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When "Gunsmoke" premiered on CBS in 1955, the television series already had a fan following due to its success as a radio show. This, however, presented a bit of a problem given that the radio cast would not be carrying over to the live-action iteration. The biggest challenge? Selling viewers on a version of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon who didn't possess the unmistakable, sonorous voice of William Conrad.

James Arness was hardly a neophyte when he stepped in front of the camera to play Dillon. He'd appeared in numerous big-screen Westerns and had played the title monster in Christian Nyby's "The Thing from Another World" (which would later be remade by John Carpenter as "The Thing"). At 6'7", he was a commanding figure, though not exactly warm or charismatic. CBS thought Arness might take some getting used to, and it wasn't exactly patient enough to wait for him to grow on viewers.

One of John Carpenter's most underrated sci-fi films is about to get the 4K Uhd Blu-ray treatment.

Per GeekVibesNation, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially announced a 4K Uhd Blu-ray remaster of Carpenter's 1984 sci-fi romance - Starman. The film will be available in a Limited Edition SteelBook format on May 27, and will feature a 4K scan from the Original Camera Negative replete with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos upgrades, as well as a whole host of special features.

The bonus features are as follows:

4K Ultra HD Disc Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative Dolby Atmos + 5.1 + 2-Channel Surround Blu-ray Disc Feature presented in high definition, sourced from the 4K master English 5.1 + 2-Channel Surround Special Features: Audio Commentary with Director John Carpenter and Actor Jeff Bridges Deleted Scenes Behind-the-Scenes Time Lapses They Came from Hollywood: Revisiting Starman Featurette Making-Of Featurette Music Video...

All good horror thrives on the unknown, but sometimes it really thrives on the unknown. While plenty of scary movies love to tie things up in a neat, terrifying bow, others seem dead set on making sure you leave the theater (or your couch) more confused than when you started. These are the films that don’t just end on a question mark -- they practically mock you for expecting anything else.

Of course, some of the best horror stories don’t hand you all the answers because the real horror lies in uncertainty. Ambiguity keeps the fear alive, lingering in your brain long after fans finish watching the film. However, some movies revel in unsettling mysteries more than most and not only refuse to explain themselves and actively create more questions than they do answers.

The Blair Witch Project Left Fans Lost in the Woods 1999 Image via Artisan Entertainment...

The Western genre of cinema has, since its origin during the earliest days of American cinema, played a vital role in exploring the history and mythology of the United States. Centered around the rough and rugged American frontier of the nineteenth century, these films have had a profound influence on American culture, establishing some of cinema's best tropes and archetypes. Often centered around gunslingers and lawmen, the genre has produced many great movies.

Westerns, like any genre, owe their success to some influential and transformational films, some so captivating that their success lifted the genre for a new generation. Ranging from tales of frontier justice in a lawless land to the rebellion of outlaws against corruption, these films continue to be some of the strongest in cinema. Some Westerns continue to have their impact felt today, and their significance cannot be denied.

Updated on March 19, 2025, by Arthur Goyaz: The western...

FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper of Twin Peaks is one of the most iconic TV protagonists of all time. His distinctive appearance, mannerisms, and eccentric approach to investigating the murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in the eponymous Washington town are all part of why "Coop" is arguably the most famous role of actor Kyle MacLachlan's career. But, even before the show premiered on ABC in 1990, traces of the character of Dale Cooper could be seen in some of MacLachlan's film roles. For instance, both MacLachlan (New York Times) and Twin Peaks co-creator David Lynch (LA Times) have described Cooper as an older version of Jeffrey Beaumont, the protagonist played by MacLachlan in the 1986 film Blue Velvet, which Lynch directed.

But, one year after Blue Velvet, MacLachlan played another character who arguably bears an even greater resemblance to Cooper — one whom Lynch had nothing to do with. That would be Lloyd Gallagher,...

John Carpenter, the filmmaker behind great horror works like Halloweenand The Thing, is set to be honored next month when he receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The ceremony is set to take place on Thursday, April 3, with guests still to be announced. Carpenter's star will be the 2,806th installation on one of the most important sidewalks in the world, where Hollywood legends have been granted a place in history. The press release lists the exact address of his star as "7000 Hollywood Boulevard, in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel."

Steve Nissen, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, will lead the ceremony alongside the guest speakers. The event will be live-streamed on the organization's website at 11:30 Am Pt. Per the press release on the Walk of Fame website:

"Few filmmakers have had as galvanizing and enduring an impact on cinema as John Carpenter.

Turbo Kid composers Le Matos recorded a new score for last year’s video game based on the film, but it hasn’t be available outside the game until now.

The soundtrack is out today on streaming and digital download, and Mutant has launched pre-orders for physical media editions for release on June 28.

