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 I watched a couple movies recently, with two of them being the Until Dawn adaptation and the other being Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. While I enjoyed them for what they were, there was another film that I enjoyed more. And that was Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. A movie that can be boiled down to the idea of "People Watching." Learning where and what your neighbors are doing during each day because you just don't feel like doing anything else. While I think some of the things can feel invasive, overall the film nails a lot of writing beats for me.  The cast is likeable, the side stories are intriguing, and the concept is so unique. Not many films are willing to confine themselves to a single room like they do in Rear Window, and that's a big draw for me. I didn't need to look deeper into any other apartment because that air of mystery let me put the pieces together. A perfect storm of a film that I can't stop thinking about. So, I am going to go int...

 I was kind of at a loss for what to talk about this time around. Lot of ideas bumping around, but nothing too concrete. As a result, I am gonna talk about the recent Horror Media I have been engaging with. For what it's worth, this might just be about Sinners. But we'll see where this goes.  What else is there to say about Sinners that hasn't already been said? This film from Ryan Coogler and crew goes above and beyond the expectations for any movie. From the score headed by Ludwig Göransson to the cinematography from Autumn Durald Arkapaw to the script from Ryan Coogler himself. These pieces along with many others combined to form a film with a lot of heart and passion. Not to mention some great performances from Michael B. Jordan (Plays Smoke & Stack), Miles Caton (Plays Sammie Moore), Wunmi Mosaku (Plays Annie), and Delroy Lindo (Plays Delta Slim) to name a few. It is truly remarkable how so many elements culminated here.  Now, I am going to go into some spec...

 This time around, I wasn't sure what to do. So, I thought about it. And I came around to this idea that I had about the franchise headlined by Fred Krueger. I am just going to kind of go over my thoughts on how the scariest thing in these films is not Freddy, but the loss of access to sleep. Something that I feel was lost in most of the non-Wes Craven films.  This idea materialized as a product of my rewatches of the franchise. It is quite fascinating what you can pull out when you watch movies over and over. And the Nightmare series is a franchise that I feel has such a terrible average.  This is not really an uncommon phenomenon. Most things can't keep up with expectations or consistency. In comparison, I think that Friday the 13th blows Nightmare out of the water if we take a look at the whole. But the individual scale will always lean toward Nightmare's favor. Like, Nightmare 1, 3, and New Nightmare are leagues above anything that Friday the 13th has ever put out. Ye...

 I think a lot about how the Horror genre is vast and expansive. And one of the things that I think gets overlooked, is the Slasher genre. Many of them are sloppy and lack tact, but what makes them click so well for me is the level of effort. It takes a lot to craft an engaging villain and an expendable cast for the audience to grasp onto. Today, I just kind of want to talk about Slasher movies in general, might even slip some Giallo in because of how similar Italian movies can be with their American peers. First, I would like to mention Psycho (1960) [Directed by Alfred Hitchcock] a bit. It's a film that predates our modern rendition, but it is important to note. Psycho delivers us some staples that still permeate today. You have Janet Leigh's Marion Crane isolated at this Motel run by Anthony Perkin's Norman Bates. And unbeknownst to Marion, Norman is watching her. Awaiting the perfect moment to strike. So, Psycho is this really well crafted film that has laid the foundat...

 Recently, I have been going through my somewhat frequent rewatches of the Friday the 13th franchise. This was not intentional, but it is funny that I happened to do it during an actual Friday the 13th. And my current run has stopped at the death of Jason Voorhees, otherwise known as Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. And so I initially wanted to focus on Part III because of how much the formula felt phoned in and lacking. But thinking more on it, there are some aspects that I wanted to discuss in regards to the first four films.  These ideas stem from how the characters feel and just how much this franchise tends to get bashed on because they are not the pinnacle of horror. Like, there is a reason I can rewatch the original Friday the 13th, and why I don't want to rewatch most modern horror films. It has more to do with that human factor. The on-location settings, the creativity behind the deaths of the characters, and especially the deception in the shot choice that throws ...