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Sharon Stone is a phenomenally talented actor who's seen the ups and downs of the film industry. She was one of the biggest stars alive when she top-lined the blockbuster "Basic Instinct" in 1992, and probably should've won the Oscar for Best Actress as Ginger McKenna in Martin Scorsese's "Casino" three years later. Stone's star faded for a while, but she's threatening to become something of a force again via her feisty villainess in Timo Tjahjanto "Nobody 2" and her upcoming appearance in Marc Maron's Academy Awards comedy "In Memoriam."

I've every belief that Sharon Stone has an Oscar-winning performance in her, but she might have a skill that is of greater use to the public -- and it's one that quite possibly saved lives on the set of "Nobody 2." It might sound nutty, but Stone apparently possesses a meteorological sixth sense.

Read more: The 12 Worst Best Picture...

It couldn't have been easy to grow up as the only son of "Shane," but Alan Ladd Jr. somehow made it work. Ladd père became a movie legend as the gunfighter protagonist of George Stevens' 1953 Western classic, but his oldest son, who would come to be known quite affectionately as Laddie, did not want to follow in the old man's footsteps. He began his showbiz career as an agent for Creative Management Associates before moving into film production in the United Kingdom (where he helped Gary Sherman make the gruesome horror classic "Raw Meat").

Laddie's sharp creative/commercial sensibilities caught the eye of 20th Century Fox, which brought him on as its Vice President of Creative Affairs in 1973. This might've been the most consequential hire in the studio's history, as Laddie championed such pop cultural touchstones as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "Young Frankenstein" and "Phantom of the Paradise." When...

A new Phantom of the Opera reimagining is making its way to the stage. According to MovieMaker, a stage adaptation of Phantom of the Paradise, the 1974 rock musical film written and directed by Brian De Palma, is officially in the works from songwriter Paul Williams and producer Sam Pressman. William penned the songs and starred in the original film. “I’m excited about having a chance to deliver what fans have been suggesting for years… Potp as a stage musical,” Williams told MovieMaker. “I think it’s time has come!” Once written, the musical will first open "not on Broadway," though Pressman says they are "building to that stage." A stage musical has been in early stages of development for decades, with a libretto written by De Palma himself in the 1980s....

You have your monsters like zombies, vampires, and werewolves and then you have your monsters like Dr. Frankenstein, Ardeth Bay, and Jack Griffin. While we may gripe that Werewolves and certainly Mummies don’t get nearly the representation they are due, they still show up at a higher frequency than we give them credit for either in things like The Monster Squad or their own series like the Brendan Fraser Mummy films or the Underworld flicks. The two classic series monsters that most seem to be forgotten about either with their film output or quality of roles are undoubtedly The Phantom of the Opera and The Invisible Man. While I could talk all day about Phantom of the Mall or Phantom of the Paradise, 2025 marks a 25th anniversary for a bonkers and yet somehow faithful in tone mad scientist that breaks the laws of physics and makes not only his physical appearance,...

Oscar-nominated costume designer Rosanna Norton passed away from bladder cancer on May 7. She was 80.

She was nominated, along with Elois Jenssen, for Best Costumes during the 55th Academy Awards for her work on Tron.

Her genre credits also include Carrie, Phantom of the Paradise, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, The ‘Burbs, RoboCop 2, Casper, Messiah of Evil, and Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural.

Other notable work includes Airplane!, The Flintstones, Innerspace, Explorers, Detroit Rock City, Angels in the Outfield, Barb Wire, The Brady Bunch Movie, and Badlands.

While attending UCLA as a painting major, Norton met future husband Bill Norton, who gave her her first costume designing gig on his 1971 film Cisco Pike. She joined the Costume Directors Guild in 1975 and went on to mentor many of its members.

After retiring from the film industry, Norton returned to painting.

The post ‘Carrie,’ ‘Tron’ Costume Designer Rosanna Norton Has...

Costume designer Rosanna Norton, who received an Oscar nomination for the sci-fi classic Tron and also worked on Badlands, Carrie, The Stunt Man and Frankie and Johnny during her four-decade career, has died. She was 80.

Norton died Wednesday at her home in Los Angeles of bladder cancer, her granddaughter Mira Gonzalez told The Hollywood Reporter.

Norton also collaborated with Joe Dante on Explorers (1985), Innerspace (1987), The ‘Burbs (1989) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and with Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker on Airplane! (1980) and Ruthless People (1986).

She worked with Terrence Malick on Badlands (1973), with Brian De Palma on Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and Carrie (1976), with Richard Rush on The Stunt Man (1980) and with Garry Marshall on Frankie and Johnny (1991).

She shared her Oscar nom for Steven Lisberger’s Tron (1982) with Elois Jenssen.

