O:9:"MagpieRSS":23:{s:6:"parser";i:0;s:12:"current_item";a:0:{}s:5:"items";a:10:{i:0;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:37:"10 Worst Uses Of CGI In Horror Movies";s:4:"link";s:93:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/10-worst-uses-of-cgi-in-horror-movies/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Thu, 19 May 2022 03:04:21 +0000";s:8:"category";s:31:"Scream AwayCGIHorrormoviesWorst";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68847";s:11:"description";s:570:"From Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to the films of Ti West, horror has developed quite a bit since the genre’s inception in film. One aspect of older horror films that are often referenced in newer ones is the “money shots” – the moments when the special effects crew can wrangle up some ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:25181:"
From Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to the films of Ti West, horror has developed quite a bit since the genre’s inception in film. One aspect of older horror films that are often referenced in newer ones is the “money shots” – the moments when the special effects crew can wrangle up some plastic, wood, and gooey material to convincingly convey the death (or physical transformation) of a character.
Practical effects, unfortunately, have mostly gone by the wayside in modern cinema, and it’s not as noticeable in any other genre as it is in horror. Excellent special effects lead to a reaction in the viewer; the same can be said of particularly poor ones.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
The Vampire Cats — Sleepwalkers (1992)
Even if Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers were based on an existing work of his, it would hardly be called just as scary as its book counterpart.
RELATED: The 10 Best CGI Characters From Superhero Movies
The film is an extremely silly take on the vampire film, turning its eternal lifers into cat people instead of bat humans. The plot follows a mother-and-son shapeshifting duo who scrounge their way through elongated lifespans by feeding on others, but there’s a good chance no one is feeding more than mom off her son.
The Langoliers — The Langoliers (1995)
Far from being one of the best TV horror miniseries, this three-hour adaptation of a Stephen King novella, one of four in Four Past Midnightis at least two hours too long.
The viewing experience isn’t helped by the extremely poor digital effects, which don’t even look convincing for a mid-1990s television film. What’s disappointing about The Langoliers‘ effects is the fact the film was directed by Tom Holland, who had already shown proficiency in shooting practical effects in Fright Night and Child’s Play.
The Werewolf — An American Werewolf In Paris (1997)
Rick Baker’s jaw-dropping effects for 1981’s An American Werewolf in London received the first Academy Award for Best Makeup. The film’s transformation scene stands as one of the best examples of practical effects committed to film, horror or otherwise.
RELATED: 10 Film Locations That Look Like CGI But Are Actually Real
Released 16 years later and barely connected to the original, An American Werewolf in Paris has special effects of the diametric opposite quality. The werewolf in the original film had a presence that made the viewer feel unsafe for everyone within a five-mile radius of it. When watching Paristhe viewer feels like the werewolf’s intended victims are just going to laugh at it.
Malebolgia — Spawn (1997)
Spawnone of the best comic book movies on Netflix, also functions as a horror movie. Riddled with near-gothic imagery in the vein of The Crowno aspect of Spawn‘s world feels safe for the protagonist, especially once he gets down to Hell.
The early comic adaptation has aspects that work for it—namely John Leguizamo as Violator/Clown—but the CGI in the third act looked weak in 1997 and looks atrocious in the 2020s. Violator’s true form was captured partially using practical effects, and in closeup shots, it’s one of the more well-aged aspects of the film, aesthetically. While it would have been extremely expensive to build a practical Hell, the appearance of Malebolgia is laughable, and the film had already proven it was capable of much better, albeit imperfect, CGI.
The Xenos — Alone In The Dark (2005)
An Uwe Boll “movie” was never going to give birth to one of the most impressive CGI creatures, but it couldn’t have done much worse than the shoddily-designed, blurry Xenos (short for xenomorph, the antagonist of the Alien franchise).
Starring Christian Slater, Tara Reid, and Stephen Dorff, Boll’s low-rent video game adaptation is poorly-constructed from front to back, with even Slater being unable to elevate the proceedings. Working with a thin video game plot, any success would rely upon the special effects, and they’re not convincing for a moment, making Alone in the Dark an extremely long 96 minutes.
The Deer — The Ring Two (2005)
Deer make several appearances throughout the runtime of The Ring Twoand considering both how bad they look and how widely available actual deer are, it probably would have been best for the filmmakers to have gone with the latter.
RELATED: The 10 Blockbuster Movies With The Worst CGI, According To Reddit
In the theatrical cut, young Aidan (David Dorfman, reprising his role from the first film) comes across a single CGI deer relatively early on. While this scene was excised from the unrated version, the attack scene remains. It finds Naomi Watts’ (also reprising) Rachel Keller driving Aidan to their home. Suddenly, a herd of deer makes its way out of the woods and crashes the car. The issue is that it’s obvious the car is run off the road by what is clearly a computer’s creation. Deer aren’t particularly scary, to begin with, especially when they don’t even look like the animal is supposed to.
Emerging Freddy — A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)
Wes Craven’s seminal 1984 classic A Nightmare on Elm Street received a vapid, MTV music video-style remake in 2010 that settled for replicating the original film’s most iconic scenes as opposed to coming up with anything new.
While Craven’s film had a flurry of still-impressive visual effects crafted from physical material, the remake throws unconvincing CGI at the same once-unsettling scenes, e.g. Tina’s ceiling climb. The replications are hollow at best, and they still would be if the CGI were not very poor. As the film stands, though, the unscary scenes are cheapened even further by shoddy effects work.
Every Variation Of The Thing — The Thing (2011)
John Carpenter’s The Thing is not just one of the greatest horror films ever made, but one of the best films ever made. The 2011 prequel of the same name is different. Even with a stellar cast including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Eric Christian Olsen, the film never lifts off the ground, and that’s because it’s missing at least one production aspect crucial to the success of the original: its effects.
Carpenter’s original has the most detailed, grotesque practical effects committed to celluloid, and the remake goes for shocking body horror as well, but it approaches gross-out with CGI, and computer-generated images will never produce the same result in the viewer as gooey, tangible material.
Mama – Mama (2013)
Andy Muschietti’s Mama is a fine entry in the glut of early 2010s supernatural scarers, bolstered by game performances from Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. However, the titular ghost never manages to be convincing, much less frightening, instead just looking like a goofy, floating blue woman.
The plot follows Annabel (Chastain) and her boyfriend (Coster-Waldau), Lucas. The latter is grieving after his twin brother murders his wife, takes his own life, and leaves his two little girls out in the woods. Now, Lucas and Annabel take it upon themselves to raise the two kids, but they keep talking about some guardian named “Mama.”
CGI Pennywise — It (2017)
When Pennywise the Dancing Clown is shown as simply Bill Skarsgård in makeup and costume, the character looks phenomenal. The actor imbues the sadistic alien with enough personality to make him truly scary, which is a level of effectiveness immediately lost whenever he turns into Pennywise the CGI monster running towards the camera.
Mama director Andy Muschietti’s first It (2017) delved into the world of CGI a bit too often, with only one effective usage (the projector scene). But 2019’s It Chapter Two took it to the level where Pennywise was never scary, which didn’t help an already problematic weaker half of an otherwise excellent novel.
NEXT: 10 Best Film Adaptations Of Stephen King’s Books, According To Ranker
Top Gun 2 Gives Tom Cruise His Best Rotten Tomatoes Streak Yet
About The Author
Ben Hathaway (334 Articles Published)
Ben Hathaway is a Senior Writer (Lists) for Screen Rant. A former Therapeutic Day Treatment counselor, Ben is now a career writer. When not working, he is writing and self-publishing (on Amazon) novels under the name Scott Gray. In his spare time, he’s reading on the porch or watching every film under the sun. Ben can be contacted at scottgraywrk@gmail.com.
More From Ben Hathaway
We would like to thank the writer of this write-up for this amazing web content
";}s:7:"summary";s:570:"From Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to the films of Ti West, horror has developed quite a bit since the genre’s inception in film. One aspect of older horror films that are often referenced in newer ones is the “money shots” – the moments when the special effects crew can wrangle up some ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:25181:"
From Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to the films of Ti West, horror has developed quite a bit since the genre’s inception in film. One aspect of older horror films that are often referenced in newer ones is the “money shots” – the moments when the special effects crew can wrangle up some plastic, wood, and gooey material to convincingly convey the death (or physical transformation) of a character.
Practical effects, unfortunately, have mostly gone by the wayside in modern cinema, and it’s not as noticeable in any other genre as it is in horror. Excellent special effects lead to a reaction in the viewer; the same can be said of particularly poor ones.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
The Vampire Cats — Sleepwalkers (1992)
Even if Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers were based on an existing work of his, it would hardly be called just as scary as its book counterpart.
RELATED: The 10 Best CGI Characters From Superhero Movies
The film is an extremely silly take on the vampire film, turning its eternal lifers into cat people instead of bat humans. The plot follows a mother-and-son shapeshifting duo who scrounge their way through elongated lifespans by feeding on others, but there’s a good chance no one is feeding more than mom off her son.
The Langoliers — The Langoliers (1995)
Far from being one of the best TV horror miniseries, this three-hour adaptation of a Stephen King novella, one of four in Four Past Midnightis at least two hours too long.
The viewing experience isn’t helped by the extremely poor digital effects, which don’t even look convincing for a mid-1990s television film. What’s disappointing about The Langoliers‘ effects is the fact the film was directed by Tom Holland, who had already shown proficiency in shooting practical effects in Fright Night and Child’s Play.
The Werewolf — An American Werewolf In Paris (1997)
Rick Baker’s jaw-dropping effects for 1981’s An American Werewolf in London received the first Academy Award for Best Makeup. The film’s transformation scene stands as one of the best examples of practical effects committed to film, horror or otherwise.
RELATED: 10 Film Locations That Look Like CGI But Are Actually Real
Released 16 years later and barely connected to the original, An American Werewolf in Paris has special effects of the diametric opposite quality. The werewolf in the original film had a presence that made the viewer feel unsafe for everyone within a five-mile radius of it. When watching Paristhe viewer feels like the werewolf’s intended victims are just going to laugh at it.
Malebolgia — Spawn (1997)
Spawnone of the best comic book movies on Netflix, also functions as a horror movie. Riddled with near-gothic imagery in the vein of The Crowno aspect of Spawn‘s world feels safe for the protagonist, especially once he gets down to Hell.
The early comic adaptation has aspects that work for it—namely John Leguizamo as Violator/Clown—but the CGI in the third act looked weak in 1997 and looks atrocious in the 2020s. Violator’s true form was captured partially using practical effects, and in closeup shots, it’s one of the more well-aged aspects of the film, aesthetically. While it would have been extremely expensive to build a practical Hell, the appearance of Malebolgia is laughable, and the film had already proven it was capable of much better, albeit imperfect, CGI.
The Xenos — Alone In The Dark (2005)
An Uwe Boll “movie” was never going to give birth to one of the most impressive CGI creatures, but it couldn’t have done much worse than the shoddily-designed, blurry Xenos (short for xenomorph, the antagonist of the Alien franchise).
Starring Christian Slater, Tara Reid, and Stephen Dorff, Boll’s low-rent video game adaptation is poorly-constructed from front to back, with even Slater being unable to elevate the proceedings. Working with a thin video game plot, any success would rely upon the special effects, and they’re not convincing for a moment, making Alone in the Dark an extremely long 96 minutes.
The Deer — The Ring Two (2005)
Deer make several appearances throughout the runtime of The Ring Twoand considering both how bad they look and how widely available actual deer are, it probably would have been best for the filmmakers to have gone with the latter.
RELATED: The 10 Blockbuster Movies With The Worst CGI, According To Reddit
In the theatrical cut, young Aidan (David Dorfman, reprising his role from the first film) comes across a single CGI deer relatively early on. While this scene was excised from the unrated version, the attack scene remains. It finds Naomi Watts’ (also reprising) Rachel Keller driving Aidan to their home. Suddenly, a herd of deer makes its way out of the woods and crashes the car. The issue is that it’s obvious the car is run off the road by what is clearly a computer’s creation. Deer aren’t particularly scary, to begin with, especially when they don’t even look like the animal is supposed to.
Emerging Freddy — A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)
Wes Craven’s seminal 1984 classic A Nightmare on Elm Street received a vapid, MTV music video-style remake in 2010 that settled for replicating the original film’s most iconic scenes as opposed to coming up with anything new.
While Craven’s film had a flurry of still-impressive visual effects crafted from physical material, the remake throws unconvincing CGI at the same once-unsettling scenes, e.g. Tina’s ceiling climb. The replications are hollow at best, and they still would be if the CGI were not very poor. As the film stands, though, the unscary scenes are cheapened even further by shoddy effects work.
Every Variation Of The Thing — The Thing (2011)
John Carpenter’s The Thing is not just one of the greatest horror films ever made, but one of the best films ever made. The 2011 prequel of the same name is different. Even with a stellar cast including Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Eric Christian Olsen, the film never lifts off the ground, and that’s because it’s missing at least one production aspect crucial to the success of the original: its effects.
Carpenter’s original has the most detailed, grotesque practical effects committed to celluloid, and the remake goes for shocking body horror as well, but it approaches gross-out with CGI, and computer-generated images will never produce the same result in the viewer as gooey, tangible material.
Mama – Mama (2013)
Andy Muschietti’s Mama is a fine entry in the glut of early 2010s supernatural scarers, bolstered by game performances from Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. However, the titular ghost never manages to be convincing, much less frightening, instead just looking like a goofy, floating blue woman.
The plot follows Annabel (Chastain) and her boyfriend (Coster-Waldau), Lucas. The latter is grieving after his twin brother murders his wife, takes his own life, and leaves his two little girls out in the woods. Now, Lucas and Annabel take it upon themselves to raise the two kids, but they keep talking about some guardian named “Mama.”
CGI Pennywise — It (2017)
When Pennywise the Dancing Clown is shown as simply Bill Skarsgård in makeup and costume, the character looks phenomenal. The actor imbues the sadistic alien with enough personality to make him truly scary, which is a level of effectiveness immediately lost whenever he turns into Pennywise the CGI monster running towards the camera.
Mama director Andy Muschietti’s first It (2017) delved into the world of CGI a bit too often, with only one effective usage (the projector scene). But 2019’s It Chapter Two took it to the level where Pennywise was never scary, which didn’t help an already problematic weaker half of an otherwise excellent novel.
NEXT: 10 Best Film Adaptations Of Stephen King’s Books, According To Ranker
Top Gun 2 Gives Tom Cruise His Best Rotten Tomatoes Streak Yet
About The Author
Ben Hathaway (334 Articles Published)
Ben Hathaway is a Senior Writer (Lists) for Screen Rant. A former Therapeutic Day Treatment counselor, Ben is now a career writer. When not working, he is writing and self-publishing (on Amazon) novels under the name Scott Gray. In his spare time, he’s reading on the porch or watching every film under the sun. Ben can be contacted at scottgraywrk@gmail.com.
