Tales Of The Macabre.

 Did you know that other now famous actresses had auditioned for the role of Laurie Strode in the Rob Zombie remake of Halloween, including Danielle Panabaker? Panabaker horror fans would know from Piranha 3DD and as the leading lady in the remake of Friday The 13th - which ironically saw Scout Taylor-Compton, who won the role of Zombie's Laurie, auditioning for the same role. I can't help but wonder how Panabaker would have played Laurie compared to Compton. It's a shame when it came to rebooting the series with Blumhouse, they didn't give Panabaker a shot and went with a younger version of the character for the 2018 film. But that's just me. 

The night's once clean, healthy air was no longer fresh. As it spoiled silently into the early hours of the morning, no evidence of an approaching warm dawn had rolled over the massive hills of the wilderness for this new day; the New England countryside remained bathed in a haunting darkness, a darkness that seemed to forebode an impending danger, a danger that was lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce.  The air was thick with an eerie stillness, a silence that seemed to echo with the presence of something sinister. It was as if the very air held its breath, waiting for the impending danger to reveal itself. The couple could almost feel the weight of the silence pressing down on them, a tangible force that made their hearts race with fear. In the distance, a pair of watery glowing eyes appeared over the tree lines, and the exhausted engine of a poorly aged Jeep cut deeply into the silence of the night. Inside the vehicle, a young couple was finishing the final moments of ...

Did you know, my fellow horror fans, that Universal had originally intended for Bela Lugosi to return as Dracula in the ensemble film House of Frankenstein, as well as include The Mummy? However, due to scheduling conflicts and a refined script, Lugosi and The Mummy were excluded from the macabre fun. House Of Frankenstein still sailed with Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr, but just think of the potential if Universal had brought in Lugosi's Dracula and The Mummy in the sequel, House Of Dracula, instead of rehashing the same plot from the previous film.  

 Did you know that following the massive success of The Bride of Frankenstein, Universal originally wanted James Whale to direct a sequel to Dracula, which became Dracula's Daughter? However, and understandably, Whale wasn't interested in repeating himself with a similar story and shooting two horror movies back-to-back. Though I agree with Whale's reasoning, it's thrilling to wonder where Whale and Lugosi, two titans of horror, would've taken the famous Prince Of Darkness.

 It's a twist worthy of a Kaiju film itself-Varan and Mechani-Kong were set to battle Godzilla in Toho's Heisei series. This would have given us new origins for both Kaiju - with Mechani-Kong as a tool built to help humanity destroy Godzilla and Varan as a demonic harbinger of the apocalypse. But, due to rights issues, Mechani-Kong was replaced with Ghidorah for 1991's Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah, and Varan's hellish resurrection was abandoned for the creation of a new foe, Destroyah, to finally kill the King Of The Monsters. 

If a new Predator film and many spin-offs are on the horizon, I decided to look back on the last installment to see how it holds up. At first, I was concerned about the fifth Predator film, Prey, when it was announced. After seeing it a few times now, it's not a bad film, nor would I say it's the perfect return to form that the Predator franchise needs. However, it does show potential. With a sharp direction from Dan Trachtenberg and a likable leading lady, Amber Midthunder-Prey works with a simple, bloody, and short story that definitely captured the spirit of the first two Predator films. Sadly, things fall apart with the ending. From Predator himself losing all threat and intensity that we experience through his introduction to Naru's payoffs, just gaining repurposed-hand-me-down elements from the Dark Horse Predator comics just makes our final girl and monster's climax feel lackluster, and it hard to see this new take on a familiar story on its own two feet. However...

As the two men, Peter Matthews and his brother Johnathan, glanced up at the old farmhouse, Peter noticed a difference in its presentation. All of the time's natural elements were frozen, silent, and ashamed to unveil their contents to the world and Heaven's divine eyes. In a state of pure chaos, the crime lab's crew ran in and out of the house, each member looking increasingly disturbed whenever they emerged into the warm sunlight. Their hollow voices were slowly drowned out by the hauntingly joyous sounds of classical music from the 1700s, a disturbing contrast that sent shivers down the readers' spines. Soon, even this out-of-place orchestra transformed into a faint whisper as a newly hysterical cry of a poor female consumed them with delicious results. Arriving on the porch, the two brothers felt a sense of anticipation. Of course, Peter was captivated by a fellow officer trying to grant any ounce of comfort that the distressed female would accept, but to no avail. O...

 The King Of The Monsters Returns!!! In a time when our favorite icons are being resurrected for cheap, lazy, cash-grab legacy films, Godzilla Minus One stands out. It crushes them all with a strong understanding of who its beloved monster is and the horrors such a powerful being could cause. Smartly written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Minus One doesn't depend on hollow brownie points or key-dangling sadly like the Godzilla we've seen in The Monsterverse, which was fun - but made The King Of The Monsters feel more like an afterthought than a real presence. Instead, Yamazaki's film is a departure from these trends, offering a meaningful human drama that resonates with everyday moviegoers, making them emotionally invested in the story. As Toho and G-fans celebrate the 70th anniversary of Godzilla, Minus One stands tall - not only among G-films but Legacy films as a whole. Godzilla Minus One is a must-watch for movie lovers worldwide, 10/10 highly recommended.

 As a horror genre fan, especially with the Elm Street Series, I can't believe there are rumors and some desire for a new legacy sequel for the famous Dream Demon. Following years of primarily terrible legacy films that have ruined the likes of many icons (Halloween, Scream, The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw, etc.), the idea of old lady Nancy taking on a midlife crisis Freddy Krueger makes my stomach turn. Now, I've got nothing against a new Elm Street film - frankly, exploring a new Krueger could be fascinating in this day and age of technology. But, to go with bringing back the original versions of Freddy and Nancy just feels lazy and completely uninspired - plus, Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp already came back in Wes Craven's excellent legacy film, New Nightmare, making another legacy film even more pointless. So, for me, there are only two options - do a proper new film with a different Krueger, a different approach that could bring hope to the series, or have respec...

 One year has passed since Blumhouse and director David Gordon Green resurrected the demonic Pazuzu in the lackluster legacy sequel The Exorcist Believer. Unlike last year's Saw X, which was a return to form for the long-running torture series, Believer follows the bland blueprints of Blumhouse's Halloween trilogy. These 'bland blueprints' refer to the trilogy's approach of retconning all previous storylines and events except the original film, much like Believer does. However, unlike Halloween, where original creator John Carpenter never intended a sequel to the original Halloween and hated the sequels - Blatty never felt that way. Like all of us, Blatty disliked the studio's cash grab sequel, 1977's The Exorcist 2: The Heretic, and wrote two beautiful and thoughtful sequels, The Ninth Configuration and Legion; I highly recommend those novels and films. Which Blatty published as novels before adapting and directing them as feature films. Blumhouse and Green...