News

Emerald Fennell is sharing one of her favorite “complicated” sexy onscreen relationships ever, and it’s none other than the dark, obsessive dynamic found in Martin Scorsese’s “Cape Fear.” During Turner Classic Movie’s “Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast,” hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, “Saltburn” filmmaker Fennell revealed her twisted love for Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis’ onscreen relationship in Scorsese’s 1991 film.

While Fennell noted that the 1962 original starring Robert Mitchum is her preferred iteration of the story (both films were adaptations of 1957 book “The Executioners” by John D. Macdonald), she cited the scene in Scorsese’s feature in which De Niro’s character stalks Lewis at her high school as a favorite.

“I was obsessed with the remake, because the scene where Robert De Niro comes to the high school to seduce Juliette Lewis, it’s one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen, which is very complicated,...

"Killers of the Flower Moon" receives 10 Oscar nominations, recognized in numerous categories and breaking a Scorsese record. Robert De Niro earns his ninth Oscar nomination for his role in the film, becoming Scorsese's most nominated actor. Leonardo DiCaprio's performance is snubbed by the Oscars, making it difficult for him to catch up with De Niro's record.

One Killers of the Flower Moon Oscar nomination breaks a Martin Scorsese record that Leonardo DiCaprio will be hard up to get the better of. Directed and produced by Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon is well recognized in numerous categories for the upcoming 2023 Academy Awards. Killers of the Flower Moon documents the true-to-life story of the Osage Nation murders in a complex and compelling manner, which has garnered it immensely positive acclaim and acknowledgment from not just the Oscars but the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, the Directors Guild of America Awards,...

Nick Antosca’s production company Eat the Cat is bolstering its executive ranks.

Gemma Levinson has joined the company as vp development. She’ll take charge of day-to-day development for the company, headed by Antosca and Alex Hedlund, and also help grow Eat the Cat’s roster of TV and film projects.

“Gemma’s fantastic taste and her commitment to strange, special, provocative genre storytelling make her a perfect new partner for Eat the Cat,” Antosca said in a statement. “I’m thrilled she’s joining our small team—and I’m so excited about everything we’re already working on together.”

Eat the Cat has an overall deal Universal Studio Group’s UCP and is behind Syfy and USA’s Chucky, Hulu’s Candy and The Act — which recently got a viewing bump due to its subject, Gypsy Rose Blanchard, being back in the news — and Peacock’s A Friend of the Family.

This weekend saw the celebrity death match battle between two icons. In one corner is an icon of the stage with the filmed version of her tour which is the highest grossing music tour of all time. In the other corner is an icon of cinema who has created some of the greatest films ever made. So who would reign supreme? Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour saw a 67% decline for a still respectable $31 million in her second weekend of release to claim first place, while Martin Scorsese’s three and a half hour epic Killers of the Flower Moon took in a solid $23 million for a second place bow. Those numbers fall pretty much in line with where we saw them in our Thursday predictions.

A lot of people have said the length of Scorsese’s latest is a factor in deciding whether to see it in theaters or wait until it hits streaming,...

“Back home, they would have put me in jail for what I’m doing. But out here? They’re giving me awards” – Robert De Niro’s Sam Rothstein, Casino.

Martin Scorsese reminds me a lot of the late Wes Craven. Both of them with such kind demeanors that are in paradox to the horrors of the art they create. Now, in no way am I so naïve as to think people who make horror films are anything like their creations. I’m not one of those Church Moms on the local news suggesting Satan is entering our homes via Hocus Pocus on Disney Plus. Still yet, these are the last two men I’d ever pick out of a line up as the creators of their own work.

The two are seen oppositely based on the genres they work in but Scorsese is a horror director in his own right.

As “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Paramount) debuts in theaters ahead of streaming on Apple, critics are ranking their favorite Scorsese movies. Looking at the auteur’s 26 films by their adjusted box-office gross, it’s a very different outcome.

“Flower Moon” will probably not make Scorsese’s top 10. It’s expected to place in the middle third of the director’s films with a domestic gross projected at up to $100 million. To be one of his 10 highest, it would need to surpass $104 million.

