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The notion that sex and violence are primarily what sells has been a long-standing axiom in numerous industries, but particularly in entertainment. Human beings are inexorably drawn to the darker side of life and wish to have experiences that safely allow them to indulge in these concepts and feelings. Yet censorship has always existed in the arts for a variety of reasons, which are too complex and culturally varied to go into here. Suffice it to say that artists have always found clever ways of subverting and getting around such restrictions. This is why, when watching a film that was made in America during the Hays Production Code, you can often find moments and themes that are incredibly clever in how they handle risqué elements, the better to fool the censors but not the audience.

Eventually, of course, the Hays Code fell apart, ushering in the era of the Motion...

Charles Bronson could not happen today. Born to Lithuanian immigrants in 1921, Brosnan began working in a Pennsylvania coal mine at the age of 12 to help maintain the family's income after the death of his father. It was a miserable existence. The Great Depression hit his family hard. Meals could be scarce and shelter seemed ever endangered. Despite these hardships, Bronson managed to graduate from high school and ultimately left Appalachia to serve as an aerial gunner in the U.S. Air Force during World War II.

After the war, Bronson moved to Hollywood and studied acting. At 5 '8," he was not an overpowering presence, but there was a coiled intensity to his early performances that must've been rooted in the tension of his hard-working childhood. Bronson felt determined, formidable -- and, in many of his early roles, shockingly vulnerable.

Bronson was not a method actor, but he took his craft very seriously.

Courtesy of StudioCanal

by James Cameron-wilson

Few films in the Swinging Sixties were as much a part of their time as John Schlesinger’s Darling. Chronologically positioned between Godard’s Breathless and Antonioni’s Blow Up, it is a microcosm of the tail end of an empire that was enjoying its last twitch of cultural significance. The Darling of the title is the extremely beautiful, self-absorbed and cosseted Diana Scott played by the It girl of the day, Julie Christie, the face of Ideal Woman magazine. And she would seem, indeed, to be the Ideal Woman, beloved of cads, intellectuals and royalty. The thumbnail premise is attributed to three men, the scenarist Frederic Raphael, the director John Schlesinger and the producer Joseph Janni, and it is Raphael who has provided the sparkling dialogue. Essentially it’s a satire of Britain in the mid-1960s, with Julie Christie the Carnaby Street...

"Death Wish" began its life in 1972 as a Brian Garfield novel. The story followed Paul Benjamin, a mild-mannered accountant living in a dangerous neighborhood in pre-Giuliani New York. He has spent his adult life being a civic volunteer and trying to mitigate crime in the city, feeling that society was merely out of whack. Paul does a philosophical 180, however, when criminals break into his apartment, steal his stuff, beat his wife to death, and leave his daughter in a vegetative state. He immediately becomes bitter, angry, and violent, evolving into a pro-police conservative so quickly it actually disturbs his conservative friends. Before long, Paul even takes to the streets with a gun in his pocket and starts committing lethal acts of vigilante justice.

The book ends with a cop catching Paul in the middle of a murder ... and then letting him go free. It's a polemic about humanity's natural tendencies...

It’s Jaws’ 50th birthday—half a century ago, Steven Spielberg’s legendary shark flick swam into theaters, terrified beachgoers, and basically invented the idea of “summer blockbuster”. Now, as Jaws turns the big 5-0, fans everywhere are celebrating this thrilling classic that almost made us stay away from the ocean forever.

But here’s the thing, while we all remember the iconic music and that massive mechanical shark—the real jaw-dropping deal was happening behind the scenes. So, in honor of this milestone, we’re diving deep into 15 outrageous stories behind Steven Spielberg’s greatest movie ever made.

1. Steven Spielberg wasn’t the first choice for Jaws

Before Steven Spielberg jumped into the deep end, Universal Studios eyed The Culpepper Cattle Co. director, Dick Richards, as the initial choice. But unfortunately, Richards was sacked when he kept getting confused between the shark and a whale, in studio meetings. So,...

Jaws is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, but while fans remember the iconic shark terrorizing Amity Island, few know that the making of this classic was a horror story of its own. Long before Jaws became a pop culture phenomenon and a torch bearer of Hollywood blockbusters, Steven Spielberg was a young director caught in a storm of production nightmares

Behind the scenes, Steven Spielberg was battling tight deadlines, a cranky mechanical shark, and total chaos on set. On top of that, he was just not satisfied with the script. So Spielberg told the screenwriter to “eviscerate it”. That’s how chaotic and anxiety-inducing things were getting on set. So, as we celebrate Jaws, let’s dive into the jaw-dropping story of how it was made.

Universal wanted Jaws fast-tracked and it nearly sank the whole production

It all started when Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws became an instant bestseller...

