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New month, new horror recommendations from Deep Cuts Rising. This final installment of 2024 features five selections reflecting the month of December in some way, shape or form.

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

This month’s offerings include a Christmas slasher, a holiday-set creature feature, and more.

Madhouse (1974)

Pictured: Madhouse (1974).

Directed by Jim Clark.

It’s hard to resist a horror movie starring both Vincent Price and Peter Cushing. Even harder when it’s as on the nose as Madhouse (or The Revenge of Dr. Death). Two seasoned genre veterans like Price and Cushing were not as in demand as they used to be when this flick first came out; horror cravings had already started to change by then. And while it doesn’t lean as hard into the meta commentary as it could have,...

In "Deadpool & Wolverine," the first half of that duo (Ryan Reynolds) jokes that the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Multiverse Saga" isn't really working. Does that mean Marvel Studios is switching course? Probably not, if the forthcoming "Avengers: Secret Wars" is any indication.

The MCU has largely been using the concept of infinite worlds as metatext about different superhero movie franchises. "Deadpool & Wolverine" is about how Deadpool wants to be a hero worthy of the Avengers -- a transparent representation of how Disney acquired Wade's previous owner, 20th Century Fox. Sony's "Spider-Verse" films are at least a tad more creative, using different universes to represent different animation styles.

As a comic fan, it's a bit surprising that Marvel has embraced the multiverse. That storytelling device has always been more DC's thing, going back to 1961's "The Flash of Two Worlds". There is one exception to that rule: the X-Men,...

Alright, sweethearts, you heard the man and you know the drill. There have been plenty of documentaries about Aliens before, as anyone who has owned the beloved 1986 sci-fi sequel from James Cameron on its various formats can attest (some hardcore fans still insist the 1992 LaserDisc Special Edition release has never been bettered). But there has never been any documentary quite as extensive, expansive or exhaustive as Aliens Expanded, a title that lives heartily up to its name due to a near-five-hour runtime — not quite as long as an unusually long hypersleep, but not far off. It comes from writer-director Ian Nathan, who has literally written the book on the film.

As with 2019’s Memory: The Origins Of Alien, about Ridley Scott’s original film (also featuring contributions from Nathan), this aims to be the definitive take on a definitive genre classic. With a runtime like that, it is fair to...

Spoilers for "X-Men '97" follow.

Rejoice, my X-Fans, for your theories have prevailed.

The "X-Men '97" season 1 finale, the three-part epic "Tolerance is Extinction," ended in shocking fashion. The big bad Bastion sent Asteroid M on a collision course with Earth, deciding to force humanity into extinction rather than evolution. Professor X, unable to not see the good in Magneto, even after his frenemy's torturous attack on Wolverine, pulls Erik back to the light with a telepathic therapy session. The X-Men, once more including Magneto, save the world. But then they vanish, pulled through time to the past, future (Cyclops and Jean), and parts unrevealed. The past X-Men, stranded in Egypt, circa 3000 BC, meet a grey-skinned mutant that fans will certainly recognize.

As is Marvel tradition, there's also post-credits scene revealing that, while the X-Men are scattered across time, an old foe is rearing his head. In the present, En Sabah Nur's future self,...

Shudder is heading into the Halloween season with a handful of brand new Shudder Originals, one of which is Raven’s Hollow, a horror story about a young Edgar Allan Poe.

Raven’s Hollow premieres on September 22, only on Shudder.

Bloody Disgusting is serving up an exclusive clip from Raven’s Hollow this afternoon, which sees a young Edgar Allan Poe stumbling across a still-living “scarecrow” in a field.

The dying man utters only one word to Poe… “Raven.”

In director Christopher Hatton‘s film, “West Point cadet Edgar Allan Poe and four other cadets on a training exercise in upstate New York are drawn by a gruesome discovery into a forgotten community where they find a township guarding a frightening secret.”

William Moseley plays the role of Edgar Allan Poe, starring alongside Melanie Zanetti, Kate Dickie (The Witch), David Hayman, Callum Woodhouse, and Oberon K.A. Adjepong.

Christopher Hatton wrote the script with Chuck Reeves.

Filmmakers behind Pixar’s SparkShorts “Burrow,” “Out,” “Float,” “Loop” and “Wind” will discuss their work in a free online PreVIEW talk presented by the View Conference, beginning at 10 a.m. Pt on Friday, Feb. 26. “Burrow” and “Out” are on the Academy’s shortlist for Oscar nominations.

