Kyle Warner's Blog, page 11

​31 Days of Horror 2016: Day 25 THE RING

“You don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“But I do and I’m sorry.”

In the early 2000’s, Asia went through a big horror boom. Ghostly apparitions that some have called “dead wet girls” populated many movies for a time, and directly influenced films on the other side of the world. Hollywood remade a lot of J-horror movies. Most of the remakes were lame (some were holy shit awful) but there were a few highlights of the era, and I consider Gore Verbinski’s remake of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu to be the best of...

31 DAYS OF HORROR 2016: DAYS 22, 23, AND 24: CARRIE, SAUNA, HALLOWEEN 3

I’ve fallen behind.

But I’m back. Day 22: Carrie

In Stephen King’s long career, he’s written some crazy stories. Carrie, King’s first published novel, is one of his most accessible and cinematic stories. Sissy Spacek plays the title character in the Brian De Palma film. Carrie is the most unloved teenager in her high school – she’s picked on by her peers and her teachers, she’s awkward as all hell, and she’s abused by her self-righteous tyrant of a mother at home. Carrie’s also special: she ha...

31 DAYS OF HORROR 2016: DAY 21 NOSFERATU (1979)

“The patient that came in yesterday is having a fit.”
“Which one?”
“The one that bit the cow.”

In 1922, Nosferatu became one of the first Dracula adaptations to make it to the silver screen. It was also an illegal adaptation, changing names but ultimately keeping the story the same without licensing permission. Bram Stoker’s widow sued and many prints were destroyed, but the film (thankfully) survived in other nations across the world. The original Nosferatu, though obviously owing much to Stok...

31 Days of Horror 2016: Days 18, 19, and 20: GREEN ROOM, HE NEVER DIED, THE HALLOW

It’s a Triple Threat! Day 18 GREEN ROOM

When I saw Green Room for the first time in July, it became my “favorite” film of 2016. I put favorite in quotes because damn this is a mean movie. It’s incredibly well-made, creating suspense in the first 10 minutes and then not letting you go until the end credits, but it’s also so very dark and violent. As with most movies that I put on the yearly top spot, I have to revisit them a couple months later to see how they stand up. And oh boy, Green Room...

​31 Days of Horror 2016: Day 17 A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

“Are you a good boy?”

Welcome to Bad City, where people are stuck, desperate for some change they’re unwilling to make for themselves. The parties leave the young people wasted, the old people get lost in their own personal despairs, and the vampire girl rides around on her skateboard looking for fresh blood. Similar to the dark, surreal, industrial town of David Lynch’s Eraserhead, Bad City is a place that’s a little sideways, a little crooked.

At the center of it all is the Girl, who passes...

31 Days of Horror 2016: Day 16 THE CANAL

In The Canal, Rupert Evans (Hellboy) is a film archivist who’s sorting through century-old police footage when he discovers crime scene film that was shot at his house. Soon he begins seeing things, hearing things. The world begins to unravel as his wife goes missing and a strange man appears around his house. Is there a ghost in his house or is he going crazy?

There’s a reoccurring concept in certain horror movies that interests me: images that, upon viewing, either plant a curse on the view...

31 Days of Horror 2016: Day 15 GHOSTBUSTERS (2016)

“Never compare me to the mayor in Jaws! Never!”

So, home video is trying to retitle this as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. It isn’t the worst idea – the subtitle lets people know it’s not a remake – but it’s too late, ya’ll. We didn’t forgive Edge of Tomorrow for trying to retitle itself as Live Die Repeat on DVD and I don’t see people referring to the 2016 GB film as Answer the Call anytime soon.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or are completely disconnected from pop culture this year,...

31 Days of Horror 2016: Day 14 KWAIDAN

It’s long been my opinion that every great filmmaker should try their hand at horror at least once over the course of their career. Horror directors sometimes repeat some of the same themes, the same scares, the same monsters, and it takes an outsider to bring something fresh to the genre every once in a while. Examples: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, Richard Donner’s The Omen, Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs, and so on and...

31 Days of Horror 2016: Day 13 THE HUNGER

“You're a part of me now and I cannot let you go.”

I miss David Bowie and Tony Scott. Both men, incredible talents and warm gentlemen by almost all accounts, left this world too soon and we’re all worse off for the loss. 1983’s The Hunger is a special moment in each of their respective careers, as it was Scott’s feature directorial debut and one of Bowie’s earliest and best acting performances.

I’d seen The Hunger many years ago and I don’t think I fully understood the movie then. It’s a pecul...

31 Days of Horror 2016: Day 12 THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI

“Step rrrrright up!”

I feel like I’ve seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari before… or at least parts of it… but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I might’ve pretended I’d seen it before, like the dude in the book club who says that he’s read Moby Dick even though we all know he’s lying. But now I can officially cross it off my list. Caligari, I mean. I still haven’t read Moby Dick yet.

Whether it’s right or wrong, when I think of classic, silent-era horror movies, I instantly think of films made i...