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John Carpenter is one of our favorites of all time. Even his lesser stuff is fun to watch, or you get to see a glimpse of what could have been. He has a decade of work that is full of the best that horror and sci-fi have to offer as well as things later like the best Lovecraft adaptation that isn’t actually an adaptation. Speaking of which, the man has directed quite a few adaptations in his career. From the non-literal like the previously mentioned In the Mouth of Madness or even Assault on Precinct 13 being a loose adaptation of Rio Bravo to the very famous adaptations of Village of the Damned and of course The Thing, the man has made his mark on adapting. One that doesn’t get talked about as much, both as a movie itself and the fact that it’s an adaptation is...

Arachnophobia, an intense fear of spiders, ranks high among the most common phobias. There’s something about the eight-legged arthropods that sends a large percentage of the population into a panic. It probably doesn’t help that some are incredibly venomous, or that there’s upwards of tens of thousands of different species. Yet, whether it’s because arachnophobia is so prevalent or that the tiny creepy crawlers are tough to capture on-screen plausibly, horror movies featuring spiders is a more niche category. The high pinnacle of which is Arachnophobia, released in theaters on July 18, 1990. It’s the perfect blend of humor and horror, and practical effects with live spiders set the bar so high for spider horror that it’s still yet to be surpassed thirty-five years later.

An impressive directorial debut by executive producer Frank Marshall, Arachnophobia opens with a gorgeous trip to the Venezuelan rainforest. A photographer tags along with entomologist Dr.

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Scarlett Johansson is one of the biggest names in Hollywood. If there is an A-list, she is unquestionably on it, right alongside the likes of Tom Cruise, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, or anyone else one cares to name. Thanks to the recent success of "Jurassic World Rebirth" at the box office, Johansson is now literally the highest-grossing lead actor of all time. That comes from decades of work dating back to the mid-'90s. But long before she was mixing it up with dinosaurs, she once tangled with giant spiders in an oft-forgotten creature feature.

The movie in question is "Eight Legged Freaks" which, as the name suggests, is all about giant spiders. Directed by Ellory Elkayem, the film centers on the residents of a rural mining town. A chemical spill combined with the inhabitants of a local exotic creature...

As Hollywood's trend of reboots and remakes continues, horror fans had been expecting a new version of the 1990 film Arachnophobia to be remade by filmmaker Christopher Landon.

Back in 2022, reports emerged that Arachnophobia was getting a remake written and directed by Landon. There hadn't been any major updates shared about the project since, and in a new interview with Vanity Fair, Landon confirmed that the remake has been shelved. Curiously, he said that the reason the project fizzled out was because there was a certain "component" that made studio heads start to feel "uncomfortable" about moving forward. Landon said his unwillingness to remove this aspect from the film resulted in the project getting scrapped.

“There was a component that the studio was very nervous about and uncomfortable with—and that’s where we parted," he said. "I wasn’t willing to compromise on that. I wasn’t going to make...

Christopher Landon, the director of modern horror gems like Happy Death Day and Freaky, has become one of the most interesting directors in the genre nowadays. That is probably the reason why he was selected to direct the Arachnophobia remake, which was announced in 2022 and was set to be produced by James Wan and Steven Spielberg through Atomic Monster and Amblin Partners. However, Landon exited the project after completing the script, and, according to his account, it was due to creative differences over the direction of the movie.

Speaking with Vanity Fair, Landon revealed the real reasons why he abandoned his version of Arachnophobia, the 1990 movie directed by Frank Marshall and starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman. While we're sure he would have done a pretty good job at modernizing the concept of "small town gets infested with spiders," it seems that his vision didn't click well with the producers:...

At the junket for “Drop,” Christopher Landon’s new high-tech, Hitchcockian thriller about a single mom (played by “White Lotus” breakout Meghann Fahy) who goes on a date with a handsome stranger (“1923’s” Brandon Sklenar) and gets harassed by someone airdropping her threatening messages, the interview rooms were set up like the restaurant from the movie – a table, plates, silverware, the whole deal. It was a cool approximation of the movie but was also fitting for our conversation with director Christopher Landon, since “Drop” (from Blumhouse and Universal) comes after the director had flirted with a number of higher-profile franchise titles, before choosing this idiosyncratic gem.

“I know, I had all these big franchises that didn’t pan out,” Landon told TheWrap. “I have a franchise curse.”

Just a couple of years ago, Landon was flirting with a pair of big studio projects – a body horror reimagining of “Arachnophobia,” which...

