By Steve Newton I’ve been reviewing horror movies professionally since 1988. Here’s 30 of my faves: Hereditary (2018) “The wrath of Satan seems pretty tame compared to the suffering that […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM By Steve Newton Hereditary has been generating a lot of buzz lately as the scariest horror flick in years, and I gotta admit that it’s pretty damn […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, APRIL 6, 2018 By Steve Newton In A Quiet Place, Lee Abbott—played by director, co-writer, and executive producer John Krasinski—has it rough. He lives in a […]
By Steve Newton There’s a lot to fear around the world at this particular moment in time, and we’re not just talking spiders and snakes. There’s the ongoing fear of […]
By Steve Newton According to the on-screen message in its opening scene, The Strangers: Prey at Night was “based on true events”. It kinda makes you wonder if anyone was ever actually […]
By Steve Newton Long-suffering horror fans are finally getting their due. It’s been 27 years since The Silence of the Lambs was chosen as Best Picture at the Oscars, but this […]
By Steve Newton Three-and-a-half months ago Jigsaw, the eighth entry in the Saw torture-porn franchise, was released. Not too surprisingly it was a mostly mediocre affair, although it included one memorable scene near […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 1, 2017 By Steve Newton Apparently, quite a few people thought WolfCop–the 2014 horror-comedy about an alcoholic werewolf policeman battling ancient shapeshifters in smalltown Canada–was an […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 27, 2017 By Steve Newton Back in October of 2010, after six straight years of hugely successful Saw films coming out on the Friday before Halloween, the […]
By Steve Newton As most in-the-know horror-movie freaks are no doubt aware, the latest entry in the Saw franchise, Jigsaw, opens this Friday (October 27). Not one to miss out […]
By Steve Newton As the only journalist invited to interview Tim Curry on the set of It back in 1990–I was the Vancouver correspondent for fabled New York horror mag Fangoria […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 15, 2017 By Steve Newton When I saw the TV trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! I thought it looked like a pretty decent horror flick–or maybe “psychological […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 18, 1987 By Steve Newton Some guys just don’t know when to leave well enough alone. Stephen King just wasn’t satisfied with the […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JULY 12, 2017 By Steve Newton I’ve harboured a peculiar fondness for the Planet of the Apes movies ever since I saw the 1968 original at […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JUNE 7, 2017 By Steve Newton First you had the awesome Get Out blowing scary-movie fans away with its shockingly sly take on racism in America. […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MAY 12, 2017 By Steve Newton The Belko Experiment looks great on paper if you’re a devotee of scary movies. It’s directed by Aussie Greg McLean, who blew […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, APRIL 5, 2017 By Steve Newton The Void is like a cosmic cross between the original Hellraiser, John Carpenter’s The Thing, some freaky Lovecraft shit, and that skinless-human […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 15, 2017 By Steve Newton The last horror-musical I remember seeing was 2008’s Repo! The Genetic Opera, in which director Darren Lynn Bousman of Saw […]
By Steve Newton If you only see one horror movie this year, let it be Get Out. And if you only see one movie of any kind this year, same […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, FEB. 22, 2017 By Steve Newton If you’re not a fan of flesh-eater flicks by now, you surely won’t be after seeing The Girl With All […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, FEB. 3, 2017 By Steve Newton Rings is the first horror flick I’ve seen since Cheeto Mussolini and his treacherous gang of fear-mongering scuzzballs got access […]
By Steve Newton Here’s five horror flicks I really enjoyed in 2016: Don’t Breathe “Alvarez–who also cowrote the script–guides the ensuing mayhem with a sure hand, ratcheting up the suspense and […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, NOV. 11, 2016 By Steve Newton Naomi Watts has won some and lost some as far as her lead roles in horror flicks go. She hit […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 17, 2016 By Steve Newton The Blair Witch Project was a huge sleeper hit when it came out in 1999. Made on the cheap, it […]
