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Peter Jackson might’ve directed one of the most iconic trilogies in cinema history, but when it comes to picking his favorite Lord of the Rings movie, he goes against the crowd, and the critics seem to agree. While The Return of the King usually steals the limelight with its Oscar haul and grand finale vibes, this movie quietly edged it out on Rotten Tomatoes. And guess what? That just so happens to be Jackson’s top pick, too.

With its darker tone, deeper character arcs, and the unforgettable Battle of Helm’s Deep, it’s no shock this middle chapter stands tallest in the director’s eyes.

Peter Jackson’s favorite Lotr movie is The Two Towers, and it has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score too Peter Jackson | Image by: Mike Walen, licensed under Cca-by-sa-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The Return of the King may have swept the Oscars, but...

Quick Links Helm's Deep Was Extremely Well Fortified Saruman's Forces Did What Wulf's Could Not The War of the Rohirrim Revealed Secrets About Helm's Deep

The following contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, now playing in theaters and available to buy or rent digitally.

Helm's Deep was the site of the most famous battle from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It was an ancient fortress built within a gorge of the White Mountains, which separated the kingdoms of Rohan and Gondor. In The Two Towers, the Rohirrim -- along with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and some Elven archers led by Haldir -- used Helm's Deep to defend themselves against Saruman the White's army of Uruk-hai. The iconic keep returned two decades later in Kenji Kamiyama's animated film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,...

The Lord of the Rings has quotable moments by the bucketload, and some will be remembered for generations. Peter Jackson's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's famous novels of the same names and will go down in history as some of the best fantasy movies in the world. While not all the movies' most quotable moments were lifted directly off the pages of Tolkien's masterpieces, Jackson's scripts had their own flair in spades. The movies provided each Lord of the Rings character with their own incredible quotes.

Jackson wrote some of the scripts himself and left the rest to Philippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, and Stephen Sinclair. This strong team still stands behind The Lord of the Rings franchise, with The War of the Rohirrim movie presenting some memorable quotes of its own. Out in December 2024, the animated Third Age Rohan movie is the first Warner Bros.

Quick Links What Is Shelob's History in Lord of the Rings? Rings of Power's Shelob Tries to Kill Isildur Rings of Power's Shelob Highlights a Big Franchise Strength Rings of Power's Shelob Could Meet Sauron

The following contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 2, "Where the Stars are Strange," which debuted Aug. 29 on Prime Video.

A major draw in many J.R.R. Tolkien stories is the creatures he put onto the pages. Whether it be trolls, eagles, or the golem known as the Balrog, they added so much to this medieval fantasy realm. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is using some of them from the source material, while also creating new ones.

A familiar face pops up as Season 2 begins: the scary spider, Shelob. While she's not as big or as old, she does come off a lot more terrifying.

Actor Bernard Hill, known for iconic roles, has passed away at 79 according to his agent Lou Coulson. Born in Manchester in 1944, Hill featured in British dramas and was praised for gritty performances. His recent role in The Responder with Martin Freeman airs today on BBC.

Actor Bernard Hill, who became known for many character roles, including King Theoden in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and as Captain Edward Smith in James Cameron's Oscar-winning Titanic, passed away on May 5, according to his agent, Lou Coulson. The actor was 79-years-old.

Hill was born in the working-class neighborhood of Blackley, Manchester, England, in 1944, and grew up as part of a Catholic miner's family, far away from the glamor of Hollywood. His journey into acting began at Manchester Polytechnic School of Drama, which was soon followed by many television roles in the mid-1970s.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers...

The significance of "The Two Towers" title in The Lord of the Rings film series remains a mystery to fans and even the author, J.R.R. Tolkien. Towers such as Orthanc and Minas Morgul play a crucial role in the narrative, holding vital objects and serving as key locations in the story. Tolkien initially intended The Lord of the Rings as one book, but due to paper shortages after WWII, he divided it into three books, leading to the title dilemma.

The Lord of the Rings is one of the greatest and most highly regarded franchises of all time, having produced six phenomenal films and a fairly enjoyable TV series set before the events of The Hobbit. Even though it has been more than two decades since the first The Lord of the Rings film was released, fans find ways to revisit the classics, as they should, given the amount of...

These days, Peter Jackson is best known for directing big budget spectacles. He took the Hobbits to Mordor, he cast Benedict Cumberbatch as a dragon, he brought us the sight of a motion-capture King Kong smacking around a bunch of dinosaurs. But when he was just getting his career started, he was making very different kinds of movies: horror comedies that were drenched in blood and pretty much every other bodily fluid you can think of. In 1992, he brought the world what may be the bloodiest film ever made: a zombie comedy he would call Braindead, but many fans know it as Dead Alive. And if you haven’t seen this one yet (you can watch it Here), it’s the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.