The vinyl is pressed on 2xLP 180-gram pink and green neon colored wax and housed in a gatefold jacket. Limited to 500, it costs $39.99.

A CD version is available for $14.99, while a the cassette, limited to 300, costs $12.99. All editions feature artwork by Luke Preece.

Mutant writes that the Quebec synth duo “cherry-pick influences from the best of electronic music from the past forty years; John Carpenter, Vangelis, and Tangerine Dream are all touchstones, but so are Daft Punk or Justice, all put through an 80’s synthpop blender. Creating some incredible retro-futuristic synth wave sounds, including an astonishing re-teaming...

Among the various anthology television series of the 1960s, none are better-known or more influential than The Twilight Zone. A mix of science fiction, fantasy and horror, The Twilight Zone was conceived by Rod Serling as a weekly allegory and modern-day morality play. As an anthology, the series became a revolving door for existing stars and up-and-coming actors over its five-season run.

Premiering on October 2, 1959, The Twilight Zone aired for nearly five years and featured numerous actors at various stages of their careers. With 156 episodes, multiple reboots, and the 1983 movie, it's easy to forget some of the famous faces that graced the original series over the years. Most of them appeared on the show before they became famous, and because The Twilight Zone has stood the test of time, those early performances have become delightful Easter eggs for new fans to discover.

Updated on March 20, 2025, by Ajay Aravind: The Twilight Zone...

Master of horror John Carpenter will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 3 at 11:30am Pt.

Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Steve Nissen will serve as emcee for the event, with guest speakers to be announced.

The dedication ceremony will be live streamed on the Walk of Fame website.

The press release notes, “Few filmmakers have had as galvanizing and enduring an impact on cinema as John Carpenter. As director, writer, producer, and composer, Carpenter has brought to the screen some of the most popular and influential films in history. Starting out with his 1978 breakthrough: a low-budget horror film called Halloween, which shook both moviegoers and the film industry with a force that continues to be felt nearly 50 years later.”

Located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Carpenter’s marks the 2,806th star embedded in the sidewalk...

Back in June of last year, the Hollywood Chamber’s Board of Directors announced that more than thirty new stars are going to be added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2025 (and into 2026), with the latest batch of honorees including legendary filmmaker John Carpenter. Honorees have up to two years after they are chosen to set a date for their ceremonies – and now, it has been confirmed that Carpenter’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, April 3, 2025 at 11:30 Am Pt.

Carpenter’s will be the 2,806th star to be added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the dedication will take place at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. You don’t have to show up at that address to see the ceremony, though. The event will be streamed live exclusively at WalkofFame.com. Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Steve Nissen...

This April, Legend is digging deep into the vault of genre-defining cinema with a line-up of channel premieres guaranteed to thrill, provoke and entertain. The network’s spring slate reads like a who’s who of cult filmmakers and action greats, with titles from John Carpenter, Paul Verhoeven, Michael Winner and Neil Marshall all making their Legend debut.

The chaos kicks off on 5th April with Carpenter’s Escape from New York – a dystopian thriller that still bristles with energy more than four decades on. Kurt Russell’s eye-patched anti-hero Snake Plissken remains one of the most iconic figures in genre cinema, and his high-stakes rescue mission across a walled-off Manhattan prison is the perfect way to launch the channel’s month-long celebration of cinematic mayhem.

The channel also brings Michael Winner’s controversial revenge classic Death Wish (18th April) into the spotlight, marking its first appearance on Legend. Charles Bronson...

Snow White is Disney’s latest live-action remake, but why isn’t there that much live-action in it? Some thoughts on that below…

Hollywood and audiences have a love-hate relationship with remakes. There’s always the argument that a remake can’t be better than the original, but there are exceptions to that – John Carpenter’s The Thing being one of the finest examples.

When we talk about live-action Disney remakes, we tend to think of the newer ones, such as Cinderella, The Lion King and Aladdin. It’s not exactly a new trend for the studio though; its first live-action remake was 1994’s The Jungle Book, followed by 101 Dalmatians, which gave us Glenn Close’s deliciously wicked Cruella DeVil.

After 1992’s 102 Dalmatians was largely a disappointment – even that many cute dogs can’t save a film that dull – Disney steered away from remaking its own films. But...

As the progenitor of the Real Robot mecha subgenre of anime, the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise was a veritable trendsetter. This mostly manifested in mecha anime in particular, but science fiction anime as a whole is indebted to this brand. Nevertheless, as influential as it is, Gundam has a rather strange history with plagiarism in the most surprising way.