By Steve Newton ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUGUST 28, 2016 By Steve Newton Director Fede Alvarez blasted onto the scary-movie scene in 2013 with his twisted Evil Dead remake. It was […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JULY 22, 1016 By Steve Newton Lights Out is a new horror flick about a murderous ghoul that you can only see–and get terrorized by–when the […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JULY 1, 2016 By Steve Newton Sorry James DeMonaco, writer-director of the Purge movies: that’s three strikes now. You’re out! In 2013 DeMonaco kickstarted the franchise–based […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JUNE 23, 2016 By Steve Newton As a horror director, Jaume Collet-Serra has had his ups and downs. He impressed with his feverishly twisted 2005 debut […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JUNE 22, 2016 By Steve Newton L.A.’s high-fashion industry gets eaten alive and puked back up in Danish provocateur Nicolas Winding Refn’s depraved and baffling The Neon […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JUNE 10, 2016 By Steve Newton My biggest beef with The Conjuring 2 isn’t that it’s an overbaked and predictable possessed-kid-in-a-haunted-house flick. Or that it’s one […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, APRIL 25, 2016 By Steve Newton I love Green Room‘s plot about a destitute punk band trapped in a grungy backwoods bar by murderous neo-Nazi skinheads as […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 10, 2016 By Steve Newton I’ve reviewed five horror flicks this year, and not one of them–including the much ballyhooed The Witch–has blown me away. So […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, FEB. 17, 2016 By Steve Newton The Witch is a smartly shot, well-acted, atmospheric fright flick that aims to shed light on humanity’s dark history of […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, FEB. 3, 2016 By Steve Newton The only thing worse than a novel combining Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with zombie fiction, apparently, is a film version […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 22, 2016 By Steve Newton In the realm of creepy-doll flicks, nothing tops Magic, director Richard Attenborough’s riveting 1978 adaptation of William Goldman’s novel about a […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 21, 2016 By Steve Newton Sci-fi action flicks about alien invasions are pretty hit-and-miss. For every kickass Edge of Tomorrow you’ll find a crappy Independence Day. And then there’s The 5th […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 7, 2016 By Steve Newton The first scary movie out of the gate last year was the Jennifer Lopez thriller The Boy Next Door, which didn’t […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 4, 2015 By Steve Newton Anyone who enjoyed mid-‘80s horror-comedies that relied on animatronic puppets for their chills and chuckles—movies like Gremlins and the lower-rent Ghoulies—may get a […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, NOV. 25, 2015 By Steve Newton Horror fans who suffered through last year’s abysmal I, Frankenstein—not to mention Dracula Untold, Godzilla, and WolfCop—could be forgiven for giving up on […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 30, 2015 By Steve Newton These days you can barely swing a chainsaw without hitting a zombie-based movie or TV show, but Scouts Guide to the […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCTOBER 23, 2015 By Steve Newton The makers of the latest (and allegedly last) Paranormal Activity film just don’t get it. The secret to the found-footage series’ success […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 16, 2015 By Steve Newton “Ghosts are real,” proclaims Edith (Mia Wasikowska) at the start of Crimson Peak, and for the next two hours Guillermo Del […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 9, 2015 By Steve Newton Goodnight Mommy opens with a gentle lullaby–Brahms’ “Cradle Song”, to be exact–but that’s it for sweetness and light in this unnerving […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 25, 2015 By Steve Newton If you were a horror fan in the eighties you were no doubt aware of the cannibal exploitation genre, which […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 11, 2015 By Steve Newton Will M. Night Shyamalan ever clue in? Just because there’s a twist in a movie doesn’t mean the movie’s any […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 24, 2015 By Steve Newton If you’re thinking about going camping anywhere bears might be, Backcountry is definitely not for you. It’s Stephen Colbert’s worst nightmare come […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 19, 2015 By Steve Newton Blumhouse Productions’ 2012 sleeper Sinister was an impressively creepy fright flick that drew much of its strength from Ethan Hawke’s convincing portrayal […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 9, 2015 By Steve Newton I had a hankering for a scary movie late last night so took a look at the Horror Movies section […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT. COM, AUG. 5, 2015 By Steve Newton If you thought Jason Bateman could only play affable sad-sacks, prepare for a nice surprise with The Gift. The actor […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JULY 10, 2015 By Steve Newton I wonder how much longer teenaged moviegoers’ patience with low-budget “found footage” horror can last? Kids must be getting sick […]
