VICTORY FOR M. NIGHT SHYALAMAN! SPLIT still leads the weekend box!

Paramount’s Rings and STX’s teen romance The Space Between Us which are respectively opening to $12.8M in second and $3.8M in seventh..


The entire concept of RINGS appears to be oddly disjointed anyway.. it has been 15 years since the original VHS related horror flick. The mess of this film attempts to bind together early century technology with modern file sharing, and what could have been a clever homage to some other time and age turns into a clunky pile of 21st century junk..

But guess what’s first? Pretty exciting news for an M Night Shyalaman fan like myself: SPLIT is still in the lead box -- three weeks now and running..

And it’s actually the first title in Shyamalan’s resume to hold the No. 1 spot at the B.O. for three weeks in a row since 1999’s The Sixth Sense! Talk about old style century tech getting its revenge!


Good show M NIGHT..

SPLIT was a good film with (to me) not the greatest ending of M Night’s career.. but he was setting Philadelphia up for a sequel whether the King of Prussia mall is ready for it or not.. Bruce Willis is.

Late night estimates put Split at $14.7M for the weekend, and a running cume by Sunday of $98.8M, -8% behind Sixth Sense at the same point in time..

Prognosticators don’t think that SPLIT outshines SENSE, as a matter of fact by Valentine’s Day plenty of other films--included animated and a lot of SHADES of gray--will fill theaters..

The predictions for the final tallies:

1.) Split (UNI/Blumhouse) 3,373 theaters (+174) /$4.8M Fri (-39%)/3-day: $14.7M (-43%)/Total: $98.8M/Wk 3

2.) Rings (Par) 2,931 theaters /$5.2M Fri. (includes $800K previews)/3-day: $12.8/Wk 1

3.) Hidden Figures (Fox) 3,401 theaters (+50)/$3M Fri (-20%) /3-day: $10.4M (-26%)/Total: $119.7M/Wk 7

4.) A Dog’s Purpose (UNI/Amblin/Walden) 3,178 theaters (+120)/$2.8M Fri (-46%) /3-day: $10.1m (-45%)/Total: $32.1/Wk 2

5.) La La Land (Lionsgate) 3,236 (+100) /$2.3M Fri (-31%)/3-day:$8.2m (-33%)/Total:$119.1M/ Wk 9

6.) Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (SONY) 3,104 theaters (0) /$1.36M Fri (-73%) / 3-day: $4M (-71%)/Total: $21.4M/Wk 2

7.) The Space Between Us (STX) 2,812 theaters /$1.48M Fri. (includes $170K previews)/3-day: $3.8M/Wk 1

8/9) Sing (ILL/UNI), 2,293 theaters (-409) /$905K Fri.(-33%) /3-day cume: $3.75M (-41%)/Total: $262.6M/Wk 7

Lion (TWC) 1,405 theaters (+830) /$1.1K Fri (+83%) /3-day: $3.75M (+63%)/Total: $24.4M/Wk 11

10.) xXx: The Return Xander Cage (PAR/REV) 2,478 theaters (-1,178) /$1.1M Fri (-50%)/3-day: $3.6M (-58%)/Total: $39.9M/ Wk 3

Where's Thanksgiving's Horror Movie?

INVERSE has a great question..
It may be the one holiday that merely gets satirical horror .. 

I think a good Pilgrim Zombie villain is in order.. Thanksgiving needs a bit of horror.

Maybe some short film makers will be up to the task that Hollywood has never been.

Gobble Gobble.

Where's Thanksgiving's Horror Movie?

DREAD CENTRAL gives us a list of the top movies for the winter season–horror with cold and chill as the background theme of the flick. The list here..

I disagree–you heard that right–with virtually the entire list.

The biggest problem is the lack of inclusion of my all time favorite snow/cold related movie: STORM OF THE CENTURY, by Stephen King. It’s the amazing near day-long experience, one that’s perfect for a night stuck in because of snow or a day held up because of closings.. Andre Linoge walking the streets of a town during a blizzard, looking for what he wants to go away. That’s scary. The list from DREAD CENTRAL, to me at least, not scary.

I am sure you have your favorite too..
Mine will always be the STORM..

This is a disturbing story..
I sense mental issue at play or perhaps something more devilish..

At this point, the property’s former resident, a 45-year-old woman, has not been found, but police are questioning several other people..

It was unclear how long the babies had been dead or who, if anyone, was living there at the time of the discovery.

