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Robert Eggers’ lushly gothic remake of “Nosferatu” is a loving homage to silent films, with its dramatic black-and-white scenes and overpowering sense of creeping dread.

The eerie images of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) hand sweeping over the entire city of London and — in one of the film’s most striking shots — the face of his obsession, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), is a nod to F. W. Murnau’s original 1922 film, in which Count Orlok’s shadow falls across his victims before the monster himself enters the frame.

If you’re ready to do a deeper dive into the classics that influenced Eggers, start with these seven films.

Max Schreck in the 1922 version of “Nosferatu” Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922)

Long before Bela Lugosi donned a cape to play Dracula, German director F.W. Murnau brought his terrifying bat-eared, clawed monster Count Orlok to the screen. The character, whose name was changed to...

Director Robert Eggers is shouting out an unlikely figure ahead of the release of his horror film Nosferatu — SpongeBob SquarePants.

At the Los Angeles premiere of the film on Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter asked Eggers if he knew that the Nickelodeon cartoon introduced many kids to the iconic vampire. Nosferatu (also known as Count Orlok) made several appearances on the show.

The filmmaker confirmed he was familiar with the SpongeBob element and explained, “There was a show called Muppet Babies when I was a kid that would play little clips of Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera and early versions of Cyrano de Bergerac and stuff; that weird cartoon gave me exposure to a lot of movies that I watched when I was a little older with memories from Muppet Babies. So, thanks SpongeBob.”

Director Robert Eggers thanks SpongeBob for introducing younger people to #Nosferatu pic.twitter.com/HQgmQ...

Nicolas Cage is unrecognizable as the title character in the horror movie Longlegs. Key special effects makeup artist Felix Fox and Harlow Macfarlane worked 2½ hours every day to transform Cage into the satanic serial killer.

“There was about four designs,” Fox said. “What they settled on after we tested on was that we would go a little bit more extreme.”

Fox said the original concepts were less pale white and less cosmetically altered. The final Longlegs pays homage to Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera, she said. Furthermore, they had to age Longlegs from the 1970s to the ‘90s.

“He has two looks for it,” Fox continued. “One is the ‘70s and one is with more of the beauty makeup, a little bit of blue eyeshadow.”

Related: 2024-25 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More

Rock stars also provided inspiration for Longlegs.

“One of the references...

How To Kill Monsters in Theaters & Digital 12/6 from Dark Sky Films: "Jamie Lancaster is the sole survivor of a blood-drenched massacre at a remote cabin. Claiming that her friends were torn apart by a horrific monster summoned by a ritual gone wrong, she is arrested by the local cops and locked up for a crime she didn't commit.

We soon discover that Jamie’s claims of innocence are all too real when the entire police station is ripped from our reality and thrown into a nightmarish dimension of Lovecraftian monsters hungry for human flesh. Jamie must team up with a bunch of rookie cops and lawbreakers to hack and slash their way through an army of monsters and find a way to get back home before it’s too late!"

Directed by: Stewart Sparke Written by: Stewart Sparke, Paul Butler Produced by: Stewart Sparke, Paul Butler, Cal O’Connell Language: English Genre: Horror,...

Nicolas Cage is one of America’s greatest movie stars, and certainly its most distinctive one. His singular genius will be the subject of a retrospective festival at Metrograph, the wonderful independent movie theater in New York City.

IndieWire reports that “Nicolas Uncaged” will present 35mm showings of 10 of Cage’s iconic films: “Adaptation,” “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” “Con Air,” “Moonstruck,” “National Treasure,” “Pig,” “Red Rock West,” “Vampire’s Kiss,” “The Wicker Man,” and “Wild at Heart.”

“Heaped with praise and panegyrics as one of the finest screen actors of his generation, pilloried and parodied as an anything-for-a-paycheck hambone with a weakness for weird wigs and prostheses, Nicolas Cage is a one-man sideshow, a mixture of Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum, Lon Chaney, and a stick of TNT who takes back ‘serious thespian’ prestige whenever he wants to, dives into grindhouse material and Academy Award hopefuls with the same mad enthusiasm,...

Nicolas Cage’s status as a national treasure is being cemented by the Metrograph.

The New York City-based theater has announced a “Nicolas Uncaged” festival to honor the acclaimed star. The 10-film retrospective opens November 8 at Metrograph In Theater, and will feature 35mm showings of “Con Air,” “Moonstruck,” “The Wicker Man,” and “Wild at Heart.”

“Heaped with praise and panegyrics as one of the finest screen actors of his generation, pilloried and parodied as an anything-for-a-paycheck hambone with a weakness for weird wigs and prostheses, Nicolas Cage is a one-man sideshow, a mixture of Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum, Lon Chaney, and a stick of TNT who takes back ‘serious thespian’ prestige whenever he wants to, dives into grindhouse material and Academy Award hopefuls with the same mad enthusiasm, and never seems to be having anything less than a total blast in front of the camera,” the Metrograph press statement reads.

