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This essay was occasioned by Issue 7 of Notebook magazine as part of a broader exploration of the unfilmable. The magazine is available via direct subscription or in select stores around the world.Poster for Item One.When the selection for the 1956 Cannes Film Festival was announced, among names like Akira Kurosawa, Vittorio De Sica, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock, and Michel Cacoyannis appeared Boyan Danovski, whose festival debut, Item One, was the first Bulgarian film to be shot in color. Set in the capital, Sofia, the story revolves around young Veska, who sneaks out to play with the neighborhood kids but decides to take a long walk through the city instead. While her startled mother mobilizes everyone to look for the missing child, Veska’s adventure transforms into a guided tour of the young socialist society. Her stroll is marked by poetic encounters with overused ideologemes: a chimney sweep,...

"Go in blind." That's the warning that's accompanied the two incredible horror movies that have come from director Zach Cregger. After giving us the nightmarish Airbnb-based tale "Barbarian," Cregger's latest, "Weapons" sees a town consumed with dread after an entire classroom of children mysteriously disappear into the night at 2:17am. In both finales of these now critically-acclaimed movies, audiences have been left flabbergasted after being taken down holes of horror (quite literally in "Barbarian's" case), clueless over what was waiting at the end of them. It's made Cregger a refreshing and exciting voice in the genre, and one that seems to be reverberating with the same level of tension, chills, and rug-pulling as one director in particular.

In 1999, M. Night Shyamalan turned up on the scene with "The Sixth Sense," which delivered one of the greatest twists in cinema history. His booming success saw him shoot to...

By the late 1970s, Mel Brooks was a worldwide star noted for his hilarious comedy classics. He had already won an Oscar for writing "The Producers" and had released both "Young Frankenstein" and "Blazing Saddles" in the same year. After that, he moved on to the ambitious 1976 film "Silent Movie," an actual silent movie, before working on "High Anxiety," a surgically pointed spoof of Alfred Hitchcock's work. Both of those films earned well over $30 million at the box office against a $4 million production budget. Brooks was riding high.

While Brooks was rolling in dough as a Hollywood hotshot, an up-and-coming art student from Missoula, Montana was turning heads at the American Film Institute with his audacious, surreal, and nightmarish films and sculptures. He had already made a few notable shorts, and he graduated with a grant, hoping to make his first feature film. For several years, this ambitious young...

This article contains spoilers for "Weapons."

Horror subgenres tend to go through periods of waxing and waning popularity. For example, slasher movies exploded in the early 1980s, died out a bit, came back strong in the late '90s, and so on. One of the more intriguing (and perhaps undersung) horror subgenres is that of the psycho-biddy film, also known as Hagsploitation. As with most all horror cinema subgenres, the trend wasn't created from whole cloth, but instead grew out of elements that had already been present in pop culture.

While it might appear that Hagsploitation is solely about a fear of (or at least an anxiety about) aging — and thus a fear of our own mortality — that's not quite accurate. In general, the psycho-biddy film, as that name suggests, puts an emphasis on elderly women rather than men. The fear that's exploited isn't one of aging or decrepitude, but...

Jodie Foster's psychological thriller is a Netflix streaming hit 20 years after release, when it grossed $223 million at the worldwide box office.

Foster won an Oscar for the 1988 legal drama The Accused, then won a second for 1991’s psychological horror thriller Silence of the Lambs. The star followed up those twin triumphs by spending the 1990s taking multiple different genres for a spin.

There was the costume drama Sommersby, teaming Foster with Richard Gere. She did Western-comedy alongside Mel Gibson in Maverick, then played a scientist in the sci-fi drama Contact. She wound up the decade in another costume film, playing one of the two title characters in Anna and the King of Siam.

Foster’s 1990s genre tour interestingly saw her avoiding thrillers, perhaps because she was hesitant to play another character similar to Lambs’ Clarice Starling. But her thriller-aversion went away in 2002, when she took the lead in David Fincher’s Panic Room,...

Though Louis B. Mayer created the Academy Awards as a union-busting enterprise and a bid for further studio control, they're now considered the highest honors in Hollywood. Studios put millions into Oscars campaigns for their films and stars, and Oscars commentary has become an industry in and of itself. In the Internet age, the Academy Awards now generate iconic viral moments like the memorable "La La Land" and "Moonlight" mix-up in 2017.

Even as we recognize their insignificance, it's difficult not to get invested in the outcome of the Oscars. However, as Oscar voters are fallible people, they don't always get it right. Remember when "Green Book" inexplicably won Best Picture in 2017, mirroring the "Driving Miss Daisy" controversy in 1990? The history of the Academy Awards is filled with instances of voters having very bad taste and having very good taste -- though, of course, taste is subjective.