And so far that’s the story.. Sure to change and update as more information becomes known..

Horrifying times for making Hollywood horror movies?

This article details the apparent lack of interest in Hollywood horror.
The article is right..
The newest PARANORMAL ACTIVITY flick is a sure sign of the big budget failures..

But there’s hope. And it’s not Hollywood. Independent horror makers (and all genres for that matter) are sorting things out and spicing things up far stronger than the known actors guild and pious studios ..

There’s hope.
Just look beyond what’s spoon fed and find your own meal..

Horrifying times for making Hollywood horror movies?

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MODERN HORROR MOVIES?

The same thing that has always been wrong, I would say. As said before, horror is an elementary education of the pop culture of the time. The fears presented in horror are the fears of the age they appear it. When a movie comes a little too early, or a little too late, they flop. You have to strike while the iron is hot. UNFRIENDED would not work two years from now. It works now. BLAIR WITCH worked when it did, and began a series of unfortunate “found” stories..all of which are becoming quickly hackneyed under the weight of time.

The SAW films? Enough already..
ROB ZOMBIE? I never could stomach it..
REMAKES? I never appreciated them to begin with.

The website BLOODY-DISGUSTING’S Brad Miska wrote up a story about what is wrong with the genre.. a few valid points presented:

For me, the biggest thing he nails is that modern horror is littered with fake jump-scares. I often cite the use of authentic scares in reviews of films I love – most notably ones directed by James Wan (Insidious, The Conjuring). Many studio films fatigue the audience with bullshit jump-scares that utilize loud sound design to make the audience jolt out of their seat. They aren’t being scared, they’re being yelled at. That’s not horror. He relates it to having sex – films are blowing their load and releasing tension too early, leaving the film’s climax to have little to no effect.

Graphic description .. but I see the point. Horror is slow and methodical.. it brings you to a point where you realize the conclusion is awfully scary.. Deep and disturbing .. that was the success of this autumn’s M NIGHT film THE VISIT. It took a while. You got to enjoy it.. and you got surprised at the end.

Lastly, he [

Chris Stuckmann] points to expectations vs reality as a major issue. Marketing of The Village is his prime example, in which he points out that even M. Night Shyamalan regrets the false advertising. Studios need to get asses in the seats and will do so by any means necessary (For example, much of the footage in The Gallows trailers and TV spots weren’t actually in the movie).

I agree.. Another good example of advertising to seduce is this past week’s failure CRIMSON PEAK. It was a romance horror.. And it failed, because as people found out it was not the ‘scariest movie of the year’ that was promised, they shunned like an Amish sinner in Lancaster county.

Fans vote with wallets, for sure. But sadly they vote for what is heaped on them by studios that just want quick bucks off of horror flicks.

A few horrors that were good, and not because of profit, exist in the past few years.. THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT, IT FOLLOWS, and the BABADOOK. 

You can find a lot more gems on Netflix. Lower budget gems. I talk about them often on this website. And you should search them out as well.. 

Rummage through the pile of studio-produced garbage and find the things that matter.. the prizes in the puzzle of horror.

There are truly really scary things out there. Sadly in the way we’re given films, you have to search them out yourself. They certainly will not be handed to you.

I would love to hear feedback.

What do you, reader, say is good and bad about modern horror?

VHS Vault Invokes Video Nostalgia For Horror Movie Streaming Site

I love this statement from the TECHDIRT site:

The VHS Vault is an ode to ‘80s and '90s reverie, from the Reagan-era, scare-inciting titles it proffers (Day of the Dead, Adjust Your Tracking, Night of the Demons and more) to the site itself, designed as if it’s straight from 1998, complete with a traffic counter, low pixel GIFs and the quintessential Dancing Baby.

I had those nights in high school–as VHS became DVDs but still not streamed.. we popped movies in. Had popcorn, or soda, or pizza.. and laughed often times until sunrise. Horror movies all night. Bad horror movies.. complete with MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER style sarcasm from friends and me as well.

I know there is always a melancholy attempt to bring back nostalgia. But nothing will ever be like those summer nights of horror again. HALLOWEEN 3 and CARNIVAL OF SOULS.. they are two movies I can’t watch again. I want to keep them in the past, on one of those magical nights, and let them sit in memory. In posterity. In nostalgia.

I applaud anyone attempting to bring back the VHS ‘vault.’ But it’s just not going to be the same..