Welcome to IndieWire After Dark, where we pick a new theme for our midnight movie programming every month!

Join us Friday nights at 9:30 p.m. Et to explore the best in fringe films — available at any hour in the streaming age.

Whether you’re working in the lab late one night or going to your favorite repertory theater after hours, now’s the time to do the Midnight Movie Monster Mash. This October, we’re honoring the Halloween season with a carousel of killers so unusual their beastly mugs would make Lon Chaney quake — and he’s been dead for 100 years.

Ancient beasts predate humans, and monsters have always stalked our campfire stories. But in cinema, the monster movie has mutated into an uncontainable genre behemoth all its own. From B-movie creature features to chilling portraits of serial killers, the terrors of the big screen we choose to call...

Why are we so afraid of clowns? If you ask my sister, it's because a clown once popped a balloon in her face. His name was Macaroni, and he used to entertain families at a diner near where we grew up, and she was so afraid of him that if we were eating there, and she realized it was a Tuesday night (aka Family Night), she would burst into tears. And she's not alone. During the craziness of the 2016 election, the country was gripped by creepy-clown fever, with sightings of sinister roadside clowns reported all across America.

Professor Andrew McConnell Stott credits the scary clown to Charles Dickens, who edited the memoirs of a real-life British jester named Grimaldi. Dickens explicitly tied the many tragedies of Grimaldi's life -- alcoholism, poverty, chronic pain -- to his willingness to debase himself for an audience. Ever since, Stott told Smithsonian Magazine, we've...

By the 1950s, the Universal Monsters had become a punchline with most of them ending their onscreen careers meeting Abbott and Costello. Many of them had become victims of their own success, becoming so iconic that they had lost any ability to frighten anybody. Creatures from outer space, radioactive monsters, and giant bugs had taken over the throne as horror’s reigning attractions and anything that deviated from these felt passé and played out. Universal itself supplied plenty of its own creations into this theatrical landscape and relegated its classic monsters to the small screen. Into this environment came something new from the studio that all but created the modern horror film when Universal unleashed Creature from the Black Lagoon into the world.

There is much about the Creature that is similar to the Universal monsters that have come before. Like Lon Chaney’s Phantom, Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein Monster,...

The Hollywood Walk of Fame 2025 class has been announced, bringing much-deserved recognition to two legendary figures in the horror genre: Robert Englund and John Carpenter. This announcement marks a significant moment for horror fans worldwide as these icons receive their stars on the famed walkway, joining the ranks of horror greats like Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, and Bela Lugosi.

Robert Englund, famously known for his portrayal of Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, expressed his delight on social media. “Woke up this morning to discover I’m in great company in the Hollywood Walk of Fame class of 2025. Just to hear my name mentioned alongside Jane Fonda and Prince makes my old heart go pit-a-pat!” Englund tweeted. His contribution to horror cinema is undeniable, with Freddy Krueger becoming one of the most iconic characters in the genre’s history. Englund’s work has transcended the original franchise,...

The Hollywood Walk of Fame 2025 class has been announced today, and we’re thrilled to pass along the word that two legends in the horror field are getting their bloody flowers.

First up, Robert Englund joins fellow horror acting legends including Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi with a much-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2025.

Robert Englund tweets this afternoon, “Woke up this morning to discover I’m in great company in the Hollywood Walk of Fame class of 2025. Just to hear my name mentioned alongside Jane Fonda and Prince makes my old heart go pit-a-pat!”

Englund’s name is also being mentioned alongside fellow master of horror John Carpenter today, as Carpenter has been announced for the 2025 Hollywood Walk of Fame class!

Bill Duke, known for his roles in ’80s classics Predator and Commando, is also being honored.

Variety details, “More than 30 new stars will...

When Mel Brooks feature filmmaking debut "The Producers" hit theaters in 1968, it was both a critical/commercial smash and a bit of a scandal. Emboldened in part by the increasing permissiveness of the counterculture comedy era, Brooks pushed the outside of the envelope with a ribald sense of humor he couldn't indulge as a writer for NBC's "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" and outright shredded it by making light of the Third Reich with the film's fictional musical "Springtime for Hitler." Soon after the film's release, he was confronted in an elevator by a woman who told him "The Producers" was vulgar. Brooks fired back, "Lady, it rose below vulgarity."

This, I believe, is true of "Jackass." Created by Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze and Johnny Knoxville, this showcase for a gang of lovable skateboard-culture knuckleheads who subject themselves and each other to a series of physically/mentally...