Indeed, some Oscar winners are best left gathering dust.

Hollywood is currently in love with legacy sequels that come decades after the original. What’s up with that?

We already knew Hollywood loved its sequels. Just look at how many Iron Mans, Nightmare On Elms Streets and Godzillas there are. We’re spoilt for choice when it comes to our favourite characters.

Especially now. Hollywood has fallen in love with a different kind of sequel; the legacy sequel or the – ready for this? – legasequel. These sequels come sometimes 20 or 30 years after their predecessor and try to recreate the magic all over again. Some succeed better than others. They’re designed to reboot a franchise as much as continue it, bringing it to the promised land of a new audience.

It’s hard to say which film specifically started the trend, but it’s certainly not a new phenomenon. Psycho got its sequel in the 80s, over 20 years after Alfred Hitchcock...

This article contains spoilers for "Wednesday" season 2.

To the kooky, ooky, and spooky Addams family, a grisly demise sounds like their idea of a good time. Perhaps that's why "Wednesday," the Netflix series which is this era's preeminent "Addams Family" show, isn't stingy with bumping its characters off. In the same way that anyone in the show can be a suspect, given all the horror creature abilities and bad blood between Outcasts and Normies, anyone could become a victim, too. The first season saw a number of people killed at the hands of the monstrous Hyde lurking within Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan). Although Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) eventually dropped her crush on the boy and put a stop to his rampage, Tyler is still lurking in the bowels of Willow Hill sanitarium in Jericho, Vermont during the show's second season.

Tyler does indeed get up to his old murderous tricks...

A celebrity biopic about Jimmy Stewart has found its lead star. While this has been especially true for those in the music industry, celebrity biopics have become increasingly popular in recent years. Last year boasted the Bob Dylan biopic film A Complete Unknown, and this year will have a Bruce Springsteen biopic.

As for Stewart, he was a beloved actor who lived from 1908 to 1997. He is best known for playing George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, but also starred in Alfred Hitchcock classics such as Vertigo. He was nominated for several Oscars, eventually winning Best Actor for his role in A Philadelphia Story.

As per Variety, a Stewart biopic titled Jimmy is now in the works, and it has found its main star. Kj Apa will take on the role of the iconic actor. The star spoke highly of his involvement in the film, saying that he "feel[s] so...

A James Stewart biopic is officially in the works, and it has cast one of the main actors from Riverdale to play the iconic actor. Directed by Aaron Burns, Jimmy will follow Stewart’s early rise in Hollywood, including winning an Academy Award for The Philadelphia Story, before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a combat pilot in World War II and then returning home to star in Frank Capra's iconic 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Riverdale star Kj Apa has signed on to play James Stewart in the biopic, per Variety. The rest of the cast includes Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) as MGM's studio head Louis B. Mayer; Jen Lilley (Days of Our Lives) as Stewart’s wife Gloria, Max Casella (Boardwalk Empire) as Frank Capra; Sarah Drew (Grey's Anatomy) as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper; and Julian Works (9-1-1: Lonestar) as Second Lieutenant Martinez.

Kj Apa, Riverdale's Archie Andrews, is set to play an American icon of a different kind. He's signed to play the lead in Jimmy, a new biopic of actor James Stewart. Stewart was one of the biggest stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and portraying him is a daunting task that Apa feels capable of. The film is set to begin production in Ireland in September, and is aiming for a theatrical release in September 2026.

Variety reports that the film will focus on Stewart's career in the 1930s and 40s, which was interrupted by World War II: Stewart became the first major American movie star to sign up for military service, and flew a number of missions in the European theater of war. The film will also feature Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) as MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer, Max Casella (Tulsa King) as It's a Wonderful Life director Frank Capra,...

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If you're a film buff, you can almost certainly cite the first movie you saw in a theater. Mine was "Star Wars." I was three years old, and screamed in terror when the lights dimmed. I was enchanted for a whole ten minutes or so before conking out -- though I did rouse for the trench run. I finally watched "Star Wars" in its entirety during its 1978 rerelease, and that experience of, to my four-year-old mind, having watched a movie that was shot in space is an exhilaration I've been chasing for the last 47 years.

I was fortunate that my introduction to the transporting magic of the movies came via the most pivotal piece of cinema, commercially and artistically, since "Gone with the Wind." Meanwhile, there's some kid out there whose first trip to the theater was to see Tim Allen in "Jungle 2 Jungle.

Lindsay Lohan began her career as a child actor on the television opera, Another World, and later got her breakthrough role in The Parent Trap in 1998. After a few television films, Lohan got casting calls in bigger productions. However, she claimed that she was pigeonholed into certain roles in her teen years.

