Francis Ford Coppola's miraculous 1970s run of "The Godfather," "The Conversation," "The Godfather Part II" and "Apocalypse Now" came crashing to a hubristic halt in 1982 when his backlot musical "One from the Heart," produced at his recently purchased Zoetrope Studios in the heart of Hollywood, bombed upon release. Poor reviews and audience indifference resulted in a paltry $637,000 gross against a $26 million budget, thus killing his dream of an artist-driven mini-community.
The magnitude of the film's failure meant Coppola would have to lower his sights for the time being, and make films with more straightforward commercial appeal as a means of paying off his debts. It was a shockingly precipitous fall, one that left his many admirers worried that he'd become more of a paycheck-to-paycheck director. This happened eventually, but for a time he was able to stoke his creative fire even if he was making movies that weren't as...
The magnitude of the film's failure meant Coppola would have to lower his sights for the time being, and make films with more straightforward commercial appeal as a means of paying off his debts. It was a shockingly precipitous fall, one that left his many admirers worried that he'd become more of a paycheck-to-paycheck director. This happened eventually, but for a time he was able to stoke his creative fire even if he was making movies that weren't as...
- 4/28/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Stars: Aston McAuley, Sophie Simnett, Jason Flemyng, Johanna Harlin, Raza Jaffrey, Shervin Alenabi | Written by Ben Sztajnkrycer | Directed by Renny Harlin
Renny Harlin’s career has come full circle, from low-budget horror and action films like Born American and Prison through blockbusters such as Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger before reverting back to budget-minded films like The Bricklayer and this film, Refuge. This time around, he’s bringing the horrors of war back home as a soldier’s encounter with the unexplained threatens the lives of everyone around him.
Sergeant Rick Pedroni is serving somewhere in Afghanistan when his unit takes a group of Taliban prisoner. Questioned about a nearby cave, they say there’s no more of them in there, in fact, none of them would go in there. Rick volunteers to check it out.
This sets off a long flashback to he and Kate’s wedding day. By...
Renny Harlin’s career has come full circle, from low-budget horror and action films like Born American and Prison through blockbusters such as Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger before reverting back to budget-minded films like The Bricklayer and this film, Refuge. This time around, he’s bringing the horrors of war back home as a soldier’s encounter with the unexplained threatens the lives of everyone around him.
Sergeant Rick Pedroni is serving somewhere in Afghanistan when his unit takes a group of Taliban prisoner. Questioned about a nearby cave, they say there’s no more of them in there, in fact, none of them would go in there. Rick volunteers to check it out.
This sets off a long flashback to he and Kate’s wedding day. By...
- 4/25/2024
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
We believe it is safe to say that Spring is finally here in North America. Relatively safe. Pretty sure it is safe. Not only will April showers bring May flowers but May also sees the arrival of the new Danish horror flick Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, and the UK horror flick, Stopmotion. Next month also sees the ongoing live watch parties every other Friday night of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs. Four Toxic Avenger films are coming to the repertory programming next month. We don't know if Bob Clark's Deathdream and Buddy Giovinazzo's Combat Shock are considered part of the Namsploitation genre but they're two Nam-era horror flicks to keep an eye out for next month. While we still don't know what...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 4/18/2024
- Screen Anarchy
Sylvester Stallone may be one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, but even though he’s got a lot of successful blockbuster films out there, he’s also had his fair share of flopped projects. Not only did these films tank at the box office but they were also critically slammed.
Sylvester Stallone in Rocky
It’s not easy to determine what kind of films make great profits because people’s preferences and global trends change. However, some of Stallone’s most loathed works were projects he did not carefully choose, or those where his vision was not followed.
Sylvester Stallone Shares Movies He Awfully Regrets
One of Sylvester Stallone’s most awfully unforgettable movies was 1992’s Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. He did this alongside Hollywood rival Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the mastermind in encouraging Stallone to take on the project. The former professional bodybuilder told the...
Sylvester Stallone in Rocky
It’s not easy to determine what kind of films make great profits because people’s preferences and global trends change. However, some of Stallone’s most loathed works were projects he did not carefully choose, or those where his vision was not followed.
Sylvester Stallone Shares Movies He Awfully Regrets
One of Sylvester Stallone’s most awfully unforgettable movies was 1992’s Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. He did this alongside Hollywood rival Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the mastermind in encouraging Stallone to take on the project. The former professional bodybuilder told the...
- 4/17/2024
- by Ariane Cruz
- FandomWire
"All in the Family" might've been Norman Lear's finest half-hour as a sitcom producer, but I'm not sure he ever put a funnier show on the airwaves than "The Jeffersons." For 11 seasons, Sherman Hemsley's dry-cleaning magnate George Jefferson and Isabel Sanford's good-hearted Louise "Weezy" Jefferson led a stellar cast that delivered edgy-for-network-television laughs revolving around race, class, gender, and whatever happened to be grinding the hot-headed George's gears that particular week. It was the African-American answer to "All in the Family" (on which the characters of George and Weezy originated), and might actually be more shocking today for its fearless deployment of the n-word (particularly early in the series' run).
And if you're making a list of the most memorable theme songs in television history, "The Jeffersons" better be in the top five. Anyone who grew up watching the show in prime time or via syndication should...
And if you're making a list of the most memorable theme songs in television history, "The Jeffersons" better be in the top five. Anyone who grew up watching the show in prime time or via syndication should...
- 3/18/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
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!
Crimson Peak 4K Uhd from Arrow Video
Crimson Peak will haunt 4K Ultra HD on May 21 via Arrow Video. The 2015 Gothic horror/romance is presented in 4K with Dolby Vision, approved by director Guillermo del Toro, and original DTS:X Master Audio sound.
Del Toro co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Matthew Robbins. Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, and Jim Beaver star with Doug Jones and Javier Botet appearing as ghosts.
The limited edition set comes with a double-sided poster, four double-sided postcards, and an 80-page book featuring writings by David Jenkins and Simon Abrams, an interview with del Toro, and conceptual illustrations by Guy Davis and Oscar Chichoni, all housed in...
Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!
Crimson Peak 4K Uhd from Arrow Video
Crimson Peak will haunt 4K Ultra HD on May 21 via Arrow Video. The 2015 Gothic horror/romance is presented in 4K with Dolby Vision, approved by director Guillermo del Toro, and original DTS:X Master Audio sound.
Del Toro co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Matthew Robbins. Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, and Jim Beaver star with Doug Jones and Javier Botet appearing as ghosts.
The limited edition set comes with a double-sided poster, four double-sided postcards, and an 80-page book featuring writings by David Jenkins and Simon Abrams, an interview with del Toro, and conceptual illustrations by Guy Davis and Oscar Chichoni, all housed in...
- 3/1/2024
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
Tony Ganios, the comedic actor known for his turn as fan-favorite Meat in Bob Clark’s “Porky’s” and as Perry in Philip Kaufman’s 1979 coming-of-age comedy-drama “The Wanderers,” died Feb. 18 following surgery at a hospital in New York. He was 64.
Ganios’ finacée shared the news on social media — publishing a tweet that featured a photo of the two holding hands with the caption, “I love you so much, my love. I’m broken.” She later followed up with a tweet containing a photo of Ganios and the caption, “The last words we said to each other were, “I love you.” Love is an understatement. You are everything to me. My heart, my soul and my best friend.”
Ganios was known for his roles in 1980s teen comedies and action movies. He gained prominence for his portrayal of tough, muscular characters that frequently had him tap into character acting to play...
