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The first C.H.U.D became a culturally relevant movie for multiple reasons and against all odds also worked its way into the greater pop culture zeitgeist. I argued that the first movie doesn’t quite stand the test of time a bit ago and while I stand by that, it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it either. C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. is a wild ride of a sequel that certainly didn’t need to exist but is somehow more fun than the predecessor. Its also a better sequel in a franchise that it doesn’t technically exist in! Can’t wait to get into that aspect. Most of you love C.H.U.D. but I’m here to tell you why C.H.U.D. II is a great black sheep that straddles the end of the 80s and start to the 90s. I doubt I’ll sway anyone onto my side of...

In 1975, George Kennedy starred in an unusual revenge thriller in which AI was used to catch the bad guys. A look back at The ‘Human’ Factor:

Revenge films and vigilantes were all over the place in the 1970s, whether it was Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey gunning down crooks in Death Wish (1974) or Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle going on a rampage in Taxi Driver (1976). One of the more unusual thrillers of its type from the era, though, was The ‘Human’ Factor from 1975. For one thing, there’s its high-tech premise, in which George Kennedy’s protagonist uses cutting-edge technology to track down his enemies.

Kennedy plays John Kinsdale, a middle-aged, American computer expert stationed in Naples. Each day, he says goodbye to his picture-perfect Nuclear family – wife, two sons, a daughter with an outsized clown doll – and drives to his workplace at a nearby NATO base. There,...

Frank Griffin, who nosed out another makeup artist to work with Steve Martin on Roxanne, just one of the 20 movies they did together, has died. He was 95.

Griffin died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Studio City, his daughter Roxane Griffin, a veteran Hollywood hairstylist (Avatar, Transparent, 80 for Brady), told The Hollywood Reporter.

Frank Griffin started out in Hollywood as an actor and studio laborer before turning to makeup in the mid-1960s, and he went on to work on Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Scarecrow (1973), Westworld (1973), Cinderella Liberty (1973), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Urban Cowboy (1980), Midnight Run (1988), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Vacation (1983), Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985).

Survivors also include his sister Debra Paget, who starred in such films as Broken Arrow (1950), Love Me Tender (1956) — Elvis Presley’s first movie — and The Ten Commandments (1956).

His other two sisters were actresses as well: Lisa Gaye,...

First came Hal-9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey). Then came Colossus (The Forbin Project), followed by Proteus IV (Demon Seed), and SkyNet (The Terminator series). And that's just barely scratching the science-fiction surface. Individually and collectively, each film reflected the technophobic fears of rogue AIs (Artificial Intelligence) prevalent in their respective times. In turn, all posited the same independent-minded AIs running amok in the celluloid world, decisively turning on their human masters, and creating both headaches and havoc, sometimes temporary, sometimes permanent. More than a half-century after Hal-9000 made his unforgettable, scene-stealing debut, writer-director Chris Weitz decided his turn had come to add his contribution to the “AI run amok” sub-genre. The middling, muddled result, AfrAId (formerly They...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Though it was hardly the first thriller to portray domesticity imperiled by an artificially intelligent “helper”, the runaway success of 2022’s “M3GAN” certainly lent that concept new commercial appeal. Unsurprisingly, Blumhouse isn’t waiting for next summer’s “M3GAN 2.0” to capitalize on its own success. Writer-director Chris Weitz’s “Afraid” (recently retitled with an “AI” spin from the previously announced “They Listen”) stars John Cho and Katherine Waterston as a married couple whose home is selected to test a new “digital family assistant.” Needless to say, it soon develops a dangerous mind of its own.

This less tongue-in-cheek traipse through formulaic sci-fi horror terrain works well enough to a point, its setup nicely handled by Weitz and his cast. But when crises start occurring at the halfway mark, they pile on too quickly to underwhelming effect, sacrificing credibility for excitement that never really materializes. Opening without press screenings, the...

Starring Rachel Zegler and, er, Fred Durst, along comes Y2K, A24’s comedy that imagines a cyber apocalypse at the end of the millennium. Here’s the first trailer:

What if the year 2000 problem – the bug that was supposed to crash just about every computer on the planet at the end of 1999 – was even scarier than predicted? That’s the question posed by director and co-writer Kyle Mooney’s upcoming A24 comedy, logically called Y2K.

It features Jaeden Martell and future Snow White star Rachel Zegler as a couple of teenagers who, during a party to celebrate the turn of the millennium, watch as society collapses into a cyber apocalypse. Rather than merely have computers glitch out and planes fall from the sky, however, Mooney and co-writer Evan Winter’s comedy horror sees a form of sentient intelligence cobble together killer robots from spare parts, a bit like...

Films like Ex Machina and Demon Seed blur the line between psychological thriller and horror, exploring the dangers of artificial intelligence. Hardware and Virus showcase unique and chilling killer robot designs, creating practical and visually striking horror aesthetics. From the uncanny Valley effect to bloodthirsty animatronics, the evolution of robotic villains in horror movies is both entertaining and terrifying.

