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 seventh and "final" entry in the series, Saw 3D, was released. It made money--eventually raking in $136-million worldwide on a $17-million budget--but also garnered the worst … Continue reading Jigsaw’s killer twist takes torture porn up a notch
Tag: Halloween
Vancouver bug wrangler Brad McDonald loves cockroaches, fears babies
photo by Alex Waterhouse-Hayward Here's my piece that ran as the cover story in the Georgia Straight's Halloween 2000 issue. By Steve Newton The first time I sat down for a meal in a New York City restaurant, a cockroach scurried across the table. One of the people I was with, the managing editor of North … Continue reading Vancouver bug wrangler Brad McDonald loves cockroaches, fears babies
35th anniversary Halloween Blu-ray brings classic horror back in HD
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, SEPT. 26, 2013 By Steve Newton The last Halloween movie to be released—Rob Zombie's Halloween 2 in 2009—was one nasty, gruesome bit of business. But unlike John Carpenter's 1978 original, it wasn't particularly scary. "Relentlessly disturbing though it is, the movie is not particularly frightening," opined one of the world's most esteemed and insightful horror-movie … Continue reading 35th anniversary Halloween Blu-ray brings classic horror back in HD
Horror review: The House on Sorority Row
It’s no surprise that Hollywood has spawned remakes of classic slasher flicks like Friday the 13th and Halloween, but why would it bother with 1983’s barely remembered The House on Sorority Row? Maybe a forensic accountant toiling in some studio basement discovered that upon its theatrical release at the height of the slasher craze the film grossed more than … Continue reading Horror review: The House on Sorority Row
Horror review: Malevolence
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MARCH 31, 2005Ya gotta like DIY horror filmmakers such as Stevan Mena, who not only wrote, cast, directed, produced, edited, acted in, and scored the horror flick Malevolence but even did the catering.You don't have to pretend to enjoy the result of their low-budget indie efforts, though.Although Malevolence displays some crisp … Continue reading Horror review: Malevolence
Goblin’s not afraid to up the scary factor
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 15, 2013 By Steve Newton It's approaching that time of year when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of horror, and the atmospheric music that—if you’re lucky—makes fright flicks scary as hell. Who among us hasn’t reached for the Halloween soundtrack to gloom up the mood before the trick-or-treaters arrive, the … Continue reading Goblin’s not afraid to up the scary factor
Rob Zombie says the Allman Brothers are his favourite band
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, AUG. 3, 2006 By Steve Newton Five years ago I covered the local shoot of Halloween: Resurrection for British horror mag Shivers. I spent several hours on set, and it was lotsa fun--especially when veteran makeup-FX artist Gary Tunnicliffe showed me how he could make giant animatronic rats squirm around in … Continue reading Rob Zombie says the Allman Brothers are his favourite band