Category: Nightmother

Roman Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy & The Claustrophobic Architecture Of Self

Roman Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy & The Claustrophobic Architecture Of Self

Posted by | Mar 14, 2017 | ,

Throughout the month of March, Audiences Everywhere will be sharing appreciation for film trilogies, including personal reflections from our writers on some of their favorites. Today, we’re discussing Roman Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy. As a raw medium for displaying our psyches, horror is pushed by trends that first pull from the sociopolitical climate of their inception and ride that wave until it’s no longer lucrative or immediately applicable. Because of this, horror subgenres have always enjoyed a natural ebb and flow. “Apartment horror” was a powerful–and then overused–subgenre of the ’60s and ’70s in such films as The Sentinel, Shivers, and...

Read More
Bette vs. Joan: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Bette vs. Joan: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Posted by | Mar 9, 2017 | , |

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Both names bring to mind the soft black-and-white era of the ‘30s, glamour, fame, and romance. Two women who were stubborn and inspired and incredibly gifted. Two icons that are almost always mentioned in the same breath due to their tumultuous enmity. Legend has it that their epic feud began over a man, Franchot Tone. Tone played Bette’s lead opposite in Dangerous, the first film for which she received an Oscar. Both she and Joan are rumoured to have loved him, but when Joan nailed him down in marriage, it was at a time...

Read More
Get Out: I Am The White Monster

Get Out: I Am The White Monster

Posted by | Feb 27, 2017 | ,

It matters that Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) tells Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) that he would have voted for Obama for a third term. Yeah, it’s also a funny bit of dialogue, throwing back to an earlier scene in which Rose (Allison Williams), Dean’s daughter and Chris’s girlfriend, warned Chris that he would end up having this conversation with her totally-not-racist father. Obviously, it’s an awkward exchange. That’s where the joke comes from. But Jordan Peele, the former MADtv and Key & Peele writer and star making his directorial debut with Get Out, has crafted a film of easy superficial delight but...

Read More
Get Out Gets Into the Frightening Reality of the Black Experience

Get Out Gets Into the Frightening Reality of the Black Experience

Posted by | Feb 25, 2017 | , |

Synopsis: A black man goes to visit his white girlfriend’s family for a weekend getaway, but they offer more than he bargained for. Universal Pictures; Rated R; 103 minutes. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner: The set-up, the racial minority reluctantly going to meet the family of his/her white significant other, is one that we’ve become accustomed to across media, particularly in film. Played for romance, laughs, and drama, the racial tension created amongst interracial couples has become one of American storytelling’s great stage acts. But none of these racially-loaded meet and greets have been downright horrific. Sure, there have...

Read More
A Cure For Wellness Pursues Radically Influenced Filmmaking

A Cure For Wellness Pursues Radically Influenced Filmmaking

Posted by | Feb 16, 2017 | , |

Overview: A young corporate executive grows suspicious of the Swiss Alps treatment facility to which he has been sent to retrieve his company’s CEO. 20th Century Fox; 2017; Rated R; 146 Minutes. A Composition: The minute that Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) steps onto the grounds of the strange treatment center sitting atop a Swiss mountain, his clock and his cell phone both stop working. He becomes completely unplugged, not just electronically, but seemingly from time and space. There’s an immediate sense that the setting of Gore Verbinski’s newest and perhaps weirdest film is within a psychological whirlpool, its event chronology...

Read More
 The Controversies of Straw Dogs 30 Years Later

 The Controversies of Straw Dogs 30 Years Later

Posted by | Dec 29, 2016 | , |

“Bloody Sam” Peckinpah made a name for himself with his vicious western The Wild Bunch in 1969. After controversy surrounded his professional methods, he took to England to film Straw Dogs, a movie that 30 years later remains as controversial as the director himself. Straw Dogs is certainly a frustrating film to watch. Those familiar know that it’s generally praised or condemned for its content to two extremes: is it a misogynistic, self-fellating film or an insightful look at humanity’s savagery? Looking at it on its 30th anniversary I aimed to ask, why can’t it be both? The truth...

Read More
The Best Horror of 2016

The Best Horror of 2016

Posted by | Dec 28, 2016 | , |

Horror is at a new high, with good new releases, both indie and studio, being released at an unprecedented rate. For the first time in a long while, we are getting delightfully frightening films faster than we can keep track of individually. Luckily for us, two of our top horror afficianados, Richard Newby and Becky Belzile, have kept track of 2016 for us. Below, you’ll find their notes kept from the 2016 horror entries, starting with the ten best horror films of the year. … 2016’s Best Horror Films  10. Ouija Origin of Evil With two entries on our...

Read More
Hysteria & Heartbreak: The Devil

Hysteria & Heartbreak: The Devil

Posted by | Dec 16, 2016 | , |

Overview: A man is rescued from prison by a strange character who leads him through a dark look at his life. Facets Media; 1972; Not Rated; 119 minutes. Sophomore Effort: The Devil is Andrezj Żuławski’s second film and the first to be a victim of censorship by the Polish government, having been banned for 16 years for its political statements. The film opens on a fiery ordeal in 1793 Poland. A scattering frenzy of soldiers and bloody screams greet the viewer as we’re led into a world of oppression. At the end of a war to protect the constitution from...