It's rare for horror movies to use robotic villains as their antagonists, but there are a rare few that manage to make killer automatons seem downright terrifying. Compared to horror movies starring ghosts, traditional human slashers, demons or other monsters, killer robot films seem to be at a disadvantage. It can be hard to find a way to make a sleek-looking automaton seem threatening, and the human-made nature of robotics makes them more "knowable" and practical threats to overcome.

That being said, many sci-fi horror classics have found ways to make...

The horror house that Blum built (aka Blumhouse) has been doubling down on its tech-horror in the wake of the overwhelming success of "M3GAN." Not only is a sequel film, "M3GAN 2.0," expected to arrive in 2025 but there are also plans for a technological erotic thriller called "SOULM8TE" that's described as a "M3GAN" spin-off about an AI lovebot. But before either of those films hit theaters, Blumhouse has another AI nightmare up its sleeve: Chris Weitz's "AfrAId."

The film centers on a man named Curtis (John Cho) whose family is chosen to test out a brand-new home equipped with a state-of-the-art digital family assistant known as "Aia." This full-service smart home utilizes sensors and cameras to learn the family's behaviors, schedules, wants, and needs — utilizing AI to anticipate further assistance they might require. She can order organic foods from the grocery store, read bedtime stories to the youngest child,...

When Donald Cammell's techno-horror "Demon Seed" crept into theaters in 1977, critics were not impressed. From being described as utterly nonsensical to being viciously torn apart as a film with no right to exist, "Demon Seed" was mostly reviled as unwatchable garbage that relied on flagrant shock value to capture audience attention.

Today, the film's critical reappraisal does not quite elevate "Demon Seed" into a cult classic but does approach it with a more balanced lens, where there is some value to be found in its social commentary about technological singularity and the uprooting of female autonomy. Cammell's film is an uncomfortable look into the extent to which those in power wish to control bodily autonomy — a theme that feels especially poignant now. Apart from this, "Demon Seed" also underlines the horrifying extremes of unchecked artificial intelligence, and how it preys on those it perceives as easily exploitable.

Despite being...

Barbara O. Jones, an actress in the independent Black cinema of 1970s Los Angeles in such films as Bush Mama and Daughters of the Dust, has died at her home in Dayton, Ohio. She was 82.

Her brother, Marlon Minor, confirmed her April 8 death to The New York Times and said the cause had not been determined.

Jones moved from the Midwest in search of a film career, and became active in the UCLA film school, a movement that has been called the L.A. Rebellion.

She appeared in several short student films, including Child of Resistance (1973), in which she played an imprisoned activist loosely based on Angela Davis, and Diary of an African Nun (1977), adapted from a short story by Alice Walker.

Her first leading role in a feature film was in Bush Mama (1979). The movie’s story followed the daily life of Dorothy, played by Jones. The film was...

Barbara O. Jones, the admired actress who emerged from the L.A. Rebellion movement of Black filmmakers at UCLA in the 1970s to star in Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, has died. She was 82.

Jones died Tuesday at her home in Dayton, Ohio, her brother, Raymond Minor, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Rest In Peace & Power,” Dash wrote on Instagram.

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A post shared by Julie Dash (@dash_julie)

For Gerima, Jones portrayed an imprisoned woman fighting for social justice in the 36-minute short film Child of Resistance (1973) — the character was inspired by activist Angela Davis — and a welfare recipient in Watts who undergoes an ideological transformation in the filmmaker’s feature debut, Bush Mama (1979). Both films were made at UCLA.

Jones starred as a Ugandan nun questioning her faith in Dash’s 13-minute student film Diary of an...

I was a kid just as the drive-in craze was coming to a close. I can recall packing into our giant boat of a Chrysler station wagon and trekking out to see some first-run movies with my family back in the early 80s. I vividly remember seeing The Muppets Take Manhattan, Superman III (which terrified young me to no end), and Return of the Jedi on the massive screens of the Starlight Drive-In that stood for decades after the projectors were shut down and the lot converted into a gigantic swap-meet. Unfortunately, I was far too young to take in the legendary exploitation fare of the period. Sometimes I wish I had been born fifteen or twenty years earlier so I could have experienced the heyday of Aip, New World, and their ilk firsthand, but living through the dawn of the home video boom wasn’t a bad trade off.

Sci-fi films pave the way for new techniques and styles in cinema, influencing other genres and improving the medium as a whole. While many sci-fi films have been successfully remade for modern audiences, influential classics like Metropolis and The Sorcerers are still waiting for their turn. Movies like They Live and Demon Seed explore relevant themes of aliens and AI, making them ripe for remakes that could captivate a modern audience.