The oldest of four kids, Rosanna White was born in Los Angeles on Oct. 1, 1944. Her mother, Ann Stanford,...

Rosanna Norton, who was Oscar-nominated for costume design for 1982’s “Tron” and designed Sissy Spacek’s iconic prom dress for “Carrie,” died of cancer May 7 in Los Angeles. She was 80.

Her early costume design credits include Terrence Malick’s “Badlands” and Brian de Palma’s “Carrie” and “Phantom of the Paradise.”

“We had no money,” she recalled in a video interview about “Carrie.” She found many of the prom outfits in a store in the Valley that was going out of business, she said. But she had Carrie’s simple pale pink satin dress custom-made by a seamstress after changing the color from the original red in the book to create a more striking contrast with the blood that is splashed on Spacek.

“At the time, prom dresses and bridesmaid dresses and things were very fussy. They had all these ruffles and detail and I wanted to do….a bias...

Amazon is having a massive sale on over 150 horror movies from the Scream Factory catalog, with Blu-rays as low as $8.49 and 4K Ultra HDs starting at $15.91.

These prices are only available for limited time, so stock up now!

$8.49 Blu-rays:

Candyman

Dark Angel

Lifeforce

Ninja III: The Domination

Sleepaway Camp

$9.76 or less Blu-rays:

Kindred

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Psycho (1998)

Ravenous

The Babadook

The Doctor and the Devils

The Slumber Party Massacre

Zombie High

$9.99 Blu-rays:

Assault on Precinct 13

Body Bags

Cherry Falls

Day of the Dead

Dog Soldiers

Ginger Snaps

Lake Placid

Motel Hell

Night of the Comet

Night of the Demons

Psycho II

Psycho III

Pumpkinhead

The Crush

The Funhouse Massacre

The Howling

The People Under the Stairs

$11.49 Blu-rays:

Cat People (1982)

Class of 1984

Deadly Blessing

Death Becomes Her

Dreamscape

Final Exam

Firestarter

Metalstorm

RoboCop 2

RoboCop 3

Shocker

Slumber Party Massacre (2021)

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf

The Burning

Village of the Damned...

Singing and dancing are an integral part of musicals, never mind that they’re often associated with a much more lighthearted, sentimental tone. That makes musicals feel out of place in the world of horror, a genre dedicated to graphic violence, death, and scaring audiences silly.

Yet, as it’s been proven time and time again, horror plays well with everything, including the movie musical. Movies like Little Shop of Horrors or Phantom of the Paradise showcase the magic of combining genre thrills with earworm songs and lavish production design, further stretching the boundaries of what horror can be.

This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to horror musicals, some that aim to tickle the funny bone while others go for the jugular. Here’s where to watch them on streaming this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

The Lure – Criterion Channel, Max

Before The Ugly Stepsister,...

This article contains spoilers for "Sinners."

Think about this question long and hard: What would you be willing to sacrifice in order to achieve greatness? As our society descends into a neverending cycle of narcissism and self-promotion thanks to the reign of social media, it feels like the majority of people wouldn't think twice about sacrificing their dignity, thoughts, or time to achieve fame and/or fortune. Yet greatness is something more than mere popularity or notoriety; it also involves a sincere desire to master the craft. One of the most frustrating things about achieving greatness is that talent and hard work are only half the battle, because you need a lot of luck, too. If some supernatural force approached you and made you a deal where your greatness could be guaranteed in exchange for your soul, would you take the deal, or find yourself battling the temptation toward darkness within and without you?...

Crafting a genre mashup is much more complex than many imagine. However, when the combination is not executed at a high level, the weaker aspects of each genre become even more apparent to the audience. O’Dessa, unfortunately, falls into this realm, with the sci-fi, post-apocalyptic musical struggling to blend its ideas into a story that rises above service-level cultural critiques. While director Geremy Jasper tries to infuse style into the tale, the execution does not match O’Dessa‘s ambition. This makes the musical feel like a frustrating miss from its opening sequences.

RelatedMarvel’s X-Men Cast: Rumored MCU Roles of Sadie Sink, Margaret Qualley and Jesse Plemons Revealed O’Dessa — The Plot

After the death of her mother, O’Dessa (Sadie Sink) travels to the big city to recover a stolen instrument. Unbeknownst to O’Dessa, she is a special figure known as the “Seventh Son,” which will...

Of all the "movie brat" directors that came out of the New Hollywood era, Brian De Palma has to be the most underrated. While audiences always remember his most popular films, like Scarface, The Untouchables and Carlito's Way, they tend to overlook some of his most compelling work. Before spending the latter part of his career making gangster movies and crime dramas, De Palma was the "movie brat" most associated with horror and thrillers. Aside from being the first director to adapt a Stephen King book, his love and passion for the history of horror in cinema went on to inspire him to tell those kinds of stories throughout the first decade of his career.