Five of the director’s seven biggest hits came in this century, the most recent being 2013’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Four of his top five star Leonardo DiCaprio including “The Departed,” the director’s biggest hit (both adjusted and unadjusted) as well as his sole Best Picture winner.

Adjusted, here is the box-office order for Scorsese’s 26 feature releases. (Excluded are his two concert documentaries.

Martin Scorsese’s 27 narrative feature films range from beloved gangster titles, to a bold religious trilogy, to popcorn thrillers, to dark character portraits. Picking and ranking his 10 best? A list is “wrong” before it even begins (except, perhaps, for No. 1, which might be an inarguable choice). So much depends on which version of Scorsese is most valued by the chooser. Do you revere Scorsese’s breakout 1970s films? His more mainstream 21st century hits? Do you find his religious films moving or a snooze?

Here’s the perspective of this particular list: Scorsese is at his best when his masterful technique is married with compelling characters and propulsive storytelling. Some of the Catholic-raised director’s titles (such as Silence, Taxi Driver and his latest, Killers of the Flower Moon) force moviegoers to endure a cinematic penance that echoes the journey of his tormented protagonists. They evoke that eternal debate between...

Apple Original Films’ Killers of the Flower Moon marks the 16th time Martin Scorsese has worked with either Robert De Niro or Leonardo DiCaprio in a feature-length film, yet it’s the first Scorsese film that includes both actors in starring roles. Scorsese and De Niro began their 50-year association with 1973’s Mean Streets. 1976’s Taxi Driver, 1977’s New York, New York, 1980’s Raging Bull, 1983’s The King of Comedy, 1990’s Goodfellas, 1991’s Cape Fear, and 1995’s Casino followed, cementing their relationship as one of the most successful actor-director teams.

After a nearly 25-year break, Scorsese and De Niro reunited for 2019’s The Irishman, and now they’re back together again for 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon.

During the two-decade break in the Scorsese / De Niro films, the Oscar-winning director cast Leonardo DiCaprio in 2002’s Gangs of New York, 2004’s The Aviator, 2006’s The Departed, 2010’s Shutter Island, and...

The AMC-distributed Taylor Swift concert movie Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which paused weekday play from Monday-Thursday, is looking at a 60%-70% dive in its second weekend with $27M-$37M off its first weekend of $92.3M. Those industry projections are based on the front-loaded nature of female-skewing pics, per sources.

Disney’s Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert movie dropped 67% in its second weekend way back in 2008. However, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never had a better hold at -54% in 2011. All in, this is expected to be the best second weekend for a concert movie at the domestic box office.

Apple Original Films’ big splash into a wide theatrical release with Paramount on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon has been looking at a $20M-$25M opening with tracking for a while. That would be mind-blowing for a 3 hour, 26-minute western drama...

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese returns to theaters just in time to take on Taylor Swift in the second weekend of her record-setting “The Eras Tour” concert movie. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” is Scorsese’s first movie since “The Irishman” in 2019, which ultimately ended up on Netflix. Adapted from David Grann‘s 2017 true-crime novel, it’s about a group of unscrupulous white men in the 1920s trying to rob the Osage Nation of Oklahoma out of their oil money.

“Killers” reunites Scorsese with two of the actors with whom he’s collaborated the most, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, though this is only the second time they star in one of his movies together.

See Grab the popcorn and sound off in our movie forums

De Niro’s relationship with Scorsese goes back 50 years to “Mean Streets,” but one of their...

Shot in the same year with the original, “Executioners” included the same cast, and Johnny To in the director’s seat, having added though, Sean Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro in the cast, and Chin Siu Tung as co-director (action director in the previous one), thus boasting an even more impressive collection of names. Furthermore, and although the issues with the narrative continued, the sequel seems to have toned them down significantly, while Michelle Yeoh, this time, definitely rises to the occasion.

“Executioners” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

The story takes place in a dystopian future 10 year after the events of the first film, when a nuclear explosion has caused environmental pollution, contaminating the water, and leaving Hong Kong in chaos as the search for drinkable water is the field of battle now. Disfigured genius Mr. Kim is the head of the Clear Water Company, whose efforts of...

