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Combine the three streaming platforms listed below to get access to a wonderful selection of silent films.

Movies today can be awfully…well, loud. Even if the particular movie you’re watching doesn’t drown out the dialogue with sound effects and music as so many seem to, many may yearn to return to a simpler time in cinema when movies weren’t only quieter, they were silent.

If you’re looking to watch silent movies at a price that won’t ruin your monthly entertainment budget, we’ve got the perfect solution for you. Check out our budget-friendly bundle of three services to let you watch a wide range of silent films at a great price.

What’s the best budget streaming bundle for watching silent movies?

HBO Max

Kanopy

YouTube

HBO Max

There’s only one paid streaming service in this bundle to begin with: the Warner Bros. Discovery...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

A retrospective of Wuhan on film begins.

IFC Center

A major Jia Zhangke retrospective has begun; The Beaver Trilogy, Interview with the Vampire, Dr. Caligari, and The Big Lebowski show late.

Museum of the Moving Image

The Fast and the Furious, Thunderball, and Safety Last! play in See It Big: Stunts!

Nitehawk Cinema

Fame screens Saturday and Sunday morning; print of Postcards from the Edge plays on the former day, while Sunday is a secret Hong Kong feature on 35mm.

Film at Lincoln Center

Films by Charles Burnett, Jamaa Fanaka, and more screen in L.A. Rebellion.

Museum of Modern Art

A Sarah Maldoror retrospective has begun; films by Orson Welles, Jacques Tourneur, and Anthony Mann play in The Lady at 100.

Film Forum

A new 35mm print of 8½ and Mort Rifkin favorite A Man and a Woman continue; Tim Burton...

Horror movies are wonderfully primal things. They can be giddy experiences packed with jump scares, slow burns drenched in an atmosphere of dread, deeply unsettling ordeals that scar the consciousness, or, in rare cases, all of these things and more in remarkably equal measure. And when fans of the genre run across a film that colors ecstatically outside of the lines, that transgresses in a way no other horror film has dared to transgress before, they have a tendency to fall headlong in love.

I don't know exactly when I got bitten by the horror movie bug, but, like many Generation X fright fans, I can certainly credit Denis Gifford's coffee table book "A Pictorial History of Horror Movies" with inflaming my ardor. I spent countless hours poring over those glossy pages of stills and lobby cards that covered everything from silent era classics like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari...

You know those moments when you feel something creeping behind you, but when you turn, there’s nothing there? That sense of “something’s wrong” that’s just hard to shake? Well, some films do just that—they get under your skin, like a slow burn that’ll leave you with that nagging sense of dread long after the credits roll. It’s not just about jump scares, folks; it’s about the kind of psychological disturbance that keeps you up at night, staring at your bedroom door, wondering if you locked it properly.

Maika Monroe, Lili Sepe, and Daniel Zovatto in It Follows (2014) | Credit: The Weinstein Company

These movies? They’ll make your mind a haunted house. The tension? It’s like someone’s whispering right behind you… but when you look, all you see is your own reflection. Yeah, it’s That kind of unsettling.

So grab your blanket,...

Is it any wonder that sleep has long been a topic for horror? It’s our most exposed and disoriented state. Sleep has been scary on-screen since the 1920s, beginning with German expressionist horror. In The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which depicts a brainwashed sleepwalker, or Nosferatu (including Eggers’ 2024 take on it), in which a vampiric villain uses sleep to manipulate as well as attack. Since, sleep has found its way into nearly every subgenre. In supernatural-slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy Krueger hunts teenagers down in their dreams, one final threat to the fragility of childhood. In the found footage classic Paranormal Activity, sleep has been difficult for Katie her entire life thanks to a demonic entity tied to her familial history. In films like The Amityville Horror, sleeping and waking states give way to fears about domestic violence. In the Insidious series, the nature of sleep itself...

Lezzy Wet Dream.

After a February spent looking at Mitchell Lichtenstein’s horror comedy Teeth (listen), one of the “good” Amityville entries – that would be Amityville 1992: It’s About Time (listen) – and Robert Weine’s classic silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), we’re kicking off a themed month of ‘Doppelgängers and Deception’ with a fresh look at Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010).

P.S. We previously covered the film as part of our editorial series. Read the article here.

In the film, sexually repressed ballet dancer Nina (an Oscar winning Natalie Portman) struggles to convince company director Thomas (Vincent Cassel) that she can handle the emotional complexity of playing the dual lead roles in a new production of Swan Lake.

Her overprotective mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) worries about Nina’s ability to handle the stress, which isn’t helped by the arrival of a new rival named...

Slippery Somnambulist.

