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If one were to describe Suspiria, the phrase "a nightmare etched in a stained-glass window" would be appropriate. Dario Argento's 1977 film exists in a class almost entirely on its own. The director, who, up until that particular point in his career, had almost exclusively done crime thrillers such as The Bird With the Crystal Plumage and Deep Red and also had a brief foray into black comedy with The Five Days in Milan, entered the realm of supernatural horror. Co-written by Daria Nicolodi and featuring a soundtrack from long-time collaborators Goblin, Suspiria weaves a spell over its audience and takes them on a journey of kaleidoscopic imagery behind the walls of an enigmatic location.

At its core, Suspiria is a fairy tale, with Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) assuming the mantle of Snow White and embarking on a treacherous path with forces beyond her control wreaking havoc all around her.

Behaviour Interactive has unleashed more lore and plenty of new outfits for Dead by Daylight with Tome 22: Anguish, diving headfirst into the darkness to explore these themes and more with new memories for The Blight and Jane Romero. Along with the lore dump, fans can earn a series of outfits that embody the torment of being trapped within Trials, as well as outfits celebrating the Lunar New Year, more outfits coming to the Artists from The Fog Collection, as well as news that you’ll be able to “Up the Irons” with Iron Maiden-inspired outfits!

As mentioned, Tome 22: Anguish for Dead by Daylight follows The Blight as he continues his experiments to better comprehend the sinister nature of a Bleed. Meanwhile, Jane interviews family members of those lost to The Fog, discovering just how far the effects of The Entity can extend beyond its Realm.

As always, players...

Um, was this an episode of The Ark or a very dark and gritty episode of Impractical Jokers? “It Will Be Over Soon” played like an episode of Big Brother that turned into a “reverse heist.” Is that a thing?

Either way, the writers and hands behind this episode certainly made good use of every second. With this being the last episode before the finale, there’s no time to waste on anything other than the main plot.

You know things are only going to get worse before they get better. I also have a sneaking suspicion we are about to see the return of an “ally” to The Ark.

(Aleksandar Letic/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./Syfy) The Big Bad Wolf Is Knocking At The Ark One’s Door, And It Might Very Well Be Evelyn Maddox

If you read my review for The Ark Season 2 Episode 10, you already know...

The 18th edition of the Motelx – Lisbon International Horror Film Festival is set to return to Cinema São Jorge from 10th to 16th September 2024. With a programme brimming with exclusive premieres, revisits of classics, and innovative horror experiences, this year’s festival promises to be a spectacular celebration of the genre.

Among the highlights is the world premiere of Sasquatch Sunset, directed by David and Nathan Zellner and executive produced by Ari Aster. This unique film offers a bizarre and rigorous portrayal of the daily life of a Bigfoot family. Another major highlight is In a Violent Nature by Canadian director Chris Nash and Oddity, a paranormal nightmare by Irish director Damian Mc Carthy, both premiering in Portugal.

This year’s festival also marks the debut of Edgar Pêra’s Telepathic Letters, an AI-driven documentary-essay that explores the connections between Fernando Pessoa and H. P. Lovecraft. Additionally, the festival will feature Cuckoo,...

Fans of classic horror are in for a treat as the first exclusive featurette for the upcoming horror film Ever After has been released, offering a tantalising glimpse into this unique slasher that promises to blend the whimsy of fairy tales with the terror of a blood-soaked thriller. The featurette showcases legendary horror actor Michael Berryman on set, bringing his iconic presence to the role of the Huntsman.

Ever After, an international co-production directed by László Illés, transports viewers to a twisted world where classic fairy tale characters become the stuff of nightmares. The plot follows a group of friends who embark on a bachelorette party at a secluded hunting lodge in the woods. Their celebration quickly descends into panic and terror when they realise that the forest is inhabited by bloodthirsty lunatics who believe themselves to be characters from beloved fairy tales.

The film features an extensive cast of...

Genre classifications tend to fall apart the further we look back in time. That’s why nearly all the original versions of classic fairy tales contain at least one bizarrely horrific element or another. From the Evil Queen’s cannibalistic intentions in Snow White to the Big Bad Wolf successfully devouring both granny and Little Red Riding Hood, even the most innocent stories featured a twinge of terror back when they were first created. However, there is one fairy tale that remains surprisingly dark even in its current iteration, and that would be the chronicle of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

A simple yet memorable yarn about a pipe-playing stranger who takes revenge on the populace of medieval Hamelin once they fail to pay him for eliminating their rat problem, the story of the Pied Piper has influenced countless other works of art (even popping up as a recurring influence...

