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Plot: Two Mormons (Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher) on a mission knock on the wrong door and find themselves fighting for their lives, faith, and sanity.

Review: Heretic is the latest horror flick from A24, and like many of their genre efforts, it’s a provocative one. Questions of theology and faith are always timely, and much of this diabolical and impressively harsh horror film deals with whether or not – in the face of great conflict – you can maintain your faith or be swayed by both the desire to save your own life and the evidence you’re being presented with.

In this, Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) are young Mormons fulfilling their duties as missionaries by essentially going door-to-door to try to convert people to their faith. Neither is a particular stickler for Mormon theology, with the movie opening with them discussing pornography and condoms,...

Exclusive: With a horror project for Universal/Monkeypaw and a Night of the Living Dead sequel still in the offing, Nikyatu Jusu has begun development on The Fly, a new film based on David Cronenberg’s body horror masterwork, which she wrote and will direct for 20th Century Studios and Chernin Entertainment.

While the film’s plot is under wraps, sources stressed that it’s set in the universe of Cronenberg’s film, rather than a straightforward remake. Nikyatu will direct from her own script, with Chernin Entertainment’s Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping producing. The project coalesces in a moment when body horror is very much back in vogue, with the success of Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes prize-winner The Substance, which has grossed over $43M worldwide and drummed up Oscar buzz for star Demi Moore.

A landmark in both science fiction and horror cinema, Cronenberg’s The Fly follows...

As the final stretch of October sets in, there is still plenty of time to catch favorite flicks, spooky, witchy, scary or cozy in the season of pumpkins, monsters and more. Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween has several classic films airing all month long such as Casper (1995), Arachnophobia, Goosebumps, Edward Scissorhands, etc.

More recent films like 2021’s Ghostbustesr: Afterlife, 2022’s Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) and Haunted Mansion (2023) will also be available. Disney+ is the home of several of the movies in the below list, as is Max. Follow along below for your favorite titles as well as what is available by streamer and network.

Movies:

While Bram Stoker’s Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola is streaming on MGM+, several other vampire movies like Interview with the Vampire are available on Max. Peacock also boasts a couple newer fanged flicks like Renfield (2023) and Abigail (2024). Twilight is not streaming anywhere currently, but...

Composer Howard Shore likes to sleep on it.

“I try to get in touch with my inner feelings,” he said at the Zurich Film Festival, explaining his preferred method of working.

“If you think about cinema, you go into a dark room and all this imagery starts appearing. You are in a dream-like state and I like to use that idea when I write music for film. There is some napping involved, you try to be very relaxed and imagine what the piece could be. And then I set to work with my pencil, creating the actual score to what I am dreaming,” he said.

“I don’t study a film: I listen to it. I listen to the rhythm of the actors, the sounds. I kind of imagine the visualization, writing to this more abstract idea in my mind.”

A three-time Oscar winner, Shore received the Career Achievement Award at the Swiss festival,...

David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” has finally found a home.

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all U.S. rights to “The Shrouds,” written and directed by Cronenberg and starring Vincent Cassel as a tech mogul who invents a technology that allows you to watch your loved one rot in their grave.

The latest freakout from the Canadian auteur premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year (where it screened in competition) and recently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival as a special presentation. It will have its U.S. premiere next month as part of the main slate of the New York Film Festival. Sideshow and Janus are planning a spring 2025 release.

The deal was negotiated by Sideshow and Janus Films with Sbs International. The producers of the film are Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. It is an Sbs, Prospero Pictures and Saint Laurent Productions Film,...

David Cronenberg has said that his new film The Shrouds – which has been making the festival rounds lately (you can read what JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray thought of it Here) – was originally intended to be a Netflix TV series, but the streamer dropped it after paying him to write the pilot episode. So a feature film it is, and Deadline reports that Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all U.S. distribution rights to the film, with their plan being to give it a theatrical release sometime in the spring of 2025.

In The Shrouds, Vincent Cassel, who previously worked with Cronenberg on Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method, takes on the role of Karsh, “an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a novel device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud. This burial tool installed at his own state-of-the-art though controversial cemetery allows him and his...

Fresh off the film’s North American premiere at TIFF, horror master David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds has been acquired for U.S. release by Sideshow and Janus Films.

Deadline notes that they’re planning a Spring 2025 release for the film.

“Building on a long history with David Cronenberg that has included releases of Videodrome, Scanners, The Brood, Crash, Dead Ringers, and Naked Lunch, Janus Films and Criterion are very proud to be working with Sideshow and Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello to premiere The Shrouds, a major new work by the Canadian master in the United States,” Sideshow/Janus said in a statement shared by Deadline this morning.