Peter Jackson never had any formal film school training, and not just because they didn’t have such courses in his home country of New Zealand.

Long before his involvement in a series of elf-populated, jewelry-based hiking movies, New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson won hearts as the director of gloppy, vomitous, utterly repellant midnight grindhouse fare like "Bad Taste," "Meet the Feebles," and "Braindead" (known as "Dead Alive" in North America). Jackson's early films have an excited, adolescent joie de vivre that his later digital-forward technical exercises lack, and are perfect for naughty teenagers who think that films like "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" don't go far enough. 

"Dead Alive," easily one of the goriest films ever made, is constructed like a comedy film and has a premise that wouldn't feel out of place in a Saturday morning cartoon. Lionel (Timothy Balme) lives with his controlling and guilt-trip-dispensing mother Vera (Elizabeth Moody) in 1950s Wellington. Lionel is beloved by a local shop owner named Paquita (Diana Peñalver) who believes, courtesy of tarot cards, that they...

Two decades after its release, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy remains a monumental achievement. Like "Star Wars," or "Jurassic Park" before it, Peter Jackson's trilogy adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary book was a blend of old-school cinematic techniques and new technological wizardry. The films used on-camera tricks like forced perspective and miniatures, but also state-of-the-art VFX and motion-capture technology in order to bring Middle-earth to life.

This is especially true of the fight scenes in the trilogy, which share a sense of scope with the epic movies of old like "Ben-Hur" or "Cleopatra" while still feeling modern.

While we wait for Prime Video to bring us the most expensive TV show ever with "The Rings of Power," it's time to revisit the #1 trilly and the golden standard for fantasy movie trilogies and what makes it great. There is one scene in particular which, even 20 years later,...

After success with several small-scale films, Peter Jackson in 1992 told Variety he was looking for a project “that will really push me.”

He found something that surpassed everyone’s expectations. This month marks the 20th anniversary of Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings,” which kicked off the 2001-2003 film trilogy based on the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

In 2000, Jackson told Variety “Lotr” was “the Holy Grail of filmmaking, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

In retrospect, handing this massive project to Jackson seems like a no-brainer: great material for a great filmmaker. But in fact, there were so many unknown factors that it was immediately recognized as one of film history’s greatest gambles.

“I read ‘Lord of the Rings’ first as a 17 year-old,” Jackson told Variety. “I wasn’t one of those avid fans who read it every year. Fran and I were childhood fan of the ‘Sinbad’ movies,...

The new Netflix documentary “Memories of a Murderer: The Nilsen Tapes” recounts the life and crimes of notorious Scottish serial killer and necrophile Dennis Nilsen, who murdered at least 12 young men over a five-year period.

Directed by Michael Harte ( “Don’t F–k With Cats”), the doc uses 250 hours worth of tapes recorded from Nilsen’s prison cell, allowing the self-proclaimed “murderer of the century” to tell his story in his own words.

American audiences, accustomed to tales of our homegrown serial killers, may not be as familiar with Nilsen as our friends across the pond. Consider this a primer on who he was and why his crimes continue to terrify the Brits to this day.

Nilsen had a quiet upbringing in the Scottish countryside in the 1950s and realized he was gay when he was about 8 years old, according to his cassette tapes. He also claimed in the tapes...

Earlier today we passed along the awesome news that Lord of the Rings and King Kong director Peter Jackson plans to restore his early splatter films onto 4K for an all-new box-set. That news had a horror fan like me over the moon excited. But hidden in the article over on THR, there was another super interesting bit where Jackson was asked if he'd ever be interested in returning to the world of gore films, to which he responded:

"Oh, I'm very happy to be disgusting again if the right project comes along. It would be interesting to see how disgusting Fran [Walsh] and I could be in our older age compared to our younger years because we've learned a few things since then. We know a little bit more about the world than we did then, so maybe our levels of disgusting could go into whole new places!"

To reiterate...

Special Mention: Un chien andalou

Directed by Luis Buñuel

Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel

France, 1929

Genre: Experimental Short

The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece. Buñuel famously said that he and Dalí wrote the film by telling one another their dreams. The film went on to influence the horror genre immensely. After all, even as manipulative as the “dream” device is, it’s still a proven way to jolt an audience. Just ask Wes Craven, who understood this bit of cinematic psychology when he dreamt of the central force behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film intended to be an exploration of surreal horror. David Lynch is contemporary cinema’s most devoted student of Un chien andalou – the severed ear at...