Growing up, the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood was required reading worldwide. For many, it introduced children everywhere to the dangers of wandering off alone and that you can't trust everyone you meet. When the Big Bad Wolf kills the young child's grandmother, it is downright scary. Only the mind of a former member of the '80s troupe "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo," Matthew Bright, could conjure up a modern adaptation of the classic cautionary tale as twisted, dark, and unhinged as the Reese Witherspoon-led Freeway. Kiefer Sutherland, Brooke Shields, Dan Hedaya, and Brittany Murphy also make up the cast of this terrific indie movie. The symbolism and metaphorical associations fly at the viewer fast and furious as Witherspoon's Vanessa gets a baptism by fire and ventures out on her own to find any form of love and acceptance.

Joyner Lucas and his team walk into Manhattan’s Sei Less a bit perturbed. After the Worcester, Massachusetts-born artist takes a seat in one of the upscale restaurant’s back rooms, he and his manager, Dhruv Joshi, reveal that they just found out that a friend was using Lucas’ fame to get over on others behind his back. “Am I looking at it wrong, or that’s fucked up?” Lucas asks the room after explaining the situation. We resoundingly agree that what he told us was indeed shady business. Joshi...

Nacon’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong hit Steam earlier this year, leaving Switch users to wonder just when they’d be getting their turn. Luckily for them, the wait is over, as the Big Bad Wolf-developed RPG has arrived on the Switch.

Adapted from the fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, Swansong has you play as three vampires – Galeb Bazory, Emem Louis and Leysha – each a member of a different clan in the Camarilla, the secret society that governs most vampires. After a group of mysterious assassins attacked the Boston Camarilla the three are tasked by Hazel Iversen, the new Prince of of the Boston Camarilla, with learning the identity of the attackers as well as the motives underlying the large-scale attack. The orders are simple: infiltrate, investigate and get answers, using their vampiric powers if necessary.

Each of the three vampires you play as feature their own characteristics,...

When I was about ten years old, I watched Trick ‘r Treat with my parents as part of a countdown to Halloween. It was my first experience with horror films, and it’s a damn good one, in my humble opinion. However, at ten, it had me absolutely terrified. Check behind every shower curtain, scared to walk down dark hallways, climb into bed with your parents absolutely terrified. Maybe at the time, I was a little too young to realize that it wasn’t real, and thus the thought of vengeful lake zombies and Little Red Riding Hood ripping off her skin to become the Big Bad Wolf had me shaking in my boots. However, after seeing Trick ‘r Treat once, I found myself drawn to it again and again. Over time, it didn’t scare me anymore, but it found a special place in my heart as I sought...

Halloweentown remains a beloved must-watch particularly during the spooky season, with all four movies available to stream on Disney+. The cast of Halloweentown grew up with the audience, creating a nostalgic connection between the fans and the actors. Many of the cast members have continued to act and have had successful careers outside Halloweentown, while others have pursued different interests.

Decades later, Halloweentown remains a must-watch during the spooky season, while the cast of the movie has changed a lot over the years. The beloved TV movie first aired on Disney Channel in October 1998, showing every child’s dream of finding out that they have magical abilities. Halloweentown follows a family of powerful witches and depicts a world where the creatures of Halloween live throughout the year. Over the course of a decade, three sequels were released, and all are now available to stream on Disney+.

Halloweentown’s actors are...

Stars: Shelley Regner, Diane Franklin, Jamison Newlander, Kelly Leon Guerrero, David Naughton, Brian Tyler Cohen, Ryan Bonnick, Yan Birch, Helene Udy | Written by Brian Farmer | Directed by Brian Farmer, Steve Craig

Waking Nightmare begins appropriately enough with Jordan waking up screaming from a nightmare. This has been a regular occurrence since her best friend Jamie killed herself. It’s gotten bad enough that she’s moved back home with her parents Danielle and Jeff.