More From Ben Hathaway
We would like to thank the writer of this write-up for this amazing web content
";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652929461;}i:1;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:37:"What The Good Girls Cast Is Doing Now";s:4:"link";s:93:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/what-the-good-girls-cast-is-doing-now/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Thu, 19 May 2022 01:42:24 +0000";s:8:"category";s:20:"Scream AwaycastGirls";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68837";s:11:"description";s:550:"Despite a slew of devoted fans and a cast of talented actors, NBC made the decision to cut Good Girls short after its Season 4 finale, essentially ending the series on a cliffhanger and leaving the fate of the titular “girls” up in the air. Good Girls still has a cult following, and rumor had ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:59777:"
Despite a slew of devoted fans and a cast of talented actors, NBC made the decision to cut Good Girls short after its Season 4 finale, essentially ending the series on a cliffhanger and leaving the fate of the titular “girls” up in the air.
Good Girls still has a cult following, and rumor had it that Netflix might make moves to resurrect the dramedy and give it a proper final season, seeing how as recently as March, Good Girls made it to #2 on Netflix’s Top 10 list, causing many to wonder why the show was canceled in the first place.
Unfortunately, no save came through for Good Girlsso Season 4 is the last place we’re likely to see all of the actors together on screen. But! You can still see many of the Good Girls actors in the projects they’ve done since its untimely ending. Let’s take a look!
(Image credit: NBC)
Christina Hendricks (Beth Boland)
Housewife-turned crime boss Beth Boland was portrayed by Mad Men actor Christina Hendricks. Those who haven’t seen Mad Men might also recognize Hendricks’ voice from her role as Gabby Gabby in Toy Story 4.
Hendricks will star in the upcoming film adaptation of the New York Times Bestseller, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, alongside Lucy Hale and The Big Bang Theory alum, Kunal Nayyar.
Currently, Hendricks voices the role of Cherie on the Hulu animated comedy Solar Oppositesalongside Rick and Morty’s Justin Roiland. Hendricks previously voiced the hive-mind being Unity on an episode of Rick and Morty in 2015. Both shows stream on Hulu.
(Image credit: NBC)
Retta (Ruby Hill)
Prior to Good Girlsmost knew Retta from her days as Donna on the NBC show Parks and Recreation. Recently, she’s been using her talents as the host of the HGTV show Ugliest House in America. She also dabbles in voice acting, appearing in shows like Where’s Waldo? and DuckTales.
In 2022, Retta signed a talent holding deal with NBC under which she will collaborate exclusively with NBCUniversal and Universal Television, including platforms like Bravo, Syfy, and NBC’s streaming service, Peacock.
(Image credit: NBC)
Mae Whitman (Annie Marks)
Actress and singer Mae Whitman has been super busy expanding her voice acting career since the end of Good Girlslending her voice to shows like Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken, the bingeable Amazon Prime original animated series Invincible, and Young Justice. She can also be heard in the Disney Channel series, The Owl House.
Whitman will star in Hulu’s upcoming musical rom-com series Up Herea project that includes writer Steven Levenson (known for Tick, Tick…Boom! and Dear Evan Hansen) and Hamilton director Thomas Kail.
(Image credit: NBC)
Manny Montana (Rio)
Though best known for his role as gang leader Christopher, a.k.a. Rio, in Good GirlsManny Montana has joined the cast of Mayans MCthe FX crime-drama series that takes place in the same universe as Sons of Anarchy. Montana joined for the fourth season of the show, which premiered in April of 2022.
(Image credit: NBC)
Reno Wilson (Stanley Hill)
Ruby’s devoted husband, Stanley, was played by Reno Wilson, an actor most famous for his role as Carl on the CBS show Mike & Molly. After the conclusion of Good GirlsWilson appeared in the film Boldenportraying jazz musician Louis Armstrong.
His most recent projects include Born A Championthe true story of the first American black belt in jiu-jitsu. He’s also set to appear in the 2022 movie, HeadShop, alongside actors like Nicole Ari Parker and Michael Jai White.
(Image credit: NBC)
Matthew Lillard (Dean Boland)
Most recognize Matthew Lillard as the face of Shaggy in the live action Scooby-Doo movies, a far cry from the role of adulterous husband Dean Boland in Good Girls. But many don’t know that he actually still voices Shaggy in a number of projects, including the 2021 TV special, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now!, and the MultiVersus video game. He also makes cameos on Robot Chicken as Shaggy.
Recent film credits for Lillard include Scream (2022) and a role on the Showtime drama, Billions.
(Image credit: NBC)
Lidya Jewett (Sara Hill)
One of the talented children in Good Girls was Lidya Jewett, an actor who has previously appeared in shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Disney Channel’s Bunk’d.
Prior to her time on Good Girls, Jewett was a cast-member of two Oscar-winning films, Black Panther and Hidden Figuresso the young actress has had plenty of experience working with seasoned pros.
Most recently, Jewett starred in Nightbooksa Netflix film that aired in September of 2021. She will also appear in the 2022 movie, Ivy & Beanbased on the popular children’s books by Annie Barrows.
(Image credit: NBC)
Isaiah Stannard (Ben Marks)
Good Girls actor Isaiah Stannard impacted the plot of the show in a big way. While the role of “Sadie” (later called Ben) was originally intended for a cis-male, Good Girls creator Jenna Bans changed the character with the help of GLAAD to create a transgender character. Stannard continues to be open about his experience as a transgender teen.
In 2021, Stannard played the role of Evan on the HBOMax show Genera+ionwhich was sadly cancelled after one season.
Fans of Stannard can catch him again in the short film 5 Teenagers Walk Into a Bar.
(Image credit: NBC)
David Hornsby (Boomer)
David Hornsby has appeared in many shows, including his ongoing portrayal of Rickety Cricket in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiaand small roles in shows like The Goldbergs and New Girl. However, the actor has focused mainly on writing since the conclusion of Good Girls. He continues to write for IASIPa role he’s held since 2006, spanning all fifteen seasons of the sitcom. The show was renewed by FXX for four more seasons in 2020, so it’s likely Hornsby will be busy writing for a while.
Hornsby currently pulls double-duty writing and acting on Mythic Questone of the best Apple TV+ original shows currently streaming on the platform, working alongside fellow IASIP actor/creator, Rob McElhenney.
(Image credit: NBC)
Zach Gilford (Gregg)
Fans wanting to see Zach Gilford in a show that isn’t horror-related might be out of luck. Gilford has become a staple of the horror genre in recent years, giving a heartbreaking performance in Mike Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass. In fact, Good Girls is the most light-hearted project Gilford has been a part of since his appearances on the Comedy Central show, Drunk History, in the mid to late 2010s.
Gilford will join Mike Flanagan again on the new horror/thriller, The Midnight Clubas well as the Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, The Fall of the House of Ushera miniseries that will stream on Netflix. Both are set to premiere in 2022.
Gilford will also appear in the upcoming 2022 film, There’s Something Wrong With The Children (and yes, if you couldn’t tell by the name, it’s a scary movie).
(Image credit: NBC)
Lauren Lapkus (Phoebe Donnegan)
Many recognize Lapkus from her quirky side character roles, but her most popular leading role was in David Spade’s 2020 Netflix comedy, The Wrong Missy.
Exciting upcoming projects for Lapkus include the CBS multi-camera sitcom Sober Companionas well as the horror/comedy Boo!. Lapkus currently serves as the co-host of the Newcomers podcast with Nicole Byer, as well as the Threedom podcast alongside Scott Aukerman and Paul F. Tompkins.
(Image credit: NBC)
Danny Boyd (Harry Hill)
Danny Boyd was recently featured in The Underground Railroadavailable to stream on Amazon Prime Video. He was also in the Halle Berry movie Bruised (2020).
Boyd also portrays Ray Jr. in the Emmy award-winning series #freerayshawnwhich airs on the Roku Channel.
(Image credit: NBC)
Allison Tolman (Mary Pat)
Allison Tolman, most recognizable for her role in the FX series Fargocurrently stars in Season 2 of the Paramount+ original show, Why Women Killan anthology series depicting the struggles of several women from different generations and the infidelity (and other issues) of their husbands. (Feels kind of reminiscent of Good Girlsactually!)
Tolman also has appeared in Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience series. She portrayed Natalie Green in the live performance of The Facts of Life in December of 2021.
Tolman will be featured in the upcoming Watergate drama, Gaslitstarring alongside Julia Roberts and Sean Penn.
(Image credit: NBC)
James Lesure (Jimmy Turner)
Around the time of Good Girls’ cancellation, James Lesure was working on the HBO Max series, Divorce, opposite Sarah Jessica Parker.
Lesure briefly found his way back to network television with Rebelan ABC legal drama that starred Katey Segal, but it was cancelled after one season, in the summer of 2021.
Lesure also appears as Julius Erving in the HBO Max series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
(Image credit: NBC)
Ignacio Serrichio (Nick)
Most famous for his ongoing role in the Telemundo International series, the recluseactor Ignacio Serrichio has been seen recently in shows like Netflix’s Lost in Spaceas well as heard in recurring voice work for shows like Family Guy and Robot Chicken.
Serrichio will be joining the cast of Firefly Lane for its second season, joining current cast members Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke. Netflix announced the show’s renewal via Zoom in May of 2021, but there’s no word just yet on when Season 2 will premiere.
(Image credit: NBC)
Breckin Meyer (Vance)
Former teen heartthrob Breckin Meyer was seen most recently in a supporting role in Happilya “killer” romantic comedy film. Fans of Meyer can also see him in his 2021 film, The Enormity of Lifewhere he plays a man who receives a large inheritance from a distant relative after his failed suicide attempt.
Meyer joins a number of his Good Girls cast mates with voice roles on Robot Chickenand is set to voice-act again in the long-awaited Star Wars: Detours animated comedy series.
Seasons 1-4 of Good Girls are available to stream on Netflix. While you’re binging, cross your fingers and hope the Netflix powers that be change direction and do come through with an Arrested Development-style redemption arc for Retta, Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman, and the entire Good Girls cast. I mean, we can dream, right?
We would like to say thanks to the author of this post for this outstanding web content
";}s:7:"summary";s:550:"Despite a slew of devoted fans and a cast of talented actors, NBC made the decision to cut Good Girls short after its Season 4 finale, essentially ending the series on a cliffhanger and leaving the fate of the titular “girls” up in the air. Good Girls still has a cult following, and rumor had ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:59777:"
Despite a slew of devoted fans and a cast of talented actors, NBC made the decision to cut Good Girls short after its Season 4 finale, essentially ending the series on a cliffhanger and leaving the fate of the titular “girls” up in the air.
Good Girls still has a cult following, and rumor had it that Netflix might make moves to resurrect the dramedy and give it a proper final season, seeing how as recently as March, Good Girls made it to #2 on Netflix’s Top 10 list, causing many to wonder why the show was canceled in the first place.
Unfortunately, no save came through for Good Girlsso Season 4 is the last place we’re likely to see all of the actors together on screen. But! You can still see many of the Good Girls actors in the projects they’ve done since its untimely ending. Let’s take a look!
(Image credit: NBC)
Christina Hendricks (Beth Boland)
Housewife-turned crime boss Beth Boland was portrayed by Mad Men actor Christina Hendricks. Those who haven’t seen Mad Men might also recognize Hendricks’ voice from her role as Gabby Gabby in Toy Story 4.
Hendricks will star in the upcoming film adaptation of the New York Times Bestseller, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, alongside Lucy Hale and The Big Bang Theory alum, Kunal Nayyar.
Currently, Hendricks voices the role of Cherie on the Hulu animated comedy Solar Oppositesalongside Rick and Morty’s Justin Roiland. Hendricks previously voiced the hive-mind being Unity on an episode of Rick and Morty in 2015. Both shows stream on Hulu.
(Image credit: NBC)
Retta (Ruby Hill)
Prior to Good Girlsmost knew Retta from her days as Donna on the NBC show Parks and Recreation. Recently, she’s been using her talents as the host of the HGTV show Ugliest House in America. She also dabbles in voice acting, appearing in shows like Where’s Waldo? and DuckTales.
In 2022, Retta signed a talent holding deal with NBC under which she will collaborate exclusively with NBCUniversal and Universal Television, including platforms like Bravo, Syfy, and NBC’s streaming service, Peacock.
(Image credit: NBC)
Mae Whitman (Annie Marks)
Actress and singer Mae Whitman has been super busy expanding her voice acting career since the end of Good Girlslending her voice to shows like Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken, the bingeable Amazon Prime original animated series Invincible, and Young Justice. She can also be heard in the Disney Channel series, The Owl House.
Whitman will star in Hulu’s upcoming musical rom-com series Up Herea project that includes writer Steven Levenson (known for Tick, Tick…Boom! and Dear Evan Hansen) and Hamilton director Thomas Kail.
(Image credit: NBC)
Manny Montana (Rio)
Though best known for his role as gang leader Christopher, a.k.a. Rio, in Good GirlsManny Montana has joined the cast of Mayans MCthe FX crime-drama series that takes place in the same universe as Sons of Anarchy. Montana joined for the fourth season of the show, which premiered in April of 2022.
(Image credit: NBC)
Reno Wilson (Stanley Hill)
Ruby’s devoted husband, Stanley, was played by Reno Wilson, an actor most famous for his role as Carl on the CBS show Mike & Molly. After the conclusion of Good GirlsWilson appeared in the film Boldenportraying jazz musician Louis Armstrong.
His most recent projects include Born A Championthe true story of the first American black belt in jiu-jitsu. He’s also set to appear in the 2022 movie, HeadShop, alongside actors like Nicole Ari Parker and Michael Jai White.
(Image credit: NBC)
Matthew Lillard (Dean Boland)
Most recognize Matthew Lillard as the face of Shaggy in the live action Scooby-Doo movies, a far cry from the role of adulterous husband Dean Boland in Good Girls. But many don’t know that he actually still voices Shaggy in a number of projects, including the 2021 TV special, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now!, and the MultiVersus video game. He also makes cameos on Robot Chicken as Shaggy.
Recent film credits for Lillard include Scream (2022) and a role on the Showtime drama, Billions.
(Image credit: NBC)
Lidya Jewett (Sara Hill)
One of the talented children in Good Girls was Lidya Jewett, an actor who has previously appeared in shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Disney Channel’s Bunk’d.
Prior to her time on Good Girls, Jewett was a cast-member of two Oscar-winning films, Black Panther and Hidden Figuresso the young actress has had plenty of experience working with seasoned pros.
Most recently, Jewett starred in Nightbooksa Netflix film that aired in September of 2021. She will also appear in the 2022 movie, Ivy & Beanbased on the popular children’s books by Annie Barrows.
(Image credit: NBC)
Isaiah Stannard (Ben Marks)
Good Girls actor Isaiah Stannard impacted the plot of the show in a big way. While the role of “Sadie” (later called Ben) was originally intended for a cis-male, Good Girls creator Jenna Bans changed the character with the help of GLAAD to create a transgender character. Stannard continues to be open about his experience as a transgender teen.
In 2021, Stannard played the role of Evan on the HBOMax show Genera+ionwhich was sadly cancelled after one season.
Fans of Stannard can catch him again in the short film 5 Teenagers Walk Into a Bar.
(Image credit: NBC)
David Hornsby (Boomer)
David Hornsby has appeared in many shows, including his ongoing portrayal of Rickety Cricket in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiaand small roles in shows like The Goldbergs and New Girl. However, the actor has focused mainly on writing since the conclusion of Good Girls. He continues to write for IASIPa role he’s held since 2006, spanning all fifteen seasons of the sitcom. The show was renewed by FXX for four more seasons in 2020, so it’s likely Hornsby will be busy writing for a while.
