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When it comes to slasher films, the iconography of the killer is often more important than the story. As long as fans are being given the chance to watch Michael Myers show up in his white-painted Captain Kirk finest to slaughter anyone who gets in his way, no one cares about trying to make sense of the the nonsensical and convoluted timeline of the "Halloween" franchise. Even people who have never watched a horror movie in their life could probably identify Jason Voorhees from "Friday the 13th" in his iconic hockey mask, or clock Leatherface from "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" even without his titular weapon. The look of a slasher villain should strike fear into the hearts of the audience ... but it should also be memorable enough to be marketable.

It's a delicate balance, and it's not the easiest thing in the world to pull off. The basic "sackhead...

“I’m basically a storyteller, just with the skin on a character’s face,” explained Mike Marino, the prosthetics maestro whose reputation is fast becoming as lauded as movie makeup legends Rick Baker and Stan Winston.

At this year’s Golden Globes, Marino was acknowledged not once, but twice by winning actors on stage: First by Colin Farrell, who is unrecognizable in HBO’s “The Penguin”; and then by Sebastian Stan, who won for his role in the dark indie comedy about disfigurement and self-acceptance, “A Different Man.”

“That was a huge compliment,” Marino told TheWrap of the shoutouts. “People were texting me that night — producers and actors and heroes of mine like Rick Baker — joking, ‘These are the Marino Globes.’ I’ve been doing this for my whole life and I’m just super thankful and fortunate to do what I do. Prosthetics work isn’t the crazy, booming business it once was,...

Exclusive: Sean Baker’s latest Anora has won Best Picture at this year’s Online Film Critics Society Awards. Scroll down for the full list of winners.

Anora also won Best Actress for star Mikey Madison and Best Screenplay while Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance also took home three awards for Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress for Margaret Qualley alongside a Technical Achievement Award for Makeup/Hairstyling.

Comprised of nearly 300 voting members from around the world, the Online Film Critics Society was founded in 1997. Members include writers from outlets such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Slant, Paste Magazine, AARP, and Sight & Sound.

In addition to the 2024 top film honors, the Online Film Critics Society hands out Special Achievement and Lifetime Achievement Awards. This year the body honors Ava DuVernay with a Special Achievement Award for her “brilliant work and for supporting a new generation of female filmmakers.” This year...

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Ishiro Honda's original "Gojira" was released in Japan in 1954, and helped popularize a genre of giant monster movies that remained ascendant for seven decades. Godzilla movies are still being made to this day, with Toho's most recent film, "Godzilla Minus One" coming out in 2023, and Legendary's "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" hitting in 2024. Godzilla has been part of the cinematic landscape for so long, his popularity has risen and fallen and risen again. There have been multiple "finales" in the Godzilla series, and just as many reboots. He's more pliable and more prone to restarts than James Bond.

From 1954 until 1975, Godzilla more or less followed a single continuity, and the 15 films released during this period are said to be of the Showa era. From 1975 to 1983, there would be no theatrical Godzilla movies, with the series rebooting in...

When Leigh Whannell took on the assignment of directing a new “Wolf Man” movie, he knew that creating a werewolf that could stand apart from the creatures of films past was paramount — yet he also knew he had to satisfy genre enthusiasts who might be coming to “Wolf Man” as fans of everything from Lon Chaney Jr.’s original to John Landis‘ “An American Werewolf in London.”

“I guess I approached it first from the standpoint of, ‘What haven’t I seen yet?'” Whannell told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “When you’re adding this face to the whole hallway of portraits, you want it to have a distinctive look that is yours.” In figuring out how to thread the needle, Whannell looked to what Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger did with the character of the Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

“That’s a character that’s so iconic,...

The allure of the werewolf has persisted for centuries, rooted in mythology that speaks to our darkest fears and primal instincts. Representing a loss of control and a descent into savagery, werewolves embody the tension between humanity and beast. In cinema, these themes have been explored in a variety of ways, from tragic tales to gory thrill rides.

With the release of Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man (2025) today, the werewolf genre has received a modern update that honors its roots while exploring the emotional depths of family, sacrifice, and monstrous transformation. To celebrate, we’ve compiled the ultimate list of the best werewolf films ever made, ranked by acclaim and legacy.

10 Great Werewolf movies 1. An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Dir. John Landis

This groundbreaking horror-comedy follows two American backpackers, David and Jack, as a werewolf attack in the Yorkshire moors leaves one dead and the other cursed. David’s...