Sci-fi as a genre has led to some of the best films and stories of all time, but several films that helped define the genre happened decades ago and are yet to receive a remake for modern audiences. Sci-fi is often the first place where new techniques and experimental styles in film are employed. These films then influence other genres and help to improve the medium as a whole.

In recent years, Hollywood has spent a lot of time...

In the age of Alexa and Siri, it’s not hard to imagine a world where machines rule. But what if they weren’t as friendly as our favorite virtual assistants? If you’re fascinated by the chilling prospect of tech taking over (or just love a good cinematic robo thrill!), then this list of killer robots and malicious machine movies is tailored just for you. Be warned, though; you might think twice before asking Siri to play your playlist after watching these!

The Terminator (1984) | Orion The Terminator (1984)

In this sci-fi classic, a buff cyborg is sent from the future with a singular mission: end Sarah Connor’s existence. It’s an action-packed roller coaster that introduced us to Arnie’s iconic phrase, “I’ll be back.” Oh, and spoiler alert: he wasn’t just talking about returning from a grocery run. The quintessential killer machine.

Where to Watch: Powered...

The episode of The Test of Time covering Motel Hell was Written by Andrew Hatfield, Narrated by Niki Minter, Edited by Mike Conway, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Copycat movies have been a thing forever. You can look at the broader scope and consider that most slasher movies became copycat in one way or another. A supernatural killer, excessive gore and nudity, and even the high body counts. That style of horror movies could become a dime a dozen. Twin films are similar, but they are made at roughly the same time and actually trying to release first to beat the other to market so as to not be seen as an attempted clone of the other studios idea. Boiling it down even further, some copycats go beyond just the themes and even try to take direct elements from the previous movie that made money.

Science-fiction movies about artificial intelligence serve as a cautionary tale, exploring the dangers and unforeseen consequences of advanced technology. The power of artificial intelligence is not fully understood, and its increased reliance in society could have dire consequences for humanity, as depicted in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ex Machina. AI-based items, such as dolls or home assistants, can have unintended consequences and turn from seemingly harmless to deeply horrifying and hostile, as shown in films like Child's Play and Tau.

It's no secret that most science-fiction movies about artificial intelligence turn into AI horror stories. A core tenet of the sci-fi genre is to investigate the dangers and unforeseen consequences of seemingly beneficial tech and other human advancements. Robotics, artificial intelligence, and other related innovations are enduring topics in sci-fi works, especially when it comes to film. As the intelligence of machines and software becomes commonplace in day-to-day life,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)

One of last year’s most resonant films, Aftersun looks at the scratchy dynamics between a father and daughter while on vacation. It’s about memory, the finite nature of the relationships in our lives, and the difficulties of a parent’s diminishing mental health. Charlotte Wells knows where to put the camera in her debut—undeterred from taking risks, from placing her characters outside of the frame, from looking at shadows instead of the people themselves. Aftersun is a rare, tremendous first film, full of heart and focused melancholy; it breaks you down and fills you up simultaneously. The consistent inclusion of camcorder footage, and the fact that it enhances the story rather than becoming a distraction, further...

I honestly never expected Steven Spielberg in a Criterion Channel series––certainly not one that pairs him with Kogonada, anime, and Johnny Mnemonic––but so’s the power of artificial intelligence. Perhaps his greatest film (at this point I don’t need to tell you the title) plays with After Yang, Ghost in the Shell, and pre-Matrix Keanu in July’s aptly titled “AI” boasting also Spike Jonze’s Her, Carpenter’s Dark Star, and Computer Chess. Much more analog is a British Noir collection obviously carrying the likes of Odd Man Out, Night and the City, and The Small Back Room, further filled by Joseph Losey’s Time Without Pity and Basil Dearden’s It Always Rains on Sunday. (No two ways about it: these movies have great titles.) An Elvis retrospective brings six features, and the consensus best (Don Siegel’s Flaming Star) comes September 1.

While Isabella Rossellini...

Stars: Eliza Taylor, Bob Morley, Hannah Fierman, Bryan Batt, David Keith | Written by Elisa Manzini, Sara Sometti Michaels | Directed by Erik Bernard

As I’ll Be Watching opens, Julie is having a terrible day. Her husband Marcus is having problems with connecting flights and is going to miss the showing of her latest paintings. Even worse, her sister Rebecca (Hannah Fierman; Dead by Midnight (11pm Central), Evil Little Things) goes to Julie’s apartment to give her cat Pepper her meds, while she’s there she’s killed by an intruder.

Months later Julie is still suffering from guilt over her death and lets herself be pressured into moving to a new home in the middle of nowhere by Marcus and their therapist Dr. Tate. They tell her not living in the place where her sister died should help her recover. Marcus can work from home so she won’t be alone,...

We’ve lost another Hollywood legend. The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that cinematographer Bill Butler, best known for his work on the 1975 Steven Spielberg classic Jaws, has passed away at the age of 101. Butler died on Wednesday evening, according to the American Society of Cinematographers. He would have turned 102 on Friday – today.