Everything Everywhere All at Once describes Michelle Yeoh’s career right now. She is everywhere. As Emperor Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek: Discovery, she boldly went where no one has gone before with a role so scene-stealing that there’s talk of a spin-off dedicated just to her character. Yeoh also dominated as the powerful matriarch and ultimate “tiger mom” Eleanor Young in Crazy Rich Asians. And she’s one of the only actors to play two completely different characters in the MCU: Ying Nan in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Aleta Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. A24’s multiverse-spanning science fiction film Everything Everywhere All at Once is one more indication that Yeoh isn’t slowing down. Coming soon, she has lead roles in The Witcher: Blood Origin, American Born Chinese, and the four upcoming Avatar sequels.

Most remember Yeoh from her...

Shot in the same year with the original, “Executioners” included the same cast, and Johnny To in the director’s seat, having added though, Sean Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro in the cast, and Chin Siu Tung as co-director (action director in the previous one), thus boasting an even more impressive collection of names. Furthermore, and although the issues with the narrative continued, the sequel seems to have toned them down significantly, while Michelle Yeoh, this time, definitely rises to the occasion.

The story takes place in a dystopian future 10 year after the events of the first film, when a nuclear explosion has caused environmental pollution, contaminating the water, and leaving Hong Kong in chaos as the search for drinkable water is the field of battle now. Disfigured genius Mr. Kim is the head of the Clear Water Company, whose efforts of controlling the country by controlling the water supply are quite cunning,...

Hulu is out with its list of everything new coming and everything leaving the streaming service in the month of October.

Highlights include seasons four and seven of “90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days,” Season 8 of “My 600-lb Life” featuring the late star Coliesa McMillian, and a bunch of cooking shows including seasons nine and 10 of “Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern,” Season 13 of “Cutthroat Kitchen” and Season 18 of “Hell’s Kitchen.” All of those come out Oct. 1.

For Halloween, catch the Hulu Original series “Monsterland” out Oct. 2.

On Oct. 14, catch the season premiere of “The Bachelorette” just one day after it airs on ABC.

Leaving Hulu on Oct. 31 are all five of the “Twilight” movies, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Footloose.”

See the full list below.

Oct. 1

90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days: Complete Season 4 (TLC)

90 Day Fiancé: Complete Season 7 (TLC)

All-Star Halloween Spectacular: Special (Food Network)

Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern:...

It’s almost spooky season, and the various streaming services are making sure that subscribers have got plenty of great horror content for all ages available to watch this Halloween. Given the current state of the world, this All Hallow’s Eve will see more folks staying in than ever before, so we’ll need as much choice when it comes to finding a perfect movie or TV show to dive into as possible. Thankfully, Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video have got us covered.

Of course, there’s much more beyond just horror content arriving across the streaming world this October, with the first day of the month launching hundreds of new titles on all the various sites. There are also a few key highlights scattered throughout the month. Arguably the biggest is Aaron Sorkin’s much-anticipated all-star drama based on real events, The Trial of the Chicago 7,...

Image Source: Everett Collection

Netflix's Ratched includes a few callbacks to iconic horror properties that came before it. This story, based on Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, not only plays up bold significant colors of red and green but also relies heavily on intense music throughout. Longtime Ryan Murphy collaborator Mac Quayle took the reins for this project, and if you thought some of the music sounds familiar, there's a reason.

Right off the bat, Ratched takes inspiration from the film Cape Fear specifically when it comes to the score. Throughout the first season, you'll hear not just snippets from the iconic score of the original film and its remake but also new music inspired by it. The music from the original Cape Fear was composed by Bernard Herrmann for the 1962 film. For the 1991 remake, directed by Martin Scorsese, Elmer Bernstein took Herrmann's original score...

October is officially spooky season and it’s nice to know that some streaming services (*cough*Disney+*cough*) are taking that responsibility very seriously.

For its new releases in October 2020, Hulu is premiering the Marvel TV universe’s first-ever outright horror series. Helstrom debuts on Oct. 16 and follows Marvel Comics character Daimon Helstrom as he struggles against all manner of demonic forces. Another spooky treat arriving this month is Monsterland on Oct. 2. This anthology will feature scary stories from around the country.

