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To celebrate the release of The Serpent and The Rainbow available 3rd March on Blu-Ray, we are giving away 2 Blu-Ray copies of the film!

Directed by Wes Craven The Serpent and The Rainbow is based on the book and true life experiences of ethnobotanist Wade Davis. Filmed on location in Haiti, it’s a frightening excursion into black magic and the supernatural. As part of The Fabulous 80’s series this Blu-ray includes a bonus double-sided fold-out poster of all new artwork created by Rich Davies.

Wade Davis was named by the National Geographic Society as one of the Explorers for the Millennium. His research has been the subject of more than 900 media reports and interviews in Europe, North & South America and the Far East. He has inspired numerous documentary films as well as three episodes of the television series The X-Files.

A terrifying story of one man’s nightmarish journey...

I’d say we all have to acknowledge certain directors in the horror genre as undisputedly great. You can rank them however you like but there’s really no argument to be made against Wes, George, John, and Tobe leaving indelible marks on the genre we all love. So much so in fact that I didn’t even have to use their last names for you to know exactly who I’m referring to. While Carpenter is my favorite and I believe his run of quality is better than any of the others listed, Craven has more all-time classics. I’d say Craven has more stinkers too, but I think it’s that disparity that makes stuff like today’s film fall under the radar. While Deadly Friend isn’t as good as The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs, or Red Eye, it’s certainly better than stuff like Swamp Thing,...

A little bit ago, I discussed Hardware from 1990 and how it became a little lost to time. Today’s movie is no different as it’s pretty hard to come by and actually has three different versions to look out for. To that end, Richard Stanley can definitely be considered the best horror director you never saw. While he had a resurgence with the Nic Cage cosmic Lovecraft horror Color Out of Space, the rest of his catalogue is either a wonderful hot mess like his incomplete version of The Island of Dr. Moreau where he was fired or his first two movies that just don’t get talked about enough. While Hardware is loosely based on a comic, Dust Devil is what I would call a wholly original South African supernatural slasher flick. It has lore based in both legend and the creative mind of its writer/director Richard...

When 28 Days Later hit theaters in 2002, it instantly became a favorite among horror fans, who were enthralled with the film's fast-paced action and zombies that attacked with break-neck speed. With its themes of infection and subversive political commentary, 28 Days Later has received praise from critics and fans alike as a film that shifted the paradigm and brought the zombie film back to life. However, long before 28 Days Later, Nightmare City, released in 1980 and directed by Umberto Lenzi, amped up the speed and savagery of the zombie film while also establishing a commentary on the escalation of the nuclear arms race.

The films of Umberto Lenzi exist in multiple subgenres. In Cannibal Ferox and Eaten Alive!, Lenzi took the savagery and brutality of the Amazon cannibal film to new heights, a subgenre he had helped start with Man from Deep River in 1972. His giallo films, Seven Bloodstained Orchids,...

One of the most iconic horror movies is celebrating a major milestone with A Nightmare on Elm Street's 40th anniversary. The 1984 film hailed from writer/director Wes Craven, who had built a solid filmography for himself up to that point with the likes of The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, and properly put him on the map as one of the genre's greats. From there on, Craven's genre spotlight would continue to grow with the likes of the now-cult classics The Serpent and the Rainbow and The People Under the Stairs and, eventually, launching the still-iconic Scream franchise with Kevin Williamson.

1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street told the story of Nancy Thompson, a teenager living in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio, who, along with her friends and boyfriend, find themselves tormented in their dreams by a mysterious figure who has the...

This week on the Nightmare on Film Street horror movie podcast, Kimmi and Jon are packing their bags and heading to Haiti for a look at Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), a wild tale of voodoo, zombies, and seriously dope nightmare sequences. In this underseen gem, anthropologist Dennis Alan (Bill Pullman) just wanted to research a mysterious zombie drug, but instead, he found himself in a whole mess of cursed cocktails and coffin trauma. And also …scrote horror….?

Part one of our “Evil Abroad” double feature, The Serpent and the Rainbow taps into the haunting folklore of voodoo and the blurred line between science and superstition. We’re diving into the surreal, ssserpent-filled magic that made this one of Wes Craven’s weirdest, most unique films. But is it a misunderstood classic, or just a bizarre nightmare that’s too wild to forget?

Grab your passport and...

