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We have all been touched by fictitious persons at numerous points in our lives. They have moved or amused, horrified or inspired us since early childhood. Story-telling is one of the most fundamental of human activities, probably as necessary to our mental health as eating, drinking and breathing are to our physical well-being. Story-telling is almost inconceivable without villains. In …

Return of the Living Dead After the success of Night of the Living Dead, the partnership between George Romero and John Russo soon ended, with Romero continuing to write and direct his own set of sequels. John Russo continued to write, but mostly novels instead of scripts, except for the few exceptions were he ended up writing a script from …

With the fresh release of The Nun, there has been a recent resurgence of the classic ‘nunsploitation’ movies and the newest release to the scene is no exception to the other brilliant entries to the genre. Nuns are terrifying at the best of times, but there seems to be something about nuns being added to the equation in a horror …

Night of the Living Dead (1968), directed by George Romero; starring Duane Jones and Judith O’Dea as two strangers who join forces to survive the original Zombie Apocalypse. One of the most influential horror movies ever made, Night of the Living Dead was initially dismissed by many critics as a cheap “exploitation” film (Rex Reed was a notable exception). In …

Dear “The Living”, I’m writing you this evening from the Crypt as I’ve crossed over to the other side… again. I feel the rigormortis kicking in, so the earthworms are helping me type. I want to give you guys a heads off (or is it heads up) that I have started doing the Video Madness column, so when you are …

Scream queens: those beautiful, blood-spattered actresses who build a career and fanbase in horror. These ladies appear in film after film, becoming as iconic as actors as Jason or Freddy are as actors. Everyone knows the scream queens of yesteryear; Jamie Lee Curtis, Linnea Quiqley, Langenkamp, etc. But how many of you know names like Tristan Risk or Jessica Cameron? …

I have to be in a certain mood to watch Asian horror. I must confess that I mostly haven’t been in that mood for quite a few years. In the previous decade, I was quite taken with Asian horror (along with everybody else) and I watched all the classics, as well as the American remakes: The Ring, The Grudge, The …

Look, I’m not a fan of remakes. They tend to be rather pedestrian affairs with only the slightest amount of the originals’ power, and as such most are utter nonsense. Case in point would be remakes of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Amityville Horror, The Grudge, One Missed Call and any number of others in …

There’s lots to choose from in this category, and I know some Harry Potter fans may get a little ruffled by the absences of Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) or Hermione Granger (Emma Watson.). To be memorable, in my estimation, a movie witch must be at least a little scary, even if she’s starring in a romantic comedy like Rene Clair’s …

When it comes to the horror genre, victims—and even heroes, for that matter—are a dime a dozen. Who can remember everyone Jason has killed throughout the Friday the 13th series or how Michael got his comeuppance in, say, Halloween 4? Sure, everyone knows that Van Helsing has defeated the most famous vampire of all in countless versions of the story, …

What makes horror such a great genre for movies, television, literature, and anything else you can think of? In a word: versatility. Horror isn’t always defined by gore and death, but rather the feeling of doom, gloom, and dread. It can be funny just as well as terrifying. Our little niche of cinematic and media bliss has given us great …

It’s that time of the year again kids, Samhain is fast upon us and the thin veil between our world and the realm of spirits is slipping away. The leaves are on the ground and the air is getting cooler. It’s the perfect time to start digging through that old horror film collection of yours and maybe even consider adding …

2017 officially marks the fiftieth anniversary of “The Summer of Love”, when a hundred thousand young people descended on San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district with the collective dream of reinventing America. Their movement grew exponentially, changing outlooks and raising the nation’s consciousness. Today there are cynics who dismiss the hippie movement—pigeonholing it as a bunch of longhaired, drug addled, peace sign …

Gather around one and all, Plant yourself in front of the boob-tube for some of your favorite horror treasures. I used to love watching scary movies as a kid. Even better, I used to love it when someone hosted those movies and talked a bit about them and took you through each commercial breaks. Those were the times. Now, most …

Greetings my little monsters, this week we’ll look at ten films so striking that once you’ve seen them you won’t ever be able to forget them. This list will cover films that range from the visually stunning to the grotesque. So, let’s take the great plunge into the darkness together as we look at some of the most visually scarring …