Many Gundam anime have songs that are seemingly outright stolen from other sources, which is a rather odd thing to associate with the mecha franchise. Some of these can actually be explained away due to one album in particular, while others are simply a result of Japan's loose copyright laws. Ironically, Gundam isn't even necessarily an anime franchise known for its music, further explaining how it's "gotten away" with this.

Zeta Gundam Doesn't Actually Steal Its 1st Opening Theme Neil Sedaka Had a “Pure Time” With the Theme Image via Sunrise...

Bloober Team has released the first developer diary for their upcoming sci-fi horror shooter Cronos: The New Dawn. Revealed during the Future Games Show at the 2025 Game Developers Conference, the video features co-directors Wojciech Piejko and Jacek Zięba discussing gameplay mechanics while also showing new footage of Cronos in action.

Along with the developers answering questions about the game, the video also reveals more about the protagonist in Cronos, the desolate future landscape of alternate 1980s Poland, and the monsters players will encounter. Piejko and Zięba also tease that larger, gameplay-focused content for the game will be unveiled in the near future.

Inspired by Terry Gilliam‘s 12 Monkeys and John Carpenter, Cronos is put players in the role of a Traveler, an agent of the enigmatic Collective with a mission to extract selected people who didn’t survive the apocalypse from the past. To complete the Collective’s mission,...

A24 is getting set to unleash their fantastical nightmare Death of a Unicorn in theaters on March 28, 2025, and tickets for the Jenna Ortega-starring film are up for grabs now.

Death of a Unicorn is rated “R” for “strong violent content, gore, language and some drug use.” Get your tickets now and watch a video featuring SXSW 2025 crowd reactions below!

Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd lead the cast of A24’s dark comedy.

Payback… it’s a beast…

In Death of a Unicorn, “A father (Rudd) and daughter (Ortega) accidentally hit and kill a unicorn while en route to a weekend retreat, where his billionaire boss (Richard Grant) seeks to exploit the creature’s miraculous curative properties.”

The upcoming feature is produced by Ari Aster (Beau is Afraid, Midsommar). Of particular note for horror fans, horror master John Carpenter will compose music for the film! The score has reportedly been composed by John Carpenter,...

Did Netflix just drop a surprise for The Walking Dead fans?(Photo Credit –YouTube)

Netflix has quietly dropped a bombshell for zombie apocalypse fans, and it’s one that’s bound to hook you within minutes. Without any grand announcements, all episodes of what many are calling “the best show on TV” have landed on the platform and if you’ve been craving the next big thing in The Walking Dead universe, your search is over.

A Surprise Arrival For US Viewers

The series that has already started receiving significant attention is ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City,’ the spin-off that refuses to be just another offshoot. It is a thrilling expansion of Robert Kirkman’s beloved comic book world and the series takes fan-favorite characters and shoves them into a New York City unlike anything seen before—isolated, decayed, and overrun with dangers beyond just the undead.

Now, US Netflix...

Veteran actor Brad Dourif may have earned a reputation for playing depraved sociopaths over his extensive career, but his feature debut role of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest earned him an Oscar nomination at the young age of 24.

A distinct voice, impressive intensity, and a dynamic range have made Dourif a bit of a chameleon, making him one of the best actors of all time whose talents often go overlooked.

From sweet, quiet roles like Billy Bibbit to the grizzled yet morally pure Doc Cochran of Deadwood, Dourif can deftly handle it all. But it’s his high-intensity style that makes him so effective in horror, above all.

While he’s semi-retired now, save for mostly voice-acting work as a certain beloved horror icon, we look back at Brad Dourif’s 10 most memorable genre roles in celebration of his birthday on March 18.

Eyes of Laura Mars...

Flying Lotus' new film Ash recently debuted at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, and it turned out to be a hit with the critics. With its early reviews, the film has garnered one of the highest Rotten Tomatoes scores of Aaron Paul's career.

Currently,Ash has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%, comparable to Paul's revered films Eye in the Sky (95%), El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (92%), and American Woman (89%). The movie, which also stars Eiza Gonzalez, is part science fiction and part psychological thriller. The result is an entertaining watch for most critics, with Ash praised for its acting, storytelling, and visuals.

"Ash feels outside of time," says Sharai Bohannon of Horror Press. "It’s somehow futuristic but also heavily influenced by the sci-fi horror that came before it. So, nods to John Carpenter’s The Thing and Ridley Scott’s Alien feel at home in this film.

Compared to Kuso, Flying Lotus’s scatological debut feature, Ash is a much more conventional effort for the beatmaker turned filmmaker. Upon waking up on an isolated interstellar outpost, Riya (Eiza González) finds herself in near darkness, and with no memory of what happened to her. As she yanks a makeshift weapon free from the chest of one of her dead comrades, the film evokes countless video games that have themselves pledged allegiance to the likes of Alien, The Thing, and Event Horizon.