Before Christopher Landon was developing his latest film, Drop, he was preparing to tackle a creature feature remake. Back in 2022, the Happy Death Day helmer had a gnarly take on the classic Arachnophobia in the works with Amblin Partners involved and James Wan's Atomic Monster producing. It seemed like the perfect project for him, thanks to his brand of horror-comedy, but it sadly will never see the light of day. In a new conversation with TheWrap, Landon confirmed that he is no longer involved in the feature and shared what his vision was for the spider-centric flick.

Released in 1990, the original Arachnophobia from Frank Marshall takes place in rural California, where a deadly spider arrived in the U.S. after hitching a ride with a dead nature photographer from Venezuela. When people mysteriously begin dropping dead in the photographer's hometown, local arachnophobe Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels) suspects the...

On June 11, 2018, it was announced that genre regular James Wan’s company Atomic Monster was teaming up with Amblin to produce a remake of the 1990 “nature run amok” horror film Arachnophobia – and almost exactly four years later, we heard that that Christopher Landon, director of Happy Death Day and Freaky, would be writing and directing the new take on Arachnophobia. Fourteen months after that, it was announced that Landon was set to direct Scream 7. But, as it turns out, Landon won’t be making either of those movies – and in a new interview with Vanity Fair, he revealed exactly why he stepped away from both projects.

As we all know, Scream 7 completely fell apart around Landon. At one time, it was expected that Scream (2022) and Scream VI leads Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega would be the leads in this sequel as well. But then Barrera was fired from...

Original “Scream 7” director Christopher Landon quit the horror sequel after receiving troubling, upsetting death threats.

In an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, Landon revealed that he received a wave of vitriolic hatred following the departures of original “Scream 7” stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega so intense that he felt like he had no choice but to abandon the film’s director’s chair. “‘Scream’ was a very dark and tumultuous experience,” the filmmaker said.

“People were threatening to kill me and my family, to the point where the FBI was getting involved,” Landon, who has two young sons with husband Cody Morris, explained. “The head of security at various studios and the FBI had to examine the threats. It was highly aggressive and really scary.”

When Landon was selected as the director of “Scream 7,” he seemed like a natural choice to take over the franchise. In films like “Happy Death Day,...

Steven Spielberg (“Jurassic Park”) and Frank Marshall (“Congo”) have been working together at Amblin Entertainment to get a remake of their 1990 horror-comedy “Arachnophobia” off the ground. At one point, horror guru James Wan (“Malignant”) was involved only for Christopher Landon (“Drop”) to be ultimately selected to write/direct a reboot based on the deadly spider invasion flick and finished a script back in 2023.

Continue reading ‘Arachnophobia’: “Brutal Body Horror” Remake Scrapped By Amblin, John Goodman Might Have Returned at The Playlist.

As you may recall, it was announced back in 2022 that Christopher Landon would be directing a new take on Arachnophobia, and while it seems like Amblin and James Wan’s Atomic Monster are still planning to remake the classic film, Landon reveals in a new chat with The Wrap that his take on the material has been scrapped.

What happened? Creative differences, according to Landon.

The filmmaker explained to The Wrap, “I wrote a script that I loved. I actually think it was one of my best. But the problem with that is that you still have to deal with other people who have different opinions about what kind of movie we should be making. This was a classic case of creative differences and it was something that I was not willing to change.”

“Everybody moved on and that was just the way that it went. But at least it was a calm separation,...

Not long ago, director Christopher Landon of “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky” fame was attached to a remake of low-key horror comedy classic “Arachnophobia.”

In fact, the last time TheWrap talked to Landon — around the time of his Netflix movie “We Have a Ghost” — he was coming from a meeting where he was picking out the spiders that would star in his take on the 1990 original.

This didn’t end up happening, as Landon revealed that he is no longer attached to “Arachnophobia.”

While we were chatting with Landon about his excellent new thriller “Drop,” we had to ask – what was his take on “Arachnophobia?”

“I wrote a script that I loved. I actually think it was one of my best,” he explained. “But the problem with that is that you still have to deal with other people who have different opinions about what kind of movie we should be making.

We’re about to find out where roughly half of Jimmy’s neuroses come from.

Emmy winner Jeff Daniels is joining Shrinking‘s Season 3 cast, TVLine has confirmed. He will play Jimmy’s dad in a guest arc. Our sister site Deadline first reported the casting.

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Daniels has taken home two Primetime Emmys: One in 2013 for playing cable news...

Peter Jason, the prolific character actor best known for his work on Deadwood and his numerous John Carpenter collaborations, died at 80 on Thursday, February 20. Jason's career spanned decades and encompassed everything from Westerns to horror films and video games.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Peter Jason passed away in his West Hollywood home following a long battle with cancer. Jason was born on July 22, 1944, in Hollywood, CA, and began working on stage while he studied drama at Carnegie; his passion for theater continued throughout his life, with participation in over 150 plays. In the 1960s, he began making television appearances with roles in shows including The F.B.I., Cimarron Strip, and Here Come the Brides, with his film debut arriving in 1970, when he briefly appeared in Howard Hawks' western Rio Lobo as Lieutenant Forsythe.

