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As the nights grow longer and the air turns crisp, it’s the perfect time to settle in with some of the best spooky films ever made. From eerie silent classics to modern horror hits, spooky cinema has evolved across decades, yet each era has its own spine-tingling gems. Whether you love atmospheric terror or heart-pounding scares, here’s a journey through the best films from the 1920s to today that will give you chills. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood Insider fully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. 1920s - 1980s ‘The Haunting’ (1963) Cast: Julie Harris,...

Exclusive: Scream queen Kate Siegel (Midnight Mass) and David Dastmalchian are set to star in the action-horror Epilogue.

Michael Fimognari (The Fall of the House of Usher) will helm the film which is penned by Luke Barnett and Tanner Thomason.

Set one year after the zombie apocalypse has supposedly come to an end, the film will follow a desperate couple who set out to find a cure for their infected daughter.

Coming off box office hit Terrifier 3, which has reached $60M worldwide and climbing, The Coven will launch sales next week at the American Film Market.

Pic is being produced by Todd Garner (Mortal Kombat) for Broken Road Productions, Courtney Petrakis, Brittney McDade, and genre doyen Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) for Red Room Pictures.

Siegel and Dastmalchian are both coming off The Life of Chuck, Flanagan’s film that took top honors at...

Everything You Need to Know About Conjuring 4! (Photo Credit – Instagram)

The Conjuring franchise has captivated the audience with its spine-chilling stories based on real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Sadly, their demon-filled love story ends with the last chapter, The Conjuring: Last Rites. The Conjuring began in 2013 and expanded to include sequels and spin-offs such as Anabelle and The Nun. The most successful horror franchise explored the adventures of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a married pair of real-life paranormal experts.

With three successful hits, The Conjuring: Last Rites will continue to delve deeper into Warrens’ investigation of another terrifying case, promising to deliver the same blend of supernatural horror and emotional depth.

Here’s everything you need to know about The Conjuring: Last Rites.

The Conjuring: Last Rites Release Date

The fourth chapter of The Conjuring will arrive in theaters on September 5, 2025. The last installment in the horror franchise...

It's the most wonderful time of the year because Halloween is just 11 days away! Spooky season is the best time to enjoy horror movies and shows as we all try to get into the spirit. With a long list of streaming services and so many series out there to pick from, it might be overwhelming knowing where to start. That's where we come in!

Ready for scares this Halloween? Let's break down 13 scary shows worth checking out this October, including both old and new titles.

Lauren Ambrose and Nell Tiger Free in Servant | Apple TV+ ServantRelease years: 2019-2023Created by: Tony BasgallopStarring: Lauren Ambrose, Nell Tiger Free, Toby Kebbell, Rupert GrintStreaming on: Apple TV+

One of my favorite TV shows of the last decade is Servant, a psychological horror story that takes place in Philadelphia. Following a married couple with a newborn baby, their family falls under distress when they...

The sixth season of the Mubi Podcast, titled “Haunted Homes,” considers how movies about haunted houses let us explore—and often parallel—our relationships with our homes.This five-part series is guest-hosted and written by author, film programmer, podcaster, and horror expert Anna Bogutskaya. Below she introduces this special, haunted season.To listen to the show and subscribe on your preferred podcast app, click here.In 1950, science-fiction author Ray Bradbury wrote: “Nothing ever likes to die—even a room.” Seventy-four years later, I read those words and think of how a house can become haunted. In Bradbury’s story “The Veld,”two parents try to unplug a room that is capable of manifesting into reality whatever their two raucous (read: sociopathic) children imagine. It happens to be lions. The back-and-forth between them about what to do with the room—which is and isn’t a character, because it is implied...

Like witches, vampires, and zombies, ghosts can be scary as hell. But there is something about the stories of lingering dead spirits that can be both awe-inspiring and spooky at once. The often invisible presence of ghosts allows filmmakers to explore the unsettling aspects of character psychology through the use of sound and space. Some of the best ghost stories aren’t scary at all; instead, they liberate directors from the restrictions of space and time to mine spiritual and existential depths. It’s a genre that has attracted some of the medium’s greatest artists to create some of their finest work.

One of the great aspects of ghost stories are their ambiguity, how their presence reflects more on the humans who see them then the spectral beings themselves. Maybe the great, definitive ghost story in the literary world is Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw,” his 1898 novella...