Ganios’ finacée shared the news on social media — publishing a tweet that featured a photo of the two holding hands with the caption, “I love you so much, my love. I’m broken.” She later followed up with a tweet containing a photo of Ganios and the caption, “The last words we said to each other were, “I love you.” Love is an understatement. You are everything to me. My heart, my soul and my best friend.”
Ganios was known for his roles in 1980s teen comedies and action movies. He gained prominence for his portrayal of tough, muscular characters that frequently had him tap into character acting to play...
- 2/20/2024
- by Diego Ramos Bechara
- Variety Film + TV
Tony Ganios, the actor who made his film debut in Philip Kaufman’s 1979 coming-of-age comedy-drama The Wanderers and played audience favorite Anthony ‘Meat’ Tuperello in the 1980s Porky’s sex comedy franchise, died Sunday following surgery at a hospital in New York. He was 64.
His death was announced on social media by his fiancée, Amanda Serrano-Ganios, who said that the actor fell ill last week, was hospitalized Saturday with a spinal cord infection, and passed away Sunday of heart failure.
Cast as one of the Bronx Italian-American street toughs in the 1963-set The Wanderers, based on the novel by Richard Price, Ganios became, for much of the ’80s, a go-to actor for directors looking for a touch of East Coast flavor. Ganios re-teamed with his Wanderers co-star Ken Wahl for a recurring role as a mob lawyer on Wahl’s 1987-90 crime series Wiseguy.
John Friedrich, Ken Wahl, Tony Ganios,...
His death was announced on social media by his fiancée, Amanda Serrano-Ganios, who said that the actor fell ill last week, was hospitalized Saturday with a spinal cord infection, and passed away Sunday of heart failure.
Cast as one of the Bronx Italian-American street toughs in the 1963-set The Wanderers, based on the novel by Richard Price, Ganios became, for much of the ’80s, a go-to actor for directors looking for a touch of East Coast flavor. Ganios re-teamed with his Wanderers co-star Ken Wahl for a recurring role as a mob lawyer on Wahl’s 1987-90 crime series Wiseguy.
John Friedrich, Ken Wahl, Tony Ganios,...
- 2/20/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Eli Roth's 2023 slasher film "Thanksgiving" famously started its life back in 2007 in the form of a fake trailer sandwiched in between Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," two movies released as a single mega-feature called "Grindhouse." The goal of "Grindhouse" was to recreate the experience of seeing a cheap exploitation double-feature in a run-down New York theater in the early 1980s, complete with film scratches, missing reels, and several previews for upcoming ultra-salacious genre movies. The trailers were all fake at the time, but since 2007, the trailers for "Machete," "Hobo with a Shotgun," and "Thanksgiving" have been made into real movies.
Roth, as the director's fans know, is a voracious cineaste, and has likely spent more time watching movies than most people. He also wears his influences on his sleeve; in the credits for Roth's 2013 cannibal film "The Green Inferno," he includes a list...
Roth, as the director's fans know, is a voracious cineaste, and has likely spent more time watching movies than most people. He also wears his influences on his sleeve; in the credits for Roth's 2013 cannibal film "The Green Inferno," he includes a list...
- 1/28/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
50 years after its release, Bob Clark's "Black Christmas" remains one of the most chilling scary stories put to celluloid. The 1974 proto-slasher pits a group of sorority members against "Billy," an almost preternatural stranger who sputters incoherent yet disturbing sentiments at them over phone calls before hunting them down, all the while discreetly stowed away in their attic. Yet, the real horror of the film is as much the entitled men and patriarchy these young women have to deal with as the mysterious individual actively trying to murder them.
"Black Christmas" may have been released decades before "Acab" came back into the vernacular, but it embraces the same idea. The police are enragingly slow to respond to these women and their harassment complaints, with John Saxon's Lieutenant Fuller the rare competent officer who actually listens to them and soon realizes just how much immediate danger they're in. Saxon himself...
"Black Christmas" may have been released decades before "Acab" came back into the vernacular, but it embraces the same idea. The police are enragingly slow to respond to these women and their harassment complaints, with John Saxon's Lieutenant Fuller the rare competent officer who actually listens to them and soon realizes just how much immediate danger they're in. Saxon himself...
- 1/18/2024
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
Stars: Jackson White, Natalie Alyn Lind, Henry Thomas, David Duchovny, Jack Mulhern, Pam Grier | Written by Lindsey Anderson Beer, Jeff Buhler | Directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer
Pet Sematary has been sequelized, rebooted, and now with the arrival of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines it has a prequel. Adapting Stephen King’s works for the screen is a risky enough proposition, creating new stories based on them even more so as anyone whose seen a few Children of the Corn sequels or reboots can attest. King himself however seems to be happy with this film and tweeted:
“In the book, this is the story Jud Crandall tells Louis Creed to try and dissuade him from using the Pet Sematary,” wrote King. “The screenplay takes a few liberties, but it’s a fine story. David Duchovny is excellent. The secret, as always, is caring about the characters.”
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines opens in the summer...
Pet Sematary has been sequelized, rebooted, and now with the arrival of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines it has a prequel. Adapting Stephen King’s works for the screen is a risky enough proposition, creating new stories based on them even more so as anyone whose seen a few Children of the Corn sequels or reboots can attest. King himself however seems to be happy with this film and tweeted:
“In the book, this is the story Jud Crandall tells Louis Creed to try and dissuade him from using the Pet Sematary,” wrote King. “The screenplay takes a few liberties, but it’s a fine story. David Duchovny is excellent. The secret, as always, is caring about the characters.”
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines opens in the summer...
- 1/8/2024
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
As 2023 comes to a close, we here at JoBlo.com would like to take a moment to pay tribute to some of the people who sadly passed away this year. Our deepest respect goes out to everyone in the industry we have lost, and our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of those who died in 2023. These talented individuals will always be remembered for their impact on the world of film and television.
In Memory Of…
Earl Boen
Earl Boen died at the age of 81 on January 5th. The actor was best known as Dr. Peter Silberman in The Terminator, a role he reprised in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, making him the only other actor aside from Arnold Schwarzenegger to appear in the first three movies.
Boen always wanted to inject a little more humour into his performance, but director James Cameron kept telling him no…...
In Memory Of…
Earl Boen
Earl Boen died at the age of 81 on January 5th. The actor was best known as Dr. Peter Silberman in The Terminator, a role he reprised in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, making him the only other actor aside from Arnold Schwarzenegger to appear in the first three movies.
Boen always wanted to inject a little more humour into his performance, but director James Cameron kept telling him no…...
- 1/1/2024
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
Merry Creepmas, you filthy animals. The final day of Bloody Disgusting’s 12 Days of Creepmas is here, and it feels only fitting to celebrate with the reigning champion of holiday horror: Bob Clark’s Black Christmas.
In case you missed any of the holiday festivities, you can keep track of the 12 Days of Creepmas here.
Released in 1974, Black Christmas has a simple setup on paper; over Christmas break, the residents of a sorority house are stalked and preyed upon by an unseen foe. Thanks to director Bob Clark and screenwriter Roy Moore, the plot isn’t quite so simple as it sounds thanks to a wonderfully complex cast of characters and character-driven moments that enhance the horror.
Scene-stealer Barb (Margot Kidder) is foul-mouthed and unapologetic, and her pranks or drunken quips ensure this sorority house is full of life. Barb is the precise type of handful that likely wears on housemother Mrs.
In case you missed any of the holiday festivities, you can keep track of the 12 Days of Creepmas here.
Released in 1974, Black Christmas has a simple setup on paper; over Christmas break, the residents of a sorority house are stalked and preyed upon by an unseen foe. Thanks to director Bob Clark and screenwriter Roy Moore, the plot isn’t quite so simple as it sounds thanks to a wonderfully complex cast of characters and character-driven moments that enhance the horror.
