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Half a century into his directorial career, John Carpenter will be honored by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

The legendary horror director has been selected to receive Lafca’s Career Achievement Award during the organization’s 50th annual awards show this year, which will take place January 11, 2025 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

“The LA Film Critics Association was one of the very first groups to present me an award, so I’m truly honored by this recognition,” said Carpenter in a statement. “For a horror guy like me, this really warms my heart, and it also shows just how important horror is as a genre, which the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has known for decades.”

Carpenter previously received the New Generation Award for his horror breakthrough Halloween (1978), starring Jamie Lee Curtis.

“John Carpenter is such an ideal choice not only for his ability to spin stylish,...

Filmmaker John Carpenter is set to receive the Career Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, it was announced on October 23. The west coast journos who make up Lafca will vote for the rest of this year’s winners on December 8, after which the awards will be presented on Saturday, January 11, 2025, at the Biltmore Hotel.

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Lafca President Robert Abele said in a statement, “John Carpenter is such an ideal choice not only for his ability to spin stylish, prescient, genre-bending features of otherworldly menace and powerful emotion, but also because his glorious career happens to span our group’s 50-year existence. That strong connection starts with Lafca recognizing his horror prowess early on with our New Generation award in 1979 for his stone-cold classic Halloween. So it’s only fitting that this longtime Angeleno, whose nightmares always said more...

On an ordinary summer day, everything went dark in the small English village of Midwich. Without warning, a strange electrical disruption swept through the picturesque countryside community, cutting power and knocking out all who lived within.

Upon awakening hours later, residents received an even stranger revelation—every woman of childbearing age was now mysteriously pregnant. Child psychologist Dr. Susannah Zellaby was called in to help the shocked parents, but soon even she found herself perplexed by what could cause such an event.

As the months passed, more curious developments emerged with the births of the babies. Gifted with an unusual connection and growing at an alarming rate, the children did not seem normal.

Something unusual was happening in Midwich, sending ripples through the village and stirring concern from officials who feared things may not be what they seemed. A mystery had descended on the townspeople, and they were about to...

Genre filmmaking legend John Carpenter has recently taken to Letterboxd to write some frank reviews of his own movies and others. The results are incredible.

Having made some of the greatest genre movies ever made, John Carpenter has quite deservedly shifted down a gear or two over the past decade or so. These days, he’s keeping himself busy with his music, playing videogames (he really loves Fallout 76), holding the occasional mercurial interview with the press – and, as it turns out, writing the odd review on Letterboxd.

Brilliantly, as spotted by Twitter’s Haunted Hippie (via our own John Moore), Carpenter has even cast his jaded eye over his own movies. Take Halloween II, for example, which he’s long admitted he wrote for the money. Here’s his Letterboxd review:

They paid me more money than I had ever seen to write a sequel to a film that did not need one.

Rosemary’s Baby is an enduring horror classic that helped define two scary movie subgenres: the creepy child flick and the Satanic movie. Fascinatingly, the book that inspired the film was almost about aliens. Here’s why the book took a devilish turn instead.

The book ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ was supposed to be ‘9 whole months of anticipation’

Ira Levin was a novelist who wrote popular books like A Kiss Before Dying, The Stepford Wives, and The Boys from Brazil. Perhaps his most famous book was Rosemary’s Baby, which informed many people’s attitudes toward the devil and the Antichrist. In a 2003 article reposted by The Criterion Collection, Levin explained why he chose to write a horror novel about pregnancy.

“Having observed that the most suspenseful part of a horror story is before, not after, the horror appears, I was struck one day by the thought (while not listening to a lecture) that...

Spooky season is nearly here.

And Peacock, Universal’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform, has just unveiled its Halloween programming line-up, full of tricks and treats from the studio’s back catalog, as well as two new series (“Teacup” and “Hysteria!”) for some fresh scares.

In 2022 and ’23, there was at least one big Blumhouse movie that simultaneously debuted on Peacock — in ’22, it was David Gordon Green’s trilogy-capping “Halloween Ends” and last year, it was the video game adaptation “Five Nights at Freddy’s”. This year doesn’t have anything quite like that, but it’s still a powerful collection of titles for every viewer.

The Sept. 1 batch includes classics like “Bride of Frankenstein,” “It Came From Outer Space” and “Werewolf of London;” 1980s favorites like “Halloween III: Season of the Witch,” “The Funhouse” and “The Thing;” along with more modern hits like the original “Candyman,” Jordan Peele’s “Us” and several entries in the “Saw” franchise.

Watch the Trailer for Y2K: "On the last night of 1999, two high school juniors crash a New Years Eve party, only to find themselves fighting for their lives in this dial-up disaster comedy."

Directed by Kyle Mooney Written by Kyle Mooney & Evan Winter Produced by Evan Winter, Jonah Hill, Matt Dines, Alison Goodwin, Chris Storer, Cooper Wehde

Y2K - In Theaters on December 6, 2024

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Prime Video Orders Frightening Two-Part Competition Baking Special Killer Cakes from Blumhouse Television and High Noon Entertainment: "Prime Video announced it has ordered the new deliciously-gory, competition baking show, Killer Cakes. The Thursday, October 8, premiere date was also revealed and first-look images. The entire two-part special is set to debut exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

From horror visionaries Blumhouse Television, and Cake Boss creators High Noon Entertainment, Killer Cakes is a one-of-a-kind competition show where bakers with...