In her recent interview with The Times U.K., Lohan shared that it was difficult for her to star in a diverse range of roles because of her pigeonholed career. In the 2000s, she was known for her iconic performances in comedies like Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. The cult movies turned her into a teen icon, but Lohan apparently wasn’t happy with the result.

She told the outlet that she took a brief hiatus from her career after she started “losing that feeling of excitement about doing a film.” She shared that she was excited to...

All The Film References In James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Series! ( Photo Credit – Facebook )

Full of pop culture references, including iconic movies, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy series is a fan-favorite in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While Peter Quill’s references are concentrated in 1980s American culture, there are quite a few others scattered around.

Here are the eight classic movies alluded to in the famed James Gunn-directed series (in no particular order).

1. The Maltese Falcon (1941) Streaming On – Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ Rt Score – 99% Director – John Juston

The film noir follows Pi Sam Spade, who, while investigating the murder of his partner, encounters a statue, The Maltese Falcon. In the first movie of the MCU trilogy, Peter Quill describes the ‘Orb’ as having a ‘Maltese Falcon sort of vibe.’

2. North By Northwest (1959) Streaming On – Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ Rt Score – 97% Director – Alfred Hitchcock

A classic spy thriller,...

Slashers aren’t my personal favorite sub-genre—they’re high up there—but I do consider them to be perhaps the most significant of the horror family for one particular reason…at one point or another, just about every teenager encounters them. Everything from Halloween or A Nightmare on Elm Street to more recent fare such as the Fear Street trilogy, these films about teens confronting sex, drugs and death, they speak to a pivotal moment in our lives that allows them to resonate during a crucial age. Of course, it helps that they also tend to be pretty damn fun.

Every generation has that handful of slasher films that were important to them. I grew up in the 90s, so the big one for me was Scream, Wes Craven’s brilliant meta movie that managed to be scary while poking fun at the formulaic tropes that had developed over the years.

It was Alfred Hitchcock's last movie, and this is your last chance to stream it on Netflix. Family Plot, Hitchcock's final stint in the director's chair, is leaving Netflix at the end of July. The suspense thriller with a pseudo-supernatural twist stars Bruce Dern and Karen Black. An adaptation of Victor Canning's 1972 novel The Rainbird Pattern, Family Plot reunited Hitchcock with screenwriter Ernest Lehman, who had previously penned North by Northwest for the director. The two clashed over the screenplay: Lehman wanted a darker film, while Hitchcock preferred it to be more comedic.

It was also the only time that Hitchcock worked with another Hollywood legend: John Williams composed the score for the film. Hitchcock encouraged the composer to take a light touch with the score, telling him, "Mr. Williams, murder can be fun." While the film is not considered to be one of Hitchcock's masterpieces, critical...

Jimmy Stewartis known for his feel-good films like It's a Wonderful Life and his more suspenseful work with Alfred Hitchcock in Rear Window. The latter iconic thriller is about to leave Netflix, and you can still stream it today before it is gone, just like Jeff's ability to stop his neighbor's alleged crimes. The film is as contained as it can be with Jeff (Stewart) just watching everything from a window because he is a wheelchair user after an accident. But as a news photographer, he finds himself watching his neighbors as his new subjects.

While he is observing them with binoculars from his apartment, he believes that he has seen a murder taking place across the way from him. He doesn't have his camera and doesn't have proof that he saw what he believes, and it weighs on him and consumes him, forcing him to try to solve this...

If there’s one surefire thing when it comes to genre filmmaking, it’s serial killers. For better or worse, the public remains uniquely fascinated with the most heinous, depraved minds around. Since the days of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, serial killers have featured prominently in film and television, and I don’t anticipate that ever really slowing down. There are some real gems, especially recently. Woman of the Hour was one of last year’s best, and I recently spotlighted the fictional (and deeply upsetting) serial killer at the center of Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built.

Recently, there’s been renewed interest in one serial killer in particular—Fred West. West, alongside his wife, Rose West, were English serial killers who committed an estimated 12 murders between 1967 and 1987. Upon their arrest, Fred West was charged with 11 counts, and Rose with eight. They were heinous, horrifying crimes,...

The 1940s represent the absolute pinnacle of suspense cinema. This was a decade shaped by global conflict and societal anxiety, conditions that created the perfect storm for stories of paranoia, betrayal, and psychological torment. From this crucible of uncertainty emerged the shadowy world of film noir, the sophisticated psychological thriller, and the modern spy film.

This definitive ranking showcases the ten greatest thrillers of the decade, films that entertained audiences and rewrote the rules of suspense cinema. Each entry on this list combines critical acclaim, box office success, and lasting cultural impact, representing the very best of what made 1940s thriller movies so enduringly powerful.

10. The Stranger (1946)

Director: Orson Welles

Stars: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young

Orson Welles’s brutally effective post-war thriller operates on a premise both simple and terrifying: one of the architects of the Final Solution has escaped justice and now lives as a beloved...