After closing out February with discussions of Mitchell Lichtenstein’s vagina dentata-centered horror comedy Teeth (listen) and one of the “good” Amityville franchise entries in Amityville 1992: It’s About Time (listen), we’re taking a look at the oldest film we’ve ever covered in Robert Weine‘s classic silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)!

In the film, Franzis (Friedrich Feher) and his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) encounter the crazed Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss), who has just opened up a sideshow featuring his somnambulist Cesare (Conrad Veidt), a hypnotized man who the doctor claims can see into the future. At the performance, Cesare predicts Alan’s death, and by morning his chilling prophecy has come true — making Cesare the prime suspect. Unfortunately for Franzis, Caligari has set his sights on his fiancé Jane (Lil Dagover) next, and it’s only a matter of time...

For a long time, Doctor Who has been a stalwart expression of Hollywood’s undying love for sci-fi fantasy. The BBC series may have launched to a relatively smaller audience market, but it quickly grew in both fandom and ratings after the show’s unique story arc found a foothold in pop culture.

Doctor Who [Credit: BBC]

But despite the audience’s growing love for the cult-classic sci-fi show, Doctor Who suffers from one glaring shortcoming that was as prominent when it first launched in 2005 as it is today. And while the Doctor has shed his visage time and again and his companions have changed through the years, the showrunners behind Who refuse to change one troubling aspect in its creative structure.

Doctor Who – a relic of the future? Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor in Doctor Who [Credit: BBC]

Hollywood has always been driven by the power of imagination. But as genres like...

It’s Time!

After kicking off February with Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals (listen), Trace and I celebrated Valentine’s Day with Mitchell Lichtenstein’s Teeth (listen). Now we’re ready to dive into our first Amityville film on the pod with a look at Tony Randel‘s Amityville: It’s About Time (1992).

In the film, after returning home from New York with an antique clock, family patriarch Jacob (Stephen Macht) is mauled in a horrific animal attack. His ex-girlfriend Andrea (Shawn Weatherly) is forced to stay in his house and look after him and his two teenage children: “juvenile delinquent” Rusty (Damon Martin) and virginal Lisa (Megan Ward). But as the clock takes literal root in the house, time becomes slippery and several characters begin acting oddly.

Why is Lisa becoming a teenage vamp? Did Rusty really vandalize the neighbor’s property? Is Jacob’s leg infected with gangrene or eeeeeevil?...

Roger Ebert was a film critic with the unique power to convey his passion for film to the masses. His enthusiasm was not blind, however, and he held the oft-maligned horror genre to an especially high standard. This list of the ten best films from Ebert's "Greatest Movies" collection illustrates his understanding of what makes a horror film a masterpiece.

Ebert believed that a horror film should "exorcise" something for the viewer — to help the audience process dark and traumatic feelings. Beginning with the German Expressionist revolution and reaching into the gory excesses of the 1970s and '80s, this wide-ranging list of films showcases the genre at its best. The critic's clear-eyed commentary on each picture will show fans why horror cinema will never die.

German Expressionism Helped Legitimize the Horror Genre The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary (1920), dir. Robert Wiene

Roger Ebert agreed with the common assertion that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari...

The Society of Composers and Lyricists (Scl) celebrated musical excellence Wednesday night at the Skirball Cultural Center, presenting awards for outstanding achievements in film, television, and interactive media scoring despite the ongoing wildfire challenges facing Los Angeles.

Atticus Ross emerged as a top winner, taking home two prestigious awards. He received the Outstanding Original Score for Television Production for “Shōgun,” a project he created with collaborators Leopold Ross and Nick Chuba. Ross also won in the comedy original song category with Trent Reznor and Luca Guadagnino for “Compress/Repress” from the film “Challengers.”

Film scoring categories recognized notable talents across different genres. Kris Bowers won Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film for DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” while Daniel Blumberg took home honors for his work on A24’s “The Brutalist” in the independent film category.

Veteran songwriter Diane Warren continued her successful awards season, winning Outstanding Original...

The Wild Robot and The Brutalist took the Original Score film prizes, and Atticus Ross scored a pair of trophies at the sixth annual Scl Awards, which were handed out Wednesday night at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. See the full winners list from the Society of Composers and Lyricists below.

Perennial Oscar hopeful Diane Warren’s “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight took Outstanding Original Song for a drama or documentary film, and Ross, Trent Reznor & Luca Guadagnino’s “Compress/Repress” from Challengers won Original Song for a comedy.

Ross was the night’s lone double winner, sharing Outstanding Original Score for a Television Production with Leopold Ross and Nick Chuba for Shōgun.

