The appeal of horror cinema is often ephemeral. The pleasures of the genre aren’t always fleeting, of course — what horror fan can’t remember the first time they fell in love with the feeling of being scared? — but I’d argue that we horror fans often watch movies just because they’re horror movies. We do this because there are certain earmarks of the genre that we rigidly respect, and even when those earmarks aren’t pulled off very well, we’re excited […]
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The 31 Days of Halloween, Day 8: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
As with a full-fledged horror movie, a horror-based comedy doesn’t quite need to reinvent the wheel. It merely needs to appeal to horror nerds and comedy fans alike — a shockingly delicate balancing act to maintain. Look at perhaps the most famous examples of the genre: the Scary Movie franchise. To the creators of the Scary Movies, merely pointing out obvious horror benchmarks is high comedy. It doesn’t appeal to a majority of horror nerds, because it simply puts the […]
The 31 Days of Halloween, Days 6 & 7: Night of the Living Dead // Dawn of the Dead
First things first: I apologize deeply to the ten or so horror-starved souls out there who went unfulfilled yesterday. It won’t happen again, and today, we have a delightful Halloween twofer for you to make up for it. Zombies are fashionable. Werewolves and vampires have lost a bit of their cache since they became heart-throbs — and you all know who’s fault that is, kids — but in terms of monsters that are almost universally respected by horror fans, zombies […]
The 31 Days of Halloween, Day 5: Them
Against all odds, it seems as though modern-day French horror has a keen grip on what is truly frightening. It can be intense — Pascal Laugier’s eviscerating Martyrs taps into difficult notions of pain and existentialism, while Alexandre Bustillo’s equally trying Inside puts an expectant mother through the ringer to horrifying effect. David Moreau and Xavier Palud’s Them is a lot simpler than either of those movies, but it’s still a potent horror thriller, and it taps into something a […]
The 31 Days of Halloween, Day 4: Night of the Demons
As I sit down to sell you on Kevin Tenney’s little-respected Night of the Demons, I find it important to reiterate once again that this series is not designed as a treatise on the best horror films of all time. There’s going to be some overlap, sure, particularly as we get closer to the holiday, but this month we’re looking to direct you towards flicks that embody the fun, eerie nature of the holiday. It’s not important that each film […]
Spin Cycle: Mumford & Sons, Babel
Scottish hitmakers Mumford & Sons are back with another agreeable, hooky collection of stomping folk-rock. How does “Babel” stack up to “Sigh No More”?
The 31 Days of Halloween, Day 3: The Descent
For the third day of Halloween, we take a look at crippling fear and claustrophobia in Neil Marshall’s UK nail-biter “The Descent”.
The 31 Days of Halloween, Day 2: The Night of the Hunter
For the second of Popblerd’s 31 Days of Halloween, we look at Charles Laughton’s “Night of the Hunter”, a Gothic, deep-south potboiler starring Robert Mitchum.
The 31 Days of Halloween, Day 1: May
Popblerd’s countdown of 31 great Halloween movies kicks off with Lucky McKee’s twisted, bloody character study “May.”
Spin Cycle: Band of Horses, Mirage Rock
Band of Horses reign it in and craft a harmonic homage to 70s AM radio on fourth album “Mirage Rock”
Spin Cycle: The Avett Brothers, The Carpenter
In the realm of swaying, stomping, harmonic pop-folk, The Avett Brothers stand only in the shadow of Mumford & Sons, a recent success story that, perhaps not-coincidentally, the long-running North Carolina brother-band is starting to bear more than a passing resemblance to. Comparing Mumford’s lone album to the Avett’s discography previously yielded only superficial comparisons: po-faced, earnest lyricism; the tell-tale lilt of a banjo here and there; shouty, fractured harmonies. But where the Mumfords use their Appalachian sensibilities […]
Spin Cycle: Alanis Morissette, Havoc and Bright Lights
Alanis Morissette is back with “Havoc and Bright Lights”, her first release since 2008’s “So-Called Chaos”. Popblerd has the review!