The sequel to the 2022 horror film “Smile” exceeded expectations and even established itself as the better of the two installments. The film stars Naomi Scott as Skye Riley, a Grammy-winning pop star preparing for her big comeback after battling substance abuse and surviving a car crash that killed her boyfriend, actor Paul Hudson.
Even though the Halloween season has come to pass, and America is gearing up for the holiday season, there is never a wrong time of year to leap out of your seat in fright or relish in whichever immaculately crafted bloodbath spills out in front of you. As expected, October saw a deluge of horror titles slash into theaters or people’s homes, and many of them turned out to be terrific additions to what is already a very strong year for the genre. There’s something for every kind of horror fan here: a shockingly superior sequel to one of the biggest box office surprises of the post-pandemic industry, what is possibly the best entry in a long-running franchise’s four-year streak of resurgence and a thrillingly original and stylish Sundance hit.
You may remember seeing a vivid retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” in your middle school English class, where Homer Simpson plays a disturbed and lost lover haunted by Bart the raven. What you may not know is that this very episode is what ignited the tradition of annual “The Simpsons” Halloween episodes that parody classic horror films and supernatural spooky tales.
It’s difficult to put into words how insane the third installment of the “Terrifier” franchise is. The film has dominated the box office, becoming the highest grossing non-rated movie in film history, according to a tweet from writer and director Damien Leone.
As October comes to a close, there’s no doubt that viewers will be dying to check out a variety of horror films in the spirit of Halloween. Fortunately, 2024 has yielded some of the scariest films in recent years, and while major success stories like “Longlegs” and “Alien: Romulus” deserve to be in conversation, there are quite a few titles that were poorly managed by their studio or had too small of a release to make that much of an impact. To give them the recognition they deserve, here are some reviews of those films.
There are very few genres of film (specifically horror film) that are more divisive than the so-called “found footage” category. Ever since the Italian exploitation classic “Cannibal Holocaust” sparked a frenzy in both the media and the court of law in 1980, viewers have showered this unique subset of cinema with both healthy praises and much-needed criticism. Though there is more than a handful of lazily conceived and poorly-crafted misfires, the staggering amount of genuine cleverness, commitment to authentic tension-building and sometimes sheer innovation that found-footage films can offer, makes all the ridicule and malice directed towards them unfair and even puzzling.
Paige Sanacora, Special to the Chronicle
• September 10, 2024
After 36 years, the sequel to Tim Burton’s iconic 1988 classic, “Beetlejuice,” finally hit the screen on Friday, Sept. 6. Did “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” live up to the hype?
The slasher film “Thanksgiving” was released in theaters on Nov. 17, scoring big with fans and critics alike. The film has notched an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes with mostly positive reviews for director Eli Roth’s latest horror installment while also grossing $36.8 million against a $15 million budget as of Monday, Dec. 4.
There are too many horror films to count that would be appropriate for a Halloween viewing through splayed fingers and squinted eyes in a dark room. Given the season’s celebration of the macabre, unorthodox and otherworldly themes, settling in for some onscreen frights on Halloween night is one of the best ways to honor the holiday.
It is an irrefutable understatement to point out that the film industry was forever changed by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Productions were halted, films were delayed indefinitely, casts and crew members from all over were sent into isolation, and the streaming world naturally took over as the entertainment savior of lockdown. There were a couple of failed attempts at resuscitating theaters during 2020, and it wasn’t until March 2021 that moviegoing started showing signs of life again. Even then it wasn’t until well into 2022 that the box office was back to relative normalcy.
With over $1 billion in unadjusted worldwide grosses and a massive, devoted following, “Saw” is one of the most successful horror franchises in existence. Starting off with a “Seven”-esque thriller and quickly morphing into a wildly elaborate and excessively gory soap opera, the soon-to-be-ten-film series has repulsed critics and general audiences alike but has ensnared the hearts and minds of horror fans around the world for nearly two decades.
Nearly 19 years after audiences were brutally introduced to the twisted world of “Saw,” the franchise’s staple character John Kramer (aka Jigsaw) is still one of the most iconic and beloved horror movie villains of all time. What makes his case so different from the rest, however, is how debatable his status as a villain is. Of course, kidnapping people and subjecting them to elaborate torture machines isn’t exactly the work of a traditional “hero,” but as his mythology unfolds during the first seven films, his achingly tragic and at times empathetic character is revealed to be more of an anti-hero than a clear-cut hero or villain.
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