De Palma's first movie to attract audiences was the 1972 thriller Sisters, which highlighted his grasp of edgy material inspired by thrillers of the past. De Palma would make multiple thrillers and horror films in the '70s,...

The first C.H.U.D became a culturally relevant movie for multiple reasons and against all odds also worked its way into the greater pop culture zeitgeist. I argued that the first movie doesn’t quite stand the test of time a bit ago and while I stand by that, it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it either. C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. is a wild ride of a sequel that certainly didn’t need to exist but is somehow more fun than the predecessor. Its also a better sequel in a franchise that it doesn’t technically exist in! Can’t wait to get into that aspect. Most of you love C.H.U.D. but I’m here to tell you why C.H.U.D. II is a great black sheep that straddles the end of the 80s and start to the 90s. I doubt I’ll sway anyone onto my side of...

Many fans will recall Harrison Ford's earliest roles and think first of his part in George Lucas' American Graffiti or how he briefly appears in Apocalypse Now. However, there is a clear connection between Harrison Ford and multiple "movie brats" of the '70s. Having worked with three out of five of them pretty early on in his career, Ford's success can be attributed to many of those roles. As the iconic characters Han Solo and Indiana Jones, he cemented his place as a movie star in Hollywood and would go on to have a lavish career as one of the top actors in cinema. The role that really changed his life was Han Solo in Star Wars. Before that, he seemed stuck playing supporting characters with no great star power. By playing one of the greatest supporting characters ever, he showed studios he had the ability to lead the way.

One of the year’s biggest televised events is already here: it’s Super Bowl time!

This weekend, Tubi will stream the Super Bowl, live and in 4K, for free. No cable login or credit card is required. Of course, Tubi’s expansive catalog filled with deep cuts means that there’s a lot more to explore beyond the big game. Any excuse to watch more horror is a valid one!

Whether you’re looking to explore the streaming platform beyond the Super Bowl or simply seeking hidden horror gems you may have missed, we’re here to help.

These ten hidden horror gems include everything from rare anthologies to schlocky ’80s fun to underrated cult classics and beyond. Don’t miss these 10 hidden horror gems on Tubi now.

Campfire Tales

This rare ’90s horror anthology feature was initially slated for theatrical release before getting sent straight to VHS in...

We hear all the time that a movie starts on the page, and while this is true in an overarching sense, for practical purposes, the process of making a motion picture intended to screen in theaters or stream into living rooms starts when you've raised enough money to hire the actors and crew and so on required to get that page-bound vision before a camera. It's at this point that you begin fretting about getting a return on your investment and, just maybe, turning a profit. In this sense, all filmmaking is risk-taking.

This is the movie business, and it didn't used to be of widespread public interest. Once in a blue moon, people would be aware that a film like Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "Cleopatra" cost a studio-devouring amount of money; meanwhile, they could tell "The Exorcist," "Jaws" and "Star Wars" were making scads of money because they could...

Plot: A woman (Amy Adams) who gave up her career as a stay-at-home mom begins to think she’s turning into a dog.

Review: I don’t know why, but when I first heard the premise for Nightbitch, I assumed it was going to be a horror movie. I’m definitely not the only one, as if you Google the film, it’s still classified as horror, and the posters make it look like dark, edgy fare. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Nightbitch, despite its provocative title, is actually a sweet tribute to motherhood and the pressures therein, similar to Jason Reitman’s Tully.

It’s a good little movie, with Amy Adams getting her best role in a couple of years as the increasingly harried and unnamed protagonist (she’s credited only as mother). Once a noted bohemian artist, her days mostly consist of caring for her toddler son,...

Maybe you grew up with religion; maybe you found it later in life. Or perhaps you moved away from it as you got older and ultimately landed a landmark film role that incorporates a similar backstory, funnily enough. So is the case for two bright young stars who shine in A24's newest horror offering, Heretic. You may have already heard that Hugh Grant leads the charge as a smooth-talking but conniving homeowner who cordially takes a pair of Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) in from the rain and delves into a thought-provoking conversation about religion's place in the modern world.

They say art imitates life and it might be surprising to hear that the religious upbringings of both Thatcher and East match those of their courageous lead characters in Heretic. MovieWeb recently caught up with the pair in Los Angeles to learn more. "I grew up Mormon...

In the mid-1970s, there was a brief trend going on in the film world: the rock opera movie musical. These were films that had a considerable edge to them, that were attempting to tap into the counter culture generation. In 1975 alone, you had both Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Who’s Tommy come out. But even before that, in 1974, Brian De Palma – who was a mere two years away from the game changer that was Carrie – unleashed his rock opera epic into theaters, Phantom of the Paradise.