Peacock invites you to face your fears this Halloween with more than 150 new horror titles headed to the streaming service from September 1 straight through All Hallow’s Eve.

From Universal classics, like Frankenstein, The Raven and Phantom Of The Opera, and nostalgic favorites, like Child’S Play, The Craft and Candyman, to frightening franchises, like Saw, The Purge and Leprechaun, and the best of Blumhouse, like Get Out, Halloween Kills and Happy Death Day, Peacock aims to be “your Halloween HQ with a full spectrum of scares to enjoy.”

Not to mention, two new originals – James Wan’s horror series, Teacup, and satanic panic thriller, Hysteria! – as well as the streaming debut of The Mouse Trap.

Here’s the full Halloween 2024 lineup from Peacock…

September 1

30 Days Of Night (2007)

Amityville II: The Possession

Amityville 3-D

The Amityville Harvest

Amityville Moon

The Amityville Uprising

Bride Of Frankenstein

Candyman (1992)

Child’s Play (1988)

The Creature Walks Among Us...

Peacock was the underdog streaming service of the summer with the broadcast of the 2024 Summer Olympics. Now, NBCUniversal’s little streamer that could is gearing up to be the primo destination for spooky season. On Tuesday, Peacock declared its intent to “be your Halloween HQ” this year with the addition...

From the genre-defining classics A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream to such transgressive works as The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes to cult favorites like The People Under the Stairs and The Serpent and the Rainbow, Wes Craven’s reign of terror spanned not only decades but generations.

But there’s much more to the man than just horror movies. In Harker Press’ The Soul of Wes Craven, author Joseph Maddrey allows readers to see the entire person rather than just a collection of his work.

The Soul of Wes Craven is not the first biography on the master of horror, but it is the definitive one. In addition to a profusion of thoroughly-researched sources, Maddrey interviewed over 80 people from Craven’s life — from professional collaborators like Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Alexandre Aja, and Patrick Lussier to family members, friends, and college classmates — for...

Tubi, Fox’s free streaming service, has announced its list of September titles. The Tubi September 2024 slate features new Tubi Originals and numerous action, art house, Black cinema, comedy, documentary, drama, horror, kids and family, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, thriller, and Western titles.

As a leading ad-supported video-on-demand service, the company engages diverse audiences through a personalized experience and the world’s largest content library: over 200,000 movies and TV episodes, a growing collection of Tubi Originals, and nearly 250 Fast channels.

You can watch the Tubi September 2024 lineup for free on Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, and Cox Contour.

You can also watch the service on connected television devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, Sony TVs, Samsung TVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and on the Tubi site.

Tubi Originals

Action

Hazard – 9/6

Noah really loves his girlfriend,...

Exclusive: Indie horror film If It Bleeds has added four to its cast.

Khleo Thomas (Holes), Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), Adam Bucci (Brute 1976) and Maren Altman have joined lead actress Catherine Corcoran (Terrifier) in Matthew Hersh’s debut feature, which is billed as an “anthology-style” thriller.

It also stars Justin Miles, Krsy Fox, (Terrifier 3), Kirby Bliss Blanton (The Green Inferno), Gigi Gustin, (Night of the Missing) and genre staples Doug Jones (The Shape of Water) Bonnie Aarons (The Nun), Dee Wallace, (Cujo), John Kassir (Tales from the Crypt) and Constance Forsland (Village of the Damned).

If It Bleeds follows genre actor Corcoran as young and ambitious news reporter Diane Winters and her cameraman Simon (Miles), as they uncover a mysterious series of gruesome murders that unfold throughout the course of a chaotic and violent day. As events unfold, the duo become players in a sinister situation even...

Few directors have enjoyed as successful a run as John Carpenter did from the late 70s to the late 80s. The writer-director-composer cranked out nine notable theatrical flicks from 78 to 88, and while not many of them were theatrical hits, they’re all now considered classics, either of the bona fide or cult variety. The 90s, however, were not so kind to the man. Starting with the ill-fated Memoirs of an Invisible Man, which was a difficult production and, ultimately, a box office bomb, Carpenter struggled to mirror the success he’d enjoyed in the 80s. There’s no doubt that some of the titles have their supporters: In the Mouth of Madness is a genuinely entertaining nightmare of a movie, and his Showtime anthology Body Bags is enjoyable, if fairly forgettable – save for Carpenter’s extremely amusing performance as our undead host. And while yours truly is not a fan,...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

The Boy 4K Uhd from Scream Factory

The Boy comes to life on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on September 3 via Scream Factory. The 2016 horror film is presented in 4K from the original elements with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

William Brent Bell directs from a script by Stacey Menear. Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle, Ben Robson, Jett Klyne, and James Russell star.

Special features include: a new commentary by film critics Julia Cunningham and Emily Higgins; new interviews with Bell, Menear, cinematographer Daniel Pearl, doll designer Todd Masters, and doll handler Tannis Hegan; and the trailer.