The SparkShorts program was begun by Pixar in 2019 as a way for the studio’s staff to work on personal projects with limited studio oversight while exploring unique story ideas and storytelling techniques and testing new workflows.

“The Pixar SparkShorts program has already proven itself to be an inspiring way to nurture talent,” says View Conference director Maria Elena Gutierrez. “I am thrilled that these five talented directors will be joining us at our special View Conference PreVIEW event to talk about their work and offer further inspiration to aspiring artists and professionals alike.”

Madeline Sharafian, story lead on Disney-Pixar’s “Onward” and storyboard artist on “Coco,...

Two Pixar shorts, including one in which a young man struggles to tell his parents that he is gay, have made the shortlist in the Oscars Best Animated Feature category, the Academy announced on Tuesday.

“Out,” by Steven Clay Hunter, is the first Disney or Pixar movie to feature a gay main character. It made the shortlist along with another film from Pixar, Madeline Sharafian’s “Burrow.” Three other Pixar films — “Float,” “Loop” and “Wind” — were submitted but did not make the list. The company has won two of the last four Oscars in the category.

Other shortlisted films in the animated category include DreamWorks Animation’s “To Gerard”; “The Snail and the Whale,” from the filmmakers behind the 2010 nominee “The Gruffalo”; Netflix’s “If Anything Happens I Love You,” about the aftermath of a school shooting; and a number of films from around the world, including Iceland’s “Yes-People,...

With “Loop,” the animated short about the inner world of a non-verbal autistic 13-year-old girl (currently streaming on Disney+), Pixar achieved yet another inclusion and diversity breakthrough. It was written and directed by Erica Milsom, the studio’s in-house documentary filmmaker, who’s dedicated her life working with people with disabilities. And this week, “Loop” (made as part of the indie SparkShorts program), also streams at the Siggraph 2020 Computer Animation Festival, where it earned the Best in Show Award.

Milsom wanted to explore, through Renee (voiced by the autistic Madison Bandy), how we communicate and connect through sensory perception. She not only thoroughly researched autistic behavior but also invited a group of consultants from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network to dig deeper into the non-verbal characteristics that would help personify Renee. Something Milsom read online became her motto: “Nothing about us without us.”

But animation inspired her further with its unique ability to be non-verbal.

“Collaborating with Phillip was like a bucket list ‘tick,’” admits composer Paul Leonard-Morgan about working with acclaimed maestro Glass on Amazon’s sci-fi anthology series “Tales From the Loop.” “It was a really organic process [but] it took a while to trust each other and to try and get each other’s wavelength.” Watch our exclusive video interview with Leonard-Morgan above.

See Rebecca Hall Interview: ‘Tales From the Loop’

“Tales From the Loop,” which stars Rebecca Hall and Jonathan Pryce, is based on the acclaimed sci-fi illustrations of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag and was developed for TV by writer Nathaniel Halpern (“Legion”). The series follows the lives of the townsfolk living above “The Loop,” a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe. Unlike what we would ordinarily expect from the genre, the show is not focused on uncovering or explaining the mysteries of this otherworldly machine. Rather,...

Riverdale star Vanessa Morgan is speaking out against racial inequality in Hollywood — and that includes her own show.

Morgan, who plays Toni Topaz on the CW drama, posted a tweet on Sunday that says she’s “tired of how black people are portrayed in Media, tired of us being portrayed as thugs, dangerous or angry scary people. Tired of us also being used as sidekick non dimensional characters to our white leads. Or only used in the ads for diversity but not actually in the show.”

More from TVLineSkeet Ulrich Explains His Riverdale Exit: 'I Got Bored Creatively' — Watch VideoRiverdale...

It will come as no surprise to anyone who’s followed the career of director Mark Romanek that his newest work, “Loop,” the pilot episode for eight-episode Amazon Studios series “Tales From the Loop,” is as visually arresting as it is conceptually bold and emotionally evocative.

Best-known for his work on some of the past two decades’ most audacious and powerful music videos and commercials, Romanek has accrued multiple Grammy Awards for his clips for stars from Fiona Apple to Johnny Cash, Taylor Swift to Michael Jackson, Jay-Z to Joni Mitchell, Nine Inch Nails to Madonna. Prizes at Cannes Lions and more have come his way for innovative, emotive spots for Apple, Tiffany, Nike and American Express, among others.