Hornsby currently pulls double-duty writing and acting on Mythic Questone of the best Apple TV+ original shows currently streaming on the platform, working alongside fellow IASIP actor/creator, Rob McElhenney.
(Image credit: NBC)
Zach Gilford (Gregg)
Fans wanting to see Zach Gilford in a show that isn’t horror-related might be out of luck. Gilford has become a staple of the horror genre in recent years, giving a heartbreaking performance in Mike Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass. In fact, Good Girls is the most light-hearted project Gilford has been a part of since his appearances on the Comedy Central show, Drunk History, in the mid to late 2010s.
Gilford will join Mike Flanagan again on the new horror/thriller, The Midnight Clubas well as the Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, The Fall of the House of Ushera miniseries that will stream on Netflix. Both are set to premiere in 2022.
Gilford will also appear in the upcoming 2022 film, There’s Something Wrong With The Children (and yes, if you couldn’t tell by the name, it’s a scary movie).
(Image credit: NBC)
Lauren Lapkus (Phoebe Donnegan)
Many recognize Lapkus from her quirky side character roles, but her most popular leading role was in David Spade’s 2020 Netflix comedy, The Wrong Missy.
Exciting upcoming projects for Lapkus include the CBS multi-camera sitcom Sober Companionas well as the horror/comedy Boo!. Lapkus currently serves as the co-host of the Newcomers podcast with Nicole Byer, as well as the Threedom podcast alongside Scott Aukerman and Paul F. Tompkins.
(Image credit: NBC)
Danny Boyd (Harry Hill)
Danny Boyd was recently featured in The Underground Railroadavailable to stream on Amazon Prime Video. He was also in the Halle Berry movie Bruised (2020).
Boyd also portrays Ray Jr. in the Emmy award-winning series #freerayshawnwhich airs on the Roku Channel.
(Image credit: NBC)
Allison Tolman (Mary Pat)
Allison Tolman, most recognizable for her role in the FX series Fargocurrently stars in Season 2 of the Paramount+ original show, Why Women Killan anthology series depicting the struggles of several women from different generations and the infidelity (and other issues) of their husbands. (Feels kind of reminiscent of Good Girlsactually!)
Tolman also has appeared in Norman Lear and Jimmy Kimmel’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience series. She portrayed Natalie Green in the live performance of The Facts of Life in December of 2021.
Tolman will be featured in the upcoming Watergate drama, Gaslitstarring alongside Julia Roberts and Sean Penn.
(Image credit: NBC)
James Lesure (Jimmy Turner)
Around the time of Good Girls’ cancellation, James Lesure was working on the HBO Max series, Divorce, opposite Sarah Jessica Parker.
Lesure briefly found his way back to network television with Rebelan ABC legal drama that starred Katey Segal, but it was cancelled after one season, in the summer of 2021.
Lesure also appears as Julius Erving in the HBO Max series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
(Image credit: NBC)
Ignacio Serrichio (Nick)
Most famous for his ongoing role in the Telemundo International series, the recluseactor Ignacio Serrichio has been seen recently in shows like Netflix’s Lost in Spaceas well as heard in recurring voice work for shows like Family Guy and Robot Chicken.
Serrichio will be joining the cast of Firefly Lane for its second season, joining current cast members Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke. Netflix announced the show’s renewal via Zoom in May of 2021, but there’s no word just yet on when Season 2 will premiere.
(Image credit: NBC)
Breckin Meyer (Vance)
Former teen heartthrob Breckin Meyer was seen most recently in a supporting role in Happilya “killer” romantic comedy film. Fans of Meyer can also see him in his 2021 film, The Enormity of Lifewhere he plays a man who receives a large inheritance from a distant relative after his failed suicide attempt.
Meyer joins a number of his Good Girls cast mates with voice roles on Robot Chickenand is set to voice-act again in the long-awaited Star Wars: Detours animated comedy series.
Seasons 1-4 of Good Girls are available to stream on Netflix. While you’re binging, cross your fingers and hope the Netflix powers that be change direction and do come through with an Arrested Development-style redemption arc for Retta, Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman, and the entire Good Girls cast. I mean, we can dream, right?
We would like to say thanks to the author of this post for this outstanding web content
";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652924544;}i:2;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:45:"4 Spring Flings Guaranteed To Make You Squirm";s:4:"link";s:101:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/4-spring-flings-guaranteed-to-make-you-squirm/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Thu, 19 May 2022 00:20:18 +0000";s:8:"category";s:39:"Scream AwayFlingsGuaranteedSpringSquirm";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68796";s:11:"description";s:568:"This is why I stay home. Spring is a great time for flirting…with danger. Nothing says spring in the horror genre like watching kids getaway for a long weekend at a deadly location. This is why when I think of spring, I think mutants, evil, and murder. These four movies will make you rethink your ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:10767:"
This is why I stay home.
Spring is a great time for flirting…with danger. Nothing says spring in the horror genre like watching kids getaway for a long weekend at a deadly location. This is why when I think of spring, I think mutants, evil, and murder. These four movies will make you rethink your road trips, patio dates, and need to meddle with things that don’t belong to you.
A group of friends heads to a cabin where they unleash a bunch of demons. This movie is a classic but it could never be me. I don’t do cabins because I pay extra to have all the amenities at my apartment. I’m not going anywhere without a dishwasher and central heating and air. Does that make me basic? Yeah. Does that also make me the most boring final girl? Absolutely. Anywho, if I did find myself in bougie place with a cabin aesthetic I wouldn’t stay for long if doors were opening by themselves and peoples’ hands were getting possessed. These characters made bad choices and that’s why we have a franchise. It’s also why so many movies are about characters making bad decisions in cabins in the woods. We kind of love to see it. However, none of this would’ve happened if these couples had just boned at home. Sidenote, Ash brought his sister along as the fifth wheel to a couple’s getaway and that still haunts me.
A group of friends go to Mexico and decide to help a stranger find his missing brother in the jungle. They continue making really bad choices when they come up against a group of villagers that don’t want them in their space. They end up stranded on top of the ruins with killer vines and I think that’s what they deserve to be honest. I didn’t live for this movie, but I do love to see reckless American kids realize their privilege isn’t going to get them out of messes. This movie is one of the finest examples of ” stick to your lane” and that’s a whole spring mood. Had these two couples stayed in their own beds instead of taking their mess to Mexico and then trespassing, they would’ve been fine. However, they didn’t and we get a film about murderous vines putting kids in their place.
A guy goes to Italy to figure his life out and ends up dating a woman with a wild secret. She’s a mutant that needed to sleep with him so she can rebirth herself and keep living. There is literally no way to write that where it makes sense. Just watch the movie so we can all hold our heads and ask follow-up questions. While I don’t do romance, and I like a few more kills for this runtime, it wasn’t boring. I also love some of the things she turns into and can see how some of the changes get it that body horror checkmark. All that said, this is another case where he could’ve stayed home and kept sleeping with his friend and been alright. Or he could’ve gone to a different town and avoided catching feels for someone that might kill him someday. If she does end up killing him, I would like that sequel posthaste.
A group of friends get stranded at a roadside museum and a masked killer starts picking them off. Movies where road trips go wrong are the reason I get out of bed most mornings. This movie is wild! We have occasional telekinesis, we have murderous mannequins, and we have a 70s soundtrack of unsettling and zany music cues. You can’t see me giving 9000 chef’s kisses but I am. When the car breaks down the group separates so the ladies can find sketchy water to skinny dip in. When a stranger wearing a hat that screams “villain” appears they all follow him back to his creepy museum and then continue to find reasons to split up. This movie is another one where central band of misfits should’ve just gone for ice cream and then watched scary movies. The best way to not have mannequins jump you is to not go to the places where they are. I live for the chaos and think this is the ultimate spring fling.
Is your favorite spring movie streaming not on the list? Then let me know at @misssharai.
We wish to give thanks to the author of this article for this amazing web content
";}s:7:"summary";s:568:"This is why I stay home. Spring is a great time for flirting…with danger. Nothing says spring in the horror genre like watching kids getaway for a long weekend at a deadly location. This is why when I think of spring, I think mutants, evil, and murder. These four movies will make you rethink your ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:10767:"
This is why I stay home.
Spring is a great time for flirting…with danger. Nothing says spring in the horror genre like watching kids getaway for a long weekend at a deadly location. This is why when I think of spring, I think mutants, evil, and murder. These four movies will make you rethink your road trips, patio dates, and need to meddle with things that don’t belong to you.
A group of friends heads to a cabin where they unleash a bunch of demons. This movie is a classic but it could never be me. I don’t do cabins because I pay extra to have all the amenities at my apartment. I’m not going anywhere without a dishwasher and central heating and air. Does that make me basic? Yeah. Does that also make me the most boring final girl? Absolutely. Anywho, if I did find myself in bougie place with a cabin aesthetic I wouldn’t stay for long if doors were opening by themselves and peoples’ hands were getting possessed. These characters made bad choices and that’s why we have a franchise. It’s also why so many movies are about characters making bad decisions in cabins in the woods. We kind of love to see it. However, none of this would’ve happened if these couples had just boned at home. Sidenote, Ash brought his sister along as the fifth wheel to a couple’s getaway and that still haunts me.
A group of friends go to Mexico and decide to help a stranger find his missing brother in the jungle. They continue making really bad choices when they come up against a group of villagers that don’t want them in their space. They end up stranded on top of the ruins with killer vines and I think that’s what they deserve to be honest. I didn’t live for this movie, but I do love to see reckless American kids realize their privilege isn’t going to get them out of messes. This movie is one of the finest examples of ” stick to your lane” and that’s a whole spring mood. Had these two couples stayed in their own beds instead of taking their mess to Mexico and then trespassing, they would’ve been fine. However, they didn’t and we get a film about murderous vines putting kids in their place.
A guy goes to Italy to figure his life out and ends up dating a woman with a wild secret. She’s a mutant that needed to sleep with him so she can rebirth herself and keep living. There is literally no way to write that where it makes sense. Just watch the movie so we can all hold our heads and ask follow-up questions. While I don’t do romance, and I like a few more kills for this runtime, it wasn’t boring. I also love some of the things she turns into and can see how some of the changes get it that body horror checkmark. All that said, this is another case where he could’ve stayed home and kept sleeping with his friend and been alright. Or he could’ve gone to a different town and avoided catching feels for someone that might kill him someday. If she does end up killing him, I would like that sequel posthaste.
A group of friends get stranded at a roadside museum and a masked killer starts picking them off. Movies where road trips go wrong are the reason I get out of bed most mornings. This movie is wild! We have occasional telekinesis, we have murderous mannequins, and we have a 70s soundtrack of unsettling and zany music cues. You can’t see me giving 9000 chef’s kisses but I am. When the car breaks down the group separates so the ladies can find sketchy water to skinny dip in. When a stranger wearing a hat that screams “villain” appears they all follow him back to his creepy museum and then continue to find reasons to split up. This movie is another one where central band of misfits should’ve just gone for ice cream and then watched scary movies. The best way to not have mannequins jump you is to not go to the places where they are. I live for the chaos and think this is the ultimate spring fling.
Is your favorite spring movie streaming not on the list? Then let me know at @misssharai.
We wish to give thanks to the author of this article for this amazing web content
";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652919618;}i:3;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:36:"Lady Gaga’s Favorite Horror Movies";s:4:"link";s:89:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/lady-gagas-favorite-horror-movies/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Wed, 18 May 2022 22:58:08 +0000";s:8:"category";s:40:"Scream AwayfavoriteGagasHorrorLadymovies";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68746";s:11:"description";s:614:"Lady Gaga has written countless chart-topping pop songs and appeared in several critically-acclaimed television and film roles – both of which are inspired by her love of horror movies. She gained inspiration for many of her most bizarre and iconic creative projects from horrifying and psychologically thrilling media. She is so proficient in portraying darkness that ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:18297:"
Lady Gaga has written countless chart-topping pop songs and appeared in several critically-acclaimed television and film roles – both of which are inspired by her love of horror movies. She gained inspiration for many of her most bizarre and iconic creative projects from horrifying and psychologically thrilling media. She is so proficient in portraying darkness that many audience members want Lady Gaga to return to American Horror Story. From her dark “Paparazzi” music video in 2008 to her performances drenched in blood during her Monster Ball Tour in 2011, the influence of horror and the macabre on Lady Gaga’s career is quite clear.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
With the release of her first album The Fame in 2008,the singer and songwriter Lady Gaga quickly gained a reputation for using dark, outlandish, and artistically fascinating visuals to promote her music. Lady Gaga would go on to release seven more albums and has won a total of 13 Grammys. She is primarily known for her versatile talent, as she often delves into music genres outside of pop music, including the release of two jazz albums with Tony Bennet (Cheek to Cheek and Love For Sale). Lady Gaga proved to be a movie star as well as a singer. Her acting performances earned a Golden Globe for her performance as The Countess on American Horror Storyan Oscar Nomination for her role as Ally in A Star Is Born, and was even nominated for Best Actress at the 2021 Critic’s Choice Awards for her performance in House of Gucci. Lady Gaga’s awareness of pop culture, dark artistic overtones, and versatile talent are part of what makes her so influential. Many of Lady Gaga’s offbeat and macabre creative choices can be traced back to her love of horror films.
Related: House of Gucci True Story: Everything The Movie Leaves Out
Lady Gaga explained her love of horror movies in a 2015 interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; wherein she said that she loves scary things and finds them relaxing. This explains why Gaga is so proficient at playing villains, like the witch from AHS: Roanokeand creating creepy music videos (like “Alejandro”). In the interview, Lady Gaga explained that she’s always been fascinated with the dichotomy of sex and horror experienced simultaneously, which is a prominent theme throughout her music. However, like Lady Gaga herself, the horror movies she cites as the most influential to her defy strict categorization and bleed into the science fiction and the psychological thriller genres. Yet, these films still contain terrifying subject matter meant to elicit horror. By delving into Lady Gaga’s favorite horrifying and psychologically thrilling movies, audiences can see the inspiration behind some of the pop star’s wildest decisions throughout her career.
The Exorcist (1973)
In 1973 William Peter Friedkin directed the ultimate experience in religious horror, The Exorcist. The film followed the possession of a young girl Reagan (Linda Blair) and the two priests (Jason Miller and Max von Sydow) who exorcise the demon. The Exorcist was also the first horror film to garner an Oscars nomination for the Best Picture category. The film has a reputation as one of the scariest and most innovative horror films ever released. There were many tales of audience members fainting from fear in the theatre. Lady Gaga commented on how scary she found The Exorcist in 2012 (via Twitter).
Donnie Darko (2001)
The 2001 cult classic Donnie Darko directed by Richard Kelly could be categorized into multiple genres. However, there are several dark themes and terrifying images within the film that fall into the horror and psychological thriller category. The film followed Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhall), a teenager who encountered bizarre time-traveling entities and dreams of an apocalypse. Donnie Darko’s mind-bending timeline and bizarre creative imagery garnered a strong cult following. Lady Gaga uses similar bizarre imagery in her music videos that also blur the lines between the science fiction and horror genres, as seen in her music videos for “You and I” and “Born This Way.” On an episode of VarietyLady Gaga told Jake Gyllenhall that “Donnie Darko is religion. If you know your sh-t, you know Donnie Darko.”