Scene-stealer Barb (Margot Kidder) is foul-mouthed and unapologetic, and her pranks or drunken quips ensure this sorority house is full of life. Barb is the precise type of handful that likely wears on housemother Mrs.
- 12/25/2023
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Have you heard of the urban legend "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs?" Dating back to the 1960s, the urban legend talks about a female babysitter watching television -- having put the children to bed upstairs -- when she receives a call from a man asking her to check on the kids. While the babysitter ignores the man's instructions many times, the frequency of the calls unsettles her, prompting her to call the cops. Once the cops arrive, they inform her that the call was coming from inside the house all along — upstairs, to be precise, where the unidentified man had already killed the children.
This grisly myth was the basis for director Bob Clark's 1974 slasher "Black Christmas," where residents of a sorority house have to contend with repeated calls from an unknown man amid an unsettling disappearance among their group. The genre trope of a sinister killer calling...
This grisly myth was the basis for director Bob Clark's 1974 slasher "Black Christmas," where residents of a sorority house have to contend with repeated calls from an unknown man amid an unsettling disappearance among their group. The genre trope of a sinister killer calling...
- 12/22/2023
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
Christmas is coming and we’re painting the snow red on Screambox.
There are an absurd amount of presents under our tree, including the “Frankenstein”-inspired Santastein, the nasty Secret Santa hailing from the director of Jason Goes to Hell, and the awesomely creepy anthology Night of the Missing.
But we also have our fair share of holiday classics, including Rare Exports, Christmas Evil, Day of the Beast, Deep Red, and even Silent Night, Deadly Night 2.
However, the star at the top of the tree is Bob Clark‘s slasher masterpiece Black Christmas, which is now streaming on Screambox courtesy of Shout! Factory.
In Black Christmas…
“The college town of Bedford is receiving an unwelcome guest this Christmas. As the residents of sorority house Pi Kappa Sigma prepare for the festive season, a stranger begins to stalk the house. A series of obscene phone calls start to plague the sorority...
There are an absurd amount of presents under our tree, including the “Frankenstein”-inspired Santastein, the nasty Secret Santa hailing from the director of Jason Goes to Hell, and the awesomely creepy anthology Night of the Missing.
But we also have our fair share of holiday classics, including Rare Exports, Christmas Evil, Day of the Beast, Deep Red, and even Silent Night, Deadly Night 2.
However, the star at the top of the tree is Bob Clark‘s slasher masterpiece Black Christmas, which is now streaming on Screambox courtesy of Shout! Factory.
In Black Christmas…
“The college town of Bedford is receiving an unwelcome guest this Christmas. As the residents of sorority house Pi Kappa Sigma prepare for the festive season, a stranger begins to stalk the house. A series of obscene phone calls start to plague the sorority...
- 12/21/2023
- by Brad Miska
- bloody-disgusting.com
What do Black Christmas and Silent Night, Bloody Night have in common?
Blurry first-person Pov? Check. Mouth-breathing killer? Double check. Creepy phone calls? Triple Check. In both Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974) and Theodore Gershuny’s Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), an unknown killer stalks their victims around the Christmas season, both striking terror and intrigue. Each entry succeeds to varying degrees in balancing cheer and fear; one becoming a holiday classic and the other a largely-forgotten gem. As a slasherific double feature, this holiday season brings a little goodwill and a whole lotta torture.
Gene Siskel once called Black Christmas a “routine shocker,” giving it a measly 1.5 out of 4 stars. That’s a paltry review for a tightly-wound and tense proto-slasher that helped catapult the slasher genre into the limelight. It might have come four years before Halloween, but it does many of the same things and in some ways,...
Blurry first-person Pov? Check. Mouth-breathing killer? Double check. Creepy phone calls? Triple Check. In both Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974) and Theodore Gershuny’s Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), an unknown killer stalks their victims around the Christmas season, both striking terror and intrigue. Each entry succeeds to varying degrees in balancing cheer and fear; one becoming a holiday classic and the other a largely-forgotten gem. As a slasherific double feature, this holiday season brings a little goodwill and a whole lotta torture.
Gene Siskel once called Black Christmas a “routine shocker,” giving it a measly 1.5 out of 4 stars. That’s a paltry review for a tightly-wound and tense proto-slasher that helped catapult the slasher genre into the limelight. It might have come four years before Halloween, but it does many of the same things and in some ways,...
- 12/21/2023
- by Bee Delores
- bloody-disgusting.com
In this week’s Yuletide-tacular episode of the Nightmare on Film Street Horror Movie Podcast, ho-ho-hold onto your seats as we unwrap the chilling classic Black Christmas (1974). Yes, fellow horror hounds, Santa’s not the only one coming down the chimney this season! Our merry scary hosts Kimmi and Jon invite you for a festive frightfest, taking an interesting detour from cheer and eggnog to unnerving phone calls and uninvited guests in the attic.
As the sorority sisters at Pi Kappa Sigma start receiving anonymous, disturbing phone calls, their Christmas spirit morphs into a chilling horror story, and one of the best slashers of all time (and one of the first)! What starts as a jolly holiday gathering quickly descends into a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious predator, who may or may not be named Billy.
Join Kimmi & Jon as they delve into Bob Clark’s skillful direction, the gripping performances,...
As the sorority sisters at Pi Kappa Sigma start receiving anonymous, disturbing phone calls, their Christmas spirit morphs into a chilling horror story, and one of the best slashers of all time (and one of the first)! What starts as a jolly holiday gathering quickly descends into a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious predator, who may or may not be named Billy.
Join Kimmi & Jon as they delve into Bob Clark’s skillful direction, the gripping performances,...
- 12/21/2023
- by Nightmare on Film Street
The episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? covering Black Christmas (2006) was Written and Narrated by Adam Walton, Edited by Juan Jimenez, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
The weather has turned, all of your local stores will now be well stocked up with Christmas tat, and parents will be frantically searching for new and inventive naughty shenanigans for that fucking elf to get up to, and for kids to jump out of bed and probably forget they had a ‘magic’ elf that’s probably riding around on the pet cat. That’s right gore-hounds, Christmas is upon us, so you know what that means? Christmas carnage! Yes, there’s nothing we like more here in the haunted JoBlo dungeons than revisiting some classic festive bloodshed. Of course, this time of year always brings us repeats of the usual Christmas staples like It’s A Wonderful Life,...
The weather has turned, all of your local stores will now be well stocked up with Christmas tat, and parents will be frantically searching for new and inventive naughty shenanigans for that fucking elf to get up to, and for kids to jump out of bed and probably forget they had a ‘magic’ elf that’s probably riding around on the pet cat. That’s right gore-hounds, Christmas is upon us, so you know what that means? Christmas carnage! Yes, there’s nothing we like more here in the haunted JoBlo dungeons than revisiting some classic festive bloodshed. Of course, this time of year always brings us repeats of the usual Christmas staples like It’s A Wonderful Life,...
- 12/18/2023
- by Adam Walton
- JoBlo.com
5 Best Christmas Horror Movies(Photo Credit –IMDb)
When one thinks of Christmas, horror, and gore are generally not the first things that come to mind. Christmas is all about having fun. It’s full of life and color, and identifying it as scary would be out of place. And while Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” does make a perfect example of a ‘scary Christmas,’ it does not qualify as a traditional, spine-chilling horror movie. But contrary to popular narrative — certain media out there does it, and does it well. Think of the latest “Fargo” episode that runs a Halloween theme and blends it with “Nightmare Before Christmas.”
So, the appeal behind it is understandable. This is why we have curated a list of the best Christmas horror movies you can enjoy for a change of pace from all the happy and sparkly traditions.