What exactly is a supernatural horror film? The defining word there, supernatural, refers to things and events beyond our scientific understanding, but that's far broader a definition than it might sound. Vampires and werewolves, zombies and witches, cursed objects and nightmares bleeding into the real world -- they're all beyond our grasp and therefore supernatural. Heck, all eight "Leprechaun" movies and all but the first two "Friday the 13th" films fit the bill, too.

Narrowing down the best supernatural horror films becomes a daunting task given that lens, so we're going to drill down a little deeper. For our purposes here, we're going to focus on a more generally accepted view of the supernatural, namely, things that are attributable to an ethereal source and mostly unseen. Think ghosts, demonic entities, vengeful spirits, and the like. Of course, even this slimmer definition leaves the door wide open with literally hundreds of worthy contenders,...

Though she became known to the world for playing the feisty rebel champion Princess Leia Organa in the "Star Wars" franchise, Carrie Fisher tended to take roles in comedies. Many of her best roles are in comedies, ranging from starring in a sex scene opposite Warren Beatty in "Shampoo" as a teen to playing a middle-aged nun who picks up some stoner hitchhikers in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," but in 1988, she starred in a deadly serious Agatha Christie mystery. "Appointment with Death" follows Christie's most famous detective, Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov), as he tries to solve the murder of the wealthy Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie) while on holiday in Europe with her family following the death of her husband and some concerns about his will. 

It might seem kind of unusual based on the rest of her amazing filmography, but Fisher starred as Nadine Boynton, the wife of...

All You Need To Know About Michael Winner’s Chilling Horror Movie! (Photo Credit –Prime Video)

The era of the 1970s simmered with an unshakable dread when it felt that hell wasn’t just a distant, abstract threat but more of a looming inevitability. With Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen, the cultural climate didn’t just breed fear. It inspired it, setting the stage for a relentless wave of films, books, and TV specials obsessed with the eternal clash between divine forces and infernal ones.

The Sentinel: A Different Kind Of Religious Horror

Amidst this wave of hellish storytelling, Michael Winner’s The Sentinel carved out its own uniquely disturbing place. The movie wasn’t a simple battle of light triumphing over darkness, nor a comforting tale of faith overcoming evil. Instead, it plunged into the murky waters of corruption and sinister forces lurking in holy places.

With...

This April, Legend is digging deep into the vault of genre-defining cinema with a line-up of channel premieres guaranteed to thrill, provoke and entertain. The network’s spring slate reads like a who’s who of cult filmmakers and action greats, with titles from John Carpenter, Paul Verhoeven, Michael Winner and Neil Marshall all making their Legend debut.

The chaos kicks off on 5th April with Carpenter’s Escape from New York – a dystopian thriller that still bristles with energy more than four decades on. Kurt Russell’s eye-patched anti-hero Snake Plissken remains one of the most iconic figures in genre cinema, and his high-stakes rescue mission across a walled-off Manhattan prison is the perfect way to launch the channel’s month-long celebration of cinematic mayhem.

The channel also brings Michael Winner’s controversial revenge classic Death Wish (18th April) into the spotlight, marking its first appearance on Legend. Charles Bronson...

The fear of hell was very, very real in the 1970s. After all, Rosemary’s Baby proved that Satanic witches could live right next door. The Exorcist traumatized a nation by showing how easily the devil can overtake an innocent child. The Omen made parents question whether or not they actually did raise the Antichrist. This atmosphere of hellscapes and abhorrent plans infected both society and culture, inspiring a wave of even more movies, books, and TV specials centered around the time-old battle of good versus evil, of us humans against the devil himself. One notable entry from this frenzy is Michael Winner's The Sentinel, a story that champions a guardian of the aforementioned battle. It’s not a heavenly, Christian superhero film though. Rather, it’s a lurid tale that combines the most striking elements of religious horror and ghost stories. It’s a singular exploration of beguiling demons,...

As strange as it is, moviegoers are fascinated by the assassin. Paid handsomely for their skills of stealth, marksmanship, martial arts, and general wanton violence, these contract killers have been the focus of some of the most thrilling and emotionally provocative films ever made.

Maybe it's because many of these hit-people share many viewers' relationship to their own work -- a disdain for the spiritually emptying but financially necessary professions that command much of their life. Maybe it's because a criminal mastermind of this nature -- so devoid of humanity that they reduce human lives to zeros in a bank account -- reveals more about the world around them than any other character type.

Or maybe it's because we just like watching people fight with guns and swords. In any case, we've put together our own hit-list of flicks featuring them, ranked based on their quality, legacy, and depiction of these captivating killers.

Marianne Faithfull, the iconic English singer and songwriter who first appeared in the mid-1960s, then returned after years of personal problems, including heroin addiction and homelessness, with her masterful 1979 album “Broken English,” died surrounded by her family at her London home on January 30. Though known mainly for her music, in the late 1960s she embarked on a career as a film actress (best known for “The Girl on a Motorcycle”) that was cut short by turmoil in her life. She was 78.

