenstein’s assistant instead. When Ygor and the monster arrive in Vasaria and the monster approaches children playing after a young boy kicks a young girl’s ball onto a roof. His interaction and relationship with the little girl becomes a catalyst for a lot of the events in the film. She is not a catalyst for Ludwig’s purposes however, which are to destroy the monster or turn him into a controllable experiment that can be further studied. Ultimately the competing goals for the monster’s body cause Ygor’s brain to be put into it by Bohmer, having betrayed Frankenstein in order to redeem his reputation for the successful, experimental surgery. Since the monster abducted the little girl prior to undergoing the surgical brain transplant an angry mob has now formed led by her father. Time has passed since the brain transplant but originally her father had thought she had died in the fire the monster accidentally set when abducting her. The mob makes their way to the Frankenstein castle and Ygor as the Frankenstein monster has a plan to gas the townspeople that storm the castle. Fortunately the little girl is still alive and inside the castle, Elsa bringing her down from somewhere. I might’ve missed it but there didn’t seem to be an explanation other than covering the monster’s tracks to continue to hide the girl and let her father believe she’d died in the fire. It seems that things are going downhill and that Ygor will have all the power of the monster’s body with all of the evil intentions he harbors. Suddenly Ygor starts to loose his sight and it’s revealed that the brain needed to be a direct blood type match for the operation to fully work. Bohmer is killed by falling into the machinery used to reanimate creatures. This scene is particularly top of mind in light of Taylor Swift’s Fortnight Music video full of references to this time period of film and more specifically Frankenstein films. Taylor Swift is strapped into the monster’s spot with her head covered in metal machinery, the electrified machines behind her becoming deadly to the lab workers similarly to Bohmer. Normally I chalk things like this up to coincidence and being influenced by old Hollywood like many things have been but with T-Swift the symbolism, Easter Eggs, and lore runs deep, this is no different. The time period of these Universal monster movies based on 19th century gothic fiction is peak romanticism in the best ways which is exactly the vibe of The Tortured Poet’s Department music video. In Ghost of Frankenstein the monster goes up in the flames of the laboratory, melted by the flames and buried in the falling infrastructure. The final scene is Elsa and policemen escaping into the scenery beyond the burning estate, cleansing with the destruction of fire similar to how the tale ends in the first film and many portrayals that align with that one. SON OF DRACULA 1943 another addition to the Dracula franchise is added, Son of Dracula, released in 1943. Noticeably in this film all of the workers and servants around the estates and establishments are black actors rather than white actors as they’d previously been for other films. Now set in America rather than various European locations it also centers around a plantation that is passed from a father to his daughter upon his death. Kay is a badass goth queen dripping in romanticism, Katherine Caldwell inherits her father’s plantation, Dark Oats, and is secretly dating a mysterious man Alucard. Upon Alucard’s arrival in town Kay breaks off her engagement to longtime love, Frank Stanley, and hastily marries Alucard who is actually Dracula spelt backwards. Frank believes he has killed Kay when he shoots Dracula and the bullets go directly through him but Kay is actually a vampire now. Once Frank is jailed she teleports as mist into his cell to inform him that she had a plan all along—she would become a vampire by seducing Dracula then she would turn Frank into a vampire and they will live together forever. Unfortunately for Kay and the plot this movie was made during Hay’s Code reign over Hollywood and Frank betrays Katherine, setting her coffin on fire rather than joining her in eternal life. I can’t help but wonder if this movie could’ve held up better without the restrictions. It’s clear that the intention of the creatives is to have Kay end up as a vampire with her love or at the very least them dying together in a blaze of glory. The plot points in the same direction the entire time up until the end when we must have the pious men protect Kay from herself, similarly to Lucy in Dracula, for fear of infighting such transgressions from audience members. Despite feeling this way all’s not well however with portraying Kay as a victim when she’s still villainous, especially in her scheming. First off, she tricks Dracula regardless of what Dracula’s plans might’ve been, still not off to a great moral start. She then goes on to break her fiancé’s heart in order to secure immortality and then even still she leads her fiancé to believe he killed her only to reveal herself via mist in his jail cell. During his near break with reality Kay informs Frank that she took the choice of becoming a vampire from him, already drinking his blood. I still would’ve wanted to see the more macabre ending but this has potential (and most likely removed) Hay’s Code don’t and be carefuls all throughout it. Fears about Eastern European immigrants are replaced with ideas about a quote “superior race” which comes up quite frequently. Noticeably in this film all of the workers and servants around the estates and establishments are black actors rather than white actors as they’d previously been for other films. This film is the most stark transition in my opinion from pre and post Code horror films, even affecting the niche genre of the Little Three studios. It’s obvious there’s friction between the studios and the creatives, the conflicting decisions muddying the plot and causing unnecessary distractions from the scarier aspects. FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN 1943 By 1943 with multiple monsters now introduced Universal Pictures decided to combine monsters in the same film, starting a trend that would further build and solidify these characters as core classic horror figures. About four years after The Wolf Man and The Ghost of Frankenstein grave robbers are breaking into the Talbot family crypt and discover that Larry’s tomb is full of wolfsbane. Since the introduction of the Wolf Man as a character a chant accompanies the legend which the robbers recite at the grave. After this and removing the wolfsbane Larry grabs one of their arms. After being found by the police and taken to a hospital doctors are extremely confused by Larry’s miraculous survival of blunt force trauma to the head. He has a skull fracture and doesn’t readily remember details but turns into a werewolf and kills a policeman which spurs his memory, reigniting his desire to be stopped from killing again. People don’t believe him until they travel to his grave to investigate and find it empty. Melva recommends that Larry seek the help of Dr. Frankenstein and he goes to try and find the notes in the ruin of the castle. After posing as a potential buyer Elsa Frankenstein, Ludwig’s daughter, returns to the estate to meet him and he asks her about the notes hiding place. Despite her not agreeing to help him they do agree to attend a festival together. Dr. Mannering wants Larry to commit himself to a hospital before the next full moon and has tracked him across Europe. After the monster crashes the festival and is attacked by the villagers Mannering and Elsa agree to join the cause to stop the monster. Mannering is pretending to be able to help Larry to lure him to the ruin where he and Elsa plan to drain the life out of both monsters. Mannering’s curiosity gets the best of him and he decides to fully revive the monster rather than draining his life force like he’d agreed to. It doesn’t matter who is betraying who however because the innkeeper suspects they’re all in cahoots and blows the dam that overlooks the estate, flooding the ruins. Elsa and Mannering escape but due to their fighting the Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s monster are swept away. HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN 1944 In an entirely new story line we meet Doctor Gustav Niemann who is imprisoned for trying to recreate Frankenstein’s experiments. Alongside him is a hunchback named Daniel that becomes Niemann’s assistant in exchange for the promise of the doctor quote-unquote fixing his deformity. Of course the fix is being the subject for Niemann successfully transplanting a brain from one body to another. After escaping the prison together and being believed to be dead the pair aids a stuck carriage which results in their invitation inside Lampini’s living cart. Part of Lampini’s traveling show of horrors is Dracula’s skeleton, staked inside of his coffin. When the subject comes up Lampini talks smack about Niemann and his reputation and Niemann instructs Daniel to murder him and the driver so they can assume their identities. Upon assuming the identities Niemann begins a plan to exact revenge on the men who imprisoned him. After running Lampini’s horror show in his place and surviving vocal suspicion from Inspector Anz in front of the Burgomaster. After they leave the caravan the doctor pulls the stake from Count Dracula’s heart which revives him. The special effects are practical, what appears to be various slides transitioned over one another to go from skeletal to the actor or Count. The Count and Niemann strike up a deal that Niemann will always make sure that Dracula’s coffin is safe during the daylight hours and ready for him when he returns to it. Dracula agrees to revenge kill Burgomaster Hussman for Niemann and introduces himself to them as Baron Latos while offering a ride in his carriage. Diverting from the plan Dracula becomes obsessed with Rita, the Hussman son’s wife. He decides to seduce Rita and makes her wear his ring that shows her “his world” which she describes as full of dead people. Dracula proceeds with the plan however after securing his next chosen victim and transforms into a bat and kills the Burgomaster. After Dracula abducts Rita a chase ensues after his carriage and when Niemann and Daniel realize the heat is coming from Dracula and they are virtually undetected they unload Dracula’s coffin from their carriage. Right as they ditch him Dracula’s carriage crashes and before he can get inside his coffin the sun rises, causing him to become a skeleton again. Once Dracula is dead Rita is freed from his ring’s grip and returns to a normal state reunited with her husband and safely with police. Niemann and Daniel make it to Frankenstein’s village with the intention to find the Doctor’s research notes to assist in his own experiments. They come across a group of Romanian people all traveling by caravan and some of which putting on shows and attractions near the ruins of the castle Frankenstein. The local police near the ruins don’t want anyone around the area however noting that every time someone comes around there something terrible happens to the village. They also won’t let the crew stay but despite the dispute Daniel is having his Romeo moment and falls instantly for a dancer named Ilonka. Following a dispute over her earnings a man in the caravan group starts whipping her which Daniel saves her from. Daniel goes on to introduce himself when she wakes up only for her to be uninterested when she learns of his disability. The doctor and Daniel then make it into the castle ruins and are able to find the frozen Frankenstein monster and the Wolf Man in the ice caves below. Larry survives the melting with ease, transforming back into his human form and picking right back up in his lamenting whines. Frankenstein’s monster however is in tact but won’t wake and Niemann promises to place Larry’s brain into the monster’s body in order to overcome the werewolf curse. Once the new squad finds Frankenstein’s journals they all travel to Visiria where Niemann’s own lab was. On the journey Ilonka falls in love with Larry after Niemann tasks Daniel with caring for the monster. With all of the main characters now together the real challenges the characters face come to the forefront. Somehow all of that was set up for the main plot of the movie which is the battle for the monster’s body and eventual revival of the monster. Physical, moral, and ethical implications play out throughout their time in Visiria while prepping for some sort of revival of the monster. In addition to the issues surrounding the monster Lawrence transforms into the Wolf Man, murdering locals. The Wolf Man’s story culminates with Ilonka shooting him with a silver bullet while he goes to attack her resulting in both dying. When Daniel discovers their bodies he snaps, confronting Niemann in the lab. The monster wakes up and tosses Daniel out of there with no resolution to his discontent and villagers arrive and spot Frankenstein’s monster. With the knowledge that the monster hates fire they chase him into the woods near the castle and set the marsh grass on fire. The fire chase forces Frankenstein’s monster into quick sand like mud and while still carrying Niemann he plunges into it and begins sinking. Frankenstein’s monster and Niemann sink under the surface, presumably dead. An abrupt ‘The End’ flashes onto the screen once the camera pans slightly up from the quicksand where the monster had just stood. So much happens in this movie from start to finish that is commonly used for clips of the monster and Dracula as well as the Wolf Man with Ilonka. By far this is one of the best movies in the series despite being a little disjointed in how we get to the end outcome. The immediate ending after the rising action did leave me jaw dropped and confused however. It’s easy to expect modern conclusions and forget that the viewers of the past weren’t necessarily as interested in the aspects I found most interesting now—like the ending and possible epilogue. Fortunately some resolution exists in the next film that features them tilted House of Dracula which released in 1945. HOUSE OF DRACULA 1945 One of the most well known Universal Monster films House of Dracula came out in 1945 and jumps right into the action with the Count casing a castle in Visaria. At Dr. Edelmann’s home around sunrise Dracula pleads for him to be allowed to rest in his coffin in the basement. Dracula explains that he’s come to the doctor in hopes that he can be freed of the curse that causes him to be a vampire. Edelmann doesn’t believe him however but does believe that he’s a crazy man who has tricked himself into thinking he needs blood to survive. Edelmann is someone who plans to help a multitude of Universal Monsters including Larry, arriving flustered and desperately requesting help to either end his life or the curse. Larry is particularly plagued by his curse in this film having come to the conclusion that he can’t go on with his current circumstance. Edelmann gets to work on searching for cures to the various curses that plague the monsters as well as a way to fix his assistant Nina’s hunchback. While Edelmann is researching what could be causing Dracula’s vampirism he’s seducing the other lab assistant Miss Morelle with his ring. The doctor identifies a parasite in Dracula’s blood and pressure in the Wolf Man’s skull that could be related to their respective curses. This is the first time in the films that we get indications of a scientific nature for the root of their ailments. Through the development of a wolfsbane serum in the lab the doctor thinks he can stop Larry from transitioning into a werewolf. For Dracula’s treatment he prescribes blood transfusions to try and rid of the parasite. Despite having recovered somewhat from his vampirism with the treatment his reflection disappears again as he ramps up his hypnosis of Miliza. They start to catch onto Dracula after he makes Miliza throw her cross away from her so that he has free reign over her. With his next victim lined up and ulterior motives Dracula agrees to the next blood transfusion but causes Edelmann to pass out. Once Edelmann and Nina are out Dracula reverses the blood transfusion valve so that his blood goes into the doctor’s body. Now fully back to his vampiric ways the Count turns into a bat and goes to Miliza’s room only to be chased out with a crucifix. Edelmann keeps up the chase all the way to Dracula’s crypt in the basement where he’s fleeing to as sunrise approaches. Dracula is inside the casket when Edelmann moves it into the sunlight and opens it, causing him to die once again leaving just his skeleton with his ring on his finger. Once Dracula is dead Miliza returns to normal and is now free from his spell and hypnosis. Larry having joined the fight at Nina’s begging to do so is there to comfort her as the doctor starts to transform. In a really cool dream like sequence Edelmann begins to become a vampire and sees his reflection disappear and then imagining a dark, corrupt version of himself coming to him. In his mind the two versions are the devil and angel on someone’s shoulder; an evil scientist version of himself that aims to resurrect the Frankenstein monster and fix Nina’s hunchback so he can attack her being the devil. Rather than being scared straight Edelmann decides to make his imaginings a reality, it being a better story telling technique than a villain’s master plan monologue. Edelmann considers becoming immortal and continuing the work of Frankenstein, starting to rant and rave similarly to the other scientists who succumbed to the pull of the experiments. Nina comes to the doctor’s lab and demands that Larry receive the next available treatment before the full moon. We hear from silly Larry that he now associates the moon with evil and darkness, expressing his guilt and despair. The townspeople believe that Edelmann is Talbot, a werewolf, but despite efforts they haven’t been able to apprehend him. The operation cures Larry of his werewolf curse but Edelmann is becoming the monstrous, evil version of himself as he revives Frankenstein’s monster. The doctor kills Nina only to end up being shot and killed by Larry who then sets fire to the lab, trapping the monster in the flames before the roof collapses. CONCLUSION & UP NEXT Every month of 2024 I'm posting a video, in part to grow my skills and also as a creative outlet. Currently I'm working on an iZombie video that will be posted at the end of August covering the comics and seasons 1-2 of the show which will be followed by a part 2 posted in early September covering seasons 3-5. October's video will cover 69 (as of now, this could grow or decrease as movie releases are announced or release dates are changed) different horror movies coming out this year that'll be posted on 10/6. Sources for this and more work can be found at https://www.redrosehorror.com/file-share/ Research links & sources for this article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Hollywood_cinema https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/when-was-the-golden-age-of-hollywood/ https://www.filmsite.org/30sintro.html https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/media-and-interactives/media/literary-arts/john-steinbeck--the-grapes-of-wrath/chapters/hollywood-and-radio-in-the-1930s/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Pictures https://www.universalpictures.com/about https://www.britannica.com/topic/Universal-Studios https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mummy_(2017_film)#Cancelled_franchise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_horror_films_of_the_1930s https://www.imdb.com/list/ls008183216/ https://www.cbr.com/greatest-1930s-classic-horror-films-ranked/ https://www.copyright.gov/timeline/timeline_1900-1950.html https://www.arl.org/copyright-timeline/ https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/02/copyright-and-dracula/ https://blogs.loc.gov/copyright/2020/10/copyright-horror-stories/#:~:text=Mary https://qz.com/161944/sherlock-holmes-joins-count-dracula-robin-hood-and-peter-pan-in-the-us-public-domain flashbackuniverse.blogspot.com/2015/08/is-dracula-in-public-domain.html https://copyrightalliance.org/dracula-vs-nosferatu-a-true-copyright-horror-story/ https://crimereads.com/mystery-history-dracula/ https://deakin.libguides.com/copyright-module2/what-isnt-restricted#:~:text=For https://dewittllp.com/news/2022/10/31/franken-who-copyright-and-spooky-season-s-beloved-character https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2011/10/24/how-universal-re-copyrighted-frankensteins-monster/ https://www.napier.ac.uk/about-us/news/hg-wells-books-enter-the-public-domain https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3766201/fear-the-invisible-man-and-the-importance-of-public-domain-monsters/ https://www.reddit.com/r/publicdomain/comments/13o446h/which_of_the_universal_monsters_are_in_the_public/ https://gamerant.com/public-domain-characters-deserve-video-game/ https://infojustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/7.-Griffen-Economic-Impact-of-Copyright.pdf https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/8985/20_106YaleLJ283_1996_1997_.pdf?sequence=2 https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/cjla38&div=33&id=&page= https://arxiv.org/pdf/1311.6526.pdf https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/38345686/Alexander-2010-IconicConsciousness-libre.pdf?1438352929=&response-content-disposition=inline;+filename=Iconic_Consciousness_The_Material_Feelin.pdf&Expires=1712520158&Signature=YBjx01lWhN0CAoY3omynSI13~L3ZqCRcQAImDI0P1~TAJ9JPAUvmTHV-quIiYX~wBztMwbyzEi7uMrMJuRUvsEyn82SOAurj9OwfGZv4xRayAaH2En3jqWIvIPJTlNcvFZWZIkgKS1SLzc2yIwThF5Z4ZZ5aEosLwkXBRR5AUoNc9~wHPVz799ES2eaN10qby8wxkhlnD6UOHYUwFMxHY6OAf4TKgoxV8F~lpWs-rMd6eS4yruPznggeTsjtktC92~QLPj72cdag2VeOL4fE8sDlVbUX9fUa3JYzfyt7IkTd44SuxrSC0YylGZ31t7zXph7NzaqV3oAyUSmro0RhYQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8a29d585-444c-4e97-97b6-d53fe3d3820d/content https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hays_Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dracula/summary/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.c8a9f6f9-b4df-54b3-e9c6-26b3ec98a2db?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(1931_English-language_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula's_Daughter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Dracula_(1943_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Frankenstein_(film) https://www.roku.com/whats-on/movies/house-of-frankenstein?id=2f8b17b14a045d69ad3b9d0418b6f294 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Dracula https://www.roku.com/whats-on/movies/house-of-dracula?id=44c0ea27af7c5a93b6f58fb4f7645092 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Stoker's_Dracula_(1992_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(1931_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_of_Frankenstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Frankenstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Frankenstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Frankenstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revenge_of_Frankenstein https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.e0a9f6f7-097b-99cd-3214-87a700d82a92?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.24a9f724-acac-0629-6bcf-8433ac6555aa?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb https://archive.org/details/frankenstein-meets-the-wolf-man-1943_202106 https://www.roku.com/whats-on/movies/house-of-frankenstein?id=2f8b17b14a045d69ad3b9d0418b6f294 https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.b4abd0b0-af37-3489-786d-17488aca81cf?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb

In an unexpected deviation from normalcy The Purge goes from mid-level mediocre 2010’s horror one-off to full franchise with five movies (a sixth on the way with no end in sight) and two seasons of a show I re-watch rather often. Even with that aside, The Purge is more relevant today than at the time of the 2013 release . In 2013 we lived in day-to-day ordinary with some tragic (and often preventable) events punctuating different seasons. Now, I don’t remember what it is like to be ignorant of world news, and I’m always ready to march to protect often threatened and disregarded rights (I’m obviously pro-choice and this is a pro-choice blog). Black directors are acknowledged for their brilliance publicly with sought after awards and we don’t stiffen when we see a stereo-typed black character in a movie who we know will be killed because we have moved for the most part past that. The Purge (2013) came out my junior year of high school and I couldn’t wait to use my ID that allowed me to enter those theaters. I recall being excited that a new R-rated horror movie had a release date but I also recall I had no interest in watching a black man struggle for two hours next to people in my majority white town. I felt that he’d be a great character who would sacrifice himself in order to save the middle class white family from their fucked up neighbors. I don’t believe I am the only one who watched in surprise as that didn’t happen. Now, not all black characters faced trauma and death in horror movies but so many had up until that point that it became expected, a joke even (I often make those jokes). Don’t get me wrong, the first installment in the Purge series is full of horror tropes, and poor decision making on behalf of the characters. So imagine my surprise when I not only liked the movie but appreciated and respected the political undertones, especially for that time and in this genre. Most to Least Favorite: First - Election Year (2016) Second (tie) - First Purge (2018) and Forever Purge (2021) Fourth - Anarchy (2014) Fifth - The Purge (2013) Life may or may not have gotten in the way during this week's endeavor. This post is not as fleshed out as I'd like it to be and I still need to give The Purge: Election Year (2016) the flowers it deserves before the series end. THE PURGE (2013) - FIFTH PLACE A wealthy family in 2013 living in an upper-class neighborhood are prepared for the annual purge with a normal night in. This is set up as a normal scene in this new dystopian world where every year for one night all crime is legal, including murder , and everyone goes apeshit. A homeless man running and yelling down the street wounded while being hunted is met with quiet houses as he makes his pleas for a safe place to spend the purge. This points to the class disparity of who are the victims and who are the perpetrators during each purge in a “digestible by audiences of 2013” way that later becomes a stellar, fascinating, and timely focal point of the franchise. The only character aside from the “Bloody Stranger” (as the amazing Edwin Hodge’s character is so lovingly titled) I have respect for at the beginning of this movie is the child who brings the alarm system down in order to let Hodge inside. Once Hodge is inside the family faces off tensely in the foyer which kicks off the film’s chain of events with the teen daughter’s too-old-for-her boyfriend attempting to shoot her father. Instead of hitting and killing him he himself catches a bullet and shortly after succumbs to his injury. The main events of this movie actually focus on multiple groups however not just this main family and the stranger who’s taken refuge in their home. The problem is Hodge escaped a group of murderous wealthy white supremacist evangelicals who now require they return Hodge to them or they’ll bust into the home and kill everyone. They let us know that they gotta purge and that they don’t want to kill other wealthy purge loving people but they’ll do their patriotic duty no matter what. They, for lack of a better word suck, and I always get annoyed that the main purge costumes are the masks of what is basically the more radicalized MAGA republicans side but I digress. Everything from that point on goes as one would expect, back and forth between the two sides with Hodge caught in the middle, the boy uses his gadget to create suspense and help Hodge hide, and the family has a plan to find, capture, and hand over Hodge. The whole time I kept thinking about Cersei Lannister and how she is a ‘fierce, Ford-tough, mama bear’ and I wanted that energy from the mom (we get that later on, don’t worry). They catch Hodge and proceed to duct tape him while torturing him into submission with the intention of sending him outside. After the teen daughter wakes up and calls them out everyone decides they won’t send Hodge out there (even after Hodge himself breaks down and offers to be sent out in order to save the kids) and that becoming the very people they’re defending from right now is worse than dying having done the right thing. The security system is revealed to be worthless and that the dad has been selling them like they’re the shit to unsuspecting customers…his neighbors included. The mask-wearing republicans and the family go back and forth with the bad guys and the dad bleeds out. Their neighbors save them but surprise, motherfucka! the neighbors don’t like their asses and want revenge on the family for becoming wealthy by selling them security systems and then “flaunting their wealth” by improving their home with said money. It’s some weird wealthy people hating on rich people and being jealous bullshit. As if all of the houses on the street aren’t mansions at the very least suggesting they probably weren’t financially ruined by the security scam and have money to sue. They’re the same kind of people that whine about the country uniting now despite being evil and violent as fuck to “the other side” for the past century. The family grows on me after they overcome the urge to send a man to a violent execution for no reason and at the end the family minus James, most of the neighbors, and Hodge survive the purge and go about their business. We are left with news reports of the purge being more successful than ever and a resulting stock market boom which has me just nodding and agreeing that that would be what it is like post purge, as if it’s business as usual because for them it is. THE PURGE: ANARCHY (2014) - FOURTH PLACE The year is 2023 and Donald Talbot is the new founding father of America. We are taken out of the neighborhood and into the city for this installment. A waitress who has to field sexual advances far too often for comfort, a pregnant couple who is clearly on the rocks prepping for the purge, a radical group (co-led by Hodge from the first movie who we learn is named Dante Bishop) who have recognized that the purge is used to kill people in poverty while planning to protect their communities and others who the wealthy consider “undesirable” by their measure being watched by the waitress’ daughter and father, and a mercenary prepping for the night. This year is the year that the radical group has been calling on people to stock weapons in order to fight back and against the facist group in charge. My heart actually broke when I saw the grandfather getting into a fancy car service vehicle and I recalled that he sold himself to be killed in the purge in order to make money his family needs. The fighting couple’s car breaks down and they swerve off the road right as the purge is about to begin meaning no one will come get them and no one will stop for them, they’re stuck outside downtown. They for some idiotic reason felt the need to wait to shop until mere hours before the purge and do said shopping in a known purge-heavy area. I don’t feel bad for them. This scene is the main promo footage used to get people psyched about the next installment in the franchise. This film shows us more of the universe and the possibilities when it comes to the purge. Flame throwers, converted buses for drive bys, and even a machine gun in the back of a semi-truck. It’s easy to tell that the creative minds behind this film had a plethora of ideas about what the purge could look like for different people, both those purging and those defending themselves, and wanted to bring as many as possible to life. The daughter learns that her grandfather has left and left a note explaining that he’s sold his life to a wealthy family in order for them to purge. The waitress, Eva, explains to her daughter, Cali, that the wealthy people purge by buying sick and desperate people in order to remain safe, which Cali then realizes confirms the radical groups teachings and callings. Just as this horrifyingly sad moment is reaching a fever pitch, they hear banging and an angry man from earlier who denied his advances has chosen to get what he believes is deserved revenge. He gives a very red pill reminiscent speech that it is his right, ordained by the new fathers, to purge and he deserves to get his justice because he isn’t entitled to her attention and respect due to being a man that wants her. This feels even more relevant today with the increasing violence and hatred against womxn as well as rights being denied or stripped away around the world. He is luckily killed but not so luckily a hired militia of assholes has broken into their building and plan to take residents to purge. We are now exposed to what living near the poverty line looks like in this dystopia that parallels our own; imminent danger at any moment for no reasons other than cruelty and hatred. A few hours pre-purge everyone had relative politeness with one another but once the purge has begun we are watching a war zone and what can only be described as crimes of war, just without the sanctioned war. Our mercenary on his revenge tour comes across the mother and daughter pair and involves himself after hearing their pleas for help. The stupid couple is also nearby and manages to involve themselves with our crew, making our main group for the movie finally come together. They judge him for being out with the intention to purge despite him saving them all without asking for anything in return. Of course, because this is a movie and the show must go on, now his tricked out car breaks down after sustaining minor damage. Again I ask why no one thought to ensure their cars they intended to drive along the purge streets were better equipped to handle purge like behavior. He has business to attend to and they are whiners who want him to keep protecting them even after he gives them guns. They convince him by exchanging his protection for a vehicle to get to his destination if they can get him to Eva’s friend’s place. Much of the mid-section in the film shows various purge activities and motivations while our five-some makes it through the city, for example a greedy banker’s body strung up by chains outside of a bank with a sign indicating the purpose of the display. One thing is apparent, even the middle and lower class purge participants are disgruntled with the system and their lives, no one but maybe the top 10% seem to win. No surprise, the government, specifically the new founding fathers, is involved and at the very least hiring militia to target groups on purge night in order to control the population both in size and behavior. It’s clear that the team behind The Purge franchise are getting their stride and discovering what the secret sauce of the collective installments can and will be, the focus on the parallel politics and current events to our own. Though Cali is supposed to represent a younger, slightly naive 17 year old in this universe and she talks the most sense, is the most morally clear, and has conviction. It reminds me of how I view Gen-Z (despite sometimes being included in Gen-Z’s age breakdown at times I still consider myself in between Millennials and Gen-Z) that they’re not naive but actually have this shit figured out far better than their elders who created the mess in the first place. The fact that this film takes place in 2023 is poignant and ahead of the opinions in 2014 as far as predicting the future state of the world and what younger citizens of it would be like. One question: what’s with flame throwers and flames in general in this installment? Also, despite having never shot a gun let alone a machine gun before, the woman from the idiot couple can effectively fire, aim, and kill a group of attackers? Sure The Purge: Anarchy sure. Downtown is simultaneously quiet and deadly with the government sponsored militia using traffic cams to target our group of survivors. We get to the place and finally our group has refuge from the Purge happening outside. Unfortunately some of the guests at the safe guarded apartment aren’t as anti-Purge as one would hope, including an unhinged woman who machine gunned the air down just hours earlier. Idiot couple redeems themselves by catching her lie about having not purged earlier. The festivities of the night typically include dinner and drinks and hunkering down with one’s family but there’s some shit going down in this house at this celebration. The lying purge participant shoots up the party, killing her sister due to her sister and husband having an affair. Another great example of a likely purge scenario of a family party turning to family revenge. This puts our group back onto the Purge streets with no plan, no vehicle, and more injuries sustained due to the shoot out in the apartment. They’re then taken by the group from the start of the film that messed with the couple’s car. Surprise again, they don’t intend to kill them but rather sell them and the leader is the well renowned actor LaKeith Lee Stanfield which is a fun cameo. They’re taken onto the stage at a gala type event offering wealthy participants the opportunity to bid on their captives to purge. One head is $200k which is rather insulting that the value of a human life is that low and we get a fun little look into what the uber rich do on the Purge night, even what modern military grade weapons that the guests can choose from to use on the hunting grounds. The event attendees like to watch more than participate which is somehow even more frustrating. Again, I am not surprised, just disappointed that it makes so much sense. More fighting, more darkness, more night vision, more action sequences, and more guns. Led to believe that it’s it for the group of survivors for another go around, desperately wanting the purge night to end at this point for their and my sake as a viewer. Now, the most interesting thing that happens during the film takes place at the very end, our boy Bishop is back baby and he and his squad have crashed the party to take out the evil rich overlords. It’s giving Black Panthers berets and all and a Malcom X figure in the form of Carmello. I love that they’re essentially eating the rich but without cannibalism. Just standing up for what’s right and helping stop the purge by any means necessary. Unfortunately the most interesting thing ends less than 10 minutes after it starts with the survivors getting out of there and the resistance group moving forward on the group of rich purgers. We are stuck following the group when where I want to be is with Bishop. They steal the announcer lady’s car in order to get to his purge destination and the rest is mostly irrelevant, he decides not to get revenge for his son, is shot, one of the militia dudes gives a monologue only to be shot and killed by the man who he spared, and then the purge ends as they head to the hospital to save Leo. A boring group (minus Cali) with sad purge stories. One of my main critiques of this movie is that a lot of nothing happens for a really long time. There’s not just clips of them running, there’s minutes. They aren’t just hiding in the dark for a moment, but for such a long time the fear dissipates rather than builds. I found myself half interested a lot of the time due to the characters not being wholly compelling as a group. Do I root for them? Of course, but do I also not understand why we needed so much filler? Also yes. I could’ve gone without a good 30 minutes of the movie in the middle. Everytime I paused to do something else, how much time I had left shocked me. Why is there so much more of the film?! All that needs to be said has been said as far as this group and the 2023 Purge goes. It’s a regular purge night which is fine, I mean the two whole seasons of the show do a great job of making one purge night that isn’t different in any significant way from the others interesting by making the story and characters interesting, this installment falls short of that endeavor. What I wanted more of is the resistance movement to the purge which the movie flirts with but cannot commit to. THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR (2016) - FIRST PLACE The reaction to this movie should have been a sign about the future of our own version of America. Not only did people become more excited than ever but they weren’t excited about what the intended message is, they were excited because they themselves wanted to purge. This go around I found myself in a theater surrounded by frat boy types and pick-me women who just wanted an excuse to cosplay Call of Duty. I ended up loving that this is finally the installment I wanted, the installment I didn’t know I needed and the official full-fledged turn of the tide for the franchise. This particular installment deserves a much deeper dive so stayed tuned. If you're going to watch one though it should be this one. THE FIRST PURGE (2018) - TIE FOR SECOND PLACE The First Purge (2018) is by far my favorite of the Purge movies. I loved that this installment didn’t beat around the bush. It straight out said the New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) are racist, classist, extremists who used a sociologist's best (but sorely misguided) intentions in order to enact cruelty and hatred. I remember thinking, “Wow, murder is what most people choose to do when all crime is legal?” when watching the other movies but this one answered my question fully. It not only answered questions I had been aware of but it also answered ones I hadn’t even thought of yet, like how something like the Purge being an enacted holiday could happen in the first place. This film opens in 2014 to a dystopian parallel universe to our own, similar problems like inflation and housing crisis plague society but the NFFA has a plan to change all of that and take the credit and power that comes along with doing such. The actual first purge takes place in 2016 (the irony is not lost on me, as this mirrors our own downfall that began in 2016). The NFFA and Dr. May Updale (the sociologist from earlier) chose Staten Island as the test zone, offering $5,000 for residents to remain in Staten Island during the experiment with more money for those that purge. Not only this but we get some non-existent tech, contact lenses that will record how the purge experiment is going. This also allows the NFFA to ensure that no one leaves the island. We meet Dmitri who is a drug dealer looking to survive the purge undetected (smart man). Despite his commands to not participate some of his crew decide to purge regardless. We also meet Dmitri’s ex-girlfriend, Nya, and her younger brother, Isaiah. Nya is an anti-purge activist so I’m obviously team Nya. They hunker down for the purge but of course Skeletor (a crazed resident from earlier in the movie that the NFFA is counting on to stir shit up) purges, the video going viral. Unfortunately for the NFFA most people would only commit petty crimes when given the chance to commit any crime, mostly partying and looting. During the purge we also find that some of Dmitri’s friends want to take advantage and kill him in order to take his spot. We get into some turf beef resulting in Dmitri with the win, sparing the two women who plotted against them and warning them to not come back to Staten Island. A bunch of white supremacists are leaving the church they previously took shelter in so that’s no longer a go. Just like that we’re back in the NFFA headquarters and the doc is trying to figure out why there’s a sudden spike in murders. Well, to no surprise of any American citizen even from our parallel universe the NFFA hired mercenaries to go in and murder residents in order to make the experiment a success. This alone points to the science behind the purge being completely defunct and inaccurate. That means that they tricked the American people into voting for the Purge which actually doesn’t benefit them at all and only benefits the government by allowing them to legally kill those who they see as a strain on the system in order to continue to hoard wealth…you know, rather than actually invest in those communities of people