Phantom follows a composer named Winslow who wrote a cantata about Faust – a story in which someone sells their soul to the devil. In the case of life imitating art, his opus is stolen by a powerful mogul named Swan, leading Winslow to haunt the newly opened Paradise Theater as a Phantom. The film successfully blends the 70’s rock and roll with horror,...

It seems appropriate to read about some of our greatest filmmakers during the fall. (Festival season! Prestige pics! Megalopolis mania!) Plus, a guide to cinema for kiddos from A24, a look at one of Schwarzenegger’s most fun flicks, and lots of noteworthy novels. And watch for one more roundup before the end of 2024.

The De Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs, and Psychic Teens by Laurent Bouzereau (Running Press)

Documentary filmmaker and occasional author Laurent Bouzereau has found a novel way to approach the work of Brian De Palma. In The De Palma Decade, he focuses specifically on seven films that made the director one of filmdom’s most famous and infamous figures: Sisters, Phantom of the Paradise, Obsession, Carrie, The Fury, Dressed to Kill, and Blow Out. It was a remarkable run, and Bouzereau adroitly analyzes what makes them so powerful. The book also features interviews with...

There will be plenty of reasons thrown around for the box office failure of the big-budget supervillain sequel Joker: Folie À Deux, and it’s easy to imagine one will be the genre where the movie dabbles quite heavily at times: the movie musical. Trailers for Joker 2 didn’t...

Few horror villains have had the impact of John Jigsaw Kramer. Portrayed by Tobin Bell, Kramers onscreen presence commands nothing less than absolute respect. He appears as a main character in only four of Saws ten movies, yet he constantly drives each films plot. Like every other cinema icon, Jigsaw is an amalgamation of many inspirations. His elaborate schemes recall the mythos that surround H. H. Holmes. When clad in his robes and mask, his terrifying presence harkens back to Texas Chainsaw Massacres Leatherface. Yet, by his creators own admission, he is designed to counter contemporary horrors marquee villains. His tragic personal life and warped sense of justice recall sympathetic anti-heroes like Candymans Daniel Robitaille.

However, one of Kramers most surprising inspirations comes from a film thats more comedy than horror. In 1971, Robert Fuest directed a campy delight by the name of The Abominable Doctor Phibes. The decidedly comedic take...

Edmonton’s premiere genre film festival, NorthwestFEARFest, is pulling out all the stops this October with six spine-tingling days and nights of new and classic genre cinema haunting Metro Cinema. Running from October 16 to 22, the lineup is peppered with myriad highlights, including the local premiere of Parker Finn’s Smile 2 and a 50th anniversary screening of Brian De Palma‘s Phantom of the Paradise with special guest Paul Williams!

Festival Director & Programmer Guy Lavallee says audiences are in for Edmonton’s biggest celebration of horror, thriller, dark comedy, and retro genre favourites. “With so much local support for our first 2, I’m pretty stoked to finally be able to announce the full 2024 lineup,” Lavallee announced. “Starting with our phenomenal Opening Night Film, Smile 2, our whole team is excited about this year’s movies, and I hope local genre enthusiasts will be as pumped as we are.

Lavallee continues,...

Kris Kristofferson has died at the age of 88. Born in 1936 in Brownsville, Texas, Kristofferson is known for his work in both music and acting, with a career that spanned over four decades. Among his notable roles include parts in Blade and the 1976 version of A Star is Born.

As per Variety, Kristofferson has passed away. He passed away on Saturday at his home in Maui, Hawaii. The specific cause of death was not revealed, but it is said that he passed away peacefully, surrounded by family. Left behind in said family includes his wife, Lisa, who he married in 1983, his eight children, and his seven grandchildren. The family released a kind statement noting that "It is with heavy heart" that they shared the news of Kristofferson's passing. The family said that they were "so blessed for [their] time with him." The family's statement is below:

It is with a heavy heart...

Sam Pressman has a vision for the production company founded decades ago by his famed producer father, Edward, and it involves opening it up to the people.

Earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, Pressman Film announced the launch of a new development slate raise that will allow the public to directly invest in a wide range of upcoming projects from the company through the Web3 finance platform Republic.

“There have been a number of movies that have attempted to create a network of investors in a public offering, but to have it be a slate of projects, in our minds, allows for there to be many touch points,” Pressman told TheWrap in this week’s “Office With a View.”

“Essentially, each movie is its own startup, and the money is raised to see each of those movies, and so the community will get to watch and participate...

Brian De Palma regrets making the hilarious 1986 comedy, Wise Guys, despite the film's many redeeming qualities. The movie, which stars Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo, follows Harry and Joe, two small-time mobsters who get in trouble with their boss after losing $250,000. The dark comedy, which was directed by the legendary Brian De Palma, played a huge role in why he decided to stop creating comedies because of its financial failure and negative reception.