Special honorees tonight were composer Harry Gregson-Williams and legendary director Ridley Scott, who shared the 2025 Spirit of Collaboration Award, having made seven films together. Five-time Emmy winner Jeff Beal received the Jury Award...

Robert Eggers is considered one of the best horror writer-directors of our time. With movies like The Witch and The Lighthouse behind him, his latest idea to remake Nosferatu had horror fans with high expectations. And although the story behind Nosferatu is well-known, from Bram Stoker's book dating back to 1897 to the countless Dracula adaptations over the decades since 1922, this 2024 iteration was able to change some key elements in how it's told. Most notably, it drastically updated how Count Orlok looks and sounds.

Bill Skarsgård definitely deserves a lot of credit for the effectiveness of this new version of the vampire. While the art and makeup departments also did an incredible job on their end, the actor managed to bring a much-needed freshness to the role. His Orlok strongly contrasts with previous versions of the villain and further cements Skarsgård's reputation as a good choice when recasting iconic horror monsters,...

One of the final movies of 2024 to come out is the much-anticipated remake of the silent film Nosferatu. Robert Eggers undertook the monumental task of remaking the 102-year-old classic movie. Eggers is also famous for making The Northman and The Lighthouse and has now gifted 2024 with one of the finest horror films in recent years.

Unlike most horror movies, Nosferatu is more subtle and relies more on more traditional filmmaking techniques as opposed to gore, jump scares, and cheesy acting. There are a good amount of horror films that have similar philosophies in their aesthetics, and tempo or are just willing to go against the tropes of the genre.

Related 10 Great Horror Series That Are Perfect From Start to Finish

From their opening moments, these horror shows succeed in terrifying viewers.

Nosferatu Is a Must-See Film for Cinephiles

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Quick Links Germany, the Original Masters of Horror Why the Greatest German Film Was a Curse The Party Comes to an End

Now in theaters, Robert Eggers' vampire film Nosferatu might be the weirdest Christmas release of all time. Behind the high-brow remake and IMAX presentation lies a rich and complicated history that defined the medium of film, and it's not pretty. Nosferatu marked the rise of the knock-off but, curiously, also announced the arrival of a worthy counterbalance to Hollywood's dominance of cinema. Self-destructing as quickly as it blossomed, the German Expressionist movement haunts filmmakers to this day. The glory days and demoralizing demise is a horror story all its own.

Torn between making personal art and paying the bills, German directors produced several stunning movies in just a dozen years. As with most great art, the bigger the obstacle, the better the final product. They specialized in macabre stories of madness,...

The Society of Composers & Lyricists has charted the nominees for its 2025 Scl Awards, which celebrate excellence and innovation in music for visual media. Emilia Pérez composers Clément Ducol and Camille and Challengers and Shōgun composer Atticus Ross lead the field with three noms each. See the full list below.

The hardware will be handed out during the sixth annual Scl Awards on February 12 in Los Angeles. Men at Work’s Colin Hay will host the ceremony.

The group also said today that Gladiator II composer Harry Gregson-Williams and filmmaker Ridley Scott will receive its 2025 Spirit of Collaboration Award, which recognizes a composer-director relationship that has created a prodigious body of work. Gregson-Williams also has penned the original scores for Scott’s The Martian, Kingdom of Heaven, The Last Duel and House of Gucci and themes for Prometheus and Exodus: Gods and Kings.

“Ridley is an open book when it comes to music,...

Another day, another sign of industry support for Emilia Pérez.

On Wednesday, the Society of Composers and Lyricists announced its 2025 Scl Awards nominations with Netflix’s Spanish-language cartel musical out in front with three nominations.

The ceremony will take place on Feb. 12.

Emilia Pérez composers and songwriters Clément Ducol and Camille earned three nominations as did Atticus Ross, who received two nominations for Challengers and one for the television series Shōgun.

Other highlights: Diane Warren was nominated for The Six Triple Eight, the sixth consecutive year she’s up for an Scl Award. Harry Gregson-Williams and director Ridley Scott will also be honored with the Spirit of Collaboration Award, “which recognizes a composer/director relationship that has created a prodigious body of work.”

The duo has worked together seven times, including this year on Gladiator II.

“Ridley is an open book when it comes to music, and working with him...

The holidays are upon us, so whether you’re looking for film-related gifts or simply want to get for yourself some of the finest this year had to offer, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection and other home-video lines, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.

4K & Blu-ray Box Sets

There’s no better gift than an epic film collection, and 2024 was an embarrassment of riches thanks to a number of box sets. The king of them all, especially if you’re looking for a gift for a burgeoning cinephile, is Criterion’s massive CC40, collecting 40 landmark films form their 40-year history. It’s not the only stellar set from the company, of course, as I adored the essential Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978, Éric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène,...

