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There's a strong current of folk horror titles about outsiders entering isolated, weird communities and succumbing to their horrors. Think The Wicker Man, Midsommar, Apostle, The Third Day, Wake Wood, The Lair of the White Worm, The Ritual, Dagon, Population 436, Offseason, and so on. In many ways, the subgenre feels like a post-colonialist response to the centuries of Christian imperialism that subjugated small pagan communities, especially considering many of these horror films came from the UK, the former kingpins of imperialism. In these films and shows, the occult rural communities get their revenge on the more 'sophisticated' Christian outsiders from the big city. The new film Get Away exists in this canon, but wickedly plays with its structure and themes.

The film is written by and stars Nick Frost, pairing him yet again with filmmaker Steffen Haars; they made an almost complementary film around the same time, the batsh*t wild Krazy House.

Cover songs are a divisive topic in music, at once celebrated for their ability to bring new life to old material while also being decried as the provenance of schlocky tribute acts or wedding singers. Yet covers have been an integral part of rock and roll ever since the beginning, with many of rock's earliest stars relying heavily on old blues standards.

There's certainly no formula to what makes a good cover song. Some are great because they distill a song's essence into a stronger form of itself, relying on an artist's chops and passion to stand out from what came before, even if not much changes in the arrangement. Some are transformative, playing with genre and instrumentation to create something that would never otherwise have existed. Here, then, are ten rock covers that rocked way harder than the originals.

Honorable Mention: The National - "Sailors in Your Mouth"(Originally...

The sort of platitudes that often accompany many retrospectives on classic albums, describing heroic narratives in which scenes are burst onto and names are cemented in history books, don’t necessarily fit the Smiths’s 1984 debut very well. Prior to the release of The Smiths, the band had already been voted Best New Act by NME readers. The band’s early singles received radio play from tastemakers like John Peel, and their live sessions for BBC proved so popular that they were rebroadcasted several times.

Frontman Morrissey was becoming a star in his own right, developing a reputation as a colorful interviewee and an unlikely trendsetter. The position of “voice of his generation” was up for grabs in the aftermath of Paul Weller disbanding the Jam, and this entirely new kind of pop personality—a melancholy shut-in from the economically depressed north of England, with Wildean affectations—was more than...

Johnny Marr teamed up with a 30-piece orchestra for the first of a two-night homecoming run in Manchester, England.

Across a 16-song setlist, the British guitar icon reimagined songs from his solo repertoire along with classics from The Smiths and his dance project with Bernard Sumner, Electronic. Highlights included “How Soon Is Now?,” “Easy Money,” and, of course, “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” during which Marr paid tribute to his late Smiths bandmate, Andy Rourke, who died this past May.

Speaking about the experience, Marr said that he couldn’t “help feeling a little bit emotional” hearing his songs receive symphonic treatment. “I’ve had two experiences of playing with an orchestra — Hans Zimmer, obviously, and also with Pet Shop Boys — but to actually sing in front of an orchestra playing my own work, that’s a first,” he said (per NME). “It’s been really enjoyable working on the arrangements.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Killer.

The Killer has a unique soundtrack featuring mostly songs by the British indie rock band The Smiths, which are used by the protagonist to help calm his heart rate during assassination attempts. The film marks the first collaboration between director David Fincher and actor Michael Fassbender, who delivers a stoic and mysterious performance as the highly-trained hitman known as The Killer. In addition to The Smiths songs, the film is also scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who have previously worked with Fincher on other films. The soundtrack can be found on popular streaming platforms and Netflix has an official playlist.

The Killer has an incredibly unique soundtrack for a David Fincher action-thriller, considering the majority of its songs are by the same British indie rock band from the 1980s. The new Fincher movie sees the first collaboration between the acclaimed director and renowned actor Michael Fassbender,...

David Fincher’s “The Killer” is taking his shot.

The latest from the filmmaker behind macabre masterpieces like “Seven,” “Zodiac” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” follows an unnamed assassin (Michael Fassbender) after a hit goes wrong. If you screw up at work, maybe you send an apologetic email or try and pretend like it never happened. If you’re the titular killer, you set out on a roaring rampage of revenge, crisscrossing the globe as you attempt to (bloodily) tie up loose ends.

But that’s not to say that you can’t enjoy what you do. And one of the things that makes Fassbender’s murderer stand out is that he makes mix tapes for his assassinations, with a particular fondness for The Smiths, who become the sort of Simon and Garfunkel for the world of “The Killer.”

“I always knew that I wanted to use ‘How Soon is Now?...

“The X-Files,” which starred Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny as two intrepid FBI agents who investigated bizarre and unexplainable cases, debuted on Fox on Sept. 3, 1993.