Born on April 7, 1921 in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Butler earned his first entertainment industry credit by working as a camera operator on the 1959 film 1001 Arabian Nights. His first cinematographer credit came when his friend, director William Friedkin, hired him to shoot the 1962 TV movie The People vs. Paul Crump. He never attended film school, he just taught himself cinematography by watching movies and referring to the ASC manual. That approach definitely worked out for him. Over the next fifty-four years, he served as the cinematographer on eighty-four more projects, including Jack Nicholson’s Drive, He Said; The Bold Men,...

The legendary, Oscar-nominated cinematographer of Steven Spielberg’s horror classic Jaws, Bill Butler passed away Wednesday at the age of 101 years old, THR reports this morning.

The site notes, “He would have turned 102 on Friday.”

It was back in 1976 that Bill Butler was co-nominated for a “Best Cinematography” statue at that year’s Academy Awards for his work on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a film released just one year after Butler served as Cinematographer on the horror classic Jaws.

“His iconic shots included the early dawn attack of the first victim that opens the film, the Vertigo-inspired dolly zoom that accompanies Chief Brody’s shock at witnessing a shark attack from the beach and the extreme close-ups of panicking swimmers,” THR explains, detailing Bill Butler’s integral role in the making of the game-changing summer blockbuster.

Bill Butler later served as Cinematographer/Director of Photography on the original...

Oscar-nominated Cinematographer Wilmer C. Butler, whose work included a series of landmark films such as The Conversation (1974), Jaws (1975) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), has died. He was 101. The American Society of Cinematographers confirmed Butler’s passing.

Butler was the ASC’s most senior member, and he had a resume to match. He worked with directors such as Philip Kaufman, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Richard Donner, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Ivan Reitman, Tobe Hooper, Joseph Sargent, Mike Nichols, John Cassavetes and Steven Spielberg.

Friedkin convinced Butler to be the cinematographer on The People vs. Paul Crump, a documentary about a prisoner slated for execution in Illinois. The project got Crump’s death sentence commuted.

He got his start in features with Philip Kaufman’s 1967 film Fearless Frank. Two years later, Friedkin introduced Butler to Francis Ford Coppola, with whom he shot The Rain People before going on to...

Bill Butler, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer whose career in Hollywood spanned five decades, has passed away. The news comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter, with the American Society of Cinematographers confirming his death. Butler was 101 years old, and mere days away from 102. The celebrated filmmaker leaves behind a body of work that is sure to outlive us all.

Born in 1921, Butler got his start in the early '60s serving as the director of photography on TV movies such as "The People vs. Paul Crump" and "The Bold Men." But it wasn't long before he was making a name for himself, shooting Francis Ford Coppola's first feature "The Rain People" in 1969. Butler was also behind the camera working with Coppola again for one of cinema's all-time classics a handful of years later with 1974's "The Conversation."

It was, however, the following year when Butler would arguably make his biggest...

Emmy-winning cinematographer Bill Butler, who was Oscar nominated for shooting “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and was also the D.P. on Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws,” died Wednesday, according to the American Society of Cinematographers. He was 101.

Spielberg remembered Butler in a statement, saying, “On ‘Jaws,’ Bill Butler was the bedrock on that rickety, rocking boat called the Orca. He was the only calm in the middle of that storm, and as we went into a battle against nature and technology that wore both of us down, the audience eventually won the war. Bill’s outlook on life was pragmatic, philosophical and so very patient, and I owe him so much for his steadfast and creative contributions to the entire look of ‘Jaws.’”

In addition to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Butler served as d.p. on a number of other high-profile films of the 1970s, including Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation,...

Bill Butler, the self-taught, Oscar-nominated cinematographer whose work on the landmark 1975 horror film Jaws unleashed a wave of anxiety for beachgoers that lasts to this day, has died. He would have turned 102 on Friday.

Butler died Wednesday evening in Los Angeles, according to the American Society of Cinematographers. He is survived by five daughters and his wife, Iris.

During his five-decade career, Butler also shot Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People (1969) and The Conversation (1974); Peter Hyams’ Capricorn One (1977); Randal Kleiser’s hit musical Grease (1978); and Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982) and Rocky IV (1985), all written and directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone.

On another noteworthy 1975 release, Butler replaced the fired Haskell Wexler midway through production on Milos Forman‘s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Both shared an Oscar cinematography nomination for their work.

Butler also had replaced Wexler on The Conversation after creative differences forced Wexler off that production early on.