VHS Vault Invokes Video Nostalgia For Horror Movie Streaming Site

THE NIGHTMARE worth a watch .. maybe not before bed

In April of this year the HORROR REPORT profiled the NIGHTMARE, a documentary film from Rodney Ascher (from ROOM 237).. It’s a series of stories told by people who Ascher collected to tell their tales of sleep paralysis. Along with the verbiage, horrific images of what they saw–documentary style.. The creation is amazing. It’s a documentary but can easily as one of the best horror movies of the…

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Some of the most creative and amazing photoshopped images ever: Donald Trump as horror movie characters..

See them all!

Destitute and dumbed down

Destitute and dumbed down

At a time when the world should shine we seemingly have grown to be locked in darkness..    The loudest voices seem to say nothing, just a constant flow of drivel that amounts to a collection of uselessness.. The quietest in the crowds make a choice in the Internet age.. Dare to be different or dare to be square–the bankers and conglomerates that give us start ups and social networks have a…

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Reality vs fiction..

Reality is scarier than fiction.. that is exemplified in a documentary that you may be interested on NETFLIX called KILLER LEGENDS. you may learn something new.. and despite the fact no candy was ever poisoned on Halloween, the "CANDY MAN" section will still give you enough pause to check your kids' candy anyway..

I recommend the documentary for those interested in true crimes and urban legends.. this brings to light the reasons why we are freaked by hook hands, by masked killers.. and quite frankly, by people.

Among the things you may learn that you didn't know previously includes--besides no candy ever being poisoned for trick or treaters--are these facts: No babysitter killings ever happened in big numbers.. despite a number of movies being made showcasing it. The Texarkana killings are creepy--and even more creepy may be the yearly film festival showing THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN on a location where a grisly murder took place with the movie based in part on it..

And so many others.


Urban legends.

They all come from somewhere..

The other worldly nature of horror movies are not nearly as scary as the darkest minds and hearts of evil men who perpetrate evil and murder the innocent.

KILLER LEGENDS is scary for that reason..

CHILDHOOD'S END looks like an amazing three night event on SYFY in December

Arthur C. Clarke's famous CHILDHOOD'S END is going to get an adaptation on SYFY. If done right, it could be good.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnKFQl5FCLM?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=374]

Someone mixed the Teletubbies with the opening of AMERICAN HORROR STORY. Fright ensues.

Though some may say the actual Teletubbies are more frightening..

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98lOJGTe1M0?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=374]

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

SCARY STORIES TO BAN IN THE DARK

Given history, I suppose it’s amazing I even got the chance to read SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK when I was a kid in the 90s. I was doing more reading on the upcoming documentary being made on this and learned something I never quite knew previously: This was among the most banned book of the 1990s..

Cody Meireck describes it best, 

The interesting thing that I have been encountering as I begin to talk about this documentary is the question of how I can “bill” the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. It is listed as the most banned book between 1990-1999 and remained at #7 in 2000-2009. It was #1 on the list for several years in the 1990s. In the 21st Century there are a number of other books that have taken the mantel for most frequently banned… Harry Potter is often up there, and recently the book And Tango Makes Three is often high on the list because of the presence of a homosexual couple (animals though they may be). So although Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is no longer top on the list, for the last 25 years that the American Library Association has been compiling a list, it has been a major title on the list. The original books are over 20 years old at this point, and yet they still show up on the lists amongst more widespread and known books such as Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn. That says something.

I remember the moment I got my first SCARY STORIES book.. it was during grade school when a book fair truck came and set up in the school gym.. I found this black book with a skull on it and somehow was attracted to the concept and stories.. It became a treasure for me and then, with each new one, I would buy them up for the collection. 

The most amazing part, given history of book bans, is that I bought my SCARY STORIES book at a Catholic school book fair!  The same Catholic school that suspended me for a day for bringing a fake Freddy Kreuger glove to class in fourth grade for our field trip..  

I suppose the school’s nuns couldn’t be aware of every book that was sold. And even more, I ponder if the book seller was secretly trying to fight the pop culture movement at the time to hide these books from kids.

If it wasn’t for the SCARY STORIES books, my appreciation of the paranormal and even love of drawing perhaps would never have blossomed. I bet there’s a lot of 90s kids in the same boat as me because of this series..