Romanek’s feature film resume is shorter, but just as powerful, with Robin Williams-starrer “One Hour Photo” and his adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go” both visionary...

Early in "Loop," the first episode of the new Amazon sci-fi series Tales From the Loop, two children engage in a short but spirited ethical debate. While looking for her missing mother in some snowy woods, May (Abby Ryder Fortson) happens upon Cole (Duncan Joiner) as he pelts a two-legged robot

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Other Links From TVGuide.com Tales from the LoopJonathan PrycePaul SchneiderAto Essandoh...

“Tales From the Loop” has all the elements of a mystery box show, except it’s largely — and wisely — uninterested in its mystery. Set in a small Ohio town at an undisclosed time, the new science-fiction series from creator Nathaniel Halpern (a writer on “Legion”) tracks the lives of various locals who are affected by the titular “Loop”: a massive black machine housed underground within an experimental physics center.

So, what’s this machine do? As the company’s founder, Russ (Jonathan Pryce), explains to his grandson, Cole (Duncan Joiner), The Loop “makes the impossible, possible.”

More from IndieWire'Home Before Dark' Review: Apple TV's Family Drama Shows Old-School Mystery PotentialSXSW 2020 Finds New Virtual Home With Free Amazon Prime Streaming Collection

If your mind is already racing with possibilities, slow it down. While most writers would treat a statement like that as a starting gun, sending viewers through a...

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Tales from the Loop,” streaming now on Amazon.

From the moment it was conceived, “Tales From the Loop” — which debuted Thursday night on Amazon Prime Video — was unlike any science fiction TV series ever conceived, for the simple reason that it’s based on a series of paintings by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag.

Stålenhag’s artwork is at once everyday and fantastical — like a modest rural home sitting quietly in a winter landscape, while a robot stares almost plaintively at it from outside. When Nathaniel Halpern (“Legion”) first saw them while meeting with filmmaker Matt Reeves (“War for the Planet of the Apes”) at Reeves’ production company 6th & Idaho nearly five years ago, he was immediately captivated.

“It’s very hard to have an original aesthetic, especially in the science fiction genre,” Halpern tells Variety. “There’s something about...

Based on the work of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag but transplanted to the American heartland, “Tales From the Loop” places in counterpoint the endless sweep of midwest prairie and the machinations of unimaginable technology. It’s a show that is fascinating to look at — with episodes directed by top-flight talent including Mark Romanek, Andrew Stanton, and Charlie McDowell — even if its narrative is more conceptually interesting than moment-to-moment engaging.

The series, an anthology, takes place in a small town that’s home to a mega-machine whose purpose remains unclear. We follow various citizens, including Abby Ryder Fortson as a young girl whose mother goes missing, Jonathan Pryce and Jane Alexander as a married couple, and Ato Essandoh as a bored and loveless functionary whose life suddenly takes a sharp turn into the surreal. These stories tend to have a strong central idea — Essandoh’s episode, featuring his meeting his doppelganger...

Amazon Prime Video’s “Tales From the Loop” launches Friday and if you were wondering just what this new sci-fi show set in a town that resides above “The Loop” is all about, well TheWrap has an exclusive clip that won’t give you any answers, but will give you plenty more questions.

In the video, which you can view above, a tough little girl named Beth (Alessandra de Sa Pereira) is playing around with a pretty big robot in a large field when the police show up to warn her and her father that that thing is considered a menace by the other residents of their town.

Yeah, her father, Ed (played by Dan Bakkedahl), isn’t having it, insisting their large AI, which Beth controls via a device hooked up to her own body, isn’t bothering anyone. Though the cops leave, they don’t seem to buy this friendly neighborhood robot story.

Strange things happen in the town of Mercer, Ohio, but the sense of wonder is quite subdued among the residents, many of whom work at the Center for Experimental Physics. The particle accelerator in the underground facility unlocks the secrets of the universe, but it also causes fantastical anomalies in the surface world. However, Tales from the Loop isn’t strictly about the weird happenings themselves; rather, the show explores the emotional impact that results from a slight shift in reality as we know it, and although the slow pace may not be for everyone, the anthology aspect of the series ensures that each episode will have its own dramatic appeal.

Tales from the Loop centers mostly, but not exclusively, around the Willard family headed by the Loop founder Russ. In the three episodes provided to journalists for review, we see a strained relationship between the patriarch and his son...