The Tribeca Festival has unveiled its reunions, retrospectives and talks series for the 23rd edition unspooling in June including a Storyteller Series with Judd Apatow, Andy Cohen, Kieran Culkin, Kerry Washington, Laverne Cox, Jon Batiste, and Michael Stipe.

The Directors Series features Gus Van Sant in conversation with art dealer, filmmaker, and actor Vito Schnabel (Van Sant directed Schnabel in Ryan Murphy’s FX series Feud: Capote vs the Swans.)

The fest will celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos at the Beacon Theatre with the world premiere of Alex Gibney documenary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos with a reunion of creator David Chase, EP Terence Winter, and stars Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Aida Turturro, Annabella Sciorra, Robert Iler, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Drea De Matteo, Steve Schirripa, Michele Chase, Kathrine Narducci, and Dominic Chianese.

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, with rapper Nas, will talk Mean Streets on its 50th anniversary.

It’s been great to see the classic monsters returning in modern tales. From more Hollywood takes like Leigh Whannel’s The Invisible Man to the more indie darlings like The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster, the monsters have never been more relevant. And Larry Fessenden is no stranger to the world of monsters, having previously created his own iteration of Frankenstein’s Monster with Depraved as well as his own Wendigo film, aptly titled Wendigo. Now he’s taking on werewolf lore with his new film Blackout.

I was lucky enough to sit down with both Larry and the star of Blackout, Alex Hurt, to discuss the film. From the clear Lon Chaney influence to using alcoholism as a parallel for his transformation, this stands out from other modern werewolf tales. I was also fortunate enough to talk to Alex about the passing of his father, William, who...

“I wanted to experiment: can I develop a family which was not unlike my own upbringing?” says Nicolas Cage, while talking to Den of Geek about his new movie Arcadian, which premiered at SXSW 2024. “My dad did most of the heavy lifting, he did the raising because my mom sadly couldn’t be around. So it was just my father, and in this case, myself and my older brother. I saw that family dynamic in the [Elia] Kazan picture, East of Eden.”

From that description, you might imagine Arcadian to be an austere drama, something that takes place in a rustic farm house and focuses on the complex relationship between a father struggling to do right by his two boys. And you’d mostly be right… mostly.

But then Cage completes his thought. “And then I thought, well, wouldn’t it be interesting if this little family nucleus was contending with...

Katy O’Brian is about to be a big star — and for audiences who check out Rose Glass’ “Love Lies Bleeding,” in which the actress stars alongside Kristen Stewart in an audacious, sexy, unpredictable mash-up of body horror, crime thriller, and love story, that concept will prove to be literally true by the film’s wild end. But she’s not slipping into any Hollywood starlet habits just yet.

Case in point: O’Brian signed on to our Zoom interview a full five minutes early this week (practically unheard of!), and offered to spend our extra time “just chatting.” And O’Brian, whose pre-acting resumes includes everything from bodybuilding to a seven-year stint as a police officer in her native Indiana, is a very good conversationalist.

Before joining “Love Lies Bleeding,” which electrified its Sundance audience and seems destined to join the annals of A24’s boldest films, O’Brian spent time on the small screen,...

Warning: The following contains major spoilers for The Babadook.

The first time I watched The Babadook, I nearly had a nervous breakdown. It was March of 2015. My husband, a Cpa, was deep in the throes of tax season, leaving me alone for long stretches of time with our one-year-old son and three-year-old daughter who was going through a screaming phase. Needless to say, the story of a mother pushed to the edge of sanity resonated with me deeply. One scene in particular, monstrous clothing reigning down as the frightened heroine crawls across the floor, was so affecting that I paused the movie and cried for a good ten minutes. Despite the extremity of my reaction, I would wager that I’m not alone. In the ten years since The Babadook premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Jennifer Kent’s debut feature has become known for its ability to blend horror...

Phantom of the Auditorium was originally published in October 1994 (Spine #24) and the series adaptation aired on Friday, December 1, 1995 (runtime: 22 minutes).

For over a century, the world’s stage has been haunted by a mysterious, masked phantom. From the pages of Gaston Leroux’s 1909 novel to Lon Chaney’s unnerving performance that would inspire countless screen versions over the coming decades, The Phantom of the Opera has emerged from the depths of the theater to shock, awe and embody the depressing, torturous truths of show business’ fickle refrain.

While big, bold, romantic tragedy starring the likes of Herbert Lom or Claude Rains seems far flung from the Goosebumps milieu, R.L. Stine carried the well-worn tale of the scarred phantom and his jilted passion to the pages of his paperbacks with aplomb. Trading the opera house stage for the middle school auditorium, Stine’s phantom forgoes the disfigured musical genius and embraces...