Village of the Damned 4K Uhd from Scream Factory

Beware the children when Village of the Damned...

More than thirty new stars are going to be added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2025 (and into 2026), with the new batch of honorees who will be receiving stars having been chosen by the Hollywood Chamber’s Board of Directors. Variety reports that that honorees include Jessica Chastain, Bill Duke, Emilio Estevez, Colin Farrell, Jane Fonda, Nia Long, Lisa Lu, Glynn Turman, Toni Vaz, Fran Drescher, Lauren Graham, Bill Nye, Molly Shannon, Sherri Shepherd, Courtney B. Vance, Chris Wallace, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Misty Copeland, Alan Cumming, Adam Carolla, Fantasia, Depeche Mode, Los Bukis, The B-52s, Green Day, The Isley Brothers, Busta Rhymes, George Strait, Keith Urban, War, Prince, David Beckham, and Orel Hershiser… but the two honorees that stand out more than any others on this list for us here in the Arrow in the Head horror section of JoBlo are character actor Robert Englund and legendary filmmaker John Carpenter!

The '90s were a great time to be a young horror-loving kid. There were several gateway horror shows and movies that made genre fans out of an entire generation, preparing kids for the horrors of the real world within the safe confines of a television set. It was a time of "Goosebumps" and of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," a time of "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters" and "Tales from the Cryptkeeper." Then there was "Courage the Cowardly Dog."

Though "Real Monsters" featured, well, monsters, it was still definitely a comedic show. "Courage the Cowardly Dog," though, even when it wasn't technically scary, it was always eerie and disturbing. The cartoon follows the eponymous dog Courage, who lives with an elderly couple in a farm in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas. They are constantly thrown into weird, often spooky situations. The series started with a pilot short titled "The Chicken from Outer Space,...

As Easter Sunday approaches this weekend, we thought we’d “die” your eggs a little a differently. That is, we’re on the great hidden treasure hunt for some of the most colorful and delicious horror movie Easter eggs found in some of our favorite titles. But here’s the thing. We aren’t talking about obscure cameos from people that are hard to miss, or even secretive foreshadowing within a single movie, a la the entire Final Destination franchise. Nor are we talking about mere verbal references to other horror movies. Rather, we’re interested in visual crossover clues found one horror movie that pay homage to another, found tucked away in the background or even hidden in plain sight. You see the distinction. Good. Hopefully you haven’t already seen what’s to follow. Happy holiday y’all, here’s our Top 10 Favorite Crossover Horror Movie Easter Eggs!

From the sci-fi classic 2001: A Space Odyssey to the more recent horror hit M3GAN, genre entertainment has always found a way to make artificial intelligence feel dangerous. And as the latest movie to capitalize on AI anxiety, Spencer Brown‘s T.I.M. goes down a familiar path. Barbarian star Georgina Campbell eventually falls victim to something originally designed to make her character’s life easier. Yet unlike past stories where the threatening technology is out to overthrow its human makers, this movie’s namesake does the unexpected: it falls madly in love.

The plot of T.I.M. sounds more like a rehashed “Treehouse of Horror” story from The Simpsons than a horror movie, but Brown and co-writer Sarah Govett make their outlandish pitch work. Rather than an automated house going awry, though, the script delivers a humanoid AI robot who goes completely off script.

The two main...

The state of horror in 2023 is strong. Familiar names such as Brandon Cronenberg and Eli Roth returned with "Infinity Pool" and "Thanksgiving" and so did "Re-Animator" screenwriter Dennis Paoli, writer of "Suitable Flesh," his first realized feature script in over 20 years. Old franchises returned, too, with "Evil Dead Rise" and even "Saw X" doing well critically and commercially. Less established filmmakers have also made an impression, namely Nahnatchka Khan, director of "Totally Killer," and Danish debut filmmaker Gabriel Bier Gislason, who helmed "Attachment."

But away from "M3GAN," "When Evil Lurks" and the numerous other highlights, there were still some disappointments that were lackluster, recycled, underplayed, overplayed, or in one or two cases, just underwhelming in almost every aspect of production. There is little pleasure to be had in chronicling such disappointment, but it is a service any critic must provide at one time or another. So let's dig into some...

Cyber Monday is here with even more deals on horror 4K UHDs, Blu-rays, collectibles, and more. Some Black Friday sales are still active, other prices have come down even more, and a bunch of new items have been discounted. Here are this year’s Cyber Monday highlights.

Amazon 4K Uhd Deals:

Assassin’s Creed – $5.99 Maleficent – $7.43 Terminator 2 – $7.99 Suicide Squad – $7.99 Reservoir Dogs – $9.33 John Wick: Chapter 2 – $9.33 Evil Dead Rise – $9.49 The Lost Boys – $9.49 Poltergeist – $9.49 The Blackening – $9.49 Jurassic Park – $9.49 Nope – $9.49 Get Out – $9.99 The Batman – $9.99 Zack Snyder’s Justice League – $9.99 The Suicide Squad – $9.99 Dune – $9.99 The Shawshank Redemption – $9.99 Jaws 2 – $9.99 Everything Everywhere All At Once – $9.99 Edge of Tomorrow – $9.99 Highlander – $9.99 Battlestar Galactica – $9.99 Warcraft – $9.99 Godzilla vs. Kong – $9.99 King Kong (2005) – $10.44 Serenity – $10.49 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial – $10.99 Ip Man – $10.99 Train to Busan – $11.21 The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – $11.49 Parasite – $11.49 The Goonies – $11.49 Full Metal Jacket – $11.49 The Shining – $11.99 Dr. Strangelove – $11.99 Us – $11.99 Bram Stoker’s Dracula – $11.99 Nobody – $11.99 The Fifth Element – $11.99 The Dark Crystal – $11.99 Halloween Kills – $11.99 Halloween Ends...

