I Still Believe in Heroes

            It’s no secret that 2017 was an outstanding year for horror and genre films, a year which culminated in Academy awards for genre films Get Out and The Shape of Water . A Quiet Place looks to keep that momentum going as it is the first truly great horror film of 2018. Packed with as much terror as it is with emotion, this innovative tension-filled film is a stunning addition to the horror genre.             John Krasinski returns to the director’s chair for A Quiet Place , a film in which he also stars, co-wrote and executive produced. Joining Krasinski’s character, Lee, is Emily Blunt as Evelyn, Noah Jupe as Marcus, Millicent Simmonds as Regan and Cade Woodward as Beau. They make up a family living in a world that has been overtaken by ruthless monsters who are extremely sensitive to sound. In order to survive, the Abbott family is forced to live in complete s...

             In May of 2017, Universal Pictures announced that the Tom Cruise led The Mummy reboot would be the beginning of its own cinematic universe known as the Dark Universe. This cinematic universe would see Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man, Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein’s monster and Angelina Jolie was long rumored to join as the monster’s bride. Those of us who love the Universal classic monster films were thrilled by this announcement. To bring such incredible talent to our beloved monster films was a sign of great things, because why would they sign on if the material was anything less than amazing? Two weeks after this announcement, The Mummy was released and it became apparent almost immediately that this new film was both the beginning and the end for the Dark Universe. 2017’s The Mummy reboot is the latest attempt to bring back the classic Universal monsters, but not the only one. In 2014, Lu...

There aren’t very many directors who have had quite the career that Steven Spielberg has. The man who directed the very first blockbuster in  Jaws , is the same man who has put together some of our most beloved films such as the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , Jurassic Park , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , and the Indiana Jones series. It’s the same man that, aside from giving us these wonderfully imaginative films, has also given us hard-hitting dramas such as Schindler’s List , Lincoln and Bridge of Spies . His career has spanned 50 years, and the 71-year-old director shows no signs of slowing down. With his latest film, Ready Player One , Spielberg once again delivers an awe-inspiring film that captures the wonders of the imagination. It stars Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts/Parzival, Olivia Cooke as Samantha Cook/Art3mis, Ben Mendelsohn as the villainous Sorrento and Mark Rylance as OASIS creator James Halliday. The film takes place in 2045 Columbus, Ohio. In this futuristi...

            We live in an era where remakes and sequels of beloved films are constantly coming out. Every once in a while, a classic or a highly popular film gets remade and it turns out so bad that people claim it “ruined the original”. One such case is Rob Zombie’s remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic, Halloween. The purpose of this article is twofold. As always, I want to encourage readers to watch a classic film. With this article, however, I also want to try and dispel this notion that bad remakes/sequels ruin the original film.              John Carpenter’s original is widely considered to be a masterpiece and one of the founders of the slasher sub-genre. The story is a relatively simple one. It starts off in Haddonfield, Illinois in 1963 on Halloween night where a 6-year-old Michael Myers kills his older sister shortly after she has finished having ...

"Since childhood, I've been faithful to monsters. I have been saved and absolved by them. Because monsters, I believe, are patron saints of our blissful imperfection. They allow and embody the possibility of failing and living." Those were the words that Guillermo del Toro spoke after winning his first Golden Globe for his directorial work on The Shape of Water . It was a speech that I connected with and understood completely. With the Oscars coming up, I want to say a few words on what Guillermo del Toro and his films mean to me and why I am rooting for him to win the Best Director award at the Academy Awards.              Growing up, my parents never really censored what my brothers and I saw on TV or at the movies. As a result, I was exposed to many of the great horror films at an extremely young age. Slashers were a constant in our home. Despite how much they scared me, they also fascinated me. Slashers were the norm for...

There are certain classics that, in theory, should be much harder to re-imagine than others. Often times, it’s very difficult to modernize certain aspects of a story, whether it be the topic or story plot. By all accounts, Alfred Hitchcock’s mystery thriller Rear Window should have been difficult to adapt in 2007. Rear Window ’s plot makes the film date itself more than other Hitchcock films. At the center of the 1954 film, which stars James Stewart, is L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries, a photographer whose broken-leg forces him to be wheelchair-bound and unable to leave his house. Having nothing else to do, Jeff passes the time by spying on the people from the apartment complex across from his. When he sees what he believes to be a murder at the hands of a man named Thorwald, Jeff takes it upon himself to solve the crime. Rear Window remains one of Hitchcock’s most decorated films, so it is no surprise that eventually someone would try and remake it. The question, however, is how? The idea...

            Directing duo, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, return for the first time since their debut feature film, Vacation , released nearly three years ago. While Vacation was received very poorly by fans and critics, that should not deter audiences from seeing their new film, Game Night . After a not-so-great marketing campaign, I think most people left this movie for dead. However, there are times when a poorly marketed film turns to be really good and this was one of those cases.             Game Night follows ultra-competitive married couple Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams), along with the friends that they regularly meet with for game nights. The relationship between Max and Annie is briefly but effectively introduced at the start of the film and you buy into their relationship right away. A short montage shows them go from new couple to newlyweds and eventua...