Despite a recently released featurette from Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man seemingly giving away the werewolf transformation, the truth is that Whannell’s reimagining of the 1941 Universal Monsters classic doesn’t feature a transformation at all, at least not in the conventional sense.

That’s because the entire film, set over the course of one harrowing night, centers on a man grappling with a long, painful transformation. Instead of turning into a wolf by the full moon, Christopher Abbott’s Blake instead finds himself losing his humanity as strange DNA brutally reshapes his body. Bringing this monstrous, body horror-fueled vision to life on screen was Prosthetics & Special Makeup Effects Designer Arjen Tuiten.

Tuiten’s task was daunting: designing a Wolf Man that looks nothing like his cinematic counterparts, and one that would slowly transform in stages over one night. Whannell envisioned his Wolf Man as more diseased than canine. Luckily,...

The internet is filled with facts, both true and otherwise. In Film Trivia Fact Check, we’ll browse the depths of the web’s most user-generated trivia boards and wikis and put them under the microscope. How true are the IMDb Trivia pages? You want the truth? Can you handle the truth?...

Inside every man lies a beast, waiting to be unleashed — that’s the central conceit behind most werewolf movies, be they horrifying (The Howling), sexy (the Twilight movies), or occasionally, both (the Jack Nicholson/Michelle Pfeiffer potboiler Wolf). Sometimes this full-moon fever is seen as liberating. Other times it’s a painful affliction. Rarely is it subtext. And since the gory glory days of 1980s horror, artists like Rob Bottin and Rick Baker have turned those lupine transformation scenes into special-effects showstoppers. Next to their creature-of-the-night cousins, a.k.a.

It began with the spark of a candle in 1941 related to the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons. Wait, a comic book genre?! No one was certain what to think about pages coming to life. The comic book genre has been under siege during "Awards Season" since 1978 when Christopher Reeve made the world believe a man could fly.

Recently, a different Bat signal had been emblazoned across Hollywood's sky, and it is solid gold. Can we stop hating on this genre now?

It probably won't happen as long as people like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Roland Emmerich, and David Cronenberg are helming Hollywood. They're so influential and vociferous against the comic book genre that it tends to make the award bureaus reconsider a person acting in spandex really isn't "acting." As if cosplay doesn't involve imagination.

And so, hate continues against any visual entertainment from comic books and graphic novels.

This article contains spoilers for "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" episode 7, "We're Gonna Be In So Much Trouble."

"Skeleton Crew" is a huge breath of fresh air for the "Star Wars" franchise. The series is as far removed from "Andor" as you can get, showing the versatility of the galaxy far, far away to support all kinds of tones and stories. Though "Skeleton Crew" is full of terrifying moments and dark imagery, it is very much a coming-of-age adventure for audiences of all ages -- not to mention a series that looks at a vast galaxy full of Jedi, X-Wings, and pirates with a sense of wonder that's been missing from the franchise since Luke Skywalker first stared at the binary sunset of Tatooine in "A New Hope."

One aspect where "Skeleton Crew" stands out compared to most "Star Wars" projects in recent years is how many non-human creatures are in the show.

Wolf Man's gory practical effects get a detailed look in a new video from Leigh Whannell's upcoming horror movie. Co-written and directed by Whannell – also known for Saw, Insidious, and 2020's The Invisible Man – the upcoming horror movie is a reboot of the classic 1941 film, following a family man who moves into his inherited childhood home and is attacked by a werewolf during a full moon, leading to his terrifying transformation that endangers his wife and daughter. Wolf Man's cast includes Christopher Abbott in the titular role alongside Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, and more.

Now, shared by Universal Pictures, a new behind-the-scenes video provides a detailed look at the gory practical effects in the upcoming Wolf Man. The video features co-writer–director Leigh Whannell and special make-up effects designer Arjen Tuiten explaining why practical effects were the right choice for the film, along with its stars Julia...

John Stamos got the chance to tell the Grinch himself that he nearly portrayed the Christmas villain in the famous 2000 biopic How the Grinch Stole Christmas, directed by Ron Howard and ultimately starring Jim Carrey.

Ok, that’s not technically what happened, but Stamos did say the part would’ve been his were he not allergic to the prosthetics. And he revealed this on the ’Tis the Grinch Holiday Podcast, hosted by Saturday Night Live’s James Austin Johnson, in character as the famous Dr. Seuss creation.

