Pan’s Labyrinth
With modern-day growing fascism and the overreach of military powers, Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 horror-fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth feels especially prescient today.
The Descent
Outside of the occasional action blockbuster or turgid documentary about the history of women’s sports, there are few spaces for female athletes in film. For every Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, there are 500 other films where lithe actresses stick to running in heels and/or catsuits; sometimes they get to shoot a gun instead of just holding the male lead’s hand while doing some cardio.
Revenge of the Creature
There are three prevailing mindsets behind horror-movie sequels. The most typical goes something like, “We can squeeze out some more bucks here and don’t need to put a lot of thought into anything.”
Blackout
The premise, like the ambient air of fatalism, owes as much to film noir as it does horror. A man wakes in a place he can’t remember arriving at, his body bearing the ravages of some misadventure, his memories a dense fog yielding no clues save a lingering sense of grave culpability.