Movie Scum

Two weeks from Halloween opening. We can do it, guys.

Even having seen the VHS cover for Chopping Mall more times than I can count, I never got around to this time capsule of 80s high-concept “horror” movies. No one will confuse Chopping Mall with high-art but it is a solid movie from its era that will make you wonder why they never made Chopping Mall 2 .

One of the key elements of a good mystery is immersion. It trumps a decent plot and interesting characters because the thrills are derived from a seemingly shared experience. As long as the audience feels like they’re solving a problem alongside the cast, they’ll go along with most anything. This does not include lackluster acting and an overly formulaic approach to storytelling…

The Shape is back! And he’s slashed all concepts of canon and connectivity to shreds! Depending on who you ask, it’s either been eleven years since the last “good” Halloween film or much longer. However, the new David Gordon Green -directed Halloween sequel-reboot-thing may just be the film die-hard fans have been waiting an indeterminate amount of years for.

For being a zombie movie, Cargo is not so much about zombies as it is making peace with situations that cannot be controlled.

I didn’t think we needed a live-action Winnie the Pooh movie. Clearly, I was wrong.

For anyone who grew up in the late 80s or early 90s, the Karate Kid films were a staple of your childhood. Now, the story continues and ... what the fuck, is Daniel LaRusso the villain here?

Earlier this week, Sony released the trailer for Venom , starring Tom Hardy with nary a Spider-man in site. I dig it, even though real critic’s reactions are decidedly mixed.

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League may be back on the field soon, courtesy of Amazon’s TV arm.

Going in to see Ready Player One, I didn’t have any expectations. For one, I haven’t read the book – no, you can’t have my gamer card. Second, the idea that a movie can be carried solely by its numerous pop culture references is absurd to me; recent films that have followed this formula are proof of such, like the somewhat amusing yet ultimately shallow Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Thankfully, Steven Spielberg ’s nostalgia parade is more than the sum of its parts!

In spite of positive critical acclaim for it’s first season, The Exorcist was not very likely to be renewed due to low ratings on Friday nights. But miraculously, Fox tapped the series created by Jeremy Slater for a second season pretty early.

A movie about a killer app? That was the gist of the plot synopsis I read on the Redbox kiosk so I picked it up. I figured it would either be a) really, really bad or b) surprisingly good. In reality, it’s option c, for kind of competent.

Everytime someone does a ranking of Friday the 13th sequels is wrong. The reason: I have never seen Part VI, Jason Lives , at the top.

With the recent news of Jamie Lee Curtis returning to the new Halloween film in 2018, another exciting franchise vet is coming back: creator John Carpenter .

As of this writing, Wikipedia lists 456 American films classified as slashers. Sprinkled among the well-known franchises like Friday the 13th and semi-famous one-offs like Dr. Giggles are a hodgepodge of lesser-known titles. Here is a sampling of films that I want to see based solely on their titles.

As I was revisiting my Eight Legged Freaks review after rescuing it from the obscurity of my old site archive, I began to ponder: why don’t we get giant killer bug movies anymore?

We could have had a brand-new Jason Voorhees film this weekend had Paramount not pulled the plug in what I hope turns out to be a daily ass-kicking around there. So in return, we get a new-ish? horror film and a prestigious biopic.

It’s Happy Hour! Let’s see some highly questionable kills from everyone’s favorite series featuring the unseen force of death.

I don’t think there was really any demand for a remake of Joel Schumacher’s Flatliners . Yet, Sony went ahead anyway and boy does it look like a bad investment.

Information has been slowly trickling out about David Gordon Green ’s untitled Halloween continuation coming in 2018. Now, we know who Michael will be facing ... again.