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Filled with sex, violence, and perverse scientific experiments, several Poor Things scenes have shocked and thrilled audiences. Yorgos Lanthimos' adaptation of Alasdair Gray's novel follows Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), an adult woman with the brain of a child, as she grows up fast and comes to understand the world around her through a unique lens. Without the restrictions of polite society to weigh her down, Bella fixates on sexual pleasure and instant gratification, leading to some intense sex scenes and plenty of regressive outbursts of violence and profanity.

Poor Things' 11 Oscar nominations (and four wins) are an indication of its critical charm, which is impressive for a movie that is so visually confronting. Lanthimos uses his signature fish-eye lenses along with bright, saturated colors to create a dizzying world where nothing seems to fit. In Godwin Baxter's (Willem Dafoe) home laboratory...

Subjective trauma becomes subaltern desire in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene’s proto-horror silent classic that’s justly, if mostly, celebrated for its Expressionist, practically vertiginous images. By focusing almost exclusively on its pioneering formalism, the more historical and socially neutral readings of the film, aside from the work of scholars Alexander Doty and Harry Benshoff, have lost sight of its thoroughly embedded queer narrative.

Cesare (Conrad Veidt) is a murderous somnambulist under Dr. Caligari’s (Werner Krauss) control. Cesare is first glimpsed, outside Caligari’s tent at the local carnival, as a life-sized drawing that makes a caricature of Veidt’s slender face, to the extent that his cheeks are exaggeratedly shrunken in, perpetuating an effeminate stereotype indicative of physiognomic depiction. Cesare’s actual face is first glimpsed in close up, eyes closed as he furrows his brow and slightly moves his lips. Once his eyes open,...

Back in 2015, it was announced that The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers (who was, at that time, had only made The Witch) was planning to remake F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it Here). It took Eggers several years to get to Nosferatu, though, and we’ll finally have the chance to see his take on the concept when his movie reaches theatres on Wednesday, December 25th. About eight and half months after Eggers’ Nosferatu was first announced, we heard that filming had begun on a separate Nosferatu remake. Or, as the director referred to it, a remix. That was David Lee Fisher’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror… and that movie has now made its way out into the world! Fisher’s movie is available for purchase on Prime Video, going for the price of $4.99. It will also be released through Apple TV tomorrow,...

In Wes Craven’s “Scream” — not quite the definitive horror movie but certainly the definitive account of horror fandom — final girl Sidney famously responds to the question of whether she likes scary movies with a resounding no. “What’s the point? They’re all the same,” she says through the phone to the movie’s slasher. “Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door.”

Her complaint acts as a clever joke about the stale state of the mainstream slasher genre that Craven was riffing on (and unintentionally revived) through his tongue-in-cheek meta spin. But it’s also a nod toward the less-than-flattering viewpoint that gatekeepers and non-horror aficionados have toward the genre, as a playground for cheap and easy B-movies and formulaic jump scares.

Anyone who dives into the history of...

Doug Jones is adding another iconic character to his filmography with Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. Jones is generally best known for his work playing characters brought to life with a combination of his physical performance and practical effects, some of the more notable being in his frequent collaborations with Guillermo del Toro, some of which include Hellboy's Abe Sapien, both the Faun and Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth and the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water. Beyond del Toro, Jones has also found acclaim as Admiral Saru in Star Trek: Discovery and Billy Butcherson in the Hocus Pocus movies, among others.

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror sees Jones reteaming with writer/director David Lee Fisher for their second project, the previous film being the 2005 remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, in which they utilized a similar process to updating the original short film by mixing both...

Two of the most popular horror films from the silent era are F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu from 1922 and director Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which was first released in 1920. So while Nosferatu gets a revival of sorts through Robert Eggers’ remake, which is set to reach theatres in December, and the Symphony of Horror “remix,” it seems fitting that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is also getting some loving attention this year, as Kino Lorber is set to give the film a 4K Uhd and Blu-ray release on October 22nd! This “authoritative edition” of the film features a meticulous 4K restoration by the F.W. Murnau Stiftung, along with a new orchestral score composed by Emmy winner Jeff Beal (House of Cards). Beal’s score had its premiere performance at Carnegie Hall on June 3rd… but if you want to try out the movie with different music,...

Serial killer movies have always been popular, since they speak to common fears, and the common fascination with the dark side of the human soul. Ever since the dawn of cinema, there have been crime movies. In fact, some of the most influential movies from a century ago deal with serial killers, showing the timeless appeal of these ideas. As movies have evolved over the years, there have always been serial killers on screen, just in different guises.