Stephen King knows horror. The bestselling author has been scaring people for more than 50 years now, with the vast majority of his books being turned into memorable horror movies. Because of this, King's thoughts on the genre often get lots of attention. He has an entire non-fiction book about the art of horror, and he often offers up his opinion on horror movies. In a new essay over at Variety, King tackles a loaded subject: the scariest movie ever made. King is smart enough to acknowledge that the concept of something being thought of as the "scariest" is relative. "My conclusion is that the 'scariest' varies according to the viewer's age," King writes. "As a kid of 16, the scariest movie was 'The Haunting' (directed by Robert Wise). As an adult, it was 'The Blair Witch Project,' with that building sense of doom and those truly horrible last 35 seconds.

This essay by Stephen King on his favorite horror movie of all time is one of several contributed as part of Variety’s 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time package.

I thought deeply about this question, perhaps more deeply than the subject — my scariest horror movie — deserves… but then, I’ve seen a lot of horror movies, so maybe it’s a valid Q.

My conclusion is that the “scariest” varies according to the viewer’s age. As a kid of 16, the scariest movie was “The Haunting” (directed by Robert Wise). As an adult, it was “The Blair Witch Project,” with that building sense of doom and those truly horrible last 35 seconds. But overall, I’d have to say “Night of the Living Dead,” George A. Romero’s low-budget masterpiece.

I’ll never forget the smarmy older brother doing his bad Boris Karloff imitation — “They’re coming to get you,...

You know the drill: You feel the slightest chill and crispness in the air, you catch your first whiff of anything pumpkin spiced, you feel the crunch of a leaf underneath your feet, and it's time to bundle under your softest blanket and start Gilmore Girls from the beginning.

No one holds annual rituals more closely than those whose favorite season is fall, and it's so valid. The second the calendar turns to sweater weather, there's no time to waste to break out the seasonal candles and plan a movie marathon or watch your favorite fall show.

Since fall has finally arrived, our watch lists will start to become crowded with the influx of new series premieres. But what are the seasonal staples that will make us feel like fall? These are the best shows to watch on Netflix this fall for the optimal autumnal experience, beginning below with the fall show!

The rise of spirtualism, mediums, and séances in the 1800s is an endlessly fascinating topic, especially when you consider that, for all of the people that were committing fraud, what if some of them were really contacting the dead? Having read the first issue of Séance in the Asylum, I am very excited to read more, and I was just as thrilled to catch up with Clay McLeod Chapman to talk all about the new series.

The mid-late 1800s are such a fascinating time when it comes to mysticism and the occult. What inspired the idea behind Séance in the Asylum?

I had two guiding lights for Séance in the Asylum. First, I’ve always been a fan of the Fox Sisters. I’m dying to write something for them, about them, some day. I had a feature in development for years and it just fizzled… but I’ve been...

This Halloween, Call of Duty fans are in for a terrifying treat. As Sledgehammer Games unleashes The Haunting event for Modern Warfare III and Warzone on September 18, players will get to experience a spine-tingling array of horror icons including Michael Myers from Halloween, Art the Clown from Terrifier, and Sam from Trick ‘r Treat. The event promises a mix of chilling new gameplay features, cosmetics, and intense zombie action, sure to keep fans on edge throughout Season 6.

Following in the footsteps of last year’s horror-heavy event, which introduced Ghostface from Scream and Ash from The Evil Dead, The Haunting of 2024 goes bigger and darker. This time around, the trailer hints at even more gruesome cameos and new map variants that reflect the eerie atmosphere of the season. Not only will players be able to step into the shoes of iconic horror villains, but they’ll also face terrifying...

Early next year, Universal and Blumhouse will continue their reanimation of the Universal Monsters with the release of director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man. Whannell, who also directed Insidious 3 and Upgrade for Blumhouse, was the man responsible for bringing The Invisible Man back to life in 2020. He did so with a modern twist on the character that turned out to be more than just a moderate success. The Invisible Man raked in $144 million on a $7 million budget, receiving mostly positive reviews.

With horror doing better than ever at the box office and Whannell arguably without a miss on his directing resume, hopes are high for Wolf Man, howling into theaters on January 17, 2025.

But this isn’t the first time a modern Wolf Man project sounded good on paper…

Listen to this pitch: A remake of the classic 1941 film, The Wolf Man, with Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self writing...

Although you won’t often hear his name mentioned among auteur theorists, four-time Oscar winner Robert Wise amassed an impressive filmography in his lifetime. Let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Wise cut his teeth as a film editor, most notably working on Orson Welles‘ landmark film “Citizen Kane” (1941), for which he received an Oscar nomination. He made his directorial debut with “The Curse of the Cat People” (1944), the first of many successful collaborations with low-budget horror producer Val Lewton.

Throughout his career, Wise excelled at a number of genres, including science fiction (“The Day the Earth Stood Still”), film noir (“Odds Against Tomorrow”), horror (“The Haunting”), war (“The Desert Rats”), comedy (“Two for the Seesaw”), and drama (“Executive Suite”). Rather than imposing his own directorial fingerprint on each film, Wise instead tried to adapt his style to best suit the material.