Get your holiday shopping done early with Black Friday sales on horror 4K UHDs, Blu-rays, apparel, and more. These discounts are live as of this posting, except where noted, so act now!

Amazon 4K Uhd Deals:

Assassin’s Creed – $5.99 Knives Out – $7.99 Terminator 2 – $7.99 Interstellar – $7.99 Maleficent – $8.07 Reservoir Dogs – $9.33 Get Out – $9.99 Nope – $9.99 The Blackening – $9.99 The Batman – $9.99 Zack Snyder’s Justice League – $9.99 The Suicide Squad – $9.99 Knock at the Cabin – $9.99 Dune – $9.99 Blade Runner – $9.99 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – $9.99 The Shawshank Redemption – $9.99 Jurassic Park – $9.99 Jaws 2 – $9.99 Godzilla vs. Kong – $9.99 Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – $9.99 Everything Everywhere All At Once – $9.99 Edge of Tomorrow – $9.99 Highlander – $9.99 Battlestar Galactica – $9.99 John Wick – $9.99 John Wick: Chapter 2 – $9.33 Ip Man – $10.99 The Invisible Man – $10.99 Train to Busan – $11.21 Looper – $11.49 The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – $11.49 Us – $11.99 Bram Stoker’s Dracula – $11.99 The Fifth Element – $11.99 Halloween Kills – $11.99 Halloween Ends – $11.99 Terrifier 2 – $13.99 The Green Knight – $13.49 65 – $15.99 M3GAN – $17.85 Carrie [Steelbook] – $19.96 Army of Darkness [Steelbook] – $19.96 Game of Thrones: The Complete Collection – $99.99

Amazon Blu-ray Deals:...

If there’s a filmmaker whose legacy is synonymous with horror, it’s John Carpenter who created some of the most enduring horror movies in American cinema, with classics like Halloween, The Thing, and The Fog. Joining Carpenter is producer and writer Sandy King Carpenter, John’s wife, who has produced fan-favorite horror flicks In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, and Vampires. Sandy King and John Carpenter launched Storm King Comics through their production company Storm King Productions. The comic book publishing division has released a growing line of horror titles since 2012.

Featuring a whole roster of acclaimed writers and artists, Storm King Comics boasts several award-winning comic book titles, including the long-running anthology series John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight. Storm King Comics line publishes titles ranging from the decidedly macabre and mature to all-age friendly, such as young reader-oriented title John Carpenter Presents Storm Kids.

Amazon is running a massive sale on over 100 Scream Factory titles today, including some of the lowest-ever prices on their 4K UHDs and Blu-rays. Now is the time to stock up!

Here are some of the top horror highlights from the sale…

Halloween 4K UHDs:

Halloween – $22.99 Halloween II – $20.99 Halloween III – $20.99 Halloween 4 – $20.99 Halloween 5 – $19.99 Halloween 6 / Halloween H20 / Halloween: Resurrection – $59.99

John Carpenter 4K UHDs:

They Live – $18.99 They Live [Steelbook] – $23.99 The Fog – $19.99 The Fog [Steelbook] – $25.99 Prince of Darkness – $19.99 Escape From New York – $20.99 Halloween – $22.99

4K UHDs:

Child’s Play – $22.99 Child’s Play 2 – $20.99 Child’s Play 3 – $19.99 The Howling – $19.99 The Funhouse – $19.99 Slumber Party Massacre / Slumber Party Massacre II – $20.99 Carrie – $20.99 Carrie [Steelbook] – $22.17 Brotherhood of the Wolf – $20.99 Cat People – $20.99 Happy Death Day – $20.99 Happy Death Day 2U – $20.99 Army of Darkness – $21.99 Evil Dead (2013) – $21.99 Dog Soldiers – $21.99 The Haunting of Julia – $21.99 Lifeforce – $21.99 Krampus: The Naughty Cut – $21.99 Alligator – $21.99 The People Under the Stairs -$22.99 Bubba Ho-Tep – $22.99 The Exorcist III – $22.99 Dawn of the Dead (2004) – $22.99 Motel Hell – $22.99 Dead Silence – $22.99 The Return of the Living Dead...

This article contains spoilers

John Carpenter is hands down one of America’s greatest filmmakers and composers, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a horror geek that doesn’t adore at least one of his movies. Born in 1948 to a a college music professor, Carpenter fell in love with cinema as a child and was out there making his own short films before he’d even started high school.

As the decades flew by, he was at the helm of some of the most beloved sci-fi and horror pictures of all time, whilst also composing the music for most of them, including the iconic scores for Halloween and Escape from New York.