Wes Craven made some very underrated movies. There was Deadly Friend, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and The People Under the Stairs, all of which have found new appreciation as the years passed. However, one of his movies that I always thought should have been a major hit was his 1989 flick Shocker. This was Craven’s attempt to make his own Freddy Krueger-style slasher, Horace Pinker (future X-Files star Mitch Pileggi), who, upon his execution, becomes an unstoppable force of energy who goes on a massive killing spree. The only one who can stop him is a teenager (Peter Berg – long before he became a director) whose girlfriend was among Picker’s victims and has a psychic connection to the killer.

While Craven and Universal probably hoped the film would become a hit, it whiffed at the box office, only making about $16 million, although it became a horror favourite on VHS.

As I’m sure you wonderful gore-hounds know by now, we love every weird and wonderful sub genre the twisted world of horror has thrown our way over the years. Sit this particular horror fan down to watch the latest splatterfest, zombie massacre, creature feature or slasher flick, to name but a few, and I’d be happy as a pig in shit. Happier in fact. Folk horror and witchcraft is one subgenre that I’ve grown to increasingly appreciate over the years, and most recently the work of Robert Eggers, for example, has had me enthralled. It was his 2015 folk horror, The Witch, that first introduced me to his nuanced, macabre yet beautifully crafted movies, and everything he’s produced since has been a must see. The trailer for his take on Nosferatu has just dropped at the time of writing this video and it looks immense. However, with...

From the genre-defining classics A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream to such transgressive works as The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes to cult favorites like The People Under the Stairs and The Serpent and the Rainbow, Wes Craven’s reign of terror spanned not only decades but generations.

But there’s much more to the man than just horror movies. In Harker Press’ The Soul of Wes Craven, author Joseph Maddrey allows readers to see the entire person rather than just a collection of his work.

The Soul of Wes Craven is not the first biography on the master of horror, but it is the definitive one. In addition to a profusion of thoroughly-researched sources, Maddrey interviewed over 80 people from Craven’s life — from professional collaborators like Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Alexandre Aja, and Patrick Lussier to family members, friends, and college classmates — for...

Zombies have become a pretty major part of the horror genre. The first zombie movie, "White Zombie," was released all the way back in 1932, but they first really took a bite out of our subconscious with George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968. Since then, their popularity has exploded, with more zombie movies, TV shows, and books than you could shake a stick at. But where did the idea of zombies really come from?

It turns out that zombies have their origins in Haitian Vodou (more commonly known as voodoo). Unlike its cousin hoodoo, practiced in New Orleans as a kind of mixture of folk medicine and superstition, Vodou is a complex diaspora faith borne of West African religions. In Vodou, a zombi is someone put under the control of another through the use of psychedelic plants, a nightmarish concept documented in anthropological texts like "Tell My Horse...

Zombies weren't always brain-craving; the idea was introduced in 1985, a turning point in zombie history. George A. Romero defined modern zombies, using them as a metaphor for social-political issues. The Return of the Living Dead introduced brain-craving zombies, cementing the concept in horror film history.

While zombies have become a staple of the horror genre, their time has been relatively short in the media. Unlike other monsters like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts, zombies are a modern construct created on the screen as opposed to literature, at least as the fresh-hungry monsters we know them as today. While it is almost universal knowledge that the living dead crave brains, this concept was only introduced as recently as 1985 and is only one of a few stepping stones that have led to zombies as we view them today in movies, TV, and video games.

We will look at the history of zombies, from voodoo to re-animated corpses,...

In 1982, anthropologist Wade Davis traveled to Haiti on a mission: to investigate documented cases of zombiism, specifically cases of people who had been declared dead but who then miraculously came back to life. Davis immersed himself in the very real world of Haitian voodoo, witnessing an array of unbelievable rituals and fascinating rites, prompting him to write the book The Serpent and the Rainbow, which would go on to become a bestseller. Referred to in certain circles as a sort of real life Indiana Jones, Davis’ profile rose and, of course, Hollywood came calling, hoping his tales of voodoo and mystery might translate into a spectacular big screen adventure. Davis was wary of Hollywood and worried the adaptation of his book would bastardize his accounts, but hoped if the right people were involved, his story would be given a respectable treatment. As is often the case in the City of Angels,...