Stars: Lochlyn Munro, Brittany Mitchell, Madison Pettis, Vanessa Morgan, Jedidiah Goodacre, Phoebe Miu, Jordan Buhat, Richard Harmon, Susan Bennett | Written by Chris Beyrooty, Chris Sivertson, Nick Waters | Directed by Steven C. Miller

Margaux takes its title from the name of the sophisticated AI that runs the smart home serving as the film’s main location, And, as films from Demon Seed to Dark Cloud have told us, putting a computer in charge of your house never ends well. And judging by the prologue featuring Lochlyn Munro and Brittany Mitchell this will be no exception.

A group of college friends, Hannah, Lexi, Drew, Kayla, Devon, and Clay feel that they’ve grown apart in the four years since they left high school. So the former Nerd Herd decide to get together for a weekend party before graduation.

Director Steven C. Miller and writers Chris Beyrooty (Shelter in Place), Chris Sivertson and...

The taut and terrifying thriller Held is being released on DVD & Digital platforms April 25th and to celebrate we are giving away a DVD!

Directed by Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing (the pair behind the Blumhouse horror sensation The Gallows and its hit sequel), with an assured script by Jill Awbrey, who also stars, Held is a sleekly-shot shocker, where a couple’s weekend getaway in an isolated, high-tech house turns into a nightmare after the phone rings and voice says “Obey US!”

The film, which premiered at the Arrow Video FrightFest in London, features a marvellous lead performance by Awbrey in her debut feature role, with Bart Johnson (High School Musical) a charismatic screen presence as her husband. Cluff himself can be heard as the sinister voice that tells the couple “we know everything you did”.

With elements of the Saw films, The Collector, and Demon Seed (the 70s...

Ahead of Horror Channel’s UK TV Premiere of Peripheral, director Paul Hyett talks about directorial ambitions, twisted technology, and why aliens aren’t interested in us.

How did you become attached to Peripheral?

The producer Craig Touhy and I had been friends for a while and we’d nearly done another movie together. He’d liked the claustrophobia and tension of The Seasoning House so we met up to discuss Peripheral. When he pitched it to me, very much a low budget, contained movie, in one apartment. I must say I was a little hesitant. I wanted to broaden my directing and do bigger scope. Craig persuaded me to at least read it. I did and loved the script. The story, the character of Bobbi, of this writer blocked, being forced to adjust to what is wanted of her, and having to succumb to a technology that ultimately fucks...

October’s here and it’s time to get spooked. After last year’s superb “’70s Horror” lineup, the Criterion Channel commemorates October with a couple series: “Universal Horror,” which does what it says on the tin (with special notice to the Spanish-language Dracula), and “Home Invasion,” which runs the gamut from Romero to Oshima with Polanski and Haneke in the mix. Lest we disregard the programming of Cindy Sherman’s one feature, Office Killer, and Jennifer’s Body, whose lifespan has gone from gimmick to forgotten to Criterion Channel. And if you want to stretch ideas of genre just a hair, their “True Crime” selection gets at darker shades of human nature.

It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment,...

David Gutnik’s debut feature “Materna” starts with an all-too familiar scene: a woman on a train, obviously desiring to be left alone, is being talked to by a highly aggressive man. He’s shouting, causing a scene, and the more the woman ignores him, the more frustrated he becomes. It’s unfortunate that the rest of “Materna” simultaneously never lives up to that opening intensity nor authenticity with regards to women in contemporary society,

Gutnik utilizes the technique of telling four separate stories, each spotlighting one woman on the train that day. We’ve seen this method of storytelling done so often in other independent features and when done poorly it feels like what it is: a gimmick. Here, there’s never a feeling of unity between the women at any point — outside of them being women with motherhood issues — so they play like four disparate stories with a...

Felix Silla, best known as the gibberish-spouting Cousin Itt on the 1960s TV sitcom The Addams Family, died today from pancreatic cancer. He was 84 and died in Las Vegas, according to a tweet from Gil Gerard, who costarred with him on the 1979-81 NBC series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Silla donned a full-body hairpiece, sunglasses and a bowler hat to achieve the role of Cousin Itt, who could only be understood by members of the Addams Family, thanks to his strange mumbling. The role was one of several where Silla’s face went unseen, including appearances as robot Twiki on Buck Rogers and as a hang-gliding Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi.

One role where he could be seen was as the villain Litvak, who took on George Segal’s Sam Spade Jr. in The Maltese Falcon sequel The Black Bird (1975).

Born in Italy,...

It took me a long time to realize why I'm afraid of Katey Sagal. The talented actor seems like a lovely person, but whenever I hear her voice in an episode of Futurama or catch sight of her in a Married... with Children rerun, I get a little jolt of fear. It wasn't until Disney+ launched with a fully stocked back catalog of Disney Channel original movies (DCOMs) that I realized my Sagal fear stems from Smart House, the scariest Dcom ever made.

Somehow my tween brain and my adult brain failed to make the connection between Sagal and Pat, the voice (and later physical embodiment) of the smart house at the center of the film. For the uninitiated, Smart House is centered on the Cooper family - Ben, Angie, and their dad, Nick. At 13, Ben is committed to preserving his late mother's memory by ensuring that his father doesn't start dating again.