While the Toronto International Film Festival won’t officially launch a sales market until 2026, this year kicks off on Thursday with multiple buzzy titles for sale starring the likes of Ben Stiller, Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law and Tom Hiddleston.

Hollywood descends upon the Canadian metropolis for starry world premieres and the unofficial start of awards season. But for years now TIFF has also been a place of serious business. Last year the Glen Powell rom-com “Hit Man” sold to Netflix for $20 million at the festival after a raucous screening.

“They’ve very much shaped this festival with a sales environment in mind,” Intrepid Pictures CEO Trevor Macy told TheWrap as he prepared to head to TIFF with the Hiddleston-fronted Stephen King adaptation “The Life of Chuck,” from writer/director Mike Flanagan. “It seems like buyers are showing up in force.”

And to prove his point, Sony Classics scooped up “Jane...

1937. Emily (Gwyneth Evans) is close to becoming an adult but her forthcoming eighteenth birthday won’t be much of a cause for celebration as, due to chronic agoraphobia. she has never left the rambling, crumbling gothic pile which is her home. Haunted by visions of a gnarled, black hand, Emily longs for the day her long absent father will return home and save her, but her strict, overbearing mother (Jill Priest) insists that he is gone forever and that Emily needs to be more concerned with the terrors lurking outside…

In an era with so much horror that’s cranked up to eleven in terms of sound and fury, it’s pleasing to take the odd detour into a simpler, more measured time. Warren Dudley’s Fright, presented in black and white and performed in that slightly mannered method of many a 1950s Brit chiller, evokes the atmosphere of those...

Mateo

After wrapping up July with a Jan de Bont double feature discussing the movie magic of Twister (listen) and the laundry list of problems with his 1999 remake of The Haunting (listen), we’re tackled our first Alejandro Jodorowsky film with Santa Sangre (listen).

Now we’re back on American soil for our first Screenlife horror film on the Main Feed: Stephen Susco‘s Unfriended sequel, Unfriended: Dark Web (2018).

In the movie, Matias (Colin Woodell) shows up for virtual game night with a new laptop. As his friends – conspiracy nut Aj (Connor Del Rio), British Damon (Andrew Lees), harangued Lexx (Savira Windyani), and lesbian couple Nari (Betty Gabriel) and Serena (Rebecca Rittenhouse) – play Cards Against Humanity, Matias discovers hidden video files on the stolen computer.

The realization leads him to Charon (Douglas Tait) and Erica Dunne (Alexa Mansour), a missing 17 year old as Matias, his deaf girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras...

This article is part of IndieWire’s 2000s Week celebration. Click here for a whole lot more.

When the 2000s began, Todd Field was a journeyman actor best known for his work in “Ruby in Paradise,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” and a pair of Jan de Bont spectacles.. A year into the decade, he would be recognized as one of the most promising filmmakers of his generation after writing and directing “In the Bedroom” (2001), a low-budget indie that became a surprising commercial success on its way to five Oscar nominations. Looking back now, Field recognizes that it was a unique time not just for him, but for film history in general.

“There are so many advantages now, technically, for young filmmakers starting out,” Field told IndieWire. “But in terms of actually having people see the work, it seems much harder. The idea that this film got made, that it got into Sundance,...

Elephants, Eagles & Chickens, Oh My!

After wrapping up July with a Jan de Bont double feature discussing the movie magic of Twister (listen) and the laundry list of problems with his 1999 remake of The Haunting (listen), we’re heading down to Mexico City to discuss Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s surrealist masterpiece Santa Sangre (1989).

Santa Sangre sees Fenix (Axel Jodorowsky), a former circus magician, escape from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother Concha (Blanca Guerra), the leader of a strange religious cult. Once they are reunited, Fenix is forced to enact brutal murders on Concha’s behalf as he becomes “her arms.” Only a figure from his past, the deaf mute tightrope walker Alma (Sabrina Dennison), can stop him before he murders again; but will she be able to reach him in time?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts,...

The Children, Eleanor!

We’ve spent the month of July discussing the badass babes of Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror (listen), the queer undertones of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (listen), and the “very bad weather” of Jan de Bont‘s 1996 tornado film, Twister (listen).

Now we’re wrapping up our de Bont double bill with his less successful 1999 special effects remake, The Haunting!

In the film, sheltered Eleanor (Lili Taylor) is recruited for a dubious insomnia study at the infamous Hill House by questionable doctor David Marrow (Liam Neeson). Along with bisexual Theo (Catherine Zeta-Taylor) and horny Luke (Owen Wilson), Nell is terrorized by annoying ghost children and the monstrous owner of the house, Hugh Crain (Charles Gunning).