Best known initially for “As Tears Go By” in 1964 when she was only 17 (the song was co-written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) her father was a career military man and intelligence officer and Italian literature professor, her mother from Austrian-Hungarian nobility. She was initially discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones’ manager.

She quickly fell in with the Stones (eventually becoming Jagger’s lover and sometime...

Filmmaker / musician Chris Alexander is the former editor-in-chief of Fangoria magazine, the co-founder/editor of Delirium magazine, and he wrote the book Corman/Poe. Now, he’s teaming with Headpress Publishing to send his new book Art! Trash! Terror!: Adventures in Strange Cinema out into the world. The book has a release date of March 15th (you can pre-order copies on Amazon at This Link), but the launch event is set to take place at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, California and the Cinelounge Sunset theatre in Hollywood, California this weekend!

Art! Trash! Terror! has a page count of 460. The official description says it’s a treasure trove of in-depth essays and edifying interviews that celebrate some of the most eccentric and unforgettable movies in cult cinema history. From recognized classics to misunderstood masterpieces to unfairly maligned curios, the author takes an alternately serious and playful but always personal look...

The gritty action movie that started a franchise featuring genre icon Charles Bronson has gotten a new streaming home. Though it featured Bronson in the lead, the movie also notably featured the on-screen debut of actor Jeff Goldblum.

Originally released in 1974, Death Wish is now streaming on Paramount+. Directed by Michael Winner and written by Wendell Mayes, the film starred Bronson as Paul Kersey, a mild-mannered middle-aged family man living in Manhattan. When his wife and daughter are brutally attacked by thugs, resulting in the death of the former, Paul becomes frustrated with the police department's lack of justice. He takes matters into his own hands by taking to the streets as a vigilante, shooting criminals to death in the name of vengeance.

Related Demi Moore Shares New Health Update on Bruce Willis After Heartwarming Holiday Photo

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore remained close after their divorce in 2000 and Moore...

A fan-favorite Western film starring the iconic Burt Lancaster will arrive on Prime Video soon. 1971's Lawman will hit the streaming platform on December 1.

Directed by Michael Winner, Lawman follows Lancaster's Jared Maddox, a marshal from Bannock trailing five cowhands from Sabbath, who shoot up his town, leading to the death of an elderly citizen. Maddox demands Sabbath's Sheriff hand them over, threatening to murder them in cold blood if they fail to surrender to him in twenty-four hours. However, the culprits work for one of the town's wealthiest men, Victor Bronson, who attempts to pay off Maddox. The Bannock marshal cannot be bought, inevitably leading to an epic showdown only the best Westerns can deliver.

Related Patrick Swayze's Historic 40-Year-Old War Film Comes to Prime Video Next Month

Patrick Swayze's epic war film with Charlie Sheen and C. Thomas Howell will arrive on Prime Video next month.

Alongside Lancaster,...

Following a two-hour masterclass at the Cairo Film Festival, Gaspar Noé spoke with Variety about future genres he’d like to tackle: “The main film genres that really would interest me for a future project are documentary, war film, and horror. Probably I should even try to mix those three genres. I also would like to do a movie with young children, or a movie for children.”

The Argentinian director of “Irreversible” (2002) and “Vortex” (2021) had earlier answered questions from British-Iranian critic Mo Abdi, telling the audience of his sold out event: “Kids are like small adults. When we are kids we are in danger. You are exposed to everything. I’m very attached to kids in life, though I don’t have kids. The relationship you have with kids is direct and playful. I would like to do a movie with little kids. They relate to fragility, they relate to...

Few names were as associated with a particular genre as Robert Mitchum was with film noirs, having starred in some of the best noir movies ever made. From his heyday in the 1940s right through his acclaimed career, Mitchums intense characterization and skill for portraying menacing, morally dubious characters made him the perfect noir actor who could walk the fine line between villain and hero. As one of the few actors who could give Humphrey Bogart a run for his money when portraying Detective Philip Marlowe, Mitchums filmography was packed with noir classics.

Mitchum excelled in black-and-white noir roles and brought a sinister power to psychologically rich genre-blended noir releases. With a recognizable deep voice, piercing weary eyes, and an old-timey handsomeness that made him stand out among the biggest action stars of the 1950s, Mitchums career was filled with undisputed classics and first-rate Hollywood features. With the intense charisma...

Jason Statham's 2011 action thriller The Mechanic is a remake of a classic Charles Bronson film of the same name and is now one of the most popular movies on Netflix. The Mechanic remains one of Jason Statham's highest-rated movies of his celebrated career and one of Statham's most successful film franchises. The film follows Statham's Arthur Bishop, an elite hitman or "mechanic" who is the best in the business. After Bishop's mentor Harry (Donald Sutherland) is murdered, Bishop goes on a one-man-army mission to avenge his death and make those responsible pay. It's a classic premise for Statham and one of his most immersive movies.