1. Krampus (2015) Krampus (Photo Credit –IMDb...
When one thinks of Christmas, horror, and gore are generally not the first things that come to mind. Christmas is all about having fun. It’s full of life and color, and identifying it as scary would be out of place. And while Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” does make a perfect example of a ‘scary Christmas,’ it does not qualify as a traditional, spine-chilling horror movie. But contrary to popular narrative — certain media out there does it, and does it well. Think of the latest “Fargo” episode that runs a Halloween theme and blends it with “Nightmare Before Christmas.”
So, the appeal behind it is understandable. This is why we have curated a list of the best Christmas horror movies you can enjoy for a change of pace from all the happy and sparkly traditions.
1. Krampus (2015) Krampus (Photo Credit –IMDb...
- 12/14/2023
- by Koimoi.com Team
- KoiMoi
Muppets and elves jostle with orphans, serial killers and Santa in our list of the greatest yuletide movies ever to grace the big screen
This slasher classic – the source of that standby horror line: “The call is coming from inside the house!” – shows one victim being stabbed with a glass ornament as carol singers drown out her dying cries. The director, Bob Clark, also made the sweetly folksy A Christmas Story (1983), which represents the flipside of the same chocolate coin.
This slasher classic – the source of that standby horror line: “The call is coming from inside the house!” – shows one victim being stabbed with a glass ornament as carol singers drown out her dying cries. The director, Bob Clark, also made the sweetly folksy A Christmas Story (1983), which represents the flipside of the same chocolate coin.
- 12/14/2023
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Happy Holidays and welcome to Bob Clark’s Creepy Christmas Spooktacular, hosted by Nightmare on Film Street. Join your horror hosts Kimmi & Jon for a freakshow variety show like no other, jam-packed with musical numbers, cocktail tutorials, and uh- sad discussions about the horrors of the Vietnam war.
Sprinkled in there, we’re also talking about the subtle, haunting brilliance of Bob Clark’s Deathdream (aka Dead of Night)- the understated precursor to his classic Black Christmas (1974). Sure, it’s not *technically* a Christmas movie we’ve got some pretty strong arguments for why this maybe-vampire, possibly-zombie, definitely-trauma laden chiller might just be a secret holiday horror. Join usssss…
Support The Show:
Nightmare on Film Street is a labor of love – and Terror! Support us on Patreon at nofspodcast.com/fiendclub to unlock frightfully good rewards; like bonus episodes, watch parties, exclusive merch, producer credits, and much more!
Released:
December 14th,...
Sprinkled in there, we’re also talking about the subtle, haunting brilliance of Bob Clark’s Deathdream (aka Dead of Night)- the understated precursor to his classic Black Christmas (1974). Sure, it’s not *technically* a Christmas movie we’ve got some pretty strong arguments for why this maybe-vampire, possibly-zombie, definitely-trauma laden chiller might just be a secret holiday horror. Join usssss…
Support The Show:
Nightmare on Film Street is a labor of love – and Terror! Support us on Patreon at nofspodcast.com/fiendclub to unlock frightfully good rewards; like bonus episodes, watch parties, exclusive merch, producer credits, and much more!
Released:
December 14th,...
- 12/14/2023
- by Nightmare on Film Street
There are Christmas movies and then there are Christmas movies -- as in, the ones you can't escape knowing about even if you tried, like "Home Alone," "It's a Wonderful Life," "Miracle on 34th Street," and, of course, "A Christmas Story." You may not love them all equally; in fact, you might actually outright hate some of them! And yet, there are moments and quotes from these films that will remain burned into your brain until the day you die. It's also inevitable that you'll end up having to revisit them during the annual winter holidays, whether it's because you legitimately love them or because you've finally given up trying to convince everyone to agree on something new to watch during one of your family gatherings and just thrown on "Elf" for the umpteenth time instead.
With "A Christmas Story" turning 40 in 2023, 'tis the season more than ever to revisit...
With "A Christmas Story" turning 40 in 2023, 'tis the season more than ever to revisit...
- 12/13/2023
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
The episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw covering Better Watch Out was Written and Edited by Paul Bookstaber, Narrated by Kier Gomes, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Christmas movies usually bring that holiday cheer that makes us feel warm and comforting starting at the tail end of November all the way up to the 25th of December. Sitting on a couch, drinking some nice hot coco, next to your lit-up Christmas tree is a moment many of us look forward to yearly. Now let’s talk Christmas films that are etched in holiday cinema history. Sure, we have our Home Alone(s), our Grinch Stole Christmas, our Die Hard(s), even that looney, turbo-time, toy chaser, Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sure, they’re all Christmas Staples, but what about mixing it up and popping in a psychological Christmas film of yule-tide terror?...
Christmas movies usually bring that holiday cheer that makes us feel warm and comforting starting at the tail end of November all the way up to the 25th of December. Sitting on a couch, drinking some nice hot coco, next to your lit-up Christmas tree is a moment many of us look forward to yearly. Now let’s talk Christmas films that are etched in holiday cinema history. Sure, we have our Home Alone(s), our Grinch Stole Christmas, our Die Hard(s), even that looney, turbo-time, toy chaser, Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sure, they’re all Christmas Staples, but what about mixing it up and popping in a psychological Christmas film of yule-tide terror?...
- 12/6/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Shudder is nothing if not a goldmine of content, with basically something to watch for everyone, and today we are making a list of the best 7 new movies on Shudder in December 2023 that you can watch right now. The movies included in this list are Shudder’s exclusives and resurrected. The titles are ranked according to their availability dates.
It’s A Wonderful Knife (December 1)
Synopsis: A year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers’ life is less than wonderful — but when she wishes she’d never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and get back to her own reality. It’S A Wonderful Life by way of Scream.
Black Christmas...
It’s A Wonderful Knife (December 1)
Synopsis: A year after saving her town from a psychotic killer on Christmas Eve, Winnie Carruthers’ life is less than wonderful — but when she wishes she’d never been born, she finds herself in a nightmare parallel universe and discovers that without her, things could be much, much worse. Now the killer is back, and she must team up with the town misfit to identify the killer and get back to her own reality. It’S A Wonderful Life by way of Scream.
Black Christmas...
- 12/2/2023
- by Kulwant Singh
- Cinema Blind
Clockwork from bottom left: Gremlins (Screenshot: Warners Bros.), Silent Night (Screenshot: Lionsgate), Krampus (Screenshot: Universal Pictures), Bad Santa (Screenshot: Columbia Pictures), A Bad Moms Christmas (Screenshot: STX Entertainment)Graphic: The A.V. Club
It’s Christmas time again, which means more marathons of the same old sappy, feel-good movies. But what...
It’s Christmas time again, which means more marathons of the same old sappy, feel-good movies. But what...
- 12/2/2023
- by Gil Macias, Brian Collins, Robert DeSalvo, Bryan Reesman, Richard Newby, Matthew Jackson, Mark Keizer, and Jen Lennon
- avclub.com
Rockin’ around the Christmas tree at the Christmas movie stop! That’s right: You’ve reached the North Pole of movie recommendations, where our toymakers (read: film critics) have been hard at work sifting through titles all year long.
It’s easy to think of holiday movies as the one area of cinema audiences have permission to practically forget about the rest of the year. With a limited window between Thanksgiving and Christmas, most film lovers can only make time for a handful of seasonally appropriate screenings before New Year’s snaps our attention back to awards season and the big Best Picture contenders. Plus, with new yuletide offerings hitting theaters and streaming platforms in a steady flurry throughout December, there’s only so much time to enjoy Christmas classics while staying current on new holiday fare.