“Here’s an...

A couple of leaked screenshots from The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man reboot have found their way online (via Reddit), and they reveal our first glimpse of the movie's other werewolf.

Our first look at what was assumed to be the titular Wolfman via an actor in a costume at Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights was met with a lot of backlash, but the most recent trailer appeared to confirm that this will be the creature responsible for the initial attack, leaving Christopher Abbott's Blake to change into a different beast altogether.

Whannell addressed the negative response during an interview with NME.

“The marketing department for a movie is so huge,” he said, “it’s really impossible to keep tabs on every single thing. So when something comes out that maybe the internet decides they don’t like, the only thing I can think is: ‘Well,...

Jim Carrey was recently asked by ComicBook.com if there was one character from his beloved movie career that he’d love the opportunity to play again. His answer? The Grinch, but only if he did it via motion capture. The comedian is not interested in being in the makeup chair for hours undergoing an “excruciating” transformation.

“Oh, gosh, you know, if we could figure out the Grinch,” Carrey said. “The thing about it is, on the day, I do that with a ton of makeup and can hardly breathe. It was an extremely excruciating process. The children were in my mind all the time. ‘It’s for the kids. It’s for the kids. It’s for the kids.’ And now, with motion capture and things like that, I could be free to do other things. Anything is possible in this world.”

Carrey played the title character in Ron Howard...

Ever since King Kong swatted biplanes from the top of the Empire State Building in 1933, hairy creatures have occupied a place of honor in the cinematic pantheon. And in many cases, the Academy has recognized that fact: The original “King Kong” was shamefully overlooked at the Oscars, but the second-ever special award for makeup was given out in 1968 to “Planet of the Apes” — and the first time the award existed as a regular competitive category, the winner was Rick Baker for “An American Werewolf in London,” with subsequent winners including “Quest for Fire” (hairy cavemen!), “Harry and the Hendersons” (Bigfoot!), “The Wolfman” (another werewolf!) and, um, “Frida” (unibrow!).

On the visual effects side, meanwhile, the “Kong” successor “Mighty Joe Young” won in 1949, Peter Jackson’s “King Kong” remake won in 2005 and the rebooted “Planet of the Apes” series won in… Oh, wait, it shockingly never won, though its astonishing motion-capture...

Last Updated on December 9, 2024

For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up-and-coming, or well-established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at [email protected] month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…...

One might think, looking at the above headline, that this will be an article about the legendary composer John Williams, but that is not the case. Williams, perhaps shockingly, has only won five Oscars in his decades-long career, specifically for "Fiddler on the Roof," "Jaws," "Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," and "Schindler's List." The famed composer, however, has been nominated for more Oscars than anyone in history (save for one), having been recognized 54 times since 1968. Williams' most recent nomination was for "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

Others might also think of director John Ford or actor Katharine Hepburn as the most decorated talents in Oscars history, but they each only have four wins to their names. To be fair, winning four Oscars in one's field is still a huge achievement. Also, Ford holds the record as the most awarded director, and Hepburn the most awarded actor.

It's been quite a ride for Cuba Gooding Jr. When we first saw him, he was just a goofy-looking 20-year-old kid trying to keep a straight face as Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall yukked it up as heavily made-up (by the great Rick Baker) old-timers at a Queens barbershop in "Coming to America." Three years later, he was the lead of John Singleton's groundbreaking drama "Boyz n the Hood," which launched him to big-screen stardom. Or should have, anyway. Instead, Hollywood relegated him to thankless supporting roles in crap like "Lightning Jack" and "Outbreak" until he finally got another role worthy of his talent in Cameron Crowe's "Jerry Maguire." As Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell, Gooding did the sports world a service by demonstrating that uniquely talented individuals fighting to maximize their earnings before said talent fades are not the enemy; it's the business that fights hard...

The melt movie, a subcategory of body horror, is a specific flavor of genre film wherein the flesh melts, oozes, and dissolves into goo. These films are best viewed on an empty stomach.

On that note, this week brings the release of Ryan Kruger‘s Street Trash, a spiritual sequel to the 1987 melt movie cult classic that boasts no shortage of gruesome, practical effects-driven meltdowns. Flesh dissolves in vibrant but gooey fashion, inspiring this week’s streaming picks.