On the movie side of things, Hulu is bringing out Clive Barker adaptation Books of Blood on Oct. 7 and Bad Hair on Oct. 23. Thank you, Hulu, for your spooky service.

There are a lot of non-Hulu TV shows of note arriving in October as well. The final season of Homeland will be available to stream on Oct. 26. The premiere of Saturday Night Live‘s 46th season will arrive on Oct.

We’re now just over halfway through September, so let’s turn our attention to what’s coming to Hulu next month. Every October, the streaming service celebrates “Huluween” by adding a bunch of new Halloween-themed content. And this year is no different, with countless classic movies going up on the site that you’ll want to check out to get you in the spooky mood as well as a few notable originals.

These include anthology series Monsterland (October 2nd) and horror comedy film Bad Hair (October 23rd), starring Lena Waithe, Vanessa Williams and Laverne Cox, from Dear White People director Justin Simien. Superhero fans will also want to catch supernatural-themed Marvel series Helstrom (October 16th). The final production from Marvel Television, it’s sadly already doomed to just the one season.

See below for the full list of everything that’s coming to Hulu in October:

Released October 1

90 Day...

Monstrous Available On Demand and DVD August 11 Starring Anna Shields (The Executioners), Rachel Finniger, Grant Schumacher, directed by Bruce Wemple Something is out there. Sylvia, a lonely 20-something, goes searching for answers after her friend mysteriously vanishes in Whitehall, NY, an Adirondack town known for its Bigfoot sightings. She sets off with a mysterious, …

The post Monstrous – Official Trailer and Poster appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

One week a month, Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by the week’s new releases or premieres. Because it’s Horror Week here at The A.V. Club, we’re highlighting some of the best unsung slasher movies.

Happy Birthday To Me (1981)

Possessing more in common with the original Friday The 13th than that classic’s Jason-centric sequels, Happy Birthday To Me is a slasher film by way of whodunit, one in which endless misdirections go hand in hand with inventively gruesome murders. Directed by Cape Fear’s J. Lee Thompson, the film concerns a group of boarding school friends (known as the “top 10”) who are methodically picked off by a mysterious assailant. Only the black-gloved hands of that fiend are seen during these killings (in a nod to the work of Dario Argento and his giallo comrades). And it’s suggested from the narrative’s focus ...

Aging much better than a freezer burnt, half eaten cake, Happy Birthday to Me (1981) stands out as one of the better ones from the golden era of slashers, when the major studios weren’t afraid to throw some blood soaked (Canadian) coin at a B level concept, and in the process giving it some A list icing.

The Canadian ties? Filmed in Montreal when tax credits were still flying fast and furious, Happy was one of Columbia Pictures early ‘80s ventures into the horror world. (Graduation Day, released the same year, was the breadwinner of the two.) Recruiting the Canadian producing juggernaut of Andre Link and John Dunning (David Cronenberg’s cohorts on his mid ‘70s output, Shivers and Rabid), Columbia was guaranteed a good return on their investment. Of course, the Canuck connection doesn’t stop there – the cast includes such faces of Canadiana as Lawrence Dane (Scanners), Jack Blum...

By Don Stradley

Charles Bronson was 55 at the time of “St Ives” (1976). He was just a couple years past his star-making turn in “Death Wish”, and was enjoying a surprising run of success. I say surprising because Bronson had, after all, been little more than a craggy second banana for most of his career. Now, inexplicably, he had box office clout as a leading man. In fact, Bronson reigned unchallenged for a few years as the most popular male actor in international markets. Yes, even bigger than Eastwood, Newman, Reynolds, Redford, or any other 1970s star you can name. Many of Bronson’s movies were partly financed by foreign investors, for even if his movies didn’t score stateside, they still drew buckets of money in Prague or Madrid. Some have suggested that his popularity on foreign screens was due to how little he said in his movies (there was...