with taxes collected by corporations and the top 5% paying their fair share. Less people below the poverty line equals less noticeable wealth disparity while they widen that disparity. It’s basically republicans (let’s be real, the NFFA is right-wing evangelical christians) deciding to get rid of the need for social programs and the spending that they require by killing those who would benefit from said social programs. I would not be shocked if they did try something like this in the next few years. Because Updale isn’t a piece of shit she obviously doesn’t agree with this and because they know that they have her taken to be executed, thus removing her as a barrier to their success. They also go one step further and erase the footage. Dmitri is a badass and the mercenaries are no match, he defeats them, protecting his group. We also learn that weapons have been dumped into the community in hopes that that would also increase the violence. They say fuck that mess and decide to stand up for the community. Unfortunately, like many other resistance groups in our country’s history the NFFA used drone tech to take them out. Dmitri is still able to save Nya despite his group being mostly taken out. Dmitri should have his own series at this point because he then blows up the second round of mercenaries in Nya’s apartment building as he tries to get them to safety. We end here, with Dmitri noting that they must stand up against the Purge. This moment of triumph is short lived with the NFFA releasing a statement that not only is the purge a success (all lies) but also that they could start the real one as soon as the following year. This installment is self explanatory, ends in somewhat of a way I’d like to see (a resistance is formed and a hero is made), and all-in-all it delivers all that I look for in a Purge movie with some interesting first purge experiment specifics. THE FOREVER PURGE (2021) - TIE FOR SECOND PLACE You thought the Purge ended during the Election Year movie? Guess again! We are back baby and this time it’s the Forever Purge . Since this installment is fairly new I won’t be going into too much detail but rather just my overall thoughts and opinions and a recommendation to watch it yourself. As this universe continues to run parallel to our own we have a resurgence of racism and nativism in the wake of the Purge ending in the previous installment. We time jump to 2048 and the NFFA have managed to take control again, reinstating the annual purge. There’s well placed fear that this purge could get out of hand as the tension in the country has risen to a fever pitch. We are exposed to nationalist groups (the Purge Purification Force or PFF) and people who believe that the purge should happen all the time when it comes to non-white, non-male, non-wealthy individuals. In previous installments a sense of order existed in that once the purge alarm rang signaling the end of the purge everyone dropped their weapons and returned to whatever their new life looked like. Unfortunately for our main characters (who are likable characters for the most part) groups like the PFF have decided to ignore those laws and continue the purge. This requires our group of characters to attempt to cross the Mexico-America border safely into Mexico for asylum from the Forever Purgers. Of course, like most politicians, when the consequences of their actions came knocking on their own doors they condemned the actions of their followers and instituted Martial Law. A Native American tribe who has a nearby safe house offers refuge to our group, which is also believable and feels accurate. Long story short, with the help of those along the way they make it across the border to see that the whole US is in turmoil and that the NFFA is being rightfully blamed for that. Some stayed to fight back and some crossed the border. THE PURGE SERIES (2018 - 2020) - NOT RANKED The Purge series is one I highly recommend checking out. I’ve re-watched it a handful of times and still find it entertaining. There’s not much to explore and I didn’t have enough time to rewatch both seasons for this post but I remember enough for a synopsis-ish take. Following the reboot success of the franchise post Purge: Election Year this series was released. Each series follows a different annual purge and a group as they navigate through the events of the holiday. Some are in purge-safe high rise office buildings while others are abducting those who they believe they have been wronged by. The whole series is interesting from episode to episode and points out very interesting aspects of the science behind the purge in the second series and the effects of such a holiday on the minds of the citizens (no spoilers for that but go watch). POST MARATHON THOUGHTS & KEY TAKEAWAYS I genuinely like the Purge and what it stands for, as well as the parallel universe to our own. This post will most likely be the most in-depth (sorry about the delay) and will keep building as I look more into our own politics, history, and the series itself...stay tuned. Sources Franchise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purge_(2013_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purge:_Anarchy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purge:_Election_Year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Purge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_Purge https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339/ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_purge https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_purge_anarchy_2014 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_purge_election_year https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_forever_purge https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_first_purge https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_purge https://screenrant.com/purge-movie-timeline-explained/ https://www.vox.com/2016/7/1/12054200/purge-movie-explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0LLaybEuzA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzFCDqKE4yA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL29y0ah92w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrXpK-rUaI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXMp9fBomJw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7-scMcje7c Franchise news and background https://deadline.com/2016/09/the-purge-election-year-biggest-in-horror-franchise-1201825357/ https://collider.com/the-purge-3-trailer-election-year-frank-grillo/ https://www.indiewire.com/2016/07/the-purge-election-year-review-roundup-james-demonaco-thriller-1201702032/ https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a828483/the-purge-tv-series-isnt-actually-about-the-purge/ https://www.vulture.com/2018/07/lets-recap-the-twisted-mythology-of-the-purge.html https://www.rappler.com/entertainment/movies/139267-the-purge-election-year-movie-review/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/10/04/the-purge-trilogy-was-the-political-satire-of-our-time-for-our-time/?sh=546b115959a9 https://www.vox.com/2016/7/1/12059622/purge-election-year-guns-nra https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/07/the-purge-election-year-review https://www.avclub.com/the-purge-gets-overtly-political-in-election-year-1798188270 https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2016/08/purge-election-year-movie-review-soylent-green-donald-trump.html https://movieweb.com/the-purge-political-commentary/ https://movieweb.com/the-forever-purge-most-realistic/ https://www.colorlines.com/articles/government-tries-exterminate-people-color-first-purge https://www.avclub.com/just-in-time-for-independence-day-the-first-purge-pull-1827327451 https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/07/06/the-first-purge-how-we-got-here https://www.vulture.com/2018/07/the-first-purge-star-ylan-noel-on-beating-up-nazis.html https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/the-first-purge-review https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/movies/the-first-purge-teaser-trailer.html https://www.vulture.com/2017/09/james-demonaco-gives-new-details-about-the-purge-the-island.html https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/07/the-first-purge-review-james-demonaco https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonthompson/2018/07/12/the-first-purge-will-bring-anarchy-to-halloween-horror-nights/?sh=3dc0221e6073 https://www.c-ville.com/first-purge-offers-catharsis-crisis/ https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/2018/07/01/first-purge-patch-darragh-detroit-actor/745624002/ https://www.indiewire.com/2018/07/purge-tv-show-why-film-franchise-goes-tv-1201986631/ https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/07/the-first-purge-movie-review-prequel-donald-trump https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/07/sociologist-the-purge-real-life-possibility-interview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2016_United_States_presidential_election https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/07/us-election-2016-complete-timeline-clinton-trump-president https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/08/presidential-election-updates-trump-clinton-news https://ballotpedia.org/Important_dates_in_the_2016_presidential_race https://www.ign.com/articles/the-purge-movies-universe-explained-forever-2021 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/magazine/the-purge-movies.html https://www.thethings.com/surprising-facts-behind-the-creation-of-the-purge-franchise/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkjwbIRPOxI https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/04/how-the-purge-trolls-trumps-america-jason-blum-first-purge https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2018/07/02/first-purge-trolls-its-biggest-inspiration-trump-administration/749102002/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B4_K1EL6Hs SAFE-T Act, History (oppressive systems), and real world https://travelnoire.com/illinois-becomes-the-first-state-to-pass-the-purge-law https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/could-illinois-safe-t-act-make-it-harder-for-prosecutors-to-detain-accused-violent-criminals-legal-experts-weigh-in/2948513/ https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/09/14/no-there-is-no-purge-law-in-illinois-here-are-the-facts-about-ending-cash-bail/ https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/state-senator-not-surprised-about-lawsuits-against-safe-t-act/article_02ef4be4-3c08-11ed-b228-5ba85bbf3ff3.html https://icjia.illinois.gov/researchhub/articles/the-2021-safe-t-act-icjia-roles-and-responsibilities https://classism.org/about-class/what-is-classism/ https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/social-identities-and-systems-oppression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppression https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/oppression https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/3/17531300/first-purge-film-franchise-anarchy-election-night-lets-do-crimes https://www.distractify.com/p/illinois-purge-law https://abovethelaw.com/2022/09/dont-trust-the-purge-law-hype-getting-rid-of-cash-bond-is-not-the-end-of-the-world/ https://www.npr.org/2016/11/08/500686320/did-social-media-ruin-election-2016 Crimes inspired by the franchise - crime inspirations for the films https://radaronline.com/exclusives/2018/10/the-first-purge-party-la-shooting/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/4463774/chilling-real-life-events-the-purge/ https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0602/Murders-inspired-by-The-Purge-Mass-shooting-stirs-public-concern https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2016/06/01/indianapolis-teen-facing-multiple-counts-murder/85257872/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/indiana-man-accused-3-deaths-898941/ https://abc7chicago.com/joseph-jimenez-movie-theater-shooting-arrest-purge-regal-edwards-corona-crossing/10913102/ https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/weird-film-and-tv-the-purge-is-based-on-historical-events-that-are-pretty-horrific-20170913

Let me preface this by saying after watching the whole series of movies in the Hellraiser franchise it is one of my least favorite franchises (as a collection of movies). My opinions are going to be biased towards that direction as I reflect back on my watches of each film. After watching this franchise I’m switching things up and rather than doing a full synopsis like review I’m just going to give necessary story elements and my opinions on each film. INTRODUCTION From a 1986 novella by Clive Barker, The Hellbound Heart , a franchise is born. With a total of eleven movies starting with the first, Hellraiser released in 1987 the franchise is considered a horror cornerstone. The main villain, Pinhead, who is an interdimensional being called a Cenobite, is summoned when someone solves a puzzle box from the 1800’s. He has various crews of other Cenobites throughout different films. Once summoned they require a payment of sorts from the puzzle solver, they want to show them sights and opting out gets you hunted down and the punishment increased. Prior to this marathon I had never seen a Hellraiser movie. I knew the basics that it had to do with some house, a box, and a guy named Pinhead with nails in his skull. Other than that I went in blind from a 2022 perspective and in light of the subject matter I found a lot of it problematic. Not enough to seriously point out due to the knowledge that it came out in a far different time with less knowledge about issues surrounding sexuality and the stigmas associated with the kink community. Sexuality is directly linked to hedonism and depravity throughout the films (some of it in the franchise is in fact but other times it’s consensual, passionate love-making rather than depraved and both receive the same assessment from the Cenobites). Though one could argue it’s a net positive because the BDSM community got exposure at all but at what cost would be my next question. Regardless I believe a more nuanced and detailed conversation should be had around that but I am definitely not qualified. The other theme that is in at least half of the movies is the connection between wars and the effects that they had on the veterans that came home. Before he became Pinhead, a man named Elliot Spencer lost his humanity after seeing the atrocities of World War I while he served in the British Army. He gets his hands on the puzzle box and after solving the puzzle he’s taken into the other dimension and made into a Cenobite named Pinhead. The dimension the Cenobites live is called Lament Configuration and they want to take human souls to experiment on in their dimension. Seems simple enough but they are foiled in at least one way every film by the characters who summoned them. The franchise lacks continuity and consistency in regard to the Cenobites, what their motivations are, their costumes, Pinhead’s appearance, and even the lore. While watching I felt it to be messy and disorganized, frustratingly so at times. I now know that Clive Barker, who wrote and directed the first film, signed the rights away prior to its release. So, I imagine, in some part, we can thank movie execs for the atrocities that are the later Hellraiser movies. Most to Least Favorite: First - Hellraiser (1987) Second - Hellraiser (2022) Third - Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) Fourth - Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) Fifth - Hellraiser: Bloodline IV (1996) Sixth - Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) Seventh - Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002) Eighth - Hellraiser: Deader (2005) Ninth - Hellraiser: Inferno (2000) Tenth - Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) Eleventh - Hellraiser: Judgment (2018) HELLRAISER (1987) - 7.2/10 IN FIRST PLACE First and foremost this movie is a good horror movie. I enjoyed it despite some gross (but creative) special effects of the 1980’s. A depraved man named Frank Cotton (played by Sean Chapman) solves the puzzle box and summons the Cenobites, after being tortured for some time he manages to escape-ish and is hiding from them in his house as some sort of organ-mass thing under the attic floor. Frank’s brother Larry (played by Andrew Robinson), his wife Julia (played by Claire Higgins), and his daughter Kirsty (played by Ashley Laurence) move into the house in Frank’s absence. A series of events leads to Frank coming back to life as a goo blob of human mush that must consume humans (or rats on occasion) in order to regain his physical form. In order to lure the people to the attic where he is hiding he employs the help of Julia, who he had been having a passionate affair with, who lures men to the attic with the promise of sex. Kirsty finds out about their dealings and takes the cube, later opening it and summoning the Cenobites. Terrified, she strikes a deal to exchange Frank for her freedom. They take the deal and warn that they’ll tear her soul apart if she misleads them or is pulling an escape plan of her own. Frank and Julia have sacrificed Larry at this point and Frank is wearing his skin and appearing as him. It is a great performance from Robinson with Frank and Larry being polar opposites but playing both characters very well. Frank sacrifices and consumes Julia, leaving her a shriveled shell of a person and is then chained to her bed (this detail comes into play in Hellbound: Hellraiser II ). The Cenobites renege on their deal with Kirsty despite her delivering Frank and she is able to use the cube to send them back to their dimension. This movie, in my opinion, is by far one of the best in the franchise by a long shot and it is unfortunate each installment after this gets further and further from this original lore and overall messaging it’s hard to keep up. I appreciated that mentions of religion rarely came up and that the backstory is more creative by it being interdimensional monster-angel-demon things that want to torture for the sake of pleasure and satiating a hunger rather than punishment for sin (though there are hints of that it’s not on the nose). I figured it would be only up from here, definitely not right. Since its release Hellraiser has been both applauded and disliked in fairly equal measure. It’s not hard to pick out what would make this movie divisive especially in the 1980’s when it hit theaters. Sadomasochism isn’t necessarily a common topic in all social circles, I imagine even less so in the 80’s. The film originally titled Sadomasochists from Beyond the Grave changed to Hellraiser at the suggestion of Christopher Figg, a producer. Multiple scenes had to be cut due to the rating being higher than R rated on the first review. One scene included a “more explicit and less violent” sex scene for the affair flashback but violence substituted the sexual nature due to violence being more acceptable than sex in our cultures (Barker, Samhain ). As a first time filmmaker Barker himself stated he wasn’t experienced and lacked some background knowledge. Originally the film took place in Britain but after some convincing from the production company, New World Pictures, Hellraiser relocated to the US, some accents being dubbed in the final product. As mentioned above Clive Barker sold the rights before the first film came out due to not believing it would be a big box office and critical success. Many consider Pinhead and Hellraiser to be iconic in the horror world and often associated with the other big players like Chucky and Pennywise. HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II (1988) - 5/10 IN FOURTH PLACE Originally I regarded Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) as a shitty sequel. I felt that it had a good premise but became messy and confused towards the ending. Post-watch of all the movies however this is my third favorite. It’s not horrible and it’s not amazing either. Directed by Tony Randel, the second installment released just a year after the first movie because of its success. Clive Barker did write the story for Hellraiser II but served as an Executive Producer rather than Director. Hellraiser II picks up where Hellraiser (1987) left off with Kirsty in a psych ward due to the events of the first film and her doctor, Dr. Phillip Channard (played by Kenneth Cranham), is an obsessed collector of all things Cenobites and their world. He tortures and sacrafices a patient and brings Julia back, who’d been stuck in Hell with the Cenobites. Which made me wonder if this other dimension is just referred to as Hell, is Hell another dimension or is that a metaphor? Charnard and Julia make a patient with an aptitude for puzzles named Tiffany (played by Imogen Boorman) unlock the puzzle box, the Lament Configuration, so that they can go to the Cenobites’ world which is Pan’s Labyrinth like but all stone. We’re introduced to the entity known as Leviathan, a huge diamond that rotates in space above the Cenobites’ home and is considered a god of some sort. Charnard is sacrificed by Julia to Leviathan so that she can become a Cenobite that brings souls to Leviathan. This is when we start to dabble in the Christian motifs and symbols that appear more and more often as the series goes on. Kirsty and Tiffany find one another and are attacked by Charnard who is now a Cenobite himself. While fleeing they encounter Pinhead and his crew of Cenobites and Kirsty, the badass she is, shows Pinhead a photo of himself as a human, Elliot Spencer. This causes him to revert back to his human form having reconnected with his humanity but at the cost of being killed by Charnard, RIP Pinhead. Kirsty uses Julia’s skin to trick Chanard and enough time to solve the puzzle box. Chanard is killed and the door to hell is sealed. At Chanard’s home a moving man is consumed by the mattress from earlier and the other moving person witnesses a pillar rise from the mattress with the vagrant’s face fused to it and he takes the movie out with, “What’s your pleasure, sir?” to the man witnessing this development. Like I said before, I don’t dislike this Hellraiser film as much as I did on first watch. I like that it expands on the lore and gave me what I wanted, more information on