A visit from her best friend Zoey seems to cheer her up, but that night her nightmares turn into sleepwalking, and while doing that she pulls a knife on her mother. This gets her an appointment with Dr. Doolin who gives her a prescription for Ambien.

The Ambien doesn’t make her start posting racist comments on Twitter, but it doesn’t stop her sleepwalking either. In fact, she ends up walking out of the house...

Goodbye, angels.

“The Idol” — or at least its first season — came to a conclusion after five episodes on Sunday night, but not without the usual dose of darkly sexual ups and downs for its jewel-eyed, rat-tailed stars.

Titled “Jocelyn Forever,” the episode begins with Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) at her home, working on a song with prolific hip-hop producer Mike Dean (played by himself). As she sings lyrics Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye) prompted her to write — “My kinda love / Force me, choke me ’till I pass out” — it becomes clear that the ex-pimp’s coke habit has caught up to him. Sweating, with his hair beginning to fall out of his famous rat-tail, he interrupts the jam session to give some notes. Jocelyn lets him know he isn’t welcome to do that anymore.

“You’re gonna kick out your only source of inspiration?” Tedros jeers. Jocelyn shoots back, “I...

The Idol wrapped up its (truncated) five-episode freshman run on Sunday — and Jocelyn’s season of idol worship might just be over.

As the season finale opens, Jocelyn is recording her new track “Tough Love” with Tedros’ hand-picked producer Mike Dean, with charming lyrics like “Hold me and choke me until I pass out.” The song is coming together, but when Tedros tries to get involved, she abruptly turns on him: “You’ve served your purpose.” Jocelyn laughs to her friends that her first meeting with Tedros was a total set-up by her former backup dancer Dyanne, calling him “a...

Though there are different styles on display this year in the contest for animated feature Oscar, what unites them is the passionate, intuitive craft and care put into voicing these films by their dedicated talent. These affable actors have given voice to such colorful creations as a miniscule mollusk, a positive puppy, a desperate dad, a sassy stowaway, a wild wolf and a teen-turned-red panda. They range in experience behind the mic from newbies to veterans, but they all approach their performances no differently than their live-action work.

“I break it down the same way, especially with Perrito and his backstory,” says Harvey Guillén, who voices the unsinkable stray Chihuahua in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” “To him, it’s such a funny story, but to everyone else it’s a tragic story. In one of the first sessions, we found the voice. I wanted to find a contrast to Wagner’s character,...

The world-renowned adage states that expectation usually leads to disappointment. After years of waiting for all-winners iterations of Drag Race, the anticipation was at an all-time high when it was finally announced. Not only were the fans treated to a version of the show they have spent ages waiting for but also have been graced with some of the greatest episodes in Drag Race her-story proving the aforementioned catchphrase very wrong! I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what has the secret ingredient that has made this season so fantastic and have decided that it is a concoction of various factors. These are some of the most successful queens to come from Drag Race and their winning performances on their original seasons already showcased an extremely high level of drag but also the time spent touring afterwards can only develop their art. Additionally, the change of format...

For this season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” RuPaul Charles brought back eight crowned queens to compete again for the chance to be named “Queen of All Queens,” earn a second crown, and take home a cash prize of 200,000. In episode 1 and episode 2 we were re-introduced to Shea Couleé, Jaida Essence Hall, Yvie Oddly, Trinity the Tuck, Monét X Change, Jinkx Monsoon, Raja, and The Vivienne, as well as this season’s new twist: the Platinum Plunger. The plunger serves as a “block” to one of the queens in the next week’s challenge, handed down from the winner of that week’s lip sync winner. In the first week, Shea won and gave Trinity the block, but then Jinkx won next and blocked Shea. In episode 3, Jaida earned this power and blocked Jinkx.

In addition, each week the top two performers earn a “Legendary Legend Star” which must...

When director Ry Russo-Young was in college, she created a mixed-media performance art piece that cast herself, her two mothers and her sister as Little Red Riding Hoods, and her biological father — a sperm donor who’d spent years fighting the family in court for paternity rights — as the Big Bad Wolf. “I think playing those roles made things very clear,” she says now, nearly 20 years later, in Nuclear Family. “It was any blurriness that was hard to wrestle with.”

But wrestle she does in her docuseries for HBO, which chronicles in painful detail the ...