As of October 1, 2024, The Mechanic is available to stream on Netflix. Directed by Simon West and written by Richard Wenk, The Mechanic also features performances by Ben Foster, Tony Goldwyn, and David Leitch. With a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 53%, The Mechanic is not...

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Apartment 7A is a psychological horror thriller film directed by Natalie Erika James who also co-wrote the film with Christian White and Skylar James. Based on the 1967 novel titled Rosemary’s Baby by author Ira Levin, the Paramount+ film serves as a prequel to the iconic 1968 film by Roman Polanski. Apartment 7A is set in 1965 in New York City and it follows the story of a young dancer who rents a room from an elderly couple after suffering from a serious injury that ends her career. Apartment 7A stars Julia Garner, Dianne West, Kevin McNally, Jim Sturgess, Marli Siu, Rosy McEwen, Amy Leeson, Scott Hume, and Andrew Buchan. So, if you loved the psychological horror, edge-of-the-seat thrills, and compelling characters in Apartment 7A here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Rosemary’s Baby Credit – Paramount Pictures

Rosemary’s Baby...

Netflix has lined up some strong additions coming to the streaming platform in October. Fans of Jason Statham movies will want to check out The Mechanic, the 2011 remake of a classic Charles Bronson film.

Per What's On Netflix, The Mechanic is set to start streaming on Netflix on Oct. 1. The movie, which boasts some excellent action sequences with Statham, was directed by Con Air helmer Simon West and written by the team of original Lewis John Carlino, who wrote the original film, and Richard Wenk. Joining Statham in the cast were Ben Foster, Tony Goldwyn, Jeff Chase, Christa Campbell, and Donald Sutherland.

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Related 15 Best Jason Statham Movies, Ranked

Jason Statham is a Hollywood action legend, and he has a plethora of films that demonstrate his action superiority.

In the 1972 movie, directed by Michael Winner, Charles Bronson played Arthur Bishop, an exceptionally skilled assassin working for a secret organization. Statham...

Above: Italian 4-foglio for Purple Noon. Artist uncredited.In April of this year, on the occasion of a retrospective tribute to French movie star Alain Delon at New York’s Film Forum, Anthony Lane wrote an article in the New Yorker titled “Can a Film Star Be Too Good-Looking?” In the article Lane talks of Delon’s limitations as an actor but says “if we watch him greedily, asking for more, it is for a reason so obvious, and so elemental, that stating it plainly seems almost indecent, but here goes. Alain Delon, in his prime, was the most beautiful man in the history of the movies.”Lane doesn’t really describe Delon’s beauty as much as he examines the concept of beauty with the help of Kant and Stendhal, but the one thing he does focus on is his eyes: those blue eyes that Delon demurred to cover...

Actors Kurt Russell and Charles Bronson are among the best-known names in the Western film genre, with quite a few important cowboy films beneath their belts. Still, did you know that they worked together? Once upon a time in the west, Bronson and Russell starred together on a 1963 television series called "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters," and a year later in the movie "Guns of Diablo," which served as a bigger, full-color version of the show's finale. Both are known mostly for introducing the world to Russell, who had done a few background spots on TV but hadn't gotten much attention until his starring role on "Jaimie McPheeters." However, it turns out that filming with Bronson had a surprising impact on the young actor.

In a 2015 interview with Vice, Russell shared a charming story about how he and Bronson exchanged gifts while working together and Bronson ended up sticking up...

Michael Winner’s violent 1974 thriller demonized inner-city living and rationalised bloody revenge, a film that still acts as a telling Republican text

We denizens of the present like to presume a higher degree of moral clarity over the past, but some things don’t require the benefit of hindsight to be correctly assessed. They had Michael Winner’s 1974 film Death Wish dead to rights the first time around, for instance, when a solid faction of critics cried foul at its shameless stoking of reactionary fears about inner-city living.

In one of his two broadsides against the low-budget thriller turned surprise blockbuster, the New York Times’ Vincent Canby branded it “a tackily made melodrama, but it so cannily orchestrates the audience’s responses that it can appeal to law‐and‐order fanatics, sadists, muggers, club women, fathers, older sisters, masochists, policemen, politicians, and, it seems, a number of film critics”. Some...

How now, what news: the Criterion Channel’s July lineup is here. Eight pop renditions of Shakespeare are on the docket: from movies you forgot were inspired by the Bard (Abel Ferrara’s China Girl) to ones you’d wish to forget altogether (Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing), with maybe my single favorite interpretation (Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet) alongside Paul Mazursky, Gus Van Sant, Baz Luhrmann, Derek Jarman, and (of course) Kenneth Branagh. A neonoir collection arrives four months ahead of Noirvember: two Ellroy adaptations, two from De Palma that are not his neonoir Ellroy adaptation, two from the Coen brothers (i.e. the chance to see a DVD-stranded The Man Who Wasn’t There in HD), and––finally––a Michael Winner picture given Criterion’s seal of approval.