Selection is made even more complex when you get into the Christmas genre’s inexplicable tendency toward gatekeeping.
It’s easy to think of holiday movies as the one area of cinema audiences have permission to practically forget about the rest of the year. With a limited window between Thanksgiving and Christmas, most film lovers can only make time for a handful of seasonally appropriate screenings before New Year’s snaps our attention back to awards season and the big Best Picture contenders. Plus, with new yuletide offerings hitting theaters and streaming platforms in a steady flurry throughout December, there’s only so much time to enjoy Christmas classics while staying current on new holiday fare.
Selection is made even more complex when you get into the Christmas genre’s inexplicable tendency toward gatekeeping.
- 11/24/2023
- by Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
Thanksgiving came early this year for Eli Roth after his new holiday slasher film, Thanksgiving, arrived in cinemas to some of the best reviews of the filmmaker’s career. Well-regarded for groundbreaking 2000s horror films like Cabin Fever (2002) and Hostel (2005), Roth has been trying to make Thanksgiving for nearly as long. Originally conceived as a “joke” trailer to be inserted between Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double feature in 2007, Thanksgiving has been an idea that never left Roth or his childhood friend Jeff Rendell, the latter of whom co-wrote both the Grindhouse trailer and the actual 2023 slasher that is making a bloody splash today.
When we spoke to Roth about Thanksgiving, we chatted about his and Rendell’s affection for the curious subgenre of holiday-themed slasher movies released in the 1970s and ‘80s, as well as how the director finally figured out the best way to spread the...
When we spoke to Roth about Thanksgiving, we chatted about his and Rendell’s affection for the curious subgenre of holiday-themed slasher movies released in the 1970s and ‘80s, as well as how the director finally figured out the best way to spread the...
- 11/21/2023
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
From yellow-eyed bully to blue-clad police officer, Scut Farkus made one miraculous turnaround since we were first introduced to him in 1983’s A Christmas Story. Now, the actor who portrayed him, Zack Ward, is spreading Christmas (Story) cheer by commemorating the film’s 40th anniversary.
Taking to X over the weekend, Zack Ward noted the special anniversary and how wild the size of the legacy the movie developed over the years is. “40 years ago today “A Christmas Story” was released and honestly, nobody cared. Now, it is in the Library Of Congress as one of the top 100 most Important films of American Cinematic History from the 20th Century and in the Smithsonian as a national treasure. Wow.” Don’t forget the annual 24-hour marathons, either, Farkus!
40 years ago today "A Christmas Story" was released and honestly, nobody cared.
Now, it is in the Library Of Congress as one of the...
Taking to X over the weekend, Zack Ward noted the special anniversary and how wild the size of the legacy the movie developed over the years is. “40 years ago today “A Christmas Story” was released and honestly, nobody cared. Now, it is in the Library Of Congress as one of the top 100 most Important films of American Cinematic History from the 20th Century and in the Smithsonian as a national treasure. Wow.” Don’t forget the annual 24-hour marathons, either, Farkus!
40 years ago today "A Christmas Story" was released and honestly, nobody cared.
Now, it is in the Library Of Congress as one of the...
- 11/20/2023
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
October is usually thought of as the prime time for horror, but the best horror movie of 2023 — for that matter, the most deliriously entertaining horror movie since Wes Craven‘s original “Scream” — arrives not for Halloween but for Thanksgiving. It’s a movie horror fans have been eagerly anticipating ever since director Eli Roth created a fake “Thanksgiving” trailer for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s “Grindhouse” in 2007, and the feature version that Roth and writer Jeff Rendell have extrapolated from that hilarious and gory short is well worth the wait. Their “Thanksgiving” is an ingeniously structured, elegantly composed thrill machine. It’s also a gleeful assault on good taste; it’s what you get when a 1970s or ’80s Canadian tax shelter thriller like “Prom Night” or “My Bloody Valentine” is directed by a true artist.
“Thanksgiving” riffs on dozens of slasher favorites from “Black Christmas” and John Carpenter...
“Thanksgiving” riffs on dozens of slasher favorites from “Black Christmas” and John Carpenter...
- 11/16/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Stars: Jackson White, Natalie Alyn Lind, Henry Thomas, David Duchovny, Jack Mulhern, Pam Grier | Written by Lindsey Anderson Beer, Jeff Buhler | Directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer
Pet Sematary has been sequelized, rebooted, and now with the arrival of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines it has a prequel. Adapting Stephen King’s works for the screen is a risky enough proposition, creating new stories based on them even more so as anyone whose seen a few Children of the Corn sequels or reboots can attest. King himself however seems to be happy with this film and tweeted:
“In the book, this is the story Jud Crandall tells Louis Creed to try and dissuade him from using the Pet Sematary,” wrote King. “The screenplay takes a few liberties, but it’s a fine story. David Duchovny is excellent. The secret, as always, is caring about the characters.”
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines opens in the summer...
Pet Sematary has been sequelized, rebooted, and now with the arrival of Pet Sematary: Bloodlines it has a prequel. Adapting Stephen King’s works for the screen is a risky enough proposition, creating new stories based on them even more so as anyone whose seen a few Children of the Corn sequels or reboots can attest. King himself however seems to be happy with this film and tweeted:
“In the book, this is the story Jud Crandall tells Louis Creed to try and dissuade him from using the Pet Sematary,” wrote King. “The screenplay takes a few liberties, but it’s a fine story. David Duchovny is excellent. The secret, as always, is caring about the characters.”
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines opens in the summer...
- 9/27/2023
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
The Tom Savini episode of the Wtf Happened to This Horror Celebrity? video series (formerly known as Where in the Horror Are They Now) was Written and Narrated by Jessica Dwyer and Edited by Juan Jimenez. It was Produced by John Fallon and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
Gore. The gore the merrier or so it seemed during the 70s and 80s. And throughout many a decade gorehounds love all the red splatter a screen can handle. And one of the best to give the gore all the more is Tom Savini. A master of splatter, an icon of special effects, and a director and actor too, Savini has been the inspiration for more filmmakers and effects artists than I can count and continues to do so. He’s also never stopped making monsters and mayhem either. Tom Savini is one of modern horrors legends and I think it’s...
Gore. The gore the merrier or so it seemed during the 70s and 80s. And throughout many a decade gorehounds love all the red splatter a screen can handle. And one of the best to give the gore all the more is Tom Savini. A master of splatter, an icon of special effects, and a director and actor too, Savini has been the inspiration for more filmmakers and effects artists than I can count and continues to do so. He’s also never stopped making monsters and mayhem either. Tom Savini is one of modern horrors legends and I think it’s...
- 8/18/2023
- by Jessica Dwyer
- JoBlo.com
RRRRing, rrring!
Ah, the sound of an innocent phone call… until it becomes the harbinger of unspeakable terror. Horror films have a way of turning the mundane into the macabre, and one particularly bone-chilling element they've mastered is the art of horror movie phone calls. In this hair-raising piece, we'll dial back through time and explore how iconic films like Scream, When a Stranger Calls, and Black Christmas have transformed this everyday device into a terrifying plot device.
So, turn your cell on airplane mode — and let's dive into the chilling world of horror movie phone calls!
Warner Bros.
The Christmas Caroler
In the golden age of horror, the telephone was merely a tool for communication. But then came Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), a pioneering slasher film that dialed up the fear factor. As the mysterious killer tormented the sorority house with menacing phone calls, the mundane act of...