Ahead of the digital release, on August 3rd, of his latest film Peripheral, director Paul Hyett talks about the importance of creative freedom, the lockdown and future projects…

Peripheral is your fourth feature as director. When you started on The Seasoning House back in 2011, did you ever imagine your career would be this successful?

Back when I decided I wanted to make my own movie I had my prosthetics company and was doing very well, but I really wanted to tell my own stories. I said to myself, get The Seasoning House made, see if it’s any good. If it’s a success then I would close my workshop and concentrate on directing. When it was selected as opening film for FrightFest 2012, I was elated and decided to go that path. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have directed four films and never would have thought that would happen.

Heady. Intellectual. Gassy. These are some of the terms applied to the wave of brain-based sci-fi started by 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and lasting until the arrival of more action led material, namely Star Wars (1977). Coming hot on the heels of Kubrick’s epic was Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), an awkwardly titled yet fascinating and suspenseful look at the perils of AI sentience. Damn you, computers. All the way to cyberhell.

Released by Universal in April, Colossus actually received good notices from critics who appreciated the film’s attempts at suspense crossed with intelligent discourse on the wages of war; audiences simply shrugged and moved on, denying the film the sequel it deserved. Oh well - Colossus standing alone is apropos considering the events that transpire.

We open on a Colorado mountainside, as Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden - The Young and the Restless) triple checks the gargantuan banks of...

Tony Sokol May 28, 2019

Medium Amy Allan and ex-homicide detective Steve Dischiavi check out gruesome hauntings for homeowners on Travel Channel’s The Dead Files.

Murder-suicides, brutal homicides, a secret prison and a possible possession go under the magnifying glass and in front of the camera on The Dead Files. Former NYPD homicide detective Steve Dischiavi and physical medium Amy Allan help frightened homeowners suffering from dangerous paranormal activity in a brand-new season of Travel Channel’s hit series, The Dead Files. Season 11 will air 10 one-hour episodes of season 11 starting on Thursday, July 11 at 10 p.m.

The invesigators examine unexplained and dangerous paranormal activity from their unique viewpoints to uncover the truth behind their clients’ startling claims, and ultimately decide if it’s safe for them to stay. “I’ve seen a lot of things throughout my career, but the cases this season shock even me,” Dischiavi, who has 21 years of active service to the Nycpd,...

Tenille Townes looks for a clean start in “I Kept the Roses,” Chance McCoy takes a spacey turn in “No One Loves You (The Way That I Do),” Honey County pay tribute to victims of the Route 91 Festival massacre in “Country Strong” and more must-hear songs this week.

Honey County, “Country Strong”

An anthemic tribute to those affected by the mass shooting at 2017’s Route 91 Harvest Festival and last year’s deadly attack at the Borderline bar in Southern California, “Country Strong” made its live premiere this past weekend when...

Jim Knipfel Mar 4, 2019

We look at some of the lesser-remembered but influential evil artificial intelligence computer movies, Colossus and Demon Seed.

The ugly turns taken by assorted historical vectors in the late 1960s and early ‘70s—a string of high-profile assassinations, race riots, Manson, the Weather Underground, Vietnam, Nixon, a broader awareness of impending environmental collapse—made the 1970s a particular golden era for dystopian cinema. All the above mentioned forces and more gave us the likes of Soylent Green, No Blade of Grass, Thx-1138, Frogs, The Omega Man, and countless other visions of our doomed future. In and amongst all our other inescapable anxieties and paranoias was an increasing awareness of the role computers were playing in our daily lives.

Technoparanoid fears of dehumanization and power-mad machines can of course be traced back to the silent era in cinema, and much earlier than that in literature and legend, but...

Performance, the 1970 British crime drama best known as Mick Jagger’s acting debut, had a challenging route to screen. But despite troubles with studio Warner Bros, the film, which defines the bohemian London of the 1960s, has gone on to be considered one of the best British films of all time.

A new book, Performance: The 50th Anniversary, written and compiled by Jay Glennie, tells the story of its chaotic production, gives a glimpse behind-the-scenes with over 500 images including many never seen before, and looks at its legacy through the eyes of star Jagger, as well as Nic Roeg, who directed the film alongside Donald Cammell and producer Sandy Lieberson. Glennie has given Deadline an exclusive look at the book, which is released via Coattail Publishing on December 1.

Jagger says, “It’s actually hard to believe that we’re still talking about the film 50 years later. Not many films stick around that long.

Daniel Kurland Oct 9, 2018

We pick out the best of what the Warner Archive has to offer in terms of top shelf Halloween programming so that you don’t have to!

This article is brought to you by Warner Archive.