Usually on Test of Time we are looking at heavy hitter franchises or big-ticket movies from the biggest of big-name horror directors. If we looked at Carpenter, we could look at things like The Thing or Escape From New York and ask the stupidest question in the world, like if they stand the test of time and what their influences would be. For Hooper, you could give Texas Chainsaw 2 a whirl or see if Lifeforce makes any more damn sense now than it did when it came out. The answers to these and many more questions in a Mount Rushmore horror creators list of credits would be yes, yes, they are quite good. Next Question. So really, when you are playing with the big boys you have to go a little deeper, look at the lesser known and often less discussed movies in their bag of goodies. Today we...

Wes Craven is gone but not forgotten. The soft-spoken horror auteur began his career as an English teacher at Westminster College in the 1960s. But in 1972, he burst onto the film scene with the low-budget shocker "The Last House on the Left." The film's disturbing subject matter alienated many viewers and critics, although some awarded the pic praise. Roger Ebert wrote: "Wes Craven's direction never lets us out from under almost unbearable dramatic tension." Craven found the overall experience negative and wanted to move away from horror movies. However, Craven's scripts outside the horror genre never garnered much interest, and so he returned to the world of horror with 1977's "The Hills Have Eyes." Now firmly established as a horror filmmaker, Craven would continue with the genre for the rest of his career. Craven died in 2015, but his legacy lives on. Below, we've ranked 8 of the filmmaker's best movies.

Read...

Wes Craven was a horror legend, responsible for some of the genre's most iconic films. Most notably, he helped to establish the slasher film with 1972's Last House on the Left and 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. As if that wasn't enough, Craven went on to redefine the genre again in the 1990s with the meta and irreverent Scream. Even his less successful movies, like Swamp Thing and The Serpent and the Rainbow, make for fascinating experiments.

Wes Craven was a visionary film pioneer who would shape the landscape of the horror genre. His legacy is extensive and lucrative, beginning in 1972 with his directorial debut, The Last House on the Left. The exploitation horror classic was shocking and violent, two motifs which would persist in his future film endeavors; this is the same director, after all, who has said that audiences "have to feel in the presence of someone not confined by the normal rules of propriety and decency.” Despite his controversial beginnings, Craven quickly found his place in cinema with cult classics like The Hills Have Eyes, Deadly Blessing, and Swamp Thing. However, it was in 1984 that the “Master of Horror” truly made his mark with the monumental supernatural slasher, A Nightmare on Elm Street.

The iconic monster flick introduced the world to the terrifying Freddy Krueger: a gruesomely disfigured, blade-wielding, vengeful spirit who was...

Amazon is running a massive sale on over 100 Scream Factory titles today, including some of the lowest-ever prices on their 4K UHDs and Blu-rays. Now is the time to stock up!

Here are some of the top horror highlights from the sale…

Halloween 4K UHDs:

Halloween – $22.99 Halloween II – $20.99 Halloween III – $20.99 Halloween 4 – $20.99 Halloween 5 – $19.99 Halloween 6 / Halloween H20 / Halloween: Resurrection – $59.99

John Carpenter 4K UHDs:

They Live – $18.99 They Live [Steelbook] – $23.99 The Fog – $19.99 The Fog [Steelbook] – $25.99 Prince of Darkness – $19.99 Escape From New York – $20.99 Halloween – $22.99

4K UHDs:

Child’s Play – $22.99 Child’s Play 2 – $20.99 Child’s Play 3 – $19.99 The Howling – $19.99 The Funhouse – $19.99 Slumber Party Massacre / Slumber Party Massacre II – $20.99 Carrie – $20.99 Carrie [Steelbook] – $22.17 Brotherhood of the Wolf – $20.99 Cat People – $20.99 Happy Death Day – $20.99 Happy Death Day 2U – $20.99 Army of Darkness – $21.99 Evil Dead (2013) – $21.99 Dog Soldiers – $21.99 The Haunting of Julia – $21.99 Lifeforce – $21.99 Krampus: The Naughty Cut – $21.99 Alligator – $21.99 The People Under the Stairs -$22.99 Bubba Ho-Tep – $22.99 The Exorcist III – $22.99 Dawn of the Dead (2004) – $22.99 Motel Hell – $22.99 Dead Silence – $22.99 The Return of the Living Dead...

This article contains mild spoilers for "The Exorcist: Believer."