the Cenobites. It relies heavily on Hellraiser and initially I thought that to be bad but in hindsight I respect and admire that, I believe it made it a better sequel. It was released to mixed reviews with some critics noting that it’s not a well woven story. HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH (1992) - 5.4/10 IN THIRD PLACE In 1992 the third installment, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth released to better reception than the previous film. Anthony Hickox directed and Clive Barker returned as Executive Producer, though it’s noted his involvement was limited to post-production. Even Kirsty is back with Ashley Laurence reprising her role in a cameo via VHS interview tape. Hellraiser 3 is for the most part still respecting the source material and lore in regard to background, motivations of the Cenobites, and Pinhead’s costume and makeup. Joey (played by Terry Ferrell) is an aspiring news reporter who befriends Terri (played by Paula Marshall), a club kid, while investigating the puzzle box and the danger it poses to those who solve it. Terri’s ex-boyfriend, JP Monroe (played by Kevin Bernhardt), purchased the pillar from the second movie as an art piece and she subsequently ripped the cube from the pillar. After Pinhead eats a woman he hooked up with, he's all in to feed Pinhead in order to get power and delight. Back in the parallel storyline Joey has nightmares of her father in the Vietnam war where she encounters Elliot Spencer aka pre-Cenobite Pinhead who is a British Army World War I veteran. He informs Joey that he lost faith in humanity during the war which led him to seek out the box. After the events of Hellraiser 2 Pinhead split into two entities, Spencer Elliot stuck in limbo and Pinhead who is wholly evil and does not care about Cenobite laws that would stop him from tormenting Earth. Joey needs to help join the two entities and then send him back to Hell using the box. Due to some fuck shit Terri returns to JP’s place seeking shelter and comfort but instead finds herself almost being fed to Pinhead. She fights back and wins however so she feeds JP to Pinhead instead, which is a rather drawn out almost comical scene of her struggling to move his body. Pinhead kills everyone in the club and turns some into Cenobites. The news of the massacre gets to Joey who heads out there. Joey faces off with the new Cenobites, which includes an unfortunate development that Terri is now a Cenobite. Joey solves the puzzle box and sends them back to Hell and then is tricked in limbo into giving it back to Pinhead. She wins in the end and throws the puzzle box into concrete at the construction site where their standoff took place. We get flashed forward to see that the building that now sits atop the construction site has an interior identical to the box. In my opinion this is the last decent Hellraiser movie. From here on out it just goes downhill. Hellraiser 3 isn’t awful especially when you take into account it’s the third installment in a franchise. The theme of the trauma associated with war is extremely evident in this film and ties a lot of that background together, cementing it as lore rather than a one or two time occurrence in the franchise. Director Anthony Hickox has said that Miramax, specifically Bob Weinstein, liked the raw cut and gave him money in order to add effects which turned out to be an early use of CGI to add gory scenes in a horror movie. Clive Barker however states that he didn’t want to be associated due to the ending and low-budget effects and that Bob Weinstein asked him to give him the tea and he did, resulting in Weinstein urging for more gore scenes. Barker takes credit for the scenes with CGI that improved the movie and has a producer credit on the project. HELLRAISER IV: BLOODLINE (1996) - 4.5/10 IN FIFTH PLACE Off rip let me be clear that I respect where they tried to do with this installment but they lost me at one point and I don’t think I ever came back. The fourth installment in the Hellraiser franchise and next up is Hellraiser IV: Bloodline released in theaters in 1996, the last Hellraiser to have a theatrical release. Directed by Kevin Yagher and Joe Chapelle this is also the last installment that Clive Barker had official involvement with. It’s also noted as the final installment in the original series, putting a period at the end of an era. As I know from the future nothing is last about it and seven more films follow it (poorly). Hellraiser 4 serves as a prequel and sequel which is as infuriating as it sounds. We start in space and not only is the setting space it is also 2127, so there’s been a major time jump. An engineer, Dr. Paul Merchant (played by Bruce Ramsay) is shut in a room on a space station making a robot solve the Lament Configuration just as guards break into the room and apprehend him. Merchant’s interview sparks the prequel portion of the movie as he tells the tale of his ancestry and how he finds himself where he is today. The setting is now Paris in 1796 and Merchant’s ancestor is a French toymaker (who speaks English with a British accent for some reason) named Phillip LeMarchand (also played by Bruce Ramsay) who has been commissioned to make a puzzle box. The second he delivers said box to his customer he sacrifices a peasant girl with his assistant. They use her flayed skin to summon Angelique (played by Valentina Vargas), a demon who prefers seduction to Pinhead’s methods, with the puzzle box. LeMarchand makes plans to create a second box that could take out the first box. The assistant, Jacques (played by Adam Scott) kills the rich guy and then has control over Angelique. They kill LeMarchand and make sure he knows his bloodline is cursed for helping with the portal to hell thing. The movie takes place in the future, the past, and the present. That’s right, three timelines. In 1996 a descendant of LeMarchand, John Merchant, is an architect who has built a skyscraper inspired by the Lament Configuration. Angelique is not pleased by this and kills Jacques then goes to the US to confront John. Angelique solves the building's Lament Configuration, opening the portal. Pinhead and Angelique join forces to stop John from destroying the box. Angelique tries to pull a fast one and destroy Hell herself but the prototype is a dud and even though Pinhead kills John, his wife is able to send Angelique and Pinhead to Hell. In the future Dr. Merchant had a plan of his own and while Pinhead and the Cenobites kill the crew he escapes and reveals the whole ship is an Elysium Configuration and that upon activating it it will kill them and seal the portal to Hell forever. Pinhead is permanently killed and the gateway is closed, so I suppose we know how the whole thing ends long into the future. The pre and post production of this movie sounds like a nightmare which tracks with this movie being semi good and also horribly bad in other ways. It felt like three different Hellraiser short stories put together in a tales of Christmas that doesn’t work. Yahger came on after other directors left the project and after what has been called “the shoot from hell” he did not want to play along with Miramax’s demands for rewrites. Miramax demanded more Pinhead earlier in the movie and a happier ending thus resulting in the space Merchant to narrate the stories of his ancestors. Scenes were removed, dynamics between Angelique and the other characters changed, and entirely new scenes filmed. The project looks and feels different from what I imagine the original Hellraiser 4 had planned. Yahger had his name removed by request after the final cut didn’t resemble the original. The stories of the 1796 timeline and the 1996 one are good on their own but as a whole the three don’t work together. HELLRAISER: INFERNO (2000) - 2/10 IN NINTH PLACE The first direct-to-video Hellraiser released in 2000 and is titled, Hellraiser: Inferno. Directed by Scott Dickinson this installation revolves around a depraved detective that comes into contact with the puzzle box at a crime scene. This is already a deviation from the original lore in that the characters stumble upon the box as if it sought them out rather than them seeking it out wanting to experience what it had to offer. Clive Barker revealed Dimension Films planned on making a fifth installment in 1996 and the endings left room for sequels. Due to creative differences Clive Barker got dropped from the project in 1999 as Executive Producer. Originally this film had not been intended to be a Hellraiser installment but it was rewritten to add elements that connected it to the series. The claims surrounding the origin are disputed so the truth is probably a little of both. Either way, the film has not been a creative success with a whopping 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. This movie infuriated me. I hated the main character and even the sight of him on screen made me uncomfortable. I felt so far removed from it being Hellraiser throughout the film and found myself confused why it kept going on. It follows Joseph Thorne (played Craig Sheffer) is a piece of shit Denver police office who is not only a corrupt drug thief but also a philandering sex maniac. He’s obsessed with puzzles and after discovering the Leviathan Configuration at a crime scene he brings it home and solves it. The puzzle box causes him to have hallucinations and despite these he continues his work investigating a serial killer called “The Engineer” who leaves fingers of a child they kidnapped at every crime scene. His family and friends start being the targets and victims of The Engineer. He goes to therapy for his hallucinations only to find that Pinhead is his psychiatrist. The whole movie post-puzzle has been psychological torture for Thorne from the Cenobites. The serial killer is a manifestation of Thorne’s worst parts and the child his remaining innocent parts. He’s been killing his inner child through his fucked up way which is the lesson of the film. Thorne is going to be tortured forever for his sins. For so many reasons I hated this movie. I can’t stand when movies take the easy way out and just say that the whole movie was in a character’s head and didn’t happen rather than find ways to end the more interesting plot lines that aren’t as easily guessed by viewers. The actor had the cheesiest lines, I felt that it read like a wannabe noir detective film rather than a Hellraiser sequel. The lore has been changed along with Pinhead’s appearance, the later in the franchise the less consistent Pinhead becomes. This being punishment for sins is taking another step towards religious symbolism and implications. I found some of the effects grotesque for no reason or purpose other than to be gross, for example the women literally going under Thorne’s skin as they’re three way making out. I never want to watch this movie again and I’ll leave it at that. HELLRAISER: HELLSEEKER (2002) - 3.7/10 IN SEVENTH PLACE Written by Carl V. Dupre and Tim Day Hellraiser: Hellseeker released direct to video in 2002 directed by Rick Bota with “cursory input” from Clive Barker the sixth installment is not as bad as I expected it to be after the fifth. This is the last installment to have influence from Barker, credited or uncredited. I enjoyed the twist with this film and had a good time watching and piecing together the mystery. A car accident kills Trevor Gooden’s (played by Dean Winters, the Mayhem Man) wife Kirsty Cotton-Gooden (played by Ashley Laurence). Trevor escapes but Kirsty goes missing, not even her body is found. Jumping one month forward Trevor awakes in a hospital, not remembering much and unable to distinguish between real and fake. Trevor is suspected of killing his wife Kirsty and homicide detectives Givens and Lange are intensely investigating him (played by Michael Rogers and William S. Taylor). He starts to have bizarre experiences that turn out to be figments of his imagination (an eel coming out of his mouth on his bathroom floor as one example). Trevor’s friend and co-worker commits suicide in front of him claiming the detectives are onto their plan, which confused Trevor and me cause what plan. After some monster-y horror movie events and a chase we come to find that the body Trevor has come to see at the morgue is in fact his own and not Kirsty’s. At this point we are shown the truth that Kirsty is alive and he is in fact dead. His imaginations were things that happened to his recently deceased corpse. It’s also shown that Trevor is a serial cheater and attempted to fuck Kirsty over by having her open the puzzle box again. She did open the box and when facing Pinhead again made a deal to deliver him five souls if he let her go. Kirsty kills three of Trevor’s mistresses and his friend that he’d conspired to kill Kirsty with. Trevor is the fifth and final soul Kirsty is giving to Pinhead and the whole series of events in Trevor’s life have been him living in limbo. Kirsty pinned the murders on Trevor and shot him in the head in the car, causing it to crash. Kirsty is free to go and takes the Lament Configuration with her. It’s not the best Hellraiser movie and it did my least favorite thing but made me hate it less because rather than the events not having happened the events happened but appeared to him in psychologically torturous ways. This could’ve been a short film in my opinion. The idea of the ending is cool especially with Kirsty making a comeback but most of the film is Trevor experiencing non-events that are often uncomfortable to watch (especially the scenes with his mistresses). HELLRAISER: DEADER (2005) - 3/10 IN EIGTH PLACE Coming in as the seventh-ish installment (two released in 2005) Hellraiser: Deader has an interesting premise of a journalist investigating a suicide cult that believes their prophet (a descendent of LeMarchand) can bring people back to life. He also believes it’s his right to have access to the puzzle, like an inheritance. Directed by Rick Bota it has similar vibes and themes to the other Rick Bota directed Hellraiser movies. The installment was written by Neal Marshall Stevens as a different project entirely but the plot was rewritten by Tim Day to be a Hellraiser film. The main character, Amy Klein (played by Kari Wuhrer) is almost impossible to watch, and I couldn’t figure out why that is the case for me. Her interpretations of scenes felt wildly off from the other characters in scenes and the script had her saying cheesy one liners like it was her full time job. Her boss, Charles (played by Simon Kunz), and her have an uncomfortable relationship that’s slightly exploitative and enabling on his part. Charles sends Amy to Romania to investigate a cult led by Winter LeMarchand (played by Paul Rhys) who sent a video showing him bringing a cult member back to life after she shot herself in the head. The cult calls themselves Deaders and after some immersion into Bucharest Amy meets Joey (played by Marc Warren) in an underground subway car party situation and he warns her about the Deaders but ultimately helps lead her to Winter. Winter, as the descendant of LeMarchand the Toymaker, feels entitled to the box and to ultimately summon the Cenobites so he can control them. He can’t open the box however and has come to the conclusion that only a specific person can open the box, one with the perfect balance of pain and trauma. His cult’s purpose is to attract vulnerable people in order for him to kill and resurrect them. Amy participates and ends up in a fugue-like state in a dream world. Upon return to the living world she opens the box, causing the Cenobites to come. Pinhead and the Cenobites kill every Deader and let Amy know she now owes them. Amy decides to kill herself rather than deal with that and this causes the Cenobites to be banished to Hell when the box closes. The electrical charge causes the building to explode and only the box survives. Creepy Charles then assigns another young, female reporter to investigate the Deaders cult and what happened and also gives her the puzzle box. It just doesn’t make sense. The cult angel doesn’t work and a flimsy story isn’t saved by the acting and chemistry (or lack thereof) between the characters. It’s easy to forget it’s a Hellraiser movie at all and also easy to tune out and forget you’re even watching a movie. Doug Bradley is the exception despite them switching up the design of Pinhead’s attire…again. HELLRAISER: HELLWORLD (2005) - 4/10 IN SIXTH PLACE Also released in 2005 the eighth installment, Hellraiser: Hellword , centers around a group of gamers who play a Hellraiser role playing game. One member of the group commits suicide and this causes them to cool it on playing it. Directed by Rick Bota the script is based off of a short story by Joel Soissonn and was not originally intended to be a Hellraiser movie. This is the last film with Doug Bradley as Pinhead. Two years after their friend commits suicide the group of players are invivted to a Hellworld party at a secret mansion. They’re taken into a secondary private part of the party where guests wear masks and text each other if interested by an eccentric host who insists on them having some of his family’s scotch (wink wink). When Chelsea (played by Katheryn Winnick) refuses he even goes so far as to stab her, which personally would’ve been when I got the hell out of there. They’re separated from one another and one by one are killed by Pinhead. Before being killed it becomes apparent that they are invisible to other party guests. Chelsea discovers in the attic that the house belongs to their friend’s dad, the friend who commit suicide at the start of the movie. He drugged them and they’ve been buried alive in coffins as he feeds them suggestions about their reality. They each successively die in the caskets (Henry Cavill’s character is scared to death, another gouges her eyes, and Khary Payton, the voice of Cyborg, has an asthma attack). Chelsea and Jake (played by Christopher Jacot from Slasher ) survive for Lance Henriksen to monologue his evil revenge plan to. This ending shocked me when it came to them being buried alive and none of it happening, I guessed the father thing but not the fact that they'd hallucinated it all. I would've thought them to be in the Cenobite dimension rather than that but it's a good twist. Adam’s dad blames his friend group for his suicide thus the reason for his murderous plot. They are rescued by police who’ve been called from inside the house. We jump to a sad hotel room where the Host is drinking himself into oblivion and messing with the puzzle box. Pinhead appears and kills him. The film ends with the police arriving at the crime scene of the Host’s hotel room. HELLRAISER: REVELATIONS (2011) - 0.8/10 IN TENTH PLACE I didn’t think it could get worse but this is pretty bad. After 6 years another installment is released and I don’t think anyone could’ve imagined it’d be this bad. Directed by Victor Garcia and written by Gary J. Tunnicliffe Hellraiser: Revelations is a mess at best. Dimension Films needed to make another Hellraiser or they’d lose the rights so this mess was put together and is the first Hellraiser without Doug Bradley. They didn’t treat Bradley with nearly the amount of respect he deserved when approaching him for this film. Not only that but they’d been talking about a remake for years and rather than making that happen threw this mud at the wall and hoped it at least stuck a little. It only took three weeks to film and hit one theater upon release. Two young men go to Mexico, one murders a woman he hooks up with and after this a character similar to the ones in the earlier movies comes and offers them the puzzle box, identifying them as perfect candidates. They record most of their adventure and after going missing the video footage is all their parents have. This video footage shows Pinhead and other Cenobites appearing and taking them. The two families are close and are having dinner together after the boys have gone missing. One of the young men has a sister similar in age who is the girlfriend of the other young man. Her boyfriend sucks however and is essentially the Frank of this plot. This boy has taken the skin of her brother and come back pretending to be him. He proceeds to make out with her and shoot his friend’s dad. So this is just wildly uncomfortable. Despite taking a buckshot to the chest the dad lives for an incredibly long time. Long enough for the daughter to solve the puzzle and bring them to the Cenobites dimension. Pinhead (the worst Pinhead of the entire franchise) is planning to kill the Frank of this movie and probably let the family go but the dad picks toxic masculinity and insists he be the one to kill the new Frank and shoots him. This kills him, rather quickly I might add, and now their “appetite isn’t satiated” so they’re going to torture and kill the families. The Cenobites do just that and then the daughter is transported back home with her father who dies in a hilariously weird way. She then picks up the puzzle and decides to open it again. Makes no sense just like the whole of the movie. I didn’t see the skin suit thing coming, I’d forgotten that is something they can do. It’s fine for what it is considering the reasoning behind why it was made. HELLRAISER: JUDGEMENT (2018) - 0.01/10 IN TWELFTH PLACE Again, I thought it couldn’t possibly get worse and yet it did. This is an awful movie, plain and simple. I didn’t finish watching it because frankly Dimension Films is playing games of greed at this point in the series. I’m not giving this movie any more time than it’s taken from me. The original concept is great and then it becomes Human Centipede and Saw vibes. It’s disgusting and if I wanted to start giving negative scored reviews it’d be for a movie like this. HELLRAISER (2022) - 6.2/10 IN SECOND PLACE Since this just hit Hulu I will keep it brief and fairly spoiler free. I enjoyed the story for this movie and took a sigh of relief that the course felt slightly righted after the Dimension Films 2005-2018 mishaps. This is the remake that has been promised and I really enjoyed the deeper dive into the lore and recentering of the original rules of the universe. Screenplayed by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski and directed by David Bruckner, Hellraiser (2022) is a fresh and inspired take on a classic. The success of Halloween is