De Palma, alongside Francis Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese belong to a group of directors from the 70s known as the "Movie Brats". The legendary director earned his reputation as a master of thrillers and suspense with movies such as Carrie, Scarface, and the cult horror musical Phantom of the Paradise. Throughout his career, De Palma has worked on dozens of movies, some more beloved than others. Wise Guys is one of the few times the...

Exclusive: Pressman Film is set to produce Toronto-based shy kids’ first scripted feature film, AUTOBiOGRAPHY.

Alexander Weinstein, the author and writer whose short story was adapted into A24’s critically acclaimed film After Yang, is writing the screenplay for AUTOBiOGRAPHY in collaboration with shy kids. Pressman Film has also teamed with EP Jack Masterson, a UK-based tech entrepreneur and investor.

AUTOBiOGRAPHY is a coming of consciousness technological drama told from the inside of a computer looking out at the human world. When this compassionate AI connects with the internet the exponential expansion of its cognition leads to an existential crisis that propels it on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.

Toronto-based collective, shy kids, are known for their style-blending technology, innovation, humor and rhythm. They have produced animation and titles for Matt Johnson’s Blackberry, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s Nerve and The CW’s The Originals, as well as...

Musicals are something of a unicorn in the horror genre: a rare beast that can be extremely hit or miss (Stage Fright). So when a film from Estonia called Chainsaws Were Singing comes along, it feels like a reason to pay attention.

Director Sander Maran and co-writer Karl Ilves (who also stars) have crafted something extremely silly and fun. Think Cannibal! The Musical meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, albeit with several extraneous side plots and a too-long runtime of ~1 hour 50 minutes.

The film is split in three parts, divided between its central lovers and the aptly named Killer who antagonizes them. The film opens in media res as Maria (Laura Niils) runs up to a man frantically asking for help from a Killer (Martin Ruus) pursuing her with a chainsaw. The man fails to believe Maria because he can’t believe someone would be using a chainsaw (“It’s off-season!

The revamped Edinburgh Film Festival will screen 37 new feature films, 18 of which will be world premieres during its 2024 edition, running August 15 – 21.

The full Edinburgh lineup was revealed this afternoon in the Scottish capital by the festival’s new director Paul Ridd, former head of acquisitions at Picturehouse. The festival’s international feature competition, now dubbed the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, will screen 10 films, all world premieres.

The competition titles include All The Mountains Give by Arash Rakhsha, Jack King’s powerful Yorkshire-set drama The Ceremony, and Mary Jiménez and Bénédicte Liénard’s Fuga. Scroll down for the full list.

The festival will screen 18 titles out of competition. The screenings will include the world premiere of Euros Lyn’s The Radleys starring Damian Lewis and Kelly Macdonald and Alice Lowe’s latest Timestalker. Popular titles from across the festival circuit like Camera D’Or Winner Armand featuring Renate Reinsve...

Closer in tone to the sharp adult series “BoJack Horseman” than to Illumination’s bland “Sing” franchise, Netflix’s “Thelma the Unicorn” avoids being rendered completely unoriginal by its overly familiar premise thanks to consistent splashes of acid humor and a plethora of wacky supporting characters. Reimagined from the popular 2015 children’s book by Aaron Blabey, this bright-colored fable concerns a female pony chasing musical stardom disguised as a horned magical creature. But by changing her identity to chase those ambitions, Thelma betrays herself and those who truly know her.

The adaptation marks the animated feature debut for co-directors Jared Hess and Lynn Wang. Hess, still best known for co-writing and directing the 2004 indie hit “Napoleon Dynamite,” received an Oscar nomination earlier this year for the handcrafted animated short “Ninety-Five Senses” about a Death Row inmate. He shared the accolade with his wife and careerlong collaborator Jerusha Hess (also his...

Cannes parallel section Critics’ Week opens Wednesday with French director Jonathan Millet’s psychological manhunt thriller Ghost Trail (Les Fantômes), starring Adam Bessa as man in in pursuit of a faceless, former torturer.

Running from May 15 to 23, the compact line-up will showcase 11 first and second works features by emerging directors, seven in competition, as well as 13 short films.

Deadline caught up with Artistic Director Ava Cahen on the eve of the 63rd edition.

Deadline: You’re on your third selection as Critics’ Week artistic director. How was it this year?

Ava Cahen: We always put the counters back to zero. So everything felt new, even if it’s my third year. We received a few more films than normal and screened 1,050 features. It’s hard when you’ve only got 11 slots. Obviously there were a lot more than 11 films that we would have liked to have welcomed. There was a lot of discussion.