As the spectral hauntings become more and more severe, Nell must uncover her tenuous connection to the previous victims before the terrible CGI swallows her and the other participants whole.

Chris Stuckmann could have rested on his laurels. He could have coasted on his 2 million-plus YouTube subscribers and led a happy, fulfilling life as the internet’s premier movie buff. But teenage dreams don’t go away that easily, and as grateful as he is for the film community that’s formed around his eponymously named YouTube channel, his original ambition was to make movies, not talk about them. The Ohio native has been helming amateur shorts and features with his friends since he was 14 years old, and he continued doing so once he started YouTubing at 21. Each project got better and better, and in 2019, Stuckmann decided to truly make a go at professional filmmaking.

The first domino fell at 2019’s Fantastic Fest, where Stuckmann met Paper Street Pictures’ Aaron B. Koontz. The filmmaker pitched the indie producer on the fly during one of the fest’s signature boxing matches,...

Cowtastrophe.

After kicking off July with discussions on the badass babes of Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror (listen) and the queer undertones of Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut (listen), we’re taking a vacation from heavy analysis and having fun with Jan de Bont‘s 1996 special effects extravaganza Twister!

In the film, a series of intense storms sweeping through Oklahoma leads meteorologist Jo Harding (Helen Hunt) and her team of storm chasers to test out Dorothy, a ground-breaking tornado data-gathering device conceived by Jo’s estranged husband, Bill (Bill Paxton). When Bill shows up in town with his new fiancée (Jami Gertz) in tow, it becomes a race against the clock as the whole crew try to get Dorothy to work before their rival Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes) gets there first.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts,...

Horror was in a bit of a funk in the late 90s. Then 25 years ago, in July 1999, The Blair Witch Project came along and changed everything.

In a 1996 article published in The Philadelphia Enquirer, film critic Desmond Ryan bemoaned the state of mainstream films. Citing such films as Independence Day, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Eraser, and that year’s hurricane thrillride Twister, Ryan argued that Hollywood had become more interested in special effects than logic or character.

“It all began,” Ryan wrote, “when Twister’s killer tornadoes sucked up everything in their path – tractors, cows, common sense, continuity, plausibility, and the quaint notion that movies should have characters you care about.”

By the end of the 1990s, the horror genre appeared to have descended into a creative funk of its own. Of the horror films released toward the end of the decade, many of the most high-profile examples were remakes or sequels in somewhat tired franchises.

Studiocanal announce a superb new restoration of Night Of The Eagle, as part of the Cult Classics Collection. Dare you believe in the existence of witches in this nerve-shattering, atmospheric horror starring Peter Wyngarde (Jason King) and Janet Blair (I Love Trouble)? The film will be available on 1st July 2024 on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital, with the striking original UK poster artwork featuring on the sleeve

Based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber – a story so good it’s been filmed three times – Night Of The Eagle (also known as Burn, Witch, Burn) is a taut and terrifying film that provides genuine chills, as well as a horrifying twist, and remains a much-loved cult classic to this day. Directed by Sidney Hayers (Circus of Horrors), with a screenplay by three masters of the macabre, Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), Charles Beaumont (The Premature Burial) and George Baxt (Vampire...

Oi there, listen up! Amazon Prime Video’s list of new releases for June 2024 includes another season of its biggest, bloodiest hit.

The Boys season 4 premieres its first three episodes on Thursday, June 13. Based on the trailers, The Boys is really leaning into the political side of its social satire with a presidential election underway and Homelander on trial for the small matter of killing a guy last season. The season will continue to air on Thursdays, culminating with the finale on July 18.

Amazon is really leaning into its sports offerings this month as well. Fans will get to watch the New York Yankees, the WNBA, and the Nwsl several times throughout June. That’s in addition to a couple of sports docs: Power of the Dream on June 18 and Federer: Twelve Final Days on June 20.

But if you’re looking for something even more explosive than Homelander and Roger Federer,...

When we say that Netflix has something for everyone it is true for fans of all genres but especially true for the horror genre fans. With an incredible creator like Mike Flanagan who made brilliant horror shows and movies, Netflix has abundant peak horror content. So, today we thought of listing what we thought were the best horror shows on Netflix.

Midnight Mass

Midnight Mass is a gothic supernatural horror miniseries created by Mike Flanagan. The Netflix series is set in a small island town and it follows the story of a young returning to his hometown after spending four years in prison for a drunk-driving accident that killed someone. He arrives in the town at the same time as a mysterious priest who revives the faith of people in the town but what the town doesn’t know is that he is hiding something sinister. Midnight Mass stars Zach Gilford,...