When director Ry Russo-Young was in college, she created a mixed-media performance art piece that cast herself, her two mothers and her sister as Little Red Riding Hoods, and her biological father — a sperm donor who’d spent years fighting the family in court for paternity rights — as the Big Bad Wolf. “I think playing those roles made things very clear,” she says now, nearly 20 years later, in Nuclear Family. “It was any blurriness that was hard to wrestle with.”

But wrestle she does in her docuseries for HBO, which chronicles in painful detail the ...

It’s been ten years since Bull’s (Neil Maskell) son Aiden was taken by his ex-wife (Lois Brabin-Platt’s Gemma) and father-in-law (David Hayman’s Norm). Ten years that have apparently progressed with few worries for everyone but him. Norm still runs the local crew of heavies putting the screws to businesses they need to help move their merchandise; said crew have all started families without a thought of what occurred. That Bull’s return is unexpected shouldn’t surprise, considering how long he’s been gone, but the level of terror he induces in those staring down the other end of vengeance’s knife or gun certainly is. With nothing to lose as he demands Aiden’s current whereabouts, he burns through town without remorse.

More than just a revenge film, however, writer-director Paul Andrew Williams’ Bull proves a rather effective mystery too. You may not like the...

Disney Plus is adding an often overlooked Johnny Depp movie this week.

Among the new additions dropping on the Mouse House’s streaming service on Friday, December 18th is Into the Woods, the 2014 movie adaptation of the classic Stephen Sondheim stage musical. It did well at the time, but hasn’t had the prolonged life of other hit musicals from the last few years, so you may wish to check it out again once it becomes available to stream next weekend.

Into the Woods is a retelling of various famous fairy tales woven together, starring a packed cast of A-listers as revisionist takes on the mythical characters. The overarching story sees a baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) forced to venture into the dark forest to collect spell ingredients for an evil witch (Meryl Streep). There, they encounter the likes of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Prince Charming (Chris Pine...

In the social distancing era of Covid-19, Fantasia International Film Festival is coming online with a virtual edition taking place August 20th–September 2nd, and their final wave of programming includes a massive wave of films, a plethora of panels, and a masterclass and lifetime achievement award for the Master of Horror himself, John Carpenter.

To learn more, visit Fantasia's website and check out the full final wave announcement below:

6 August 2020 // Montreal, Quebec – The Fantasia Film Festival announces today a massive new assortment of feature films for its 24th edition, along with details on scheduled panels, talks, tributes, and special events.

Fantasia 2020 To Present A Lifetime Achievement Award To Filmmaker John Carpenter, Close With Kiwi Action Comedy The Legend Of Baron To’A

Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream, Vincent Paronnaud’s Hunted, Jorge Michel Grau’s Perdida, Daria Woszek’s Marygoround, and Tran Thanh Huy’s Rom are among...

As part of the ongoing Marley75 celebration — and to spread positivity during this pandemic — Bob Marley’s estate has shared a new animated video for the reggae legend’s “Three Little Birds.”

Marley’s daughter Cedella said in a statement of the new video, “This song has helped provide hope and light for so many over the years, including me, and I hope it does the same for people now, especially with all that is going on in the world.”

The visual puts a playful spin on the classic Big Bad Wolf...

The 74th Academy Awards, which honored films from 2001, was historic in many ways. Whoopi Goldberg would host the ceremony on March 24, 2002, for her fourth time. Denzel Washington became just the second black actor to win a lead trophy. It was for his villainous cop in “Training Day” — 8 years after Sidney Poitier became the first for his handyman in 1963’s “Lilies of the Field.” Halle Berry also broke down a barrier by becoming the first-ever black actress to win an Oscar as a lead, portraying a single mother in “Monster’s Ball.”

It was also the debut of the Best Animated Feature category. As Goldberg explained on air, “In recognition to their steadily growing importance to the motion picture arts, the academy has added a category honoring animated feature films. Bambi, who is now in an assisted living facility in Palm Springs, has been lobbying for this for years. I proudly...