ABC has picked up two drama pilots from sister studio ABC Studios, the magic-themed For Love, from writer Michael Cooney and producer Kim Moses, and mystery thriller Salvage, from For the People showrunner Don Todd. Written by Cooney, For Love centers on Hope Castille. Five years ago, her fiancé was killed. This morning she received a phone call from him. An epic love triangle set against a grounded, secret world of magic in present day New Orleans. Cooney and Moses…...

Exclusive: Sc Films inks deal with Sp Releasing.

Sp Releasing has acquired all North American rights to horror title Demon Hole from Sc Films International, which handles world sales.

Writer-director Josh Crook’s (La Soga) horror follows six teens doing forced community service in a remote forest where a fracking crew has unwittingly unleashed a demon.

Cast includes Samantha Scaffidi, Austin Ramsey, Paris Campbell, Summer Bills, Adrian Denzel and internet personality Samhain as the devil.

Us director Crook’s 2006 short Salvage premiered at Sundance while action-thriller La Soga premiered in Toronto. Demon Hole is set for an October release in the Us.

Following the acquisition Scott Moesta of Sp Releasing said: “We’re thrilled to be working with Sc Films, the filmmakers and Samhain to promote and exploit Demon Hole in October throughout North America.”

“I’m very excited about Sp’s passion and release strategy for Demon Hole,” director Josh Crook said. “I wanted...

Demon Hole is set to be completed soon. This film, from director Josh Crook (Salvage), is a horror comedy, set in the woods. Here, a group of characters, under the influence of marijuana, see strange creatures, on sacred Native American land. The film stars Samantha Scaffidi, Austin Ramsey and Paris Campbell. As well, the film's first poster is hosted here. There is a little more to the story. A fracking crew has started drilling on an indigenous burial ground. A demon is released. And, six delinquent teens will face a true horror. This horror requires blood sacrifice and the teens are on this demon's blood list. The Demon Hole poster is a good one. A drill is shown in the background as two characters run from toothy fangs. A bloody skull will be at least one character's final state. Also, the film will be at this year's American Film Market,...

Exclusive: UK seller signs Us comedy-horror ahead of Cannes.

UK sales outfit Sc Films has boarded international sales rights to completed Us horror-comedy Demon Hole.

Demon Hole charts the fallout after a fracking crew drills a hole on sacred Native American land unleashing an ancient demon, which then terrorizes six teens serving community service in a remote forest.

Writer-director is Josh Crook, producer is Lori Crook and exec producer is Allen Bain, producer of Rachid Bouchareb’s Just Like a Woman and 2014 Us action feature Revenge of the Green Dragons.

Cast includes Samantha Scaffidi, Austin Ramsey, Paris Campbell, Summer Bills and Adrian Denzel.

Us director Crook’s 2006 short, Salvage, premiered at Sundance while action-thriller La Soga premiered at Toronto. More recently, his feature Ponchao won the audience award at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival in 2013 and premiered on HBO.

Crook said: “The current crop of horror movies has gotten too severe and grim. While scary, they...

#29. Hellbenders - J.T Petty This one might be a little of a stretch, but perhaps a decade since J.T. Petty blasted on the scene with Soft for Digging a $6000 feature that was selected for the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Up the budget a little more, insert 3D technology and add thesps Clancy Brown, Dan Fogler and Clifton Collins Jr. to a genre-twisting nouveau horror film and Hellbenders might be the hot pick-up title in the Park City at Midnight section. Gist: The movie is about a secret group of elite demonologists in a Brooklyn diocese who battle a terrifying supernatural force that threatens their lives and faith. Producers: Jon S. Denny, Lawrence Mattis, David Moscow, Mark L. Pederson, Aldey Sanchez (Salvage)(Ioncinema.com Preview Page // IMDb Link)  ...

7-57 Releasing and Markedia Worldwide have picked up worldwide sales as well as rights to distribute "La Soga" in the U.S. The Dominican action thriller is helmed by Josh Crook and writer/producer Manny Perez and Denise Quinones starring. Shot in Washington Heights, NY and the Dominican Republic, "La Soga" tells of a cop who risks all to find justice. The film will find release on August 12th in the Dominican Republic and Peurto Rico prior to opening on U.S. soul on August 13th. Crook's other credits include "Salvage," "Rockaway" and "The Butcher's Son."...