Read More
Hysteria & Heartbreak: Possession Will Still Leave You Shaken

Hysteria & Heartbreak: Possession Will Still Leave You Shaken

Posted by | Dec 13, 2016 | , |

Overview: A husband and wife face their own monsters within through a horrifying divorce. Gaumont; 1981; Rated R; 124 minutes. I’ll Be the Way That She Wants: In 1981 Andrzej Żuławski released what would become the most prominent and enduring piece of work in his lifetime. Much like Cronenberg’s The Brood,  Possession was born out of the agony of a messy divorce. Żuławski was reeling over the split from his first wife, Malgorzata Braunek, who starred in two of his previous films (The Devil, The Third Part of the Night) and his struggle with anger is obvious. Sam Neill and...

Read More
Another 7 Chilling Real Life Stories That Should Be Horror Movies

Another 7 Chilling Real Life Stories That Should Be Horror Movies

Posted by | Oct 28, 2016 | , |

We are currently in the midst of a glut in terms of wonderful horror and terrifying horror film releases. The unfortunate news (or fortunate, if you’re into this sort of thing), is that the real world keeps turning up terrifying stories as well. This year, we had no trouble finding seven more entries into our continuing Halloween series of seven real life stories that would make great movies. Let’s get started… 1. Japanese Ghost Boat Since October of last year, dozens of wooden boats washed onto the shores of Monzen, a quiet Japanese fishing village, carrying a total of...

Read More
A Horrortown Deconstruction: An Interview With Rodney Ascher, Director of The Nightmare and Room 237

A Horrortown Deconstruction: An Interview With Rodney Ascher, Director of The Nightmare and Room 237

Posted by | Oct 28, 2016 | ,

Beginning in the last week of October, Audiences Everywhere will be continuing its Horrortown series of interviews with renowned horror directors in which we will discuss current and upcoming films, and also get the artists’ take on the contemporary horror. When we decided to reboot our Horrortown interview series, I wanted to make sure we added a little flavor to the perspective within our ongoing conversation. So naturally, Rodney Ascher is a name I immediately circled in blood red. Somehow, my plans panned out as I recently had the honor of speaking with Mr. Ascher about his films Room...

Read More
A Horrortown Humorist: An Interview with Jason Krawczyk, Director of He Never Died

A Horrortown Humorist: An Interview with Jason Krawczyk, Director of He Never Died

Posted by | Oct 27, 2016 | ,

Beginning in the last week of October, Audiences Everywhere will be continuing its Horrortown series of interviews with renowned horror directors in which we will discuss current and upcoming films and also get the artists’ take on the contemporary horror. If you’ve surfed through Netflix’s horror selection recently, you’ve likely come across the film He Never Died. If your taste is refined or your sense of good film quality is intuitive, you’ve also watched it. If that’s the case, then you know there’s something exceptional about the film’s director, Jason Krawczyk. The film is quickly surpassing contemporary cult classic status, in...

Read More
Horrortown’s Haunted House Experts: Bobby Roe & Zack Andrews

Horrortown’s Haunted House Experts: Bobby Roe & Zack Andrews

Posted by | Oct 26, 2016 | , |

Beginning in the last week of October, Audiences Everywhere will be continuing its  Horrortown series of interviews with renowned horror directors in which we will discuss current and upcoming films, and also get the artists’ take on the contemporary horror. The Houses October Built is a found footage movie that saw theatrical release initially in 2014 and served as the directorial debut of Bobby Roe. Alongside his childhood friend, creative collaborator, and co-star Zack Andrews, their horror film examined some of the surreal and frightening world and profession of operating and working as performers in haunted house attractions across the country....

Read More
5 Board Games That Should Be Horror Movies

5 Board Games That Should Be Horror Movies

Posted by | Oct 26, 2016 | , |

With the success of Universal’s Ouija franchise, we got to thinking about other board games that would make for great horror movies directed by some of the genre’s biggest names. Parents and guardians, feel free to thank us later. Tobe Hooper’s Guess Who Six strangers wake up in a derelict house. Taped to the wall are 24 photographs of people close to each of these six people—four for each person. Above them is a metal grate where they can see a figure dressed all in black, and a chair with a figure draped in a sheet tied to it....

Read More
10 More Nightmare YouTube Videos Scarier Than Horror Films

10 More Nightmare YouTube Videos Scarier Than Horror Films

Posted by | Oct 25, 2016 | , |

Not everyone has what it takes to sit through 90-120 minutes of a horror film. Maybe you like the available time, or the long-term courage. In either event, if you’re looking to be scared in small doses, we have just the thing for you: the second installment of our series that captures YouTube videos scarier than horror films. You can catch the first installment here, and a new set of ten nightmare videos below. “Don’t Talk, Just Listen” Paul Michael Stephani was a serial killer who took the lives of five women in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The video above collects the...

Read More