Throughout his decades-long career, Jason amassed over 250 credits across film, television and video games. On screen, Jason often portrayed military and authority figures,...

Over the course of a career that stretched back to 1967, Peter Jason racked up more than 270 screen acting credits, turning in performances that inspired legendary filmmaker John Carpenter to name him “one of the great character actors in cinema” – and to cast him in seven different projects: Prince of Darkness, They Live, Body Bags, In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A., and Ghosts of Mars. Sadly, Carpenter has now had to take to social media to break the news to his fans and followers that Jason has passed away at the age of 80. Carpenter wrote, “His first movie was Howard Hawks’ Rio Lobo. He was a dear friend and I’ll miss him terribly.“

It is true that the 1970 film Rio Lobo was Jason’s first theatrical feature, but he already had three years of TV acting to his name at that point, with credits...

Peter Jason, the extremely busy character actor who appeared in nine features for Walter Hill and seven for John Carpenter and portrayed the card dealer-turned-reverend Con Stapleton on HBO’s Deadwood, has died. He was 80.

Jason died Thursday in his West Hollywood home after a long battle with cancer, a family representative told The Hollywood Reporter.

Jason amassed more than 275 acting credits on IMDb alone during his seven-decade onscreen career that began in the mid-1960s with a comedy sketch on CBS’ The Red Skelton Show, and he made his big-screen debut in Howard Hawks’ final film, Rio Lobo (1970), where his character died in the arms of John Wayne.

The Hollywood native also was an actor and production associate for Orson Welles on The Other Side of the Wind, which came out in 2018 after 48 years in development.

After working for Hill in The Driver (1978) and The Long Riders (1980), the fun-loving...

Character actor and frequent John Carpenter collaborator Peter Jason has passed away at the age of 80.

He amassed over 250 acting credits over the span of his seven-decade career, including seven Carpenter films: Prince of Darkness, They Live, Body Bags, In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A., and Ghosts of Mars.

“Peter Jason, one of the great character actors in cinema, has died,” Carpenter shared on X. “His first movie was Howard Hawks’ Rio Lobo. He was a dear friend and I’ll miss him terribly.”

Jason’s other genre credits include Arachnophobia, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Congo, Mortal Kombat, Dreamscape, Willow Creek, Dante’s Peak, Alien Nation, and Trick or Treats.

Outside of the genre, the prolific actor’s appeared in “Deadwood,” The Karate Kid, Hail Caesar!, Adaptation., Seabiscuit, and 48 Hrs., to name a few.

The post Peter Jason, Character Actor and John Carpenter Regular, Has...

It’s hard to believe there was a time when Dumb and Dumber was considered bad by viewers. Even though the Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels Farrelly brothers comedy is considered a classic now (and both critics and audiences alike would rank the movie as one of the greatest comedies of all time), Jeff Daniels has kept proof that the movie wasn’t universally loved when it was first released. Daniels has even spoken before about making the transition from movies like Gettysburg to something like Dumb and Dumber, where he thought the toilet scene would end his career.

However, According to Variety, Daniels has now revealed that not only did he read a large number of bad reviews, but he clipped them and saved them in a scrapbook. The Arachnophobia star told The Guardian,

I have a theatre company in Michigan so I put on a preview. I was sat...

Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, the wife-and-husband producers who have 13 Oscar nominations and an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award between them, will be honored at the Oscar Wilde Awards next month.

The 19th annual event is scheduled for Feb. 27, three days before the Academy Awards, at the historic Ebell theater in Los Angeles. Actors John C. Reilly and Éanna Hardwicke will be saluted as well.

Also new to the lineup is Will Ferrell, who will introduce Reilly and hand him his trophy. The pair, of course, have co-starred in such films as Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Step Brothers (2008) and Holmes & Watson (2018).

Created by the US-Ireland Alliance, the Oscar Wilde Awards celebrate the work of those from Ireland — and some who are not — who contribute to film, television and music. (Kennedy, with eight Oscar noms, and Marshall, with five, are Californians born in Berkeley and Glendale, respectively.

Billy Bob Thornton has had a longtime love in his life.

The 69-year-old Landman actor has had some high profile romances in his time, but he’s been with his wife Connie Angland for over 20 years.

Fans might be curious to know more about the superstar actor’s personal life.

Keep reading to find out more…

Connie, 60, also worked in the film industry, but aas a puppeteer and makeup and special effects artist.