The Hollywood biographical drama — or biopic, to use the word that always makes it sound like a dental instrument — is enjoying its mega-moment. “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic about the father of the atomic bomb, proved that a story-of-a-life movie could be as big and coruscating as the cosmos; not so incidentally, it’s garnered Nolan the most ecstatic reviews of his career. Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” has also won audiences and acclaim. In telling the story of Priscilla Presley, who met Elvis when she was 14 and spent six years married to a slowly dissolving mirage, the film takes us through the looking glass of pop-music fame. In Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” the lives of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre, become a rapturous study in love, sexuality, bigotry, creativity and the mysteries of marriage. And “Ferrari,” Michael Mann’s upcoming drama about the Italian automaker, is a...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

The Warriors 4K Uhd from Arrow Video

The Warriors will come out to play on 4K Ultra HD on December 12 from Arrow Video. Both the 1979 theatrical cut and the 2005 alternate version have been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative with Dolby Vision.

The action thriller is directed by Walter Hill from a script he co-wrote with David Shaber (Nighthawks), based on Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel. Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Marcelino Sánchez, and David Harris lead the ensemble cast.

The limited edition set comes with a 100-page book featuring new writing by film critic Dennis Cozzalio plus archival material, a double-sided poster with Laurie Greasley’s new artwork and the original key art,...

A few years before directing Dracula and Freaks, Tod Browning made a silent horror film titled London After Midnight. Starring Lon Chaney as “The Hypnotist,” the 65-minute film was distributed by MGM in December of 1927; though audiences saw it upon release, it’s likely that everyone who did is no longer with us. Sadly, the last known copy was destroyed in the infamous MGM vault fire of 1967, which tragically resulted in the loss of many classic films.

We may never lay eyes on Tod Browning’s London After Midnight, but those who’ve been salivating to experience it may be excited to hear that a full-cast audio drama is on the way.

Scripted Audio Drama producers Lance Roger Axt, Jack Bowman and Kenton Hall have meticulously adapted the original screenplay by Waldemar Young and Tod Browning as an immersive Dolby Atmos aural experience, with the recording taking place over two...

Neca has been honoring the classic Universal Monsters with incredible action figures in recent years, and they’re giving even more love to classic horror with two new upcoming toys.

Previewed at San Diego Comic-Con this week, Neca will soon be releasing action figures based on the 1922 classic Nosferatu and the lost 1927 film London After Midnight.

The Ultimate Count Orlok and Ultimate Professor Burke action figures are listed as “Coming Soon,” and our friends over at Toyark have shared some photos from Sdcc today.

Count Orlok was played by Max Schreck in Nosferatu, an unofficial adaptation of Dracula, while Lon Chaney played Professor Burke in the infamous London After Midnight.

Wikipedia explains the history of London After Midnight, “The last known copy of the film was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire, along with hundreds of other rare early films, making it one of the most sought-after lost silent films.

"The Walking Dead," despite having a pretty significant drop-off following its highest of highs in its fifth season, was one of the biggest shows in the history of cable television. So much so that it spawned an entire universe worth of spin-offs, including "Fear the Walking Dead" and "Walking Dead: World Beyond," with plenty more on the way. In every show, the zombies, aka walkers, are an incredibly crucial element to nail down. It turns out, the crew behind the hit AMC series took that part of the job very seriously.

Visual effects legend Greg Nicotero was a big part of the show from the very beginning. When it came to the walkers, he actually put together a "Zombie School" ahead of each season. The idea was to find the best of the best walkers who could help make (or break) a scene. Speaking to CNN in 2012, Nicotero explained how...

It seemed great on paper. Nicolas Cage as Dracula? It’s a role he was born to play; it’s a wonder it hasn’t happened before now (sorry, Vampire’s Kiss doesn’t count).

Renfield, Dracula’s long-suffering servant — or in vampire parlance, “familiar” — plagued by co-dependency issues and seeking help in a support group? Sounds hilarious. An original story by Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead? I’m there.

So why does Renfield downplay those promising aspects and turn out to be such a bloody mess?

The film, stemming from Universal’s understandable continuing attempts to capitalize on its classic monsters IP, certainly starts out promisingly. Renfield, played by Nicholas Hoult, provides background information about his relationship with the vampire in his life, illustrating his narration with nothing less than scenes from the 1931 classic Tod Browning film Dracula. Cage and Hoult are digitally inserted into the footage, replacing...

In one of the many jacked-up, bodies-leaping-and-flying, vampire-meets-action-film sequences that punctuate “Renfield,” Dracula (Nicolas Cage), jutting into the movie well before we expect him to, does all the throat-ripping damage he can in a montage that culminates in drapes being thrown open, the sunlight flooding in, and the vampire, in his red bathrobe, bursting into flame. It looks like the climax of many a vampire film, and it leaves Dracula a charred husk. But has he been killed? No way! As Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), Dracula’s servant and disciple through the ages, explains to us in voice-over, when something like this happens it takes a great deal of work to return Dracula to his previous state. Renfield must gather up many new victims for his master to feed upon. But with enough blood and enough time, Dracula can claw his way back to his old robust undead form.