Alien didn’t just spring fully formed out of the heads of director Ridley Scott and writers Dan O’Bannon, Ronald Shusett, Walter Hill, and David Giler. Its combination of “monster on the loose” and “haunted house in space” scenario was perhaps the ultimate distillation of a long line of sci-fi and horror pictures that had come before it, from quick B-movie cheapies to some of the genre’s most elegant offerings. What Alien did under the visionary hand of its director, however, was meld all those influences together in a way that transcended the schlockier elements of the film’s influences and elevated the more artistic and meaningful ones. The result wasn’t just a monster movie, but a psychosexual nightmare with Lovecraftian overtones and a sense of existential dread.

It was also a film that impacted countless others in the 45 years since its release (it came out in May...

The darkness enveloped me, and despite the summer heat outside, the air in the building was cool. I sat in silence, intently focused, anticipating what happened next, but not quite prepared. I tensed up upon seeing the spectral woman directly ahead of me. She silently floated, translucent and seemingly unaware — until at last facing me and lunging with a guttural growl as her face distorted into some horrific entity.

This memory is entirely true; it is a ghost story, but not one that took place in a haunted house. Rather, the setting was a haunted library, projected on screen in a movie theater during one of my many viewings of Ghostbusters.

Released 40 years ago on June 8, 1984 — the same day as Gremlins and three weeks after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — Ghostbusters became a pop-culture phenomenon and box office juggernaut. Written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis — inspired by...

From one 1999 horror remake to another. After rewatching The Haunting with eyes that were both more critical and 25 years older, it got me thinking about the other remake that came out that year. One that was a remake of a far sillier movie and that was the first effort from a new studio, namely Dark Castle Entertainment. The original was from a far less dark castle in that of schlock and gimmick purveyor William Castle and it starred Vincent Price as a man offering strangers money to stay in an allegedly haunted house for a night. While The Haunting failed on multiple levels to improve with age, how does House on Haunted Hill (watch it Here) look after a quarter of a century? Does its cheesy yet graphic tone feel at home in the time of A24 and elevated horror or should it forfeit its 1 million dollar check and leave the cursed grounds forever.

Father Time comes for us all in different degrees. Now one sees countless ads for wrinkle creams, hair colouring, replacements or surgeries linked to boosting confidence. The most offensive is getting children as young as twelve to use skin rejuvenation products. Anubys Lopez’s film Aged (2023) takes a huge page of countless films where glands are harvested and injected more strongly. The film uses motifs of Countess Dracula (1971) and Cocoon (1985) to bring terror to the onset of gray hairs and fading memories. More importantly, it is what family members would do to make sure the clock is forcibly turned back.

Aged (2023) is oddly constructed and misdirected in places with some poor direction missing key plot moments. Bright scenes of rural landscapes and a meeting in an antiseptic stilted coffee shop with Charles Bloom (Dave McClain), meeting with Veronica Grey (Morgan Boss-Maltais) to interview as a caregiver for his ailing mother.

The Golden Raspberry is one of the most important industry anti-prizes. Every year, the worst movies of the season are nominated for it: from failed blockbusters to dramas that look more like comedies. But often the winners are simply misunderstood masterpieces.

Some of these underrated films were chosen by Reddit users.

1. The Blair Witch Project, 1999

Can you believe it? The movie that changed the horror industry was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Anti-Award in the category Worst Picture. Maybe, from a certain point of view, even this kind of PR benefits the movie, but to be honest, The Blair Witch Project had no chance to "win" that year – it was up against Adam Sandler's Big Daddy, The Haunting, and Will Smith's Wild Wild West.

2. The Bodyguard, 1992

It is safe to say that the cult melodrama has become Kevin Costner's acting calling card. His unforgettable screen duet with...

Exclusive: Chris Stuckmann and Aaron B. Koontz of Paper Street Pictures have added genre specialists Mike Flanagan, Trevor Macy and Melinda Nishioka of Intrepid Pictures as executive producers on their record-breaking Kickstarter-backed horror film Shelby Oaks, which is in post-production.

The 2022 Kickstarter campaign for the movie raised $1.39M in under a month, more than doubling the previous record for the most-funded horror film on Kickstarter.

A combination of documentary, found footage and traditional film styles, Shelby Oaks centers on Mia’s (Camille Sullivan) frantic search for her sister, Riley (Sarah Durn), who ominously disappeared in the last tape of her investigative series Paranormal Paranoids. As Mia’s obsession grows, she begins to suspect that the imaginary demon from Riley’s childhood might have been real.

The cast also includes Brendan Sexton III, Michael Beach, Robin Bartlett and Keith David. There’s no word yet on a release plan.