As we once again enter the Halloween season, there are more services than ever that cater to scary season programming. In fact, there are almost too many macabre programming blocks to choose from. While there are many available streams out there—and a true horror savant will utilize multiple services to consumer as much content as possible—the ever-growing Warner Archive offers up a robust lineup of material. Whether this Warner Bros. service has been on your radar or not, it’s time to take it seriously because it covers a wide array of horror-friendly films. In order to assure that you spend more time watching horror films than you do searching for them,...

While tech-horrors run the risk of dating as quickly as the malevolent malware/equipment they feature, many provide fascinating insights into products gone awry and how they can be utilised as weapons/ to petrify. Recently, Unfriended: Dark Web, i-Lived, Open Windows and Selfie From Hell have all employed web tech/ platforms as tools to terrorise, while the riper likes of Videodrome, Demon Seed, Poltergeist and sci-fi siblings Tron, Brainscan and The Lawnmower Man offer (in retrospect) intriguing insights into corrupt/ defective tech of the time.

With Cam, writer/director Daniel Goldhaber collaborates on a screenplay with former sex worker Isa Mazzei, and crafts a fretful, uncanny tech thriller that taps into a prevalent paranoia of identity theft, profile cloning and public humiliation via social media. In an age of net analytics and ad targeting software, Goldhaber and Mazzei shrewdly explore an embryonic weakness and how it connects with our inherent...

Classic horror film lovers get excited, as Turner Classic Movies just unveiled its movie lineup for the Halloween season. I’d run through and list all the classics that will be popping up throughout the month, but there’s just too many to list. This is Turner Classic Movies after all. Check out the full lineup below, and let us know if you’re excited for any of these! (via Bloody Disgusting)

Wednesday October 3, 2018

8:00 Pm The Unknown (1927) Dir: Tod Browning

9:00 Pm The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Dir: Rupert Julian

10:45 Pm The Monster (1925) Dir: Roland West

Thursday October 4, 2018

12:30 Am The Penalty (1920) Dir: Wallace Worsley

2:15 Am The Unholy Three (1925) Dir: Tod Browning.

4:00 Am He Who Gets Slapped (1924) Dir: Victor Seastrom

Saturday October 6, 2018

2:00 Am Deadly Friend (1986) Dir: Wes Craven

3:45 Am Demon Seed (1977) Dir. Donald Cammell

Sunday October 7, 2018

8:00 Pm The Mummy’s Hand (1940) Dir: Christy...

Andy, Mike, Josh and Josh’s girlfriend, Janna fire up the microphones to have a discussion about Adam Wingard’s Death Note, the 2017 adaptation of It and we pay tribute to the late Tobe Hooper. Also, just when you thought it was safe…Horrorlimination!

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Show Notes:

00:02:50 – What We’ve Been Watching

Josh & Janna – Blood: The Last Vampire, Adam Wingard’s Death Note (discussion starts at 00:03:56), Firestarter, Miracle Mile, Sorcerer, The Good Son, Cat’s Eye, Die, Monster, Die, Shin Godzilla, The Killing of America, Stagefright (1988), Deranged, Demon Seed, The Boy (2016), Toolbox Murders (2004), Ghosts of Mars, The Hunger, Avgn X, Josh is also reading Bruce Campbell’s Hail to the Chin book and was called a genius. Janna started “Stranger Things” because Josh is procrastinating. Janna also watched Shiki and is reading “Ax Murders of Saxtown: The Unsolved Crime That Terrorized a Town...

Famous Monsters of Filmland is paying tribute to the horror genre's past while also celebrating the present at this year's San Diego Comic-Con:

Press Release: "Famous Monsters has come to San Diego Comic-Con once again, and we've scheduled several panels featuring special guests and announcements!

Famous Monsters Stake of the Union 2017

Friday July 21, 2017 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Room 26Ab

Famous Monsters of Filmland has spanned nearly 60 years with its game-changing genre magazine, groundbreaking cover art, record-setting fan events, original comic books, and more. And 2017 promises to be the most exciting year yet as FM expands into new forms of media, including syndicated television! Publisher Philip Kim, editor Holly Interlandi, and associate editor Joe Moe will welcome special panelists to tease future projects, give exclusive art reveals, and maybe wax a little philosophical on Frankenstein.

From Comics to Virtual Reality with American Gothic Press

Saturday July 22, 2017 7:00pm - 8:...

In today's Horror Highlights, we have a Q&A with The Gracefield Incident at Mathieu Ratthe, new stills from Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories, and details on Famous Monsters of Filmland's presence at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions for us, Mathieu. How and when did you first come up with the idea for The Gracefield Incident?

Mathieu Ratthe: First of all, thank you, Derek, for your interest in our film. I wanted to create a suspenseful story that scared the crap out of the audience, but also made them emotionally involved, which is really tough to do in this kind of movie, but I think we achieved it pretty well in our film.

The conceptual idea (or I liked to call it the “technique”) came after I realized how many days I was given to shoot our film with the budget that I had.