Even as Ash morphs into something of a two-hander with the arrival of Brion (Aaron Paul), between the giallo-esque lighting and John Carpenter synths, Ash continues to wear its influences on its sleeve. Jonni Remmler’s script can hardly even be bothered to seed distrust between Riya and Brion, and it provides only the bare minimum of insight into what life at the outpost used to be...

"The Last Starfighter" firmly established itself as part of the canon of great '80s science-fiction and fantasy films upon its release in 1984. Directed by Nick Castle (who initially found fame playing Michael Meyers in John Carpenter's "Halloween" in 1978), it tells the tale of Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a young high schooler from a trailer park who aces an arcade game and sets the high score. Little does he know, however, that this arcade game was really a test of his abilities as an actual starfighter, which leads to him being recruited into the Star League to fight against an intergalactic threat. 

When Alex realizes that he's been drafted into a real war, he declines his chance to be a hero and demands to be taken back to Earth. Fortunately, this turns out to be a good thing for the galaxy at large, as an enemy armada soon after...

There’s no denying how influential John Carpenter’s Halloween is. It spawned a litter of sequels and guided every single slasher movie for the next several decades, including modern fare like Freaky and Netflix's Fear Street trilogy. While the 1978 landmark film polished the slasher for mainstream audiences, countless slasher prototypes greatly impacted how Carpenter made his film. Peeping Tom, Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Black Christmas are frequently credited with jump-starting the genre.

Picture the scene: You've been dating this great person for a while and it's time to find out whether they're a keeper. One night over cheeseburgers and vanilla Cokes you decide to pop the question: "Hey, do you like 'Rio Bravo?'" By his own admission, that was a criteria for a successful relationship in director Quentin Tarantino's younger years and he has called Howard Hawks' classic western of the greatest hang-out movies of all time. Depending on your point of view, spending two hours hanging out with John Wayne might not sound like the most appealing prospect, but there is little denying he was a screen icon despite his personal flaws. In "Rio Bravo," we find the Duke at his most engaging and charismatic, and the movie was so successful that it launched an unofficial trilogy.

Released in 1959, "Rio Bravo" was born out of Howard Hawks and...

Forty-three years after its release, The Thing, as well as its lesser-known prequel, has found itself a new free streaming home.

John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi horror classic, The Thing, and the 2011 prequel of the same name will both be available to stream on Tubi on April 1st. Based on the 1932 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr., The Thing follows a group of researchers who themselves get picked off by an extraterrestrial creature. The original 1982 film was made on a budget of $15 million and earned a total of $19.9 million at the box office alongside a cult following. Horror fans praise the original film for the sense of paranoia it creates, as well as the impressive practical effects and puppetry that went into the creature's design.

The original film follows a group of researchers in the Antarctic who are infiltrated by an alien creature that is capable of imitating other organisms.

Kurt Russell was born on March 17, 1951, in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks. He started acting at the age of 12 on various television programs. In the 1960s he was signed to a 10-year contract with Walt Disney, which led to his appearance in many of the Disney films of the era. According to the late Robert Osborne of TCM (via Wikipedia), he became the studio's top star of the 1970s.

Those Disney appearances did typecast Russell a bit and he would be stuck playing many roles that were somewhat wholesome in nature. He would turn that image around when director John Carpenter (fresh from the surprise blockbuster success of "Halloween") cast him in the lead role of Elvis Presley in a TV movie called "Elvis!" That television film was really the first time Russell was taken seriously as an actor and it earned him an Emmy nomination. Carpenter and...

Jordan Peele has carved out a distinct niche in modern horror with movies that delve deep into social issues while maintaining their genre-driven appeal. His thought-provoking storytelling has often led his films to be categorized within the ‘elevated genre’ movement, an approach studios like A24 have popularized with their cerebral, arthouse horror films.

Jordan Peele | Credit: Kevin Edwards/Cc-by-2.0/Wikimedia Commons

However, Peele has denounced the idea of grouping his films with what has been described as elevated or ‘art horror,’ arguing that his films stand apart from the stylistic trends that define A24’s acclaimed horror catalog.

Jordan Peele does not prefer categorizing his movies under elevated genre films

Elevated genre movies, particularly elevated horror, have become quite popular in recent years, with critically acclaimed films from A24 such as Hereditary, The Witch, and, most recently, Heretic.

Heretic | Credit: A24

Some of the most acclaimed work of Jordan Peele,...

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Last year's "Hellboy: The Crooked Man" seemed like a new low for the demonic hero. Shot for a low $20 million budget with little known actors, the movie's trailers suggested even the film's meager funds had been stretched thin. The dull as dishwater color grading was especially disappointing for a movie adapting comics known for their striking art. "The Crooked Man" ultimately skipped a theatrical release in the United States, going straight to VOD on October 8, 2024.