The...

Remakes are always a tricky proposition. Some of the greats both in the horror genre and elsewhere are actually remakes, whether it’s a loose one or not. Be it The Magnificent Seven coming from Seven Samurai or The Thing being birthed into imitation dog from the Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks original. I talk about The Thing A Lot but obviously it’s for a reason. You could also throw The Fly in that same category too while we are here. Those are some of the examples of the good but unfortunately, things can go downhill and fast. You have harmless ones like the Friday the 13th remake or Texas Chainsaw, the annoyingly unnecessary like Halloween and Amityville Horror, or the egregiously awful like The Fog and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Like them or loathe them, or in our case both, they are here to stay, and each...

There is no such thing as a perfect movie.

No matter how integral a certain film may be to the history of cinema, no matter how widely beloved it might be by a mass audience, and no matter how politically and sociologically relevant it may have been to the modern world, there is always an error, a nitpick, an omission, or a production problem that can be included. No work of art is going to be 100% unassailable, largely because a wide swath of humanity will be able to see it, and no two people are going to feel exactly the same way about it.

In modern parlance, the closest critics and audiences may be able to come to a measurable consensus is the approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The way Rotten Tomatoes works: professional critics, writing for a broad gallery of approved outlets, submit a review to Rt, selecting it to be "fresh" or "rotten.

Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. Two artists at the very top of their fields. King: one of the best-selling authors of all time. Spielberg: the filmmaker who invented the blockbuster. How have these guys never worked together? Well, it's not for lack of trying. In fact, these titans have come very close to teaming up on several occasions. When Spielberg was writing "Poltergeist," he wanted King's help with the script. "It didn't work out because it was before the internet and we had a communication breakdown," King told EW.

Then there was "The Talisman," the fantasy novel King co-wrote with the late Peter Straub. Before the book even hit the shelves, Spielberg scooped up the rights — but neither a film nor a TV adaptation has ever materialized. "Several times he came very close to making it, and there were a lot of discussions about that," King said. It was...

One of the most successful cinematic universes in Hollywood doesn't have any superheroes, isn't set in outer space, and wasn't originally designed as a cinematic universe at all. James Wan's 2013 horror movie "The Conjuring" was made on a budget of just $20 million but became a stunning box office success, grossing more than $320 million worldwide. That success has since spawned a whole world of horror that includes not only two "Conjuring" sequels, but also the spin-off "Annabelle" trilogy, two "Nun" movies, and (tenuously) "The Curse of La Llorona."

A big part of what makes the "Conjuring" movies so frightening is their commitment to practical effects. The strangest supernatural feats are achieved using wire work, contortionists, and stunt performers, while monsters like the Nun and the Crooked Man are real actors in make-up.

Digital effects are used sparingly for certain scares where CGI is the best option (like the sheet scene...

The original Doughtlander may not be over, but Outlander: Blood of My Blood hopes to close the gap.

For sure, it will be taking over where Outlander leaves off, even if it explores a story long before Jamie and Claire were figments of their parents' imagination.

Here’s what we know bout Blood of My Blood Season 1 so far.

What is Outlander?

It’s best to start with what we know, which is what came before. Outlander is based on a series of books by author Diana Gabaldon.

Outlander is a time-traveling love story between 20th-century (married) nurse Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser and 18th-century Jamie Fraser.

When visiting the ancestral home of her husband, Frank, Claire stumbles through the rocks at Craigh na Dun, which takes her back in time.

Unable to easily find her way back, the sassy lady leans on handsome laird Jamie for protection, and soon, they are in love.

‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ starts production (Photo Credit: Starz)

Filming has begun on Starz’s Outlander prequel Outlander: Blood of My Blood which dives into the lives of Jamie’s parents, Ellen and Brian, and Claire’s parents, Julia and Henry. The network’s start of production announcement confirmed Harriet Slater (Pennyworth) will star as Ellen and Jamie Roy (Condor’s Nest) is playing Brian. Hermione Corfield (The Road Dance) is on board as Julia and Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) stars as Henry.

“We’re thrilled to be telling the stories of these two couples. The origins of their relationships explore universal themes that transcend time periods, and we’re so excited for fans to discover and fall in love with these characters and their love stories the way they have with Claire and Jamie,” said Matthew B. Roberts, showrunner, executive producer, and writer on both series.

Season one will...