“Pimples are the Lord’s way of chastising you.”

Carrie (1976) screens Midnights this weekend (April 28th and 29th) at The Moolah Theater and Lounge (3821 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, Mo 63108) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse film series.

Over the past few decades, almost everything ever written by Stephen King has been filmed for either TV or the silver screen; however, very few of these adaptations have come close to matching the extremely high standard set by Carrie the first King novel to receive the movie treatment, way back in 1976 (which is when I first saw it at the old Webster Groves Cinema – double feature with Demon Seed!).

Directed by Brian De Palma, this superb supernatural horror stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy and awkward teenage girl who is mercilessly bullied at high-school and further tormented at home by her overbearing, religious zealot mother...

This Week in Home VideoGet Ready to Fall in Love With the Funny, Sexy, and Beautifully Independent ‘The Love Witch’Plus 13 more new releases to watch at home this week on Blu-ray/DVD.

Welcome to this week in home video! Click the title to buy a Blu-ray/DVD from Amazon and help support Fsr in the process!

Pick of the WeekThe Love Witch

What is it? A witch visits a small coastal community in search of love with a side of unintended consequences.

Why buy it? Writer/director/producer/composer/editor/production designer/art director/set decorator/costume designer Anna Biller delivers a singular experience with this incredibly stylish, sexy, and scathing tale of a witch in search of love. The film is a colorful, stylized nod to the days of Technicolor romance that manages to be both a take down of a patriarchal society and a loose, fun romp.

[Blu-ray/DVD extras: Commentary, featurette, interview, deleted scenes, dance audition]

The...

Well, I hope you guys have been saving your pennies, because there are a lot of great horror and sci-fi titles coming home on March 14th. Scream Factory is giving Firestarter the Collector’s Edition treatment this week, and both Drive-In Massacre and The Skull are being resurrected in HD as well.

If you missed them during their theatrical runs late last year, both The Love Witch and Paul Verhoeven’s award-winning thriller Elle are getting Blu-ray / DVD releases this Tuesday, and Demon Seed is making its way to Blu-ray as well (which I highly recommend watching if you haven't).

Other notable home entertainment titles for March 14th include Passengers, Z Nation Season 3, Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word, Stray Bullets, and The Man Who Could Cheat Death.

Drive-In Massacre (Severin Films, Blu-ray & DVD)

It was one of the few true slasher movies to pre-date Halloween and Friday The 13th,...

Warner Archive has announced the release of Demon Seed (1977), and soon fans can witness Julie Christie versus evil artificial intelligence in remastered HD!

A release date has yet to be announced, but stay tuned to Daily Dead for future updates to this story, and check out the official details and cover art below.

From Warner Archive: "Demon Seed (1977)

New 2017 1080p HD Remaster

BD50

Color - 94 Minutes

Original Aspect Ratio - 2.40:1

DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 Mono-English

English Sdh

Special Features:

Original Theatrical Trailer (HD)

Susan Harris is alone in the house when, suddenly, doors lock, windows slam shut and the phone stops working. Susan is trapped by an intruder…but this is no ordinary thug. Instead, the intruder is a computer named Proteus, an artificial brain that has learned to reason. And to terrorize. In “one of her finest, most vulnerable performances” (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic), Julie Christie...

What would happen if you crossed Demon Seed, Burnt Offerings, and The Legacy? You’d end up with a pretty confusing six hour horror movie I’d imagine, so scratch that. But what would happen if you took those same elements, made it a TV movie, and threw in The Hardy Boys’ Parker Stevenson for good measure? Well, then you’d be watching This House Possessed (1981), a supremely goofy, sublimely entertaining movie of the week that’s low on scares but high on smiles.

Broadcast on Friday, February 6th, 1981 as part of The ABC Friday Night Movie, This House Possessed was up against the CBS juggernaut The Dukes of Hazzard/Dallas, and NBC offered up…oh never mind. We were all watching the Dukes and the Ewings, okay? Is that what you want to hear? Fine. But I suppose there had to be some people who were repulsed at the...

Some very sad news is making the rounds today, as it has been reported that Fritz Weaver has passed away at the age of 90.

News of Fritz Weaver's passing was confirmed by Weaver's son-in-law, Bruce Ostler, according to The New York Times. In addition to winning a Tony award for his performance in 1970's Child’s Play, Weaver accumulated an impressive number of acting credits within the horror and sci-fi genres—on both the big and small screens—throughout his career.

Stephen King fans likely remember Weaver as Dexter Stanley from "The Crate" segment of Creepshow, where he starred alongside Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, and the creepy creature unleashed from its prison.

Weaver also left his mark on a number of anthology series, including The Twilight Zone, Monsters, Tales From the Darkside, Night Gallery, and Tales of the Unexpected, in addition to appearances on Friday the 13th: The Series and The X-Files.