Ah, the sound of an innocent phone call… until it becomes the harbinger of unspeakable terror. Horror films have a way of turning the mundane into the macabre, and one particularly bone-chilling element they've mastered is the art of horror movie phone calls. In this hair-raising piece, we'll dial back through time and explore how iconic films like Scream, When a Stranger Calls, and Black Christmas have transformed this everyday device into a terrifying plot device.
So, turn your cell on airplane mode — and let's dive into the chilling world of horror movie phone calls!
Warner Bros.
The Christmas Caroler
In the golden age of horror, the telephone was merely a tool for communication. But then came Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), a pioneering slasher film that dialed up the fear factor. As the mysterious killer tormented the sorority house with menacing phone calls, the mundane act of...
- 6/15/2023
- by Kimberley Elizabeth
RRRRing, rrring!
Ah, the sound of an innocent phone call… until it becomes the harbinger of unspeakable terror. Horror films have a way of turning the mundane into the macabre, and one particularly bone-chilling element they've mastered is the art of horror movie phone calls. In this hair-raising piece, we'll dial back through time and explore how iconic films like Scream, When a Stranger Calls, and Black Christmas have transformed this everyday device into a terrifying plot device.
So, turn your cell on airplane mode — and let's dive into the chilling world of horror movie phone calls!
Warner Bros.
The Christmas Caroler
In the golden age of horror, the telephone was merely a tool for communication. But then came Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), a pioneering slasher film that dialed up the fear factor. As the mysterious killer tormented the sorority house with menacing phone calls, the mundane act of...
Ah, the sound of an innocent phone call… until it becomes the harbinger of unspeakable terror. Horror films have a way of turning the mundane into the macabre, and one particularly bone-chilling element they've mastered is the art of horror movie phone calls. In this hair-raising piece, we'll dial back through time and explore how iconic films like Scream, When a Stranger Calls, and Black Christmas have transformed this everyday device into a terrifying plot device.
So, turn your cell on airplane mode — and let's dive into the chilling world of horror movie phone calls!
Warner Bros.
The Christmas Caroler
In the golden age of horror, the telephone was merely a tool for communication. But then came Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), a pioneering slasher film that dialed up the fear factor. As the mysterious killer tormented the sorority house with menacing phone calls, the mundane act of...
- 6/15/2023
- by Kimberley Elizabeth
We took Gene Hackman for granted, and he's making us pay for it.
Between 1964 and 2004, there wasn't a more reliably excellent film actor in the industry. He'd knock out two or three (or more!) movies a year, and even when they were dire propositions — like the Kryptonite-ridden "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" or Bob Clark's laugh-free buddy-cop comedy "Loose Cannons" — you knew Hackman would be present and compelling. He also never went too long between watchable films, so the charge that he was phoning it in (which was also leveled at his prolific contemporary Michael Caine) never made sense.
Hackman was — and, oh, how I hate to refer to this still-very-alive master's career in the past tense — a true working actor. He was grateful for the gigs and took them eagerly. He knew what it was to not only struggle but to be told there is no future...
Between 1964 and 2004, there wasn't a more reliably excellent film actor in the industry. He'd knock out two or three (or more!) movies a year, and even when they were dire propositions — like the Kryptonite-ridden "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" or Bob Clark's laugh-free buddy-cop comedy "Loose Cannons" — you knew Hackman would be present and compelling. He also never went too long between watchable films, so the charge that he was phoning it in (which was also leveled at his prolific contemporary Michael Caine) never made sense.
Hackman was — and, oh, how I hate to refer to this still-very-alive master's career in the past tense — a true working actor. He was grateful for the gigs and took them eagerly. He knew what it was to not only struggle but to be told there is no future...
- 4/14/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
101 Films presents the Bob Clark: Horror Collection, featuring the director’s highly influential horrors of the early 1970s, brought together for the first time. Though he would achieve wider success in the 1980s with hit comedies such as Porky’s (1981) and A Christmas Story (1983), Clark’s run of three horror movies a decade earlier — low budget horror-comedy Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972), chilling Vietnam War critique Deathdream (Aka Dead of Night) (1974) and genre-defining slasher masterpiece Black Christmas (1974) — ensure his legacy as a master of the horror genre.
Title 029 on the 101 Films Black Label, this limited-edition set also features new Bob Clark documentary ‘Dreaming of Death’, stunning newly commissioned artwork for all three titles with reversible sleeves, a booklet with new writing on Clark’s career, a set of art cards, and extensive additional content.
Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things
Led by a mean-spirited director, a theatre...
Title 029 on the 101 Films Black Label, this limited-edition set also features new Bob Clark documentary ‘Dreaming of Death’, stunning newly commissioned artwork for all three titles with reversible sleeves, a booklet with new writing on Clark’s career, a set of art cards, and extensive additional content.
Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things
Led by a mean-spirited director, a theatre...
- 3/3/2023
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Melinda Dillon of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "A Christmas Story" fame passed away early last month at the age of 83. Her family made the announcement that she passed on January 9, 2023.
Dillon had a wonderful and eclectic career on the stage and screen and worked with some of the best directors of her era, including Hal Ashby, Steven Spielberg, Bob Clark, George Roy Hill, Sydney Pollack, and more recently Paul Thomas Anderson and Mike Binder. She originated the role of Honey in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in 1963, a performance that would earn her a Tony nomination before she took a break from performing citing mental health reasons.
In a 1976 interview with The New York Times, Dillon candidly discussed the pressure of the constant schedule of New York theater and the birth of her son after a series of miscarriages that lead to her seeking treatment at a mental health facility,...
Dillon had a wonderful and eclectic career on the stage and screen and worked with some of the best directors of her era, including Hal Ashby, Steven Spielberg, Bob Clark, George Roy Hill, Sydney Pollack, and more recently Paul Thomas Anderson and Mike Binder. She originated the role of Honey in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in 1963, a performance that would earn her a Tony nomination before she took a break from performing citing mental health reasons.
In a 1976 interview with The New York Times, Dillon candidly discussed the pressure of the constant schedule of New York theater and the birth of her son after a series of miscarriages that lead to her seeking treatment at a mental health facility,...
- 2/4/2023
- by Eric Vespe
- Slash Film
Sad news today as it’s been reported that Melinda Dillon, best known for her roles in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and A Christmas Story, has died at the age of 83.
Melinda Dillon played Jillian Guiler in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a mother whose child is abducted by aliens. She was cast in the role just three days before filming began on the recommendation of Hal Ashby, who had directed her in Bound for Glory. Dillon’s performance would earn her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also played Ralphie’s mother in Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story, memorably telling him that he would shoot his eye out if he got a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle. She received another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Sydney Pollack’s Absence of Malice.
Melinda Dillon played Jillian Guiler in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a mother whose child is abducted by aliens. She was cast in the role just three days before filming began on the recommendation of Hal Ashby, who had directed her in Bound for Glory. Dillon’s performance would earn her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also played Ralphie’s mother in Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story, memorably telling him that he would shoot his eye out if he got a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle. She received another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Sydney Pollack’s Absence of Malice.
- 2/3/2023
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
Oscar and Tony-nominated actor Melinda Dillon, who played Mother Parker in “A Christmas Story,” and appeared in “Magnolia” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” died Jan. 9. She was 83.
Her death was reported by the Neptune Society.
Dillon is celebrated for her role as Jillian Guiler in Steven Speilberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977), for which she earned an Oscar nomination for supporting actress. She received a second supporting actress nomination in 1982 for her role as Teresa in Sydney Pollack’s “Absence of Malice” (1981). In 1977, she received a Golden Globe nomination for acting debut in a motion picture for Hal Ashby’s “Bound for Glory” (1976).
In a statement, Spielberg praised Dillon, saying, “Melinda was generous of spirit and lent such kindness to the character she played in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’… We will all miss her.”
