No one knows how to push boundaries quite like Gaspar Noé, and throughout his storied career, he has made films that are as innovative as they are controversial. On a personal level, while I admire his audacity and his willingness to take enormous risks, I have never truly connected with the director – it isn’t…
Category: Horror
Martin (1977)
George A. Romero was a filmmaker mostly associated with defining zombie films and launched a worldwide obsession with the walking dead that has lasted since his groundbreaking film The Night of the Living Dead and its innumerable sequels. However, while he may be best known for his work with this newly-minted undead, Romero’s finest moment…
Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
We’ve come a long way in terms of art. No longer is it the realm of a select few that work meticulously to create grand pieces, but now the domain of anyone who wants to express themselves and convey a certain message. Whether or not you adhere to this subversive new way of artistic expression…
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
The Hills Have Eyes is one of the bleakest films I have ever seen, and also one of the most audacious. Wes Craven ascended to incredible acclaim for his reinvention of the horror genre with films such as The Last House on the Left, the Scream franchise and A Nightmare on Elm Street, amongst others….
Spirits of the Dead (1968)
The anthology format is a genre of filmmaking that has seemingly gone out of fashion, with the exception of the occasional attempt to revisit the form, albeit from a more self-aware perspective. Yet, it is a remarkably effective means to make a film – shorter stories sewn together by some narrative or thematic thread. The…
Us (2019)
Jordan Peele has always had his finger firmly on the pulse of the human condition – this was evident in his groundbreaking comedic work on Mad TV and Key & Peele, but it has been proven to be one of his most remarkable talents through his transition into a horror film auteur, the likes of…
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
…well. I don’t know where to start. There have not been many films that have elicited such an extreme reaction in me as Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. First, some context – a friend and I have an annual Valentine’s Day tradition where we watch the most disturbing, controversial and transgressive films we…
Suspiria (2018)
There has been a recent trend in cinema that is both horrifying and absolutely riveting – horror films are becoming more psychologically-scarring, and feature sequences of unhinged, anarchic insanity, normally devoting the entire third act to reckless terror. Recent examples include Darren Aronofksy’s mother! and Ari Aster’s Hereditary, two extremely audacious and utterly terrifying works….
Bird Box (2018)
When it comes to horror film (or any work that has the intention of creating fear or terror in the audience), I hold a few principles in very high regard – but the most important concept of horror cinema is what I call the Unseen Principle, which states that while seeing what we fear is…
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Of all the cinematic conventions that have seemingly gone out of style, none is more fascinating than that of the horror anthology. Perhaps not entirely absent, the days when films were built around short but impactful stories, often retaining some loose connection through wraparound sequences, are long behind us. A few months ago, I reviewed…