In William Friedkin's 1973 adaptation of William Peter Blatty's "The Exorcist," the film opens not on the possession of 12-year-old Regan MacNeil, but on Catholic priest and archaeologist Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), who is on a dig in Northern Iraq. He comes across a medallion of Saint Joseph, as well as an idol representing the demon Pazuzu. Fans of the film "The Exorcist II: The Heretic" will know that this is representative of the demon that will later possess Regan. According to Babylonian and Assyrian myth, Pazuzu is a wind demon, and his presence in the opening indicates that Merrin has dealt with Pazuzu before.

But with this desert setting, this scene also implies that there's something foreign — other, about this statue and medallion. Almost as if the intrusion of artifacts from the Middle East is truly responsible for...

Graveyards: those eerie expanses where the departed find their eternal rest, and where filmmakers unearth some of the most spine-tingling tales ever told. At Nightmare on Film Street, we’ve got a bone to pick with anyone who doesn’t appreciate the macabre magic of a good cemetery-set scare.

So, dust off your tombstone trivia and join us on a moonlit stroll through 13 graveyard horror movies that promise to leave you delightfully disturbed.

ABC 13. The Midnight Hour (1985)

Halloween night, a cursed scroll, and the dead rising from their graves. This TV movie is a nostalgic trip back to the ’80s, where a group of teens must confront the supernatural to save their town. With its graveyard setting playing a pivotal role, it’s a hauntingly fun start to our list.

Rko Radio Pictures 12. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

A nurse is brought to the Caribbean to care for a woman in a mysterious catatonic state.

The most wonderful time of year is nearly upon us! With Halloween season just around the corner, Peacock unveiled an impressive lineup today of more than 100 Halloween, horror, thriller, and spooky season titles hitting the platform this September.

Get ready, the list is massive…

Whether you’re looking for recent releases like Hypnotic, or cult gems like Slither, Peacock invites you to face your fears in September. Binge complete freakish franchises like Chucky, Saw, and Amityville, or tune-in for fun family fare that includes Ghostbusters and Casper. Look for a variety of classic horror to arrive on the streaming service mid-September.

Speaking of “Chucky,” if you’re looking to catch up on the series ahead of season three, Peacock brings “Chucky” season two to their Halloween HQ on September 4. That gives you a whole month to catch up before the October 4 premiere of “Chucky” season three.

Full Peacock Halloween horror highlights below.

On May 30th, Scream Factory will release a 4K/Blu-ray combo of The People Under the Stairs. I’ve seen the horror-comedy a number of times. Even though it was first released in 1991, the socio-political element of the rich eating those beneath them is just as applicable to today’s troubles. Even more so, unfortunately. But Wes Craven always had his finger on the pulse of American society and its underpinnings, more than most horror directors. He was certainly responsible for reinventing the genre several times over, even when viewers weren’t ready to accept the horrors that reflected back at them. But what is art but an alchemic...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

While you wait for V/H/S/85 later this year, V/H/S/99 has hit Blu-ray and DVD. Among the extras for the fifth installment in the found footage horror franchise is an audio commentary moderated by Bloody Disgusting’s own The Boo Crew Podcast hosts Trevor Shand and Leone D’Antonio.

All six filmmakers participate for their respective segments: Maggie Levin for “Shredding,” Johannes Roberts for “Suicide Bid,” Flying Lotus for “Ozzy’s Dungeon,” Tyler MacIntyre for “The Gawkers,” and Vanessa & Joseph Winter for “To Hell and Back.”

Here are seven things I learned from the V/H/S/99 commentary…

1. The film almost didn’t have a wraparound story.

Wraparound segments are traditionally used to make an anthology feel of one piece rather than a random collection of shorts, but the producers originally intended to forgo the framing device on V/H/S/99.

It was later decided to use the increasingly ambitious stop-motion...

It’s time for a new episode of the Wtf Really Happened to This Horror Movie? video series, and in this one we’re looking at the tragic true events that inspired the 2003 shark thriller Open Water (watch it Here). To find out all about it, check out the video embedded above.

Wtf Really Happened to This Horror Movie? is sort of a spin-off from our show Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie. Wtf Really Happened to This Horror Movie? dives into movies that were based on or “inspired by” true stories, real people, and actual historical events so we can try to separate fact from fiction.

Written and directed by Chris Kentis, Open Water has the following synopsis: Daniel and Susan embark on a tropical vacation with their scuba-diving certifications in tow. During a group dive, the two separate themselves from the others to dive a little deeper. An...