Immediately after landing on Netflix, the 2005 thriller Flightplan has jumped up the viewership charts. The movie was directed by Robert Schwentke and headlined by Jodie Foster; it debuted only a few years after Foster led David Fincher's Panic Room to critical and commercial success. Flightplan was an even bigger hit, grossing $223 million at the global box office against a reported budget of $55 million. But it earned poor reviews, and is currently sitting at a 37% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. According to FlixPatrol, Flightplan was the fourth-biggest movie on Netflix worldwide on July 29. The leader board was topped by the newly released Happy Gilmore 2.

Also starring Sean Beanand Peter Sarsgaard, Flightplan has been described as a remake of one of Alfred Hitchcock's earliest classics, The Lady Vanishes. Released in 1938, before Hitchcock moved to Hollywood, The Lady Vanishes follows a young woman who tries to solve the...

Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke are up there with Martin Scorsese and De Niro, even Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart, as one of cinema’s iconic perennial pairings. From the “Before” films and “Waking Life” to “Boyhood” (which earned Hawke an Oscar nomination) and even the underseen motel-room-only Dv thriller “Tape,” they’re operating on an alchemy rare for onscreen director-actor collaborators.

Their latest project together is “Blue Moon,” which may distract at first for the bald cap Hawke wears to play desperate, boozing songwriter Lorenz Hart. But underneath that feat of movie makeup magic is one of Hawke’s most wistful, poignant performances, here as the great American lyricist who was one half of Rodgers and Hart before a creative split.

“Blue Moon” is set over the course of one night, in the iconic New York bar Sardi’s, at the after-party for the 1943 premiere of Richard Rodgers and...

It’s about time that M. Night Shyamalan is hailed as one of cinema’s most influential voices, and now, thanks to Film at Lincoln Center, the iconic auteur’s most classic films will be presented in conversation with the works of Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Rob Reiner, Jordan Peele, Luis Buñuel, Sidney Lumet, and more.

IndieWire can announce that double feature festival “Night at the Movies: An M. Night Shyamalan Retrospective” will take place at Film at Lincoln Center from August 22 to September 4. The two-week series will celebrate 12 Shyamalan features presented in 2-for-1 double bills with films of his own choosing. The pairings span cult horror to studio thrillers, with many films screened on 35mm. Shyamalan will be in person for Q&As following select screenings.

“For many in my generation, ‘The Sixth Sense’ wasn’t just our introduction to the name M. Night Shyamalan, it was...

For some reason, it’s always fascinating to hear which films famous musicians loved. And usually they make sense, like Kurt Cobain digging Eraserhead and Paris, Texas, or Kirk Hammett’s passion for horror. But sometimes you get a truly out there match-up, and with the recent death of Beach Boys singer/songwriter Brian Wilson, we wondered what films he was most drawn to… and god only knows why he picked this one.

You might have thought that Brian Wilson fit the cliche and really dug those cheesy Beach Party movies from the ‘60s or even the hot rod flicks with rebellious teens racing in the street. But no, instead the movie that made him smile the most was a bonafide Oscar nominee: Norbit! In an archival interview with the Asbury Park Press (via Spin), Brian Wilson was asked if he had seen any movies lately, to which he replied,...

Lindsay Lohan is returning to the big screen after a long break with the upcoming Freaky Friday sequel, Freakier Friday. But before fans catch up with Anna and Tess 22 years later, Lohan had already mastered the art of swapping lives in several iconic movies, including Freaky Friday, The Parent Trap, and Just My Luck.

In The Parent Trap (1998), she pulled double duty as Annie and Hallie, twin sisters who switch places to reunite their divorced parents. In Freaky Friday (2003), she portrayed Anna, a rebellious teen who wakes up in her mother’s body. And in Just My Luck (2006), she starred as Ashley. Her perfect life unravels after she unknowingly swaps good fortune with a total stranger.

All three movies showcased Lohan’s knack for playing dual identities. She is bringing back the traits in the 2003 Disney classic sequel, along with Jamie Lee Curtis. Freakier Friday movie is ready to hit...

Ryan Murphy’s true crime-based Netflix series “Monster” season four will put the spotlight on the infamous Lizzie Borden, and Ella Beatty (“Feud: Capote vs. The Swans”) has been set to play the axe-wielding murderess.

Deadline reports that Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps are finalizing deals to join Beatty on the upcoming season.

Beatty will portray Lizzie Borden, with Hall said to be portraying Lizzie’s stepmother and Krieps playing a housemaid. The new season will tell the story of Lizzie Borden, who was tried and acquitted of the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts.

