Film Land - The Dead Zone

Edited by Robert Beach 

In case you’re one of my international viewers not paying terribly close attention, America is in the midst of an election year, and what an election it’s shaping up to be. We actually haven’t even entered the election proper. However, we have been slowly making our way through the Democratic and Republican primaries, and we’ve already been confronted by an avalanche of nightmare candidates and idiocy that makes it seem like we’ve all been enveloped by a surrealist political satire and just didn’t realize it. 

Even though I don’t cover politics on this blog, they’re a big part of life as they inform the art and media that I do focus on here. All the terrible politics that have been clogging up the national consciousness this entire year have left me thinking a lot about the idea of political horror. It’s a strange concept, and while we’ve got a pretty good standard bearer for it now in the Purge series, there used to be only one name in this limited subgenre: The Dead Zone. 

Week of Review - The Shining

And so we come to the end of another Week of Review, though admittedly a much shorter one.  American Horror Story: Hotel will be premiering later this tonight so for the final film in my hotel horror marathon I’ve chosen the most blatantly obvious example there is: The Shining.  The Shining is considered by many to be the greatest horror film ever made and its depth, complexity, and importance continues to echo down the long halls of cinema to this very day.  The film has been analyzed and deconstructed nearly to death with whole documentaries created about its possible meanings such as the death of the American family, the shameful treatment of Native Americans, and even claims that it was Stanley Kubrick’s confession to faking the Moon Landing. 

With a film this well known, this talked about, this discussed and considered by academia, nerdom, and the mass populous alike I normally wouldn’t talk about but I wanted to cover a certain subject that always tends to linger around the film; its connection to the book of the same name.  If you’ve never read it The Shining the book is actually an incredibly different animal to the film and a decidedly less interesting or terrifying horror story, and I’m going to talk about how and why.

Week of Review - Vacancy

We are 3 installments into this shorter Week of Review as American Horror Story: Hotel looms ever near, rumbling towards us all like a kind collective, television based prostate cancer.  Today I’ll be looking at another 2007 horror film, because apparently that was just a really good year for hotel horror.  However, unlike Saturday’s 1408 today’s topic skews much more in line with the key trends and themes of horror in the mid-2000s.  As much as I like to talk about the amazing 4-year period of 2007-2010 as the time when the 2010s truly began I’m thoroughly aware that change doesn’t happen over night. 

As I mentioned 2007 was a horror landscape dominated by the twin success of Saw and the blossoming trend of horror reboots.  Texas Chainsaw and Amityville Horror had both come out in 2005 and made a ton of money with Rob Zombie’s Halloween picking up steam to complete the hat trick that same year.  Haunted house movies wouldn’t pick up again till the twin success of Paranormal Activity and Indisious and zombies didn’t fully enter the mainstream till 2010.  Combine all this with the still lingering impact of Eli Roth’s Hostel, also from the truly terrible year of 2005, and horror was in bad shape.  Which makes it all the more impressive that Vacancy, which conforms to all the horror tropes and standards of the day, is really good.

Week of Review - Motel Hell

Welcome back to Week of Review, where I dedicate 5 to 8 days to reviewing material that’s adjacent to something topical and relevant.  This week I’m looking at 5 hotel horror flicks all leading up to American Horror Story’s 5^th season: Hotel.  Yesterday I looked at the underappreciated Stephen King adaptation 1408, this week I look at the bizarre alleged horror-comedy and staple of late night horror showings and B-movie marathons everywhere Motel Hell. 

Week of Review - 1408

Welcome back to week of review, in which I dedicate 5-8 days to reviewing a collection of films and TV shows relating to a topical subject of my choosing.  5 days from now we’ll see the return of American Horror Story, the hit anthology horror show from FX.  American Horror Story and I have a…complicated relationship to say the least but I at least acknowledge the incredible influence the show has had.  As we speak the amount of anthologies currently in development is pretty staggering and our new found love of anthologies is no doubt partly responsible for the upcoming Goosebumps film.  So given that I’ve decided to produce a Week of Review dedicated to this season of American Horror Story’s theme: Hotels.  I don’t really know why the creators of American Horror Story felt “Hotel” was the perfect confluence of horror trends and American identity to devote an entire season to but thankfully we don't have to understand it, just embrace it.  So to kick things off I’m looking at one of the best and most underrated Stephen King adaptations of all time 1408.