This episode of Wtf Really Happened to This Horror Movie was Written and Narrated by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Mike Conway, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

“Don’t let them bury me, I’m not dead!”

When we think of zombies, it’s only natural to first go right into everyone’s favorite flesh-eating ghouls that were popularized by George Romero in his genre classic Night of the Living Dead. But the idea of zombies has been around much longer and is actually steeped in fact. Haitian voodoo has claimed to create zombies for hundreds of years and in film, these were represented in some of our earliest horror movies. White Zombie and I Walked with a Zombie are two of the more famous ones, but the entire sub-genre has some fascinating watches. Horror legend Wes Craven brought a return to Voodoo...

Wes Craven was an American director, writer, producer, and actor. He was best known for his work in the horror genre, particularly with his iconic films A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Scream (1996). His career spanned over 40 years and he was credited with almost 70 films during his lifetime.

Wes Craven. Depostiphotos

Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1939. He attended Wheaton College where he studied English and Philosophy before transferring to Johns Hopkins University to pursue a degree in Writing. After graduation he worked as a professor of humanities at Clarkson College of Technology before pursuing his passion for filmmaking.

Craven directed several cult-classics throughout his career such as The Hills Have Eyes (1977), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), New Nightmare (1994) and more recently My Soul to Take (2010). In addition to directing horror films, Craven wrote several scripts for television series such as The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Darkside.

Shudder Acquires Official Fantasia Festival Selection Moloch: "Shudder, AMC Network’s premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, has acquired rights to Dutch director Nico van den Brink’s directorial debut Moloch. The film, an official selection of the Fantasia International Film Festival, will be available exclusively on Shudder in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, July 21.

“Moloch is a bold and thrilling new folk horror that is sure to chill Shudder members this summer,” said Shudder general manager Craig Engler.

Added Nico van den Brink, ”I’m extremely excited to be working with Shudder in bringing Moloch to horror-lovers worldwide. The film will have a wonderful home there. I know we have some very creepy stories to tell in the Netherlands and I'm really looking forward to inviting Shudder's diverse and international audience into the unique world of local Dutch folklore.

Miss Universe 2021 Harnaaz Sandhu and Miss Universe 2020 Andrea Meza set Instagram on fire as they grooved on popular rapper Badshah, Tainy and J Balvin’s latest song ‘Voodoo’. Andrea shared the video on Instagram. In the clip, the two beauty queens are seen twinning in a black bodycon dress. Andrea and Harnaaz even sported […]...

A brand new episode of Shudder’s “Cursed Films II” premieres tomorrow, April 28, and the subject for the latest Season 2 episode is Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow. In this Bloody Disgusting exclusive clip from the new episode, “Cathy Tyson, Bill Pullman, and makeup artist David LeRoy Anderson recall how attending a Haitian […]

The post “Cursed Films” Exclusive Clip Explores the Real Life Voodoo of ‘The Serpent and the Rainbow’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Like so many of our readers, I'm always fascinated by behind-the-scenes stories and changes that lead to the finished film we see on the big screen. Cursed Films on Shudder has been tackling productions that have achieved near mythical status due to their "Cursed" productions and the new season features The Wizard of Oz, Rosemary’s Baby, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Stalker, and Cannibal Holocaust. In our latest Q&a, we caught up with series writer / director / producer Jay Cheel, who talks about surprises this season, interview highlights, and what he'd like to see in a third season:

For this season of Cursed Films, did you have a personal favorite that Had to be included in this round?

Stalker is definitely a personal favourite of mine and I was thrilled that we had the chance to include it. It’s a bit of an esoteric entry, but I’m excited...

Indian singer, rapper, producer, entrepreneur and all-around superstar Badshah links with Latinx global superstar, music icon and entrepreneur, J Balvin, for international hit ‘Voodoo’, out today. A trilingual anthem – Hindi, Spanish, and English – produced by top hit making producer/ artist Tainy (who has churned out hits with Bad Bunny, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, […]...

Global desi-pop star Badshah has linked up with J Balvin and Tainy for his new single “Voodoo,” which is out via Capitol.

In the José-Emilio Sagaró-directed video for the trilingual track produced by Tainy — which combines Hindi, Spanish and English over foreboding synths and dembow drums — Badshah and J Balvin arrive at a mansion where mystical events are taking place. A woman is in the midst of a ritual that involves voodoo practices, candles, potions, herbs, and dancing, among other magical forces that transform her and conjure the one she desires.