Vincent Cassel (Irreversible, Eastern Promises) stars alongside Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Guy Pearce (Memento) and Sandrine Holt (“Fear the Walking Dead”).

Variety previews, “The Shrouds centers on Karsh, a prominent businessman. Inconsolable since the death of his wife,...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all U.S. rights to The Shrouds, written and directed by David Cronenberg and are planning a spring 2025 theatrical release.

The film world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it screened In Competition. It played the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Gala program and is set for its U.S. premiere in the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival next month.

The deal was negotiated by Sideshow and Janus Films with Sbs International. Producers are Saïd Ben Saïd, Martin Katz and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. It’s an Sbs, Prospero Pictures & Saint Laurent Productions Film with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Eurimages, Ontario Creates in association with Sphere Films, Crave & CBC Films with the support of Canal +, Ocs & the Centre National du Cinema et de L’image Animée.

“Building on a...

Writer/director David Cronenberg is well known for his science fiction and horror films, with grotesque gore gags and body horror prevalent throughout much of his work. This is the man who brought us the nightmarish Brundlefly mutant in "The Fly" and the freaky surgery sex of "Crimes of the Future," but one of his most impressively shocking moments came early in his career: the head explosion in the 1981 movie "Scanners." In the film, 237 people have become "scanners," or beings capable of immense telepathic and psychokinetic powers. Early on in the film, powerful scanner Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) uses his powers to explode the head of a rival scanner (Louis Del Grande), and it is truly grotesque. Gore shoots in all directions as the scanner's head explodes, his face trapped forever in a moment of surprise. It's gross, it's gory, and it's glorious. It was also surprisingly simple to create.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the first wave of its honorees for this year, naming Canadian directing legend David Cronenberg as the recipient of the Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award and Amy Adams as the winner of this year’s TIFF Tribute Performer Award.

Cronenberg is among the most unique and influential filmmakers of his generation an auteur who has created a bespoke brand of intellectual horror with films such as Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly, Crash and A History of Violence. His latest, The Shrouds, premiered in competition in Cannes last month. Shawn Levy (Free Guy, Deadpool & Wolverine) received the inaugural Norman Jewison career award in 2023.

Adams, a six-time Oscar nominee (for Junebug, Doubt, The Fighter, The Master, American Hustle and Vice), will be seen next in Nightbitch, a comedy horror film from director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) adapted from Rachel Yoder’s debut novel of the same name.

The Zurich Film Festival (Zff) will honor legendary film composer Howard Shore with its career achievement award. The triple-Oscar winner, best known for his iconic scores for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies, will receive the award at the 20th Zff in October.

In addition, Shore will head up the Zff’s international film music competition for its 20th edition. As jury president, the Canadian composer will judge young talents each tasked with creating an original score to the same 8-minute short film. The three compositions will be performed live by the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under the direction of Frank Strobel on Oct. 5 during Zurich’s Cinema in Concert gala in the presence of the three nominees. The winning composition will receive a Chf 10,000 ($11,500) cash prize.

“I am honored to come to Zurich for the festival’s 20th anniversary, to receive this career achievement...

David Cronenberg is one of our greatest living directors; a Canadian auteur who made a name for himself with body horror masterpieces like "Scanners," "The Fly," and "Videodrome," just to name a few. And every now and then, Cronenberg will step in front of the camera, too. He has a memorable supporting turn as the villain in Clive Barker's "Nightbreed." And he has cameos in films such as "To Die For" and "Jason X." He also appeared in several seasons of "Star Trek: Discovery" as the character Doctor Kovich. 

With Cronenberg having spent so much time on the series, you might have wondered: why didn't he direct any episodes? He is, after all, a director first, actor second. Well, according to Cronenberg himself, it's not a gig he's particularly interested in. When asked by StarTrek.com what would happen if he was asked to direct an episode of the show,...

After 27 years, Demi Moore returned to the Cannes red carpet following the world premiere of her body horror The Substance, starring Margaret Qualley. Directed by French director Coralie Fargeat, the horror thriller has made waves, with critics deeming it Moore’s best big-screen role in decades.

The plot revolves around a new product, The Substance, which promises people to transform into the best version of themselves. However, it comes with a twist and the new horror is definitely not for the faint-hearted, as critics deemed it among the best films the genre has to offer.