Her first credit was for animatronic engineer in the 1990′s Arachnophobia, and she’s worked on Men In Black, Planet of the Apes and, most recently, 2002′s Men In Black II.

The two met on the set of Bad Santa shortly after his divorce from his fifth wife, Angelina Jolie, in May 2003. She became pregnant in April 2004 and the two welcomed their daughter Bella on September 22, 2004 – Billy‘s fourth child and Connie‘s first and only.

He...

Bill Paxton was best known for his affable, energetic presence in big-budget Hollywood blockbusters like Aliens and Predator 2 — but he was a much more adventurous actor than most fans realize. Case in point: 1992's The Vagrant, a mind-boggling black comedy about an uptight suburbanite whose life is turned upside-down by a demonic derelict. This grotesque and perversely hilarious film shows off sides of Bill Paxton few fans have ever seen.

Backed by none other than Mel Brooks, The Vagrant is an absurdist satire of American society, in which Paxton's pretentious yuppie strives for conformity, but has to access his animal nature to defeat the titular Vagrant. Cult favorites Michael Ironside and Marshall Bell costar in this forgotten film, which is a must-see for fans of high camp, gruesome horror, and of course, the late, great Bill Paxton, who gives his all in a film like no other.

Related...

To some, the 1990s seem like just yesterday. To others, they're a vintage decade with sparse technology and classic, "old" movies. Both can be true at the same time, and when it comes to films from that decade, there was a lot of variety, especially in the realm of horror. While some '90s horror movies didn't age well, some films, like Scream and Death Becomes Her, impacted the genre in an innovative way while playing with familiar themes.

With nostalgia being such a huge part of modern filmmaking, audiences have been drawn to well-known films being reimagined for a new millennium. Many '90s horror movies and their iconic scream queens have already seen sequels and reboots, with some franchises still going strong. Others have been tucked away for over three decades, just waiting for a fresh new take, and some are definitely primed to get updates.

Idle Hands...

Remakes and reboots are all the rage as studios rely on resurrecting popular movies to garner the interest of nostalgic fans and new audiences, and it's no different for the horror genre. Despite the criticisms against remakes as cash grabs, the remake resurgence remains strong. The horror movie genre is particularly filled with remakes of cult classics and iconic slashers that breathe life into beloved horror franchises and revive overlooked and underrated terrifying movies.

While it is understandable to be cautious about remakes of beloved films, revisiting classics can sometimes allow for new, equally interesting interpretations. There have been some horror movie remakes that managed to find their voice while honoring the original story, even though this doesn't always happen. The list of upcoming horror remakes includes both projects that have been in development hell for a while as well as films that are set to premier relatively soon.

Arachnophobia...

While the horror genre has traditionally been intended for a more mature audience, numerous 'gateway' movies are targeted towards younger viewers and have a lower MPAA rating. Goosebumps is a great example, as are Coraline, The Corpse Bride, and the TV show Wednesday. However, young people will find a way to watch content that's not suitable for their age range, regardless of the censors.

Horror movies are designed to terrify, disgust, and thrill audiences in equal measure, and there's no fun in sticking to PG-13 horror movies forever. As such, it's no surprise that millennials have been brought up on more extreme films from the genre. Some of the best gateway horror movies may have been R-rated upon release, but would likely get a lower rating in some cases now. However, that's not to say they're appropriate for fans who experienced them way too young.

Arachnophobia Directed By Frank Marshall...

As the final stretch of October sets in, there is still plenty of time to catch favorite flicks, spooky, witchy, scary or cozy in the season of pumpkins, monsters and more. Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween has several classic films airing all month long such as Casper (1995), Arachnophobia, Goosebumps, Edward Scissorhands, etc.

More recent films like 2021’s Ghostbustesr: Afterlife, 2022’s Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) and Haunted Mansion (2023) will also be available. Disney+ is the home of several of the movies in the below list, as is Max. Follow along below for your favorite titles as well as what is available by streamer and network.

Movies:

While Bram Stoker’s Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola is streaming on MGM+, several other vampire movies like Interview with the Vampire are available on Max. Peacock also boasts a couple newer fanged flicks like Renfield (2023) and Abigail (2024). Twilight is not streaming anywhere currently, but...

"Creature feature" is a vague term that could conceivably apply to any film featuring a monster. A noted local TV series from the 1960s, Creature Features, played everything from classic Universal Monster movies to Hammer horror movies to Roger Corman's bevy of drive-in double bills. The phrase thus has wide applications and generally refers to any horror movie with a sufficiently limited budget.