The changing faces of movie murderers over the years have reflected the filmmaking trends and societal attitudes of the time. Starting in the 1920s, serial killer movies were used as a way to explore the dehumanizing destruction of the First World War. Serial killers were later seen in screwball comedies of the 1940s, gritty detective dramas of the 1990s, and superhero movies of the 2020s. Throughout every period of film history, there...

Back in 2015, it was announced that The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman writer/director Robert Eggers was planning to remake F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic Nosferatu (watch it Here). It took Eggers several years to get to Nosferatu, though, and we’ll finally have the chance to see his take on the concept when his movie reaches theatres on Wednesday, December 25th. About eight and half months after Eggers’ Nosferatu was first announced, we heard that filming had begun on a separate Nosferatu remake. Or, as the director referred to it, a remix. That was David Lee Fisher’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror… and we hadn’t heard anything about the movie since it started filming eight years ago. Until now. Our friends at Bloody Disgusting have learned that Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror will be released through Apple TV+ on October 18th!

Fisher has experience “remixing” silent classics.

For the 10th birthday of The Babadook, Jennifer Kent has reminisced about the influences on her feature film debut. She named some sources directly and hinted strongly at others, but one can deduce a list of likely suspects from her statements. Horror fans will recognize some beloved classics, and perhaps discover some new favorite films by tracing the Babadook's patrimony.

The Babadook concerns a widow and her young son whose shared trauma manifests as a tenacious boogeyman that alienates them from society, and from each other. Recent interviews with Jennifer Kent go to show that even a wildly original movie owes a debt to cinema history, and the following list spans more than a hundred years, multiple countries, and a wide variety of horrific subgenres.

The Practical Magic of Georges Mlis Inspires Dark Fantasies

Jennifer Kent has named FX pioneer Georges Mlis among her top inspirations. Mlis was a magician,...

A 30-minute filmed conversation between Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón and Australian writer-director Jennifer Kent will follow each screening of the 10th anniversary re-release of the latter’s cult, modern horror classic “The Babadook.”

In a recent masterclass at the Locarno Film Festival Cuarón had expressed his interest in exploring the horror genre and name-checked “The Babadook,” praising how the film is grounded in reality and character. Following this, IFC Films – which released Cuarón’s “Y Tu Mamá También” in 2002 – reached out to Cuarón to moderate an in-theaters-only Q&a with Kent, and their filmed 30-minute conversation will play in theaters following every screening across the U.S.

During the conversation, which is a cinephile’s delight, Cuarón says that when he watched the film for the first time, he was “absolutely impressed by the thematic approach,” and was also “impressed by how cinematically it was assured. It was like it was a very confident film.

When it comes to horror, it's up to debate what the best decade was for the genre. Alfred Hitchcock reinvented the suspenseful thriller in the 60s with films like Psycho and The Birds, the slasher took theaters by bloody storm with franchises like Friday the 13th and Halloween and Elevated Horror scared moviegoers in the 2010s with modern classics like The Witch and It Follows. However, none of that would've been possible without the revolutionary silent era of the 1920s where gothic horror had its spooky origins on screen. Now, one of that decade's most haunting masterpieces, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is coming to 4K for the first time thanks to Kino Lorber this Halloween.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on October 22 via Kino Lorber. The 1920 silent horror classic has been meticulously restored in 4K by the F. W. Murnau Foundation.

It includes a new orchestral score by Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal (House of Cards), along with an orchestral score by Studio for Film Music at the University of Music Freiburg and an electronic score by DJ Spooky, both from 2014.

Special Features include:

Audio commentary by composer Jeff Beal Caligari: How Horror Came to the Cinema Restoration Demonstration

In the film, a demented doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetrate a series of ghastly murders in a small community.

The quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema is directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, and Rudolf Lettinger star.

The post...

What would happen if Raymond Chandler and H.P. Lovecraft wrote a novel together? Comic series "Fatale" by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips offers an answer. Published from 2012 to 2014 across 24 issues at Image Comics, "Fatale" is named for the archetype every film noir needs: the femme fatale, the sultry knockout who wraps men around her fingers without a care for what happens to their twisted forms (phallic cigarette optional).

The center of "Fatale" is one such woman, named Josephine or simply Jo. Colorists David Stewart and Elizabeth Breitweiser give her blood red lips and hair as black as Ava Gardner. Is her raven hair the same shade as her heart? Not quite. You see, Jo simply can't help making men desire and chase after her — especially men who want her for an occult sacrifice. Brubaker and Phillips mostly cook their comics hardboiled, such as "Criminal" (soon to be a Prime Video...