The 1970s saw the emergence of many directors within the New Hollywood movement that changed the industry through their subversive and challenging filmmaking style. Chief among them was Brian De Palma, a filmmaker whose aptitude for violence and sexual extremism struck a bold contrast against mainstream American suspense cinema. While he proved that both crime and war films were within his wheelhouse, De Palma had a lasting impact on the horror and thriller genres thanks to films like Carrie and Phantom of the Paradise. De Palmas influence was not immediately evident, as he spent the first few years of his career developing dark comedies that only somewhat resembled his eventual masterpieces. While his farcical films The Wedding Party and Hi, Mom! showed his aptitude for black humor, De Palma proved his merits as an auteur director with his 1972 mystery-thriller Sisters. Sisters is a shocking, depraved, and stylistically unique entry in...

Debating the horror genre’s artistic value is tacky. Measuring its success by the box office can be just as boring. But I’d bet you a head-start in a chase sequence that those metrics still steer how Hollywood talks about its longest-surviving obsession at many prestige events.

Not so at The Overlook Film Festival: a community-minded summit that fundamentally reinforced my belief in scary movies and the types of people who make, critique, promote, and protect them.

Co-founded by Landon Zakheim and Michael Lerman in 2013, the annual event started out of Colorado as The Stanley Film Festival, honoring Kubrick before expanding to encompass the horror genre more generally. After a brief stint in Oregon The Overlook Film Festival made its permanent home in New Orleans, Louisiana. That’s “the most haunted city in America” if you ask event organizers, but only the third most haunted if you’re going...

by Chad Kennerk

K.J. Relth-Miller, Director of Film Programs.

All images courtesy the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

The Academy’s annual ceremony is just one aspect of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ overall examination and recognition of film. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the largest museum in the United States devoted to the art, science, and artists behind the magic of the movies. Through exhibitions, curated film series and extensive programming, the Academy Museum celebrates and captures the stories behind the art of moviemaking. The museum’s David Geffen and Ted Mann theatres present a year-round robust calendar of screenings, film series, member programs, panel discussions, and more. Through retrospectives and thematic film series, the artistic and cultural contributions of those in front of and behind the camera are illuminated and explored.

One of the great actors of the 20th century, Marlon Brando studied...

The Phantom of the Opera is sometimes considered one of the Universal Monsters. I get it. From the 1925 version that gave us one of the most infamous unmasking sequences ever courtesy of the great Lon Chaney Sr., through the Hammer iteration with Herbert Lom, all the way up to the 2004 film that gave a lot of us our intro to Gerard Butler. Speaking of that movie, its inspiration and reason for its existence was the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical that premiered in October of 1986 and has had runs all the way through as recently as 2021. 1989 was the beginning of its U.S. tour and we got not one but Two Phantom movies that year. Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge is cheesy and may just be more well known due to our friend Joe Bob featuring it on the Last Drive In recently. Here in the JoBlo Horror kitchen today...

As far as I’m concerned, director Jim Wynorski’s 1986 film Chopping Mall (watch it Here) ranks up there as one of the most entertaining horror movies of the ’80s, which is the decade that brought a lot of my favorite horror movies into the world. It’s also a movie that doesn’t seem to get referenced often enough, and doesn’t get as much respect as it deserves – even if James Wan wants to remake it and Shout Factory TV aired it for 24 hours straight on Black Friday. So I’m glad to see that Chopping Mall is getting some love from the folks at Encyclopocalypse Publications, who have announced that they’re teaming up with Shout Factory and author Brian G. Berry for a Chopping Mall novelization!

Written by Wynorski and Steve Mitchell, Chopping Mall has the following synopsis: Some people will kill for a bargain… and...

Brimming with must-see screenings, immersive experiences, special guests, and a tarantula experience that had to be seen (and felt) to be believed, this year's Overlook Film Festival was the biggest one yet, and if you've been following Daily Dead's Instagram and Twitter accounts, then you know we had yet another unforgettable time at the "summer camp for horror fans."

Be sure to keep an eye on Daily Dead for more coverage of Overlook 2024, and in the meantime, the festival revealed their juried and audience winners for features and short films, including Oddity, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, and The Looming!

Press Release: April 11, 2024 | New Orleans, LA – The Overlook Film Festival announced today the winners of the audience and juried prizes, as well as festival highlights, from the most heavily-attended edition yet of the annual celebration of all things horror.

The feature film Audience Award, voted on by festival attendees,...

“The People’s Joker,” a scandalous IP-on-acid coming-out comic-book psychodrama, is a movie that has all the earmarks of an underground/midnight/guerrilla-cinema sensation. Vera Drew, who directed and co-wrote it, plays the title character, a mentally fractured aspiring stand-up comedian who bills herself as Joker the Harlequin. She wears a green wig parted down the middle, white makeup with big jagged dark blotches around the eyes, a razory red lipstick grin, along with a purple jacket and fishnets that make her, in every way possible, a transgressive presence. Onstage, when she puts an inhaler up to her mouth and draws in a breath of Smylex, the feel-happy drug prescribed to her as a child, she’ll let out a cackle of laughter so derisive it sounds like she’s going to fracture her own rib. She’s the maniacal Joker of DC legend, as well as an outlaw parody of...