Psycho (1960)
Psycho is one of the most infamous and influential horror movies ever made, all thanks to the twisted mind of its director Alfred Hitchcock. The notorious Psycho introduced audiences to Norman Bates, who murders multiple people in the Bates Motel under his alternate personality which is modeled after his abusive mother. By releasing Psycho in black and white, Hitchcock was able to include much more violent imagery than audiences at the time were used to. Lady Gaga also frequently explores the boundaries of sexuality and violence in her music, performances, and videos. Psycho is also considered an influence on the slasher subgenre of horror that would develop throughout the 70s and 80s. In the 2015 Tonight Show interview with Jimmy Fallon, Lady Gaga compared slasher movies that contain a significant amount of violence to a nice cup of tea.
Related: Every Unmade Alfred Hitchcock Movie Explained
Rear Window (1954)
Rear Window is another classic Hitchcock-directed film that bridges the lines between the psychological thriller, mystery, and horror genres. In the movie, a professional photographer recovering from a broken leg played by Jimmy Stewart, spies on his neighbors. One day he believes he has witnessed a murder and does all he can to gather evidence of the crime despite being confined to his house. A highly influential film, Rear Window’s use of tension has been referenced in countless horror and psychological thriller films, such as The Woman in the Window. Rear Window is known for its masterful use of suspense, and was referenced in Lady Gaga’s song “Bad Romance”, alongside some other notable horror and thriller films, making it clear that the artist has a vested personal interest in both them and the genres. The song states Gaga’s love of Hitchcock by referencing his films in the lyric: “I want your Psycho, yourVertigo shtick. Want you in my Rear Window baby you’re sick.”
Vertigo (1958)
Hitchcock’s classic film Vertigo combined three genre elements together: noir, psychological thriller, and horror. The film followed Detective John Furguson (Jimmy Stewart) who developed vertigo after a tragic incident. He went on to uncover a devious scheme as he investigated the mystery surrounding his former lover Madeline Elster (Kim Novak). Vertigo is a film that used noir genre elements like shadows and mystery to elicit horror and intrigue, and will likely make the viewer afraid of heights by the time the credits roll. Lady Gaga described herself as a “Hitchcock groupie” to Jimmy Fallon and even compared herself to Kim Novak. In her song “So Happy I Could Die,” Lady Gaga calls herself a “Lavender Blonde,” which was one of Kim Novak’s nicknames while she was working in Hollywood. Not only does she compare herself to the leading lady of Vertigo, butLady Gaga also used parts of Vertigo score in the opening scene of her music video for “Born This Way.”
Lady Gaga’s love of darkness and intrigue can be seen in the music she creates, the roles she takes on, and the films she loves. Of course, not all of her art is inspired by horror. For example, Lady Gaga recently wrote a song for the Top Gun sequel. However, it cannot be denied her career has constantly been influenced by the horror genre. This can be seen in the murderous plotlines and dark atmosphere of Lady Gaga’s music videos “Paparazzi” and “Telephone,” as well as her complicated and murderous roles in movies like House of Gucci.Lady Gaga’s favorite horror movies show that she has always been well-versed in the realms of darkness and intrigue.
Next: The Simpsons Billie Eilish Cameo Is Already Avoiding Lady Gaga’s Mistake
Marvel’s Stan Lee Return Plan Should Make You Feel Sick
We would love to give thanks to the author of this short article for this awesome web content
";}s:7:"summary";s:614:"Lady Gaga has written countless chart-topping pop songs and appeared in several critically-acclaimed television and film roles – both of which are inspired by her love of horror movies. She gained inspiration for many of her most bizarre and iconic creative projects from horrifying and psychologically thrilling media. She is so proficient in portraying darkness that ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:18297:"
Lady Gaga has written countless chart-topping pop songs and appeared in several critically-acclaimed television and film roles – both of which are inspired by her love of horror movies. She gained inspiration for many of her most bizarre and iconic creative projects from horrifying and psychologically thrilling media. She is so proficient in portraying darkness that many audience members want Lady Gaga to return to American Horror Story. From her dark “Paparazzi” music video in 2008 to her performances drenched in blood during her Monster Ball Tour in 2011, the influence of horror and the macabre on Lady Gaga’s career is quite clear.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
With the release of her first album The Fame in 2008,the singer and songwriter Lady Gaga quickly gained a reputation for using dark, outlandish, and artistically fascinating visuals to promote her music. Lady Gaga would go on to release seven more albums and has won a total of 13 Grammys. She is primarily known for her versatile talent, as she often delves into music genres outside of pop music, including the release of two jazz albums with Tony Bennet (Cheek to Cheek and Love For Sale). Lady Gaga proved to be a movie star as well as a singer. Her acting performances earned a Golden Globe for her performance as The Countess on American Horror Storyan Oscar Nomination for her role as Ally in A Star Is Born, and was even nominated for Best Actress at the 2021 Critic’s Choice Awards for her performance in House of Gucci. Lady Gaga’s awareness of pop culture, dark artistic overtones, and versatile talent are part of what makes her so influential. Many of Lady Gaga’s offbeat and macabre creative choices can be traced back to her love of horror films.
Related: House of Gucci True Story: Everything The Movie Leaves Out
Lady Gaga explained her love of horror movies in a 2015 interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; wherein she said that she loves scary things and finds them relaxing. This explains why Gaga is so proficient at playing villains, like the witch from AHS: Roanokeand creating creepy music videos (like “Alejandro”). In the interview, Lady Gaga explained that she’s always been fascinated with the dichotomy of sex and horror experienced simultaneously, which is a prominent theme throughout her music. However, like Lady Gaga herself, the horror movies she cites as the most influential to her defy strict categorization and bleed into the science fiction and the psychological thriller genres. Yet, these films still contain terrifying subject matter meant to elicit horror. By delving into Lady Gaga’s favorite horrifying and psychologically thrilling movies, audiences can see the inspiration behind some of the pop star’s wildest decisions throughout her career.
The Exorcist (1973)
In 1973 William Peter Friedkin directed the ultimate experience in religious horror, The Exorcist. The film followed the possession of a young girl Reagan (Linda Blair) and the two priests (Jason Miller and Max von Sydow) who exorcise the demon. The Exorcist was also the first horror film to garner an Oscars nomination for the Best Picture category. The film has a reputation as one of the scariest and most innovative horror films ever released. There were many tales of audience members fainting from fear in the theatre. Lady Gaga commented on how scary she found The Exorcist in 2012 (via Twitter).
Donnie Darko (2001)
The 2001 cult classic Donnie Darko directed by Richard Kelly could be categorized into multiple genres. However, there are several dark themes and terrifying images within the film that fall into the horror and psychological thriller category. The film followed Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhall), a teenager who encountered bizarre time-traveling entities and dreams of an apocalypse. Donnie Darko’s mind-bending timeline and bizarre creative imagery garnered a strong cult following. Lady Gaga uses similar bizarre imagery in her music videos that also blur the lines between the science fiction and horror genres, as seen in her music videos for “You and I” and “Born This Way.” On an episode of VarietyLady Gaga told Jake Gyllenhall that “Donnie Darko is religion. If you know your sh-t, you know Donnie Darko.”
Psycho (1960)
Psycho is one of the most infamous and influential horror movies ever made, all thanks to the twisted mind of its director Alfred Hitchcock. The notorious Psycho introduced audiences to Norman Bates, who murders multiple people in the Bates Motel under his alternate personality which is modeled after his abusive mother. By releasing Psycho in black and white, Hitchcock was able to include much more violent imagery than audiences at the time were used to. Lady Gaga also frequently explores the boundaries of sexuality and violence in her music, performances, and videos. Psycho is also considered an influence on the slasher subgenre of horror that would develop throughout the 70s and 80s. In the 2015 Tonight Show interview with Jimmy Fallon, Lady Gaga compared slasher movies that contain a significant amount of violence to a nice cup of tea.
Related: Every Unmade Alfred Hitchcock Movie Explained
Rear Window (1954)
Rear Window is another classic Hitchcock-directed film that bridges the lines between the psychological thriller, mystery, and horror genres. In the movie, a professional photographer recovering from a broken leg played by Jimmy Stewart, spies on his neighbors. One day he believes he has witnessed a murder and does all he can to gather evidence of the crime despite being confined to his house. A highly influential film, Rear Window’s use of tension has been referenced in countless horror and psychological thriller films, such as The Woman in the Window. Rear Window is known for its masterful use of suspense, and was referenced in Lady Gaga’s song “Bad Romance”, alongside some other notable horror and thriller films, making it clear that the artist has a vested personal interest in both them and the genres. The song states Gaga’s love of Hitchcock by referencing his films in the lyric: “I want your Psycho, yourVertigo shtick. Want you in my Rear Window baby you’re sick.”
Vertigo (1958)
Hitchcock’s classic film Vertigo combined three genre elements together: noir, psychological thriller, and horror. The film followed Detective John Furguson (Jimmy Stewart) who developed vertigo after a tragic incident. He went on to uncover a devious scheme as he investigated the mystery surrounding his former lover Madeline Elster (Kim Novak). Vertigo is a film that used noir genre elements like shadows and mystery to elicit horror and intrigue, and will likely make the viewer afraid of heights by the time the credits roll. Lady Gaga described herself as a “Hitchcock groupie” to Jimmy Fallon and even compared herself to Kim Novak. In her song “So Happy I Could Die,” Lady Gaga calls herself a “Lavender Blonde,” which was one of Kim Novak’s nicknames while she was working in Hollywood. Not only does she compare herself to the leading lady of Vertigo, butLady Gaga also used parts of Vertigo score in the opening scene of her music video for “Born This Way.”
Lady Gaga’s love of darkness and intrigue can be seen in the music she creates, the roles she takes on, and the films she loves. Of course, not all of her art is inspired by horror. For example, Lady Gaga recently wrote a song for the Top Gun sequel. However, it cannot be denied her career has constantly been influenced by the horror genre. This can be seen in the murderous plotlines and dark atmosphere of Lady Gaga’s music videos “Paparazzi” and “Telephone,” as well as her complicated and murderous roles in movies like House of Gucci.Lady Gaga’s favorite horror movies show that she has always been well-versed in the realms of darkness and intrigue.
Next: The Simpsons Billie Eilish Cameo Is Already Avoiding Lady Gaga’s Mistake
Marvel’s Stan Lee Return Plan Should Make You Feel Sick
We would love to give thanks to the author of this short article for this awesome web content
";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652914688;}i:4;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:59:"Why Silent Hill Has Never Matched Resident Evil’s Success";s:4:"link";s:112:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/why-silent-hill-has-never-matched-resident-evils-success/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Wed, 18 May 2022 21:36:07 +0000";s:8:"category";s:48:"Scream AwayEvilsHillMatchedResidentSilentsuccess";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68713";s:11:"description";s:668:"Resident Evil relies on more “comfortable” styles of scares that, while often effective, are closer to the scares found in mainstream horror movies. Silent Hill often relies on scares that affect players on a more psychological level. Given that slasher films and zombie movies tend to be more successful than psychological horror movies, it’s no ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:5522:"
Resident Evil relies on more “comfortable” styles of scares that, while often effective, are closer to the scares found in mainstream horror movies. Silent Hill often relies on scares that affect players on a more psychological level. Given that slasher films and zombie movies tend to be more successful than psychological horror movies, it’s no wonder why a zombie game ended up more successful than a psychological horror title.
Resident Evil Has Reached Wider Audiences Through a Wider Array of Multimedia Projects and Merchandise
Whenever a studio produces a successful product, tie-ins and licensed products are a foregone conclusion. However, no matter how successful a property’s cross-media marketing is, there’s always a bigger fish in the ocean.
Silent Hill might have started life as a video game, but it eventually found its way into platforms. The arguable most famous non-digital iteration is the Silent Hill movie, which grossed $100.6 million (according to Box Office Mojo), although that’s not the praise you think it is. Its sequel, Silent Hill Revelations 3Ddrew in half the profits and was shredded by critics and audiences alike. And the comics…oh boy the comics. A total of nine comics were produced by IDW Publishing, and three more were published by Konami. Three stories — Sinner’s Reward, Past Lifeand Anne’s Story — were somewhat well-received, but the rest were critically panned and condemned as fan-fiction. The only Silent Hill products that are truly considered good are official hats, shirts, skateboard decksand several lines of toys that revolve around Pyramid Head, the Bubble Head Nurse, and Robbie the Rabbit. Dead by Daylight and Dark Deception: Morals & Monsters sport Silent Hill-themed DLC, but that’s about it in terms of notable Silent Hill multimedia projects, crossovers, and merchandise.
Resident Evil’s cross-media iterations hit all the same beats as Silent Hillbut there’s just more of them. For instance, while Silent Hill received two movies, Resident Evil received six films directed by Paul W.S. Anderson that totaled over $1 billion in revenuea reboot film, an upcoming live-action Netflix series, four CGI films, one CGI show, and four Japanese stage plays — one of which was a musical. Various companies have also published Resident Evil comic books and novels. Plus, the amount of Resident Evil merchandise out there is overwhelming. You’ve got plenty of action figures and statues, but there’s also officially licensed Resident Evil coffee mugs, sunglasses, hats, shirts, and more. Resident Evil has entered mainstream culture in ways that no other horror game franchise has come close to doing.
The sad fact is that Silent Hill just doesn’t seem to be as marketable as Resident Evil. Resident Evil has more movies, shows, and merchandise than Silent Hillas well as more variety in said products. While we cannot overstate the creative successes of Silent Hillwe also cannot deny that it just doesn’t stack up to Resident Evil from a commercial perspective. From a comparative lack of merchandise to a company that doesn’t support the game as well as its competitors, Silent Hill just simply cannot match Resident Evil‘s success. At this point, it’s hard to imagine the forces that control the Silent Hill license giving the franchise the resources it needs to really reach that next level.
We would love to thank the writer of this write-up for this amazing content
";}s:7:"summary";s:668:"Resident Evil relies on more “comfortable” styles of scares that, while often effective, are closer to the scares found in mainstream horror movies. Silent Hill often relies on scares that affect players on a more psychological level. Given that slasher films and zombie movies tend to be more successful than psychological horror movies, it’s no ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:5522:"
Resident Evil relies on more “comfortable” styles of scares that, while often effective, are closer to the scares found in mainstream horror movies. Silent Hill often relies on scares that affect players on a more psychological level. Given that slasher films and zombie movies tend to be more successful than psychological horror movies, it’s no wonder why a zombie game ended up more successful than a psychological horror title.
Resident Evil Has Reached Wider Audiences Through a Wider Array of Multimedia Projects and Merchandise
Whenever a studio produces a successful product, tie-ins and licensed products are a foregone conclusion. However, no matter how successful a property’s cross-media marketing is, there’s always a bigger fish in the ocean.