cited as a main reason Miramax renewed their interest in making another Hellraiser film. A hedonistic lawyer named Roland Voight (played by Goran Višnjić) forces a sex worker named Joey (played by Kit Clarke) to solve the puzzle box. Upon solving it he’s stabbed in the hand and the portal to Hell is opened. We see the chains right off the bat and I love that immediate connection to the franchise main installments. Voight demands that he be able to meet with Leviathan, the God that hovers above the Cenobites’ labyrinth of a home. The main character, Riley McKendry (played by Odessa A’zion), has no initial connection to Voight however and we time jump six years when we tune into her story. She’s a recovering drug addict who lives with her brother Matt (played by ) and his boyfriend Colin (played by ), along with their roommate Nora (played by ). Riley’s boyfriend Trevor (played by ) convinces her to break into an abandoned building which leads her to find the puzzle box, and she steals it. Arriving home late her brother assumes she’s relapsed and kicks her out. This leads her to go to a park and solve the puzzle box, thus kicking off the events of the movie. This new universe has slightly different rules around the puzzle, who solves it, and what happens but the rules make sense and it’s nice to have them clearly established. More background is provided on the puzzle itself and lore centered around the purpose of the Cenobites and their connection to the puzzle. A twist towards the end had me wondering where they would go from there only to be pleasantly surprised. I also liked that it didn’t feel pressured to be a perfect ending but the ending all made logical sense in relation to the events of the plot. The main character goes through development alongside the torture and pain, she’s someone to root for if not to cringe at when she makes egregious mistakes. One complaint I have is how dark the scenes are lighting wise. I had a hard time seeing a lot of the scenes with the Cenobites because of how dark the scenes are. The Cenobites have skin as their clothing in this one with their exposed flesh making up the parks pulled back. We also see at the end someone being made into a new Cenobite which we have never seen before. I feel that this is the promised redo for the franchise and despite premiering yesterday to mixed reviews this is light years better than any of the other recent sequels and it gives me hope for where the franchise could go next. I haven’t seen official word that another film is in the works yet but here’s hoping the Hellraiser franchise can become what it always could’ve been with this fresh reboot. POST MARATHON THOUGHTS & KEY TAKEAWAYS Getting through the 11 movies that make up this franchise has been a grind. I almost gave up part way through as each installment proved worse and more disturbing than the previous one. Doug Bradley doesn’t get nearly enough recognition for playing Pinhead for seven of the films in the franchise. While I like the new Pinhead I can’t help but give a nod to the OG himself. The path became blurry as the franchise went on. After learning that the franchise had major influence from the Weinsteins and Miramax regarding the plot, that makes a lot of sense. Everytime I’d read what the plot set out to be after watching one of the movies in the middle of the franchise I’d wonder why they’d changed so much and deviated from those original plans to make a subpar product. They feel like cash grabs that are intended to create good clips of Pinhead saying (oftentimes irrelevant or nonsensical) monologues and recreating Christian imagery, specifically related to Jesus in most cases. In 2002 according to Doug Bradley Dimension Films had two scripts pitched both with Pinhead and Michael Myers. It went as far as Clive Barker possibly writing it with John Carpenter directing. Don’t get me wrong, that would be a hell of a horror duo…on another project. The idea of Michael Myers and Pinhead existing in the same universe feels silly and it’s impossible to trust it would’ve been handled in a good way considering what other nonsense they pushed out. A lot of the movies feel like there’s too many cooks in the kitchen pulling the plot in 100 opposing directions and after looking into it there were. I hope that the new start will be more focused, cognizant of the lore and rules they create, and having a cohesive plan rather than cash grab plots for the sake of making a sequel and a little extra money. Most of these movies I never want to watch again but I’m down with the first Hellraiser and the most recent anytime. SOURCES Where to watch: https://pluto.tv/en/on-demand/movies/hellraiser-2011-1-1?utm_medium=textsearch&utm_source=google (free) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DpY0jsx5h (rent or buy) https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.b4a9f76a-8a2d-d389-fa2b-dc2d2596d651?autoplay=0&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb (free with Cinemax subscription - 7 day free trial) https://tubitv.com/movies/485923/hellraiser-judgement?start=true&utm_source=google-feed&tracking=google-feed (free) https://tubitv.com/movies/474025/hellraiser-revelations?start=true&utm_source=google-feed&tracking=google-feed (free) Franchise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser_(franchise) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellbound:_Hellraiser_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser_III:_Hell_on_Earth https://www.imdb.com/list/ls064242940/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser:_Bloodline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellraiser:_Inferno https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0229440/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hellraiser_characters#Engineer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension_Films Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadomasochism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cenobite_(Hellraiser) https://hellraiser.fandom.com/wiki/Pinhead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhead_(Hellraiser) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Barker https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Cenobites https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hellraiser-bloodline https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hellraiser_inferno Other: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Museum_(Black_Mirror)#:~:text=In%20a%20flashback%2C%20Dr.,aroused%20by%20his%20patient's%20pain . https://www.slashfilm.com/1031173/hellraiser-movies-ranked-from-pain-to-pleasure/ https://deadline.com/2020/04/hellraiser-david-gordon-green-directing-hbo-series-halloween-pilot-1202918558/ https://bloody-disgusting.com/tv/3639750/clive-barker-joins-hbos-hellraiser-series-executive-producer/ https://deadline.com/2021/10/hellraiser-jamie-clayton-pinhead-clive-barker-producing-hulu-movie-1234851827/ https://www.avclub.com/watching-all-9-hellraiser-movies-is-an-exercise-in-maso-1798273640 https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/hellraiser-judgment-review https://www.slashfilm.com/583352/new-hellraiser-movie-will-be-a-small-reimagining-whatever-that-means/ https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3291875/exclusive-news-boom-studios-announces-new-anthology-series-hellraiser-bestiary-ed-brisson-michael-moreci/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2012/11/15/hellraiser-horror-comic-book-series/1706113/ https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a336846/clive-barker-rants-against-new-hellraiser-movie/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkNi6OBZZVs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw9Ol5yRyHg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIlcUq7wdZw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMo_PZsHqC4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ckQwNRTDw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0qwQ3wZzNw https://www.reddit.com/r/hellraiser/comments/7yixnh/clive_bringing_christianity_into_the_mythos/ https://vhsrevival.com/2019/10/24/pleasure-and-pain-the-divine-suffering-of-clive-barkers-hellraiser/ https://bartcave.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/you-come-to-us-the-absence-of-god-in-1988s-phantasm-ii-and-hellbound-hellraiser-ii/ https://www.eonline.com/news/1326109/one-tree-hills-craig-sheffer-says-creator-mark-schwahn-threatened-to-fire-him BDSM in Horror & Hellraiser https://www.fetish.com/magazine/erotica/bdsm-horror-movies/ https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/g09jyo/any_horror_movies_that_heavily_feature/ https://historyofbdsm.com/2019/04/hellraiser-1987-the-celluloid-dungeon/ https://lwlies.com/articles/shudders-of-pleasure-the-story-of-hellraiser/ https://www.reddit.com/r/BDSMcommunity/comments/p0i4d2/do_you_consider_hellraiser_a_legit_gateway_drug/

After looking at 26 different lists of top, scariest, and Best horror Movies I have determined what movies are actually the scariest, or rather which movies show up on the most "Top Horror" lists--click here to skip the Introduction and go straight to the top ten ranking . My research notes and a corresponding spreadsheet are available here. INTRODUCTION: SEARCHING FOR THE SCARIEST Most horror fans seem to have a few horror movies or even a franchise that ignited their love for the genre and one of mine is The Ring (2002) . Specifically, watching The Ring in the middle of the night next to giant, uncovered windows overlooking the Pacific Northwest wilderness. The feeling of fascinated satisfaction and silent ‘wow’ after a good horror movie settled into me like a kitten settles next to a winter fire for the very first time. The plot captivated me but more so than that the concept of enjoying horror movies and what even made a movie scary --something I’ve been digging deeper into this fall. Originally, I wanted to get just a rough idea of what horror movies are actually the scariest from a handful of lists and review sites. After determining which movies appeared on the most lists of the 14 I looked at the 1-11 ranking didn’t feel right. It wasn’t completely wrong but it bugged me and made me say “ really? “ every time I thought back to it. Now, I have compiled the contents of 26 lists, A-Z, and counted how many times a movie appeared in more than one list. I also tracked how many times popular movie titles appeared in different lists and how high up on those lists they appeared. The shortest list I included is 20 movie titles and the longest is 200 movie titles and all are from a wide range of sources including blogs, magazines, newspapers, and review sites. Prior to starting a hobby-website-thing a few years ago I enjoyed horror in my past-time like any other person. All seemed normal; I always had people willing to go to the movies with me to see new horror releases and often chatted about those releases during pop culture small talk without any issue. Lately though it’s become apparent that I hadn’t often heard the feedback that loving horror is abnormal because I didn’t talk about it much. It’s not that it didn’t exist. I noticed a pattern--others took my interest in horror as a free pass to tell me all the reasons they dislike the genre and don’t relate to people who do like it. A few years ago it didn’t seem that deep but now, I have a better understanding of what horror means to me. Horror is fantastical and realistic, it’s entertaining and confusing, it’s glass-half-empty and an optimist, it’s funny and sad, it can be shallower than the shallow end and deeper than a supernatural well-portal made specifically for a demon creature that sprouted out of a cursed cinnamon roll to cross-over into the mortal realm. Horror has been my go-to, my sleep sounds, my secret, my best friend, my enemy, my hobby, and my passion in so many ways I wouldn’t have imagined possible. Horror and horror mega-fans helped me accept being weird and how to be myself unapologetically. All of that allowed me to decide to put time towards personal hobbies like Red Rose Horror and rose stem media--things that make the day-to-day a little less boring and provide an excuse to do the things I love. All of that aside, I really did want to know what the scariest movies are and what makes a movie scary, so stay tuned if you want to know what I found. Using a collection of 26 lists, in my notes those lists are titled A-Z, I counted how many times a movie appeared in more than one list and how many times it appeared in different lists. The shortest list is 20 movie titles and the longest is 200 movie titles from a wide range of sources including blogs, magazine publications, and review sites. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Exorcist (1973) both got placed on 23 of the 26 lists after adjusting to exclude franchise movies not the original titles which would have put The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at 25 list placements. Due to Texas Chain Saw placing on the most overall lists when all franchise titles are included it moved up to first over The Exorcist this round. CLICKABLE TABLE OF CONTENTS The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) - 23/26 Lists The Exorcist (1973) - 23/26 Lists A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - 22/26 Lists Hereditary (2018) - 22/26 Lists Scream (1996) - 21/26 Lists Halloween (1978) - 20/26 Lists The Shining (1980) - 20/26 Lists The Blair Witch Project (1999) - 20/26 Lists Get Out (2017) - 20/26 Lists Alien (1979) - 19/26 Lists MY THOUGHTS ON EACH MOVIE AFTER A REWATCH #1 Texas Chainsaw Massacre on 23/26 lists (franchise-25/26) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has a chokehold on horror and often got placed on lists with the additional info that it’s a classic and trailblazer with heavy emphasis on first watches and nostalgia. What makes Texas Chain Saw Massacre scary to me is the family dynamic and casual approach to cannibalism. The scenes of characters being treated like animals rather than humans are so unsettling they are hard to watch even today despite effects that don’t always hold up. When rewatching in 2023 Pam being put on the meat hook is particularly scary, visually and conceptually. I appreciated the brother, feeling it’s an extremely good and well acted character that makes up for Leatherface’s lack of speech. #2 The Exorcist (1973) on 23/26 lists Watching The Exorcist for the first time from today’s perspective is extremely uncomfortable, partially because the scares still hold up and partially because it’s hard to believe an actual child actor performed the stunts and lines, no matter how gnarly. Blair and MacNeil are phenomenal and despite some obvious special effects the visuals are still unsettling, almost more-so than today’s CGI. I can understand why this is on so many lists but I’m not sure how high up on the scariest movies list it would place if it came out as a new movie today. Since The Exorcist created a lot of the tropes now common in possession movies it isn’t as shocking to witness them for the first time today, rather it’s the norm and the formula we expect. #3 A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) on 22/26 lists The 1984 classic A Nightmare on Elm Street is another movie that seems to be a favorite and go-to on almost every list, typically quite high up. The chase scenes are a little silly but everything else withstood the test of time and is fairly scary to this day. From the ominous warning from Nancy to Glen to not fall asleep to Tina being drug up the walls and onto the ceiling while the then invisible Freddy Krueger delivers the final, bloody blow, imagining trying to defend yourself against Krueger is scary. It seems bizarre that Nancy has zero idea at all about this prolific murderer prior to him haunting her dreams but even today the scares make up for some plot confusion. #4 Hereditary (2018) on 22/26 lists Hereditary took horror by a storm combining uncomfortable visuals, shrill violin music, and sudden, unexpected scares. It’s still scary on each rewatch and because of this I am not surprised that it placed on so many of the 26 lists. Upon a recent rewatch I was in awe with the attention to detail and intricate story telling in even the scenery of each major plot point. The choice to have the ceilings in many of the shots still puts me on edge. While I think this movie is scary in it’s own, unique way, and an all around great film I don’t think it’s necessarily what I would consider the scariest. I’d put this one in my top 25 but it probably wouldn’t make the top 10. #5 Scream (1996) on 21/26 lists (franchise-26/26) Scream is a Wes Craven masterpiece, and while I’d definitely consider it a personal favorite and amazing horror it is not exactly scary in the traditional sense. Something I consider crucial to a movie being scary is asking the question, “could this happen to me?” to gauge how much I even need to worry in the first place. The story of Scream is very much so tied to the characters in the movie and doesn’t or hasn’t existed outside of that universe. The way the movies comment on themselves is a treat to see but isn’t exactly scary or unsettling. I consider Scream to be funny, entertaining, and smart but only kinda scary. It’s scary because it reminds us that the worst monsters can hide amongst us. #5 Halloween (1978) on 20/26 (franchise-22/26) Due to this movie being on 22 out of 26 lists when taking the other franchise installments into consideration I placed it above the other three 20/26 movies. Halloween (1978) and Michael Meyers are scary in their own rights. Meyers’ ability to focus solely on seeking revenge on Haddonfield, Illinois is astonishing. No matter how many times, no matter how many ways he finds himself back trying to kill Laurie Strode. Meyers being one of the most iconic horror figures of all time makes the spoiler impossible to miss nowadays. He’s known for his slow walk towards his terrified victims and the 1978 original is stocked full of them. The almost supernatural way Meyers survives at the end of the film, after Loomis shoots him and he falls, is still spooky now even with the knowledge of the following twelve installments of the franchise all featuring the character. #7 The Shining (1980) on 20/26 Lists This movie notably ranked high on many of the lists it appeared on and for this reason I placed it above the other two 20/26 movies but below Halloween due to that movie ranking higher and technically appearing on more than 20 lists. The Shining is discontenting, and scary from start to finish. We are informed of key scary details very early on like the murder suicide of the previous caretaker and the “shine” left on a place like the Overlook Hotel that many bad things have happened at. The tension between Wendy and Jack is visibly thick, layered atop the scary circumstances to put you on edge from the start. One of the most widely well regarded horror movies of all time, The Shining introduced audiences to iconic scare scenes and performances from Duvall and Nicholson leave no question why that is. This movie is in my personal top ten scariest movies. #8 The Blair Witch Project (1999) on 20/26 Lists Tied with #9 No big distinguishing factors, like installments placing on lists or placing really high, between this movie and Get Out exist so the movies tie at number 8/9. The Blair Witch Project should not be as scary as it is for a 1999 found footage horror movie that never shows the monster or even actual attacks on the main characters. What is scariest about this is the tension it is able to build that puts you into fight or flight mode up until the “big” ending. No matter how many times I watch this movie I still get weirded out and scared towards the end, especially when I remember how unsatisfying it is. In the end the door is left wide open to every possibility, the movie ending curtly after the biggest moment of action. #9 Get Out (2017) on 20/26 Lists Tied with #8 Get Out placed number 8/9 in the ranking with The Blair Witch Project , both movies are single installments that placed on 20 lists and relatively varied in placement on those lists. Get Out has proven itself every time I rewatch to be a movie that lives up to the hype and manages to give me the creeps. The subtext and humor run so deep that I notice something new during most watches even this long after it’s release in 2017. The scary parts of Get Out are more psychological and fantastical than a standard horror movie. I wouldn't say it's scary in the sense that the word is commonly used but I would say it's a good horror movie and an important watch to understand modern horror trends. #10 Alien (1979) on 19/26 Lists (franchise-21/26) Other movies placed on 19 lists but I decided to place this one in 10 due to other movies in the franchise appearing on 21 total lists. The way Alien is able to build a universe seamlessly is still a work of art. A new layer of scary exists upon rewatching-how much closer we are to commercialized space than when the movie came out only 44 years ago. Attention to detail is in every aspect and the care put into world building and pulling the audience onto the spaceship with the crew still comes across beautifully. A story of when you first lost your marbles watching some of the iconic jump scares in Alien is not uncommon but I believe the isolation horror aspects add enough fear even if the jump scares don’t get you. I always find alien horror gives off the vibe of action movie and Alien is no different. The special effects and monster costume are stellar, having you so sucked in you’re making your own plan of survival on the spacecraft CONCLUSION After it all I came to one total, whole conclusion about what movies are generally regarded as the scariest: I don't really agree. I felt puzzled by more than a few that had placed on over 15 lists and even more surprised about some that didn't. Some movies I had no doubt would be popular on scariest movies lists but ended up on a total of three to four. Rather than being excited to write about the movies that ranked high I found myself more excited about the ones that I had hoped would rank high and didn't, my personal favorites and ones I would recommend as the scariest. This winter I'll be posting about my own ranking of scariest horror movies after looking more into this.

