The Influence of “Get Out” and Its Limitations for Horror
Jordan Peele’s Get Out was a seminal horror film. Unsettling, witty, and hugely political. It was made with a great deal of respect for the genre, yet Peele also elevated frighteners too, making a film that became a genuine “water cooler” pop culture entry. For months, people couldn’t stop talking about its twists, shocks, and […]
Pedro Almodovar Reflects on Age and Storytelling in All Its “Pain and Glory”
Pedro Almodovar is one of the cinema’s premier directors, but just as importantly, he’s one of its best screenwriters. He has 36 directorial credits on imdb.com and not surprisingly, he has 36 writing credits too. Almodovar’s direction and writing go hand-in-hand – they’re both bold, colorful, and often, unpredictable. In all of his films, there […]
Why Demons and Devils Make for Superior Villains
We all know that “the devil is in the details,” but why are there so many demons in movies and on TV these days? In the past two years, there have been 26 horror movies released where the primary antagonist is some sort of supernatural force (It: Chapter Two), a demon (Annabelle Comes Home), or […]
The Revisionist “Joker” Challenges the Norms of Comics and Villainy
********* SPOILER WARNING ********* Searing onto the screen as both a revisionist backstory of an iconic villain character and a pointed commentary on the cuddlier aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the new Joker movie is bold, violent, and unnerving. There have been many exceedingly dark takes on the greatest foil of Batman’s through […]
Netflix’s “Unbelievable” Tells Its Procedural with Nuance, Care and Patience
With cop shows proliferating our screens these days, writers have had to stretch their imaginations to come up with novel approaches to the whodunnit. Amazon Prime’s Carnival Row told a Ripper-esque mystery in a make-believe world populated with fantastical beasts and fairies. The murders at the core of HBO’s True Detective series are usually ones […]