New York (AP) — Emmy-winning actress and singer Polly Bergen, who in a long career played the terrorized wife in the original Cape Fear and the first woman president in Kisses for My President, died Saturday, according to her publicist. She was 84. Bergen died at her home in Southbury, Connecticut, surrounded by family and close friends, publicist Judy Katz said. She had battled emphysema and other ailments in the late 1990s, a result of 50 years of smoking. A brunette beauty with a warm, sultry singing voice, Bergen was a household name from her 20s onward. She made albums

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Polly Bergen died of natural causes at the age of 84 on Saturday, Sept. 20, the Associated Press reports. The actress and singer was surrounded by her family and close friends at her home in Southbury, Connecticut. Bergen was best known for playing terrorized wife Peggy Bowden in the original 1962 film Cape Fear, and for her role as the first woman president in 1964's Kisses for My President. She was also an established singer and made her Broadway debut in John Murray Anderson's Almanac in 1953. In [...]...

If this weekend’s number one movie Dawn of the Planet of the Apes — the second entry in the rebooted Apes franchise — has a spiritual sibling in the original series of films, it is 1972′s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. While Conquest was the fourth movie in the franchise to arrive in cinemas it is, like Dawn, the second according to the interior timeline of its series and, again like director Matt Reeves’ new film, features an apocalyptic showdown between apes and humans. Thus, it seems appropriate that this weekend Dawn of the Planet of the Apes comprehensively...

With the 20th La Film Festival now underway (until June 19), Indiewire sent out questionnaires to filmmakers with films screening at Laff asking them a variety of questions as part of the How I Shot That series. Many of these filmmakers were eager to disclose some of the best and worst advice they have received in their careers. Check out some of the advice below.  Best Advice: "If you reference something correctly in a documentary, you can use it for free under 'public domain.' Love that." -- Director Ravi Patel ("Meet the Patels")  "Do the big scares first, make sure you got them right, and then move on to the rest of the movie." -- Director Seth Grossman ("Inner Demons") "The best advice came from (my cinematographer) Seamus Tierney and my production design professor at AFI, Robert Boyle ("North by Northwest," "The Birds," "In Cold Blood," "Cape Fear"). He had...

By Paul Talbot

The poster screamed: “Most criminals answer to the law. The world’s most savage executioner must answer to Bronson.” Since the late 1960s, Charles Bronson’s name on a marquee was a guarantee of unchained action. When The Evil That Men Do opened in 1984, fans were hit with the expected violence─but this time they were also assaulted with thick layers of sadism, sleaze and depravity. And they loved it.

Born in 1921, Charles Bronson (originally Bunchinsky) was a dirt-poor Pennsylvania coal miner before he was drafted and later used the GI Bill to study acting. After dozens of small roles, he became a popular supporting player in hit films like The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963)─then went overseas to star in European pictures like Farewell, Friend (1967), Once Upon a Time in the West (1967) and Rider on the Rain (1970). Although ignored in the States─where they...

"The Exorcist," released 40 years ago this week (on December 26, 1973), is widely regarded as the scariest movie ever made, but after four decades, two sequels, two prequels, and countless spoofs, is there anything about the tale of demon-possessed Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) and the priests who try to save her (Max von Sydow and Jason Miller) left to jolt and shock us?

Maybe there is. "Exorcist" director William Friedkin's 2013 memoir, "The Friedkin Connection," has three chapters full of dish on the making of the film, including which characters were based on famous people, how some of the famous special effects were accomplished, how he came to slap a Jesuit priest, and whether or not the production was cursed. Here are 25 things you may not know about "The Exorcist," many of them from Friedkin's recent book.

1. The real case that inspired William Peter Blatty's novel and screenplay was the 1949 exorcism of a 14-year-old boy,...

J. Lee Thompson is an auteur – he’s an amazing director with a personal sense of style, usually low-key and humorous, and actors love working with him. With films like The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962), Conquest of the Planet Of the Apes (1972) and Battle For the Planet Of The Apes (1973), J. Lee Thompson is a favorite amongst genre fans. My personal favorite is The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud (1975), starring Michael Sarrazin, Jennifer O’Neill and Margot Kidder. If you haven’t seen this film, you need to run to your nearest video/dvd rental store – David Fincher currently holds the remake rights, so it’s only a matter of time before we see a redux! In the early 80s, Thompson directed the popular horror cult classic Happy Birthday To Me (1981), starring Melissa Sue Anderson (of Little House On The Prairie fame) Glenn Ford (who needs no introduction), and Lesleh Donaldson...