Today, we’re ranking the director’s output, from Dark Star in 1974 to The Ward in 2010, but we should note that we haven’t included TV movies like Elvis or Someone’s Watching Me here, as we...

The most wonderful time of year is nearly upon us! With Halloween season just around the corner, Peacock unveiled an impressive lineup today of more than 100 Halloween, horror, thriller, and spooky season titles hitting the platform this September.

Get ready, the list is massive…

Whether you’re looking for recent releases like Hypnotic, or cult gems like Slither, Peacock invites you to face your fears in September. Binge complete freakish franchises like Chucky, Saw, and Amityville, or tune-in for fun family fare that includes Ghostbusters and Casper. Look for a variety of classic horror to arrive on the streaming service mid-September.

Speaking of “Chucky,” if you’re looking to catch up on the series ahead of season three, Peacock brings “Chucky” season two to their Halloween HQ on September 4. That gives you a whole month to catch up before the October 4 premiere of “Chucky” season three.

Full Peacock Halloween horror highlights below.

Six years ago, John Carpenter released an album called Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998, on which he teamed up with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies to re-record music from his films In the Mouth of Madness, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, Prince of Darkness, Vampires, Escape from New York, Halloween, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, The Thing, Starman, Dark Star, and Christine. (A limited edition version also contained tracks from Village of the Damned and Body Bags.) Now Sacred Bones has announced they’ll be releasing a new album from Carpenter and his cohorts that’s called Anthology II: Movie Themes 1976-1988! The release date is October 6th, and you can listen to the first track – a re-recording of “Chariots of Pumpkins” from Halloween III: Season of the Witch – in the embed at the bottom of this article.

John Carpenter had this to say about “Chariots...

John Carpenter may not be a real-life carpenter, but he sure has built himself a legacy. It's just one made of movies, not wooden sticks.

Seriously though, any genre movie fan will probably tell you that John Carpenter has made a staggering number of classic motion pictures. "Halloween" may not have invented the slasher genre, but it defined it. "The Thing" may not have invented gory monster effects, but it raised the bar and few films have even nudged it in the decades that followed. "Big Trouble in Little China" is one of the most subversive films of the 1980s, tearing down the whole "badass" genre of cinema by placing a musclebound white American hero in the center stage and then revealing him to be nothing more than a comic relief sidekick in a story about Chinese mythology that he's too damned ignorant to comprehend. And We could go on.

The cinema of science fiction began to mature in the 1950s, concurrent with the arrival of the Cold War and the Atomic Age, as well as the growing sophistication of the literature. But it was during the 1960s that the genre really began to expand in different directions, still heavily influenced by the ideological paranoia and existential dread of the previous decade, but finding even more distinctive expressions of it.

At the same time, the 1960s was also the decade in which sci-fi movies truly started to become event films, not just B-movies and drive-in fodder, as evidenced by the likes of landmarks like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes, both released in 1968. There were other successes as well, some of them on our list below, but a lot of remarkable sci-fi films of the era did not initially score with critics, audiences, or either. Yet nuclear terror,...

Arthur “Buddy” Botham, who served as a cinematographer on The Dukes of Hazzard and handled second-unit shooting on films including Blake Edwards’ Skin Deep and John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned (1995), has died. He was 88.

Botham died June 26 at his home in Woodland Hills, his daughter Julia Bergeron announced.

Botham also worked on several Stephen J. Cannell-produced series, from The A-Team, Hardcastle and McCormick and Hunter to Riptide, Stingray, Sonny Spoon and Stone, and he was a generator operator on James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) and Bill Lawrence’s Scrubs.

Born in Chicago on March 19, 1935, Arthur Ronald Botham joined the Chicago Stage Guild at age 21 and starred in Uncle Vanya and other productions. After a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps as a helicopter repairman, he returned to Chicago, resumed acting and became a cinematographer.

As the in-house director of photography for Encyclopedia Britannica, he shot dozens of educational...

“Club Zero,” a teen-cult thriller from director Jessica Hausner, may have Cannes Film Festival attendees thinking twice about ordering that second croissant on the Croisette.

The movie, which preaches the art of “conscious eating” and will definitely force viewers to consider the way they consume food, may be one of the more polarizing titles to debut at this year’s festival. Still, it earned a five-minute standing ovation at Monday night’s premiere.

In the film, Mia Wasikowska, a favorite from “Jane Eyre” and “Alice in Wonderland,” stars as a nutrition teacher from hell at an elite prep school. It all starts innocently, as teen cults are wont to do, with Miss Novak instructing her students that eating less is healthy, for themselves and for the environment. By the time the other educators and parents take note, an unthinkable reality has already started to unfold.

The film prompted at least...

Jessica Hausner, the director of the supremely audacious and disturbing eating-disorder thriller “Club Zero”, has the potential to be an important filmmaker. Her last movie, “Little Joe” (2019), a sci-fi creep-out about a sinister strain of houseplant, was really a dark-as-midnight parable of the psychotropic-drug era. “Club Zero” won’t be for everyone, but Hausner, channeling some combination of Hitchcock and Cronenberg and “Village of the Damned” and the Todd Haynes of “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story,” has now made an even more gripping and provocative mind-fuck.