With the release of The Dark Knight Rises and the completion of the Dark Knight Trilogy it had me thinking of where it falls when compared to other classic trilogies. Trilogies used to be reserved for a select few, but now everything has a trilogy. I mean Step Up had a trilogy…until they made another movie and now it’s a quadrilogy. To be fair there is a lot of plot in that series so four movies were absolutely necessary. In fact I’m quite surprised Step Up Revolutions wasn’t split up into two parts. That’s not to say that there aren’t any great ones out there, because there are quite a few and I hope to point out some of those today. I created a list of what I think are the best trilogies ever made. I considered a few things when making this list.

One of the more interesting rumors to emerge in recent times was talk of the possibility of "Star Trek" making a return to television. While Paramount owns the films, CBS owns the TV rights and the small screen is where 'Trek' always was at home.

In an interview with Screenrant regarding his new TV show "Almost Human," J.J. Abrams sadly shoots down the rumor. He says:

"I have been hearing for as long as I can remember that CBS, who has the rights to the series, has just been saying they’re not interested. That’s the word I’ve been told."

Meanwhile, Abrams dismissive comments regarding the highly panned "Star Trek" video game from earlier this year has come under fire.

Digital Extremes creative director Stephen Sinclair recently sat down with IGN to talk the upcoming game "Warframe" and revealed he was left a big "shaken" by Abrams' comments about the game.

Every year, we here at Sound On Sight celebrate the month of October with 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles. I’ve also decided to publish each post backwards this time for one reason: the new additions appear lower on my list, whereas my top 50 haven’t changed much, except for maybe in ranking. Enjoy!

****

Special Mention:

Shock Corridor

Written and directed by Samuel Fuller

USA, 1963

Shock Corridor stars Peter Breck as Johnny Barrett, an ambitious reporter who wants to expose the killer at the local insane asylum. To solve the case, he must pretend to be insane so they have him committed. Once in the asylum,...

Throughout the month of October, Editor-in-Chief and resident Horror expert Ricky D, will be posting a list of his favorite Horror films of all time. The list will be posted in six parts. Click here to see every entry.

As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. It was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried and eventually gave up.

****

Special Mention: Gremlins

Directed by Joe Dante

Written by Chris Columbus

1984, USA

Gremlins gets a special mention because I’ve always considered it more of a comedy and a wholesome Christmas flick than an actual horror film. This tribute the 1950s matinee genre stands the test of time from a time when parents would take their children to family films that pushed the boundaries of the MPAA. Joe Dante is...

A Priest, A Rabbi and Your Mom Walk Into a Movie Theatre…

You might think that your Mom disapproves of all horror films on principle. At least that’s the stereotype: the wagging finger; the warning that horror films cause nightmares. But the truth is that this is merely a bit of parental judo, reverse psychology designed to push us to watching horror films, because nothing warns us and upholds the moral order like a horror film.

What are the elements of a horror film after all? There is a monster; there is a sense of danger (as critic Joe Bob Briggs puts it “Anyone can die at any time”); the deaths are usually gruesome; and there is usually a moral. If you think about it, fairy tales and horror films are not that far apart – they are even closer to one another in the fairy tales original Grimm-er forms,...

Article by Dan Clark

With the release of The Dark Knight Rises and the completion of the Dark Knight Trilogy it had me thinking of where it falls when compared to other classic trilogies. Trilogies used to be reserved for a select few, but now everything has a trilogy. I mean Step Up had a trilogy…until they made another movie and now it’s a quadrilogy. To be fair there is a lot of plot in that series so four movies were absolutely necessary. In fact I’m quite surprised Step Up Revolutions wasn’t split up into two parts. That’s not to say that there aren’t any great ones out there, because there are quite a few and I hope to point out some of those today. I created a list of what I think are the best trilogies ever made. I considered a few things when making this list.

Chicago – The first words we hear are those of the beguiling elf Galadriel, whose ethereal voice haunts an empty screen while declaring, “The world is changed.” And so it had in December 2001, when Americans were reeling from 9/11, and more eager than ever to escape into a fantasy where moral certainty was never in doubt, and pure-hearted heroes clung to the belief that there was still good in the world, and it was worth fighting for.

It’s often difficult to view Peter Jackson’s nearly decade-old adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel without becoming utterly overwhelmed by the sheer scope and magnitude of his achievement. It is not a trilogy in the traditional sense, but a towering epic that truly works as one complete film, and represents one of the greatest feats of sustained filmmaking in modern movie history. Though Tolkien hated the idea of publishers splitting his novel into three books,...

Titirangi Theatre Presents Kotuku- The Bellbird - by Stephen Sinclair. This is New Zealand Theatre at it's most exciting and challenging. Its themes are universal, but ultimately it is a story of Aotearoa and the weaving of our indigenous Maori culture with the first European settlers. At the play's heart - a beautiful tale of forbidden romance, and a story that deserves to be told.