Dillon also played the matriarch of the Parker family in...
Her death was reported by the Neptune Society.
Dillon is celebrated for her role as Jillian Guiler in Steven Speilberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977), for which she earned an Oscar nomination for supporting actress. She received a second supporting actress nomination in 1982 for her role as Teresa in Sydney Pollack’s “Absence of Malice” (1981). In 1977, she received a Golden Globe nomination for acting debut in a motion picture for Hal Ashby’s “Bound for Glory” (1976).
In a statement, Spielberg praised Dillon, saying, “Melinda was generous of spirit and lent such kindness to the character she played in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’… We will all miss her.”
Dillon also played the matriarch of the Parker family in...
- 2/3/2023
- by Julia MacCary
- Variety Film + TV
We’ve learned the sad news today that two-time Oscar nominee Melinda Dillon, known for playing “Mother Parker” in Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story, has passed away at the age of 83.
The actress passed away on Monday, January 9, the family announced today.
Melinda Dillon was nominated for Academy Awards in 1978 and in 1982, first for Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, playing the role of Jillian Guiler, a mother whose child is abducted by aliens. Jillian ends up joining Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) on his adventure.
Later in 1982, Dillon was nominated in the same category – Best Actress in a Supporting Role – for her performance as Teresa in Sydney Pollack’s film Absence of Malice.
Melinda Dillon is also known for her decades-spanning roles in Bound for Glory, Slap Shot, Harry and the Hendersons, Captain America (1990), Magnolia, and Reign Over Me.
Dillon’s film credits also include The April Fools,...
The actress passed away on Monday, January 9, the family announced today.
Melinda Dillon was nominated for Academy Awards in 1978 and in 1982, first for Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, playing the role of Jillian Guiler, a mother whose child is abducted by aliens. Jillian ends up joining Roy (Richard Dreyfuss) on his adventure.
Later in 1982, Dillon was nominated in the same category – Best Actress in a Supporting Role – for her performance as Teresa in Sydney Pollack’s film Absence of Malice.
Melinda Dillon is also known for her decades-spanning roles in Bound for Glory, Slap Shot, Harry and the Hendersons, Captain America (1990), Magnolia, and Reign Over Me.
Dillon’s film credits also include The April Fools,...
- 2/3/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Melinda Dillon, who received supporting Oscar nominations for her turns in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice and portrayed the doting mom in the holiday perennial A Christmas Story, died Jan. 9, her family announced. She was 83.
Right out of the gate, Dillon earned a Tony nomination and Theatre World award in 1963 for her debut performance on Broadway as the childlike wife Honey in the original production of Edward Albee‘s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Later, the Arkansas native played two characters opposite David Carradine — Woody Guthrie’s first wife, Mary, and a dark-haired folk singer named Memphis Sue — in the biopic Bound for Glory (1976), directed by Hal Ashby; was a lesbian hockey wife in George Roy Hill’s Slap Shot (1977); and portrayed John Lithgow’s wife in the family film Harry and the Hendersons (1987).
Her big-screen résumé also included Norman Jewison’s F.I.S.T. (1978), as...
Right out of the gate, Dillon earned a Tony nomination and Theatre World award in 1963 for her debut performance on Broadway as the childlike wife Honey in the original production of Edward Albee‘s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Later, the Arkansas native played two characters opposite David Carradine — Woody Guthrie’s first wife, Mary, and a dark-haired folk singer named Memphis Sue — in the biopic Bound for Glory (1976), directed by Hal Ashby; was a lesbian hockey wife in George Roy Hill’s Slap Shot (1977); and portrayed John Lithgow’s wife in the family film Harry and the Hendersons (1987).
Her big-screen résumé also included Norman Jewison’s F.I.S.T. (1978), as...
- 2/3/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Superman: The Movie" had the star power of Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando front and center, but once audiences saw that a man could fly, they fell in love with the fresh faces of newcomers like Christopher Reeve. He was (and still is) the perfect embodiment of the Man of Steel. Few have been able to capture the kind spirit that Reeves brought to the BAFTA Award-winning role. For as great as he was, however, it would be difficult to imagine this movie without the scene partner of a lifetime in Margot Kidder as Lois Lane.
Kidder had already been around the block prior to "Superman," having made waves in Brian De Palma's "Sisters" and Bob Clark's "Black Christmas." Actors like Anne Archer ("Fatal Attraction"), Lesley Ann Warren ("Clue"), and Stockard Channing ("Grease") all went in for screen tests, but Kidder's proved to be the best. It was clear,...
Kidder had already been around the block prior to "Superman," having made waves in Brian De Palma's "Sisters" and Bob Clark's "Black Christmas." Actors like Anne Archer ("Fatal Attraction"), Lesley Ann Warren ("Clue"), and Stockard Channing ("Grease") all went in for screen tests, but Kidder's proved to be the best. It was clear,...
- 1/10/2023
- by Matthew Bilodeau
- Slash Film
Holiday favorite “A Christmas Story” is the tale of a typical boy Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) as he deals with the typical struggles kids face during the Christmas season. One of the many thorns in his side during the film is his issues with bullies Scut and Grover Dill, played by Zack Ward and Yano Anaya, who harass him throughout the movie. In order to create real tension between the two and the other child actors, they were kept separate from the rest of the cast, as Ward revealed in a recent interview with Insider.
“Most of the time Yano and I were not hanging out with the other kids. They had different shooting schedules than we did,” Ward said. “[Director Bob Clark] told our parents, ‘I just want Yano and Zack to hang out and be friends, and if possible, without being rude to the other kids, don’t really...
“Most of the time Yano and I were not hanging out with the other kids. They had different shooting schedules than we did,” Ward said. “[Director Bob Clark] told our parents, ‘I just want Yano and Zack to hang out and be friends, and if possible, without being rude to the other kids, don’t really...
- 12/28/2022
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
The Christmas season is advertised as a time for "peace on earth" and "goodwill toward men," but for a lot of us, the holidays are little more than a headache and a half. It's hard not to feel like such a Grinch this time of year when everyone else seems to be filled with joy, but fortunately, there are movies to help us anti-sentimentality Scrooges feel a little less alone. We've talked before on /Film about some of the best alternative Christmas movies (that aren't "Die Hard"), but we've never broken down why these films are so important. I might be acting overdramatic by calling these films "non-sentimental," as there's plenty of sentiment to be found in any story (as long as you know where to look), but I think we can all agree that the sentiment of something like Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" is in stark contrast to Bob Clark's "Black Christmas.
- 12/22/2022
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
People like horror movies for a variety of reasons. Many people like to be scared, but what that means varies from person to person. Some people are frightened when horror movies make them jump in their seats. Others prefer a feeling of dread and suspense. There are horror fans who love gore, but there are others who think buckets of blood are cheap, and they prefer atmospheric horror films instead.
People dislike horror movies for many reasons, too. Horror is full of remakes and sequels, and audiences may approach a film from the perspective that sequels and remakes are inherently less worthwhile than original stories. Some people think that a remake or a sequel needs to be as good or better than the original to be worth watching. That's certainly a valid way to approach moviegoing, though it's one that often leads to disappointment.
That's not how I like to approach it,...
People dislike horror movies for many reasons, too. Horror is full of remakes and sequels, and audiences may approach a film from the perspective that sequels and remakes are inherently less worthwhile than original stories. Some people think that a remake or a sequel needs to be as good or better than the original to be worth watching. That's certainly a valid way to approach moviegoing, though it's one that often leads to disappointment.
That's not how I like to approach it,...
- 12/22/2022
- by Eric Langberg
- Slash Film
Click here to read the full article.
