Del Toro’s ‘Nightmare Alley’ A Sordid Tale of Geek Love and Snake Oil

December 2, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, David Strathairn, Guillermo del Toro, Nightmare Alley, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe 2 Comments

In circus nomenclature, a “geek” is the most run-down of men, almost always an alcoholic or junkie, who performs grotesqueries, like biting the heads off live animals, in front of jeering – but well-paying – audiences. The geek puts the “carnal” in carnival; reliably dirty of soul and desperate for work. He is the lowest in the act’s hierarchy because his role is easily replaceable, for it requires no skill other than a willingness to debase oneself publicly. The geek is to be gawked at, pitied, and feared, for he has fallen as low as any man can. Read More

Horrifying ‘ANTLERS’ is the Bleakest American Horror Movie of the Century

October 26, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Antlers, Florian Hoffmeister, Guillermo del Toro, Horror, Javiar Navarrete, Jeremy T. Collins, Jesse Plemmons, Keri Russell, Nick Antosca, Sawyer Jones, Scott Cooper, Scott Haze 1 Comment

The American horror movie has a tradition of not crossing certain boundaries. There’s a reason that the most disturbing horror movies in the world are often born outside the borders of the United States, imported from counties like Serbia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, France, and Italy. Places with brutal histories (a commonality across all countries, unfortunately) wherein their countrymen acknowledge and grapple with their homeland’s wrongdoings through the medium of film. Something the American filmmaker, and the studio systems backing them, are oftentimes less comfortable with. The American appetite is just not as well-versed in particular extremities, like accepting the horrors of its own bloody past and desperate present. Read More

‘SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK’ Features Frightening Ghouls, Lame Teenage Acting

August 8, 2019 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alvin Schwartz, André Øvredal, Austin Abrams, Austin Zajur, Dan Hageman, Gabriel Rush, Guillermo del Toro, Horror, Kevin Hageman, Michael Garza, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Zoe Colletti Leave a comment

Growing up in the 90’s, scholastic horror was all the rage. A generation cut their teeth on R.L. Stine’s ‘Goosebumps’, devouring forbidden stories of devious child heroes and things that go bump in the night, before graduating to Steven King works. Few threaded the needle between Stein’s adolescent-aimed novellas and King’s more mature themes better than Alvin Schwartz with his 1981 shorts collection “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”. A dark mirror reflection of Shel Silverstein whimsy and optimism, Schwartz’s bleak poems were outlandish and spooky, often eliciting Cronenbergian body horror and a sense of cruel recompense to disturbing effect. Coupled with Stephen Gammell’s drawings, a splattering of acid-influenced black-and-white gothic art pocked with American splotches of red, white, and blue, “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” were OG nightmare fuel for a whole generation of kiddos looking to get their kicks with a good bedtime scare. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE SHAPE OF WATER’

December 13, 2017 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Alexandre Desplat, Best of 2017, Doug Jones, Guillermo del Toro, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer, Paul D. Austerberry, Reviews, Richard Jenkins, Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water 1 Comment

Far and away the best of Guillermo del Toro’s English language features, The Shape of Water, like Dr. Frankenstein stitching together disparate appendages, conjoins the romanticism of the 1930s Classic Universal Monsters Movies, the conspiratorial grit of the 70s Hammer Films and a splash of Max, Mon Amour to craft a truly one-of-a-kind, genre-bending splat of modern monster cinema. Breathtaking, adorable and fundamentally weird as hell, The Shape of Water is a slice of well-germinated fan fiction that’s so much more than its leaflet thin description of Deaf Girl falls for Fish Man could possibly describe. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘CRIMSON PEAK’

October 15, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Charlie Hunnam, Crimson Peak, Guillermo del Toro, Horror, Jessica Chastain, Jim Beaver, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tom Hiddleston 1 Comment

Only in a Guillermo del Toro yarn would the setting – a decrepit Victorian estate housing buried, but not forgotten, secrets – literally drip blood. His is the humor of a tongue buried deeply in a cheek, almost to the point of popping through to the other side. It’s not actually blood that is dripping but there’s no mistaking what the globular rouge streaks running down the wallpaper is supposed to resemble. In the world of Crimson Peak, it is but red clay that sullies the interior of the far flung mansion from which the title takes its name. The house is literally sinking in it. As the winter snow decorates the earth around this distinctly haunted house, it grows blood red from the clay beneath. So it’ll likely catch you off guard to hear that for a movie ostensibly soaked in blood, Crimson Peak is actually pretty restrained. Read More