“Club Zero” is set at an elite British boarding school, where seven students, in the opening scene, sit around in a circle led by Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska), the school’s new nutrition teacher. Each of the students says something about why he or she wants to eat better — to save the planet, to lose weight or shed body fat, to fight addictive junk-food consumerism.

February ushers in a new slate of movies and TV shows making their way to HBO and HBO Max, from a slew of James Bond movies to the recently released Olivia Colman-led “Empire of Light” to, yes, the Puppy Bowl.

“The Terminator,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Footloose,” “Taxi Driver” and “The Silence of the Lambs” all mark notable library offerings this month, in addition to “Superbad,” “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” and “Eighth Grade.”

Despite HBO Max pulling a number of originals from its roster over the past several months, HBO Max originals premiering on the platform this month include a Dionne Warwick documentary, an adult European animated series titled “Poor Devil” and “Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special” based on the popular animated series.

HBO Max is also beefing up its sports offerings by streaming soccer matches featuring the U.S. national teams,...

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and HBO Max got the memo. With its list of new releases for February 2023, the HBO streamer is bringing a very special Valentine’s Day episode into the fold.

Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special premieres on Feb. 9 and finds Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy celebrating their first Valentine’s Day together. Consider this a fun little aperitif for the fast approaching Harley Quinn season 3 – which will feature none other than freshly-installed DC czar James Gunn. Other HBO Max original series this month include another C.B. Strike special on Feb. 6 and Spanish-language animated comedy Poor Devil a.k.a. Pobre Diablo on Feb. 17.

February also looks to be a jam-packed month for movies on HBO Max. February 1 sees the arrival of many appealing library titles like Birdman, Casino Royale, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Terminator. Later on HBO Max...

Looking for something to watch? There will be many classic movies and new award-winning films coming to HBO Max in February 2023. Here are all of the best films being added to the platform in order of their IMDb scores.

HBO Max Logo, | LightRocket via Getty Images Top Rated films being added to HBO Max in February 2023

Of the long list of films being added to HBO Max on February 1st, we’ve ranked the best films by their IMDb ranking. Here are the movies, ranked from highest to lowest IMDb scores.

The Silence of the Lambs, 1991 — IMDb score: 8.6/10Taxi Driver, 1976 — IMDb score: 8.2/10The Terminator, 1984 — IMDb score: 8.1/10Catch Me If You Can, 2002 — IMDb score: 8.1/10The Miracle Worker, 1962 — IMDb score: 8.1/10Platoon, 1986 — IMDb score: 8.1/10Honeyland, 2019 — IMDb score: 8.0/10Casino Royale, 2006 — IMDb score: 8.0/10Edge of Tomorrow, 2014 — IMDb score: 7.9/10 (available February 7)The Music Man, 1962 — IMDb score: 7.8/10Gravity, 2013 — IMDb score: 7.7/10 (available February 23)Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), 2014 — IMDb score: 7.7/10Superbad,...

Comedian Jonah Ray discusses his favorite year in cinema (1994) with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Airport (1970)

Airport 1975 (1975)

Airport ’77 (1977)

Airplane! (1980)

Basket Case (1982)

Destroy All Neighbors (Tbd)

Satanic Hispanics (2022)

Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022)

Black Christmas (1974) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s franchise power rankings

Tales From The Crypt (1972)

Donnie Darko (2001)

Pooka! (2018)

Pooka Lives! (2020)

Harvey (1950) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

Ed Wood (1994)

Black Dynamite (2009)

Bride Of The Monster (1955) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s review

Glen Or Glenda (1953)

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Frankenweenie (2012)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Dumb And Dumber (1994)

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (1997)

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

The Mask (1994)

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Scream (1996)

Evil Laugh (1986)

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Clerks (1994)

The Search For One-Eye Jimmy (1994)

Cabin Boy (1994)

Scary Movie 2 (2001)

Scary Movie 4...

When you're a horror fan, it can be hard to gauge what gentler crowds would consider to be "too far." Horror is a wide umbrella housing tons of subgenres, each with their own expectations; pushing those boundaries can -- and does -- cause visceral reactions in moviegoers.

The most recent recipient of this lesson is Norwegian filmmaker Eskil Vogt, director of the bad seed horror movie "The Innocents." The movie concerns a small group of Norwegian kids who discover they have supernatural gifts; not Miles Morales superpowers, but Carrie White superpowers. The movie made the festival rounds in 2021 with varying results: while the midnight movie masses at Austin's Fantastic Fest seek out killer kid movies like "Goodnight Mommy," the Cannes crowd spooks easily. Some, like "Crimes of the Future" director David Cronenberg, come to expect walkouts from their work. While Vogt considers his work tame compared to Cronenberg's, a tragic...

Warner Bros. Discovery has had a rough go of it recently. The newly-formed mega corporation’s decision to callously prune HBO Max’s servers of hours of content has led to mountains of bad PR and billions of dollars in market cap losses. Suffice it to say, a jam-packed list of new HBO Max releases for September 2022 would provide some welcome relief for the “House of the House of the Dragon.”