More specifically, creature features usually involve monsters, aliens, or similar threats with limited intelligence, but deadly intentions towards humanity. While hardly a noble genre, it's produced some notable classics, some of which are due for an update or a reboot. With the Godzilla and Jurassic Park franchises in full swing and a new version of Arachnophobia in development, there are more than enough old creature features that could benefit from a 21st-century update.

Updated on October 15, 2024, by Robert Vaux: The success of the Monsterverse and the...

The Sixth Sense may have been a monster hit, but it inadvertently killed its own studio brand! Here’s how Disney’s mega-hit ended Hollywood Pictures!

Twenty-five years after its debut, much has been written about The Sixth Sense and its impact. One thing overlooked is how almost no one in Hollywood expected this supernatural thriller to make an impact. Indeed, in their annual Summer Movie Preview issue in 1999, Entertainment Weekly didn’t even mention Sense.

Sure, it had a big-name star in Bruce Willis, but it was an odd film from a completely unknown writer/director being released in August, traditionally the dumping ground for bad movies. It debuted to $26.6 million, then the highest August release. Thanks to good reviews, strong word of mouth and, of course, that now-famous twist ending, Sense became the second highest-grossing movie of 1999, $672.8 million worldwide. It earned multiple Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and director,...

Satan's Swarm is the new graphic novel from Steve Niles and Piotr Kowalski that is sure to make your skin crawl! Described as a creepy mix between Arachnophobia and Jurassic Park, the graphic novel is available from Dark Horse Books just in time for Halloween, and we have an exclusive preview you can read right now!

"Dark Horse Books presents Satan’s Swarm, a new horror graphic novel from horror masters Steve Niles and Piotr Kowalski, colored by Lovern Kindzierski and lettered by Nate Piekos.

Dr. Philip Morgan invites entomologists, young influencers, and a reporter, amongst others, to his secluded coastal research facility for a mysterious and bizarre study. What they find is a zoo of death, where local residents have been eaten to the bone, and the specimens they have come to understand have them on the menu next.

Satan’s Swarm Tpb [72 pages, 6.25 x 10.1875”) crawls in bookstores October 1, 2024 and into comic shops October 2, 2024. It is now available to pre-order for $22.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local comic shop and indie bookstore.

Quick Links Everything Coming To Peacock In October The Best Movies And Shows Arriving On Peacock This Month

Peacock features a robust catalog of movies and TV shows, with even more coming to the streaming service in October 2024. Launched to great fanfare in 2020, Peacock changed the streaming game with its mixture of free and paid content, and the streamer was able to land top-tier shows like The Office because of its NBC affiliation. In the years since its debut, Peacock has further expanded its reach by including many hit films on its platform, and it offers one of the largest streaming collections available. Like most streaming services, Peacock's catalog isn't stagnant, and each month the streamer adds dozens of new shows and movies to keep things fresh.

Additionally, Peacock has also become a home for live-streaming sports, and their lucrative deals with the MLB, Premiere League, and World Wrestling Entertainment...

Intro: When you’re a hugely successful bodybuilder from a small village in Austria, and you’ve not only managed to successfully make the transition from pumping iron to pumping lead pipes into Aussie bad guys, the world is seemingly very much your oyster. Or so they say. As you’ll no doubt know nothing was standing in the Austrian Oak’s way when he set his mind to prove people wrong. Nobody, especially the studios, were convinced that he could win audiences over as a believable comedy performer, yet his unlikely partnership with the diminutive and awesome Danny DeVito in Twins proved that not only could Arnie bring the gags, but that he could also bring the box-office numbers to satiate the stuffy studio heads.

So, just where did his career go next? Now that Arnie had proved to people that he was box office gold for comedy, as well as action and sci-fi,...

Throughout film history, there have been companies and, for certain stretches, whole studios notorious for churning out garbage. Obviously, American International Pictures had a rep for schlock, but they hit for a shockingly high average at their late 1950s and '60s peak. There's also Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus' Cannon Films, which sparkled with its constellation of B-list action stars like Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson, but Golan was a filmmaker himself with dreams of respectability who courted legit directors like Franco Zeffirelli, Jerry Schatzberg, and Andrei Konchalovsky to make Academy Awards-worthy movies for his exploitation factory.

One of the more outlandishly awful runs from any production entity was Hollywood Pictures, which was created by Disney to nurture fledgling executives and feed film-starved multiplexes — lacking in the wake of MGM/UA, Lorimar and Deg's financial difficulties — with new movies. Disney wasn't sending its best to Hollywood Pictures, so agents...

With The Birds ending explained, the deeper themes and meaning of Alfred Hitchcock's chilling thriller become clear and, once they are, so does the movie's reputation as a classic by one of the most influential directors in history. Loosely adapted from the 1952 short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, the 1963 masterpiece takes place in the seaside town of Bodega Bay, where things take a sinister turn when the local bird population starts swooping down to attack people. Screenwriter Evan Hunter took the premise of unexplained bird attacks from du Mauriers source material but invented new complex characters and a twistier plot, which brought different themes to the table.