Columbia screwballs run between classics to lesser-seens while Nicolas Roeg and Heisei-era Godzilla face off. A Times Square collection brings The Gods of Times Square,...

French crime films of the 1950s and ’60s often centered on professional criminals who followed codes of honor that put them on a more-or-less level moral playing field with the detectives tracking them down. Whether it was Jean Gabin’s aging gangster Max in Jacques Becker’s Touchez Pas au Grisbi or Alain Delon’s steely eyed assassin Jef in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samouraï, these men had a sophistication and moral grounding that minimized the violence and chaos they caused. They were dangerous, even deadly, but only when they needed to be and in a way the cops could wrap their heads’ around.

Fun City Editions’s new Blu-ray set, Seeing Red: 3 French Vigilante Thrillers, consists of a trio of films that play like French twists on the hyper-violent Italian poliziotteschi crime films that reached the height of their popularity in the ’70s. In Jean-Claude Missiaen’s Shot Pattern,...

New month, new horror recommendations from Deep Cuts Rising. This installment features selections reflecting the month of April 2024.

Regardless of how they came to be here, or what they’re about, these past movies can generally be considered overlooked, forgotten or unknown.

This month’s offerings include telepathic plants, ecological horrors, and a lot of killer cats.

The Uncanny (1977)

Pictured: The Uncanny (1977)

Directed by Denis Héroux.

The Uncanny is a two-for kind of deal: it works for both National Pet Day (April 11) and Tell a Story Day (April 27). Here we have Peter Cushing‘s character talking at length about the evils of cats, with his three examples fleshing out this singular anthology. And while this film is often mistaken for an Amicus production, it was, in fact, made by The Rank Organisation. However, Amicus co-founder Milton Subotsky was also a co-producer.

The Uncanny has a tendency to be one-note in...

A UK print film magazine, and a big one too! Here’s Film Stories issue 48 – what’s in it, and how you can get it!

Introducing issue 48 of Film Stories, where once again we’ve clearly gone made and produced another 168 page bumper issue. And printed it on nice paper too!

We’re 100% independent, so this is an absolute labour of love for us.

We’re really proud of it. We hope you’re going to like it, and we hope you might consider supporting it. Sold primarily via mail order, and popping up in a few WHSmiths stores around the country too, here’s the cover of the new issue…

And inside?

Huge Exclusive

Bob Marley: One Love

The story of bringing Bob Marley’s life story to the screen: with director Reinaldo Marcus Green, stars Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch, and the irrepressible Ziggy Marley.

Plus

All Of US Strangers...

When director Michael Winner and screenwriter Wendell Mayes adapted Brian Garfield's novel "Death Wish," it's doubtful that they had any idea they'd be launching a film franchise that would change the landscape of vigilante thrillers forever, and solidify Charles Bronson as one of the greatest stars of action cinema. The "Death Wish" films start out as a twisted character study of a man named Paul Kersey as he slowly descends into a life of vengeance and violence, bearing arms and serving as a one-man judge, jury, and executioner. There's a real allure to righting wrongs outside of the American justice system, but as Kearsey's arc shows, his desire to kill has perhaps always been a part of him -- which makes him part of the problem.

As the franchise went on, the "Death Wish" films cared less and less about the moral conundrums of its hero and instead wanted...

Netflix generates more contemporary content than anyone, but they’re dipping into the past to curate the great movies from the ’70s. These are the films that people like myself discovered as kids in the early days of when HBO premiered on cable. Bravo, I say. Here’s the preliminary list.

Alice Doesn’T Live Here Anymore

A widowed singer and single mother starts over as a diner waitress in Arizona, befriending her coworkers and romancing a ruggedly handsome rancher.

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writer: Robert Getchell

Producers: Audrey Maas, David Susskind

Key Cast (Alphabetical): Ellen Burstyn, Jodie Foster, Diane Ladd, Alfred Lutter, Harvey Keitel, Kris Kristofferson, Vic Tayback

Distributed By: Warner Bros. Discovery

Initial Release Date: December 9, 1974

At the 47th Academy Awards, Burstyn won Best Actress

Black Belt Jones

High-kicking Black Belt Jones is dispatched to take down a group of Mafia goons trying to muscle in on a downtown karate studio.

1974 was quite a year for cinema; 50 years later, Netflix (of all places) is celebrating the golden jubilee.

In recognition of the anniversary, the streamer on Wednesday launched a new, dedicated content row (and direct URL link) with the first films being honored under its new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner. Each of the 14 films came to Netflix this month by way of Warner Bros., Paramount, or Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.

The 1974 collection includes “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Black Belt Jones,” “Blazing Saddles,” “California Split,” “Chinatown,” “The Conversation,” “Death Wish,” “The Gambler,” “The Great Gatsby,” “It’s Alive,” “The Little Prince,” “The Lords of Flatbush,” “The Parallax View,” and “The Street Fighter” (“Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken”).