A little later,...

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster director Thomas Hamilton on his upcoming series Horror Icons on interviewing Roger Corman: “He not only worked with Vincent Price, he worked with Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney.” Photo: Thomas Hamilton

Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Conrad Veidt, Maria Ouspenskaya, George Zukor, Paul Wegener, Emil Jannings, Brigitte Helm, Gale Sondergaard, Gloria Holden, Claude Rains, Fay Wray, Duane Jones, Max Schreck, Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Lon Chaney Sr., Lon Chaney Jr, Fw Murnau’s Faust and Nosferatu, Arthur Lubin’s Phantom of the Opera, Rowland V. Lee’s Son of Frankenstein, George Waggner’s The Wolf Man, James Whale’s The Invisible Man, Lambert Hillyer’s Dracula’s Daughter, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen’s The Golem, Hanns Heinz Ewers and Stellan Rye’s The Student Of Prague, and George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead...

West of Zanzibar (1928) shows in Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning, running March 17 - 26, 2023, at Film at Lincoln Center in New York.Untitled (Fay Wray with Masks) (ca. 1928).He referred to them not as photographs but as pictures, akin to John Ford’s self-description as a “picture-maker.” This was not by accident or due to eccentricity, for there was a war happening among photographers. One party, represented best by Ansel Adams’s Group f/64, advocated a “pure” photography in which sharp focus and an eye for “realism” aided the photographer’s holy scientific task of capturing the immense object of reality. The other less-centralized party, sometimes called Pictorialists, chose to depict reality by representation and exaggeration. For William Mortensen, who lauded and exemplified the Pictorialist vision when it was most unfashionable, the camera was simply another artistic tool to be revered and used alongside graphite or clay. What mattered was...

Taking place from March 17 - 26 in NYC, Film at Lincoln Center presents Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning, an extensive retrospective screening series from one of the first masters of horror! We have more details and the trailer below, along with discount codes and details on how you can win an all access pass:

"Featuring 35mm screenings, new restorations, and live piano accompaniment, Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning takes place in our theaters March 17-26.

Tod Browning (1880–1962) ranks among the most original and enigmatic filmmakers of his time. Born Charles Albert Browning, Jr., son of a middle-class family, he ran away from his Kentucky home at age 16 to join the circus, where he took jobs as a barker, a contortionist, a clown, and a somnambulist buried alive in a box with its own ventilation system. Following a stint in vaudeville and adopting the moniker Tod (German for “death”), Browning...

Bert I. Gordon, who was given the nickname “Mr. B.I.G.” by Famous Monsters of Filmland editor Forrest J. Ackerman not just because it matched his initials but also because it matched the director’s favorite big-screen subject — giant monsters — died today. He was 100. His daughter Patricia Gordon confirmed the filmmaker’s death to the New York Times.

Related Story MGM Relaunches American International Pictures And Makes Tate Taylor's 'Breaking News In Yuba County' The Company's First Acquisition Related Story Breaking Baz: 'Ted Lasso' Striker Phil Dunster Transfers To Season 2 Of Apple TV+ Thriller 'Surface'; 'All Quiet On The Western Front's Edward Berger And Robert Pattinson Have A Coffee Related Story Dominion And Fox News Offer Dueling Views Of Defamation Law In Latest Court Filings

Gordon often produced, directed, wrote and created the special effects for his movies, which were shot on ultra-low...

Neca‘s line of Universal Monsters action figures is growing with the addition of The Phantom of the Opera, a new figure based on Lon Chaney‘s classic incarnation of the horror icon.

“Starring Lon Chaney, the 1925 silent movie was famed for the shocking appearance of the Phantom, which Chaney created himself and kept secret until the premiere. Almost a century later, the thriller is still critically acclaimed and was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1988 for its historical and cultural significance.”

The 7” scale figure captures the Phantom both disguised and unmasked with five interchangeable heads, and also includes fabric cloak, bamboo stick and hat accessories.

He comes in display-friendly window box packaging with opening front flap.

The estimated shipping date for Neca’s Phantom is August 2023.

The post Lon Chaney’s ‘Phantom of the Opera’ Joins Neca’s Line of Universal Monsters Action Figures appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!

"Terrifier 2" marks the latest cinematic appearance of Art the Clown, one of the newer faces in the ever-growing canon of notable slasher villains. Art made his debut in Damien Leone's 2008 short film "The 9th Circle," followed by the 2011 short "Terrifier," later to be adapted into a 2016 feature film. Leone's 2013 anthology film "All Hallow's Eve" also featured an Art the Clown segment. Currently, "Terrifier 2" is playing in limited release and is gathering a good deal of attention for its extreme gore and scrappy can-do success in a theatrical environment typically only friendly to the biggest of blockbusters. 