Daily Dead is proud to return as one of the sponsors for this year's Overlook Film Festival, taking place April 4th–7th in New Orleans, and following their impressive initial lineup announcement earlier this month, Overlook has now announced their full schedule for their 2024 edition that includes additional films, in-person guests, immersive programming, and free horror trivia that is once again presented by Daily Dead!

We have the official press release with additional details below, and be sure to visit Overlook Film Festival's official website for more information!

Press Release: March 20, 2024 | New Orleans, LA – The Overlook Film Festival, the annual celebration of all things horror, announced today the full schedule for its 2024 edition, including some surprise new additions and special guests. Taking place April 4 – April 7 in America’s most haunted city, New Orleans, Louisiana at the Prytania Theatres, the horror festival announced seven additional films to its lineup, as well as new immersive events,...

The Overlook Film Festival announced today their initial lineup for the upcoming 2024 edition, taking place April 4 – April 7 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“We are finally able to see the fruits of post-pandemic productions and it’s a sight to behold,” said Michael Lerman, co-founder and director of film programming of The Overlook Film Festival. “This year’s lineup is full of bigger, scarier, more personal, more bombastic fever dreams that are sure to haunt you for the rest of 2024.”

This wide-ranging initial festival lineup includes 43 films (20 features and 23 shorts) from 11 countries, as well as four live presentations and five immersive experiences.

“This festival has always been as much about horror’s history as it is about its future,” said Landon Zakheim, co-founder and executive director of The Overlook Film Festival. “The expanded retrospective screenings, with some of our favorite heroes once again joining in person, allow us to celebrate what drew...

These past two years I've been fortunate to experience everything from a séance and a Vampire Ball to Halloween costume parties in April at The Overlook Film Festival (you can read all about it in my previous event report), and as I prepare to attend "summer camp for horror fans" for a third year in a row, the initial lineup for the festival's 2024 edition already has me wishing it were time to head to the Big Easy.

Brimming with must-see screenings and immersive experiences, the initial lineup for The Overlook Film Festival 2024 has plenty for horror fans to mark on their calendars between April 4th–7th, including Cuckoo, Abigail, I Saw the TV Glow, Blackout, a 50th anniversary screening of Phantom of the Paradise (with Paul Williams in attendance), and a 10th anniversary screening of Oculus with director Mike Flanagan, who will be in attendance along with Kate Siegel to...

Universal’s monster movie Abigail helmed by Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett has been set to world premiere as the closing night film of horror fest The Overlook Film Festival, which is taking place this year at the Prytania Theatres in New Orleans from April 4 – 7.

Slated for release on April 19, Abigail watches as a group of criminals retreats to an isolated mansion after kidnapping the ballerina daughter (Alisha Weir) of a powerful underworld figure, unaware that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl. Written by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick, the film’s cast also includes Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand, Giancarlo Esposito, and the late Angus Cloud.

This year’s Overlook lineup includes 45 films — 22 features and 23 shorts — from 11 countries, as well as four live presentations and five immersive experiences. Set to open the fet, on the heels of its Berlin launch,...

The Overlook Film Festival, which takes place from April 4 to April 7 in New Orleans, La. at the Prytania Theatres, has announced its initial 2024 lineup. The horror festival will open with Neon’s “Cuckoo” and close with the world premiere of Universal Pictures’ “Abigail.”

The lineup includes 45 films — 22 features and 23 shorts — in addition to four live presentations and five immersive experiences.

“We are finally able to see the fruits of post-pandemic productions and it’s a sight to behold,” Michael Lerman, co-founder and director of film programming of Overlook Film Festival, said in a statement. “This year’s lineup is full of bigger, scarier, more personal, more bombastic fever dreams that are sure to haunt you for the rest of 2024.”

As the opening night film, “Cuckoo” will kick off the week. The film stars Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens and Jessica Henwick. Directed by Tilman Singer, “Cuckoo” follows a 17-year-old who moves...

The Overlook Film Festival, billed as “the annual celebration of all things horror,” announced today the initial lineup for its 2024 edition.

Taking place April 4 through 7 in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Prytania Theatres, the horror fest is ready to bring audiences back to “America’s most haunted city” with a selection of both new and classic films, including 2024 releases like Sundance smash hit “I Saw the TV Glow” from director Jane Schoenbrun, Tilman Singer’s opening night pick “Cuckoo,” closing night offering “Abigail” from the Radio Silence team, plus offscreen offerings including interactive events, live performances, immersive programming, special guests and much, much more.