Brace your stomach for these five horror titles, all finding inventive new ways to explore this niche corner of body horror. As always, here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

The Blob – Tubi

Chuck Russell’s remake of the 1958 sci-fi horror film dials up the practical effects to eleven and delivers on the memorable, goopy horror moments. In keeping with tradition,...

In 1949, Alec Guinness dazzled critics and paying audiences alike by playing eight members, male and female, of the D'Ascoyne family in the deliciously dark comedy "Kind Hearts and Coronets." There weren't many actors alive cocky enough to attempt such a thing, let alone pull it off, so you'd think the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would go gaga for the actor's brazen feat and hand him the Best Actor Oscar before the ceremony began. Amazingly, he didn't even receive a nomination (though John Wayne snared his first for basically playing John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima").

How did Guinness not even earn the honor of an Oscar nod? He made one critical mistake: he gave his bravura performance in a comedy.

Of the 96 films that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, only 15 could be called comedies (and I'm being super charitable with movies like "Green Book...

Paul Engelen, the British makeup designer who earned two Emmys and two Oscar nominations in a fabulous career that included work on Reds, Batman, The Phantom Menace, Gladiator and Game of Thrones, has died. He was 75.

Engelen died Nov. 3 of cancer at his home in West Sussex, England, his son-in-law (and fellow makeup designer) Daniel Lawson Johnston told The Hollywood Reporter.

Engelen also did makeup for three James Bonds — Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig — on the 007 films The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), Die Another Day (2002), Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008).

He teamed with Blake Edwards on Victor/Victoria (1982), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), with Steven Spielberg on Empire of the Sun (1987) and Munich (2005) and with Ridley Scott on Gladiator (2000), Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and Robin Hood (2010).

Engelen shared his first Academy Award nom with Rick Baker...

Part of the reason Colin Farrell wanted to pursue a television series about Oz Cobb (a.k.a. The Penguin) is because the character "kind of was a little bit of comic relief" in The Batman, the actor explains in a new interview with SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show With Julia Cunningham.

The Oscars has added many different award categories across its history, with one being added after the success of a 1980s drama, The Elephant Man. The Academy Awards are easily the most prestigious awards in the movie industry, with the first ceremony taking place in 1929. Across the history of the Academy Awards, there have been many award categories that have been added and retired across the years; most recently the award for Best Sound Editing, which was retired in 2019.

In 2024, the Oscars announced the creation of a new awards category that will recognize a movie's casting decision. The first Academy Award for Best Achievement In Casting will be awarded at the 98th ceremony in 2025; this is the first new award category since the creation of the Best Feature Film category in 2001. Further new categories may be created in the future as seen in the movie industry's campaign for a Best Stunt Award.

It's a bit of trivia that you can use to stump friends at parties, especially those folks who fancy themselves a know-it-all about how the film industry works: doesn't a major motion picture based on a Marvel comic produced by "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" guru George Lucas during the peak of his filmmaking career sound like a sure-fire hit? Of course, it's a trick question, as the movie in question, 1986's "Howard the Duck," was a notorious flop, one which sent Lucas back to the "maybe I should think about making some 'Star Wars' prequels" drawing board and very likely helped keep more Marvel properties off the big screen for several years. Although the film was certainly not a complete waste of time — its long research & development process regarding the title character eventually led to what became Pixar — its status as a flop tarnished the careers of Lucas, director/co-writer Willard Huyck,...

Stars: Lauren Lavera, Claudia Gerini, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Linda Zampaglione, Yassine Fadel, Melanie Gaydos, Gianluigi Galvani, Courage Osabohine | Written by Federico Zampaglione, Stefano Masi | Directed by Federico Zampaglione

{Note: With the film out now on DVD, here’s reposting of our review of the fantastic Italian horror, The Well]

Lisa Gray, a budding art restorer who travels to the small Italian village of Sambuci just outside Rome to bring a medieval painting back to its former glory for a wealthy and titled client. Little does she know she is placing her life in danger from an evil curse and a monster born of myth and brutal pain.

I have been a fan of Federico Zampaglione’s genre work since I saw his film Shadow in 2009. Then came the original cut of Tulpa back at Frighfest 2012. It’s safe to say I was one of the Only people who reviewed that...

In this series exploring the history of the Star Wars franchise, we couldn’t skip over the fascinating backstory of the Emperor, whose real name, Sheev Palpatine, was revealed later, though fans know him best as Darth Sidious.