The Substance Doesn’t Disappoint in the Body Horror Front Per Critics Demi Moore | Credit: Indecent Proposal ( Paramount Pictures)

Demi Moore‘s new film is a complete departure from her Industry image, which has earned her and the crew a 13-minute standing ovation at Cannes. Revolving around self-hatred, The Substance doesn’t shy away from...

In the year 2070, evolution has begun to give birth to a new race of humans: the Espers. Blessed with psychic abilities, many of them choose to live in peace. Some, though, have chosen to use their gifts to assert dominance over humanity. In response, others have opted to join the advanced defense agency known as Minerva to stop them. One of them, Luna, has now been bonded with a Neurodiver, a lab-grown cephalopod Esper that enhances her abilities, allowing her to explore memories as if she’s living them.

On paper, that sounds like an ambitious, big-budget remake of David Cronenberg’s Scanners, one of many a sci-fi fan’s dreams, and really, that’s part of the problem with Read Only Memories: Neurodiver. Its premise opens the door to an immense, far-reaching embarrassment of creative options that the game—a bright, breezy, anime-flavored follow-up to 2064: Read Only Memories...

Stars: David Dastmalchian, Michael Ironside, Georgina Haig, Fayssal Bazzi, Ian Bliss, Rhys Auteri, Laura Gordon, Ingrid Torelli | Written and Directed by Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes

Late Night With the Devil, the latest film from Cameron and Colin Cairnes, the team who made 100 Bloody Acres and Scare Campaign, opens with scenes of violence caught in the lens of the TV camera. As we watch, Michael Ironside tells us about America in the 1970s, and then segues into the career of radio man turned late night TV host Jack Delroy.

His show, the syndicated Night Owls, has run a close second to Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show, but never managed to catch up to it in the ratings wars. And since the death of Jack’s wife Madeline his life and his ratings, seem to be in free fall. With sweeps week kicking off on Halloween Eve and his career on the line,...

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is an epic science fiction movie that is the sequel to 2021’s Dune and the second of the two-part adaptation of the 1965 novel of the same name by Frank Herbert. The movie stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, and more. The performances of the actors have been highly lauded by the audience and the critics.

The movie follows the story of Paul Atreides uniting with the Fremen people of the desert planet Arrakis to execute a war against House Harkonnen. Actors including Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, LéaSeydoux, Christopher Walken, and Souheila Yecoub joined the cast for the sequel, which was released on March 1st, 2024. Dune: Part Two has managed to break records of two highly successful and critically acclaimed movies in just mere days of its release.

SUGGESTEDDune Part Two: Denis Villeneuve Admits the Most Painful Decision He Took in the Sequel...

The gang in "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" are always getting themselves into trouble, but the series creators can't be quite as reckless as their characters. As lawless as the series may seem, they have to abide by the same safety codes as every other major network show. The much-needed protection of unions and insurance has made it so cruder methods used in the filmmaking days of yore are no longer kosher on set. Unfortunately, that means that certain dangerous practical effects from the gritty New Hollywood era have gone the way of the Dodo. So when the "Sunny" creators wanted to mimic an effect from acclaimed filmmaker David Cronenberg's early career hit "Scanners," they ran into a major roadblock.

An important moment in American history is re-imagined in "The Gang Cracks the Liberty Bell," in which the gang's timeless adversary Rickety Cricket gets his head blown off violently (albeit accidentally) with a musket.

Clockwise from bottom left: Scanners (New World-Mutual), Tremors (Screenshot: YouTube), M3GAN (Universal Pictures) Graphic: The A.V. Club The grimmest month of the year, January brings almost nothing in terms of new entertainment. The gaming and music industries stop dead to let our wallets regain a bit of heft, while...

Clockwise from bottom left: Scanners (New World-Mutual), Tremors (Screenshot: YouTube), M3GAN (Universal Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club

The grimmest month of the year, January brings almost nothing in terms of new entertainment. The gaming and music industries stop dead to let our wallets regain a bit of heft, while...

M3GAN (Universal Pictures), Taken 3 (20th Century Studios), Paddington 2 (Warner Bros.), Cloverfield (Paramount Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club (AP)

Historically and annually speaking, January is a bad month for Hollywood movies. It’s a “dump month,” that time of year when the major studios offload the projects in which they have no faith.