Today marks the premiere of season 2 of Shudder's streaming docuseries "Cursed Films," which delves into the urban myths and legacies of movies that are supposedly haunted or bedeviled in some fashion. Far more than just a fact versus fiction investigation, each episode of "Cursed Films" provides useful historical and societal context for the motion pictures it explores. "Cursed Films" season 2 will include looks at "The Wizard of Oz," "Rosemary's Baby," "The Serpent and the Rainbow," Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece "Stalker," and the notorious "Cannibal Holocaust." 

Series creator (and co-host of the Film Junk podcast) Jay Cheel joined us over...

The post Cursed Films Creator Jay Cheel on Going Outside the Box in Season 2 [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

Hello, dear readers! A new month is nearly upon us, and in anticipation of the arrival of April, we have a rundown on a brand-new batch of VOD & Digital releases that will be coming out throughout the next few weeks. April kicks off in a big way with several different releases, including Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall, Let the Wrong One In from Conor McMahon, and the home invasion thriller Barbarians. Both Midnight and Vicious Fun are making their digital debuts on the 5th, Cursed Films returns for a second season just a few days later on April 7th, and we get the long-awaited sequel Wyrmwood: Apocalypse on the 14th.

Other Digital and VOD titles being released in the latter half of April include The Cellar on the 15th, Bloody Oranges on the 19th, Virus 32 on April 21st, and then Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy return for a brand-new season of...

TetroVideo has announced the release of Cross of the Seven Jewels (aka “La croce dalle 7 pietre” and “Il lupo mannaro contro la camorra”), the 1987 Italian horror film directed, written and starring Marco Antonio Andolfi, here credited as Eddy Endolf.

Marco Sartori (Marco Antonio Andolfi) becomes a sadistic werewolf after being cursed by a black magic society. Only a jeweled necklace he wears can stop the transformations taking place but one day the precious amulet is stolen while taking a trip from Naples to Rome.

Produced by G. C. Pictures, Cross of the Seven Jewels was distributed theatrically in Italy in 1987. After its release, Andolfi re-edited the film in 1995 for the Asian market and re-released it under the name Talisman. This version of the film included footage from documentaries, newsreel footage and from the film The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wes Craven.

Then in 2007, Eddy Endolf directed the medium-length film Riecco Aborym,...

Wes Craven is an undeniable master of horror, having terrified the world with his creation, "A Nightmare on Elm Street," only to completely subvert the slasher genre he helped perfect and kickstart a new generation's love of horror with "Scream." With no exaggeration, horror today would not exist as it does today if it weren't for the brilliance of Wes Craven. There's no question that bringing Freddy Krueger and Ghostface into the horror canon is what Craven is most known for, but his filmography also includes horror favorites like "The Hills Have Eyes," "Deadly Blessing," "The Serpent and the Rainbow," "Shocker," "Cursed," "Red Eye," "Swamp Thing,"...

The post The Last House On The Left Controversy Explained appeared first on /Film.

Our age of reboots, revivals, and revisitations is beginning to take its toll. With every new announcement comes the ceremonial rolling of the eyes from critics — unless they happen to be a fan of the IP, in which case the news is greeted with frenzied excitement — and grumblings from fans. Not that either has stopped the slow march toward net zero on creativity.

But while many reboots are content to do nothing more than update the technology for a beloved property and cash in on its name recognition, some are interested in exploring and questioning what made the original iteration so resonant while addressing its earlier failings. The prime example is Pop TV’s dearly beloved “One Day at a Time,” which took the original’s premise (single mom and kids struggling with divorce) and applied it to a Latinx family. Suddenly, an entirely new world of stories opened up,...

Wes Craven’s getting a 4K Ultra HD workout this year, what with his monster hit Scream arriving in 4K last month. This 1977 franchise-starter is a down & dirty slaughter-fest out in the desert, with bloody jeopardy its one and only reason for being. It can attest that it was quite a nail-biting experience in the theater, and we know this show has a legion of fans — think of the hundreds of films that imitate its concept. Starring Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, Martin Speer, Dee Wallace, Russ Grieve, John Steadman and Michael Berryman.

The Hills Have Eyes

4K Ultra HD

Arrow Video

1977 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 89 min. / Street Date November 23, 2021 / Available from Amazon / 59.95

Starring: Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, Martin Speer, Dee Wallace, Russ Grieve, John Steadman, Michael Berryman, Virginia Vincent, James Whitworth.