The infamous case has inspired no shortage of adaptations, either. Lizzie Borden has been the subject of multiple movies and television shows over the years, including a new indie horror movie titled The Lizzie Borden Game, just released last week, and Christina Ricci played Borden in Lifetime’s The Lizzie Borden Chronicles...

“Monster” found its Lizzie Borden for Season 4. The Netflix anthology series cast Ella Beatty in the lead role for the next installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s hit true crime saga, TheWrap has learned.

The series also cast Rebecca Hall to play Lizzie’s stepmother Abby, and Vicky Krieps will play Bridget Sullivan, a maid in the Borden home. The news comes as Netflix prepares to debut Season 3 later this year, which will star Charlie Hunnam as serial killer Ed Gein.

The casting marks the return for all three actresses into the Murphy universe. Beatty, whose parents are Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, previously appeared in a recurring role on “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans” on FX. Hall is in the cast of Murphy’s upcoming FX drama “The Beauty” and Krieps is set to star in “Monster” Season 3.

Borden’s story has been depicted across multiple TV and film adaptations,...

In a very subtle but meaningful way, Lindsay Lohan and Jaime Lee Curtis’s 2003 movie Freaky Friday added a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 cult classic Psycho. According to IMDb, the Disney movie has been hiding this unexpected tribute to the horror masterpiece for over 22 years.

Turns out, Freaky Friday added a similar character name from Alfred Hitchcock‘s movie. But then, here’s the twist—even though the hidden detail seems to point toward the legendary director and his horror flick, it’s not really about the man behind the camera. Instead, it’s a quiet, touching salute to the woman in front of it.

Meanwhile, Freaky Friday stars Lindsay Lohan as Anna, a rebellious teenager, and Jamie Lee Curtis as Tess, her overworked mother. After a heated argument and a mysterious fortune cookie incident at a Chinese restaurant, the two magically switch bodies. Chaos follows—from Tess having...

James Gunn and DC Studios believed they were ushering in the "Summer of Superman," but then the Marvel Cinematic Universe still hadn’t played its best hand in 2025. True, The Fantastic Four: First Steps initially got the best of the David Corenswet-led Superman movie when the latest entry in the MCU hit theaters en route to making $24.4 million during its Thursday night previews. And, yes, that figure was slightly better than the $22.5 million Superman accumulated during its own early screenings. However, that tiny victory was short-lived because The Fantastic Four surprisingly underperformed compared to the new Man of Steel’s opening-weekend debut of $125 million. After all the estimates rolled in, it turned out that the new F4 brought home a not-so-Galactus-sized $118 million domestically at the box office, and that is a reason for die-hard Superman fans to celebrate. However, there’s no way to declare which of the two...

Even if you don’t know who Joseph Kahn is, you’ve seen one of his music videos.

Since getting into the business in the early 1990s, he has directed nearly 200 videos for some of the industry’s biggest stars – everyone from Willie Nelson to Backstreet Boys to U2 to Taylor Swift. Eminem’s “Without Me” clip? That was Kahn. Janet Jackson’s “Doesn’t Really Matter?” Also Kahn. Britney Spears’ “Womanizer?” Well, you get the picture.

Typically, a director as talented and prolific as Kahn would transition to an equally lucrative career in feature films, just as countless have done before him – people like Michael Bay, David Fincher, Spike Jonze and Antoine Fuqua.

But Kahn’s output as a feature director has been frustratingly few and far between. His fourth film in 20 years, “Ick,” oozes into 800 theaters nationwide on July 27, 28 and 29, as part of a Fathom Events special presentation.

Pedro Pascal might be best known for The Last of Us and The Mandalorian, but when it comes to scary movies, he’s still very much a kid of the ’80s. In an interview with Sky, the actor shared some of his all-time favorite horror films, and his list shows he’s got a real love for the classics, the kind that still make you want to hide behind the couch.

When he was little, Pascal says he used to act out scenes from Poltergeist, the 1982 horror hit about a haunted house.

His love for creepy movies started early and never really went away. He didn’t include A Nightmare on Elm Street in his top picks, but several other major horror titles made the cut.

One that stands out for him is An American Werewolf in London. The 1981 film mixed horror and comedy with groundbreaking special effects.

Directed by...

Pedro Pascal has always loved horror movies. Growing up in the 1980s, he was completely hooked. In fact, he says he used to act out scenes from Poltergeist as a kid. When asked by Sky to list his all-time favorite films, many of them turned out to be horror classics.

One of the movies he picked is An American Werewolf in London. Released in 1981, it became famous for its shocking special effects and clever mix of horror and comedy. Pedro remembers watching it when he was young, and it left a mark.

“It’s amazing. We got cable TV when I was very young. It scared me, and I thought it was hilarious. And you look at it now, and it really holds up. It has special effects that changed cinema, and has been built on since then,” he said.