It seemed like that would be the ignominious end of the "Hellboy" films for a while — or maybe not, because Hulu viewers are coming to Big Red's rescue. According to FlixPatrol, "Hellboy: The Crooked Man" debuted at #1 on the platform stateside on March 10, 2025, and stayed there before dropping to #4 as of March 13.

Directed by Brian Taylor, "Hellboy: The Crooked Man" was co-written by its director,...

The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival kicked off Friday, March 7 in Austin with world and North American premieres of movies in 11 sections, TV shows in three sections and several short film and virtual reality programs.

This year’s festival launched with opening-night film Another Simple Favor reteaming Paul Feig, Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, with other notable world premiere titles including Chad Hartigan’s The Threesome, Kate Mara‘s two entries The Astronaut and The Dutchman (the latter also starring André Holland), the Ben Affleck-Jon Bernthal sequel The Accountant 2, the Nicole Kidman-starring Holland and Death of a Unicorn starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega.

Check out Deadline’s reviews recaps below as films premiere at the fest, which runs through March 15, and click on the titles for the full reviews.

The Accountant 2 ‘The Accountant 2’

Section: Headliner

Director: Gavin O’Connor

Cast: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda,...

Ask any stunt person, and they'll tell you: the ability to sell taking a punch is just as important, and perhaps more so, than credibly throwing one. Ask any editor or sound designer, and they'll corroborate this and then some. If you've ever watched raw dailies from an action movie, you'll note how oddly weightless a lot of fight sequences become when they're robbed of their rhythm and the satisfying Thwam sound of their body blows. All this is to say that action in cinema is so incredibly dependent on selling the total effect of the violence, even more than show-stopping stunts and feats of strength and dexterity. Since it's all in the timing, it's no wonder that so many great action directors either come from or are adept at comedy -- from Buster Keaton to Jackie Chan.

However, there are just as many great action filmmakers who come from the world of horror,...

Holiday themed horror films occupy a special place in the genre. While too many horror movies are released and forgotten, ones tied to annual holidays find themselves back in the conversation each and every year. John Carpenter's "Halloween" is obviously the king of this particular hill, both in how strongly its tied to the day and in the breadth of its franchise, but there are numerous others occupying the calendar year. Christmas has dozens of memorable horror films, New Year's Eve/Day has "Terror Train" and "New Year's Evil," Valentine's Day has "My Bloody Valentine" and "Heart Eyes," Thanksgiving has "Blood Rage" and "Thanksgiving" -- you get the idea.

It might surprise you, though, that when it comes to the size and scope of the franchise, it's a horror franchise connected to St. Patrick's Day that lands the spot right behind Halloween. It might not take place on the holiday,...

“For a period, it really seemed like survival horror had died. But like the zombies that plague its hallways, it always gets back up. You cannot kill survival horror.”

So posits Doctoral Researcher, Kaytlin Blackmore, in TerrorBytes: The Evolution of Horror Gaming’s debut episode. It’s a rhapsodic reflection on how the genre in question has managed to endure across the generations, in the face of ever-shifting consumer tastes, adversarial cultural forces, and unfavourable regime changes on the publishing front. More importantly, though, it’s just a fundamentally warm and fuzzy sentiment that resonates throughout the entirety of this community-backed docuseries.

Constructed in a way that recalls the reverent originals that you often find while browsing Shudder (i.e. Horror’s Greatest or The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time), TerrorBytes is first & foremost an admiring look at survival horror over the ages. So rather than scrutinising the...

Ahead of the TerrorBytes: The Evolution of Horror Gaming docuseries launching next month, CreatorVC has announced the final pre-sale campaign, as well as revealed the series’ launch

trailer. The five-part documentary series, which features over 50 horror luminaries, including acclaimed filmmaker John Carpenter and Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka, is available to pre-order now ahead of its release in April, with exclusive perks including early digital access to episodes 1 and 2, your name in the credits, access to the Darkness Unlimited streaming service, and a digital copy of their previous documentary, Fps: First Person Shooter.

“Horror games provide an incredible breadth of experience, emotion, and catharsis away from the conventional gaming power fantasy, and their remarkable culture of innovation dates back almost to the beginning of video games,” says writer and director Richard Moss. “It’s been a fascinating journey and heartwarming privilege to tell the story of the genre in this series.