Tinseltown is ready to greet film fans from around the world again for the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival.

Beginning this Thursday, April 25 and running through Sunday, April 28 in Hollywood, the festival will open with a gala presentation of the newly restored musical classic Funny Girl (1968).

Over four big days, TCM will welcome legendary stars, award-winning filmmakers and classic movie fans for the cinematic celebration, which this year will center on the theme Cinematic Journeys: Travel in the Movies.

But first on the schedule is Funny Girl!

Legendary superstar Barbra Streisand demonstrates why she’s the greatest star in her Academy Award winning role (Best Actress, 1968) as “Fanny Brice” in the celebrated musical biography Funny Girl. Commemorating its 45th anniversary, the classic film was meticulously restored from the original negative by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 4K at Sony Pictures’ Colorworks.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release Funny Girl for the first time on Blu-ray April 30th,...

The definition of a slasher film varies depending on who you ask, but in general, it contains several specific traits that feed into the genre’s formula. Author Vera Dika rather strictly defines the sub-genre in her book Games of Terror by only including films made between 1978 and 1984. In other words, she saw it as a movement. When someone describes Brick, they don’t define it as a noir, but instead neo-noir . In other words, it’s a modern motion picture that prominently utilizes elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in those from the 1940s and 1950s. So does one consider Scream a slasher film or a neo-slasher, or simply put, a modern slasher?

Some consider Thirteen Women to be the earliest slasher – released all the way back in 1932. Personally I think that is rubbish. Thirteen Women is more like Desperate Housewives on sedatives.

In 1976 Italian movie mogul Dino De Laurentiis unleashed his heavily promoted King Kong to eager audiences. Though a modest success, the remake was trashed by critics and, especially in light of Peter Jackson’s 2005 version, has aged horribly. The next year De Laurentiis released another monster movie, The White Buffalo which critics pounced on as well and this time, even though it starred box-office champ Charles Bronson, audiences stayed away. But the years have been much kinder to The White Buffalo, a weird, offbeat western/monster hybrid that uses real historical figures for a unique riff on Moby Dick. It’s an unusual movie, ripe for rediscovery. I had written about it a couple of years ago in my Not available on DVD column and it’s now available as part of the MGM Limited Edition Collection

In the 1870′s, aging gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok (Charles Bronson) is haunted by...

Arriving on Blu-ray courtesy of Optimum (now Studio Canal), Ice Cold in Alex is the latest in a line of HD restorations in the Optimum Classics range. Probably familiar to many for the Carlsberg advert that it spawned, even if they have not seen the film itself, this World War II thriller was originally released in the UK in 1958 following its success as the International Critics Award winner at the Berlin Film Festival that year. The film did not have an easy journey across the Atlantic though and was not released in the Us until 1961, by which point it had been retitled Desert Attack and lost over forty minutes of its two hour running time.

The film centres on Captain Anson (John Mills) and Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews), who are tasked with transporting an army ambulance and two nurses across the unforgiving Libyan desert to their final destination, Alexandria. Mills...

You know what was more shocking than Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) not having a film score? That Hitch' always had Bernard Hermann at the ready and still went without one.

The internet often does a spectacularly bad job of noting important history (it's all future-future-future which an occassional "now") so you wouldn't know that today marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most important film composers who ever lived!

What would the cinema even sound like without Hermann's shrieking violins from Psycho (1960) for instance? Different surely, and lesser though perhaps it would be a relief if people stopped ripping it off and moved on. Supposedly Hitchcock didn't even want them at first.

Some other notable films include Citizen Kane (debut), The Ghost and Mrs Muir, Cape Fear, North by Northwest and Taxi Driver (1976), his last, which he just barely completed before his death on Christmas Eve of 1975.

True to...

Hitchcock and Hermann clowning on the set.

 

The historic Loew's Theatre in Jersey City, New Jersey will pay tribute to the legendary film composer Bernard Hermann with screenings of three films featuring his scores. The movies to be shown are the original top-notch chiller Cape Fear, Ray Harryhausen's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. For more click here...

Almost every aspect of Citizen Kane has been lauded, analysed and replicated to the point that it’s almost become a cliché of a film. At the same time the infamous War of The Worlds radio broadcast, and the (no doubt overstated) ensuing widespread panic at impending alien invasion, have become a leading urban legend.