First introduced as the shadowy mastermind behind Darth Vader and the Empire in the Original Trilogy, his character received further depth and background in the Prequels.

While Ian McDiarmid is now synonymous with the role, he wasn’t the original Emperor. Several performers brought the character to life before McDiarmid’s portrayal was retroactively added to earlier films for continuity.

This article dives into the unique story behind the original Emperor—played by an actress in his first on-screen appearance. It’s a story that uncovers a surprising link between Star Wars and monkeys, building on our recent piece about Yoda, who was nearly played by one!

The Emperor’s story remains...

Awhoooo! The werewolf is back in the new Comic-Con trailer for “Wolf Man,” which is coming to theaters this winter from Blumhouse and Universal.

Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott stars as Blake, a husband and father who gets attacked by a werewolf and contracts an infection that starts turning him into a werewolf, too. He starts acting strangely and scarily. At one point, we hear what he hears when his Charlotte (three-time Emmy winner Julia Garner) is speaking to him, and it doesn’t even sound like words. As he transforms from man to beast, Charlotte tries to escape from their rural farmhouse with their daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) before it’s too late.

The horror thriller comes from director Leigh Whannell, who also wrote the script with Corbett Tuck. Whannell previously made 2020’s much-acclaimed “The Invisible Man,” another reimaging of a classic Universal Monsters character. In an interview with DiscussingFilm,...

Even a man who is pure of heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the moon is full and bright. Or so says the poem in 1941's "The Wolf Man," the Universal classic that starred Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot, an unlucky guy who gets bit by a werewolf and finds himself turning into a monster when the moon is full. It's a moody, gothic movie that pretty much gave birth to werewolf tropes as we know them today.

"The Wolf Man" was remade in 2010 as "The Wolfman," and while that film boasted some great practical makeup effects work from the legendary Rick Baker, it was a bit of a mess due to studio meddling, and the end result underperformed at the box office (the film also committed the mortal sin of nixing some of Baker's practical makeup to use some terrible CGI). Now,...

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"Men in Black" is the best kind of blockbuster. It's uncommonly smart, riotously funny, exciting, heartwarming in spots, mean-spirited in others and, best of all, short. Yes, Roger Ebert was right when he said that no good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough, but big summer movies have a tendency to give 'em too much of what they want. Sometimes, it's okay to leave the audience wanting more -- and by this I do not mean a post-credits stinger hyping the next movie in the franchise (although I am old enough to remember the thrill of waiting through the credits of a new 007 movie so I could see the "James Bond will return in..." title that typically gave viewers the title of the MI6 agent's next adventure).

At 98 minutes, "Men in Black" zips by.

Tommy Lee Jones is a great actor, but he’s not necessarily known for his work in comedies. That led to a dilemma for Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld: Who was going to tell the intimidating Tommy Lee Jones that he’s not funny?

According to a People excerpt of his upcoming book Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time, Sonnenfeld knew he was in trouble when Jones had to film an Mib scene with an alien named Mikey. Special effects guru Rick Baker created Mikey as a long-nosed Et who had multiple flippers to go along with the usual arms and legs.

In the scene, Jones’ tough-guy Agent K interrogates Mikey while puppeteers manipulate his eyes, mouth and flippers. The alien is protesting his innocence when Jones interrupts him with a stern, “That’s enough, Mikey. Put up your hands.”

And then, writes Sonnenfeld, “Mr. Jones sing-songs his...

Somehow, the Gotham City shown in “The Penguin” is an even darker, more violent place than fans saw in “The Batman” – and that was by design.

The HBO series picks up shortly after the events of Matt Reeves’ 2022 film, and things couldn’t be worse for the city. Much of it is still reeling from The Riddler (Paul Dano) flooding parts of town, and the criminal underworld is racing to fill the power vacuum left by Carmine Falcone’s (John Turturro) death. Things are looking bleak.

“The Batman” managed to show plenty of the violent, depraved corners of Gotham, but still felt held back on occasion by it’s PG-13 rating. Colin Farrell said even he felt it at times on set.

“I was fighting to try to get a cigar into the film,” Farrell told TheWrap. “I got to the stage where I was like, ‘Can I even just...