Hot off one of the biggest hits of his career with the pioneering slasher Psycho, Hitchcock set his sights on a different horror subgenre with The Birds. This movie brought the natural thriller into the mainstream, paving the...

Freeform has released it’s annual 31 Nights of Halloween special programming!

The Disney-owned network celebrates Halloween all October long with non-stop movies each year, and they are ramping up the lineup this year.

Fans can expect many of their usual fare, including classics like Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown, Casper, Beetlejuice, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edward Scissorhands.

New to the lineup this year will include some newer movies, as well as double features, a full season binge of Disney+’s Goosebumps series and even a Tim Burton marathon!

Keep reading to find out more…

2023′s Haunted Mansion is set to make its broadcast debut on Freeform this season, plus Arachnophobia, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Muppets From Space are all new additions to the lineup!

They’re even throwing in some not-so-spooky movies like Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Incredibles,...

Freeform‘s 2024 lineup for its annual 31 Nights of Halloween programming slate is delivering plenty of thrills and chills just in time for spooky season. Kicking off on Tuesday, October 1, the month-long programming block will feature plenty of favorites and classics including Casper, Beetlejuice, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands. There are a few fun double-features to look forward to as well with Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2, which will make its television debut, as well as Monsters Inc. and Monsters University, among others. And don’t miss the broadcast debut of 2023’s Haunted Mansion, and Freeform premieres of Arachnophobia, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and Muppets From Space. Below, see the full lineup for what’s to come this October on Freeform. Tuesday, October 1 1:00 p.m.: Halloweentown 3:00 p.m.: The Haunted Mansion (2003) 5:05 p.m.: Tim Burton’s...

The Halloween season is officially upon us, and Freeform kicks off the celebration this afternoon with the full schedule for this year’s “31 Nights of Halloween” extravaganza!

Freeform will be showing fright flicks from October 1 – October 31, and this year’s schedule includes fan favorite classics such as Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as new arrivals including Hocus Pocus 2 and the Disney+ “Goosebumps” series.

Another film making its world television premiere? Last year’s Haunted Mansion from Disney.

Here’s the full schedule for Freeform’s “31 Nights of Halloween” 2024…

Tuesday, Oct. 1

1:00 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “Halloweentown”

3:00 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “The Haunted Mansion” (2003)

5:05 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”

6:45 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “Beetlejuice”

8:50 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “Hocus Pocus”

Wednesday, Oct. 2

1:00 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “Arachnophobia” – Freeform Premiere

3:30 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “Beetlejuice”

5:35 p.

Grab your pumpkin spice lattes because Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween returns for a frightfully delightful lineup of Halloween favorites that will keep viewers entranced all month long.

Eerily epic Halloween films ranging from classics like Casper, Beetlejuice, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands to modern fan favorites like 2023’s Haunted Mansion (broadcast debut), Cruella, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife will fill Freeform’s beloved lineup.

Dastardly double features include Hocus Pocus/Hocus Pocus 2 (broadcast debut), Monsters Inc./Monsters University, and The Incredibles/The Incredibles 2. Timeless favorites include the Freeform premieres of Arachnophobia, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and Muppets From Space.

Tim Burton fans, rejoice! The lineup features a marathon of Tim Burton’s ghoulishly grand films on Sunday, Oct. 13, including 2019’s live-action Dumbo, Frankenweenie, and Dark Shadows, among other classics. In need of a good binge session?...

It’s almost spooky season, which means that Freeform’s 31 Night of Halloween is quickly approaching.

The network released its schedule for October, full of nostalgic frights and more recent haunts. In fact, a few titles will be launching on linear TV for the first time, including the 2023 adaptation of Haunted Mansion, which will air on October 5.

Hocus Pocus 2 will also make its world television debut on October 6. Freeform will also host a marathon of the Disney+ series Goosebumps on October 25.

Don’t worry, all the usual favorites like Halloweentown, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, the original Hocus Pocus and more are on the schedule as well.

Cruella, the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors, Monsters, Inc. and Encanto are also in the mix.

Here’s the full schedule:

Tuesday, Oct. 1

1:00 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “Halloweentown”

3:00 p.m. Edt/Pdt – “The Haunted Mansion” (2003)

5:05 p.