“We are finally able to see the fruits of post-pandemic productions and it’s a sight to behold,” said Michael Lerman, co-founder and director of film programming of the Overlook Film Festival, in an officials statement. “This year’s lineup is full of bigger, scarier, more personal,...

A critically important craft to filmmaking is production design. The production designer is responsible for the look of a film, which includes finding locations, designing and building sets, and running the art department. Although the name of this category has changed over the past nine-and-a-half decades, the general principle is the same, with this Oscar going both to a film’s production designer(s) and its set decorator(s).

This category doesn’t usually match the ultimate Best Picture winner; the last time that happened was in 2017 with Guillermo del Toro‘s “The Shape of Water,” and before that was Peter Jackson‘s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2003. One of this year’s nominees didn’t even receive a Best Picture nomination.

SEESarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer (‘Barbie’ production designers) bring colorful playsets to life: ‘It was really hard work to play like that...

Plot: A young address (Melissa Barrera) ends up being dumped by her louse of a boyfriend while battling cancer. In her recovery, she also learns that he gave away a role he promised her in his upcoming Broadway debut. Heartbroken, she finds solace in an unlikely figure – the monster under her bed who tormented her as a child.

Review: Your Monster is a terrific showcase for Melissa Barrera. While audiences only know her for being a classic “Final Girl” in the new Scream movies, from which she was unceremoniously dumped, according to her bio, she’s a classic theatre kid. In this movie, Barrera displays a flair for light comedy and shows off her impressive singing voice, with the film being a quasi-musical/ rom-com hybrid with some (light) horror elements mixed in.

Indeed, Barrera is so immensely likeable that you can overlook some of the movie’s shortcomings, including a...

Arrow Video’s January release is the 1970s horror masterwork Carrie, starring Sissy Spacek as a telekinetic title character. If you’ve got a taste for terror – make sure you grab Carrie on 4K Uhd from Arrow Video.

The release includes commentaries and visual essays, a wealth of interviews and archive featurettes, and comes in limited edition packaging, with a 40-page perfect bound book, a fold-out double-sided poster, six collector’s postcards!

In 1974, Stephen King published his first novel, the story of Carrie White, a troubled young girl, bullied by her peers and daughter to a fanatical fundamentalist mother, who discovers she has telekinetic powers. In 1976, it became the first of his works to be adapted for the big screen and, to this day, remains one of the very best.

Carrie marked Brian De Palma’s arrival as a major director, following smaller cult films such as Sisters, Phantom of the Paradise and Obsession,...

This review was originally posted during TIFF 2023

Plot: After attending a high school reunion, a woman (Jessica Chastain) is followed home by a man (Peter Sarsgaard) with whom she has a history. Initially upset and thinking he’s a stalker, she learns that he has dementia and that if they have a history together, he can’t remember it.

Review: Michel Franco is a director whose work has grown steadily in stature over the last few years. I became aware of him after watching his class warfare drama New Order in 2020 and then his dark 2021 Tim Roth drama, Sundown. Both of those films were grim, and one might assume Memory, which deals with early onset dementia, sexual assault, and alcoholism, might be the same. While heavy, Franco’s made a profoundly empathetic and unlikely love story brilliantly acted by stars Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard.

Chastain’s Sylvia is a...

Jack Fisk's meticulous set designs create mesmerizing visuals in each film he works on. Fisk's ability to repurpose existing sets and build on location is showcased in his work. Fisk's designs help bring the director's vision to life and contribute to the overall aesthetic of the films.

Jack Fisk is a prolific and incredibly talented production designer who has built the sets for many iconic directors' films. A production designer is responsible for the overall look of a movie in the practical sense. While a cinematographer is responsible for positioning the camera and capturing the scene, a special effects supervisor for determining how visual computer effects integrate into the movie, and a director for bringing the film's vision together, it's the production designer (and often their deputy known as the "art director") who will take scenes from the script and recreate them on a set or on location, utilizing carpenters,...

Ethan Hunt is about to join the DC Universe (or what is left of it). Top Gun pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell could find himself flying wingman to Harry Potter. Get ready for Batman v Transformers! The jokes wrote themselves Wednesday evening as late holiday season news broke: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish earlier this week to discuss a potential merger of their respective media companies. Yet any attempt at humor is of the strictly gallows variety (particularly since it is difficult to imagine someone like Tom Cruise working for David Zaslav).

That’s because the idea of a Wbd and Paramount merger is bleak unless you own significant stock in either media company. That’s who these deals are designed for—not the filmmakers, artists, and certainly not the consumers. As the media landscape contracts ever further atop itself, and conglomerates complete...