There must be something in the air (or perhaps just the blood) when the internet could get so worked up over a vampire movie trailer that wasn’t even online. Focus Features indeed exhumed an old school—and perhaps too often neglected—marketing trick when they put a coveted teaser only in theaters where it played for days ahead of its online debut. Attached since Thursday only to the healthy opening of elegiac gang drama The Bikeriders, the first trailer for Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu left cinephiles floored. And those who didn’t see it have been suffering from a severe case of Fomo.

That’s all over now though. After days of building buzz among fans of horror, arthouse cinema, and those who are just looking for something a little more sinister in their moviegoing diets, the Nosferatu trailer is at last online and it is a bleak, lascivious delight.

The prevailing wisdom on Tim Burton is that he's somewhat lost his way as his career has gone on. Whereas his early filmography is marked by some of the most influential films of the last few decades, his later output has relied a little too heavily on a CGI version of his famously hand-crafted aesthetic and neglected the fundamental elements that make a good story. However, with the news that his upcoming "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" once again embraces practical effects, we might be about to witness a Burton renaissance.

Still, there's no getting around the fact that in most rankings of Tim Burton films, his older work is usually at the top. In terms of critical response, you'll typically find "Ed Wood," his 1994 biopic of the cult filmmaker, in the top spot, followed by more universally beloved classics such as "Edward Scissorhands" or the original "Beetlejuice." I, having become transfixed by...

In 1920, the first "true" horror film was released; well, according to film critic Roger Ebert at least. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a silent film and is fairly devoid of any dialogue. Yet anyone who has seen the film will not remember it for this reason, but rather for its creepy atmosphere and its unnerving, avant-garde set design. There was no need for the groundbreaking film to have excessive dialogue, or any dialogue at all, regardless of it being made during the silent film era. Instead, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, like many other horror movies that followed, used every other aspect of filmmaking to successfully tell its story. Sometimes, these films are more effective than others in the genre that do use a lot of dialogue. Even films that are not horror, like the Oscar-winning homage to silent films The Artist from 2011, have found success in focusing on other elements like the score,...

Kino Lorber is expanding its streaming footprint. The boutique art-house distributor just launched its own SVOD platform, the Kino Film Collection.

The new app is available now as a standalone service on Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV, and Roku, and it will feature hundreds of movies from Kino Lorber’s film library of more than 4,000 titles. Subscriptions will begin at $5.99 per month.

In November 2023, Kino Lorber launched an Amazon Prime Video channel; you can still access its titles there. But having its own service puts the company in the race alongside other niche streaming options in the space, like the Criterion Channel ($10.99/month) or Mubi ($14.99/month).

As part of the launch, Kino Film Collection curated a selection of titles that showcase auteurs who have played at Cannes; the 2024 film festival is currently ongoing. The collection includes early movies from Yorgos Lanthimos, Jia Zhangke, and Ken Loach, as well as...

New York arthouse distributor Kino Lorber is expanding its streaming service, Kino Film Collection, currently available on Amazon Prime, to include a stand-alone SVOD which will feature hundreds of titles from its extensive back catalog, including features from the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos, Jia Zhangke, and Ken Loach.

Kino Lorber announced the new service timed to start of this year’s Cannes film festival. The stand-alone SVOD, available to subscribers for $5.99 a month, includes several Cannes highlights from years past, including Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters and Thien An Pham-directed drama Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, both winners of the Camera d’Or prize on the Croisette last year; Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, a 2019 competition title; and Palme d’Or winners Winter Sleep (2014) from Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Underground (1995) from Emir Kusturica.

“Cannes and the Kino Film Collection are so intertwined because we share a...

Home invasion has been a part of horror movies practically from the beginning. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922), Dracula, and Frankenstein (1931) all included moments of attackers entering homes uninvited and terrorizing unsuspecting victims.

Home invasion as a sub-genre unto itself came a bit later, as the suburbs sprung up and a false sense of security rose in the United States along with fears of “the other” that have always been a key aspect of horror movies.

These ten movies may not all be the best of this sub-genre, but they all bring something different to the table and pushed it, in large and small ways, in new directions.

The Desperate Hours (1955)

It is practically impossible to pinpoint the exact moment that started any new genre or movement within film but a good candidate for the foundation of the home invasion movie is William Wyler’s The Desperate Hours. The...

The horror genre owes its contemporary look and feel to pioneering filmmakers who made it an art form. Horror films reflect societal fears, with iconic endings, characters, and unexpected twists. Influential horror movies, like Night of the Living Dead and Alien, revolutionized the genre with unique storytelling and visuals.