With her horned headpiece, impossible alabaster cheekbones and high-camp attitude, Maleficent looms as by far the most iconic villain Disney ever created. Landing Angelina Jolie to play the “Sleeping Beauty” baddie in 2014’s live-action redo was a dream-casting coup for which the studio was rewarded with three-quarters of a billion dollars at the global box office. That’s three-quarters of a billion reasons why the studio would want to dash off a sequel, although I can think of at least one why it should have reconsidered: The “Wicked”-like original went so far in its flip-the-script fairy-tale revisionism that the antagonist had essentially seen the error of her ways by the end — it was her kiss, not Prince Phillip’s, that awakened Aurora — leaving “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” almost no way to live up to its title.

Picking up where the first film left off, Aurora (Elle Fanning) is now...

One of the most famous cinematic fairy tales, The Wizard of Oz, begins in black-and-white and transitions to color. German filmmaker Thomas Heise takes the opposite tack in his three-and-a-half-hour documentary, Heimat Is a Space in Time, opening with a verdant color sequence (one that itself references a beloved folk story — Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf), then shifting, with little exception over the rest of its running time, to stark black-and-white visuals.

The monochromatic palette pairs well with Heise's own narration, which is mesmerically flat and unaffected, even when he's speaking as ...

One of the most famous cinematic fairy tales, The Wizard of Oz, begins in black-and-white and transitions to color. German filmmaker Thomas Heise takes the opposite tack in his three-and-a-half-hour documentary, Heimat Is a Space in Time, opening with a verdant color sequence (one that itself references a beloved folk story — Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf), then shifting, with little exception over the rest of its running time, to stark black-and-white visuals.

The monochromatic palette pairs well with Heise's own narration, which is mesmerically flat and unaffected, even when he's speaking as ...

[Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for “Legion” Season 3, Episode 6, “Chapter 25.” Watch the rap battle below.]

In a way, this was inevitable. The latest episode of “Legion” featured a rap battle between Oliver (Jemaine Clement) and The Big Bad Wolf (Jason Mantzoukas), where the winner gains control over a young girl’s fate. I mean, it’s obvious. How could the third and final season of “Legion” not include an episode that’s basically a fairy tale about nature vs. nurture that also features a “magical mammal” dropping the mic on a “supine lupine”?

“I really liked that about this show — that it can almost change genre, even within the episode, a couple of times,” Clement said in an interview with IndieWire. “It’s always great turning up and seeing what crazy stuff they’ve built or the ideas that are thrown around.”

Therein lies the inevitability in what’s an otherwise unexpected scene within an astonishing...

Santiago Segura and Maria Luisa Gutierrez’s production labels, Madrid-based Bowfinger and Amiguetes, are joining Uruguay’s Mother Superior, headed by Gustavo Hernandez and Ignacio Cucovich, to produce a Spanish remake of Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado’s Israeli genre film “Big Bad Wolves.” Its working title is “Lobo Feroz” (Ferocious Wolf).

The 2013 original made an impression at Cannes, Toronto and Busan, and Quentin Tarantino called it “the best film of the year.”

The revenge abduction thriller is headlined by Jose Coronado, a four-time Spanish Academy Goya best actor nominee, and 2012 winner for his work in “No Rest for the Wicked.” Hernandez will direct with “You Shall Not Sleep” scribe Juma Fodde writing.

The revenge-thriller tracks a detective on the trail of a suspected child killer, a former religious studies teacher who was originally arrested for the crime, but allowed to walk free after a clerical error. Taking the law into his own hands,...

There were no surprise winners at the 44th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ceremony on Saturday night — the results were determined and announced back on Dec. 9 — but it was nevertheless striking to see the podium at this event occupied, for much of a three-plus-hour gathering, by filmmakers of Asian descent and/or filmmakers gushing about making movies with Netflix, which is often portrayed as the Big Bad Wolf of the film industry.

Addressing a packed ballroom at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Claudia Puig, the president of the 60-critic organization (13 members are female), noted early on ...

There were no surprise winners at the 44th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ceremony on Saturday night — the results were determined and announced back on Dec. 9 — but it was nevertheless striking to see the podium at this event occupied, for much of a three-plus-hour gathering, by filmmakers of Asian descent and/or filmmakers gushing about making movies with Netflix, which is often portrayed as the Big Bad Wolf of the film industry.

Addressing a packed ballroom at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Claudia Puig, the president of the 60-critic organization (13 members are female), noted early on ...