Art the Clown is a creature that appears on Halloween night to wreak havoc and commit extreme acts of violence. He doesn't speak or even make noises, communicating solely through mime. Even when he laughs or screams, he is silent. At first glance, Art was clearly designed after Paul Beaumont,...

Throughout his career, the recently departed actor James Caan took on a number of roles that would've stumped lesser actors than he: a hotheaded and doomed mob boss' son in "The Godfather," a crippled and subdued author in "Misery," and a cold-hearted cynic who denies the existence of Santa Claus in "Elf."

Yet, all of those characters were relative walks in the park for the tough guy performer, especially since Caan was more than comfortable with playing complicated, tragic and unlikeable people — as his work in "Brian's Song" and "The Gambler" proved early on in his career.

One of Caan's greatest challenges was instead playing a man who's outwardly competent, fair, motivated, and decent, but inwardly is dealing with a raging turmoil of frustration and a sense of lost time: the professional safecracker Frank in Michael Mann's feature debut, "Thief." The complexities of the part combined with Mann's insistence...

Before "Star Wars: A New Hope" became a permanent fixture in our family VHS recorder, I loved old silent movies as a little kid. Two of my earliest filmic memories are getting scared s***less by Lon Chaney's ghastly face in "The Phantom of the Opera" and crying my eyes out because I thought Harold Lloyd would plunge to his death hanging from that clock in "Safety Last!"

Lloyd was my favorite, even more than Laurel and Hardy, and his films terrified and captivated me in equal measure. His act was a young, clean-cut everyman with a bashful smile, glasses, and a straw boater, who faced life's problems...

The post Silent Comedy Star Harold Lloyd Had A Somewhat Nsfw Hobby appeared first on /Film.

Greetings, readers! For this installment of my ongoing Phantom Thread series, I’m taking a trip back to the year 1988 for Emerald City Productions’ animated adaptation of Phantom of the Opera, which was definitely capitalizing on the success of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Broadway musical adaptation that arrived in the States that year (Alw’s musical enjoyed a lengthy preview in London in late 1986). While the animation techniques utilized in this iteration of Phantom are a bit archaic (more on that later), this was still a rather charming experience that definitely captured the spirit of Gaston Leroux’s original story.

Directed by Al Guest and Jean Mathieson, this Phantom of the Opera apparently aired on TV in May 1988, but I honestly don’t have any recollection of it on television at all. My first time watching it was during a music class in junior high after we studied the novel and honestly,...

The inventive director Roy William Neill makes the first of the Universal Monster rallies an exciting and surprisingly scary thrill-ride. Lon Chaney’s Wolf Man just happens to bump into the Frankenstein monster and in this particular universe, it all seems quite natural. Patrick Knowles plays the doctor who seeks to cure Chaney and revive the monster – now played by Bela Lugosi for the first and only time. The unnerving graveyard scene in which two ill-advised thieves desecrate the Wolf Man’s tomb is a highlight of Universal horror.

The post Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Laszlo goes bats on What We Do in the Shadows episode 5, Animal Control.

Culture

This What We Do in the Shadows review contains spoilers.

What We Do in the Shadows Episode 5

What We Do in the Shadows reaches its peak of silliness in episode 5. "Animal Control" could almost be a kids' episode. Besides Nadja's (Natasia Demetriou) openly hungry sexuality, everything is rendered all-ages upon Laszlo's (Matt Berry) animistic incarceration. This plot could have been lifted from a Benji movie, and could have made for an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and only a humorous subplot on the newer, darker Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

The plot is Laszlo turns into a bat, gets locked up in a cage at the pound, and Nandor turns into a dog to save him. It's cute, really, and for a show like What We Do in the Shadows, that makes it dangerous. These vampires...

Characters with facial scars or disfigurements portrayed as villains is a movie trope that goes back generations, from Lon Chaney as the Phantom of the Opera to the James Bond villain Blofeld, and as recently as Kylo Ren in the new “Star Wars” movies.

But the British Film Institute (BFI) is supporting a charity called Changing Faces and their new campaign called #IAmNotYourVillain by saying that they will no longer fund films via the National Lottery that feature negative representations of characters with scars or facial differences.

“It’s astonishing to think that films have used visible difference as a shorthand for villainy so often and for so long,” BFI’s deputy CEO Ben Roberts said in a statement. “The time has come for this to stop. Changing Faces is doing an incredible job of changing attitudes towards disfigurement and making a positive impact on people’s lives and this...