Horror movies, like all other parts of cinema, call back to the films of the past that have had the greatest influence on the iconic tropes of the genre. Whether future filmmakers went on to subvert these tropes, pay homage to them, or simply owe their aesthetics and style of storytelling to them, these films have made an enormous impact. It's hard to imagine that horror as a genre would look the way it does today without the efforts of creators who pioneered horror filmmaking and helped it be taken seriously as an art form.

For many years, horror wasn't viewed...

The horror genre has evolved over time, with each decade delivering standout movies that push the boundaries of fear. Visionary directors have crafted masterpieces that capture horror's potential through technical innovation, cultural commentary, and bone-chilling style. These definitive films have an undefinable quality that cements their pole position, tower over their contemporaries, and continue to influence the genre today.

The horror genre has evolved over time, with each decade delivering some of cinema's most thrilling movies. While every decade has seen its share of remarkable films, there's one standout movie every 10 years that surpasses the rest. Since the earliest days of cinema, visionary directors have pushed the boundaries of what induces fear, from silent supernatural chillers to gory slasher flicks and psychological slow-burns. Horror has twisted perceptions, brought nightmares to life, and reinvented itself countless times over the past century.

Among the myriad of terrifying accomplishments, a select few singular...

Some of the most iconic movie twists are now taken for granted, with many forgetting that they were once major reveals. The most popular example of this is The Empire Strikes Back's Darth Vader reveal. Another example is that the planet in "Planet of the Apes" is actually Earth, revealed when the characters find the remains of the Statue of Liberty.

Recently, movie twists have become common to the point that audiences take them for granted, which is why old movie twists are arguably even more iconic. Of course, even those who have never seen Star Wars are probably aware that Darth Vader is Luke's father, for example. As such, what audiences felt in 1980 with The Empire Strikes Back cannot be replicated, and the same applies to some of the best movie twists of all time.

Aside from the ludicrous idea of having film fans' collective memories wiped, there's...

Tim Burton loves to make things spooky and morbid, but his favorite holiday might well be Christmas. Look at how many of his films take place during the Yuletide season: "Batman Returns," "Edward Scissorhands," etc. He also conceived of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which is all about Halloween Town's top ghoul, Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon), getting Christmas fever. While Burton handed off directing duties of the stop-motion picture to Henry Selick, it's easy to see his fingerprints and why he would empathize with Jack.

David A. Bossert's "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Visual Companion" was released this year for the film's 30th anniversary. The book features interviews with the film's crew, from Selick to Art Director Kelly Asbury, where they describe forming the film's distinct visual style — since there were multiple holiday-themed dimensions, they couldn't stick to just one aesthetic.

For Halloween Town, though, they took after Burton's...

Film geeks, rejoice. Leading indie label Kino Lorber is entering the world of streaming. The company has launched Kino Film Collection, a new subscription video service available in the U.S. via’s Amazon’s Prime Video Channels. The Collection will feature new Kino releases fresh from theaters, along with hundreds of films from its expansive library of more than 4,000 titles, many now streaming for the first time. It will cost users $5.99 per month.

Films available at launch include award-winning theatrical releases and critically acclaimed festival favorites and classics from around the globe, such as The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci), Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos), Taxi (Jafar Panahi), Poison (Todd Haynes), Ganja & Hess (Bill Gunn), The Scent of Green Papaya (Tran Anh Hung), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour), Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski), Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke), and A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke).

Joining them are entries...

Kino Lorber, a leading name in the indie film scene for over 45 years, just launched the Kino Film Collection. This new streaming service is available in the U.S. on Amazon via Prime Video Channels for $5.99 per month. The platform will feature new Kino films fresh from their theatrical release along with hundreds of catalog titles. Many of these films will be available to stream for the first time.

Among the films available will be a new 4K restoration of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” and key titles like Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi,” Todd Haynes’ “Poison,” and Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.”

Among the older titles available to stream will be classics like Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” and Sergei Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin.” The Kino Film Collection will be...

Independent film distributor Kino Lorber has officially unveiled streaming service Kino Film Collection, available via Prime Video here.

The Kino Film Collection will be launched in the U.S. on the Amazon Service via Prime Video Channels for $5.99 per month. The Collection will feature new Kino releases fresh from theaters, along with hundreds of films from its expansive library of more than 4,000 titles, with many now streaming for the first time.

New 4K restorations of films like Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Conformist,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” Jafar Panahi’s “Taxi,” Todd Haynes’ “Poison,” Tran Anh Hung’s “The Scent of Green Papaya,” Ana Lily Amirpour’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,” and Jia Zhangke’s “A Touch of Sin” are among highlights of the first offerings from Kino Film Collection.

Kino canon films like Fritz Lang’s historic “Metropolis,” F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” Robert Wiene’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,...