Grotesquerie Trailer: "In Ryan Murphy’s 10-episode drama series Grotesquerie for FX, a series of heinous crimes have unsettled a small community. “Detective Lois Tryon” feels these crimes are eerily personal, as if someone—or something—taunting her. At home, Lois grapples with a strained relationship with her daughter, a husband in long-term hospital care and her own inner demons. With no leads and unsure of where to turn, she accepts the help of “Sister Megan,” a nun and journalist with the Catholic Guardian. Sister Megan, with her own difficult past, has seen the worst of humanity, yet she still believes in its capacity for good. Lois, on the other hand, fears the world is succumbing to evil. As Lois and Sister Megan string together clues, they find themselves ensnared in a sinister web that only seems to raise more questions than answers.

The series stars Niecy Nash-Betts as “Detective Lois Tryon,...

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“Star Wars” is good about keeping the content churning for fans: the franchise most recently released the highly anticipated “Acolyte” in June, with several other offshoots also in the works, including “Skeleton Crew” and “Lando.”

All the “Star Wars” content also means that there’s always new galactic-themed merch and gadgets to gift the biggest fans in your life. Below are 35 of the most unique, fun and nerdy “Star Wars” goods to gift this year.

Icons Unearthed: Star Wars

This new Star Wars book features an oral history into the biggest sci-fi franchise of all time. The book includes exclusive interviews with Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Paul Hirsch, Phil Tippett, Rick Baker, Ken Ralston, John Dykstra and more. The biggest interview: new details from Marcia Lucas, the ex-wife of George Lucas,...

Jeff Lieberman’s Squirm cheekily suggests what Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds might’ve been like had it been scripted by Tennessee Williams. The film’s deft blend of animal-attack horror and Southern Gothic strangeness yields an experience that’s likely somewhat different than what you might expect when you hear the high-concept pitch: “Killer earthworms run amok in a tiny Georgia town.” Distributor Aip made a few trims to some grisly early FX work from Rick Baker, and a few flashes of frontal nudity, making sure that Squirm would squeak by with a PG rating, thereby allowing an entire generation of underage viewers to be exposed to its gruesome spectacle.

Lieberman takes his time with the buildup, carefully sketching in the dynamics of the Sanders family, whose household serves as the film’s central location. Matriarch Naomi (Jean Sullivan) seems lost in reveries about her dead husband. Hip teen...

To borrow a phrase from Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in "Jurassic Park" -- Now, eventually, you might have Beetlejuice in your "Beetlejuice" movie, right? It takes a while for Michael Keaton's "Ghost With the Most" to properly show up in Tim Burton's classic 1988 supernatural comedy, and even after that, he's only onscreen for a little over 17 minutes. In fact, Beetlejuice is mostly irrelevant to the plot, much of which centers around the lovable, recently-deceased Maitlands (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) trying and failing to scare the off-putting, still-breathing Deetzes from their home. It's only in the third act that Beetlejuice fully evolves into the film's antagonist, giving the two families a common enemy to unite against.

Nearly 40 years years later, you might think that Burton's long-in-the-making sequel "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" -- a movie that Burton himself has credited for rekindling his passion for filmmaking -- would change things,...

If one is looking for a real-life depiction of the human experience, one should look no further than Quentin Tarantino. From Pulp Fiction to Django Unchained, Inglorious Bastards, and even Kill Bill, the director showcases an odd mix between raw, realistic characters, and films that are love letters to Hollywood. Being the perfect balance of the two, he certainly knows a thing or two about striking feelings from his audience.

Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) [Credit: Miramax]There is no better example of his talents than his 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs. Being the first in his line of masterpieces, the film was the industry’s first introduction to the beautiful worlds that Tarantino creates and the first to shock its audience in every way possible.

While a majority of the conversation around the film was about its story, there was one specific scene that ended up being a little too gory for some viewers.

I love me some damn dirty apes, and I’m not alone. Ever since the first Planet of the Apes movie in 1968, it’s been one of Hollywood’s most consistent (on a quality level) franchises. Think about it. Has there ever really been a lousy Planet of the Apes movie? Not really. Yet, it’s often unheralded when we talk about the great franchises. So, let’s look at the series as a whole, with this Planet of the Apes movies ranked list (from worst to best). And don’t worry – you’ll get to have your say tomorrow with a poll I’ll be publishing, so check back for that.

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Tim Burton’s remake of the original 1968 classic is a mixed bag. Mark Wahlberg was a little too green at this point in his career to make a captivating action hero, with him paling...