Netflix doesn’t plan to stop with disco’s heyday. In April, the streaming service will do the same for films from 1984 (turning 40); July will celebrate 1994 movies (turning 30); and in October...

Ryan O’Neal, the boyish leading man who kicked off an extraordinary 1970s run in Hollywood with his Oscar-nominated turn as the Harvard preppie Oliver in the legendary romantic tearjerker Love Story, has died. He was 82.

O’Neal died Friday, his son Patrick O’Neal, a sportscaster with Bally Sports West in Los Angeles, reported on Instagram. He had been diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 2001 and with prostate cancer in 2012.

“As a human being, my father was as generous as they come,” Patrick wrote. “And the funniest person in any room. And the most handsome clearly, but also the most charming. Lethal combo. He loved to make people laugh. It’s pretty much his goal. Didn’t matter the situation, if there was a joke to be found, he nailed it. He really wanted us laughing. And we did all laugh. Every time. We had fun. Fun in the sun.”

On the...

It’s the final month of the year, which means much of our attention will be turned to sharing various best-of-2023 rundowns throughout December. The month also brings many of the year’s most noteworthy films, which we’ve rounded up before––some of which will be opening in a more limited capacity and expanding next month.

We should also note some top November picks like The Boy and the Heron and May December are finally getting in front of wider audiences, with the former getting a wide release on December 8 and the latter arriving on Netflix this Friday. For this round-up we’re also not including films getting limited one-week-only runs this month, such as Noora Niasari’s Shayda on December 1 and Ava DuVernay’s Origin and Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera on December 8.

14. Memory (Michel Franco; Dec. 22)

Every year there’s at least one film that premieres at...

Chris Sarandon would consider reprising his role as Detective Mike Norris in Child's Play, but believes that Norris is currently retired. Sarandon was hooked after reading the screenplay for Fright Night, and that collaboration led to him teaming up again with director Tom Holland on Child's Play. Despite not appearing in any of the sequels, remakes, or the streaming series Chucky, Sarandon remains an active member of the horror movie community via film fests and conventions.

Chris Sarandon portrayed one of the most beguiling vampires any horror film can offer scary movie fans. After Sarandon’s stint as the suave yet ever-so dangerous, apple-eating creature of the night, Jerry Dandrige, in Tom Holland’s Fright Night, the two creatives reunited three years later to collaborate on yet another enduring classic from the genre, Child’s Play (1988). Sarandon played the part of Detective Mike Norris and matched wits with the pint-sized Chucky (Brad Dourif) during his bloody,...

There’s no shortage of brilliant detectives in novels, film and television, but one of the greatest — or at least the one with the fanciest facial hair — is Hercule Poirot. The Belgian investigator, created by Agatha Christie, has appeared 33 novels, more than 50 short stories, and has been played by a variety of iconic actors.

But for whatever reason, Poirot has only sporadically appeared on the big screen, with many of his earliest movie appearances being lost to time, while some of his other noteworthy adventures were rewritten as vehicles for Christie’s other beloved creation, Miss Marple.

Here we take a look at the various theatrically-released adventures of Hercule Poirot, from the 1930s to today, and see which of his mysteries were truly worth solving.

Photo credit: Columbia

Honorable Mention: “Murder By Death” (1976)

Neil Simon’s wacky spoof of the supersleuth genre, directed by Robert Moore, features an all-star cast...

Terrifying horror movies about Hell feature the worst possible horror imagery and concepts that the human brain can imagine. Nearly every system of spiritual belief from around the world has its own version of Hell. While the term itself originates from Old English, Hell is a universal concept that designates a specific place or dimension for the dead, typically for the purpose of punishing, atoning for, or processing human depravity, morality, and disconnection from divine forces.

The scariest depictions of Hell in the movies are approximations of not just what Hell would look like, but also the experiences of the damned. Filmmakers don't always make it clear that they're showing viewers a version of the underworld, but more often than not, saying it outright isn't necessary. Most audiences know when they're looking at Hell, which is a testament to how much the universal concept cuts across social, cultural, and religious backgrounds.

1973's mostly-forgotten Charles Bronson vehicle The Stone Killer directed by Michael Winner is all at once pulpy, tone-deaf, and deeply revealing about the time and place in which it was produced. The Stone Killer's plot is incomprehensible and the movie itself doesn't seem all that interested in the machinations of the world of the mob — it's primary subject matter. At its core, The Stone Killer is about a cop that is very good at killing. The neo-noir thriller's opening scene perfectly encapsulates the irony and the conflicting ideas which permeate the rest of its runtime. These ideas, primarily questioning the role of the police, could snuggly accompany any number of modern-day crime movies.