Silent Hill might have started life as a video game, but it eventually found its way into platforms. The arguable most famous non-digital iteration is the Silent Hill movie, which grossed $100.6 million (according to Box Office Mojo), although that’s not the praise you think it is. Its sequel, Silent Hill Revelations 3Ddrew in half the profits and was shredded by critics and audiences alike. And the comics…oh boy the comics. A total of nine comics were produced by IDW Publishing, and three more were published by Konami. Three stories — Sinner’s Reward, Past Lifeand Anne’s Story — were somewhat well-received, but the rest were critically panned and condemned as fan-fiction. The only Silent Hill products that are truly considered good are official hats, shirts, skateboard decksand several lines of toys that revolve around Pyramid Head, the Bubble Head Nurse, and Robbie the Rabbit. Dead by Daylight and Dark Deception: Morals & Monsters sport Silent Hill-themed DLC, but that’s about it in terms of notable Silent Hill multimedia projects, crossovers, and merchandise.
Resident Evil’s cross-media iterations hit all the same beats as Silent Hillbut there’s just more of them. For instance, while Silent Hill received two movies, Resident Evil received six films directed by Paul W.S. Anderson that totaled over $1 billion in revenuea reboot film, an upcoming live-action Netflix series, four CGI films, one CGI show, and four Japanese stage plays — one of which was a musical. Various companies have also published Resident Evil comic books and novels. Plus, the amount of Resident Evil merchandise out there is overwhelming. You’ve got plenty of action figures and statues, but there’s also officially licensed Resident Evil coffee mugs, sunglasses, hats, shirts, and more. Resident Evil has entered mainstream culture in ways that no other horror game franchise has come close to doing.
The sad fact is that Silent Hill just doesn’t seem to be as marketable as Resident Evil. Resident Evil has more movies, shows, and merchandise than Silent Hillas well as more variety in said products. While we cannot overstate the creative successes of Silent Hillwe also cannot deny that it just doesn’t stack up to Resident Evil from a commercial perspective. From a comparative lack of merchandise to a company that doesn’t support the game as well as its competitors, Silent Hill just simply cannot match Resident Evil‘s success. At this point, it’s hard to imagine the forces that control the Silent Hill license giving the franchise the resources it needs to really reach that next level.
We would love to thank the writer of this write-up for this amazing content
";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652909767;}i:5;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:81:"‘Torn Hearts’ Review: Country Music Bleeds In Brea Grant’s New Splatterfest";s:4:"link";s:127:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/torn-hearts-review-country-music-bleeds-in-brea-grants-new-splatterfest/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Wed, 18 May 2022 20:14:16 +0000";s:8:"category";s:67:"Scream AwayBleedsBreacountryGrantsHeartsMusicREVIEWSplatterfestTorn";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68702";s:11:"description";s:679:"We need more country music horror. Horror movies and country music don’t typically go hand in hand. Horror is seen as scary, gory, and gross, while country music is seen as saccharine. It oozes sentimentality and is often seen as vapid. But horror has that in common with the music genre, as critics often cite ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:7119:"
We need more country music horror.
Horror movies and country music don’t typically go hand in hand. Horror is seen as scary, gory, and gross, while country music is seen as saccharine. It oozes sentimentality and is often seen as vapid. But horror has that in common with the music genre, as critics often cite a scary movie’s violence as vapid and unnecessary. So, it only makes sense to bring the two together. Director Brea Grant and writer Rachel Koller Croft have done just that with their latest film Torn Hearts. The high-femme country horror is covered in tassels and blood, with a twisted game of torture at its core.
Leigh (Alexxis Lemire) and Jordan (Abby Quinn) are a country music duo trying to make their big break in the industry. They play small gigs around Nashville, but they want to be stars. So, Jordan has the wild idea to go find their idol Harper Dutch and pitch a duet with her. The only problem is that Harper has been in living as a recluse since the death of her sister decades previously. But the women throw caution to the wind; what’s the worst thing she can do?
Well, they sure find out the worst as Harper surprisingly agrees to the collab. But with quite a few conditions. The longer Leigh and Jordan stay with Harper, the more they realize that their hero isn’t what she seems. Secrets hide in the recesses of her giant house and the more whiskey they drink, the meaner they all become. Leigh and Jordan find themselves ensnared in a twisted game with seemingly no way out.
Also Read: ‘Men’ Review: Alex Garland Delivers Body Horror and Political Commentary All In One Nasty Package
Torn Hearts is really about the trio of performances by Sagan, Lemire, and Quinn. Their chemistry and ability to work off one another solidify the stakes at hand. This isn’t just about making it in the world of country music. This is about internalized misogyny and pitching women against each other where only one of them can come out on top. Sagal shines in her first horror movie role as Harper Dutch. There’s an aura that Sagal emanates in the film, oozing an uncomfortable charisma that’s equal parts terrifying and alluring. She sells the part of disillusioned country music star at the highest possible value and I am investing, no questions asked.
While Sagal often steals the show, Lemire and Quinn hold their own as the dysfunctional up-and-coming duo who are colleagues first and friends second. They each play their respective parts as the bubbly one and the creative one, each believing they’re the group’s leader who deserves the fame. They establish this tension between friendship and working relationship that any of us who have worked with friends are all too familiar with. And that makes Torn Hearts all the more terrifying.
A majority of the film takes place in Harper’s giant home that is plucked straight out of a Southern Gothic horror novel and doused in a few hundred gallons of pink and glitter. It’s menacing but welcoming. There are tchotchkes on every surface, but they don’t feel cute; instead, they feel like they’re watching your every move. Beautiful costumes stand like dead bodies on stiff mannequins, ghosts haunting well-lit corners. It’s a mausoleum disguised as a home; no shade of pink or well-placed piece of furniture can hide that truth for too long.
Also Read: ‘A Taste of Blood’ Review: An Ambitious But Muddled Adaptation of A Classic Vampire Tale
The story itself is simple and one we’ve seen before, yes. But placing it in a new horror setting with three incredible performances makes it worth watching. From Croft’s tight script to Grant’s clear directorial vision, a tale of three women fighting each other becomes a game of cat and mouse that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
In a landscape dominated by heady psychological horror that aims to get under your skin, Torn Hearts is a breath of fresh, pink air. Now I love a good deeply upsetting horror movie. But Grant and Croft prove that a high femme aesthetic and a simple yet downright nasty story deserve just as much recognition. It revels in taking the over-the-top sensibilities of the country music scene and makes them a shocking, twisty horror show. Torn Hearts is the type of horror we need more of: unafraid of being fun, entertaining, and shocking all wrapped in a sugar-coated package that quickly melts away once the violence starts.
Summary
Brea Grant’s Torn Hearts has it all: Katey Sagal, music, tassels, and one nasty game of psychological torture.
We wish to thank the writer of this post for this remarkable material
";}s:7:"summary";s:679:"We need more country music horror. Horror movies and country music don’t typically go hand in hand. Horror is seen as scary, gory, and gross, while country music is seen as saccharine. It oozes sentimentality and is often seen as vapid. But horror has that in common with the music genre, as critics often cite ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:7119:"
We need more country music horror.
Horror movies and country music don’t typically go hand in hand. Horror is seen as scary, gory, and gross, while country music is seen as saccharine. It oozes sentimentality and is often seen as vapid. But horror has that in common with the music genre, as critics often cite a scary movie’s violence as vapid and unnecessary. So, it only makes sense to bring the two together. Director Brea Grant and writer Rachel Koller Croft have done just that with their latest film Torn Hearts. The high-femme country horror is covered in tassels and blood, with a twisted game of torture at its core.
Leigh (Alexxis Lemire) and Jordan (Abby Quinn) are a country music duo trying to make their big break in the industry. They play small gigs around Nashville, but they want to be stars. So, Jordan has the wild idea to go find their idol Harper Dutch and pitch a duet with her. The only problem is that Harper has been in living as a recluse since the death of her sister decades previously. But the women throw caution to the wind; what’s the worst thing she can do?
Well, they sure find out the worst as Harper surprisingly agrees to the collab. But with quite a few conditions. The longer Leigh and Jordan stay with Harper, the more they realize that their hero isn’t what she seems. Secrets hide in the recesses of her giant house and the more whiskey they drink, the meaner they all become. Leigh and Jordan find themselves ensnared in a twisted game with seemingly no way out.
Also Read: ‘Men’ Review: Alex Garland Delivers Body Horror and Political Commentary All In One Nasty Package
Torn Hearts is really about the trio of performances by Sagan, Lemire, and Quinn. Their chemistry and ability to work off one another solidify the stakes at hand. This isn’t just about making it in the world of country music. This is about internalized misogyny and pitching women against each other where only one of them can come out on top. Sagal shines in her first horror movie role as Harper Dutch. There’s an aura that Sagal emanates in the film, oozing an uncomfortable charisma that’s equal parts terrifying and alluring. She sells the part of disillusioned country music star at the highest possible value and I am investing, no questions asked.
While Sagal often steals the show, Lemire and Quinn hold their own as the dysfunctional up-and-coming duo who are colleagues first and friends second. They each play their respective parts as the bubbly one and the creative one, each believing they’re the group’s leader who deserves the fame. They establish this tension between friendship and working relationship that any of us who have worked with friends are all too familiar with. And that makes Torn Hearts all the more terrifying.
A majority of the film takes place in Harper’s giant home that is plucked straight out of a Southern Gothic horror novel and doused in a few hundred gallons of pink and glitter. It’s menacing but welcoming. There are tchotchkes on every surface, but they don’t feel cute; instead, they feel like they’re watching your every move. Beautiful costumes stand like dead bodies on stiff mannequins, ghosts haunting well-lit corners. It’s a mausoleum disguised as a home; no shade of pink or well-placed piece of furniture can hide that truth for too long.
Also Read: ‘A Taste of Blood’ Review: An Ambitious But Muddled Adaptation of A Classic Vampire Tale
The story itself is simple and one we’ve seen before, yes. But placing it in a new horror setting with three incredible performances makes it worth watching. From Croft’s tight script to Grant’s clear directorial vision, a tale of three women fighting each other becomes a game of cat and mouse that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
In a landscape dominated by heady psychological horror that aims to get under your skin, Torn Hearts is a breath of fresh, pink air. Now I love a good deeply upsetting horror movie. But Grant and Croft prove that a high femme aesthetic and a simple yet downright nasty story deserve just as much recognition. It revels in taking the over-the-top sensibilities of the country music scene and makes them a shocking, twisty horror show. Torn Hearts is the type of horror we need more of: unafraid of being fun, entertaining, and shocking all wrapped in a sugar-coated package that quickly melts away once the violence starts.
Summary
Brea Grant’s Torn Hearts has it all: Katey Sagal, music, tassels, and one nasty game of psychological torture.
We wish to thank the writer of this post for this remarkable material
";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652904856;}i:6;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:84:"Doctor Strange 2: Why Aren’t More People Talking About That Creepy Ice Cream Song?";s:4:"link";s:135:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/doctor-strange-2-why-arent-more-people-talking-about-that-creepy-ice-cream-song/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Wed, 18 May 2022 18:52:10 +0000";s:8:"category";s:55:"Scream AwayCreamCreepyDoctoricePeopleSongStrangetalking";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68657";s:11:"description";s:729:"Warning: SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are ahead! Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is, without a doubt, one of the spookiest movies in the MCU. It’s loaded with grotesque imagery, jump scares and one ghoulish-looking Marvel hero, and while those moments certainly resonated with me, none did quite so ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:12538:"
Warning: SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are ahead!
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is, without a doubt, one of the spookiest movies in the MCU. It’s loaded with grotesque imagery, jump scares and one ghoulish-looking Marvel hero, and while those moments certainly resonated with me, none did quite so much as one scene that I doubt anyone intended to be scary at all. I’m referring to the scene with Wanda’s children, in which they sing the most bizarre and unsettling song about ice cream I’ve heard in my life.
Billy and Tommy genuinely seem like sweet boys who love their mother, but Doctor Strange 2 briefly fooled me on that front when they whipped that wild song out of their back pocket. For those who can’t remember the lyrics specifically, here they are to jog your memory:
We like ice cream like every child should. We promise to be good.
It doesn’t really hit the same without the falsetto of actors Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne, but I digress. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced, nor will I ever experience, a stranger and creepier moment in the MCU. And yet, I’m here on my soapbox and not seeing a lot of others on the internet who share that opinion. For that reason, I want to dive into that specific Doctor Strange 2 moment to make it clear to anyone who might think otherwise that this is, without a doubt, one of the weirdest parts of the sequel.
(Image credit: Disney+)
Typically When Kids Show Up In Scary Movies, It’s Bad News
I can respect the argument that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t a traditional horror movie, but it is the scariest Marvel movie with a lot of frights packed into it. It also has Sam Raimi directingso when kids start singing in high-pitched voices on the screen, I’m going to be worried. It’s hard for me to think of a time where it’s a good thing when kids show up in horror movies, and I can think of a dozen times it was terrible.
Also, let me point out that many iconic horror movies featured children singing; Nightmare on Elm Street, The Poltergeist, The Ringand Children of the Corn all come to mind. Typically, kids singing is a joyous thing, but when there’s the slightest bit of tension in the air, it can really make for an unsettling scene.
Given all that, I can’t imagine why Doctor Strange 2 decided to make the tender moment between Wanda and her children a scene where they sing about wanting ice cream. Couldn’t they have just begged her for ice cream or maybe encouraged her to watch that old cartoon they had on in the background? Why did so much about a seemingly normal Wanda in the multiverse feel so strange? Honestly, it might’ve felt completely normal until those first few notes were uttered.
I’m a father have a daughter younger than Wanda Maximoff’s boys. I know that kids sing, and I could probably recall at least three times this week alone my daughter belted out a song she made up off the top of her head. I get this is a thing that kids do, but at the same time, I don’t think my daughter has ever sounded creepier than the boys did in that scene. It has some weird energy to it, and I think that’s largely because of the overall dark tone of the movie.
(Image credit: Disney+)
There Was Something So Unsettling About The Whole Scene
I also think that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did the singing scene no favors with how uncomfortable it was overall. First off, we’re viewing the scene through the lens of the Wanda who’s without her children, so there’s a voyeuristic quality to all of it.
Additionally, it doesn’t seem like the alternate Wanda is living her best life, and maybe that’s by design. The house is dimly lit, and the boys are watching some old cartoon that gives off some old-school television vibes similar to the early days of WandaVision. It’s so unlike what I’d expect from a modern family that I nearly suspected there was some twist I wasn’t picking up on, but as we know, the scene really didn’t mean anything.
We do see Wanda and the boys in this multiverse, but it’s somewhat left up to interpretation where the boys’ father is. Is the father Visionand if so, where is he at in this universe? If not, what’s going on in Wanda’s life at this point, and why does it seem like she’s kind of stressed when we see her? It just feels like there’s a lot unexplained about this Wanda though, and with only so much time to tell the main story, I can forgive that.
What I can’t forgive is that the singing gave such a weird and upsetting vibe that it completely pulled me out of the movie and had me wondering throughout the rest of the thrilling adventure if it was somehow going to come back into play. Alas, towards the end, I just accepted it was nothing more than a ridiculously weird moment originally intended to be some warm and touching scene between Wanda and her sons. Unfortunately, my mind can’t allow me to see the scene that way, and I fear it will forever haunt me any time I see the movie in the future. Truthfully, if I have to live with that for the rest of my days, I’m at least spreading the word to others on the internet so that they do can feel my pain or at least relate to how we might’ve seen the weirdest scene in MCU history and no one is talking about it. Perhaps, in time, that will change.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently in theaters and sets the stage for a lot of upcoming Marvel movies. Singing aside, I think this is one most Marvel fans shouldn’t miss and may even want to watch again once they get over those brutal hero deaths.