Unfortunately, HBO Max’s new releases this month are uncommonly light. It’s impossible to say whether this is the result of more Wbd meddling or simply some bad scheduling luck but either way it’s not going to make any executives’ seats less warm. There are only a handful of notable originals this month, led by season 2 of the Spanish language comedy Los Espookys on Sept. 16. That is joined by a pair of documentaries, Escape from Kabul on Sept.

Many of the movies John Carpenter has directed are frequently mentioned as some of the greatest genre movies ever made… but there are also Carpenter movies that don’t get referenced very often. One that you rarely hear about is his Village of the Damned (watch it Here), based on the John Wyndham novel The Midwich Cuckoos and a previous film adaptation that was released in 1960. We decided it’s time to give Carpenter’s Village of the Damned some attention, and you can find out what we had to say about it in the new episode of our video series The Black Sheep. Check it out in the embed above!

Village of the Damned has the following synopsis:

Ten months after the small California town of Midwich was struck by a mysterious event during which everyone in the village fell unconscious at once, 10 local women give birth on the same day.

A “sleeper” is a box office success that comes out of nowhere. And no one expected this modest 1960 British import, based on John Wyndham’s “The Midwich Cuckoos”, to catch the attention of a worldwide audience and inspire its own (some think even better) sequel. The glowing eyes effect on the alien children was not present in British prints, having been added via freeze frame by MGM for US release. Ronald Colman was to play the lead when the studio shelved the film over worries about controversy regarding its virgin birth plot. Once the project was reactivated Colman had passed away and George Sanders took the role. Remade in 1995.

The post Village of the Damned appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Starring in a horror film can be draining, especially if it's one of your first real acting gigs. From "The Shining" twins to the white-haired children of "Village of the Damned," creepy child monsters and young protagonists make up some of the most iconic roles in horror, but often those young actors grow up and pursue very different genres or leave the industry entirely. Whether it's due to a lack of roles or a change in passion, these child actors left their mark on the genre and are still scaring audiences many years later, even if some of them have left Hollywood for good.

The Grady twins...

The post Horror Movie Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight appeared first on /Film.

CineSavant reaches back to a U.K. disc released in 2014, because the subject is (what else) a semi-obscure science fiction effort. Favorite John Neville stars as a scientist opposite newcomer Gabriella Licudi, a beauty who may be an invader from outer space. This is the one with the teardrops that burn; not having seen it since 1966 or so, evaluating a ‘new’ Blu was an imperative. The main takeaway is that it’s awfully small-scale and the fantastic content is almost entirely confined to dialogue. But the performances are exemplary and actress Jean Marsh is terrific.

Unearthly Stranger

Region B Blu-ray

Network-bfi

1963 / B&w / 1:66 / 80 min. / Street Date November 3, 2014 / Available from Amazon / 14.99

Starring: John Neville, Philip Stone, Gabriella Licudi, Patrick Newell, Jean Marsh, Warren Mitchell.

Cinematography: Reg Wyer

Art Director: Harry Pottle

Film Editor: Tom Priestley

Original Music: Edward Williams

Written by Rex Carlton based on an idea by Jeffrey Stone...

Children of the Damned

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1964/ 1.85:1/ 89 Minutes

Starring Ian Hendry, Alan Badel

Directed by Anton Leader

Wolf Rilla’s Village of the Damned was an alien invasion thriller that was genuinely invasive—all around the world women of child-bearing age are suddenly and mysteriously pregnant. No matter the circumstances, whether a virgin or a lonely widow, they wake from a deep sleep to find themselves in a family way. Who or what is responsible is never determined and the results are devastating—marriages shattered, young lives ruined, reputations damaged beyond repair. Strong stuff for 1960 and Rilla didn’t shy away from the moral, not to mention awkward, implications of the situation. The otherworldly offspring grow up to be intellectual powerhouses with a talent for telekinesis and mind control—they’re defeated, irony of ironies, by an equally intelligent adversary who destroys them by simply not thinking at all.

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.The Fog“I always try to partially copy movies and partially copy reality.”—John Carpenter to Gilles Boulanger, late 1990sJohn Carpenter began his filmmaking career on the Oscar-winning crew of 1970’s Best Live-Action Short Subject, The Resurrection of Broncho Billy, and from there went on to revitalize the horror and sci-fi genres, particularly in his prolific and visionary films of the late 70s and early 80s. Those films—including Halloween (1978), The Thing (1982) and Escape from New York (1981)—are landmarks of American genre film, but Carpenter is first and foremost a master stylist who studied under Arthur Knight at USC, getting his cinematic education from lecturers like Orson Welles (“such a storyteller”) and his biggest influence, Howard Hawks (“you could see he was a tough guy”). As the man himself said in...

There’s a terrifying amount of scare-centric programming this October, whether it’s being broadcast or streamed.

Paramount+ has announced its “Peak Screaming” package, which will encompass scary movies, kids shows and originals. Amazon, of course, is releasing four original Blumhouse films this month: Bingo Hell, Black as Night, The Manor and Madres. Peacock may have the largest cache of Halloween goodies, none more tasty than the latest installment of that most seasonally-appropriate of franchises, Halloween Kills. It debuts on October 15 on Peacock and in theaters.

