In 2017, a weird ARG by the name of “Dear David” popped up online that became an instant viral sensation. It was the timeline of Buzzfeed cartoonist Adam Ellis who was documenting the supposed haunting of his apartment by a small disfigured boy. What began as a series of tweets and fuzzy pictures of unusual shapes hiding in the crevices of his one bedroom apartment slowly escalated in to horrifying taunts, and nightly visits as the apparent apparition became bolder and began to drive David to the brink of madness. “Dear David” is an okay adaptation of the original viral thread, and while it’s by no means a home run of a horror film, it works in rare instances as a tech based thriller.
Tag Archives: Supernatural
Hellraiser (1987) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]
“What is your pleasure, sir?”
Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” is a purely body horror tale about hedonism in its purest and most raw essence. Even today it’s a very erotic, but gruesome tale about the pursuit of pleasures of the flesh and how it links to a breed of entities that may or may not be pure evil. “Demons to some, Angels to others” Pinhead (technically named “Hellpriest”) proclaims is a representation of the how the cenobites reach deep down in to the pits of sexuality and kink. And no human can ever really be prepared to see what the practices of this otherworld army has in store for them.
The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow (2002)
I always get a kick out of Washington Irving’s story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. And I always get a kick out of movies that put a little twist on the formula. “The Haunted Pumpkin” is a short but sweet Halloween tale that takes the whole Headless Horseman story and brings it in to the modern age; the animators and writers insert a little bit of hijinks, and some comedy in what is basically embracing the tale of the Headless Horseman to an effective degree.
Headless Horseman (2022)
Take two cups of “Ghost Rider,” one cup of “Spawn,” a dash of “The Crow,” mix it up with only a fraction of the budget, and you have Jose Prendes’ “Headless Horseman.” The Asylum’s newest mockbuster watches like an off brand comic book movie from the late nineties. It feels like something from a studio that couldn’t afford Marvel’s “Ghost Rider,” so they opted for a character from an obscure indie label. If it seems like I’m just mocking “Headless Horseman,” I’m truly not. I was surprised at how much I didn’t hate it, as while the movie borrows from the aforementioned series’ wholesale, it amounts to some cheesy, charming fun.
The Jester (2023)
The Jester originally began life like a lot of contemporary horror icons: debuting mainly through short horror films. The Jester was a character that appeared in a series of short horror films until finally garnering his own feature film. Like many modern horror characters, the Jester is a monster that’s all dressed up with nowhere to go. That’s not to say that Colin Krawchuk’s horror film is a bad movie, it just wastes what could be an interesting supernatural monster (if the cards are played right).
Seven Horror Baddies that Deserved to Be Bigger
For every Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Chucky, and Freddy Krueger we have, there are at least two dozen horror villains that either fell in to obscurity, or were never fully realized. Every horror geek has their own list of horror baddies that they felt could have and should have risen to mainstream popularity, or icon status, but alas sometimes the horror world isn’t in their favor. These are seven horror villains that deserved more films, or better films than they received, in the end.
What are some of your beloved horror baddies you think deserved a huge fan base or franchise?
The Spine of Night (2021)
What I loved about “The Spine of Night” is that directors Philip Gelatt, and Morgan Galen King don’t shy away from the fact that their movie is meant to be a modern “Heavy Metal.” It’s an unabashed celebration of Ralph Bakshi, Frank Frazetta, steam punk, and heavy metal right down to the rotoscoping animation that is used to bring the film’s vision to life. The animation is right on par with what you’d expect from the master Ralph Bakshi but I was happy that the pair of directors who write the film kept true to the story that they were telling through the very end.