Featuring a star-studded cast of actors, Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake focuses on impressive sets and makeup for a B-movie vibe. Paul Giamatti's role as Limbo in the film showcases his dedication to transforming his appearance for an impactful performance. Despite initial doubts from his agents, Giamatti's commitment to playing an ape in the franchise highlights his love for Planet of the Apes movies.

Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes features a large cast of notable actors and actresses, many covered in ape costuming and makeup, and Paul Giamatti had a lot to say about that. The 2001 Planet of the Apes is the sixth film in the Planet of the Apes movie franchise and the first remake of the series. Unlike the previous Apes movies, Tim Burton's is not as interested in a grand political or societal statement, and the remake instead operates as a B-movie...

Few directors have enjoyed as successful a run as John Carpenter did from the late 70s to the late 80s. The writer-director-composer cranked out nine notable theatrical flicks from 78 to 88, and while not many of them were theatrical hits, they’re all now considered classics, either of the bona fide or cult variety. The 90s, however, were not so kind to the man. Starting with the ill-fated Memoirs of an Invisible Man, which was a difficult production and, ultimately, a box office bomb, Carpenter struggled to mirror the success he’d enjoyed in the 80s. There’s no doubt that some of the titles have their supporters: In the Mouth of Madness is a genuinely entertaining nightmare of a movie, and his Showtime anthology Body Bags is enjoyable, if fairly forgettable – save for Carpenter’s extremely amusing performance as our undead host. And while yours truly is not a fan,...

Stop-motion animation is responsible for some of the most heartwarming moments in the history of film, but even the most ardent fan of Claymation has to admit that there’s something inherently uncanny about puppetry where you can’t see the strings. The very act of bringing an inanimate humanoid figure to life recalls spooky tales of monsters and dark sorcery, so it’s not surprising that stop-motion has also been used as a tool to scare.

And with modern media like The Shivering Truth and Robert Morgan’s Stopmotion reminding us that animation can convey terror just as easily as cartoony laughs, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the scariest stop-motion effects in horror.

For the purposes of this list, we’ll be considering any film that utilizes stop-motion to bring a character to life, be it as a brief photo-realistic special effect or traditional animation.

Axel Foley makes his glorious return to Beverly Hills this week with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F gracing our home screens. And while Axel is one of Eddie Murphy’s most famous characters, there is no shortage of iconic roles from the comedian. Audiences have gravitated towards the likes of Axel, Reggie Hammond from 48 Hrs., Akeem from Coming to America, or even Chandler Gerald from The Golden Child. However, Murphy himself feels his best performance (or rather performances) comes from the 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor, in which he famously played the Klump family, minus the child, as well as a take on Richard Simmons.

In a new interview with The New York Times, Eddie reflects on his past performances. The interviewer brought up the film Bowfinger and praised Murphy’s performance (where he also played multiple roles as twins). However, Murphy still holds Nutty Professor at the top. The Beverly Hills Cop star stated,...

Eddie Murphy considers The Nutty Professor his best performance due to transformative makeups by Rick Baker. He believes few other actors could play the role of Sherman Klump like he did. Murphy has other iconic roles, including Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop and Donkey in the Shrek series.

Eddie Murphy explains why he thinks The Nutty Professor is his best performance of all time. A remake of the 1963 film of the same name, 1996's The Nutty Professor, sees Murphy playing Sherman Klump, an obese and lovable professor that discovers a unique chemical that magically induces his weight loss. In addition to Murphy, the film featured a leading cast including Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chapelle, and John Ales. The Nutty Professor was well-liked during the time of its release, and inspired the sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.

Speaking with The New York Times, Murphy explains...

The one redeemable quality of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake is the impressive practical ape prosthetics. Despite the film's flaws, the practical apes still stand out after over 2 decades due to their remarkable look. While the CGI apes in later films work better, Burton's use of practical effects remains a standout in the franchise.

I've always thought that Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake is the worst entry in the franchise, but the one redeemable quality of the film still impresses me 23 years later. Tim Burton's 2001 remake of the classic sci-fi franchise could have ushered in a wonderful new age for Planet of the Apes, with the film pairing one of the most beloved directors of the time with the franchise that had then been dormant for a while. However, Burton's Planet of the Apes is considered a failure, although it succeeded in this one major way.