The 18th serving of “Hell’s Kitchen” started off with the novel format of eight newcomers up against eight returning chefs hoping for a second chance to win the ultimate prize. That would the executive chef position at the new Hell’s Kitchen restaurant at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and a cash bonus of $250,000. But, as is his wont, Gordon Ramsay decided to trash the whole “Rookies vs. Veterans” premise after both teams suffered a miserable dinner services on episode 7 and went back to splitting up the chefs by gender.

Yet, the Rookie and Veteran labels continue to stick, especially since four newbies and four old-timers have been eliminated. The departure of Scotley Innis, 33, of Atlanta, the latest rookie to hang up his jacket and leave last week after Ramsay de-fanged this culinary “Big Bad Wolf,” once again evens the playing field. With the show on hiatus until...

With opening credits that show Little Red Riding Hood being raped by the Big Bad Wolf, “Tell Me a Story” is about as fun and understated as you might expect. The new CBS All Access series from Kevin Williamson, master of dark and icky shows like “Stalker” and “The Following,” attempts to twist classic fairy tales into his dark and icky mindset (never mind that these stories are already pretty grim). When viewed through their fairy-tale origins, the tales are laughably contrived. As standalone stories, they’re as ugly as they are trite.

Season 1 focuses on “The Three Little Pigs,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” Sam (Dorian Missick), Eddie (Paul Wesley), and Mitch (Michael Raymond-James) stand in as the not-so-little pigs, forming a hapless gang of jewelry store robbers whose story bookends the premiere. Presumably, Eddie is going through with the heist to fix his leaky roof...

After an excellent debut a few months back, I was underwhelmed with the previous episode of The Council. Hide & Seek still had plenty to offer plot-wise, but a series of tedious puzzles slowed the pace to a standstill. Since this was a fairly simple problem to correct, I had no reason to believe that Big Bad Wolf couldn’t rebound with the third episode of the series, Ripples. My faith was mostly rewarded with an outing that continues to raise the stakes, but also showcases some of the bigger issues the series has.

Picking up immediately following the events of the previous episode, Ripples is largely focused on the political ramifications of the upcoming conference. The larger purpose of Lord Mortimer’s gathering has only been alluded to previously, but this is the first time we see how this large-scale meeting goes down. At stake is a land dispute involving...

Big Bad Wolf dropped a major surprise earlier this year when The Council started off as well as it did. The first episode, The Mad Ones, balanced an intriguing storyline with fresh for the genre gameplay elements. It was the rare first chapter I ran through multiple times, just to see what could change. Suffice to say, I was excited to return to the world with the second episode, Hide & Seek.

Picking up immediately after the previous episode’s cliffhanger, Hide & Seek sees Louis de Richet embrace his inner detective. Called upon by the mysterious Lord Mortimer to investigate a grisly murder, Louis puts his sleuthing skills to the test as he investigates the scene of the crime, as well as confront the various characters mulling around the estate. On top of all that nastiness, evidence points to his mother, the missing Sarah de Richet, having some sort of connection to the crime.

While the episodic narrative adventure genre had certainly been around prior to 2012, Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead could be labeled ground zero for the genre’s current renaissance. However, while the California-based studio has continued to pump out decent stories, other developers, such as Dontnod Entertainment (Life is Strange) and The Odd Gentlemen (King’s Quest), have brought the genre to greater heights. The next evolution may be upon us, though, with the arrival of Big Bad Wolf’s The Council. If The Mad Ones is anything to go by, the developer’s first foray into the genre is shaping up to be a success.

The idea of secret societies controlling the world has been out in the open for centuries, whether you believe it or not. In the world of The Council, the preeminent ruling group is the Golden Order. With branches across Europe and even in the burgeoning United States,...

MaryAnn’s quick take… My pick: I suspect that this year’s winner will be “Garden Party” [pictured], a spectacular debut from new French animation studio Illogic that I am sure we will be seeing a lot more stunning work from. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Death, despair, and decay. Some very black humor. These motifs run through most of this year’s Oscar-nominated animated short films. Oh, and childhood. In one case, the despair of childhood. Fun times.

I suspect that this year’s winner will be “Garden Party” [IMDb|official site], from a new French animation studio called Illogic — consisting of filmmakers Florian Babikian, Vincent Bayoux, Victor Caire, Théophile Dufresne, Gabriel Grapperon, and Lucas Navarro — that I am sure we will be seeing a lot more stunning work from. The adventures of frogs and toads and...