Premise of RRH Franchise Marathons: Binge watching an entire franchise worth of content in a shortened period of time and then writing an essay that covers various topics related to that franchise in addition to reviews of each movie or TV show that comprises it. Introduction After the week of discomfort that watching Hellraiser turned out to be I opted for something faster paced, predictable, and comforting: the Insidious franchise . The first installment, titled simply Insidious came out in 2010 and since then many of the modern horror tropes have been copied from this blueprint. Over the course of the franchise the four films have grossed approximately $539 million dollars (Insidious (film series), 2022) and as a teen during this timeframe I can attest that every time one of these films came out the theater filled not too long after. Released in April of 2011 the PG-13 rated Insidious (2010) emerged to a great reception. Critics and fans alike loved the movie, a fan Danielle C. writing on Rotten Tomatoes, “Beautifully shot, fantastically acted, brilliant pacing and very intense ending. 10/10! James Wan smashed it yet again!” and a critic, Philip French, claiming it to be, “A supernatural horror flick by and for horror buffs” ( Rotten Tomatoes ). Of course no movie is ever completely loved or hated and one critic, Jeffrey Van Camp did say, “It’s part Paranormal Activity, part Ring, and has the ridiculous rules of the Saw series” ( Digital Trends, 2011 ). I tend to find myself leaning towards it being a modern hit. Pamela McClintock called it a, “microbudgeted horror film [that] marks another win for the “Paranormal Activity” team” and said it, “[held] audiences better than almost any other 2011 film” which I agree most with, especially in hindsight to that time (2011) . As the movies kept coming out the reviews became significantly worse with each installment, garnering more and more ire from the audiences. I tend not to agree with this. I didn’t much care for the Lamberts as a main story and just wanted to get more details on the Further, Elise, and the entities that she defeated there. For this reason I like Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) and Insidious: The Last Key (2018) more than I like the whole of the first two movies. One caveat to that being that Insidious (2010) and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) have some stellar horror moments in ambiance, tension building, acting, and effects. Often compared to the Conjuring series, with installments also directed by James Wan, I still think Insidious doesn’t get the credit that it’s due for creating a really cool, interesting, and ever malleable universe for their often interesting characters to exist in. Without further adieu I give you, The Franchise Marathon: Halloween Edition Insidious (2010 - present). Most to Least Favorite: First - Insidious: The Last Key (2018) Second - Insidious (2010) Third - Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) Fourth - Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) Sections: Why I Believe Josh is a Shit Husband , Name...That...Entity! , Astral Projection & Western Esotericism , Traveling Into the Further , and Post Marathon Thoughts & Key Takeaways INTRODUCTION TO THE UNIVERSE: INSIDIOUS (2010) Directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell , the first movie, Insidious (2010) , focuses on a family of five who’ve recently moved into a new home. Patrick Wilson is the patriarch of this family, Josh Lambert, and Rose Byrne plays his wife, Renai Lambert. The couple and their three children: Dalton (played by Ty Simpkins ), Foster (played by Andrew Astor ), and Kali (played by an uncredited duo of baby actors ) begin to experience weird occurrences at this new home. Renai is the initial target of such hauntings as she hears weird noises in the home and has her belongings moved around. What starts as a normal run of the mill haunting soon turns darker when Dalton falls in their attic and goes into a coma the next day. Dalton doesn’t wake from said coma and ends up at home hooked up to machines with a nurse who comes to provide additional care. Once Dalton is in his coma things go haywire for the Lamberts. Renai hears a man’s voice over Cali’s baby monitor, sees figures that disappear before Josh gets there, and finds a bloody hand print in Dalton’s bed. In a not so shocking twist the hauntings increase in intensity and after Renai is attacked the family decides to move. I rather liked that they decided to move as it is closer to what would actually happen if any of these occurrences happened to a real family. Now, one might wonder, what is the plan for this plot if they have escaped the haunted house that ails them. Surprise! It wasn’t the house at all and shortly after moving the hauntings picked back up. Renai sees a young boy dressed in period wear from the industrial revolution era and Josh’s mother, Lorraine (played by Barbara Hershey ) comes over due to a nightmare about the house and a demon. This leads into the first shot of one of the most iconic demons in this franchise: the Lipstick-Face Demon (aka The Man With Fire on His Face or the Red Faced Demon). The demon wants to take over Dalton’s body and live on Earth amongst the living. He isn’t the only one, we are introduced to a whole fleet of demons who have put two and two together that Dalton is not in his physical body and it’s vacant for the taking. Not as easy as it sounds however and the one closest to accomplishing this is the red faced demon. So where is Dalton’s non-physical form? The Further . The Further is what the movies center around, that and the badass Elise Rainier who is flawlessly performed by the amazing Lin Shaye. I can say this much: the best thing about the franchise is Elise and her abilities, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Lorraine notices similarities between Dalton and the kid version of Josh and calls in the help of Elise and her paranormal squad, Specs (played by Leigh Whannell ) and Tucker (played by Angus Sampson ). Specs and Tucker arrive first in order to determine if this is an actual haunting or something else. With Specs and Tucker we get a taste of some of the techniques paranormal investigators might use to determine if an entity is present. Entities are present all right so Elise Rainier have (played by Lin Shaye ) is then brought in to examine. Elise is a psychic medium who can also travel into the Further as a living person. She lets them know about the red faced demon and confirms that Dalton has been astral projecting in his sleep believing it to be dreams. Dalton traveled too far into the Further and became lost, unable to return to his physical body. Due to Dalton’s physical body being vacant a beacon signal is sent into the Further and all the wretched entities stuck there want another shot at life by possessing him. Long story short Elise saves the day, during this we learn Josh is also a gifted astral projector who had his powers erased from memory in order to protect him from The Bride in Black , an entity that desires to possess his physical form. Dalton is back in his body after Josh travels into the Further to bring him home. Unfortunately since Josh’s astral form resided in the Further his physical form became vacant which allowed for The Bride in Black to take over his body and possess him. We believe all is well until Elise senses some fuck shit and takes a photo of Josh (allowing her to see that he is not Josh but The Bride in Black). This enrages Possessed-Josh and he strangles Elise to death. We end with Renai looking at the camera in horror after discovering Elise’s dead body. The ending to Insidious (2010) is one of the worst plot twists of all time. Not because it didn’t make for a good movie, on the contrary the twist ending is a great way to end the plot. However, killing the most interesting and central character, Elise, to this universe is such an oversight I cannot believe they let it happen. It curtails any future stories and constricts the franchise in a huge way that it can only exist in timelines prior to 2010. I decided to go about this post a little differently, I’ve been adapting to each franchise and what is, selfishly, most interesting to me. The four installments aren’t anything revolutionary past what I have already mentioned (as well as the sound and some special effect things) and the first movie is by far the best in the bunch. As mentioned the franchise is severely restricted to what it can do because the people care about Elise, not the Lamberts, but she has been killed. So, we do the only things possible: in the second movie Elise saves them and gets everyone back in their right bodies from the Further like the badass she is, in the third movie we’re a few years before the events of the first movie and Elise gets back into the business to save a teen from a separate demon, the Wheezing Demon, and in the fourth movie Elise returns to her past to defeat a demon that has an aversion to whistles and keys for fingers. I’ll go into more detail as I go on but that is the gist of the franchise, with a fifth movie currently set to be released in 2023 . What I found more interesting than the plots themselves are the details like The Further (and the spiritual realm in general), the demons they encounter there, astral projecting, and how shitty of a husband Josh is. I’m starting with Josh because he’s the easiest topic to dive into, once that’s out of the way, buckle up buttercup because we’re on a journey to another reality, one that might actually exist parallel to our own. WHY I BELIEVE JOSH IS A SHIT HUSBAND It’s no secret anymore that the happiest people on Earth are single women without children and Josh is a great way to explain why that might be. The first thing I noticed when re-watching was that Josh did nothing to contribute. Renai got up early and went about getting the kids ready for school only to ask Josh if he would fulfill his promise to take the kids to school that day and him brushing it off and also refusing to pick up the kids after school. The fact that it's a textbook overworked mother set off fire alarms in my mind. In an article written in 2016, “The Invisible Workload that Drags Women Down” by Lisa Wade on Money.com summarizes a 1996 study (“Thinking About the Baby” by Susan Walzer) that demonstrated the household gender gap. This gender gap being that women, even those who work full time, did the majority of the housework and referred to that as “the second shift” when she gets home. Not only did the women in the 1996 study do more physical housework, the study also showed they did “more of the intellectual, mental, and emotional work of childcare and household maintenance,” which despite a closing gap in household chores is still a large gender gap today. Walzer’s study also found that women had to process information, worry about things, organize, and delegate more. Some examples in Wade’s article are researching pediatricians and deciding what to make for dinner (Money.com, 2016) . This work is invisible and harder to quantify when it comes to the division of household labor. As mentioned before, women do more of the mental work today despite the closing gap in paid and unpaid work between men and women. This can oftentimes lead to negative stereotypes about women in this scenario, whether that’s being called a “nag” or seen as a “helicopter mom” for worrying too much. Wade says it best in the article, “The last step to women’s freedom in household breakdown of responsibilities could be this invisible one,” (Money.com, 2016) . In this case freeing women is more about freeing their minds than equality in physical workloads. Throughout the article it’s clear that the wife/mother has to have the “willingness to see” that “allows other people in her family to not have to worry about that,” (Wade, 2016) . Renai is a great example of this phenomenon. The first two movies focus mainly on the Lamberts and for the majority of the time Renai is being pushed to the brink of a mental break. She takes beating after beating, horrifying moment to horrifying moment in her home while trying to protect her children and in the first movie Josh has the audacity to say that he needed a break. He lies and stays at work late to “grade papers” when in reality sleeps and avoids the turmoil at home. The saving grace being that Renai stands up for herself in this scenario. Calling Josh out on his avoidant behavior. Even then however Josh sticks to his guns and whines about how hard all of this has been on him. Not that he’s worried about their comatose son, about his wife’s mental health and safety, nothing, just himself. The fact that he becomes possessed and spends the majority of the second movie as the Bride in Black and Renai doesn’t even fully recognize or believe that he’s different tells me everything I need to know about this asshole. In the TCNJ Journal of Student Scholarship, “Parental Involvement: A Review of the Factors Influencing Father Involvement and Outcomes” by Jaclyn Volker reviewed studies that showed (in the heteronormative, nuclear family structure) fathers can provide meaningful differences than their counterparts in some aspects of childhood development (2014) . It also found that not only parental involvement but also closeness played an important role in the child being less likely to engage in risky behavior (Volker, 2014) . I say all of this to also point out he’s not the world’s most stellar dad. His child had drawings of a demon next to his bed for who knows how long that he’d drawn pre-coma and he never even thought to take a second look until close to the end of the first movie when his wife and mother are pleading with him that there’s something supernatural going on with Dalton. The most he can offer is a kiss goodbye in the morning before he goes to work, very 1950s if you ask me. He also takes his sweet time to come to the rescue when his wife or children are literally screaming their heads off for help. Even him going into the Further to save his son he met with hesitance and reluctance about. Can’t stand Josh and the best part of Josh is when Patrick Wilson gets to show off his amazing acting skills in Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) when he’s possessed, decaying, and has been exposed causing him to try to kill everyone in his family. So technically not even Josh but the Bride in Black. It doesn’t seem that Josh does any of this maliciously and does try to be a good dude, he just falls incredibly short for the majority of the first two movies which royally pissed me off while watching. NAME...THAT...ENTITY! Something that did not piss me off however is the red faced demon, most famously associated with the song “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” by Tiny Tim and a menacing red door illuminated by a single lightbulb in the Further. I’ll talk more about the Further later on after we clear up some background information, but for now the Further is where the demons and spirits reside. In Insidious it appears as a ghostly version of the real world setting that acts as a portal of sorts. Two demons in particular are most well known to be from the Insidious franchise; The Man with the Fire in His Face and The Bride in Black. Both are known by various other names. The Man with Fire in His Face aka Lipstick-Face Demon is an entity that rules over the Further who almost got Dalton in Insidious (2010). He lives in the attic of the Lamberts just beyond the earlier mentioned red door. The Insidious lore goes that rather than going to Hell with the other Demons he went to the Further which is between Heaven and Hell. He’s not a detailed character in that his motivations seem to be evil with some more evil for the sake of evil. Elise tells the Lamberts in the first movie that he’s the kind of demon that just wants to cause pain to others. He is a character and demon that appears in every Insidious movie, similar to Elise his story is interwoven throughout. The other most well known entity in Insidious is The Black Bride. Rather than a demon, The Black Bride aka Parker Crane is the ghost (or spirit?) of a human being born in 1920’s California to his mother, Michelle Crane . His absentee father gave him the name Parker and his mother, Michelle, wishes to raise him as a little girl named ‘Marilyn’ by any means necessary. These means include humiliating Parker and abusing him to comply with her wishes and obey her commands. The Bride in Black is stated to be a manifestation of Parker’s darker side, created by his mother’s torment, in a black dress he used to get women to trust him in order to kill them while evading the police. He eventually kills himself and forms a bond with Josh after seeing Lorraine at the hospital after his death. Like Lipstick-Face Demon, Parker Crane appears in many of the franchise's movies and is a common thread between the installments. He haunts young Josh but prior to getting close enough to possess him Elise is called in to help. Once Elise rids Josh of The Bride in Black she herself is followed by Crane, appearing every time she attempts to go into the Further and kill her. This foreshadows in the prequel to her death in the first movie and serves as a call-back to fans in the first three movies. One thing to know is that all entities, demons and ghosts alike, all want the same thing in the Further: to live again. Demons as we know them are malevolent supernatural entities who are referenced by some to be responsible for specific evils and by others to be agents of the Devil. Either way, their motive isn’t typically cited as wanting to live but rather wanting to create death and destruction to humans. In this way Insidious takes an interesting turn in that ghosts can have the same possession abilities as demons but with the sole purpose of living rather than harming (unless they have to of course). Ancient demons often get a bad rep for the actions of human “sinners” when the evils delve into the hard to imagine. What doesn’t get a bad rep is the ability to enter into their realm of existence by metaphysical means. ASTRAL PROJECTION & WESTERN ESOTERICISM First off we need to get some background knowledge out of the way. Western esotericism is the umbrella that astral projection falls under in spirituality. Scholars identify that to be “a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society” (Western esotericism, 2022) . In the 1690’s Ehregott Daniel Colberg is the first person cited to have written about categorizing Western philosophy and thought under the same school of thought, which is Western esotericism (2022) . He of course painted these ideas as “heretical” and the antithesis to what he believed to be “true christianity” (2022) . During the 17th and 18th century Age of Enlightenment the ideas became categorized as magic and the occult, superstition (Western esotericism, 2022) . So no surprise there that a person traveling outside of their physical form on a whim would be considered someone doing some wacky shit. Astral projection is an intentional out-of-body experience or OBE where one exists in an “astral body” that’s consciousness operates outside of the physical body. It’s most often associated with dreams and meditation, hence Dalton’s belief his astral projections to just be harmless dreams. Though there isn’t scientific evidence, many report some studies have been done to try and induce out-of-body experiences. The study, “Downward and Parallel Perspectives in an Experimental Study of Out of Body Experiences” by Kentaro Hiromitsu and Akira Midorikawa published in 2015 defines OBEs as “those in which an individual seems to view his/her [their] body and the world from a location outside [their] body” and reported this from both healthy people and those considered to be psychological or neurological patients. They did find that OBEs could be induced experimentally under different testing conditions with camera angles and goggles (Hiromitsu and Midorikawa, 2015) . They did not however explore what that could mean in regard to things like astral projection being scientifically possible. Western esotericism considers the astral body to be made of light and linked from the physical body to it as it functions like a soul. This example of astral projection is what I believe is most similar to that in Insidious. That