We talk a lot about the top of the pile when discussing horror novels and novelists. Obviously, the top of that pile is a certain man by the name of Stephen King. However, if you were going to have a Mount Rushmore of authors with him, I’m throwing the great Michael Crichton up there with him in one of the other 3 spots. Yeah, I know he’s not known as a hardcore horror guy, or even really a horror guy at all, I know for a fact his most well-known work Jurassic Park scared the bejesus out of a whole generation of kids. For that matter, I showed that movie to my kids as their first entryway into horror. While I’ll probably tackle Jurassic Park at some point as it is vastly different from book to movie, let me know in the comments if you guys want that,...

To celebrate the release of the skin-crawling horror Sting – out now on Digital and available and Blu-ray & DVD from August 19th – we have a Blu-ray up for grabs!

Sting is a surefire winner for fans of spine-chilling creature features like Arachnophobia and 8-Legged Freaks. Written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) and featuring astounding special effects from the Academy Award-winning Weta Workshop, Sting is inspired by one of humanity’s greatest fears, arachnophobia, and made more monstrous than ever before.

Watch the official trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys807OKQrgE

A strange little spider falls from the sky and is discovered by Charlotte (Alyla Browne), a rebellious 12-year-old girl who names it Sting. As Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable. Neighbours’ pets start to go missing, and then the neighbours themselves. Soon...

I hate when people claim “nothing has come out this year” when it’s more a matter of access versus lack of great content. 2024 has already seen a slew of fantastic horror films released. And yet, I’m still hearing the same sentiment. “Nothing has been released.” “The year is trash.” We must be looking at completely different years because not only has this year been killer, but we’ve received some films that transcend labels. Chris Bumbray recently revealed his own favorites of the year, so I felt it was time to focus on the horror side. So join me as I look back on the best horror films of the first half of 2024.

Longlegs:

Rarely does a film live up to the hype when said hype is astronomically large. Yet Longlegs managed to come along with absolutely tremendous performances and a terror that emanates every bit of celluloid.

The Beach Boys are back.

The seminal American band, responsible for such tunes classics as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “Surfin’ U.S.A.” and “Good Vibrations,” originally consisting of brother Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine, are getting the feature-length rock doc treatment. And with good reason – the story of The Beach Boys, a band known for their sunny disposition, is fraught with tragedy, disloyalty and acrimony. But all of that pain went into their music, creating something simultaneously euphoric and melancholy. And it will all make for a very juicy documentary – just in time for summer!

When does “The Beach Boys” come out?

“The Beach Boys” premiered Friday, May 24. Just in time for the long Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial kick-off to summer.

Is “The Beach Boys” streaming or in theaters?

“The Beach Boys” is streaming exclusively on Disney+.

What is “The Beach Boys” about?...

If you're going to make a creature feature, making spiders the villains is the easiest way to frighten an audience. Some have done it well, like this year's Sting and Infested, along with 1977's William Shatner-starring Kingdom of the Spiders. Some have gone for a more silly route, such as 2002's Eight Legged Freaks. And then there's the plethora of giant spiders made of bad CGI in little-seen movies over the last few decades. But no creature feature made up of eight-legged creepy crawlies will ever top 1990's Arachnophobia, starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, and directed by Frank Marshall. It has some comedy, for sure (Goodman is hilarious as exterminator Delbert McClintock), but it's also truly terrifying because almost every single shot includes real spiders. There is no CGI, and outside of a few scenes of Daniels battling the final boss spider, no use of animatronics. That doesn't...

Jeff Daniels was ready to dive deep into the comedy world when agreed to the Farrelly brothers’ buddy comedy film Dumb and Dumber. Working alongside Jim Carrey, Daniels wanted to make sure that he didn’t want to be remembered as ‘Jim and the other guy’. Despite coming from dramatic roles, Daniels did some of the most humiliating scenes that brought out the best comedy in the film.

Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber | New Line Cinema

One scene involved the actor having an intestinal purge on his romantic interest’s toilet. Daniels was concerned that the scene would end his career. However, a little appreciation from Clint Eastwood, who could relate to the scene, reassured him that his career was intact.

Jeff Daniels Feared That Dumb and Dumber‘s Toilet Scene Would End His Career

A still of Jeff Daniels from the toilet scene in Dumb and Dumber...

For many viewers, the idea of a PG-13 horror movie might seem like an oxymoron. After all, how can you get a truly spooky tale while at the same time holding back on all the gruesomeness, the fear factor, and the gore that horror stories usually entail? But, as the more seasoned viewer is quicker to recognize, there are indeed many great PG-13 horror movies out there, some of which are truly terrifying. And the best part of it is that you can watch them with the kids and delight yourself as they get to experience true chills for the first time in their lives! But while the options are many, ranging from modern flicks such as Insidious and A Quiet Place to classics like Poltergeist and Arachnophobia, your best bet if you want a true hair-raiser is Gore Verbinski's The Ring.