People tend to overuse the term “mind-blowing” when hyping sci-fi movies, but in the case of Flying Lotus’ visually audacious “Ash,” the word feels apt. Weak on plot but pretty as a sunset (on the whole human race?), “Ash” opens with a shot of the cosmic turmoil swarming inside the brain of an astronaut far, far away from Earth, then pulls back abruptly, zooming out through her pupil to reveal the look of pure panic on the face of sole survivor Riya Ortiz (Eiza González). Cue a shock montage of all her crewmates, each with their head crushed in or blown open.

How’d they all die? Most unpleasantly. Fast-forward 90 minutes, and the final image is another head-spinner. Between those extremes, “Ash” is surprisingly conventional, especially coming from the maniac who conceived 2017 Sundance disrupter “Kuso” and the scatological game-show segment “Ozzy’s Dungeon” from “V/H/S/99”: a colorful, giallo-style homage...

You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home. Ryan Coogler’s (Creed, Black Panther) Sinners is headed to theaters in just about a month from Warner Bros., and the vampire movie has officially received its “R” rating from the MPA this week.

Sinners is rated “R” for “Strong bloody violence, sexual content and language.”

Michael B. Jordan plays dual roles in Sinners, which Warner Bros. is describing as “a new vision of fear from Ryan Coogler.” The film will be unleashed in theaters on April 18, 2025.

Here’s the official plot synopsis for Sinners, which is said to be “genre fluid,” with sources of inspiration including From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, Salem’s Lot, and John Carpenter.

“Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.

Aliens have invaded SXSW with multiple new titles befitting the theme at this year’s festival, and director Flying Lotus’ Ash certainly serves a cosmic horror that’s out of this world.

Eiza González stars as astronaut Riya, who wakes up on a distant planet with no memory of who she is, how she got there or why her entire crew has been slaughtered. When her crew mate Brion (Aaron Paul) answers a distress call from their orbiting space station, things start coming into focus as the computer warns her of an unusual lifeform.

The movie wastes no time getting into the action as we open on a bloodied Riya waking up with exactly the same amount of info as we have about the bloody chaos surrounding her. The base’s computer system malfunctions, building the tension through sound and lighting as the oxygen supply rapidly drops.

Not far beneath...

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced the release of John Carpenter’s 1984 science fiction classic, “Starman,” as a Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook, scheduled for May 27, 2025.

“Starman” stars Jeff Bridges, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of an alien assuming human form, and Karen Allen as Jenny Hayden, a widow who becomes his reluctant companion. The narrative follows their cross-country journey to reunite the alien with his mothership, exploring themes of love and humanity.

The 4K Ultra HD disc presents the film in 2160p resolution with Dolby Vision, restored from the original camera negative. Audio options include Dolby Atmos, 5.1, and 2-channel surround sound. The accompanying Blu-ray disc, sourced from the 4K master, offers high-definition viewing with English 5.1 and 2-channel surround sound.

Bonus materials encompass an audio commentary by John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes time lapses, featurettes such as “They Came from Hollywood: Revisiting Starman” and a making-of documentary,...

This list includes descriptions of violent and graphic movie scenes that may be disturbing to some readers.

In horror movies, the gore isn't just blood and guts designed to repulse — on the contrary, it's an effective storytelling device to convey the consequences and brutality of a scene. It's also a beautifully disgusting art form with superstars as important as scream queens and slashers in horror films. Makeup artists like Rick Baker and Tom Savini have taken the genre from cheesy to realistically gory with a chef's kiss.

To a true gore aficionado, the decapitations and disembowelments are just as key to the movie as the plot or casting. CGI can create everything from the fantastic to the mundane, but it still can't generate believable gore. The best, goriest movies ever made have terrifying, compelling stories and buckets of practical effects, blood, and innards.

Updated on March 6, 2025, by Robert Vaux: The...

Ahead of his Los Angeles residency, John Carpenter has announced a one-night-only concert in New York City, marking his first live show since 2018.

The master of horror will perform alongside bandmates Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies at the Knockdown Center in Queens, NY on October 10.

Pre-sale tickets go on sale tomorrow, March 12, at 10am Et, with general admission tickets available the following day.

“As soon as we announced my four-night L.A. residency, the response was incredible, and I wanted to offer my fans on the East Coast a chance to hear our music without having to fly across the country,” Carpenter said. “With a one-night show, we’ll get to really dig deep into our musical souls, which is something I can’t wait to share.”

The band plays Carpenter’s classic film cues from the likes of Halloween, The Thing, Escape from New York, The Fog, They Live,...

Flying Lotus is sharing “Oxygene,” the first song on the soundtrack of his self-scored directorial debut, Ash. The space horror finds Aaron Paul, Eiza González, and Flying Lotus himself – born Steven Ellison – in new, sci-fi worlds of psychological and physical terror. “Oxygene” begins dark and foreboding, buzzy synths that sound like bugged-out footsteps before shakers and organ-like riffs give it a glimmer of hope.