“His eyes are ghastly beads in which there is no light – like holes in a grinning skull! His face is like leprous parchment, yellow skin strung tight over protruding bones! His nose – there is no nose!”

The Phantom Of The Opera (1925) will screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium Thursday October 25th at 7:30pm. Austin, Texas’ most adventurous band, The Invincible Czars, will provide live music.The band encourages fans and attendees to dress for the Halloween season at these shows.

The Phantom Of The Opera is not only a classic of the silent screen, it is one of the all-time greatest movies ever made. The great Lon Chaney, at the peak of his career, plays the title character, in perhaps the role for which he is best remembered. Mary Philbin plays the heroine, Christine, an opera singer for whom the Phantom has taken a personal interest, and Norman Kerry as Raoul,...

Benicio Del Toro will preside over the jury of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand eight years after he served on the Cannes Competition jury which selected Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee (The One Who Can Recall His Past Lives) as the winner of the Palme d’Or.

In 2008, Del Toro received the award for Best Actor in Cannes for his role as Che Guevara in Steven Soderbergh’s two-part film Che. He has attended the festival in the past for screenings of The Usual Suspects, The Pledge (2001), Sin City (2005) and more recently, Sicario (2015) which was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or. Del Toro’s appointment by the festival may be an indication that we’ll see that film’s sequel Sicario 2: Soldado on the Riviera.

Del Toro takes over from Uma Thurman, who was president in 2017 of a jury that awarded prizes to Mohammad Rasoulof,...

*Updated with video of del Toro's speech.* For decades he's given a spotlight to misunderstood monsters and outcast characters in his films, and at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, Guillermo del Toro finally got to step into his own well-deserved spotlight when he won the award for Best Director of a Motion Picture for his work behind the camera on his latest film, The Shape of Water.

Selected by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in a nomination class that included Martin McDonagh, Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, and Steven Spielberg, del Toro took the stage at The Beverly Hilton for an emotional speech after his name was announced for Best Director.

In addition to thanking his core cast—many of whom were sitting with him the moment his name was called—del Toro discussed how his love of monsters has saved his life several times over the years,...

With the Golden Globes, it’s less about who wins than what the winners say, especially during today’s politically charged #timesup climate. It’s also a chance for winners to practice their acceptance speeches and spin some Oscar campaign memes. Only last year, Meryl Streep rode her incendiary Golden Globes Cecil B. DeMille achievement award speech to an Oscar nomination for not-in-the-bag “Florence Foster Jenkins.”

This year, Oprah Winfrey’s rousing call to arms could yield a run for president. “I want all the girls watching tonight to know that a new day is on the horizon,” she said. “Take us to a time when nobody has to ever say #metoo again!”

As host of the 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards, vocal Donald Trump naysayer Seth Meyers walked the line between sharp brickbats and belly laughs. “Good evening ladies and remaining gentlemen,” he began. “It’s 2018. Marijuana is finally...

As is annual tradition, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced this year’s 25 film set to join the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Selected for their “cultural, historic and/or aesthetic importance,” the films picked range from such beloved actioners as “Die Hard,” childhood classic “The Goonies,” the seminal “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and the mind-bending “Memento,” with plenty of other genres and styles represented among the list.

The additions span 1905 to 2000, and includes Hollywood blockbusters, documentaries, silent movies, animation, shorts, independent, and even home movies. The 2017 selections bring the number of films in the registry to 725.

“The selection of a film to the National Film Registry recognizes its importance to American cinema and the nation’s cultural and historical heritage,” Hayden said in an official statement. “Our love affair with motion pictures is a testament to their enduring power to enlighten, inspire and...

Since 1989, the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress has been accomplishing the important task of preserving films that “represent important cultural, artistic and historic achievements in filmmaking.” From films way back in 1897 all the way up to 2004, they’ve now reached 725 films that celebrate our heritage and encapsulate our film history.

Today they’ve unveiled their 2017 list, which includes such Hollywood classics as Die Hard, Titanic, and Superman along with groundbreaking independent features like Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, and Barbara Loden’s Wanda. Also making this list are a pair of Kirk Douglas-led features, Ace in the Hole and Spartacus, as well as Christopher Nolan’s Memento and more. Check out the full list below and you can watch some films on the registry for free here.

Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)

Based on the infamous...

Welcome back, readers, for another installment of Daily Dead’s 2017 Holiday Gift Guide! For day eight, we are going all in on enamel pins, simply because there are so many amazing designs out there and it was hard to narrow down the list. That being said, here’s a list of over 100 horror and sci-fi themed enamel pins that we discovered online, and we guarantee there’s absolutely something for every genre fan out there, so if you need some stocking stuffer or holiday gift ideas, look no further!