We want to say thanks to the author of this write-up for this awesome web content
";}s:7:"summary";s:729:"Warning: SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are ahead! Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is, without a doubt, one of the spookiest movies in the MCU. It’s loaded with grotesque imagery, jump scares and one ghoulish-looking Marvel hero, and while those moments certainly resonated with me, none did quite so ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:12538:"
Warning: SPOILERS for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are ahead!
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is, without a doubt, one of the spookiest movies in the MCU. It’s loaded with grotesque imagery, jump scares and one ghoulish-looking Marvel hero, and while those moments certainly resonated with me, none did quite so much as one scene that I doubt anyone intended to be scary at all. I’m referring to the scene with Wanda’s children, in which they sing the most bizarre and unsettling song about ice cream I’ve heard in my life.
Billy and Tommy genuinely seem like sweet boys who love their mother, but Doctor Strange 2 briefly fooled me on that front when they whipped that wild song out of their back pocket. For those who can’t remember the lyrics specifically, here they are to jog your memory:
We like ice cream like every child should. We promise to be good.
It doesn’t really hit the same without the falsetto of actors Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne, but I digress. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced, nor will I ever experience, a stranger and creepier moment in the MCU. And yet, I’m here on my soapbox and not seeing a lot of others on the internet who share that opinion. For that reason, I want to dive into that specific Doctor Strange 2 moment to make it clear to anyone who might think otherwise that this is, without a doubt, one of the weirdest parts of the sequel.
(Image credit: Disney+)
Typically When Kids Show Up In Scary Movies, It’s Bad News
I can respect the argument that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t a traditional horror movie, but it is the scariest Marvel movie with a lot of frights packed into it. It also has Sam Raimi directingso when kids start singing in high-pitched voices on the screen, I’m going to be worried. It’s hard for me to think of a time where it’s a good thing when kids show up in horror movies, and I can think of a dozen times it was terrible.
Also, let me point out that many iconic horror movies featured children singing; Nightmare on Elm Street, The Poltergeist, The Ringand Children of the Corn all come to mind. Typically, kids singing is a joyous thing, but when there’s the slightest bit of tension in the air, it can really make for an unsettling scene.
Given all that, I can’t imagine why Doctor Strange 2 decided to make the tender moment between Wanda and her children a scene where they sing about wanting ice cream. Couldn’t they have just begged her for ice cream or maybe encouraged her to watch that old cartoon they had on in the background? Why did so much about a seemingly normal Wanda in the multiverse feel so strange? Honestly, it might’ve felt completely normal until those first few notes were uttered.
I’m a father have a daughter younger than Wanda Maximoff’s boys. I know that kids sing, and I could probably recall at least three times this week alone my daughter belted out a song she made up off the top of her head. I get this is a thing that kids do, but at the same time, I don’t think my daughter has ever sounded creepier than the boys did in that scene. It has some weird energy to it, and I think that’s largely because of the overall dark tone of the movie.
(Image credit: Disney+)
There Was Something So Unsettling About The Whole Scene
I also think that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did the singing scene no favors with how uncomfortable it was overall. First off, we’re viewing the scene through the lens of the Wanda who’s without her children, so there’s a voyeuristic quality to all of it.
Additionally, it doesn’t seem like the alternate Wanda is living her best life, and maybe that’s by design. The house is dimly lit, and the boys are watching some old cartoon that gives off some old-school television vibes similar to the early days of WandaVision. It’s so unlike what I’d expect from a modern family that I nearly suspected there was some twist I wasn’t picking up on, but as we know, the scene really didn’t mean anything.
We do see Wanda and the boys in this multiverse, but it’s somewhat left up to interpretation where the boys’ father is. Is the father Visionand if so, where is he at in this universe? If not, what’s going on in Wanda’s life at this point, and why does it seem like she’s kind of stressed when we see her? It just feels like there’s a lot unexplained about this Wanda though, and with only so much time to tell the main story, I can forgive that.
What I can’t forgive is that the singing gave such a weird and upsetting vibe that it completely pulled me out of the movie and had me wondering throughout the rest of the thrilling adventure if it was somehow going to come back into play. Alas, towards the end, I just accepted it was nothing more than a ridiculously weird moment originally intended to be some warm and touching scene between Wanda and her sons. Unfortunately, my mind can’t allow me to see the scene that way, and I fear it will forever haunt me any time I see the movie in the future. Truthfully, if I have to live with that for the rest of my days, I’m at least spreading the word to others on the internet so that they do can feel my pain or at least relate to how we might’ve seen the weirdest scene in MCU history and no one is talking about it. Perhaps, in time, that will change.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is currently in theaters and sets the stage for a lot of upcoming Marvel movies. Singing aside, I think this is one most Marvel fans shouldn’t miss and may even want to watch again once they get over those brutal hero deaths.
We want to say thanks to the author of this write-up for this awesome web content
";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652899930;}i:7;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:97:"‘Cast a Deadly Spell’ – Fred Ward Battled Lovecraftian Terrors in This 1991 Horror-Noir Gem";s:4:"link";s:143:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/cast-a-deadly-spell-fred-ward-battled-lovecraftian-terrors-in-this-1991-horror-noir-gem/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Wed, 18 May 2022 17:30:31 +0000";s:8:"category";s:73:"Scream AwayBattledcastdeadlyFredGemHorrorNoirLovecraftianspellTerrorsWard";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68629";s:11:"description";s:742:"Babysitting is without a doubt the most hazardous after-school job in the world of young-adult horror. The caregivers in these books count themselves lucky if the biggest problem of the night is getting the kids to bed. Those less fortunate sitters have to deal with a variety of boogeymen. Although, not every waking second of ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:13236:"
Babysitting is without a doubt the most hazardous after-school job in the world of young-adult horror. The caregivers in these books count themselves lucky if the biggest problem of the night is getting the kids to bed. Those less fortunate sitters have to deal with a variety of boogeymen. Although, not every waking second of these teens’ lives is a total nightmare; their own homes and schools are temporary safe havens. A. Bateson the other hand, found a way to ensure one babysitter is in a constant state of terror. In the author’s 1991 novel Mother’s Helpera 17-year-old accepts a well-paying but unusual job offer; she is hired to watch an infant full-time. The only catch is the nanny position requires staying on a small island, far away from home… and always close to danger.
Rebecca “Becky” Collier finds an excuse to leave Seattle for the summer after her boyfriend dumps her for her best friend. And with her going off to college soon, the prospective freshman needs to earn some fast money. So, when Mrs. Nelson provides a stone for two birds, Becky jumps on a plane to Sebastian Island. The gig itself — watching over a baby boy named Devon all summer — is easy enough, but after a while, Becky grows weary of Devon’s high-maintenance mother.
Mrs. Nelson is visibly uncomfortable around her own son, and she is reluctant to let Becky leave the house. Making things weirder is the reason why the Nelsons are in Sebastian in the first place. Someone has threatened Devon, and his parents — Devon’s father is away this whole time — think keeping him here is the best option. As willing as Becky is to overlook all the red flags for an enticing lump sum of $5000, the growing isolation eats away at her. On top of that is the handsome yet suspicious townie and neighbor, Cleve Davidson, who keeps asking Becky so many prying questions.
Once she is allowed a night off, Becky’s mind starts to run wild. Along with the sheriff’s convenient accident, one that effectively leaves the town of South End without any law enforcement, Becky ponders Cleve’s innocence. His unremitting curiosity about Becky’s job and her “aunt” suggests he is not who he appears to be. Mrs. Nelson herself is equally shady, if not more so. She not only forbids Becky from answering the phone in her office when she is not home — a room Bates compares to the forbidden one in the French folktale “Bluebeard” — those daily work meetings of hers are nothing more than her sitting alone at the marina. For someone who claims to be in hiding, Mrs. Nelson sure is lousy at staying hidden.
From Becky feeling like a prisoner in the Nelsons’ summer house to her increasing anxiety about Devon’s stalker, Mother’s Helper is all about horrors from within. Becky suffers the effects of cabin fever early on; both her irritability and paranoia cause her to make rash decisions as the story progresses. Then, being aware of Devon’s predicament causes Becky to be mistrustful and nervous. The more enmeshed she is in the Nelsons’ problem, the more she internalizes their fears.
As for scares, Bates largely channels the psychological menace of classic “imperiled women” films as opposed to the teen slashers influencing other suspenseful YA novels from this same era. She plays on Becky’s dread with an incessantly ringing yet never answered telephone, and she perpetuates the sensation of being watched. At one point, the author terrorizes the protagonist with strategically placed dolls; some are broken and mutilated, whereas the most daunting of them all is left completely unharmed. An excellent line about this incident sums up Becky’s uneasy state of mind:
“This doll was perfect — no slashes, no broken, shattered head, no ripped limbs — and somehow it was even more frightening.
Almost like it’s a fill-in-the-blank threat, Becky thought. Fill it in with anything I can imagine.”
Family thrillers were on the rise in Hollywood when Mother’s Helper was first published. Sinister sitters, jilted paramoursand bad seeds were only some of the threats found in these now-dated narratives. Regardless of how they did it, the ostensible villains sought to destroy the family. This book predates the subgenre’s cinematic peak, which includes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Poison Ivyand Mother’s Boys. Unlike those films, though, Bates’ story details the aftermath of a crime. Of course this facet is unrealized until the last act.
Mrs. Nelson eventually caves to Becky’s questioning and admits she is on the run from Franklin, her abusive husband. The women conceive a plan in anticipation of Franklin’s arrival; Becky hides the baby elsewhere while Mrs. Nelson distracts her husband. As to be expected, things do not go accordingly. This is due to the fact that Mrs. Nelson is lying about everything. Devon is not her child; he is the biological son of Franklin and his current wife. Becky’s client abducted the baby and then fled to this island, where she put everything, including the rental home and checking account, in the nanny’s name. And to ensure he would not alert the proper authorities, Mrs. Nelson injured the sheriff and let the town think Cleve was responsible.
Caroline B. Cooney exercised the “stolen baby” plot a year earlier in her Janie Johnson series, beginning with The Face on the Milk Carton. However, Mother’s Helper executes the idea much differently. The result comes as a greater shock for the target audience, seeing as the twist is delivered toward the end rather than at the beginning like in Cooney’s book. Younger readers identify with Becky, who like themselves, would never suspect a mother is lying about being a parent. The thriller plays with perception as well as the concept of who can be considered inherently trustworthy. Having Becky then become an accomplice to kidnapping, albeit without her knowledge or consent, is appalling.
Despite having been manipulated, lied to, and almost killed, Becky remains compassionate. She understands Mrs. Nelson needs a different type of help now. As she confronts the woman at the marina, Becky is sympathetic instead of angry. She ultimately lets Mrs. Nelson escape and tells her to “be safe.” Letting the antagonist, particularly someone who has a mental illness, live in these kinds of stories is both merciful and uncommon. It is also not the most logical or even the most lawful choice to make, but it suits Becky, a character whose fatal flaw is caring too much.
There was a time when the young-adult section of bookstores was overflowing with horror and suspense. These books were easily identified by their flashy fonts and garish cover art. This notable subgenre of YA fiction thrived in the ’80s, peaked in the ’90s, and then finally came to an end in the early ’00s. YA horror of this kind is indeed a thing of the past, but the stories live on at Buried in a Book. This recurring column reflects on the nostalgic novels still haunting readers decades later.
We would love to give thanks to the author of this article for this awesome material
";}s:7:"summary";s:742:"Babysitting is without a doubt the most hazardous after-school job in the world of young-adult horror. The caregivers in these books count themselves lucky if the biggest problem of the night is getting the kids to bed. Those less fortunate sitters have to deal with a variety of boogeymen. Although, not every waking second of ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:13236:"
Babysitting is without a doubt the most hazardous after-school job in the world of young-adult horror. The caregivers in these books count themselves lucky if the biggest problem of the night is getting the kids to bed. Those less fortunate sitters have to deal with a variety of boogeymen. Although, not every waking second of these teens’ lives is a total nightmare; their own homes and schools are temporary safe havens. A. Bateson the other hand, found a way to ensure one babysitter is in a constant state of terror. In the author’s 1991 novel Mother’s Helpera 17-year-old accepts a well-paying but unusual job offer; she is hired to watch an infant full-time. The only catch is the nanny position requires staying on a small island, far away from home… and always close to danger.
Rebecca “Becky” Collier finds an excuse to leave Seattle for the summer after her boyfriend dumps her for her best friend. And with her going off to college soon, the prospective freshman needs to earn some fast money. So, when Mrs. Nelson provides a stone for two birds, Becky jumps on a plane to Sebastian Island. The gig itself — watching over a baby boy named Devon all summer — is easy enough, but after a while, Becky grows weary of Devon’s high-maintenance mother.
Mrs. Nelson is visibly uncomfortable around her own son, and she is reluctant to let Becky leave the house. Making things weirder is the reason why the Nelsons are in Sebastian in the first place. Someone has threatened Devon, and his parents — Devon’s father is away this whole time — think keeping him here is the best option. As willing as Becky is to overlook all the red flags for an enticing lump sum of $5000, the growing isolation eats away at her. On top of that is the handsome yet suspicious townie and neighbor, Cleve Davidson, who keeps asking Becky so many prying questions.
Once she is allowed a night off, Becky’s mind starts to run wild. Along with the sheriff’s convenient accident, one that effectively leaves the town of South End without any law enforcement, Becky ponders Cleve’s innocence. His unremitting curiosity about Becky’s job and her “aunt” suggests he is not who he appears to be. Mrs. Nelson herself is equally shady, if not more so. She not only forbids Becky from answering the phone in her office when she is not home — a room Bates compares to the forbidden one in the French folktale “Bluebeard” — those daily work meetings of hers are nothing more than her sitting alone at the marina. For someone who claims to be in hiding, Mrs. Nelson sure is lousy at staying hidden.
From Becky feeling like a prisoner in the Nelsons’ summer house to her increasing anxiety about Devon’s stalker, Mother’s Helper is all about horrors from within. Becky suffers the effects of cabin fever early on; both her irritability and paranoia cause her to make rash decisions as the story progresses. Then, being aware of Devon’s predicament causes Becky to be mistrustful and nervous. The more enmeshed she is in the Nelsons’ problem, the more she internalizes their fears.
As for scares, Bates largely channels the psychological menace of classic “imperiled women” films as opposed to the teen slashers influencing other suspenseful YA novels from this same era. She plays on Becky’s dread with an incessantly ringing yet never answered telephone, and she perpetuates the sensation of being watched. At one point, the author terrorizes the protagonist with strategically placed dolls; some are broken and mutilated, whereas the most daunting of them all is left completely unharmed. An excellent line about this incident sums up Becky’s uneasy state of mind:
“This doll was perfect — no slashes, no broken, shattered head, no ripped limbs — and somehow it was even more frightening.
Almost like it’s a fill-in-the-blank threat, Becky thought. Fill it in with anything I can imagine.”
Family thrillers were on the rise in Hollywood when Mother’s Helper was first published. Sinister sitters, jilted paramoursand bad seeds were only some of the threats found in these now-dated narratives. Regardless of how they did it, the ostensible villains sought to destroy the family. This book predates the subgenre’s cinematic peak, which includes The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Poison Ivyand Mother’s Boys. Unlike those films, though, Bates’ story details the aftermath of a crime. Of course this facet is unrealized until the last act.