If it takes doing an MCU movie, with all the corporate constrictions that entails, to plunge into the kind of exhilarating creative exorcism that Freaky Tales represents, then bring on the superhero as stepping-stone. Before they made Captain Marvel, longtime filmmaking duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck established their talents with three boldly idiosyncratic indies, Half Nelson, Sugar and Mississippi Grind. But nothing in those distinctive works can prepare you for the kinetic energy, the freewheeling imagination and the righteous battles — we’re talking rap and some serious blade slice-and-dice — of their love letter to the Bay Area and the pop-cultural imprint it left on Fleck as a kid in the ‘80s.

The tales of the title are four chapters all built around the theme of underdog victory, each of them different in texture and tone yet all ingeniously interconnected and all owing something to the big-screen aesthetics of the time.

There’s nothing so freaky about “Freaky Tales,” Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s sci-fi omnibus ode to ‘80s cinema nostalgia that takes the definition of “derivative,” packages a bunch of retro cinematic references smugly into winky “you get it, right?” pastiche, and stretches it to its furthest possible event horizon.

The problem with structuring your film around four interlocking chapters, each with its own segueing title card, is if you’re not down with the first, you’ll be counting down the passage of time groaningly until the next. Last time they were behind the camera, Boden and Fleck had decamped their indie roots, including the lovely “Half Nelson” and “Sugar” — films powered by real characters — for the irresistible Faust’s bargain of directing 2019’s “Captain Marvel.” It seems they have not stripped themselves of the MCU’s cheeky, self-reflexive DNA, here writing and directing a film that thinks...

Sofia Coppola, whose awards contender “Priscilla” is now in theaters, is just one of several filmmakers whose parents were already major names in the industry. Both her father, Francis Ford Coppola, and her mother, Eleanor Coppola, are directors, as is her brother Roman.

Here are some of the most notable second-generation directors in Hollywood, including Jason Reitman, Rob Reiner, Mario Van Peebles and Colin Hanks.

We’re also a big fan of Francesca Scorsese’s TikTok videos with her dad, Martin Scorsese, especially the one where he auditions the family dog.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Ivan and Jason Reitman

Jason has picked up the “Ghostbusters” mantle from his father, who died in Feb. 2022. He directed “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and the fourth film in the franchise is due in 2024. Jason’s films include “Up in the Air,” “Juno” and “Thank You For Smoking.”

Photo credit: Getty Images

Brandon and David Cronenberg

The...

In the 2012 making-of documentary "The Nightmare Isn't Over: The Making of Halloween II," producer Irwin Yablans admits it was he who pushed John Carpenter to make "Halloween II." Carpenter, as most horror nuts might be able to tell you, wasn't really interested in making a sequel to "Halloween," feeling that the story had reached an effective conclusion. In Murray Leeder's 2013 "Halloween" entry into the Devil's Advocates essay book series, Carpenter admitted that when he sat down to write "Halloween II," he had nothing but beer and a complete lack of ideas. Carpenter admits that he only decided that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) should be the sister of the killer, Michael Myers, out of sheer desperation. 

But Yablans insisted on a sequel because "Halloween" made so much money. Horror fans may know that "Halloween" was made for a tiny budget of about $300,000, but netted over $70 million at the box office.

There is gunplay aplenty in this Spanish thriller about a young renegade who can create illusions with his mind – with some neat touches amid the mayhem

Directed by Daniel Benmayor, this Spanish mashup of Inception, Scanners, The Fury and The Matrix follows 18-year-old Ian (Carlos Scholz), whose parents were Perceivers: a species of cold war spy chemically engineered to be able to project illusions with their minds. Most were killed off in a cull known as the Disinfection, which makes Ian, who has inherited his parents’ powers, especially valuable. Strolling into a bank brandishing a scrap of paper, he can wordlessly persuade the teller that it is a cheque ready to be cashed. Pointing his finger, he makes an adversary fall to the ground from a nonexistent bullet wound.

No wonder sinister forces are out to exploit the lad. Swooping to his rescue is Adriana (Lela Loren), an operative from...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Scanners Shirt from Rucking Fotten

Scanners may not be David Cronenberg’s best film on the whole, but its head explosion scene has become the most recognizable moment in his cannon. Rucking Fotten has immortalized it with a mind-blowing all-over print tee.

It’s up for pre-order for $54.99 through Sunday, June 16, as part of the Cronenberg collection alongside other apparel from Scanners, Videodrome, and The Fly. They’ll ship in 6-8 weeks.

Robot Monster Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment

Robot Monster will be released on Blu-ray on July 25 via Bayview Entertainment. It has been newly restored in 4K from 35mm 3D archival elements with frame sequential Blu-ray 3D, anaglyphic 3D (with a pair of glasses included), and standard 2D versions.