Everyone loves the Hollywood holiday classics — from It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story to Home Alone and Die Hard (yes, it is a classic, too – don’t get us started).
But after the 100th rerun, one’s holiday spirit can start to sag, and nostalgia for those festive evergreens can turn toxic.
So The Hollywood Reporter‘s international team has come up with this alternative list of holiday favorites from outside the U.S.
Our eclectic dirty dozen, including a French murder mystery, a Canadian horror classic and an anime retelling of the Christmas story, are the perfect counterprogramming for anyone looking for new ideas this festive season.
Merry Christmas
2005
‘Merry Christmas’
Christian Carion’s World War I drama, about the real-life Christmas truce that broke out on the Western Front in 1914 — amid the horrors of the war, a true holiday miracle — features Diane Kruger,...
Everyone loves the Hollywood holiday classics — from It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story to Home Alone and Die Hard (yes, it is a classic, too – don’t get us started).
But after the 100th rerun, one’s holiday spirit can start to sag, and nostalgia for those festive evergreens can turn toxic.
So The Hollywood Reporter‘s international team has come up with this alternative list of holiday favorites from outside the U.S.
Our eclectic dirty dozen, including a French murder mystery, a Canadian horror classic and an anime retelling of the Christmas story, are the perfect counterprogramming for anyone looking for new ideas this festive season.
Merry Christmas
2005
‘Merry Christmas’
Christian Carion’s World War I drama, about the real-life Christmas truce that broke out on the Western Front in 1914 — amid the horrors of the war, a true holiday miracle — features Diane Kruger,...
- 12/22/2022
- by Scott Roxborough, Alex Ritman and Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There are several Christmas horror movies to turn to throughout the month of December – in fact, you can see a list of 12 of them at This Link. One of the most popular Christmas horror movies among genre fans is the 1974 classic Black Christmas (watch it Here) – and that happens to be the movie we’re covering in the latest episode of the Real Slashers video series! To find out all about Black Christmas, take a look at the video embedded above.
Directed by Bob Clark, the same filmmaker who brought us the family friendly classic A Christmas Story, from a screenplay by A. Roy Moore, Black Christmas has the following synopsis: As winter break begins, a group of sorority sisters, including Jess and the often inebriated Barb, begin to receive anonymous, lascivious phone calls. Initially, Barb eggs the caller on, but stops when he responds threateningly. Soon, Barb’s friend...
Directed by Bob Clark, the same filmmaker who brought us the family friendly classic A Christmas Story, from a screenplay by A. Roy Moore, Black Christmas has the following synopsis: As winter break begins, a group of sorority sisters, including Jess and the often inebriated Barb, begin to receive anonymous, lascivious phone calls. Initially, Barb eggs the caller on, but stops when he responds threateningly. Soon, Barb’s friend...
- 12/22/2022
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Last week, we looked at Wtf Happened to the cast of A Christmas Story in a special yuletide edition of Wtf Happened to this Celebrity. This week, we’re digging back into Bob Clark’s 1983 classic, A Christmas Story, and looking into how the film itself got made in the first place. While many consider it one of the definitive holiday movies now, in 1983, it was a pretty modest film that came from a director best known for exploitation films, Bob Clark.
Indeed, the Canadian Bob Clark had already made one Christmas classic, 1974’s Black Christmas, which is widely regarded as the first classic-style slasher film, within having also made the most popular Canadian film of all time, 1981’s Porky’s. Yet, neither of those hard-r films would have you think Clark could make a gentle, PG-rated Christmas movie that would stand the test of time. Suffice it to say, he pulled it off,...
Indeed, the Canadian Bob Clark had already made one Christmas classic, 1974’s Black Christmas, which is widely regarded as the first classic-style slasher film, within having also made the most popular Canadian film of all time, 1981’s Porky’s. Yet, neither of those hard-r films would have you think Clark could make a gentle, PG-rated Christmas movie that would stand the test of time. Suffice it to say, he pulled it off,...
- 12/21/2022
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
In pursuit of the rare novelization of Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, Thomas Altman’s book of the same name is bound to come up sooner or later. Some might even purchase the 1983 novel, thinking it and Lee Hays’ adaptation of the 1974 screenplay are one and the same. Sadly, at least for fans of Clark’s movie, these books bear no connection other than their shared title.
Before tossing out or selling that copy of Altman’s Black Christmas, however, maybe reconsider. This vintage curio not only has its own merits, it’s also a guaranteed source of gruesome horror set around the holidays.
Set in upstate New York in a thinly populated town called Murdock, Black Christmas starts on December 23. A local teenager named Jennifer Powers is walking through Kelly’s Wood, on her way to meet with her high-school sweetheart Rick Lerner, when she’s brutally slaughtered by...
Before tossing out or selling that copy of Altman’s Black Christmas, however, maybe reconsider. This vintage curio not only has its own merits, it’s also a guaranteed source of gruesome horror set around the holidays.
Set in upstate New York in a thinly populated town called Murdock, Black Christmas starts on December 23. A local teenager named Jennifer Powers is walking through Kelly’s Wood, on her way to meet with her high-school sweetheart Rick Lerner, when she’s brutally slaughtered by...
- 12/21/2022
- by Paul Lê
- bloody-disgusting.com
Black Christmas is an inherently feminist franchise. Released in 1974, Bob Clark’s original film follows a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and dispatched by a mysterious killer over the holiday break between semesters. During a busy Christmas party in the full sorority house, the girls receive a call from someone they refer to as the Moaner. They gather around the receiver and listen to a tirade of obscene gibberish that culminates in the deadpan threat, “I’m going to kill you.” True to his promise, the caller who will come to be known as Billy (Albert J. Dunk in an uncredited role) murders the sisters one by one while calling to harrass them from a phone line in their own attic. Clark’s film is a masterclass in atmospheric dread, perfectly blending the trimings of the holiday season with the terror of an unknown killer hiding in the shadows.
- 12/20/2022
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
“Up in the frat house shit went down, and I’m telling everyone in town…”
It’s Christmas Eve and the Halloweenies are hanging out at Hawthorne College, where they’ve just been asked to attend the annual talent show at the Delta Kappa Omicron fraternity. Something is amiss, though, and it appears there’s a strange black liquid oozing from the campus statues. Also, where did the sisters of Mu Kappa Epsilon go?
Find out by revisiting Sophia Takal‘s 2019 remake of Black Christmas. Starring Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Caleb Eberhardt, and Cary Elwes, the Blumhouse slasher takes an ambitious detour away from Bob Clark’s iconic slasher whodunnit that set the bar for holiday horror back in 1974.
Join co-hosts Mac Gerber, Justin Gerber, and Mike Vanderbilt as they unwrap their thoughts on Takal’s vision alongside special guest Jenn Adams of The Losers’ Club/Psychoanalysis.
It’s Christmas Eve and the Halloweenies are hanging out at Hawthorne College, where they’ve just been asked to attend the annual talent show at the Delta Kappa Omicron fraternity. Something is amiss, though, and it appears there’s a strange black liquid oozing from the campus statues. Also, where did the sisters of Mu Kappa Epsilon go?
Find out by revisiting Sophia Takal‘s 2019 remake of Black Christmas. Starring Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Caleb Eberhardt, and Cary Elwes, the Blumhouse slasher takes an ambitious detour away from Bob Clark’s iconic slasher whodunnit that set the bar for holiday horror back in 1974.
Join co-hosts Mac Gerber, Justin Gerber, and Mike Vanderbilt as they unwrap their thoughts on Takal’s vision alongside special guest Jenn Adams of The Losers’ Club/Psychoanalysis.
- 12/19/2022
- by Michael Roffman
- bloody-disgusting.com
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