Trans Girl Suicide Apartment
Roman Polanski’s The Tenant as a phantom trans text
James Stewart in Vertigo
In the inaugural entry of a new column singling out enduringly creepy film characterizations, an American sweetheart cast against type emerges as one of cinema’s most unexpectedly chilling villains.
Better Than One
Were you to remark that the 1940s represented a peak in American pop-cultural horror, most people would automatically think you were talking about movies.
Overlooked Genre Films of 2023
The first edition of a reanimated column rounds up the best in this year’s horror, sci-fi, thrillers, and bloody action.
No Michael Myers Necessary
The way horror film series typically work is that the first entry is notable, for whatever reason—it’s a great movie, it’s popular, it infiltrates the news cycle/culture—and then subsequent entries get worse and worse and worse, until there are no more.
Gold Metal
The directorial debut of veteran character actor Charles Martin Smith, Trick or Treat (1986), tells a story grounded in rites, rituals, and rock.
Devil May Care
David Gordon Green continues his assault on beloved horror franchises with a new Exorcist that only heightens the glory of Friedkin’s original.
The Bad Adoptee
The ultimate evil-kid figure presides over the first two of hopefully many Orphan films.
The Dark Joys of Abandoning Reason
Quentin Dupieux’s singular brand of outlandish humor reaches gory new heights with Smoking Causes Coughing.
Discomfort Zone
The Harbinger, the latest of Andy Mitton’s exquisitely heady—and horrifying—otherworldly explorations, is the only quarantine film we need.