While the 1970s was known as a wild, bold, experimental time in modern cinema—which extended to all genres, including science fiction—the 1980s were best known for… well, we don’t know what, exactly. The rise of the erotic thriller, the action superstar, and cookie-cutter safe high-concept star vehicles, perhaps? As for sci-fi, the decade was marked by both undisputed blockbusters, including the Star Wars and Star Trek sequels, Aliens, and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, as well as some inarguable classics like The Thing, Tron, and Blade Runner. Intriguingly, the more risky ones needed years to find their audience and critical acclaim.

At the same time, sci-fi began to rely less on literary adaptations of the previous decade and more on crossing its streams with other genres, like horror, the Western, and the action thriller—making somewhat of a turn away from the idea-driven films that had come before.

Clockwise from upper left: James Cameron directing Titanic (YouTube/Screenshot), David Cronenberg directing The Fly (YouTube/Screenshot), Ivan Reitman directing Ghostbusters (YouTube/Screenshot), Mary Harron (Eric Robert-Getty)Graphic: AVClub

Lots of great things have come from Canada: The snowmobile was invented there, so were insulin, the electron microscope, and, oddly enough,...

You know you are watching a David Cronenberg film within the first few minutes. His unique directorial vision and style are instantly recognizable. For over 50 years, Cronenberg has been pushing the boundaries of mainstream cinema with his unflinching explorations of the human body and psyche. His films delve into humanity’s deepest fears and darkest desires, all with his signature clinical precision and intellectual curiosity.

David Cronenberg Depostiphotos

Cronenberg emerged from the “Canuxploitation” era of Canadian B-movies in the 1970s to become one of the most influential auteurs in modern film. His early cult classics like Shivers and Scanners established his fascination with the physicality of human existence and all the ways our flesh and minds can mutate and transform. Cronenberg’s films are known for their disturbing body horror and surreal science fiction concepts, but at their core, they reveal fundamental truths about human nature and our relationship with our own physical being.

The Dead Ringers episode of Wtf Really Happened to This Horror Movie was Written and Narrated by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Mike Conway, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

“There’s nothing the matter with the instrument, it’s the body. The woman’s body is all wrong!”

We’ve discussed how vulnerable it can be to be under the bright lights of the dentist’s chair but how about the doctor, particularly a specialty doctor that’s job is to deal with our most private of parts. David Cronenberg is the master of turning our bodies into horrible things that seek to hurt us, perfecting the use of the term “body horror”. So, what happens when Cronenberg makes a movie about twin gynecologists that begin to lose their grip on reality, and did you know that this is actually based on true events?...

It's astonishing to consider how quickly "Star Wars" rose to prominence in the pop culture consciousness. George Lucas, the director of the 1977 original, merely wanted to make a high-octane version of classical space opera stories like the ones seen in "Flash Gordon" serials of the 1940s. One could not have predicted the overwhelming response from young audiences, or their thirst for toys and tie-in products, a relative novelty at the time. Fast-forward to 1983, and there had already been one beloved sequel, a TV special, and more toys than the Earth's landfills knew what to do with. When the time came to make "Return of the Jedi," Lucas had become a mere executive producer and story writer, hoping to farm out the directing gig to ... well, to anyone who fit two certain criteria.

Many might know that several soon-to-be-prominent directors were approached to direct "Return of the Jedi." David Cronenberg had...

The Scanners III: The Takeover episode of The Black Sheep was Written and Narrated by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Brandon Nally, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Scanners is one of those seminal 80’s sci fi horror flicks. It’s also done by the master of body horror David Cronenberg. It’s a great flick that didn’t need any sequels and just by saying that I have unleashed the probability of a remake and more sequels coming our way. It’s the rule of horror flicks. Cronenberg isn’t immune to sequels either, especially ones he had no involvement in like The Fly 2. Nothing wrong with that movie, it’s actually a lot of fun, but The Fly absolutely didn’t need a sequel. While The Dead Zone was eventually turned into a TV show starring Anthony Michael Hall, that...

Plot: A detective (Ben Affleck) in Austin investigates a violent bank robbery carried out by a man (William Fichtner) who seems able to hypnotize his victims into doing his bidding. Along the way, he discovers a secret organization of “hypnotics” that may have something to do with his daughter’s disappearance.