Cinematography: Eric Saarinen

Art Director: Robert Burns

Special Effects: Greg Auer, John Frazier

Film Editor: Wes Craven

Original Music: Don...

Swamp Dogs: House of Crows is a 5-issue comic book miniseries from a team that lives and breathes horror and we're very excited to have an exclusive preview just for Daily Dead readers! Below, we have an exclusive look at a variant cover from Chuma Hill, along with an exclusive preview of the first issue.

We were also fortunate to have an exclusive quote from J.M. Brandt, who talked about his horror movie influences:

"Swamp Dogs: House of Crows will be a 5-issue miniseries that kicks off the Swamp Dogs world of stories. It plays out just like a classic horror movie in terms of its beats and some of its tropes. Of course, we play with expectations a fair bit... but Theo and I find beauty, comfort, and a surprising amount of creative freedom in the horror movie formula. Theo has an actual university degree in cult films,...

Have you ever had a nightmare about being chased by zombies? Most people have. Do you think zombies have nightmares about us? These are the kinds of questions that keep my monkey brain somewhat sated; especially when I’m watching Zombie Nightmare (1987), a film that proffers voodoo, baseball, Batman, Thor, and Motorhead. So many queries, so few answers, so much fun.

Filmed in the summer of ‘86 in Quebec, Zombie Nightmare was supposed to have a Black-centric cast but writer (and ghost co-director) John Fasano (Black Roses) was told by director Jack Bravman (The Wetter the Better) that they’d have a hard sell with foreign investors, so the characters were changed. The more things stay the same, the more they stay the same.

Reviews were unkind, but the film somehow ended up grossing over a million and a half worldwide against a $180,000 budget after New World picked it up and...

Dawn Richard has taken a winding path through her nearly 20-year career. In the early 2000s, an audition for season three of the Diddy-helmed reality show Making the Band helped lead to stints in the R&b groups Danity Kane and Dirty Money; she’s also been an animator for Adult Swim, a vegan food truck proprietor, a New Orleans Hornets cheerleader, and an solo artist with five albums. That long arc has included moments of commercial success and periods of rejection in the fickle music industry. Now, she finds...

D’Angelo will face off against unnamed “friends” in an upcoming Verzuz episode. The battle, which takes place live at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater, will stream via Instagram Live on February 27th.

Launched last year by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland, the popular series features veteran songwriters, producers and artists who musically battle vying to outdo each other in a mostly friendly competition, although it has also presented artists who have had previous beefs. A recent Verzuz featured Gucci Mane and Jeezy, where the two Atlanta rappers rekindled their 15-year...

“Making a playlist is a delicate art,” as High Fidelity‘s Rob (Zoe Kravitz) would say. Whether you’re basking in light of a new crush, celebrating the anniversary of a first date, or wallowing in heartbreak, Rolling Stone has the playlist for you this Valentine’s Day.

If you want to celebrate your partner agreeing to settle down after a long period of “maybe”-ing: Beyonce, “Love on Top”

Beyoncé threw back to the era of New Edition and Whitney Houston with this joyful song, which uses key changes to heighten its ecstatic feel.

Black Sabbath released live renditions of “Heaven and Hell” and “The Mob Rules” from the upcoming reissues of their two albums of the same name, which were their only to feature frontman Ronnie James Dio in the Eighties.

The performance of “Heaven and Hell” is a rarity previously released only in Europe in 1980 as the B-side to the band’s “Die Young” single. The rendition of “The Mob Rules,” meanwhile, comes from a previously unreleased April 22nd, 1982 concert at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

The deluxe editions of Heaven and Hell...

Happy December, everyone! Now that we’re officially in the thick of the holiday season, today’s installment of the Daily Dead Holiday Gift Guide is focused on books for horror and sci-fi fans of all ages. Call me old fashioned, but I love finding a book or two under the tree every year, and in 2020, we had a ton of great books hit the shelves that would make for a great gift to give (or maybe you’re looking to spoil yourself a little bit).

Non-fiction:

Taking Shape II: The Lost Halloween Sequels

Authors Dustin McNeill and Travis Mullins are back to bring you an inside look at Twenty-four lost Halloween sequels you never saw on the big screen! Learn about these fascinating unmade visions direct from their creators, many of whom have never spoken publicly on the subject before. At 600 pages, Taking Shape II is brimming with untold franchise history.