Some horror properties naturally lend themselves to incessant sequels, while others seem to will themselves into existence through sheer will, as if they’re the result of a demonic possession. William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, while over 50 years old, is still considered to be one of the scariest movies of all-time. Various Exorcist sequels and even a two-season television series have materialized over time. However, none of these projects generated the same level of skepticism that accompanied Blumhouse’s announcement that they’d be producing not just a legacy sequel to Friedkin’s original film, but an entire trilogy, directed by David Gordon Green. Green had just pulled off a similar spectacle with his Halloween legacy sequel trilogy, yet Michael Myers’ slasher antics are much more conducive to this formula than repeated returns to The Exorcist’s MacNeils.

2023’s The Exorcist: Believer chronicles two girls who disappear in the woods and return,...

On the 8th day of Creepmas, we’re celebrating the Victorian holiday tradition of sharing ghost stories. Telling ghost stories during winter was a folk custom that dated back centuries but slowly faded over time. Any tradition that involves scaring each other with horror stories feels like one worth reviving, so today’s Creepmas festivities embrace holiday horror movies that center around ghosts and hauntings. The eight titles below run the gamut from inducing warm holiday feels to ghostly insanity to chilling terror.

The 12 Days of Creepmas continues on Bloody Disgusting, this time with 8 Christmas ghosts to haunt your holiday season.

Keep track of the 12 Days of Creepmas here.

Anything for Jackson

Sheila McCarthy and Julian Richings star as Audrey and Henry Walsh, a well-to-do couple mourning their young grandson’s tragic loss. Still deep in the denial stage of grief, they turn to Satanism. The couple kidnaps a pregnant...

The episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Ravenous was Written by Emilie Black, Narrated by Travis Hopson, Edited by Victoria Verduzco, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

1999, a year of hope, a year of high fashion, nooo, no… 1999, the year when people prepared for Y2K, the year of all the odd choices when it came to fashion, and the year of interesting cinematic options. We got The Mummy which gave us all the hot cast members we could ask for and still gives us memes, we got End of Days, Stigmata, Idle Hands, House on Haunted Hill, The Haunting, Stir of Echoes, and The Blair Witch Project. It was a year for surprising hits, shocking failures, and offbeat horror films. So many smaller budgets did so well. Also out in 1999 was this movie about cannibalism in the olden days of the United States,...

This month’s installment of Deep Cuts Rising features a variety of horror movies, with most selections reflecting a specific day or event in December.

Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.

This month’s offerings feature vengeful Christmas ghosts, home intruders, and more.

The Dumb Waiter (1979)

Image: Geraldine James as Sally in the1979 short film The Dumb Waiter.

Directed by Robert Bierman.

December 28 is National Short Film Day, and no genre thrives in this format as much as horror. And while story often has to be sacrificed or compromised when something is as brief as The Dumb Waiter, Robert Bierman compensates with an unwavering sense of dread. The Vampire’s Kiss director adeptly condenses the plot and action of a standard ’70s long-feature into this tense and well-shot 18-minute clip.

The story...

“Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within…and whatever walked there, walked alone.” – Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959).

Of all the subgenres of horror, the haunted house story has provided the most opportunities for slow and subtle terror that creeps and crawls its way under the skin and into the psyche. The Old Dark House (1932), The Uninvited (1944), The Innocents (1961), Burnt Offerings (1976), and The Changeling (1980) stand among the best that not only the haunted house film, but all of horror have to offer. For many, the absolute pinnacle of these films is Robert Wise’s 1963 masterpiece of suggestive horror The Haunting. Based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, the film owes much to the influences of the past while still carving a way toward the future, is populated by rich and relatable characters, and is a deeply felt...

The Mike Flanagan Netflix era has come to an end, as Flanagan and his partner Trevor Macy are leaving the streaming service behind for a new deal with Amazon. That means we likely won't ever get a third season of Flanagan's "Haunting" series, which kicked off with the excellent "The Haunting of Hill House" and continued with "The Haunting of Bly Manor." "Hill House" was a (loose) adaptation of the Shirley Jackson novel of the same name, while "Bly Manor" took inspiration from "The Turn of the Screw" and several other ghost stories penned by Henry James. But what tale of terror would Flanagan and company have relied on if the show had returned for a third season?

We now know the answer, thanks to Flanagan himself. The filmmaker has written an introduction for the new Suntup Editions release of Richard Matheson's "Hell House," and in said introduction, Flanagan...

by Earl Jackson

For years lesbian feminist film scholarship entailed archeological detective work, most notably excavating the subtexts of Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock 1940) and The Haunting (Robert Wise 1963). In a peculiar reversal, I am going to try a similar dive into a film to salvage its male homosexuality. While Rebecca and The Haunting may have repressed latent desires under a gothic mood piece, Marry My Dead Body ( harbors a sexual ambivalence within a blatant coming out wake. In doing this, I am actually not faulting the film but rather the limitations on sexual legibility under even the most seemingly benign, apparently inclusive heteronormative social order. Moreover, while exposing what the film cannot do, I want to underscore what it does beautifully: it dramatizes as a default aspect of contemporary life, a kind of habituated melancholia interrupted by an intimacy that at first seems like an assault.