Review: While watching Robert Rodriguez’s Hypnotic, I was struck by how much I’ve missed the ninety-minute genre movie. Running a lean hour and a half, Rodriguez’s movie isn’t a masterpiece, but it’s lean and effective, with a propulsive pace more directors should sit up and take notice of. A kind of jacked-up genre mashup that’s a bit like Scanners by way of Inception, Hypnotic, which is getting a very low-key, but relatively wide, theatrical release this Friday, is the kind of genre movie we got pretty much weekly in the eighties and nineties.

I spent an unhealthy amount of time on conspiracy forums as a kid, so it stands to reason that I grew up with a grim fascination with stories concerning Esp abilities and Mk Ultra experiments. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of media out there that properly explores these fringe concepts and their narrative potential (possibly because the government itself has recognized that most of this research was a gigantic and largely unethical waste of public resources).

That being said, one of my favorite representations of psionic powers and government conspiracies in media comes in the form of Midway Games’ underrated Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. A story-driven third-person shooter from 2004, the title may not have taken the gaming world by storm, becoming overshadowed by other high-profile releases of the time, but it was a lot more influential than most folks give it credit for. That’s why I think this...

Considered the master of ‘body horror’, Canadian auteur David Cronenberg is the singular talent behind nightmarish classics including Videodrome, The Fly, Scanners, Shivers and more. Dead Ringers, which was loosely based on the lives of Stewart and Cyril Marcus, saw Jeremy Irons’ twin gynecologists descend into a codependent hell. It’s nigh-on perfect so a remake for TV, ‘but this time with women’ wasn’t necessarily a welcome concept.

Perhaps against the odds then, this version is excellent, expanding on the themes, going hard on the horror and showcasing the talent of Rachel Weisz who scorches the screen throughout.

As in the film, she plays twin gynecologists Elliot and Beverly Mantle, brilliant doctors wanting to revolutionize fertility and the childbirth processes. With backing from Jennifer Elhe’s wealthy investor the twins open a bespoke birthing center meant to destigmatize pregnancy and women’s bodies – the clients are referred to as ‘guests’ rather than patients because,...

The episode of Wtf Happened to This Movie? covering Videodrome was Written by Jake Dee, Narrated by Matthew Plale, Edited by Diane Baldwin, Produced by Chris Bumbray and Ben Cantler, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Have you ever considered how a movie becomes a bona fide cult classic? While many factors play a role, the phenomenon usually begins with a high-quality product that fails to resonate among the masses during its initial release due to ungraspable material ahead of its time, yet through its own undeniable merits, finds its passionate fanbase that grows over time and allows the film to become far more popular after the fact than it was in the present tense. In the case of David Cronenberg’s sci-fi body horror opus Videodrome, the film has overcome its notorious box-office failure to ascend as one of the most revered movies of Cronenberg’s illustrious career.

As...

David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller, “Dead Ringers,” starring Jeremy Irons, isn’t in most Top 3 lists for the filmmaker. Sure, there are fans of the original, but it doesn’t have the devoted fanbase as films such as “The Fly,” “Crash,” “Scanners,” and “A History of Violence,” for example. However, much like his other works, “Dead Ringers” has a brilliant premise, and that seed of the story is taken in a new direction in Prime Video’s new series remake of the film.

Continue reading ‘Dead Ringers’ Trailer: Rachel Weisz Plays Twin Doctors Pushing The Limits Of Women’s Healthcare In Prime Video’s New Series at The Playlist.

To celebrate David Cronenberg's 80th birthday, check out his underrated adaptation of the controversial novel "Naked Lunch."

David Cronenberg, the undisputed king of cinematic body horror, turns 80 this month, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Last year, with the release of "Crimes of the Future," he heartily reminded audiences that there's no filmmaker greater than he when it comes to piercing dissections (often literally) of the human form's grotesqueries and its relationship with the wider world. He's so distinctive, so unflinching in his portrayal of that which horrifies us most, that we use the adjective Cronenbergian to describe works inspired by him. Every fan of Cronenberg has their favorite moments from his vast filmography, whether it's the exploding head in "Scanners," Jeff Goldblum's disintegration in "The Fly," or the abnormal births in "The Brood." One of his lesser-discussed films, and perhaps his most curious effort as a director,...

Somewhere between camp and Cronenberg (both father and son) lies Perpetrator, a freakish horror film from Jennifer Reeder that’s definitely an acquired taste — particularly if your taste includes sadistic masked murderers, plastic surgery victims, high-school cheerleaders turned robbers, and a birthday cake filled with cups of fresh hemoglobin.