The satirical masterpiece goes well beyond what one expects from folk horror, with Edward Woodward as the priggish cop sent to investigate a pagan island

After 50 years, here is a re-release for that gamey satirical masterpiece of folk horror – although “prog horror” is perhaps a better description. Folk horror, like film noir, is a term that seems to have been first used by critics before film-makers themselves, but The Wicker Man is so much better and more distinctive than any film that comes under the folk-horror heading that it’s virtually a one-movie genre in itself. It now appears billed as a “final cut”: a restoration complete with the footage that was excised when it was released as a B-picture support to Don’t Look Now in 1973.

It is a brilliant conspiracy-chiller set on May Day on a remote fictional island off the Scottish coast, ruled over by the haughty...

What would you do if a monster took your loved ones from you? Some might not like to admit it, but pre-emptive fantasies of retribution have a cathartic quality, giving us a sense that we could take control of the narrative in a dreaded scenario. Perhaps this is why revenge thrillers are so popular. They allow us to vicariously live out such fantasies while also taking a moral standpoint, as most of us know that we would never act upon these dark reveries. It is queasily satisfying watching scumbags and murderers getting their comeuppance, even if a film ultimately comes down on the side of "vigilantism is bad."

Most of us like to think we are good and moral people and we know that taking the law into our own hands is fundamentally wrong. Not all such movies arrive at that conclusion. When "Death Wish" was released in 1974, it was...

Locked and loaded with a decent screenplay, Michael Winner and Charles Bronson acquit themselves well in this brutal 1974 hit that launched a decade’s worth of nasty vigilante movies. The lynch-mob formula presents crimes so awful that the audience demands violent retribution. The shock is that this incitement to ‘fight back’ is not direct right-wing propaganda — vigilantism is glamorized but not endorsed. A fine supporting cast includes Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats and unexpected treats like Olympia Dukakis and Jeff Goldblum. “Fill your hand!”

Death Wish, 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1974 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date January 24, 2023 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95

Starring: Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats, William Redfield, Stuart Margolin, Stephen Elliott, Kathleen Tolan, Jack Wallace, Fred J. Scollay, Chris Gampel, Robert Kya-Hill, Ed Grover, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Logan, Gregory Rozakis, Christopher Guest, Paul Dooley, Olympia Dukakis, Al Lewis, Robert Miano.

Cinematography: Arthur J. Ornitz...

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Stuart Margolin, the character actor and James Garner buddy best known for portraying the smarmy yet sweet con man Evelyn “Angel” Martin on The Rockford Files, has died. He was 82.

Margolin died Monday, his stepson, actor Max Martini (The Unit), reported on Instagram. Another stepson, director Christopher Martini, told THR that Margolin died of natural causes in Staunton, Virginia.

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Margolin also brought his manic, manipulative persona to the Blake Edwards films S.O.B. (1981), as a star’s (Julie Andrews) insidious personal assistant, and A Fine Mess (1986), as a bumbling crook in the filmmaker’s homage to slapstick.

Margolin appeared opposite Charles Bronson in The Stone Killer (1973) and Death Wish (1974) — both directed by Michael Winner — playing a contractor who arranges mob hits in the former and the guy who gives Bronson...

Everybody seems to love Harry Styles. The 28-year-old British heartthrob ,who initially scored huge success as a member of the boy band One Direction before going solo six years ago, won a Grammy last year for best pop solo performance for “Watermelon Sugar.” And he’s up for a total of six this year for his hit single “As It Was” and album “Harry’s House.” And it’s hard not to miss footage of his energetic concerts filled with screaming women of all ages on TikTok.

Though there were two One Direction concert films, Styles has shied away from rock and rolling on the silver screen rather appearing as a World War II soldier in Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed 2017 “Dunkirk” and starring in two high-profile films this fall: Olivia Wilde’s “Stepford Wives”-style thriller “Don’t Worry Darling” and the romantic drama “My Policeman.” In the later, he gives...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products released each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Mad God Steelbook Blu-ray from Rlje Films

Mad God will be released on Blu-ray in Steelbook packaging on December 6 via Rlje Films. If you haven’t seen the 2022 stop-motion spectacle, head over to Shudder to stream it Asap.

Written and directed by visual effects legend Phil Tippett, the movie was produced over a period of 30 years. Repo Man filmmaker Alex Cox leads the voice cast alongside Niketa Roman, Satish Ratakonda, Harper Taylor, and Brynn Taylor.

Special features include an audio commentary by Tippett and Guillermo del Toro, a cast and crew commentary track, an interview with Tippett, a making-of featurette, and more.

Mandy Blind Box Toys from Unbox Industries

Unbox Industries created a line of...

Mike Flanagan threw viewers a bit of a curveball with the second entry in his "Haunting" anthology series, 2020's "The Haunting of Bly Manor." Where the show's revered first outing, 2018's "The Haunting of Hill House," is horror through and through, its mostly well-received but slightly more divisive second entry is really a gothic romance that just happens to include literal ghosts. Yes, I'm using what you might call the "Crimson Peak" defense, but it applies here all the same.