“Oxygene” is one of 27 songs on the Ash soundtrack. A trailer dropped last fall. The film will premiere at SXSW on March 11 and will be followed...

Plot: A lawyer (Paul Rudd) and his daughter (Jenna Ortega) accidentally hit and kill a unicorn on the way to spend the weekend with his clients, a wealthy big-pharma family with a dying patriarch (Richard E. Grant). Once the family realizes the unicorn possesses healing powers, they try to use its body to their own illicit ends, only to discover these mythical creatures are far more dangerous than mythic lore suggests.

Review: Death of a Unicorn has a lot more unicorn-based carnage than I expected. Going into the film, I told myself that if I saw at least one person impaled by a unicorn horn, I’d be happy, but I didn’t realize the movie was a lot more ambitious in that regard. People do get impaled, but they also get ripped to pieces, split in half, crushed under hoofs and much gorier.

While I definitely enjoyed watching the...

John Carpenter's underrated horror film, Vampires, has been resurrected on Netflix. The film was originally adapted from the novel Vampire$ by John Steakley.

John Carpenter's Vampires sees James Woods starring as Jack Crow, the leader of a group of vampire hunters. He leads the team as their "master slayer", working to prevent a centuries-old cross from falling into the hands of Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), the progenitor of all vampires. The film's supporting cast includes Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee, Tim Guinee and Maximillian Schell.

Carpenter took a unique approach to the film's casting, actively avoiding "another musclebound meathead" for the lead role, which led to Woods' casting.Clint Eastwood, Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and R. Lee Ermey were all reportedly considered for the role, but either declined or had scheduling conflicts. Sheryl Lee, who plays a prostitute with a psychic link to Valek, was...

While audiences typically associate the Western genre with lone gunslingers like Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, it also has a rich history of team-up stories. With countless stories focusing on the work of iconic lawmen, bounty hunters, and gangs of outlaws, these movies typically explore themes of revenge and friendship. These movies have proven every bit as influential and enduring as others, allowing for comedy and levity in a way lone gunfighter movies don't.

Team-up Westerns have brought the genre some of its best ensemble casts, with stars like Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, and Charlie Sheen stepping into the role of gunslinger. While these movies don't always receive the box office success they deserve, they have brought a unique dynamic and sense of adventure to the genre. From John Wayne classics to '80s buddy movies, these all deserve a look.

Silverado Is An '80s Classic 1985

Silverado...

What’s next for the Radio Silence guys after last year’s “Abigail“? Sorry, John Carpenter fans, it’s not their long-gestating “Escape From New York” remake. Instead, Deadline reports that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett‘s next outing will be a sequel to “Ready Or Not,” with “Abigail” actress Kathryn Newton set to star.

Read More: ‘Ready Or Not 2’: Radio Silence Says Script For Horror Sequel Is “An Absolute F***king Banger”

Newton joins the returning Samara Weaving, star of the 2019 original, on the cast sheet, with more casting news to arrive later.

Continue reading ‘Ready Or Not 2’: Radio Silence, Kathryn Newton & Samara Weaving To Reunite For Sequel To 2019 Cult Horror Hit at The Playlist.

One of the best science fiction movies of the last decade, Denis Villeneuve’s incredible Blade Runner 2049 laid the foundation for the fantastic director to continue down the path of excellent sci-fi filmmaking, culminating in his two Academy Award-nominated adaptations of Frank Herbert's seminal novel Dune. The film features some of the most stunning cinematography, fantastic music and sound design and patiently brilliant storytelling in recent cinema history, continuing to chronicle the evolution of robotic artificial intelligence and the implications that these life forms would have on a futuristic world.

One thing that stands above all in Blade Runner 2049 is the performances, pairing legendary actors like Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford and Robin Wright with relative newcomers like Ana de Armas, Mackenzie Davis and Sylvia Hoeks to create one of the most stacked casts in recent films. But arguably the stand-out performance in the film comes from wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista,...

Now that Netflix has taken the journey into live television and has premiered some comedy specials live, they will be venturing into the talk show world with the new series Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney. The former Saturday Night Live writer, who can recently be seen in the sketch show’s 50th anniversary special, will be hosting a multitude of guests, as well as co-show run and executive produce the series through his production company, Multiple Camera Productions, along with executive producers Ashley Edens, Dave Ferguson, and John Foy. Netflix has just released the teaser, which you can view above.

Mulaney told the press after the show’s date announcement, “We will be live globally with no delay. We will never be relevant. We will never be your source for news. We will always be reckless. Netflix will always provide us with data that we will ignore.” The show...