This, plus lots more gore and insanity, can be found in writer-director Reeder’s fourth feature, which follows a teenage girl whose own grisly transformation happens as a killer stalks her fellow students at a quirky prep school straight out of Heathers. With a cameoing Alicia Silverstone playing a suburban auntie from hell, the Berlinale premiere should find a few cult followers at other festivals, as well as online via Shudder.

Reeder built her reputation on the fest circuit with a slew of short films combining horror movie tropes with a form of transgressive surrealism reminiscent of both Cronenberg and David Lynch.

"RoboCop" was a hot favorite on the school playground when I was a kid. Stories of brutal cop killings and boardroom bloodbaths joined the head-popping scene from "Scanners" and the gruesome exploits of Freddy Krueger as the kind of viewing choice that separated the cool kids from the rest of us. Or at least, separated those who had access to their parents' video rental card from those who didn't.

I caught up with it again several years ago after a gap of about two decades, going in expecting a blast of pure '80s nostalgia. I got a blast alright, but there was nothing sentimental about it. Seeing it again as an adult made me realize that "RoboCop" isn't just a fun movie, it's a great one. Paul Verhoeven directs the hell out of it and there is plenty of substance and style to go with the over-the-top action.

Like all the best sci-fi dystopias,...

Not to be all, "being a successful actor is hard!," but it certainly can be tricky. Assuming you're well-off enough to have your pick of projects to work on, there are other factors to consider: whether the material itself is any good, whether you can do something with it, and most importantly, who your co-workers will be and whose vision is behind it. After all, this is several weeks (if not months) of your life and craft that we're talking about, here.

Fortunately, seasoned actors have their own sly ways of testing the waters, especially with young, inexperienced, and untested filmmakers whose reputations don't yet precede them. Canadian thespian Michael Ironside, who's been working at a steady clip since the mid-1970s, is as seasoned as they come, having appeared in well over 100 projects ranging from the small to the big screen. It's no surprise, then, that Ironside has his...

In 1981, David Cronenberg directed the science fiction film "Scanners." It starred Stepehn Lack as a down-on-his-luck homeless man who possesses eerie mind-bullet powers. People with such powers are called Scanners. He is recruited into a secret government project and introduced to other Scanners, but also finds himself targeted by a rival group of rogue Scanners, of which Michael Ironside is a member. Early in "Scanners," Ironside's character uses his powers to explode the head of a journalist. It's perhaps the single best exploding head scene in cinema history. At the film's climax, Ironside and Lack will try to Scan one another to death. A few eyeballs will burst. 

Ironside, now 72, is a Canadian actor and all-around kind fellow with hundreds of credits to his name. His deep voice and stern demeanor found him playing heavies and villains a lot, and chances are quite good that you, the reader, have seen...

Despite being one of the more versatile character actors out there, Michael Ironside has been typecast as a villain for most of his career. But that's never really seemed like too much of a problem for the actor, who has consistently delivered memorable performances in such classics as "Top Gun" and "Total Recall." If he's going to play the villain, he's going to own it, and that's exactly what he's done ever since his first major role as the villainous Darryl Revok in David Cronenberg's "Scanners" back in 1981.

Since then, he's gone on to prove his talent not only on-screen but as a voice actor, perhaps most notably as ruler of the fictional planet Apokolips, Darkseid, in "Superman: The Animated Series." For many a '90s kid, Ironside is the quintessential Darkseid in almost the same way as Mark Hamill is the quintessential Joker. Debuting in season 1, episode 12 all...

In the festival of military might that is Tony Scott's 1986 action movie, "Top Gun," the fighter pilots are surely the stars. At California's Miramar Naval Air Station — the "Top Gun" of the title — the audience watches Tom Cruise's Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (Val Kilmer) and other candidates go through rigorous flight training, shepherded by experienced instructors like Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf (Tom Skerritt) and Lt. Commander Rick "Jester" Heatherly. Maverick may have gotten a sequel, but it's the Top Gun instructors who train and manage (as best they can) his need for speed.

Jester is played by Michael Ironside, who in 1986 was at the mid-point between playing baddies in David Cronenberg's head trip "Scanners" and Paul Verhoeven's cerebral sci-fi gem "Total Recall" — two movies that bookended a decade where the Canadian actor-writer ascended as one of the most recognizable tough guys on film.

Michael Ironside has been the face of some of cinema's great villains and antiheroes. Whether playing a ruthless armed henchman in Paul Verhoeven's "Total Recall," an evil telepath in David Cronenberg's "Scanners," or the one-armed leader and namesake of Rasczak's Roughnecks in Verhoeven's sci-fi satire "Starship Troopers," the actor's husky baritone and intense presence commands every frame he's in.