Mrs. Nelson eventually caves to Becky’s questioning and admits she is on the run from Franklin, her abusive husband. The women conceive a plan in anticipation of Franklin’s arrival; Becky hides the baby elsewhere while Mrs. Nelson distracts her husband. As to be expected, things do not go accordingly. This is due to the fact that Mrs. Nelson is lying about everything. Devon is not her child; he is the biological son of Franklin and his current wife. Becky’s client abducted the baby and then fled to this island, where she put everything, including the rental home and checking account, in the nanny’s name. And to ensure he would not alert the proper authorities, Mrs. Nelson injured the sheriff and let the town think Cleve was responsible.
Caroline B. Cooney exercised the “stolen baby” plot a year earlier in her Janie Johnson series, beginning with The Face on the Milk Carton. However, Mother’s Helper executes the idea much differently. The result comes as a greater shock for the target audience, seeing as the twist is delivered toward the end rather than at the beginning like in Cooney’s book. Younger readers identify with Becky, who like themselves, would never suspect a mother is lying about being a parent. The thriller plays with perception as well as the concept of who can be considered inherently trustworthy. Having Becky then become an accomplice to kidnapping, albeit without her knowledge or consent, is appalling.
Despite having been manipulated, lied to, and almost killed, Becky remains compassionate. She understands Mrs. Nelson needs a different type of help now. As she confronts the woman at the marina, Becky is sympathetic instead of angry. She ultimately lets Mrs. Nelson escape and tells her to “be safe.” Letting the antagonist, particularly someone who has a mental illness, live in these kinds of stories is both merciful and uncommon. It is also not the most logical or even the most lawful choice to make, but it suits Becky, a character whose fatal flaw is caring too much.
There was a time when the young-adult section of bookstores was overflowing with horror and suspense. These books were easily identified by their flashy fonts and garish cover art. This notable subgenre of YA fiction thrived in the ’80s, peaked in the ’90s, and then finally came to an end in the early ’00s. YA horror of this kind is indeed a thing of the past, but the stories live on at Buried in a Book. This recurring column reflects on the nostalgic novels still haunting readers decades later.
We would love to give thanks to the author of this article for this awesome material
";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652895031;}i:8;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:78:"Every Jeff Goldblum Horror Movie Ranked From Worst to Best (According to IMDB)";s:4:"link";s:132:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/every-jeff-goldblum-horror-movie-ranked-from-worst-to-best-according-to-imdb/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Wed, 18 May 2022 16:08:34 +0000";s:8:"category";s:49:"Scream AwayGoldblumHorrorIMDbJeffMovieRankedWorst";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68608";s:11:"description";s:712:"Jeff Goldblum is keeping booked and busy with the upcoming release of Thor: Love and Thunder and Jurassic World: Dominion; he’s the king of bizarro sci-fi and horror. There’s something very satisfying about watching Goldblum at work. RELATED: 7 Things That Could Have Been Left Out Of The ‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Trailer With his ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:32599:"
Jeff Goldblum is keeping booked and busy with the upcoming release of Thor: Love and Thunderand Jurassic World: Dominion; he’s the king of bizarro sci-fi and horror. There’s something very satisfying about watching Goldblum at work.
RELATED: 7 Things That Could Have Been Left Out Of The ‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Trailer
With his undeniably suave persona, Goldblum draws our attention to the screen to the point we can’t – and frankly, don’t want to – look away. He can do funny, he can do thrilling, and he can certainly do scary. Nothing appears to be a challenge for the star, but between blockbusters, there comes a few doozies; yet Goldblum keeps us entertained through the good, the bad, and the wacky.
‘Transylvania 6-500’ (1985)
IMDB Rating: 4.9
Technically a spoof of the genre, Transylvania 6-500 is an easily entertaining way to pass 90 minutes of the day. The 1985 horror-comedy takes the classic staples of monster movies and inflicts its own comical twist on famous figures like Dracula and Frankenstein.
Transylvania 6-500 isn’t to be taken seriously in the slightest. If you grew up watching it, chances are you’ll still love it in today’s pop culture as it provides nostalgic comfort for the era it was released. Nothing screams campy quite like Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr. hunting for monsters in a peculiarly, weird, inexplicable scenario. It’s something that shouldn’t work, but Transylvania 6-500 is a joy from start to finish.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ (2016)
IMDB Rating: 5.2
Sometimes it’s ok for movies not to have a follow-up, especially two decades after the original. Independence Day: Resurgence introduces an entire new group of viewers – as well as retaining fans of the first – to Jeff Goldblum battling it out with aliens.
RELATED: The 27 Best Action Movies of the 90s
Unfortunately, the sequel lives in the shadow of Independence Day, and it comes clearly to viewers that this is an unnecessary chapter that needed to be explored. The action sequences at least hold some allure to the film, but all that you’ll find yourself thinking is: how many times will aliens invade this place, and why aren’t they winning?
‘Hideaway’ (1995)
IMDB Rating: 5.3
Hideawayis another entry featuring an impressive ensemble, though the dream duo of alfred molina and Goldblum are maybe the movie’s only saving grace.
The plot is dull and tedious. There’s nothing to make it stand out or pop amongst the horrors of the 90s. Its biggest flaw is perhaps the use of CGI effects that come across as questionable at best; this aside, Hideaway falls into the trap of becoming too predictable and ultimately fails to keep viewers engaged for long.
‘Mister Frost’ (1990)
IMDB Rating: 5.9
This stylish horror-thriller follows Goldblum as a sadistic serial killer whose presence at a psychiatric facility raises questions about his true identity.
Mister Frostworks because Goldblum is phenomenally convincing at playing the part; his character, Mr. Frost, toys with the minds of viewers and supporting characters over whether he truly is Satan incarnate. The opening sequence is deeply unsettling but sets up the nature of the film very well; this is one Goldblum performance that isn’t to be missed.
‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ (2018)
IMDB Rating: 6.1
In 2015, movie-goers strapped in to watch history repeat itself with a next-gen style revival of the Jurassic Parkfranchise – titled Jurassic World. The first addition is fantastic stand-alone outside the original trilogy; it throws in just enough nods to be nostalgic without being overt or a huge cringe-fest.
RELATED:The ‘Jurassic Park’ Film Franchise Ranked Worst to Best (According to IMDb)
When Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard returned for more Dino action three years later, so did Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm in a brief but crucial in bringing the series back to its roots. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom starts off strong, though is let down by a feeble attempt to reinvent the wheel. If fans are hoping to catch Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) fire cheeky quips and schmooze his way around, they will be left unsatisfied with most of Goldblum’s scenes being shown in the trailer.
‘The Sentinel’ (1977)
IMDB Rating: 6.3
This forgotten 70s supernatural horror consists of an all-star cast with the likes of Chris Sarandon, Christopher Walkenand Beverly D’Angelo in leading and supporting roles; Goldblum is of the latter in a minor bit part.
Considering a mass of negative responses towards the film upon its release, The Sentinel does maintain an eerie atmosphere. Critics have hailed the movie as being offensive for its exploitation of physical disabilities, which has been a leading factor in a strong distaste for The Sentinel over years. However, more recently, The Sentinel has been revised for having a star-studded cast, the cinematography, and genuinely creepy scenes.
‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ (1997)
IMDB Rating: 6.5
The Lost World: Jurassic Parklacks the punch of its predecessor, but makes up for its mishaps by upping the terror and violence, and takes the drama off the island and onto the mainlands. If we’ve learned anything from the Jurassic Park franchise, it’s that humans are the real villains.
RELATED:Every Steven Spielberg Movie Ranked from Worst to Best
Unlike the first film, Goldblum has his screen time significantly increased with this feature and is promoted to lead the charge against the man-made prehistoric beats. We get to dive into details about Ian’s life that bring a depth to his character that Jurassic Park steers away from; it makes sense, this is kind of his time to shine after all. The Lost World is actually one of the stronger sequels to come out of the series, and with a scene like the hunters in the tall grass, who can fault this?
‘Independence Day’ (1995)
IMDB Rating: 7.0
It might not hold the most compelling of narratives, but Independence Daydoes establish itself as an ultimate guilty pleasure. The film is frustratingly lackluster in delivering layers of development to the characters; however, that is likely what appeals audiences to Independence Daygiving it a charming quality.
With big Hollywood names such as Will Smith, Bill Pullmanand a young Mae WhitmanGoldblum has a solid team of talent to work with. While suffering from a slightly weak plot, the design behind the aliens and the scenes of their attacks are surprisingly unsettling to see. It is a disaster film in every sense, filled with explosions and action, and is worthy of viewing once every July 4!
‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (1978)
IMDB Rating: 7.4
Invasion of the Body Snatchersis a classic component of horror cinema. Fans and critics applauded its ability to match the uneasy tone of the 1956 cult original and stands well on its own two feet.
Goldblum stars as Donald Sutherland’s close friend and writer Jack Bellicec; Jack is one of the first to fall victim to the eponymous unearthly body snatchers and spends the rest of the film as a duplicate without any sort of human attachment. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is iconic. Most people will surely recall the infamously haunting image of Sutherland’s Matthew towards the film’s conclusion as all hope for humanity begins to dwindle.
‘The Fly’ (1986)
IMDB Rating: 7.6
David Croneberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly comes nearly thirty years after the original, and is a truly grotesque, twisted and sickening film to endure. Goldblum teams up alongside Geena Davis once again as brilliant scientist Seth Brundle and his journalist lover Veronica Quaife as they suffer the consequences of an experience gone horrifically wrong.
RELATED: 9 Extreme Horror Movies You Should Watch If You Liked ‘X’
Both the movie and Goldblum’s performance received high praise, going on to become critically acclaimed for its use of effects too. There is a deeper, morally heartbreaking undertone present throughout The Fly; it offers far more gore than its 1958 predecessor ever could have imagined, and while those aspects are memorable, it’s the tragedy of Brundle’s journey that sticks with and touches the audience.
‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)
IMDB Rating: 8.2
Arguably one of Goldblum’s most prolific films is Steven Spielberg’s 1993 introduction to the Jurassic Park franchise. It is here that we really get to break down and come to love Ian Malcolm for all of his charisma, wit, and endearing yet grimy sleaze-ball personality.
Jurassic Park is to sci-fi what Jawsis to thrillers; the effects are groundbreaking, even to this day; the concept behind the premise is cleverly unique; Spiegberg excels in building suspense and tension by keeping his creative and practical masterpieces hidden away until the exact right moment. His execution is commendable, and the feeling of watching Jurassic Park for the first time is still to be matched.
NEXT: The 50 Best Horror Movies of the 1990s, Ranked
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We would like to give thanks to the author of this post for this remarkable web content
";}s:7:"summary";s:712:"Jeff Goldblum is keeping booked and busy with the upcoming release of Thor: Love and Thunder and Jurassic World: Dominion; he’s the king of bizarro sci-fi and horror. There’s something very satisfying about watching Goldblum at work. RELATED: 7 Things That Could Have Been Left Out Of The ‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Trailer With his ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:32599:"
Jeff Goldblum is keeping booked and busy with the upcoming release of Thor: Love and Thunderand Jurassic World: Dominion; he’s the king of bizarro sci-fi and horror. There’s something very satisfying about watching Goldblum at work.
RELATED: 7 Things That Could Have Been Left Out Of The ‘Thor: Love And Thunder’ Trailer
With his undeniably suave persona, Goldblum draws our attention to the screen to the point we can’t – and frankly, don’t want to – look away. He can do funny, he can do thrilling, and he can certainly do scary. Nothing appears to be a challenge for the star, but between blockbusters, there comes a few doozies; yet Goldblum keeps us entertained through the good, the bad, and the wacky.
‘Transylvania 6-500’ (1985)
IMDB Rating: 4.9
Technically a spoof of the genre, Transylvania 6-500 is an easily entertaining way to pass 90 minutes of the day. The 1985 horror-comedy takes the classic staples of monster movies and inflicts its own comical twist on famous figures like Dracula and Frankenstein.
Transylvania 6-500 isn’t to be taken seriously in the slightest. If you grew up watching it, chances are you’ll still love it in today’s pop culture as it provides nostalgic comfort for the era it was released. Nothing screams campy quite like Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr. hunting for monsters in a peculiarly, weird, inexplicable scenario. It’s something that shouldn’t work, but Transylvania 6-500 is a joy from start to finish.
COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY
‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ (2016)
IMDB Rating: 5.2
Sometimes it’s ok for movies not to have a follow-up, especially two decades after the original. Independence Day: Resurgence introduces an entire new group of viewers – as well as retaining fans of the first – to Jeff Goldblum battling it out with aliens.
RELATED: The 27 Best Action Movies of the 90s
Unfortunately, the sequel lives in the shadow of Independence Day, and it comes clearly to viewers that this is an unnecessary chapter that needed to be explored. The action sequences at least hold some allure to the film, but all that you’ll find yourself thinking is: how many times will aliens invade this place, and why aren’t they winning?
‘Hideaway’ (1995)
IMDB Rating: 5.3
Hideawayis another entry featuring an impressive ensemble, though the dream duo of alfred molina and Goldblum are maybe the movie’s only saving grace.
The plot is dull and tedious. There’s nothing to make it stand out or pop amongst the horrors of the 90s. Its biggest flaw is perhaps the use of CGI effects that come across as questionable at best; this aside, Hideaway falls into the trap of becoming too predictable and ultimately fails to keep viewers engaged for long.
‘Mister Frost’ (1990)
IMDB Rating: 5.9
This stylish horror-thriller follows Goldblum as a sadistic serial killer whose presence at a psychiatric facility raises questions about his true identity.
Mister Frostworks because Goldblum is phenomenally convincing at playing the part; his character, Mr. Frost, toys with the minds of viewers and supporting characters over whether he truly is Satan incarnate. The opening sequence is deeply unsettling but sets up the nature of the film very well; this is one Goldblum performance that isn’t to be missed.
‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ (2018)
IMDB Rating: 6.1
In 2015, movie-goers strapped in to watch history repeat itself with a next-gen style revival of the Jurassic Parkfranchise – titled Jurassic World. The first addition is fantastic stand-alone outside the original trilogy; it throws in just enough nods to be nostalgic without being overt or a huge cringe-fest.
RELATED:The ‘Jurassic Park’ Film Franchise Ranked Worst to Best (According to IMDb)
When Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard returned for more Dino action three years later, so did Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm in a brief but crucial in bringing the series back to its roots. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom starts off strong, though is let down by a feeble attempt to reinvent the wheel. If fans are hoping to catch Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) fire cheeky quips and schmooze his way around, they will be left unsatisfied with most of Goldblum’s scenes being shown in the trailer.
‘The Sentinel’ (1977)
IMDB Rating: 6.3
This forgotten 70s supernatural horror consists of an all-star cast with the likes of Chris Sarandon, Christopher Walkenand Beverly D’Angelo in leading and supporting roles; Goldblum is of the latter in a minor bit part.
Considering a mass of negative responses towards the film upon its release, The Sentinel does maintain an eerie atmosphere. Critics have hailed the movie as being offensive for its exploitation of physical disabilities, which has been a leading factor in a strong distaste for The Sentinel over years. However, more recently, The Sentinel has been revised for having a star-studded cast, the cinematography, and genuinely creepy scenes.
‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ (1997)
IMDB Rating: 6.5
The Lost World: Jurassic Parklacks the punch of its predecessor, but makes up for its mishaps by upping the terror and violence, and takes the drama off the island and onto the mainlands. If we’ve learned anything from the Jurassic Park franchise, it’s that humans are the real villains.
RELATED:Every Steven Spielberg Movie Ranked from Worst to Best
Unlike the first film, Goldblum has his screen time significantly increased with this feature and is promoted to lead the charge against the man-made prehistoric beats. We get to dive into details about Ian’s life that bring a depth to his character that Jurassic Park steers away from; it makes sense, this is kind of his time to shine after all. The Lost World is actually one of the stronger sequels to come out of the series, and with a scene like the hunters in the tall grass, who can fault this?
‘Independence Day’ (1995)
IMDB Rating: 7.0
It might not hold the most compelling of narratives, but Independence Daydoes establish itself as an ultimate guilty pleasure. The film is frustratingly lackluster in delivering layers of development to the characters; however, that is likely what appeals audiences to Independence Daygiving it a charming quality.
With big Hollywood names such as Will Smith, Bill Pullmanand a young Mae WhitmanGoldblum has a solid team of talent to work with. While suffering from a slightly weak plot, the design behind the aliens and the scenes of their attacks are surprisingly unsettling to see. It is a disaster film in every sense, filled with explosions and action, and is worthy of viewing once every July 4!
‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (1978)
IMDB Rating: 7.4
Invasion of the Body Snatchersis a classic component of horror cinema. Fans and critics applauded its ability to match the uneasy tone of the 1956 cult original and stands well on its own two feet.
Goldblum stars as Donald Sutherland’s close friend and writer Jack Bellicec; Jack is one of the first to fall victim to the eponymous unearthly body snatchers and spends the rest of the film as a duplicate without any sort of human attachment. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is iconic. Most people will surely recall the infamously haunting image of Sutherland’s Matthew towards the film’s conclusion as all hope for humanity begins to dwindle.
‘The Fly’ (1986)
IMDB Rating: 7.6
David Croneberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly comes nearly thirty years after the original, and is a truly grotesque, twisted and sickening film to endure. Goldblum teams up alongside Geena Davis once again as brilliant scientist Seth Brundle and his journalist lover Veronica Quaife as they suffer the consequences of an experience gone horrifically wrong.
RELATED: 9 Extreme Horror Movies You Should Watch If You Liked ‘X’
Both the movie and Goldblum’s performance received high praise, going on to become critically acclaimed for its use of effects too. There is a deeper, morally heartbreaking undertone present throughout The Fly; it offers far more gore than its 1958 predecessor ever could have imagined, and while those aspects are memorable, it’s the tragedy of Brundle’s journey that sticks with and touches the audience.
‘Jurassic Park’ (1993)
IMDB Rating: 8.2
Arguably one of Goldblum’s most prolific films is Steven Spielberg’s 1993 introduction to the Jurassic Park franchise. It is here that we really get to break down and come to love Ian Malcolm for all of his charisma, wit, and endearing yet grimy sleaze-ball personality.
Jurassic Park is to sci-fi what Jawsis to thrillers; the effects are groundbreaking, even to this day; the concept behind the premise is cleverly unique; Spiegberg excels in building suspense and tension by keeping his creative and practical masterpieces hidden away until the exact right moment. His execution is commendable, and the feeling of watching Jurassic Park for the first time is still to be matched.
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";s:14:"date_timestamp";i:1652890114;}i:9;a:11:{s:5:"title";s:68:"Scarily obvious: why the horror genre needs to drop clumsy metaphors";s:4:"link";s:123:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/scream-away/scarily-obvious-why-the-horror-genre-needs-to-drop-clumsy-metaphors/";s:2:"dc";a:1:{s:7:"creator";s:11:"Harry World";}s:7:"pubdate";s:31:"Wed, 18 May 2022 14:45:35 +0000";s:8:"category";s:55:"Scream AwayclumsyDropGenreHorrormetaphorsobviousScarily";s:4:"guid";s:51:"https://movieshere.packagingnewsonline.com/?p=68550";s:11:"description";s:663:"In the new Alex Garland thriller, Men, Jessie Buckley plays a woman whose holiday in the English countryside curdles into a surreal nightmare. Her tormenter is at once singular and plural: a whole village of hostile strangers, all with the face and voice of Rory Kinnear. Garland, the sci-fi novelist who wrote and directed Ex ... Read more";s:7:"content";a:1:{s:7:"encoded";s:17168:"
In the new Alex Garland thriller, Men, Jessie Buckley plays a woman whose holiday in the English countryside curdles into a surreal nightmare. Her tormenter is at once singular and plural: a whole village of hostile strangers, all with the face and voice of Rory Kinnear. Garland, the sci-fi novelist who wrote and directed Ex Machina and Annihilation (both likewise fixated, to some degree, on questions of gender), never explains the nature of this menacing anomaly, this apparent hive mind of identical stalkers. But anyone who’s watched a few horror movies this past decade will know what our poor heroine is up against. She’s being hunted by (gasp!) a fearsome, oversized metaphor.
Is there a more prolific monster in all of modern cinema? The ghastly metaphor prowls the multiplex and the art house alike, shapeshifting like the creature from The Thing to accommodate the allegorical needs of high-minded film-makers everywhere. It can look like mental illness. Or like some particular social ill. Its dominant shape, in dozens of morose festival favorites, is grief or trauma. In Men, the unholy beast takes the form of misogyny – specifically, a historic tendency to blame women for everything. (If the title doesn’t make the film’s aims clear enough, there’s the opening scene, where Buckley pulls an apple from a tree in a garden. Does it count as some kind of restraint on Garland’s part that he hasn’t gone right ahead and just named the character Eve?)
We are living in an age of metaphorical horror – of scary movies that strive, loudly and unsubtly, to be about something scarier than a sharp knife or sharp fangs, something real and important. The monster that’s more than a monster is nothing new, of course. Just ask any scholar of vampire or werewolf lore what these enduring folkloric icons can represent, or what they have over the centuries. And for as long as there have been horror films, there have been horror film-makers channeling our screw ups and hang ups and anxieties – trampling model cities for the sins of Oppenheimer, equating the living dead to mindless shoppers, building haunted houses from a Freudian blueprint.
Robyn Nevin and Emily Mortimer in Relic. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
Thing is, all that used to be subtext. Today’s class of metaphorical horror puts it right there on the surface. Think of a movie like the recent Relic, which makes zero attempt to hide the fact that its supernatural entity is a proxy for the horrors of dementia. Watching it, you don’t so much shudder in fright as nod in sad, respectful recognition. Who can scream when they’re thinking, somberly, “There but for the grace of God go I”? Other times, the metaphor can drift from frightening to just plain distasteful. Lights Out works splendidly as a jump-scare machine, less so as an exploration of crippling depression.
These are films that basically write their own academic papers aloud, doing the interpretative labor for the audience. At their worst, they can play more like equations than thrillers: solve for X to reveal the cultural or psychological issue the monster is blatantly representing. Not that every film-maker even settles on just one metaphorical function. Last year’s Antlers, a prestige studio creature feature as relentlessly dour as it is well-crafted, turns its rampaging mythological threat into a totem for just about every major problem in America: opioid addiction, child abuse, the destruction of the environment, you name it. It’s the kind of overfreighted concoction that makes one wonder if a horror movie about nothing might be preferable to one about everything.
Plenty of great horror films released over the last few years have privileged a message above cheap thrills, and deployed a metaphor without surrendering scares. But for every Babadook or Get Out or It Follows (a movie that benefits, incidentally, from the slipperiness of its metaphor – no, the “it” is not a walking STD), there’s a dozen more horror films that seem to exist only to present a simple, barely concealed idea. Watching them, you start to sympathize a little with the mob of purists waving their pitchforks at any scare fare highbrow enough to be classified, in useless buzz-word parlance, as “elevated.” For too many of these prospective critical darlings, elevating horror really just means making explicit all the meaty brain fodder that the towering classics of the 70s had the good sense to leave safely, productively submerged.
Jeremy T. Thomas and Keri Russell in Antlers Photograph: Kimberly French/AP
On the nose title aside, Men is far from the most egregious offender in this department. Garland knows how to envelop a viewer in an otherworldly atmosphere, a fairy-tale unease. And he doesn’t skimp on the shocks – especially in the climax, in which the director finds a truly grotesque, imaginative way to visualize his big #YesAllMen point. (As David Cronenberg could tell you, it’s always effective, ballasting the cerebral with the grossly visceral.) Yet the film’s blunt messaging, on point though it may be, still blunts some of its power: Garland has made a movie so thematically transparent that it can’t help but put a safe intellectual distance between itself and the viewer. It sacrifices the true dread of the unknown at the altar of an easily unpacked thesis. It’s metaphorical (a.k.a. “about something”) to a fault.
The great horror films, the truly terrifying ones, tend to operate on a more irrational level. They have a touch of madness to them, speaking to the primal fears rattling around our heads. They can’t be easily solved or explained. It’s what Stephen King meant when we wrote about the poetry of fear, and how nightmares exist outside of logic. And it’s what Tobe Hooper capitalized so diabolically upon in 1974 when he made the slaughterhouse fright machine to rule them all – another movie, like Men, about a young city slicker who strays unwisely into the boonies. Dive into his Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and you’ll find all kinds of ideas: about class warfare, about industrialization, about the cannibalistic maw of capitalism. But Hooper kept them under the skin, in the background instead of the foreground. They were secondary to his main goal, which was scaring the living piss out of people. Mission accomplished, no metaphor required.
We wish to thank the author of this short article for this incredible content
";}s:7:"summary";s:663:"In the new Alex Garland thriller, Men, Jessie Buckley plays a woman whose holiday in the English countryside curdles into a surreal nightmare. Her tormenter is at once singular and plural: a whole village of hostile strangers, all with the face and voice of Rory Kinnear. Garland, the sci-fi novelist who wrote and directed Ex ... Read more";s:12:"atom_content";s:17168:"
In the new Alex Garland thriller, Men, Jessie Buckley plays a woman whose holiday in the English countryside curdles into a surreal nightmare. Her tormenter is at once singular and plural: a whole village of hostile strangers, all with the face and voice of Rory Kinnear. Garland, the sci-fi novelist who wrote and directed Ex Machina and Annihilation (both likewise fixated, to some degree, on questions of gender), never explains the nature of this menacing anomaly, this apparent hive mind of identical stalkers. But anyone who’s watched a few horror movies this past decade will know what our poor heroine is up against. She’s being hunted by (gasp!) a fearsome, oversized metaphor.
Is there a more prolific monster in all of modern cinema? The ghastly metaphor prowls the multiplex and the art house alike, shapeshifting like the creature from The Thing to accommodate the allegorical needs of high-minded film-makers everywhere. It can look like mental illness. Or like some particular social ill. Its dominant shape, in dozens of morose festival favorites, is grief or trauma. In Men, the unholy beast takes the form of misogyny – specifically, a historic tendency to blame women for everything. (If the title doesn’t make the film’s aims clear enough, there’s the opening scene, where Buckley pulls an apple from a tree in a garden. Does it count as some kind of restraint on Garland’s part that he hasn’t gone right ahead and just named the character Eve?)
We are living in an age of metaphorical horror – of scary movies that strive, loudly and unsubtly, to be about something scarier than a sharp knife or sharp fangs, something real and important. The monster that’s more than a monster is nothing new, of course. Just ask any scholar of vampire or werewolf lore what these enduring folkloric icons can represent, or what they have over the centuries. And for as long as there have been horror films, there have been horror film-makers channeling our screw ups and hang ups and anxieties – trampling model cities for the sins of Oppenheimer, equating the living dead to mindless shoppers, building haunted houses from a Freudian blueprint.
Robyn Nevin and Emily Mortimer in Relic. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy
Thing is, all that used to be subtext. Today’s class of metaphorical horror puts it right there on the surface. Think of a movie like the recent Relic, which makes zero attempt to hide the fact that its supernatural entity is a proxy for the horrors of dementia. Watching it, you don’t so much shudder in fright as nod in sad, respectful recognition. Who can scream when they’re thinking, somberly, “There but for the grace of God go I”? Other times, the metaphor can drift from frightening to just plain distasteful. Lights Out works splendidly as a jump-scare machine, less so as an exploration of crippling depression.
These are films that basically write their own academic papers aloud, doing the interpretative labor for the audience. At their worst, they can play more like equations than thrillers: solve for X to reveal the cultural or psychological issue the monster is blatantly representing. Not that every film-maker even settles on just one metaphorical function. Last year’s Antlers, a prestige studio creature feature as relentlessly dour as it is well-crafted, turns its rampaging mythological threat into a totem for just about every major problem in America: opioid addiction, child abuse, the destruction of the environment, you name it. It’s the kind of overfreighted concoction that makes one wonder if a horror movie about nothing might be preferable to one about everything.
Plenty of great horror films released over the last few years have privileged a message above cheap thrills, and deployed a metaphor without surrendering scares. But for every Babadook or Get Out or It Follows (a movie that benefits, incidentally, from the slipperiness of its metaphor – no, the “it” is not a walking STD), there’s a dozen more horror films that seem to exist only to present a simple, barely concealed idea. Watching them, you start to sympathize a little with the mob of purists waving their pitchforks at any scare fare highbrow enough to be classified, in useless buzz-word parlance, as “elevated.” For too many of these prospective critical darlings, elevating horror really just means making explicit all the meaty brain fodder that the towering classics of the 70s had the good sense to leave safely, productively submerged.
Jeremy T. Thomas and Keri Russell in Antlers Photograph: Kimberly French/AP
On the nose title aside, Men is far from the most egregious offender in this department. Garland knows how to envelop a viewer in an otherworldly atmosphere, a fairy-tale unease. And he doesn’t skimp on the shocks – especially in the climax, in which the director finds a truly grotesque, imaginative way to visualize his big #YesAllMen point. (As David Cronenberg could tell you, it’s always effective, ballasting the cerebral with the grossly visceral.) Yet the film’s blunt messaging, on point though it may be, still blunts some of its power: Garland has made a movie so thematically transparent that it can’t help but put a safe intellectual distance between itself and the viewer. It sacrifices the true dread of the unknown at the altar of an easily unpacked thesis. It’s metaphorical (a.k.a. “about something”) to a fault.
The great horror films, the truly terrifying ones, tend to operate on a more irrational level. They have a touch of madness to them, speaking to the primal fears rattling around our heads. They can’t be easily solved or explained. It’s what Stephen King meant when we wrote about the poetry of fear, and how nightmares exist outside of logic. And it’s what Tobe Hooper capitalized so diabolically upon in 1974 when he made the slaughterhouse fright machine to rule them all – another movie, like Men, about a young city slicker who strays unwisely into the boonies. Dive into his Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and you’ll find all kinds of ideas: about class warfare, about industrialization, about the cannibalistic maw of capitalism. But Hooper kept them under the skin, in the background instead of the foreground. They were secondary to his main goal, which was scaring the living piss out of people. Mission accomplished, no metaphor required.
We wish to thank the author of this short article for this incredible content