Perhaps even more than "Hill House," "Bly Manor" plays fast and loose with its source material. Mainly a retelling of Henry James' classic 1898 gothic horror novella "The Turn of the Screw," the series adds elements from James' other works while also filling in the gaps in the romance between doomed lovers Peter Quint and Miss Jessel prior to the story's events. Interestingly, though, it wasn't the first off-shoot of James' novella to do this.

Ronin Flix, in association with Scorpion Releasing, will issue a standard retail edition of Michael Winner's action thriller The Mechanic (1972), starring Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Keenan Wynn, Jill Ireland, and Frank DeKova.

The release will be available for purchase on May 10.

Synopsis: Arthur Bishop (Charles Bronson) is a veteran hit man who, owing to his penchant for making his targets' deaths seem like accidents, thinks him...

Charles Bronson is one of the most iconic movie stars in Hollywood history. With long-time directorial collaborators like Michael Winner and J. Lee Thompson, Bronson played all kinds of tough-as-nails roles across his decades-long acting career, including roguish cops, gunfighting cowboys, and war heroes.

Related: 10 Best Charles Bronson Movies, According To IMDb

Bronson brought plenty of iconic characters to life, from architect-turned-vigilante Paul Kersey in the Death Wish franchise to the titular melon-farming Vietnam War veteran in Mr. Majestyk to the mysterious gunslinger named after his signature harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West. But, as with any sought-after Hollywood A-lister, Bronson turned down almost as many high-profile roles as he took on.

Munich-based Koch Films has struck a deal with Studiocanal Germany to take over the distributor’s entire sales and logistics activities for all physical home entertainment activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Studiocanal’s extensive portfolio comprises new releases, series and classic catalog titles such as Francis Ford Coppola’s newly restored 1983 teen drama “The Outsiders” and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” as well as works by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Margarethe von Trotta.

The agreement pools Studiocanal and Koch Films’ strengths and bolsters their market position in the home entertainment sector over the long term, the companies said.

Studiocanal’s Arthaus label includes such recently restored films as Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”; Ousmane Sembène’s 1968 Senegalese classic “Mandabi”; and Richard Kelly’s “Donnie Darko” as well as German titles like Reinhard Hauff’s 1975 drama “The Brutalization of Franz Blum,” featuring Jürgen Prochnow...

If crises continue to mount and late-summer box office fails to catch a second wind, Hollywood might have to revisit one of its few remaining sure things: a good dog movie.

Sure, Netflix and Amazon always have vintage canine classics on the shelf to stream, from Benji to Lassie, but a new weepie is also needed in the plexes — one to ease public tensions.

Further, those of us who’ve adopted a best friend to cope with the pandemic now are going back to work or to school. Or simply facing the fact that a best friend is more than we can handle, and so are the vet bills.

Given all this, exhibitors might wonder whether the cast of The Suicide Squad shouldn’t have featured canine stars like Hachi, Marley or even Scooby-Doo rather than live actors cast as Bloodsport, Ratcatcher or Sylvester Stallone’s King Shark.

The pooches...

Some readers might remember when, in 2013, Abel Ferrara’s third feature film, Ms. 45 (1981) was once again released in theaters, reinvigorated by a brand-new, state-of-the-art restoration and with its sound remastered in HD. This re-release, with its first screening held fittingly in New York on Friday, December 13th, demonstrated to audiences the extent to which Ferrara’s controversial and hastily labelled “rape and revenge” film had maintained its aggressive spleen.

While walking home from work, Thana, a mute young woman working as a seamstress in New York City's Garment District, is raped at gunpoint in an alley by a mysterious, masked attacker. She survives and makes her way back to her apartment, where she encounters a burglar and is raped a second time. Thana—her name an allusion to Greek god of death Thanatos—manages to knock her second assailant out, then bludgeons him to death with an iron and carries his body to the bathtub.

Studiocanal have released a brand-new restoration of director Michael Winner’s 1963 classic crime drama, West 11. Starring Alfred Lynch, Kathleen Breck (The Three Musketeers), Eric Portman along with the inimitable Diana Dors, this sympathetic study of rootless drifters filmed on location in Notting Hill will be available to own on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital platforms now… and you can win a copy of the film on Blu-ray by answering the question below:

Michael Winner’s foray into British Social realism sees an authentic portrayal of the grittier, darker side of West London in the 60s. In Notting Hill’s jazz club, coffee bar and bedsit land of the early 1960s, Joe Beckett (Alfred Lynch) is a young unemployed misfit and drifter whose life takes a turn for the worse when he encounters Richard Dyce (Eric Portman), an ex-army officer. Dyce persuades Beckett it will be in his interests to bump off...