Call him a method actor, though, and he will gently correct you. "Method I am," he told Screen Anarchy in a 2016 interview, "and not the misunderstood idea of method." The Canadian multi-hyphenate defined his practice of the method –- that is, finding the framework of identification with the character –- as more in-depth, beyond simply finding an emotion and replicating it:

"I know how to find an emotion, find the behavior with that emotion and recreate the behavior. A lot of people never went that far with the method.

In “Infinity Pool,” what happens in Li Tolqa stays in Li Tolqa, an impoverished country where, if they’re rich enough, foreign guests can literally get away with murder. But that’s not the half of it. Visitors hold grotesque, drug-addled orgies at which their genitalia appear to morph before your eyes. The locals host sick rituals, too, wherein miscreants are cloned and then forced to witness their own executions. And then there are the macabre Li Tolqan skin masks, which suggest generations of inbreeding, or maybe they’re just the half-salvaged faces of botched doubling experiments.

It would all be quite shocking were the film signed by anyone other than Brandon Cronenberg, the demented son of “Scanners” director David Cronenberg. I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice guy in real life, but hoo boy, if you’ve seen “Antiviral” or “Possessor,” you know: The kind of images Kid...

In the age of streaming television, horror is alive and well. Shows like "Stranger Things" and "Wednesday" are topping Netflix's charts, "What We Do in the Shadows" continues to prove series adaptations of movies can be even better than the source material, and although "The Walking Dead" came to a conclusion with its 11th season, its multiple spin-offs are certain to keep its spirit shambling along for years to come. But what if you're looking for something off the beaten path?

The good news is that there's a whole world of horror television lurking in the shadows, hungrily waiting for its next captive audience. From old-school anthology series to a Danish supernatural hospital drama, or even obscure relics of the Y2K age, we've put together a lineup of forgotten or simply underappreciated shows that are worth checking out. While some of these might take a little elbow grease...

David Cronenberg made some of the most visually striking sci-fi and body horror movies of the 1980s, with films like Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly standing as classics. But one movie he didn’t make that is making the rounds on the internet as of late is 1985’s Galaxy of Flesh. In fact, nobody made it at all, as it’s completely AI-generated.

Last week, when music video and commercial director Keith Schofield tweeted out the stills, it caused various degrees of backlash–some from David Cronenberg fans and others evidently against being duped. You can see the original tweet below:

David Cronenberg's Galaxy of Flesh (1985) pic.twitter.com/Z5tBf8gXKG

— Keith Schofield (@keithscho) January 10, 2023

Explaining why he posted the images–again, generated by AI technology and not a lost film–Keith Schofield said it was for Cronenberg fans, writing, “the post was intended for real David Cronenberg fans...

Exclusive: In a competitive situation, veteran producer Clark Peterson and his Story and Film, Inc has optioned Sara Foster’s thriller novel The Hush for development as a television series.

Set in a near-future, surveillance-state London, The Hush follows a group of women who join forces with a midwife to save her daughter, who is the latest in a string of pregnant teens that have mysteriously disappeared. In the six months since the first case of a terrifying new epidemic, the government has passed sweeping new laws to monitor all citizens, and young pregnant women are vanishing without a trace.

Peterson executive produces with Jess Jacobs (Topic’s Soul City), Stacy Milbourn (Yellowstone) and Chris Bellant of Established Artists. Foster will co-executive produce.

“The Hush is a mind-blowing thriller, but it also is so timely in its exploration of women’s rights and relationships,” explained Peterson, adding, “Sara...

You better watch out because Santa Claus is coming to town. This time, Santa’s a killer robot with a mean streak.

Joe Begos (Bliss, Vfw) is back with the holiday horror slasher Christmas Bloody Christmas, which will release day-and-date in theaters from Rlje Films and streaming on Shudder on December 9, 2022.

“It’s Christmas Eve, and fiery record store owner Tori Tooms (Riley Dandy) just wants to get drunk and party until the robotic Santa Claus at a nearby toy store goes haywire and makes her night more than a little complicated.

“Santa Claus begins a rampant killing spree through the neon-drenched snowscape against a backdrop of drugs, sex, metal, and violence, ultimately forcing Tori into a blood-splattered battle for survival against the ruthless heavy metal Saint Nick himself.”

Sam Delich, Jonah Ray Rodrigues, Dora Madison, and Jeremy Gardner also star in Christmas Bloody Christmas along with Jeff Daniel Phillips and Abraham Benrubi.