Three of the most difficult categories to call every year at the Oscars are those of the short films. They lack precursor prizes and, in many cases, visibility. If you are not able to see these films before the Academy Awards on March 4, don’t worry: we’ve got you covered. Below is our take on the five nominees for Best Animated Short.

A screening committee drawn from the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members winnowed a field of 63 entries for Best Animated Short down to 10 semi-finalists using an averaged scoring system.. All members of the branch could cast preferential ballots for the five nominees and the entire academy can vote on the winner.

See 2018 Oscars: Best Live Action Short Film nominees by rising stars of world cinema

“Dear Basketball” (USA)

Director: Glen Keane; Writer: Kobe Bryant

Running Time: 6 minutes

In this heartfelt ode to basketball, Bryant narrates his...

Tony Award nominees Kerry Butler Disaster, Xanadu, the upcoming Mean Girls, Charl Brown Motown, John Ellison Conlee The Full Monty, Murder Ballad, and Stephanie D'Abruzzo Avenue Q, I Love You Because will head a special reading presentation of the new musical Seeing Red, by Emmy Award winner Joey Mazzarino and award-winning composer Aron Accurso on Thursday, January 25 in New York City at 11am and 3pm. Seeing Red takes a look at immigration through a fairy tale lens. In fact, it's about all the things that divide us as humans Religion, borders, race. It's the story of Little Red Riding Hood, now a grown woman who still spends her days delivering baskets full of goodies through her company Red Ex. She wishes she could change her fate but in Everafteropolis, once your story is written, it's written. When Red meets the Man From Nantucket, her life is suddenly turned upside down.

Recently, the folks over at Entertainment Weekly got the chance to chat it up with Big Brother host Julie Chen (above right) to get her thoughts on the season 19 houseguests and what they did. She apparently thinks what most of us have been thinking and definitely wasn't afraid to say it. All these houseguests were just Paul's sheep. Julie went as far as to say that this wasn't even Big Brother and that they should've called it "Big Paul!" Ha! Ha! We couldn't agree more. She also said Paul is just going to take that $500,000 away from them like a Big Bad Wolf hiding under a cloak. She stated, "The general feeling I have about this season is that it’s not Big Brother. It’s Big Paul. Paul is running the house. Paul is the puppet master and everyone inside the house is happy to be led by him...

Laurel & The Love-In - Big Bad Wolf...

Tiffany Haddish is clarifying the controversial comments she made last week about Bill Cosby to the Los Angeles Times.

“I still want to work with Bill Cosby, I don’t care,” she told The Times. “I’ll drink the juice. I’ll take a nap. I don’t give a damn. But seriously, I would love for him to play my grandfather in something.”

Haddish received backlash on social media following her remarks about the 80-year-0ld TV legend, whose sexual assault case is set for a retrial in November.

The actress, 37, addressed her statement on Thursday while speaking on...

MaryAnn’s quick take… If Jane Austen wrote a horror movie. An almost serene sinisterness infuses female-gazey carnal intrigue… but it could be even more feminist than it is. I’m “biast” (pro): I’m desperate for stories about women; love the cast

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

So who is — or are — the beguiled of The Beguiled? Is it the badly wounded Union soldier taken in by the girls and women of a Virginia seminary school in 1864 while the Civil War rages nearby? Does he feel the need to enchant his captor-nurses so thoroughly that they wouldn’t dream of turning him over to the Confederate army as a prisoner of war? (He does indeed attempt this.) Or is it those few students and teachers remaining at the otherwise abandoned school, so secluded, so bereft of charming male companionship?...

Amanda Knox has taken her Instagram public.

The Waiting to Be Heard author announced on Twitter on Tuesday that she had decided to open her Instagram up to the world, writing, "What's happening? Well, I made my Instagram public. No more hoarding all my amazing cat videos."

Exclusive: Amanda Knox, Oj Simpson and Our Fascination With True Crime

Knox became a household name during a years-long investigation into the 2007 death of her roommate, Meredith Kercher,...

Amanda Knox has revealed her private Instagram to the world. And it’s as full of photos of herself, her boyfriend, her friends and her cats as … most other Instagram accounts.