It’s hard to believe at first glance that the surreal Lovecraftian horrors of Messiah of Evil are courtesy of Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who wrote both the warm nostalgia bath that is American Graffiti and the absurd comic book antics of Howard the Duck. But there are definite similarities between these films. American Graffiti and Messiah of Evil each capture a particular milieu at the end of an era, whether that’s provincial Modesto before the Beatles and Vietnam, or a beach town being overtaken by an evil cult. And Messiah of Evil and Howard the Duck both concern a cataclysmic threat from another realm.

Messiah of Evil focuses on Arletty (Marianna Hill), a young woman who’s come to Point Dune on the California coast looking for her famous artist father, Joseph Lang (Royal Dano). She soon makes the acquaintance of raffish Thom (Michael Greer), a nomadic...

Ever since the emergence of the horror genre in cinema in the 1920s, with titles like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu, audiences have been both fascinated and unsettled by elements such as grisly mysterious murders, creepy Gothic castles, relentless vengeful spirits, and supernatural creatures lurking in dark and foggy woods. Whether they are eerie and dreamlike, laced with a decent dose of realism to maximize terror, or tackling evil cults, these films span many subgenres, and, undoubtedly, the title that explored demonic possession with the best basic formula was none other than The Exorcist, back in 1973.

Based on a story by William Peter Blatty, which itself was inspired by the true events involving a teenage boy named Ronald Hunkeler in Silver Springs, Maryland, The Exorcist was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and directed by William Friedkin, following up on his success with The French Connection.

The plot follows...

Stars: David Howard Thornton, Krystle Martin, Chase Mullins, John Bigham, Erik Baker, Flip Kobler, Amy Schumacher | Written by Flip and Fin Kobler | Directed by Steven Lamorte

The Mean One, along with Mad Heidi and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was part of an unexpected crop of horror and exploitation films based on children’s tales that dropped last Christmas. Since Dr. Suess’ Grinch is still under copyright the makers of this film had to change a few names to bring us the tale of Cindy You-Know-Who and the residents of Newville’s battle against the evil green creature known as The Mean One.

Our story begins with a familiar flashback accompanied by the rhyming narration of Christopher Sanders but, in a twist, just as young Cindy (Saphina Chanadet; Balance of the Force) is about to change The Mean One’s attitude her mother appears and attacks him, getting herself killed in the process.

Although the silent era produced many notable horror films, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Phantom Carriage, and Nosferatu, the 1930s was a true Golden Age for the horror genre. Most associate 1930s horror cinema with the Universal Monster movies that produced iconic pop culture villains such as Frankenstein's Monster, Count Dracula, and the Invisible Man.

While other Hollywood studios did not necessarily specialize in horror films, they still managed to create their own influential horror movies. Internationally, filmmakers like Carl Theodor Dreyer made their own imprints on 1930s horror cinema. To this day, the horror films of the 1930s remain some of the genre's most famous works.

Related: 15 Best Christmas Horror Movies

The Black Cat (1934)

Universal Pictures' top box office hit of 1934, The Black Cat, is a pre-Code horror film about a newlywed couple and a Hungarian psychiatrist trapped in the house of Austrian architect Hjalmar Poelzig.

Although the silent era produced many notable horror films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Phantom Carriage, and Nosferatu, the 1930s was a true Golden Age for the horror genre. Most associate 1930s horror cinema with the Universal Monster movies that produced iconic pop culture villains such as Frankenstein's Monster, Count Dracula, and the Invisible Man.

While other Hollywood studios did not necessarily specialize in horror films, they still managed to create their own influential horror movies. Internationally, filmmakers like Carl Theodor Dreyer made their own imprints on 1930s horror cinema. To this day, the horror films of the 1930s remain some of the genre's most famous works.

Related: 15 Best Christmas Horror Movies

The Black Cat (1934)

Universal Pictures' top box office hit of 1934, The Black Cat is a pre-Code horror film about a newlywed couple and a Hungarian psychiatrist who become trapped in the house of Austrian architect Hjalmar Poelzig.

The House of the Devil, released in 1896, was the first horror movie ever made, showcasing horror elements such as skeletons, witches, and objects moving on their own. Georges Méliès, director of the classic A Trip to the Moon brought his illusionist tricks and groundbreaking techniques to The House of the Devil, using film editing and visual effects to frighten audiences. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, released in 1920, is considered the definitive horror movie of cinema's early years and a German Expressionism masterpiece that continues to influence the genre today with its nightmarish atmosphere and clever use of shadows to build tension.

The horror genre has gone through many changes over the decades, especially in the movies. In its current state, the most memorable productions rely heavily on an "elevated horror" approach, which consists of a psychological approach rather than cheap scares and non-stop violence, delving deep into the psyche of...