Though categorically a subgenre, psychological horror has such a wide breadth and variety that it might as well be in a classification of its own. Much horror media falls under this expansive umbrella: from obvious modern examples like “Hereditary” and “The Lighthouse” to classics like “The Shining” and “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari,” as well as literature including “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and video games like “Silent Hill.”
As the end of 2024 encroaches, the film industry is in full swing for the buzzy, glitzy and chaotic awards season. Everything from Sundance hits to blockbusters to potential cult classics is in the running. With no clear front-runner in any of the categories, this season is shaping up to be the most unpredictable race in recent memory.
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.
The “X-Men” movies often feel like a cultural afterthought. The films came out, audiences saw them and they were immediately erased from memory, and that is a shame. The series has some astonishing highs that far overshadow its epic lows, and its social commentary is some of the best in superhero fiction.
There are three September titles whose releases were small compared to the sizeable buzz in terms of media discourse. All three are striking projects that are more than worth devoting time to. Here is a short recap of September’s under-anticipated breakout films.
Stunt work is an aspect of film that is simultaneously embraced and underappreciated. While action fans have their favorite stunts and casual moviegoers will mostly show up for the impressive spectacle, it is still a department that has struggled to gain recognition in the major awards circles.
2023 was an influential year for film when it came to blockbuster filmmaking and art cinema. At the Oscars, we saw the best lineup of nominations in years. Although the selected cultural canon of great cinematic work from the past year is diverse in terms of social inclusivity as well as cinematic mode, there are always films that don’t quite break through to the zeitgeist.
January and February, August and September. These pairs of months might not seem to be related even slightly, but they share a crucial similarity: they are continuously referred to as “dump months” for the movie theater marketplace.
For many filmmakers, their twilight years are a period of slowdown and downsizing with smaller, less ambitious works replacing the grand epics and massive swings that defined their careers. That makes Martin Scorsese’s recent film run (starting with “The Wolf of Wall Street” in 2013 and continuing with “Silence” in 2016 and “The Irishman” in 2019) all the more remarkable. As he approaches his eighth decade, his films have only grown in ambition, subverting the genre convention he had helped popularize with his most famous works to tell a grand, interwoven tale about the history of America and how it is entrenched with exploitation and violence.
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.
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