Knox — who was at the center of international scrutiny during a years-long investigation into the 2007 death of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Italy, which ended in Knox’s murder conviction being overturned by Italy’s highest court in 2015 — announced on Tuesday that she had made her social media account available to all a little more than two years after its first post.

“What’s happening? Well, I made my Instagram public,...

The retrospective Frank Capra, The American Dreamer is showing April 10 - May 31, 2017 in the United Kingdom.Frank CapraFrank Capra has fallen badly out of fashion in recent decades. While still well-known for the extraordinary Depression-era purple patch that produced It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the critics have rarely been kind. His work is routinely derided as “Capra-corn” for its perceived sentimentality and “fairy tale” idealism while the man himself is written off in favour of contemporaries Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges and Ernst Lubitsch.Elliot Stein, writing in Sight & Sound in 1972, attacked Capra’s “fantasies of good will, which at no point conflict with middle-class American status quo values”, arguing that his “shrewdly commercial manipulative tracts” consist of little more than “philistine-populist notions and greeting-card sentiments”. Pauline Kael found him “softheaded,” Derek Malcolm a huckster hawking “cosily absurd fables.” To an extent,...

One of the lesser-known horror anthologies of the 1980s, 1986’s Deadtime Stories is a title of which I’ve been familiar for years, but it took me a long time to actually get around to seeing it. And because of the film’s long history of botched home video releases, the versions I’ve been able to watch in the past haven’t been of the best quality. As a result, I had an unfair opinion of the movie. Thankfully, Scream Factory has put Deadtime Stories out on Blu-ray for the first time and allowed me the opportunity not just to revisit it, but to revise my opinion. It’s more fun than I gave it credit for.

The first of the movie’s three segments is “The Black Forest,” the story of two witches who take a young man (Scott Valentine of TV’s Family Ties) as their slave...

Since the dawn of the 21st century, action cinema has undergone a bigger change than perhaps any other genre. As the tools with which filmmakers craft their works have continually advanced, a sort of renaissance has begun wherein action films stepped firmly into their own. Often put in the same category as horror — not taken seriously as a form of artistic expression outside of its core fanbase — action has had to boldly announce itself as a viable medium through which big set pieces, but also big ideas, can be presented and explored.

With the highly anticipated John Wick: Chapter 2 arriving in theaters this Friday, we’ve set out to reflect on the millennium’s action films that have most excelled. To pick our top 50, we’ve reached out to all corners of the globe, choosing an array of films ranging from grand to gritty, brutal to beautiful. The result...

Author: Competitions

To celebrate the release of Revolting Rhymes available now on DVD, we’re giving 2 lucky winners the chance to win a copy of the DVD as well as a copy of the novel and audiobook.

Voiced by a stellar British cast including David Walliams (Little Britain, Gangsta Granny), Tamsin Greig (The Green Room, Episodes), Dominic West (The Wire, Pride) and Gemma Chan (Humans), Revolting Rhymes is perfect for half term holiday viewing and a treat for the whole family to enjoy.

First published in 1982 Revolting Rhymes was written by the much-loved author, Roald Dahl and illustrated by the legendary Quentin Blake. Bursting with imagination and delightful storytelling, these adaptations bring the tales to life in an extraordinary way. Will Little Red Riding Hood become a meal for the Big Bad Wolf? Can Snow White out-wit her evil stepmother? Is the house of bricks strong enough to protect the Little Pig?...

Stars: Johnny Rey Diaz, Christina Licciardi, Lindsay Sawyer, Talia A Davis, Trae Ireland, Isaac Reyes, Fiona Rene, Joseph Michael Harris, Nick Principe, Aaron Moses, Randall Yarbrough | Written and Directed by Jeremy M. Inman

To be fair, you know what you’re in for with any Asylum movie that is homaging a bigger-budget Hollywood flick… After all it’s become de rigueur for David Michael Latt and co. to produce what have been affectionately dubbed “mockbusters” for all the big Summer blockbusters: films such as Transmorphers, American Battleship, The Terminators, Almighty Thor, Battle of Los Angeles, and Avengers Grimm. But watching a mockbuster from The Asylum doesn’t neccesarily mean audiences are in for a terrible time, there are often sparks of genius within their films – be it some great casting or an inspired plot.

Case in point: the aforementioned Avengers Grimm, which used the Avengers film format to tell a...