In his final book, The Weird and the Eerie, critic and theorist Mark Fischer differentiates between “the weird” and the supernatural as it appears in both literature and film. For example, the supernatural world of vampires, writes Fischer, “… recombines elements from the natural world as we already understand it….” These supernatural stories are contrasted with fictions based around suggestions and byproducts of natural phenomena, such as black holes. “… The bizarre ways in which [a black hole] bends space and time are completely outside our common experience,” Fischer writes, “and yet a black hole belongs to the natural-material cosmos […]

Genre filmmaking is arguably one of the most exciting and provocative sectors of cinema right now, with fresh perspectives and elevated messaging challenging the screen and its audiences. Case in point: Jennifer Reeder’s new feature, Knives and Skin. The filmmaker, who has crafted a number of successful short films over the past few years, has a bold aesthetic and isn’t afraid to put complex characters — especially young women — in bizarre and provoking situations. “I love seeing so many women not just like reclaiming, but claiming,” says Reeder about women in horror. Women have often been the subject of so many […]

Those who remember the days of the neighborhood video store — whether that was, for you, Kim’s Video or Blockbuster — may attribute their fondness for ineffably sleazy horror film VHS cover art to simple nostalgia, but, proposes Entertain the Elk, there’s more to it than that. In this short video he argues that the videobox designers of the day were using the AIDA marketing methods to draw movie fans’s eyeballs to images of bloody knives, hair shaped into a noose and monsters emerging from the toilet. Of note are the piece’s final moments, when he decries the Get Out […]

“What we’re doing is building our own Marvel universe and ecosystem of characters”: Eli Roth on Horror & CryptTV at Tribeca Raise your hand if you’re trying to get a horror film made. I thought so. That’s a lot of us — myself included. It’s been a fantastic year for the genre, too, with Get Out breaking a number of records and becoming the third highest-grossing R-rated horror film of all time — and that’s behind The Exorcist and Hannibal. I was too terrified to finish either, and I saw Get Out twice (and alone) so it wins in my […]

Four female directors helm the various short works comprising XX, a new horror anthology from Magnet Releasing. Directors include musician Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent) and Karyn Kusama, whose Girlfight graced our Summer 2000 issue and whose The Invitation is one of the best films — horror or otherwise — of ’16. From the press release: XX is a new all-female helmed horror anthology featuring four dark tales written and directed by fiercely talented women: Annie Clark (St. Vincent) rocks her directorial debut with The Birthday Party; Karyn Kusama (The Invitation, Girlfight) exorcises Her Only Living Son; Roxanne Benjamin (Southbound) […]

Festival co-directors Michael Lerman and Landon Zakheim chose Halloween to announce The Overlook Film Festival, a new genre festival that will open April 27 at Oregon’s Timberline Lodge. The historic hotel at the base of Mt. Hood was used for the exterior setting of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The four-day festival will feature a weekend-long immersive game from Bottleneck Immersive and an original live version of the radio play Tales From Beyond the Pale by Glass Eye Pix. Live programming will also include musical performances, panel presentations, live podcasts, escape room challenges, magic shows, trivia night, games, […]

Just in time for Halloween, Fandor shares the above video essay which analyzes how film can effectively convey fear. Spanning 1920-2014, the video highlights the best reaction shots featuring “the look of fear.” In the accompanying essay, Daniel Mcilwraith explains, “This video asks you to contemplate several questions within these faces of fear. Which gender is most burdened with the look of fear? Which is more effective: paralyzing shock or a piercing scream? I asked myself why the look of fear was so persistent in horror cinema—perhaps it can tell us more about the human face as the most powerful cinematic spectacle.”

Two years ago the Rasmussen brothers, Michael and Shawn, spoke to us about the production of their low-budget horror movie Dark Feed. Now the directors and screenwriters (they scripted John Carpenter’s The Ward) are back to talk about their new New England-set horror film The Inhabitants, and the lessons learned making a movie on an even tighter budget. Filmmaker: How did this project start? Michael: The whole thing came about as we were finishing Dark Feed. One of our filmmaker friends said, “You want to keep the momentum going and get started on the next project.” A producer friend who had […]

“If I had to make [Noah Baumbach’s 1995 pic] Kicking and Screaming today, I’d make it for $50,000, not $1 million,” said producer Jason Blum (The Purge, Insidious, Whiplash) at his SXSW keynote address on Sunday. In a conversation with the Los Angeles Times’ John Horn, Blum blended his own producer origin story with practical advice for filmmakers seeking to emulate his rise to top of Hollywood’s low-budget horror hierarchy. “Don’t wait for the industry to go forward,” he told the crowd, explaining that his own career was accelerated when he learned from a past error: passing on The Blair […]

Want horror-movie makeup tips from an Oscar-winning legend? Here, Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome, Men in Black) offers DIY tips while demonstrating how to make “Miss Shock,” a gruesome character created by Bob Burns in 1959 for a live event with The Tingler director William Castle. In this fast-paced 15-minute clip, Baker starts off by making a mold of his daughter’s face and then moves on to the artistic detail work he’s revered for. (Hat tip: Mutiny Co.)