You can learn something about the American economy by watching horror movies. It’s true: when times are good and Hollywood is less risk-averse, we are treated to subtle, interesting, and original horror movies. When the economy is shitty (I hate the word “downturn,” it’s so saccharin), Hollywood responds by reverting to tried-and-true vehicles for turning […]
I went to see Cloverfield with a friend the other night. The trailer doesn’t show you very much, and I’m not about to spoil the movie for you here, but if you are already planning on seeing this movie and would appreciate the full effect, stop reading now. Oh, wait, before you go: I was […]
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. As a filmmaker, he’s able to manufacture creepiness with lighting, shot composition, and sets alone. The actors (and ghosts) that populate his scenes are sometimes just icing on the horror cake: Kurosawa knows how to design his films to maximize scares better […]
The setup: I have a newborn who sleeps every evening by 9 PM. I enjoy horror games and films, but my wife isn’t such a fan. I have one of those TVs where the volume goes from “inaudibly quiet” to “loud enough to wake the house up” in a single click. I’d like to stay […]
Back around Halloween I mentioned that a CG Resident Evil movie had been announced by Capcom. Well today the first screens from the film are available over at Destructoid. The aesthetic reminds me of Resident Evil 2, which is good because Leon S Kennedy and Claire Redfield are the main characters. Update: Kotaku has a […]
The other evening I watched Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest, a film called Retribution (sakebi, or “Scream,” in Japanese). You may remember that I am a pretty big Kurosawa fan; his film Cure is one of my favorite horror films of all time. The others of his that I’ve seen, Doppelganger, Pulse, Charisma, and Seance, are also […]
This evening I watched Kuchisake Onna, a film made this year about the slit-mouthed antagonist of a Japanese urban legend I’ve discussed before. Actually, the film is built around the very general idea of a scary woman with a slashed mouth and surgical mask who hunts children–the other details of the legend are completely ignored. […]
A couple of years ago I had a frightening experience. I was getting out of the shower one evening when from behind me I heard the sound of metal scraping against metal. The house was empty and I was standing there in the bathroom, naked and dripping wet, and in that instant I knew that […]
I followed a link from Slashdot Games to this interesting post about the difference between horror games and horror movies over at the hilariously titled GamersWithJobs.com. The author admits to being absolutely terrified by horror games despite having no trouble with horror movies. The point he makes, which is a big part of the reason […]
Though I didn’t think it was a great film, one of the things I dug about Juon 2 was the way the director used lighting to suggest some sort of abstract malice. Unlike many traditional horror movies, Juon 2 doesn’t rely on pitch-black locales to build tension; instead, it suggests that the characters in the […]