Do keep in mind that in most cases, what you see below is only a partial listing of each site’s inventory, so I recommend digging around each online store for all kinds of goodies, because there are some truly amazing enamel pin designs out there (I could have easily done a list of 200, but my sanity won out).

Also, Daily...

We have another busy week of home releases to look forward to, with an array of films that hit a bunch of different subgenres. For those who may have missed it in theaters earlier this year, you can now catch up with Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde this Tuesday, and if you missed seeing it online this fall, Amityville: The Awakening hits both Blu-ray and DVD as well.

For you cult cinema fans out there, I hope your wallets are ready for some serious damage, as there are a ton of great offerings coming home on November 14th, including the gorgeous limited edition Hellraiser Steelbook, The Paul Naschy Collection II, J.D.’s Revenge, and Arrow’s stunning Blu-ray set honoring one of horror’s true greats—George A. Romero—that features HD releases of Season of the Witch, There’s Always Vanilla, and The Crazies.

Other notable...

After giving horror fans a treat with their Blu-ray release earlier this year of The Paul Naschy Collection, Scream Factory continues to commemorate the influential Spanish director with The Paul Naschy Collection II, and we've been provided with three Blu-ray copies to give away to lucky Daily Dead readers.

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Prize Details: (3) Winners will receive (1) Blu-ray copy of The Paul Naschy Collection II.

How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:

1. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:

https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/

2. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to [email protected] with the subject “The Paul Naschy Collection II Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

Entry Details: The contest will end at 12:01am Est on November 20th.

Ryan Lambie Nov 3, 2017

As The Silence Of The Lambs re-emerges courtesy of the BFI, we look at how it created one of the screen's most iconic monsters...

Nb: The following contains spoilers for The Silence Of The Lambs

See related Lee Unkrich interview: Pixar, Toy Story 3, sequels and scary characters

"Is it true what they're saying?" a cop asks FBI agent Clarice Starling around The Silence Of The Lambs' midpoint. "That he's some kind of vampire?"

The cop is referring, of course, to Hannibal Lecter, the former psychiatrist and serial killer played by Anthony Hopkins. Originally created by author Thomas Harris and making his first appearance in the 1981 novel Red Dragon, Lecter - otherwise known as Hannibal the Cannibal - has long since become a fixture on the pop culture landscape. The Silence Of The Lambs isn't specifically about Lecter - rather, it's about Starling (Jodie Foster) and...

I tell you it’s rough out there on Frisco Bay, especially when you say the word ‘Frisco’ within earshot of a proud San Francisco native. This Alan Ladd racketeering tale could have been written twenty years earlier, but it has Warner Color and the early, extra-wide iteration of the new movie attraction CinemaScope.

Hell on Frisco Bay

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen Academy / 98 min. / Street Date , 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Alan Ladd, Edward G. Robinson, Joanne Dru, William Demarest, Paul Stewart, Perry Lopez, Fay Wray, Nestor Paiva, Willis Bouchey, Anthony Caruso, Tina Carver, Rod(ney) Taylor, Jayne Mansfield, Mae Marsh, Tito Vuolo.

Cinematography: John F. Seitz

Film Editor: Folmar Blangsted

Stunts: Paul Baxley

Original Music: Max Steiner

Written by Martin Rackin, Sydney Boehm from a book by William P. McGivern

Produced by George C. Berttholon, Alan Ladd

Directed by Frank Tuttle

Alan Ladd had always been...

Featuring Iconic Horror Stars Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Lon Chaney & More! Giant leeches, a flesh-eating plant, vampire bats, zombies and a host of chills and thrills. The Film Detective has hand-selected frightful film classics from its extensive archive to share with horror movie buffs all month long. Each day in …

The post The Film Detective Announces October ‘31 Days of Horror’ Movie Scare-a-Thon first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net 2017 - Official Horror News Site...

Iconic characters from early in the horror genre have risen to give you a fright. Creepy Co.'s "Founding Frights" collection contains apparel and accessories celebrating Lon Chaney, Vincent Price, and Bela Lugosi. Also: Black Christmas (aka Silent Night, Evil Night) UK Blu-ray details, a trailer for Expedition Unknown: Hunt for Extraterrestrials, The Twilight Zone Encyclopedia and Do Not Read release details, and In Flames Kickstarter info.

Founding Frights Collection by Creepy Co. Photos and Details: From Creepy Co.: "Creepy Co. is proud to bring you a tightly curated collection of apparel and accessories paying homage to the roots of the horror genre. Founding Frights celebrates Lon Chaney Sr., Bela Lugosi, and Vincent Price.

With a restock on a favorite apparel and pin combo and new additions, this whole collection oozes appeal. Slip into a bold, graphic tee and profess your undying allegiance to vintage horror!"

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Black Christmas (aka Silent Night,...