Cinematically speaking, spiders are having a miniature moment. On April 12, 2024, fans of creature features were treated to Kiah Roache-Turner's "Sting," a film about an alien spider that grows to an enormous size and terrorizes the denizens of a run-down apartment building. Then, on April 26, the United States was granted access to Sébastien Vanicek's "Infested" (French title: "Vermines"), a film about many spiders that grow to enormous sizes and terrorize the denizens of a run-down apartment building. These two films, of course, came hot on the heels of the February release of "Madame Web," the best Spider-Man-adjacent, non-Marvel-Cinematic-Universe-related mid-budget clairvoyance caper film ever made. 

Children of the '90s may be getting flashbacks to the glories of Frank Marshall's 1990 spider horror/comedy "Arachnophobia," one of the more exciting mainstream horror films of its era. In "Arachnophobia," a venomous Venezuelan spider is accidentally shipped to the United States,...

From the classic 1950s sci-fi horror movie Them! to the more realistic recent films, insects have terrified moviegoers for years. Creepy-crawlies like giant bugs and super-deadly spiders have been the focus of horror films, providing a range of body-horror-inducing features. Movies like The Fly and Arachnophobia showcase the horrifying transformation of characters due to interactions with bugs, offering excellent scares.

The insect world is full of creepy specimens that humans would gladly cross the road to avoid, and when a spider horror movie arrives, the results are usually quite entertaining. For years, spiders and other insects have played a huge role in scaring the pants off of moviegoers, especially those with bug phobias. The best and worst thing about horror movie spiders and bugs is how these fictional creepy-crawlies display a range of body-horror-inducing features not present in nonfictional invertebrates. Seeing them in a terrifying role in a film is...

Stephen King has spent decades writing his own horror stories, though there are still new genre films coming out that leave him impressed. The legendary author has given some high praise to Infested, a new horror film that's streaming on Shudder.

On his X account, King shared a post that includes a brief synopsis for the spider-centric horror film. He also noted how it's both "scary" and "gross," but at the same time, it's nicely done. As King put it in his X post, "Infested (Shudder): Spiders, some as big as puppies, overrun a French apartment building. Scary, gross, well made.."

Infested (Shudder): Spiders, some as big as puppies, overrun a French apartment building. Scary, gross, well made. Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 1, 2024

Related 10 Best Horror TV Shows of All Time The horror genre has produced some of the best television shows of all time, including a few whose...

We all love a "fun" horror movie, right? I'm talking about horror that feels like the cinematic equivalent of a roller coaster — fast, exhilarating, scary, but ultimately harmless. You buy the ticket and take the ride. But one of the things I love about the horror genre is that it's so damn flexible. On one hand, you can have fun horror movies like I just mentioned. And then there's the complete opposite: horror movies that make you squirm. Horror movies designed to make your skin crawl. Bugs, monsters, blood, body horror — the type of stuff that makes you feel like you need to take a shower after watching it. Those are the types of horror movies we're highlighting here — gnarly stuff, gross stuff, stuff that's going to make you feel more than a little icky. Be warned: it's about to get disgusting up in here.

Read more: The 95 Best Horror...

Art the Clown will be terrorizing audiences earlier than expected. Terrifier 3 has just had its theatrical release date moved up by two weeks.

According to Variety, Terrifier 3 will now open in theaters on Oct. 11, 2024. The movie was previously set to be released by Cineverse on Oct. 25. "Were so excited to bring the next Terrifier to theaters this fall just in time for the Halloween season," said producer Phil Falcone. "Terrifier 3 will deliver everything the fans expect and more with Art the Clown taking things to the next level. We cant thank our fans enough for their support and for making us believe weve made something truly special."

Related A Second Evil Dead Spinoff Movie Is in the Works, Confirms Sam Raimi The new Evil Dead spinoff is in development alongside the previously announced spinoff that will be directed and co-written by Sbastien Vaniek. Close What Is Terrifier 3 About?...

Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, and it’s easy to see why with his feature debut, the spider horror movie Infested. Playing like a cross between Attack the Block and Arachnophobia, Infested makes you care about its characters while delivering no shortage of skin-crawling spider horror moments.

Available now on Shudder, Infested follows Kaleb (Théo Christine), a lonely 30 year old who’s estranged from his best friend and at odds with his sister over their crumbling apartment. His dreams of opening a reptile zoo get drastically thwarted when he brings home an illegally acquired desert spider, one that happens to be gravid, and it gets loose. One hatched egg sac gives way to hundreds more, plunging the apartment building into a visceral arachnophobic nightmare.

It’s not just that Infested employs real spiders for many of the skin-crawling horror moments that make it so effective,...