astral planes exist somewhere amongst our own planes and are populated by supernatural beings, like demons (Astral projection, 2022) . This phenomenon is not only reported in Western cultures however, appearing across the globe and time in Ancient Egypt, Hinduism, and Taoist to name just a few (Astral projection, 2022) . In “Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?” an editorial published in 2019 in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, the author separates OBEs into two categories. The "internalist hypothesis" that evidence is illusionary and experiences are “misleadingly vivid type[s] of clairvoyance” often with evidence of ESP (351-358) . The other is the "externalist hypothesis" that the OBEs consciousness is separated from the physical form and is at the sites that the OBErs perceive them to be, like in Insidious (“Why Do Ghosts Wear Clothes?”, 2019) . The editorial includes an example of a woman, Martha, traveling in the dark only to see a light and going towards said light; that light then becomes Martha’s mother’s home and she is looking at her mother who appears to also be looking at her (2019) . Martha’s mother then writes to her about the experience from her POV and confirms that she saw Martha looking exactly how she reports to have looked during her OBE from outfit to clothes. All of this to say that there is evidence of astral projection and the concept is common throughout history in various cultures. Not only that but Insidious displays examples of Western esotericism’s interpretation of astral projection and astral planes specifically and does a really accurate job at it. I tip my hat to this, I expected to find that Insidious had pulled some fuck shit that had been made up after some writer saw an unfamiliar cultural practice, but I am happy to be wrong. TRAVELING INTO THE FURTHER Finally we come to the realm of the Further itself. The only thing as interesting as Elise or Lipstick-Face Demon is the Further; how and why did it come to be, can anyone go, are there multiple universes based on the decisions made during time travel in the Further? The questions it brings about are endless and the only real source of solid information of the lore is the Insidious Wiki Fandom website . The website describes the Further as a “vast, dark, and empty dimension which is an important location between Heaven, Earth, and Hell” and as mentioned earlier is ruled over by the Lipstick-Face Demon. Elise fills us in that it’s a place where “damned souls” remain forever. Humans aren’t common there and it’s recommended that the living avoid it. It’s nowhere and everywhere at the same time, bending time and space to fit the needs of the plot. The Further is heavily influenced by outside factors that act upon it, whether that be deceased people’s memories creating mirror locations or timelines intersecting and the two versions of a character interacting to solve problems. The rules around Elise’s powers and the Further are a bit murkier however. She goes there as a child in the fourth movie, Insidious: the Last Key (2018) against her will but we’ve already been made aware of her work helping people with the Further since then and ability to go at will - meaning she’s overcome this childhood fear. We also know that she worked with Gary, who is in the second and third movies, to help those who come into contact with malevolent entities from the Further and contacting loved ones who’ve passed. Over the course of the second and third movie we dive deeper into her struggles with the Further (being attacked upon entry for example) and the challenges she’s had to overcome to even be able to help Dalton in the first movie. Even when we first meet her she has to send Josh into the Further rather than going in herself to save Dalton as the experienced astral projector. It’s obvious to watchers that these sometimes confusing developments are due to needing the plot of the next movie to make sense while focusing on Elise WHO THEY KILLED IN THE FIRST MOVIE! Elise’s character struggles throughout every movie with the Further and coming into her powers and abilities there but this is what makes her so great. Unlike in the Conjuring series the powers of the ghost hunters are limited and wavering, I mean shit she gets defeated in the first movie. It feels more triumphant that she is able to time and time again face her fears after life threatening defeats from entities in the Further and continue to help people. Elise’s story is the Insidious franchise. POST-MARATHON THOUGHTS & FINAL TAKEAWAYS Watching the Insidious movies this week rejuvenated me after a dark, dark path down Hellraiser Lane and for that alone they are top tier so far. I believe the movies after the first installment became too harshly criticized when they came out. I remember thinking all of them fell short except for the first one but upon rewatching them I genuinely enjoyed each movie and found myself thought provoked by the decisions the team had made and if I would make the same decisions or change things entirely. I would recommend any of these movies for a predictable but good set of movies, even if only because of Elise, Specs, and Tucker. Sources Franchise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insidious_(film_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insidious_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insidious:_Chapter_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insidious:_Chapter_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insidious:_The_Last_Key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Whannell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Robitel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FilmDistrict https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_Features https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insidious:_Fear_the_Dark https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591095/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2226417/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_i_1 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3195644/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_i_1 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5726086/?ref_=tt_sims_tt_i_2 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0933940/?ref_=tt_cl_i_1 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0126284/?ref_=tt_cl_i_2 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005417/?ref_=tt_cl_i_4 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1191481/?ref_=tt_cl_i_5 https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Insidious_Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Blum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oren_Peli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Pictures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Shaye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Wilson_(American_actor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Byrne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Simpkins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hershey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Sampson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ava_Kolker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hana_Hayes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefanie_Scott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Locke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caitlin_Gerard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Davison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bishara https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Larose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Bisutti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Botet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Leonetti https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a34549457/insidious-5-release-date-patrick-wilson/ Lore of the Insidious World Chapter 1 Lore https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/The_Further https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Fire_in_His_Face https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Elise_Rainier https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/The_Long-haired_Fiend https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Doll_Girl https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/The_Dancing_Boy Chapter 2 Lore https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Dark-haired_Woman https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Michelle_Crane Chapter 3 Lore https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Wheezing_Demon https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Quinn_Brenner https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Parker_Crane The Last Key https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/Ayub_Veno https://insidious.fandom.com/wiki/KeyFace Reviews and Receptions Rotten Tomatoes https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/insidious https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/insidious_chapter_2 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/insidious_chapter_3_2015 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/insidious_the_last_key Insidious 1 https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/01/movies/insidious-directed-by-james-wan-review.html https://screenrant.com/insidious-movie-reviews/ https://ew.com/article/2011/04/05/insidious-2/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/insidious-is-profitable-film-2011-182335/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/insidious-review/ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/insidious Insidious 2 https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-insidious-chapter-2-movie-reviews-critics-20130913-story.html https://ew.com/article/2013/09/14/box-office-update-insidious-chapter-2/ https://www.ocregister.com/2013/09/12/aghast-at-the-incompetence-of-insidious-chapter-2/ Insidious 3 https://www.avclub.com/a-veteran-character-actress-almost-gets-her-due-in-insi-1798183998 https://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/movies-tv/article/Insidious-Chapter-3-is-a-horrible-thing-to-do-6306418.php https://overmental.com/content/is-insidious-chapter-3-a-sequel-or-a-prequel-21626 https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/us-theatre-plays-insidious-instead-of-inside-out/ https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3336282/insidious-chapter-3-teaser-poster-show-death/ https://www.independent.com/2015/06/10/insidious-chapter-3-same-old-cheap-thrills/ Insidious 4 https://www.npr.org/2018/01/04/575333939/insidious-the-last-key-unlocks-the-series-past-again https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/01/03/insidious-the-last-key-review https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-insidious-last-key-review-20170104-story.html Psychological, Sociological, Historical, and Metaphysical Connections Women’s heteronormative roles in family systems - first and second film specific https://money.com/women-work-home-gender-gap/ https://joss.tcnj.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/176/2014/04/2014-Volker.pdf Spiritual Realm & Metaphysics Background https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/insidious-is-the-further-real/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_world_(Spiritualism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_(psychology) Astral Projection https://web-p-ebscohost-com.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=c3007015-9bbf-4e48-ab1c-eab5cbc61089%40redis https://www.livescience.com/27978-astral-projection.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_plane Demons & Ghosts https://lithub.com/a-history-of-demonology-is-a-history-of-the-world/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_possession Effect the Franchise Had on Horror & Fun-Facts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_horror_film https://thenetline.com/insidious-is-not-based-on-a-true-story/ https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3500544/leigh-whannell-might-not-write-insidious-5-exclusive/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-insidious-changed-the-horror-movie-game https://www.looper.com/118397/insidious-changed-horror-movies-one-noticed/#:~:text=Insidious%20is%20very%20much%20the,to%20even%20notice%20it%20happened . https://movieweb.com/insidious-scariest-movie-why/ https://www.vox.com/2015/6/5/8733793/insidious-movies-review-explained https://smashcutreviews.com/conjuring-vs-insidious-art-tension-horror-movies/ https://gizmodo.com/secrets-of-insidious-how-to-make-a-low-budget-horror-m-5787731

Please proceed with caution, this is the only specific content warning in the article and the topics covered range from the bizarre to the downright evil. American Horror Story , an FX anthology show created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck premiered in 2011. The co-creators began work on AHS before their hit show, Glee, began and stated they both had an interest in the horror genre. Since its inception the show has taken viewers to various locations and time periods to explore fear, the bizarre, and the grotesque-both visually and conceptually. The eleven and a half season show has won awards and garnered respect and acclaim alike over the course of it's tenure on TV. I'll dive into more about the season's history and foundational information in the part two article which will be my focus in February 2024. AMERICAN HORROR STORY MARATHON REVIEW The AHS series belongs to the bigger American Story franchise that includes an AHS spinoff titled American Horror Stories also loosely inspired by real life events and an entirely separate show called American Crime Story . This article and the following two parts will go over each season of American Horror Story briefly including a review after recently rewatching. This first article will go over seasons 6-11 and the next will go over 1-5. Rather than start on a high note with the widely agreed upon "best" seasons, those being 1-5, and then slowly go down the weird, windy path of later seasons this starts with seasons 6-11. Since season 12, Delicate , is currently not finished premiering that will be the last portion posted to social media and combined with my ranking before rewatching and then my ranking after this rewatch. NOTICE:  from this point on the video will contain spoilers for season 6-Roanoke , 7-Cult , 8-Apocalypse , 9-1984 , 10-Double Feature , and 11-NYC . NOTICE:  from this point on the video will contain spoilers for season 6-Roanoke 7-Cult, 8-Apocalypse, 9-1984, 10-Double Feature, and 11-NYC. The sixth season premiered in 2016 and maintains a 57% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes of over 1K reviews. Following the media coverage of Hotel’s glitz, glamor, and star studded appeal, FX and the creators warned of a completely different direction. Not even confirming an official cast list or theme even the location gave no hints as it is the first and only time an entire set was built from scratch just for the season. After dropping multiple teaser trailers that all hinted at wildly different themes teasing that only one would be the actual theme, fans went into a frenzy on social media apps like Tumblr and Twitter to dissect and theorize.  Unfortunately for fans and FX alike, TMZ leaked photos from the set that included features that made the new season’s theme very obvious , the word ‘Croatoan’ carved into a tree and time period specific items.  This leak in addition to the Lost Colony of Roanoke being featured in season one and mentioned by the creators as a possibility in the past made the secret theme a poorly kept one. Suspicions quickly got confirmed with the season focusing on the colony but more specifically the house and land occupied atop the land which the colony had been suspected of disappearing from.  Now haunted by ghosts from multiple generations who died at the hands of both the Butcher and her ghost colony, the house’s history is revealed throughout key plot points during the season. SOME KEY POINTS IN THAT TIMELINE ARE: 1500s to 1585 the Roanoke Colony led by John White settles in North Carolina  John White’s wife Thomasin is left in charge while he travels back to homeland  Fast forward and after the colony moves inland it falls apart post animal sacrifices to a witch Scáthatch and the Butcher kills everyone and binds the ghosts to the land during the Blood Moon Every year during the Blood Moon they roam and make a sacrifice Their assumed disappearance is mentioned in season one also as an example of ghosts successfully banished 1792 Edward Phillipe Mott, ancestor of season 4 characters Gloria and Dandy Mott, purchases the remote land and builds the home on it He is killed by the Butcher and her colony during the Blood Moon 2014 Shelby and Matt, who we open the season with, purchase the home and believe the worst thing about it is the potentially racist Polk family of hillbillies nearby The first part of the show we’re following is a reality-based TV show about a couple who moved to the house after a violent attack in LA only to discover the house is haunted. We also meet Lee, Matt’s sister and her daughter Flora who stays at times.  Actors who later become characters as themselves, Audrey, Monet, Agnes, Dominic, and Rory portray the family’s story and how they barely escaped from the land in a reality show called My Roanoke Nightmare.  This transitions into the present day following a producer’s efforts to get all of the actors and the “real” characters back to the house to film a season two after the first’s success.  Most of the season follows the real events as they unfold through cameras set up in the house by the show’s crew and handheld cameras given to the cast. Other video footage is also included to provide additional context like news coverage, trial footage, and even season 2 character Lana Winter’s TV interview of Lee. Despite its experimental shortcomings the core story isn’t bad and Adina Porter gives her all to her portrayal of Lee and Sarah Paulson’s screams and British accent are memorable.  Taking a completely different turn from the middle of nowhere haunted 18th century home experimental nesting doll format we step into the real world, almost literally, to the first and only season without supernatural elements. INTRODUCTION Cult is the seventh installment of AHS , premiering in September 2017 opted for a spin on the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential Election where Donald Trump lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College vote and thus presidency. With an audience rating of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes it could be considered a season with mixed reviews.  The plot follows the events directly after the election in a fictional small town called Brookesfield, Michigan . Most of the episodes take place in the character’s homes and main town areas like the opening couple’s restaurant on Main St.  We start by following Ally and Ivy Mayfair-Richards, a politically involved lesbian couple with a young son named Oz. From the night of the election their personal worlds plunge into chaos along with their town as a mysterious group of clowns begin terrorizing the residents.  Parallel to their story we follow Kai and Winter Anderson on election night, a brother who wanted Trump to win and a sister who put her education on hold to campaign for Hilary Clinton. Both feeling rage about the current events in the country seek to channel that rage into what feels like a productive endeavor.  We’re introduced to a multitude of other characters as the show goes on including Gary Longstreet a MAGA supporter who cuts off their arm to pledge fealty to their political cult leader with a vote and Bebe Babbitt, an extremist feminist who will go to great lengths to seize power and control, especially creating cults to induce a “feminine rage” takeover to illustrate the two extreme ends of the spectrum on display.  Fear is Truth is the name of the clown cult that the main characters are a part of led by Kai. This cult’s goal and purpose is to make everyone afraid and to use that fear for political gain, so essentially what current everyday politics boils down to when we examine the most corrupt.  