At the risk of sounding repetitive, what else can anyone say about the mighty PlayStation 2 at 25? The best-selling console ever, Sony’s follow-up to the original PlayStation defined a console generation, gave the DVD format a huge boost, and gave us countless hits, both horror and otherwise. And we all know the big-name horror titles on the console. Heck, we’ve talked about them multiple times over the years.

But what about the games that don’t get the recognition? The proverbial “hidden gems”, if you will. There are plenty of them, seeing as the console saw over 4,000 titles (you read that right) across its 13-year life. So rather than focus on the obvious ones, here’s small list of titles you should check out if you’re a fan of the Sony’s monolith.

ObsCure

For Josh, Stan, Shannon, Kenny, and Ashley, life at Leafmore High School hasn’t been easy.

Wherever you call home, it’s hard to be invested in cinephile culture without a mind towards its health. It was hardly some casual choice when Sean Baker took time during an Oscar-acceptance speech to plea for greater attendance––with each year every purchase at an Anthology, Spectacle, or Maysles feels more and more like an investment in the future, or perhaps a protest vote against our present. And few fight so valiantly as La Clef Revival Collective, a Parisian group who’ve earned praise from Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Justine Triet, Leos Carax, Adèle Haenel, and Céline Sciamma (the latter of whom sits on their board).

When La Clef, a Parisian theater initially open since 1973, faced severe risk of closure in 2019, the Revival Collective and aforementioned filmmakers joined forces to save the space. They are seeking $400,000 between now and April to fund renovations,...

Whenever Roger Ebert saw a limp Hollywood remake of a classic movie, the esteemed film critic used to lament that studios had it all wrong. They shouldn't be redoing movies that were already brilliant, but, rather, revisiting films with promising premises that, for whatever reason, didn't work the first time out. While this may sound like perfectly reasonable advice, studios typically aren't keen to throw money at projects that already failed once. That's how executives get fired.

This is how we get unwanted, undercooked remakes like 2006's "The Omen," 2012's "Total Recall," and 2014's "RoboCop." The originals were smart, zeitgeisty genre flicks from top-notch directors, while the second go-rounds were sweaty retreads with no point of view and, thus, no reason for being -- but at least the execs who greenlit these movies could defend them on the grounds of brand recognition. Had they gone down in flames with a remake of,...

Stars: Macarena Gómez, Mario Mayo, Javier Botet, Christian Thomas, David Pareja, Lucía de la Fuente, Carmen del Rosal, Zorion Eguileor | Written and Directed by Kiko Prada

Sometimes when you watch a film you know it’s right up your street from the get-go and that was certainly the case for Halloween Tales. Opening with credits that look like they jumped out of an 80s Italian horror, with a soundtrack that sounds like a homage to John Carpenter, I was hooked immediately.

Halloween Tales, also known under its original title Historias de Halloween, is a horror anthology from Spain that is obviously influenced by the likes of US productions like Creephow (the film uses comics as a framing device like that King-inspired anthology) and, obviously, The Twilight Zone, but – like many Spanish genre fare, also the work of Chicho Ibáñez Serrador.

The wraparound follows Luis (Christian Thomas), a boy whose mother,...

John Carpenter's 1986 action-comedy "Big Trouble in Little China" is a pretty strange movie that has earned a special place in the hearts of fans as a cult classic. In it, truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) becomes entangled in a battle against ancient evil with his friend and pseudo-sidekick, Wang Chi (Dennis Dun). Instead of being an all-out action hero, however, Jack is actually really kind of Wang Chi's sidekick, cracking wise and getting the girl but never doing much in the way of fighting. He's an all-American hero archetype despite this, and apparently, it's at least partially because Russell was channeling Western movie legend John Wayne.

In his interview book, "John Carpenter: Prince Of Darkness," Carpenter explained that he and Russell decided that he should play the character like the famous Western actor because Wayne had a certain kind of "blowhard" attitude that worked perfectly. By playing Jack Burton...

After a long battle to secure one of Paris’ last independent cinemas, the organizers behind La Clef are bringing their efforts to New York. They are launching a film screening and fundraising tour across the city, aiming to connect with fellow cinephiles and raise the final amount needed to complete renovations.

La Clef, located in Paris’ historic Left Bank district, has been closed since 2019 when its former owner put the building up for sale. A collective of volunteers, filmmakers, and activists occupied the space, refusing to let it disappear. What started as a grassroots protest turned into a full-fledged movement to reclaim the cinema as a community-driven venue for independent film.

Last year, the group known as Cinéma Revival purchased the building after securing €2 million in funds. This was made possible through thousands of small donations, along with contributions from filmmakers including Wang Bing, Céline Sciamma, and Leos Carax. The effort also received high-profile backing,...