By Nick Maylor Since John Carpenter set the standard for the masked killer/slasher genre in 1978, the Halloween franchise has seen a slew of sequels and a reboot (which then had a sequel). In a wise attempt at cutting the fat and taking the franchise back to its roots, Halloween (2018) serves as a direct sequel to the…
By Alan Hurst It’s hard to overstate the impact of TV films of the 1970’s. All the major networks had multiple “Movie of the Week” nights and there were also special event movies that usually featured more prestigious casts and bigger budgets. It was also the decade that saw the birth of the “Miniseries” –…
By Nick Maylor (****) I have been a fan of Kevin Smith for the better part of two decades. His irreverent and sharp writing style has always spoken to me and I first fell in love with his work when I saw Dogma (1999) for the first time. An intensely smart and funny film about…
By John H. Foote No one expected Jaws (1975) to be what it became, the highest grossing film of all time (at that time), a critical sensation, the launching of a gifted new director, and an instant classic. Overnight, and I mean literally overnight, the film was the most talked about cinematic event in North…
By Nick Maylor I’m trying to focus here on films that have not started production and are still in the early stages. I also am avoiding films that are merely rumoured, as the following entries all appear to be confirmed to be going ahead. There’s cool stuff coming, folks. Here they are (in no particular…
By Craig Leask Burnt Offerings (1976) is not a run of the mill creepy movie with weird characters being tormented by restless spirits in a crumbling old mansion. In this case, the mansion in this movie IS the restless spirit. The angle is refreshingly unique in the haunted house movie genre. The movie was directed…
By Craig Leask There are few movies where a single building can create the atmosphere required to set the scene for an entire film. Some that do: the isolated Timberline Lodge in Oregon (standing in as the Overlook Hotel in 1980’s The Shining); the large Dutch Colonial house at 112 Ocean Avenue (1979’s The Amityville…
By Craig Leask The Shining (1980), the Stanley Kubrick directed film based on the 1977 book by Stephen King stands out as the quintessential horror film. This accolade however has not been acknowledged without controversy. The movie’s tone is immediately set in the opening sequence; following a yellow Volkswagen through the vast emptiness of mountainous…
By John H. Foote (****) Released in March, this exceptionally original horror film did very well at the box office and with film critics who praised the taut, tight direction of actor John Krasinski, and the performances of the entire cast. The opening moments invite us into this world, earth, but something has happened. The…
By Craig Leask Stephen King, in his 1981 book “Danse Macabre” called the 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson “one of the finest horror novels of the late 20th century”. Furthermore, the Wall Street Journal labels Jackson’s book “the greatest haunted-house story ever written.” With praise of this magnitude, it is…