The sci-fi cult hit from Chris Carter not only had a profound impact on pop culture, but also inspired more women to enter the fields of science and medicine, like Anderson’s character Dana Scully.

The character was largely modeled on Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling in 1991’s Oscar-winning “Silence of the Lambs,” while the show’s eerie theme song was partly inspired by The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now?”

In honor of the show’s 30th anniversary, here are some facts you might not know about “The X-Files,” including how integral it is to the existence of “Breaking Bad.”

Orion/Fox

Dana Scully was inspired by Clarice Starling in “The Silence of the Lambs”

“It’s not a mistake that Dana Scully has red...

Eighties-loving misanthropes will find comfort in David Fincher’s “The Killer” knowing that the assassin revenge thriller is almost exclusively soundtracked by The Smiths — when it’s not thrumming with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ ominous score.

Michael Fassbender plays a near-sociopathic contract killer, unencumbered by conscience or any moral scruples, whose carefully composed world starts to spin off its axis when he accidentally kills the wrong person on a hit job in Paris. He’s a yoga-doing, almost Zen-like murderer for hire whose unreliable perspective the movie situates us directly within — and that includes The Killer’s love of English rock band The Smiths. Hits like “How Soon Is Now?” and “Bigmouth Strikes Again” are often playing in an earbud or on speaker in the many cars he cycles through as a way to come down from the rush of a kill. Plus, some lesser-known favorites, like “I Know...

“I don’t really think of the movie as an assassin movie, said David Fincher. “I think of it more as a revenge movie.”

The acclaimed director behind Se7en and Zodiac was discussing his new film The Killer, which is making its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Michael Fassbender stars as an unnamed assassin who, after botching a high-profile job in Paris, and having his romantic partner beaten to within an inch of her life as payback, embarks on a globe-trotting hunt for the people responsible. The film,...

Composer Mark Snow started his professional music writing career in 1976 with the release of the notorious TV movie "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble," starring a young John Travolta. Paul Williams wrote the theme song for the movie, but it was Snow who composed the incidental music. He was about 29 years old. 

Since then, Snow has been a regular presence in the TV world, having written for shows like "Starsky & Hutch," "The Next Step Beyond," "Vega$," "The Love Boat," "Dynasty," "T.J. Hooker," "Pee-wee's Playhouse," and "Dark Justice." Snow's popularity exploded in the popular consciousness in 1993, however, with the debut of Chris Carter's paranormal investigation show "The X-Files." 

"The X-Files" was about a pair of FBI agents who operated out of a basement and were given the weird, ghostly, monster-y, alien-related cases no one wanted. Mulder (David Duchovny) was a believer, Scully (Gillian Anderson) was a skeptic. Snow, who...

Rick Astley teamed up with UK indie rock band Blossoms to perform a full set of The Smiths covers at Glastonbury on Saturday.

The 16-song set featured greatest hits like “This Charming Man,” “Big Mouth Strikes Again,” “Girlfriend in a Coma,” “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now,” “How Soon Is Now?” Watch fan captured footage and see the full setlist below.

Astley and Blossoms previously teamed up to cover The Smiths for a pair of shows in 2021. At the time, The Smiths’ Johnny Marr described the tribute shows as “both funny and horrible at the same time.”

In a pre-show interview with NME, Astley said, “If we burn in hell for doing it, then we’ll have to live with that. The audiences that we’ve done it for in the past have always got it, got involved and loved it. You’re either a Smiths fan or you’re not,...

If you were ever 16, clumsy, and shy, Andy Rourke’s bass is part of the story of your life. That’s why the music world is in shock and grief today, mourning the beloved Smiths bassist, who passed away from pancreatic cancer, only 59. His bass was the most underrated element in the Smiths’ sound, but it was a crucial part of their unique four-way chemistry. Andy Rourke is why you won’t forget the songs that made you cry, the songs that saved your life.

His unmistakable sound was there from the start,...

Andy Rourke, who played bass for The Smiths on all four of the English band’s albums, died today of pancreatic cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He was 59.

Tributes from the music world poured in following the announcement of Rourke’s death, which was made by his friend and Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr this morning.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Andy Rourke after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer,” tweeted Marr. “Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans. We request privacy at this sad time.”

Marr followed up with an image of himself and Rourke from The Smiths’ days.

The Smiths in 1985, from left: Johnny Marr, Morrissey, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke

Rourke was born on January 17, 1964, in Manchester, England, becoming friends...

The Killers have spent the past couple of weeks playing North American arenas with opening act Johnny Marr, and every night they’ve brought the guitarist out to join them for one or two Smiths classics. So far, they’ve trotted out “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before,” “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” “This Charming Man,” and “What She Said.” Check out the fan-shot video right here.

Killers frontman Brandon Flowers has often cited the Smiths as one of his biggest musical influences.