While Orson Welles has rightly taken the glory for these projects, there seems to be little trickle down effect to the man who stood beside him during both – Bernard Herrmann; a motion picture composer who is only really rivalled by John Williams. Despite this though, he hasn’t made the leap from being known in film circles into being known more widely.

Probably the most famous homage paid to him in recent times was when Quentin Tarnatino used his piece “Twisted Nerve” in Kill Bill.

Iframe Embed for Youtube

So what’s his story? He...

Four-time Academy Award nominee for Art Direction and iconic production designer Robert F. Boyle died yesterday of natural causes after a 2-day stay in Cedars Sinai Hospital. He was 100. His work on North by Northwest, Gaily, Gaily, The Shootist, and Fiddler on the Roof and 86 other motion pictures earned him an Honorary Oscar in 2008. In 1997 Boyle was voted a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Art Directors Guild. In 2001 he was further honored with the Hollywood Production Designer of the Year Award by the Hollywood Film Festival. Recently he was given a tribute by the American Cinematheque and the Art Directors Guild with a screening at the Egyptian Theatre of two of his designed films, including The Wolf Man (1941). In 1973 he was nominated for an Emmy for The Red Pony. Among his other major motion picture credits as a production designer are The Birds, Winter Kills, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas,...

There hasn’t been a serial horror story in quite some time. Probably John Saul’s Blackstone Chronicles is the most recent. But there is a new kid on the block now, Rick Florino’s Dolor, and this ain’t your mama’s serial horror.

Set in the mysterious town of Dolor, the ten-part series will unfold slowly, introducing the reader to Dolor’s various denizens as well as the town itself. Because from the beginning, with "Lila", the reader knows something has gone terribly wrong in Dolor; and as the ten diaries are read by an FBI agent investigating what happened in Dolor, the reader will also discover what happened and who (or what) might be responsible.

Dread Central recently had an opportunity to chat with the creator of Dolor: Lila (review here) and discovered that Rick Florino is something of an enfant terrible and an author people should take note of.

Quick, what’s the scariest horror film score out there? I’m sure a couple of no-brainers came to mind, and a few of you probably thought of something wholly original. Thanks to the Cinemagic channel on Sirius Xm, we have an official list to choose from. There are a few shocking inclusions, and a couple of omissions, one that I, myself, deem glaring.

See for yourself:

Halloween John Carpenter 1

Psycho Bernard Herrmann 2

The Shining Wendy Carlos/Assorted 3

Jaws John Williams 4

Alien Jerry Goldsmith 5

Omen, The Jerry Goldsmith 6

Bride of Frankenstein Franz Waxman 7

Thing, The Ennio Morricone 8

Exorcist, The Pendereki 9

Fog, The John Carpenter 10

Rosemary’s Baby Christopher Komeda 11

Hellraiser Christopher Young 12

Friday the 13th Harry Manfredini 13

A Nightmare on Elm Street Charles Bernstein 14

Suspira Goblin 15

Poltergeist Jerry Goldsmith 16

Changeling, The Rick Williams 17

Dawn of the Dead Assorted 18

Haunted Palace, The Ronald Stein 19

Amityville Horror, The Lalo Schifrin 20

Creepshow John...

British director J. Lee Thompson has died of congestive heart failure. He was 88. The Bristol, England-born movie-maker passed away on Friday in Sooke, British Columbia, Canada, where he was spending the summer as he did most years. Thompson was a bantamweight boxer and a B-29 tailgunner during World War II before starting his film career in 1950 when he directed Murder Without Crime. He worked with Gregory Peck on several movies including the original Cape Fear movie as well as Anthony Quinn in The Greek Tycoon. Co-producer Pancho Kohner says, "He was a very large directorial presence. He was a gentleman and such a pleasure to work with. Everyone who worked with him once wanted to work with him again and again. Working with Lee, you were spoiled. He had the uncanny ability to play the film in his mind. He would know exactly what shot he needed so there was no wasted effort. He was a talented craftsman." Thompson is survived by his wife of 40 years, Penny, a daughter and a granddaughter.