Another horror film Pedro swears by is The Shining. Stanley Kubrick...

Timothée Chalamet has been on a historic run of late. The actor recently fronted a string of hit films that have propelled him to true movie star status, to the point that people will seemingly buy tickets to a film simply because it has the Chalamet factor. Sure, not everything the young actor has done has been successful. Some of the worst Chalamet movies include 2015's "Love the Coopers" and 2019's "A Rainy Day in New York," the latter arriving two years after Chalamet's breakthrough performance in the 2017 love story worth falling head over heels for, "Call Me By Your Name." But the actor's recent run of films have all performed extremely well.

After helping "Dune: Part Two" cross box office milestones with his performance as Paul Atreides, Chalamet played Bob Dylan in the Oscar-nominated biopic "A Complete Unknown," which garnered critical praise and saw the actor take on the...

Ryan Murphy is ready to up the ante with Season 3 of Monsterand has a warning for those out there with weak stomachs — maybe this isn’t the show for you. In a recent interview on Gavin Newsom’s podcast, This is Gavin Newsom, the series creator told the California governor that the upcoming installment, which is set to see Charlie Hunnam portray serial killer Ed Gein, “is not for the squeamish.” That warning is certainly saying something considering the first season, during which Evan Peters appeared as the notorious Jeffrey Dahmer, not only included the killer’s atrocious crimes, but also pointed to the possibility that he may have given his neighbors food made from human body parts.

For those who may not be familiar with Gein’s story, the man who would become known as “The Butcher of Plainfield” was a Wisconsin native who murdered at least two women in the 1950s.

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It always seems like Netflix has an unending library of great movies and TV shows, but at the same time, it is also quite difficult to figure out what you actually want to watch. So, we thought why not let Netflix make it easy for you, as it removes movies and TV shows from its library every month, and we decided to pick the best of the best films and TV shows you should watch before you can’t anymore and also just a reminder 12 great AMC shows are also leaving Netflix next month.

Dawn of the Dead (August 1) Credit – Universal Pictures

Dawn of the Dead is an action horror film directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay by James Gunn. Based on the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero, the 2004 film is set in...

It's been almost one year since Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story premiered on Netflix as the second season of Ryan Murphy's hit true crime anthology series Monster. Finally, we have a better idea of when to look out for season 3 later this fall on Netflix!

While the second season vies for 11 Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and acting nods for Cooper Koch, Javier Bardem, and Chloë Sevigny in September, we won't be waiting much longer for the next installment. Ryan Murphy, co-creator and co-showrunner, has officially shared when Monster season 3 will premiere.

Ryan Murphy reveals Monster season 3 release month on Netflix

Speaking with California Governor Gavin Newsom on his This is Gavin Newsom podcast, Murphy shared that Monster season 3 will release on Netflix in October 2025. The upcoming season, which is rumored to be titled Monster: The Original Monster, will star Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein,...

Is Mel Brooks a great filmmaker?

Well, he’s directed 11 movies, some of which are considered to be all-time comedy classics — yet he generally doesn’t get much praise for his directorial skill.

People clearly love Brooks, but he tends to be recognized for his accomplishments as a writer and performer more than as the auteur who delivered the fartiest scene in cinema history.

This may not be entirely fair. In addition to the fact that directing comedy is its own unique skillset, Brooks did show off some more obvious moments of filmic grandeur over the course of his career. Part of what made Blazing Saddles work was the fact that so much of it had the look and feel of a genuine Hollywood Western.

And Young Frankenstein similarly went out of its way to evoke the style of classic Universal monster movies, complete with authentic props and black-and-white cinematography that Brooks insisted on using,...

Billy Bob Thornton might be starring in the latest in a long line of successful shows in the Taylor Sheridan-verse with "Landman," but like every actor, his filmography has its share of duds. The star, who propelled himself to stardom by writing, directing, and starring in the 1996 drama "Sling Blade," wasn't always able to match the quality of that breakthrough performance, as evidenced by his Rotten Tomatoes page.

The site that claims there are only two perfect Alfred Hitchcock movies might not be the most reliable source, but it gives us an overall sense of how Thornton's films have been received, and there are plenty of missteps here, from the Western flop "South of Heaven, West of Hell" and its 14% critic score to the comedy-drama "Waking Up in Reno," which earned just 8% and which Todd McCarthy of Variety called "a hillbilly romantic comedy in which the hillbillies show up...

Ever wondered what life would be like without love?

Love is beautiful, yet it remains one of the most complex and delicate emotions we ever experience. Krzysztof Kieslowski, the renowned Polish director, possessed a rare gift for allowing these subtle emotions to unfold quietly on screen. “A Short Film About Love” stands out as one such understated yet powerful masterpiece from his extraordinary body of work. Though voyeurism is often deployed in cinema as a glamorous or noir-flavored invitation into mystery, Kieslowski employs it here with an unusually innocent motif: the gaze of a young man quietly observing his object of affection.