'Voodoo' has come to represent something evil when it appears in popular culture. 'Black magic', witchcraft – it's always portrayed as something to be feared. But in reality, Vodou, as it's correctly written, is an official religion practised by millions of people. Why has it been vilified for so long? Josh Toussaint-Strauss looks back over the history of Vodou and its portrayal to find an answer...

Another Halloween treat for horror fans this weekend is Spell, a new horror film that is now available on premium VOD and for digital purchase. I recently had a chance to talk with director Mark Tonderai, who told me about his interest and connection to this film and its themes, working with Omari Hardwick and Loretta Devine, and the films that inspired his take on Spell.

Can you talk about how you got involved with Spell and what was the creative process of getting from what you had in your head to the finished film?

Mark Tonderai: I've been doing a lot TV for a while now and I've really enjoyed working with some of the most amazing crews kind of in the business. But the real trick for TV is that you can't really sort of claim ownership of it creatively. You can to a certain extent, as a TV director,...

Actress Alex Essoe walks is through some of her favorite dream sequences.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Starry Eyes (2014)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Beyond The Black Rainbow (2010)

Mandy (2018), as usual

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Death of Me (2020)

Life Dances On (1937)

Tales of Manhattan (1942)

I Love You, Alice B Toklas (1968)

Papillon (1973)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

The Conversation (1974)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)

Nashville (1975)

The Ninth Configuration (1980)

The Exorcist (1973)

Shutter Island (2010)

The Exorcist III (1990)

A Shot In The Dark (1964)

Another Woman (1988)

Stardust Memories (1980)

8 ½ (1963)

Interiors (1978)

Dumbo (1941)

Mulholland Drive (2001)

A Woman Under The Influence (1974)

Mulholland Falls (1996)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Fletch (1985)

The ’Burbs (1989)

Dreams (1990)

Ran (1985)

Homewrecker (2019)

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

The Wicker Man (1973)

Other Notable Items

Howard Hughes

Panos Cosmatos

The Haunting of Bly Manor TV series (2020)

Shelley Duvall

Tfh Guru Darren Lynn Bousman

The American Cinematheque

The New Beverly Theatre

Julien Duvivier

Jean Renoir

Jean-Luc Godard

François Truffaut

John Cassavetes...

Nearly five years after his death, horror fans across the world are remembering iconic movie director Wes Craven on what would have been his 81st birthday. Particularly loved by horror fans for helming popular genre movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, Craven passed away in 2015 after a battle with brain cancer at the age of 76. As such a beloved filmmaker widely considered to be among the horror genre's greatest talents of all time, many fans still feel the sting of his passing and have been paying tribute with posts on social media.

From the very start of his career, Craven had been making fantastic horror movies that would go on to become some of the genre's most popular offerings. He wrote and directed the gritty revenge movie The Last House on the Left in 1972, following this up with 1977's The Hills Have Eyes and its 1984 sequel. Craven...

Could your weekend playlist use a little more seasoning? Rolling Stone Latin selects some of the best new music releases from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Keep track of the latest in Latin via our playlist on Spotify.

Afro B and Ozuna, “Drogba (Joanna)” — the Global Latin Version

Momentum for cross-Atlantic collaborations between reggaetoneros and artists associated with afrobeats has been growing steadily since at least 2018; one of last year’s standout singles was the J Balvin, Bad Bunny, Mr. Eazi collaboration “Como Un Bebe,” which brought together Colombia, Puerto Rico,...

After last week’s home media offerings were rather meager, this Tuesday’s releases have come back with a vengeance, as we have a ton of fun titles to get excited about that are coming our way tomorrow.

In honor of its 40th anniversary, the original Friday the 13th is getting a Limited Edition Steelbook release this week, and in terms of modern slashers, you’ll definitely want to pick up The Hills Run Red from Scream Factory. The fine fiends at Scream Factory also have the next Universal Horror Collection on tap this Tuesday, and if you happen to dig exploitation movies, you’ll definitely want to check out Horrors of Spider Island from Severin Films.

Other releases for June 16th include Wrestlemassacre, The Marshes, Kill Mode, The Mermaid’s Curse, Deadly Crush, Primal Scream, and Voodoo.

Friday the 13th: 40th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook

Rip into a chilling...