October 1

30 Days of Night (Peacock)

Bingo Hell (Prime Video)

Black As Night (Prime Video)

Blippi’s Spooky Spells Halloween (Hulu)

The Blob (Peacock)

Bride of Chucky (Peacock)

Cat People (Peacock)

Child’s Play (Paramount+)

Child’s Play 2 (Peacock)

Child’s Play 3 (Peacock)

Crawl (Paramount+)

Cult of Chucky (Peacock)

Curse of Chucky (Peacock)

Curse of the Fly (Peacock)

Day of the Dead (Peacock)

Devil (Peacock)

The Devil Inside (Paramount+)

Dracula,...

“At this very moment, they could be making all those men out there turn their guns on one another!”

Children Of The Damned (1964) will be available on Blu-ray October 26th from Warner Archive

Six gifted children are found to pose a threat to the world in this chilling horror story from the makers of Village of the Damned. The children, who all live in England but are from different parts of the world, are normal in all respects except that they are geniuses with acute psychic powers. They have more in common than their IQs, however: None of them have fathers, and no one seems to know where they came from. When a psychologist (Ian Hendry of TV’s The Avengers) attempts to find out more, he unlocks a mystery that could lead to the destruction of the universe.

B&w. 16×9 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Special Features: Commentary by Screenwriter John Briley...

“In Their World, Adults Are Not Allowed… To Live.” So runs the chilling tagline for the 1984 cult classic horror Children of the Corn, based on the short story by horror maestro Stephen King. Set in an agricultural town in Nebraska, the film tells the story of 12-year-old Isaac, a real little charmer who indoctrinates the local children into a religious cult that slaughters anyone over 18! The film, which cost under $1million to make, was a smash hit and spawned a horror franchise. To celebrate the release of a lavish Arrow Limited Edition box set of the trilogy, including the original film in Ultra High Definition, here’s a round-up of some other horror films featuring problematic pint-sizers which you won’t want to turn your back on for a moment…

Village of the Damned (1960)

Based on the famous sci-fi novel by John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos, this is the mother of all killer kids films,...

Parents out there, if you think you’ve got it rough with your kids, this gallery should put your mind at ease, because the prepubescent miscreants in these films are on a mission to kill. So next time you blow your cool about a messy room or not doing chores, give this another read.

The Good Son (1993) • Macaulay Culkin went from family-friendly “Home Alone” into this R-rated psychological thriller playing a sociopathic, f-bomb-dropping 12-year-old with an unhealthy urge to kill. Spoiler alert: “good” is something this character is most definitely not.

The Ring (2002) • The visual of the raven-haired, water-logged, vengeful young ghost, Samara, slithering out of a television to claim another victim is iconic and enough to give you nightmares for weeks. Turns out that the legend that she cursed a videotape and whoever watches it dies seven days later isn’t folklore after all. The corpses she left behind proved that.

Filmmaking is incredibly hard work, said everybody who's ever made one for our enjoyment. It’s especially a trial by fire for inexperienced movie magicians, hoping that the wand will strike at least once or twice and that they just survive. With his reputation as a BTS guru with Blue Underground and Dark Sky Films in full swing, Severin Films’ David Gregory set out to make his feature debut, Plague Town (2008)—a tense homage to classic British and foreign horror infused with a fresh feel for the present. And now, a Blu from Severin that houses not only a surprisingly effective chiller, but also behind-the-scenes features that painstakingly showcase a vision dragged kicking and screaming all the way to the screening room.

It is odd for me to be discussing a film this recent. However, it makes perfect sense in context to the creators; Gregory and his co-writer John Cregan...

When you think of John Carpenter, the films Halloween, Escape from New York, They Live, or The Fog might first come to mind, but on this episode of Daily Dead's official podcast, Horror BFFs Heather Wixson and Patrick Bromley celebrate two of the Master of Horror's movies that don't get talked about enough: Starman and Village of the Damned!

You can listen to the new episode of Corpse Club right now on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, YouTube, Pandora, and SoundCloud.

Looking for more scary good Corpse Club content? Be sure to check out our Corpse Club website and memberships. Not only can you view past episodes, but you can also sign up to be an official Corpse Club member to enjoy a wide range of rewards, including a shirt and pin that are to die for, access to bonus content, and the ability to suggest an episode topic!

Full Moon Features is heading back into the Lovecraftian cinematic universe with the new film Miskatonic U: The Resonator. Starring Michael Paré and Amanda Wyss, Miskatonic U: The Resonator will premiere on February 26th, and ahead of its release, we've been provided with exclusive behind-the-scenes photos to share with Daily Dead readers!

You can check out our exclusive behind-the-scenes photos in the gallery below, which offers a close look at makeup effects artist Greg Lightner's creature creations for the movie, and visit Full Moon Features for more updates on Miskatonic U: The Resonator!

Miskatonic U: The Resonator Synopsis:

Set in the fictional college campus “Miskatonic University” in Arkham, Massachusetts where all sorts of fantastic and unworldly events have been known to unfold in Lovecraft lore, Miskatonic U: The Resonator follows six gifted students as they navigate life after one of them, Crawford Tillinghast, builds a machine known as the...