“Voyeurism” as a cinematic device dates back at least to Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom” (1960). Of course, the clearest early landmark on the topic is Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lodger” (1927). Furthermore, while “The Lodger” and “Peeping Tom” fixate on psychological horror, Kieslowski’s camera lingers in half-lit apartments not to terrify,...

If you want to understand how a filmmaker like Bong Joon Ho became a master of juggling such wildly disparate tones in the same movie (and often in the same scene), a good place to start would be his list of the 10 greatest films of all time for the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound poll. There, you'll find Kim Ki-young's 1960 horror film "The Handmaiden" comfortably rubbing shoulders with Hou Hsiao-hsien's post-World War II tragedy "A City of Sadness." There's some magic realism in there as well (Alice Rohrwacher's "Happy as Lazzaro") and a trio of serial killer-ish films, but you've also got Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" and Luchino Visconti's epic family drama "Rocco and His Brothers." That horror is so pronounced here shouldn't come as a surprise for a director who's made three movies that fit into that genre, but Hou's film is an odd choice given its under-statedness.

Nonlinear storytelling wasn’t invented by Christopher Nolan; it’s a tool that’s as old as the medium of literature and motion pictures itself. Among the earliest examples are apparently Homer’s Iliad, Vyasa’s Mahabharata, and several stories in The Arabian Nights. When it comes to cinema, Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr., Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane can be credited for both perfecting this gimmick and making it palatable to the general public. As for television, shows like True Detective (the first season), Pachinko, Sharp Objects, Dark, and The Haunting of Hill House are the pinnacle of nonlinear narratives, at least for me, primarily because the timeline jumps gave the themes a lot of depth and fleshed out the characters in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if it was given to us straight. However, much like anything that’s popular, talentless...

The definition of "cinematography" has gotten looser in recent years. Film fans love to praise the way a movie looks -- especially lately, when movies often don't look that great! -- but in certain corners of online film spaces, "great cinematography" has started to mean "you can take a screencap and it'll look cool as a desktop wallpaper." The popular X account One Perfect Shot, for example, even spawned a TV series about cinematography, but for most of its existence, it didn't actually post shots; it posted frames. A "shot" is a length of film between cuts, often involving movement and change. "Cinematography," then, is more than just a succession of aesthetically pleasing frames. It involves all of the decisions that go into how an image is actually captured -- lighting, contrast, movement, and more.

The best directors and cinematographers maintain meticulous control over their images. That becomes especially important in horror films; in here,...

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, and 65 years after its initial release, it continues to scare audiences.

“This is the first slasher,” said director Joseph Kahn, one of the panelists for the screening. “This is a straight up, a knife doesn’t penetrate, but it’s slashing on the screen in a way that you’ve never seen before.”

Kahn was speaking at the Variety 120 Screening Series presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay that celebrates Variety‘s 120th anniversary by showing iconic films such as “All About Eve” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He was joined by filmmaker and director Julie Pacino, who described Hitchcock’s directing as “scary as fuck.”

The film stars Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, who checks into the Bates Motel after stealing $40,000 from her office. Anthony Perkins stars as Norman Bates,...

"You know him?" Film Movement has revealed an the trailer for an indie thriller titled Stranger Eyes, from Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua. This first premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival last fall, and it also played at the New York & London Film Festivals. After the disappearance of his baby daughter, Darren receives mysterious DVDs containing videos of his private life and most intimate moments. When he finds the mysterious voyeur, Darren turns the gaze around and confronts his own image in the other. "The truth of his identity is more complicated than it seems." Featuring legendary Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng. Referencing other surveillance thrillers like Michael Haneke's Cache and Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua's latest film is a timely update to the genre as a meditation on voyeurism in the digital age and the contradictory desires around being seen. Stranger Eyes stars Wu Chien-ho,...

Joe Eszterhas, the legendary screenwriter of “Basic Instinct,” the 1992 thriller that defined femme serial killers in film and made an icon of Sharon Stone, has closed a $4 million deal to write a reboot for Scott Stuber’s United Artists banner and Amazon MGM Studios, TheWrap has exclusively learned.

The deal is the biggest spec script sale of the year so far, and commits Amazon to a $2 million payout against a potential $4 million to Eszterhas if the movie is made.

“To those who question what an 80-year-old man is doing writing a sexy, erotic thriller: the rumors of my cinematic impotence are exaggerated and ageist,” Esztherhas said in a statement to TheWrap. “I call my writing partner the Twisted Little Man and he lives somewhere deep inside me. He was born 29 and he will die 29 and he tells me he is ‘sky high up’ to write this piece and provide viewers...