The basic plot is actually...

The cast for Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Life of Chuck is growing. On Monday, Deadline shared three new casting confirmations for the upcoming film, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Jacob Tremblay. They join Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill as primary members of the cast.

Production for The Life of Chuck is going down in Alabama under an interim agreement with SAG-AFTRA. Additionally, the production and financing outfit QWGmire is making a significant investment in the project. Speaking about partnering with Flanagan for the on-fire since The Haunting of Hill House filmmaker’s next feature, QWGmire partners Molly C. Quinn, Matthew M. Welty, and Elan Gale said, “We are thrilled to partner with Mike and Trevor [Macy] on this project. Mike is a master storyteller and we can’t wait to bring his inspirational adaptation of Stephen King’s short story to audiences.”

The Life of Chuck...

When cinephiles of a certain sensibility talk about the best decades for horror, they’ll probably point to the 1980s with its explosion of cutting-edge special effects and home video-induced demand for material. Or they might point to the era of Universal Pictures’ domination in the 1930s, followed up then by the moody Val Lewton thrillers of the 1940s. Maybe even a very unpopular kid will try to make an argument for the 2010s, at least until everyone pulls the A24 hat over his eyes and kicks him out.

But moviegoers would be foolish to overlook the 1960s. The decade saw not only two amazing horror flicks from Alfred Hitchcock but also caught the genre in an interesting time of transition. Filmmakers built on the Gothic approach of previous decades by adding a psychological dimension, finding new chills in an established model. Furthermore, the decade saw the first steps toward the ho,...

Right from the start, one gets the sense that something’s amiss in Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others. Three servants emerge from the fog that cloaks an estate on the Channel Island of Jersey to apply for jobs we soon learn weren’t yet listed in the local newspaper. Meanwhile, the imposing head of the household, Grace (Nicole Kidman), is perpetually on edge. When she instructs the new help to keep the curtains drawn at all times and always shut and lock every door behind them, it’s unclear whether her neuroses actually stem from the condition that supposedly prevents her two children from being in the sunlight for more than a few seconds or if it’s a calamitous side effect of her rigid Catholic beliefs.

It’s a familiar setup, but The Others doesn’t follow the same path of so many other horror films about women succumbing...

"No good thing lasts forever" feels like the sort of poignant theme you'd expect to pop up in a Mike Flanagan horror project. So it goes in real life, too, with Flanagan's latest series, the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired modern Gothic drama "The Fall of the House of Usher" (read /Film's review by Chris Evangelista here), slated to serve as his final Netflix offering.

Since his breakout success on the horror film "Oculus," Flanagan has become synonymous with the streamer's scarier output. In addition to directing Netflix's "Gerald's Game" (an all-timer among Stephen King film adaptations that features one of the gnarliest moments put to screen in recent memory), he created the company's acclaimed "Haunting" anthology series, as well as the polarizing but deeply fascinating religious horror drama show "Midnight Mass." So why is Flanagan done with Netflix? The short answer is that he and his producing partner, Trevor Macy,...

Based on the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Mike Flanagan‘s final series for Netflix is “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and the series premiere is now just three days away.

The limited series from Intrepid Pictures is “based on multiple works from Poe,” and Netflix recently announced that “Usher” will premiere on October 12, 2023.

Watch the latest official teaser for Netflix’s “Usher” series below.

“In this wicked 8-episode limited series based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, ruthless siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher have built Fortunato Pharmaceuticals into an empire of wealth, privilege and power. But past secrets come to light when the heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying at the hands of a mysterious woman from their youth.”

The ensemble cast will include Carla Gugino (Gerald’s Game, “The Haunting of Hill House”), Mary McDonnell (Scream 4), Carl Lumbly (Doctor Sleep), and Mark Hamill.

Bruce Greenwood...

With its combined catalog of HBO originals as well as titles from Food Network, Cartoon Network, the CW, Discovery, HGTV, and more, Max is starting another month with an embarrassment of riches, be it Gilded Age fortunes or pirate booty.

The Warner Bros. streamer will pull from its multiple brands for dozens of new titles, classic movies, special-interest series, and more, from 1963’s classic horror film The Haunting to the all-new highly anticipated second season of the romantic dramedy “Our Flag Means Death.”

Get ready for the new month and check out The Streamable’s picks for the best titles coming to Max this month!

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What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Max in October 2023? “Our Flag Means Death” Season 2 | Thursday, Oct. 5

Season 2 of the hit Taikia Waititi and Rhys Darby...