Documentary Explores Classic Books 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'

Excited by this one! I still own the books and always found them to be some of the most creative and creepy stories I never read. And they are just as good as an adult as they were when I was young. I would love to see how these were created and just how far reaching they were. I bet money they inspired a number of younger people to explore their artistic abilities just by trying t I emulate the haunting sketches in the book..
I will be following this..

Documentary Explores Classic Books 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'

IT FOLLOWS review roundup and theater locations

IT FOLLOWS review roundup and theater locations

A rebirth of horror?

For anyone who is a horror movie genre, I have a story on my other website about how I hope it’s coming back again..  I can be best described as the most incredulous anti-horror movie horror fan, usually being overly critical of junk and garbage I wish was never made. But the real horror fan in my celebrates the films of the genre that were game changers—those that contained the social commentary and hidden messages only a more intelligent viewer could pick up on..

I have also long believed that professional wrestling and horror movies are both the best ways, at any given time, to see what a ‘generation’ is all about.. You can also cleanly, it seems, chop that up into decades and it makes sense. 

IT FOLLOWS: Heard from a review, who heard from a review, who heard from a review this is going to be a good movie

This movie looks amazing.. can’t wait to see it.

IT FOLLOWS: Heard from a review, who heard from a review, who heard from a review this is going to be a good movie

IT FOLLOWS trailer lays out rules for upcoming horror film. 

The movie is highly anticipated.. it’s a modern movie about the dangers of teenage sexual promiscuity. Instead of exchanging bodily fluids that lead to an STD, the couple involved will become victims of a sexually transmitted CURSE.. that follows. 

I have read a number of accounts and early spoiler information about this movie–it looks to be one of the freshest and most creative horror movies that we will be getting in 2015.Some have even called it a ‘masterpiece‘! 

Reviews like that often don’t happen in the mainstream world for this genre.. The UK INDEPENDENT’s Geoffrey Macnab reviewed the movie with a positive four out of five star conclusion.. Macnab wrote, 

“The ingenious new teen horror film It Follows will intrigue, puzzle and trouble audiences by turns.”  

And this: 

“This may be a horror movie but it has some of the same feel as Larry Clark’s cautionary tales about mixed-up, laidback American kids. It is shot as artfully as Clark’s films and, like them, portrays a self-enclosed teen society in which parents and teachers don’t intrude.”   

For many years, any watcher of horror either random or astute would know that films often play on the fears of the youth.. Jason Vorhees killed the immoral, in a sense he was the ultimate champion of religious fervor–slaughtering the promiscuous party animal teens that skipped foreplay and went right to the deed at Camp Crystal Lake. 

Perhaps no one saw the irony in his kills, the idea that he was the biblical old testament God reigning judgement down on those who sinned.. This new film seems to keep with that same idea: Sin and sex. 

In IT FOLLOWS, the predator and villain can only be seen by those who have been cursed with the sexual relations that spread it.. An keeping with my long held notion that horror movies, in any given time (and professional wrestling), perfectly symbolize the current state of modern pop culture for that generation, Macnab paints a similar picture in his INDEPENDENT review, writing: 

“It Follows plays not just on the kids’ ambivalence about their own sexual desires, but also on their disgust at the idea of their parents’ sexual lives. The Freudian elements sit alongside action sequences (a car crashing in a cornfield, an explosive final-reel stand-off at the local swimming pool). This is also a love story of sorts. Paul (Keir Gilchrist) is besotted with Jay. He is just a little too geeky for her to consider as a suitor but he is persistent and loyal. His innocent devotion is in very stark contrast to the depravity that surrounds the teenagers..”

Horror is dead.

Good article from MOVIEPIOLOT.COM: Why modern horror movies don’t get it right. I agree with the point of this article by Pedro Asdrubal Diaz.. modern horror is not memorable. Last night after many things led me to miss the ANNABELLE release in theaters, we finally found a copy in a REDBOX and watched it .. The group of us who saw it figured it was going to be a modern classic. It was not. It was actually quite forgettable and unmemorable..  Creativity seems to be completely lost.

Will there be some horror hope? Here are 10 movies  of the horror genre to look forward to this year.  UNFRIENDED looks creepy.. 31 looks avoidable in my opinion.. `KNOCK KNOCK looks ridiculous.. IT FOLLOWS will be great, judging from early reviews..SPRING looks creepy.. And POLTERGEIST?  After a good trailer I am suddenly accepting this remake. We will see and time will tell if the film is as good as the two minute preview..