Nature will run amok when Kino Lorber unleashes five classic eco-horrors on Blu-ray as part of its Kino Cult line:The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, Frogs, Squirm, and Kingdom of the Spiders. Due out on August 20, each title comes with a slipcover and features reversible artwork. Pre-orders are up for $24.95.

1976’s The Food of the Gods is written and directed by Bert I. Gordon, based on H. G. Wells’ 1904 novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth. Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, Jon Cypher, and Ida Lupino star.

In the film, “On a remote island, a mysterious substance is oozing from the ground. A farmer sees that it acts as a growth hormone and thinks his fortune is made. But when rats, chickens, worms and wasps begin sampling the potent substance, they morph into bloodthirsty giants! Now, it’s up to...

Joe Dante's "Gremlins" is a one-of-a-kind blockbuster from an era when studios hadn't quite yet developed the formula for producing hit movies. In the early 1980s, executives under pressure to find projects capable of breaking the coveted $100 million domestic mark relied heavily on movie stars or bestselling books, but to strike gold you needed vision. That meant finding a visionary.

There were two 30-something film brats who fit this profile during that period: George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. And since Lucas was, at the moment, a two-franchise man with "Star Wars" and the just-taking-off Indiana Jones series, Spielberg, who'd just set up his production company Amblin Entertainment at Universal Pictures, was the closest thing to a Walt Disney alive and unfrozen in Hollywood.

After scoring a one-two box-office knockout in 1982 with "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Poltergeist," Spielberg was eager to expand his burgeoning showbiz empire. For his first official,...

The term wizard can be thrown around a lot. Wizards make magic, can create life from the ether, and conjure things that are beautiful and sometimes monstrous. There aren’t many wizards out in the world these days, but I know of one by name and that name is Rick Baker. Baker is a master of the monsters and a wizard of special effects. He’s an artist and a visionary who made some of the most memorable creatures and effects to grace movie and TV screens of the last few decades. He’s also an unabashed Monster Kid who has never lost his love and fascination for the classics. On todays episode of What Happened To This Horror Celebrity we’re meeting a wizard of the wicked and magician of monsters as we reveal what happened to Rick Baker.

Rick Baker was born in 1950 to Doris and Ralph Baker in New York.

Tom Savini. Rick Baker. Dick Smith. Rob Bottin. Ve Neill. Stan Winston.

The world of special effects makeup often feels like a dying art, with studios and streamers increasingly pursuing CGI and digital FX over practical artistry. Now, there is absolutely room for both styles and different films call for different methods, but gone are the days where the average moviegoer can recognize the name of a special effects makeup artist. Diehard fans are, of course, the exception to the rule, and there's at least one name that horror fanatics all know by heart and are stoked as hell to see on an end credits crawl: Steven Kostanski.

For the uninitiated, Steven Kostanski is one of the most fascinating voices in genre cinema working today. His films "The Void" and "Psycho Goreman" are both well-loved favorites, he finally gave the "Leprechaun" franchise a solid film with "Leprechaun Returns," and Kostanski's...

Starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, the 1997 film Men In Black was a huge hit upon its release, earning critical and commercial success, which was followed by two sequels along with a stand-alone fourth installment. However, crafting the intricate world of aliens and secret agents proved a formidable challenge for the creators.

Men in Black | Credit: Columbia Pictures

In a 2022 oral history of Men In Black discussion, director Barry Sonnenfeld, production designer Bo Welch, and screenwriter Ed Solomon reflected on the process of making the movie and revealed how they spent close to $1 million on an animatronic bug, ultimately abandoning its use in the final cut.

Men in Black Spent $1 Million in an Unused Giant Animatronic Bug

The first film in the Men in Black franchise follows Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) and Agent J (Will Smith) as they investigate a series of alien-related incidents, and across a dangerous...

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the 10th and latest entry in the 56-year-old science fiction film series, made more than $58 million at the box office in its opening weekend. Not only did the movie exceed analysts’ expectations but it proved that seven years after the previous film in the cycle, and nearly six decades since the whole barrel of monkeys started, there is still an audience out there for this venerable and fascinating concept.

Which is all the more impressive when you consider how much of a unicorn this series is among the various stories, brands, and “intellectual property” revisited time and again by modern film studios. Whereas other franchises are eager at constantly revisiting their pasts, the Apes movies have proved remarkably elastic in stretching their concepts in the direction of new ideas and stories. There is of course some pushback by fans. A brief perusal of...