Donning clown masks and costumes the group: Triple Dick, Ballgag, Pentagram, Puzzle Face, Holes, Kooks, Brainiac, and Elephant (Wo)man commit gruesome and symbolic murders leaving a bloody, clown smiley face at each scene with the goal of capturing media attention. Murdering clown cults, extreme manipulation, and conspiracy theories reveal themselves slowly with red herring distractions that allow them to fly even more so under the radar. The paranoia is well built in the beginning of the season, even making you as a watcher paranoid characters are lying to you.  The season’s ending reminds of the theories of the Illuminati but with the spin of relatively powerless solo actors in the shadows pulling the puppet strings rather than the most famous celebrities and politicians.  From the promotion campaign to the finale the season fulfills the promise of its title and theme: cults. We see how Kai, Winter, and Beverly take advantage of people’s fears in order to manipulate them and attempt to control them. The eventual outcomes of the attempts to control end as many other cults tend to: by imploding.  Kai even explains the demise of real world cults like The Manson Family , Heaven’s Gate , and David Koresh ; which are definitely not the kinds of cults you want your cult leader to reference in relation to you.  Ultimately the season is really on the nose, clown pun intended, but accomplishes one of my favorite things about horror: holding a mirror up to society and showing us our fears.   Without a doubt the early seasons, Murder House , Asylum , and Coven are the  most popular seasons. Not necessarily the best all around or most acclaimed they are usually the most known outside of the fandom and the earlier seasons of the show saw increases in viewership from one season to the next as opposed to declines after Roanoke.  Apocalypse is an extremely intelligent way to magnetize viewers back to the franchise and give the people what they’ve been asking for: bring back the faves and if possible the queen herself, Jessica Lange.  Without a doubt the early seasons, Murder House , Asylum , and Coven are the  most popular seasons. Not necessarily the best all around or most acclaimed they are usually the most known outside of the fandom and the earlier seasons of the show saw increases in viewership from one season to the next as opposed to declines after Roanoke.  Apocalypse is an extremely intelligent way to magnetize viewers back to the franchise and give the people what they’ve been asking for: bring back the faves and if possible the queen herself, Jessica Lange.  In September 2018 the eighth installment premiered and is still widely regarded as a considerable improvement in comparison to Roanoke and Cult , boasting an audience score of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes , close to Coven ’s audience score of 76% on the same site .  Season 8 also marks the return of an original show runner from seasons 1-4, Jessica Lange , who reprises her role of Constance Langdon from Murder House . The first episode hits the ground running with an Apocalypse as guaranteed, nuclear armageddon takes over the planet and only the mega wealthy and the genetically matched live in underground bunkers called “Outposts” to protect against the radiation. Murder House in Los Angeles, Miss Robichaux’s in New Orleans, and various personal Hells are all settings during the season.  Cody Fern joins American Horror Story for the first time as Michael Langdon, the Antichrist who is the driving force behind the apocalypse. We get two performances from Sarah Paulson AND a directorial debut on episode 6. We’re introduced to male academies for magic and the headmasters like John Henry Moore and Behold Chablis that build upon the universe from Coven .  We’re also given endings and continuations on stories from seasons 1 and 3 regarding characters like the Langdon and Harmon families trapped in the Murder House and the witches from Coven , both burned at the stake and still alive. Madison Montgomery, one my favorite characters of the franchise, also makes a comeback and redeems herself.  Both Murder House and Coven are simply iconic, and Apocalypse is a welcome revisit . As promised the 8th season captured the essence and vibe of the earlier seasons like Asylum and Coven extremely well. The ending does need to be addressed however, it undoes the entire series of events. Essentially nothing that happened during the season with Outpost 3, and Miss Mead, and the Satanists, and the witches' sacrifices and bonding on the path to save the world saving the world, just didn’t happen. In order to save the world Mallory, the Billie Lourd played badass, has to go back in time and take Michael out when he’s still weak enough to do so.  Unfortunately for those of us who felt satisfied with the tied up ends to staple stories none of it mattered anyways. This season is a non-season season and I often think of it as a side quest for my favorite characters rather than a whole, standalone installment to the franchise. The ninth season got approved at the same time as the 8th and it’s been said to be influenced by slasher horror films of the 80’s, which makes sense with the title of course. Originally meant to be ten episodes, this is the shortest season of AHS coming in at 9 episodes.  Right alongside season 8 this season has a 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is critically acclaimed. Emma Roberts returned but some of the go-to actors from previous seasons like Peters and Paulson sat the season out. The season is a great homage to 80’s slasher horror, from the promo campaigns to the set and costume style to the writing to the acting is just plain good.  The setting is Camp Redwood, a place that has seen a weirdly high number of murders and massacres on the property. Surrounding a lake set back in the California woods the camp is stereotypical in the best ways with a wooden dock and creaky cabin doors.  Starting with a very trope heavy OG killer, Mr. Jingles, we waste no time setting up the legend of this mass killer who collects ears and kills cabins full of campers in the 70’s. The majority of the season takes place in the 80’s and follows a group of young adults living in LA all pursuing their dreams and taking an aerobics class. The group leader Xavier invites everyone to spend the summer getting out of the city and being camp counselors at the reopening Camp Redwood.  All of the characters have their own reasons for getting out, including running from the Night Stalker and hiding from a potential homicide investigation. Later it’s revealed that Margaret, the camp’s director who intends to reopen the camp, is a victim of the original Mr.Jingles massacre and she is also the real Mr. Jingles.  Benjamin Richter, the man who is framed as Mr. Jingles and locked away in a mental hospital, ends up becoming a real serial killer when Donna Chambers, a psychiatrist who infiltrates the group encourages him to do his Mr. Jingle's thing so she can observe him in action for her research.  This season also includes a portrayal of the Night Stalker serial killer from the same time period and general area. This character is inspired by the real killer, Richard Ramirez, a satanist who appears in season 5 at James March’s Halloween dinner. Some of the other serial killers featured are The Lady in White, revealed to be Richter’s mom who killed counselors at the same camp back in the 40’s after her son died in an accident by the dock.  Bruce is a hitchhiker that Brooke and Donna are coerced into giving a ride to as they make their way back to Camp Redwood. He’s been described as a serial killer born into it who has the charm of Ted Bundy and a similar method of selecting victims of opportunity. Donna Chamber’s interest in Mr. Jingles is due to another serial killer, her father who she believed she might’ve been able to help if not cure prior to his suicide. She catches him in his lair and it’s been theorized on Tumblr and in Subreddits that he is based on the Grim Sleeper , a serial killer who took the lives of ten innocent women.   As previously mentioned the promotion campaign portrayed the style of the 80’s promotions and movie posters. This play into tropes is a theme of the season and that’s very clear when looking for character tropes. Ray is a token Black guy, Chet is a dumb, horny jock, Montana is a selfish baddie who is considered the “bad” girl who is opposite the “good” girl and/or final girl in Brooke and then later Donna. We have the hot couple and a woman who is portrayed as absolutely hysterical.  Though the story sets up with the basic tropes once we get through the events that would probably correspond with a first movie in a slasher film franchise the characters have evolved. None of the characters are one dimensional, and similarly to in franchises we get different sides and performances from them when faced with different circumstances, and different serial killers with different motives.  Similarly to Murder House this land traps and tethers souls to it, believed to be because of the string of horrific events taking place on the same property. If someone dies on the property they are stuck there forever, which is both beautiful and awful depending on which ghost you ask.  In these regards the show features sequel-like stories with parallels and call backs, villains that all fit the slasher criteria, extreme violence against women, and not lacking in the gore department. I wish that the season had been ten episodes and that the ending we built up to in the 8th episode could’ve picked up right at the start of the season finale and see that story to its completion.  Instead we get a time jump to present day 2019 Camp Redwood and Richter’s now adult son coming to the Camp for answers about his absent father. Aside from that critique it’s a really fun, campy, and endearing season that stands out whenever I think of American Horror Story . Double Feature is…not my personal favorite, frankly many don’t love this season and it is the second lowest rated season by Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 51% and only 500-999 votes . The first part is perfectly fine with fairly typical critiques and reviews but that second part is something else entirely. Season 10 premiered in 2021 following a delay in production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Split into two parts the name and theme are a play on the days when movie theaters offered two showings for the price of one ticket, often horror films. I actually get mad when I watch Death Valley , and prior to this rewatch I hadn’t actually watched the entire thing due to being so confused and perturbed-not scared or entertained just perturbed.  This review will be divided into two sections covering episodes 1-6 first, all part of the story Red Tide. Both parts focus heavily on their locations, part one takes place in present day Provincetown, Massachusetts , an eastern coastal town that shuts down in the winter.  The cold, haunting environment that is sparsely populated met the needs of filming this season in light of the 2020 shutdowns and restrictions. The beach weathered town is a naturally eerie setting, wide shots used throughout the episodes to capture the essence.  The house and neighborhood that the Gardener's move into is part of a small community of locals that all seem to know something is afoot, lighting red lights at night and shuttering doors and windows. The local bar and a few other character’s houses serve as the places that action happens, bringing characters together and subtly informing with great attention to detail.  Fans are treated to a surprising but good performance from Macaulay Culkin who plays a male of the night alongside his dear friend Tuberculosis Karen, another aspiring artist down on their luck. The family that is the focus of the story, the Gardeners, consists of pregnant mom Doris, struggling TV writer Harry, and aspiring violinist Alma taking a break from New York City. We meet two artists who also stay in Provincetown to create each winter, Austin Sommers a playwright, and Belle Noire a romance novelist.  Both Belle and Austin recruit Harry to try a drug that supposedly opens up your abilities to create masterpieces but only if you are naturally talented. The Chemist, a former military scientist who now manufactures and studies the very drug the artists are on, The Muse, turns Provincetown upside down. Artists who are not talented become “Flesh Phantoms” roaming the streets like twitchy zombies hungry for fresh blood.  An entire drug operation is formed around The Muse, taking down anyone that stands in the way. Ursula, Harry’s talent agent, gets involved at one point and cuts out Harry the middle man while building a talent empire with The Chemist.  I really like this part of Double Feature, from Belle Noir and Austin Sommers in general to the dynamics in the Gardener family as each tries to manipulate the situation to their benefit at the detriment of Doris. I like that it becomes a drug organization focused on talent and creativity, and especially the attention to detail.  Everything about the Flesh Phantoms is explained and in a reasonably understandable way–the teeth are a product of a dentist turned tattoo artist taking the drug who also provides vintage clothes, i.e. the shoulder padded trench coats they wear, and even their hair loss and behavior. Genuinely would’ve preferred a more drawn out Part One with 8-10 episodes as opposed to part two, Death Valley that is episodes 7-10 this season. Death Valley is the most on the nose of all of the American Horror Story seasons in a way that is not campy, fun, or good. It felt confusing and discombobulated from start to finish when it’s actually watchable. The actors do the best they can with the story but the story itself is hollow and comes off like a high school horror story project and not AHS season 10 part two with a second go at aliens as a theme. The setting is as basic as it gets, Area 51 and the Death Valley dessert that it’s located in including a moon landing soundstage, LA of course, and the White House. The story is really obvious, a group of attractive young adults (with the spin that everyone is gay so of course  the already impossible pregnancies are impossible) goes camping and then returns all pregnant.  They end up in Area 51 after going to the ER following a speed run through gestation. The care and creativity used with historical figures in other seasons goes out the window when President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife Mamie are revealed to be main characters this season. Having Neil McDonough should’ve been exciting but instead it was bizarre solely due to the character and story.  It’s all around kinda lame, the story is obvious and the stakes that Eisenhower sells out the American people to the invading aliens are laughably low. There’s a weird Mamie Eisenhower affair that also made no sense, just nothing about this made sense as far as why it was worth it to make. I hope to never watch this again for any reason unless I can watch it at 2X speed and I’m glad it didn’t completely kill the franchise. Season 11 comes off as two separate stories with totally different objectives edited together. As two standalone shows they are both great but mashed up as one season it’s not cohesive or consistent. Now, this next season is a little more confusing to me as a viewer and fan. Premiering in 2022 season 11, NYC , is the lowest rated season with 41% as an Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes .  The first episode in particular set the season off on the wrong foot, not playing into any of the expectations for American Horror Story seasons. The pacing is completely off and upon first watch it’s easy to forget you’re watching American Horror Story based on the first episode. The 1st episode and a 1/2 and then the last 2 episodes are focused on the AIDs epidemic that began in 1981. This is mostly focused on the stark impacts to individuals' health as well as the emotional toll. A visually striking and emotionally horrifying tale unfolds as the epidemic spreads, ominous warnings from tarot cards and characters to one another. This part of the story is one of resiliency in the face of an inescapable reality as the world turned their backs on the suffering. The setting is as promised by the theme New York City, and we find out from the start that we are in the 1980’s again. As the epidemic begins our characters are forced to question their realities and personal biases in the face of a growing threat.  The story in the center of the season has tendrils reaching into the other episodes but is more straight up AHS horror. This great story gets somewhat buried in a focus on the more emotional rather than horror. We get an extremely creepy but interesting serial killer named Whitely portrayed by Jeff Hiller, sparkle deer models, Fire Island parties, bondage gone wrong, and leather bars. Rather than focusing on the perspective of Whitely or Sam, the BDSM obsessed art collector, or even Hannah Wells the pregnant scientist who is discovering the AIDs virus as it spreads, we follow the two least interesting characters Gino and Patrick.  They are in a toxic relationship by any standards and I often found myself bored with their lagging behind on catching on. We as the viewer are aware of the AIDs epidemic so I think some of the build up would’ve been better spent exploring the more interesting characters and aspects of the community. The ending is good but doesn’t feel like the ending to the story we’d been building but rather like a time jump from the first episode and the beginnings of the epidemic meeting the eventual devastation of it. At this point in the franchise with many spin-offs the more high level commentary of the story might have been better portrayed as a separate project and the focus of AHS: NYC better spent on the horror elements so that both shined as much as they could have. There are two main antagonists of the season, and as mentioned they are the AIDs virus represented by Big Daddy and the Mai Tai Killer, who we find out is Whitely.  1. Mai Tai Killer  - Whitely is a Vietnam veteran who kills gay men around NYC, using clubs as hunting grounds. is a nurse as well as working to help dispose of bodies for a criminal org. Using Mai Tai drinks as an in he then abducts and murders men in order to use their body parts to create what he calls “the sentinel” during the upcoming pride parade we never get to see 2. Big Daddy  - Never unmasked as a character or attributed to a specific character. He ominously stalks and haunts people that are infected with the virus, getting closer as they get closer to succumbing. He is a manifestation of the illness and the illness claiming lives that is often used as a tool to foreshadow, sometimes lazily, of a character’s outcome.  The more interesting aspects and story here are definitely the relations within the gay community of that time that we touch on but don’t quite finish exploring. There’s a parallel that goes on between what the biased cops at the NYC think about the community and the outcasted members of the community that I got excited to see play out only for it to be the background story. The ending drags on and becomes more of an emotional reminder that we shouldn’t forget the devastation to the gay community by the AIDs epidemic rather than the ending to a horror show.  At this point in the franchise with a spin-off the more high level commentary of the story might have been better portrayed as a separate project and the focus of American Horror Story: NYC better spent on the horror elements so that both shined as much as they could have. As of finishing this part one article January 31, 2024 I’m watching American Horror Story seasons 1-5 and working on the next part of the video linked above and embedded below. I'll be posting each season as I review them on my other social media accounts as I watch starting with season 1 sometime this week.  This review marathon, which is planned to be one point five other videos, and two additional articles here on my site being updated as I watch. This project and goal for January and February exists for no other reason than wanting to rewatch the show after binge watching season five last month.