Siew Hua Yeo is looking at the surveillance thriller genre through a new lens. The writer/director has been compared to Michael Haneke and Alfred Hitchcock with his latest feature, “Stranger Eyes.” The film debuted at Venice 2024, where it was the first Singaporean film ever to compete for the Golden Lion.

The synopsis reads: “After enduring months of a fruitless police investigation into the disappearance of their daughter, a young, estranged couple, Junyang (Wu Chien-Ho) and Peiying (Anicca Panna), realize they are being filmed surreptitiously when they begin receiving mysterious packages at their door containing DVDs with footage of their daily lives. The moments captured are unnerving not only for the violation of their privacy, but for what is exposed about Junyang and Peiying’s relationship on a most intimate level. Suspecting their voyeur is responsible for taking their daughter, the couple embark on a desperate mission to seek him out,...

When "Hereditary" was released, it was like a desperately-needed breath of fresh air for horror fans -- which was, of course, followed by a swerve, a telephone pole, and a headful of ants. Ari Aster certainly put his stamp on the genre with his 2018 debut feature, attracting audiences around the world with his story about a family engulfed by grief, shame, and dark supernatural forces that extend throughout their complicated lineage.

"Hereditary" was a certified hit for producer-distributor A24, becoming their highest-grossing film ever at the time (it has since been dethroned by the Academy Award-winning "Everything Everywhere All at Once"). Years later, it remains one of the films that defines the contemporary era of horror, inspiring viewers to indulge in more experimental and unsettling frights. For those looking for a follow-up to satisfy these cravings, we've put together a list of our favorite films like "Hereditary," including a wide...

The legendary Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most revered filmmakers of all time. Hitchcock crafted some of the most iconic scenes in cinema history, including the dramatic crop duster chase in "North by Northwest" and the chilling shower murder in "Psycho." Beginning his career in the early days of cinema, without a wealth of cinematic classics to look to for inspiration, Hitchcock was a pioneer. He developed new narrative techniques to tell stories on film, paving the way for generations of filmmakers to follow.

Hitchcock's film career spanned over half a century. Some of his first roles in the industry were as a title designer or an art director on other filmmakers' movies, many of which have since been lost. The earliest movie actually directed by Hitchcock that modern audiences can still enjoy is 1925's "The Pleasure Garden," a silent drama based around the Pleasure Garden Theatre in London.

Clint Eastwood got his start in an uncredited role in a hokey monster movie "Revenge of the Creature" in 1955. Cut to 70 years later, he's still in the business of making movies. It was his starring role on the long-running Western series "Rawhide," where he played the first of many cowboys throughout his career, that launched him to fame. Now there are over 100 credits to his name on IMDb, not only as an actor, but as a prolific director, writer, and even composer.

As one of the last true relics of the classic Hollywood studio system, he has witnessed or been a part of nearly every major change or movement in film, making his filmography vast and varied. For as many famous and highly-rated Clint Eastwood movies — such as Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, where he plays the now legendary Man With No Name, or his Academy Award-winning "Unforgiven" and "Million Dollar Baby...

In 2012, Gillian Flynn's novel "Gone Girl" took the literary world by storm. For the next decade, publishers described a certain brand of psychological thriller as "for fans of Gone Girl" so often that the phrase has now lost much of its meaning. David Fincher's 2014 film adaptation of the book spawned a similar phenomenon, inspiring a trend called the "Gone Girl Effect," i.e., stories of women behaving in an immoral or disturbing manner.

Suffice it to say, "Gone Girl" comparisons abound in both the literature and film marketing. Because these associations have become so common, it can be difficult to parse out which pieces of media are actually similar to "Gone Girl," and which are worth seeking out. We're here to cut through the noise. What follows is a thorough list of worthy films that have something in common with "Gone Girl," whether that be in style, story,...

As Netflix prepares to roll out Wednesday Season 2 this fall, the Addams family is stepping even more into the spotlight. Season 2 will premiere Part 1 on August 6, followed by Part 2 on September 3. This season promises a closer look into the Addams family, from Wednesday’s mystical Grandmama to her mother, Morticia.

Jenna Ortega returns as Wednesday, but this season her role goes beyond the screen. She also joins the creative team as a producer. With the story growing darker and deeper, it’s the perfect time to delve deep into the Addams family tree. As the dates creep closer, fans are eager to dive deep into the eerie world of Nevermore Academy. And, of course, the eerie family at its center.

Wednesday Season 2: The Addams Family Tree The Addams family in Wednesday Season 2 | image: Netflix

At the top of the Addams family hierarchy in Wednesday Season 2 stands Grandmama Hester Frump,...