Movie Reviews
Film and television reviewed the way I’d want to read them — with a rating that means something, an honest accounting of what works and what doesn’t, and craft notes for writers who want to understand how the machinery operates.
Each review includes a craft notes section for writers — specific observations about structure, character, world-building, and what the film does that you can actually use. Not theory. Technique you can steal.
Horror (124)
May 19, 202628 Days Later (2002)
Danny Boyle directs the British zombie film about a man waking from a coma to find London depopulated by a rage virus.
Jun 6, 202630 Days of Night (2007)
Vampires descend on an Alaskan town facing a month without sunrise. A lean, brutal 7/10 with one of horror's best premises, reviewed at Master of Worlds.
Jun 6, 2026A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Ana Lily Amirpour's black-and-white Iranian vampire Western is the genre's most striking recent debut. A stylish 7.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 15, 2026A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the foundational American horror films of the 1980s. Seen the original three times. Seen Freddy vs. Jason twice. The 8 rating is honest evaluation of the combined achievement. Wes Craven wrote and directed the 1984 original. John Saxon, Robert Englund as Freddy...
May 19, 2026A Quiet Place (2018)
John Krasinski directs the post-apocalyptic horror about a family surviving in silence to avoid blind monsters that hunt by sound.
Jun 6, 2026Abigail (2024)
Kidnappers grab a twelve-year-old ballerina who turns out to be a centuries-old vampire. A gleefully gory, fun 7/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026All Cheerleaders Die (2013)
Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson's 2013 American supernatural horror film about four high school cheerleaders resurrected by witchcraft after a car crash and seeking revenge on the football players who caused their deaths. McKee's distinctive feminist horror sensibility shapes the cult-genre production.
May 19, 2026An American Werewolf in London (1981)
John Landis' 1981 horror-comedy. Rick Baker transformation effects won first Best Makeup Oscar. Blue Moon, Bad Moon, Moondance.
May 19, 2026Audition (1999)
Takashi Miike directs the story of a widower staging fake auditions to find a new wife, with consequences he could not anticipate.
May 19, 2026Beetlejuice (1988)
Tim Burton's comedy about a deceased couple haunting their old house and hiring a deranged bio-exorcist to scare out the living family.
May 19, 2026Black Christmas (1974)
A sorority house is terrorized by an unseen caller during Christmas break, in the proto-slasher that preceded Halloween by four years.
Jun 6, 2026Black Sunday (1960)
Mario Bava's debut is one of the most visually ravishing horror films ever made and launched Italian gothic. A stunning 8/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
Jun 6, 2026Blacula (1972)
William Marshall plays a tragic vampire prince with Shakespearean dignity in this landmark Black-led horror film. A surprising 6.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
Jun 6, 2026Blood for Dracula (1974)
Paul Morrissey reimagines Dracula as a dying aristocrat starving for virgin blood in a changed world. A strange, poignant 6.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Coppola's 1992 maximalist Dracula. Oldman, Ryder, Hopkins, Reeves. Practical effects, period costuming, committed strangeness.
May 19, 2026Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
James Whale's sequel where the resurrected creature demands a mate, leading the doctor back to his laboratory.
Jun 6, 2026Byzantium (2012)
Neil Jordan returns to vampires with a feminist story of a mother and daughter surviving two centuries. A thoughtful 7.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Candyman (1992)
Bernard Rose adapts Clive Barker's story about a graduate student researching an urban legend that summons a hook-handed killer.
May 19, 2026Carrie (1976)
Brian De Palma's 1976 King adaptation. Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, John Travolta supporting. Prom telekinesis. The split screen.
May 19, 2026Cheerleader Camp (1988)
John Quinn's 1988 American slasher film about a high school cheerleading squad attending a competitive summer camp where members are murdered one by one. Betsy Russell stars as the troubled lead in the canonical 1980s cheerleader-slasher entry.
Jun 6, 2026Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
Count Yorga dropped an old-world vampire into 1970 Los Angeles and got there before the rest of the genre. An influential 6.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Crimson Peak (2015)
Guillermo del Toro's 2015 Edwardian gothic. Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain. Visual maximalism over plot.
Jun 6, 2026Cronos (1993)
Guillermo del Toro reroutes the vampire myth through a clockwork device in his startling 1993 debut. A tender, melancholy 8/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Survivors of the zombie apocalypse take refuge in a suburban shopping mall, in George Romero's social satire sequel.
Jun 6, 2026Daybreakers (2009)
The Spierig brothers imagine a world where vampires won and the blood is running out. A smart, uneven 7/10 dystopian vampire film reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Don’t Look Now (1973)
Nicolas Roeg's 1973 Venice grief drama. Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie. Red coat, drowned daughter. The famous sex-scene editing.
May 15, 2026Dracula (1931 / 1992 / 2000 / 2014) — Contrast Review
Dracula is one of the most extensively adapted properties in cinema history. Bram Stoker's 1897 novel has generated hundreds of film and television productions across the past century. The four versions covered here represent significant phases of Dracula adaptation across the past ninety-five...
Jun 6, 2026Dracula (1958)
Hammer's 1958 Dracula made the vampire physical, sexual, and bloody. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in a landmark 8/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
Jun 6, 2026Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
Christopher Lee returns as Dracula without a single line of dialogue, and the resurrection scene is among Hammer's best. A solid 7/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 17, 2026Eraserhead (1977)
Lynch's 1977 debut. Five years of weekend shooting. Black-and-white industrial nightmare with a deformed baby. The film Lynch never explained.
May 19, 2026Evil Dead II (1987)
Sam Raimi's part-remake, part-sequel where Ash returns to the cabin and battles increasingly absurd demonic forces.
May 19, 2026Frankenstein (1931)
Boris Karloff plays the creature stitched together from corpses and animated by a scientist who quickly loses control of his creation.
May 19, 2026Friday the 13th (1980)
Counselors at a summer camp reopening after a drowning tragedy are stalked and killed by an unseen attacker.
May 19, 2026Fright Night (1985)
A teenager discovers his new neighbor is a vampire and seeks help from a washed-up TV horror host.
Jun 6, 2026From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's crime film detonates into a vampire splatter comedy at the halfway mark. A fun, shallow 7/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Get Out (2017)
Jordan Peele's 2017 directorial debut. Daniel Kaluuya at his white girlfriend's parents' house. Sunken Place. Won Best Original Screenplay.
May 19, 2026Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter's 1978 slasher template. Michael Myers in mask, Jamie Lee Curtis debut. The Carpenter score. Foundation of every slasher.
May 16, 2026Hellraiser Franchise (1987-1996)
Four theatrical Hellraiser films, 1987-1996. Clive Barker source material. Doug Bradley's Pinhead became canonical horror cinema material.
May 17, 2026Hereditary (2018)
Ari Aster's 2018 debut. Toni Collette as a mother whose family unravels after her own mother's death. The dinner table scene. Hard to shake.
Jun 6, 2026Innocent Blood (1992)
John Landis fuses the vampire film with the mob movie in a fun, tonally chaotic horror comedy. A messy, entertaining 6/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Insidious (2010)
James Wan's haunted house story where a comatose boy's spirit is trapped in a dimensional space called the Further.
May 19, 2026Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Neil Jordan's 1994 Anne Rice adaptation. Cruise as Lestat, Pitt as Louis. Operatic vampire melodrama. Young Kirsten Dunst.
May 19, 2026It (2017)
Andrés Muschietti adapts the first half of King's novel about children battling a shape-shifting evil in 1980s Derry, Maine.
May 19, 2026It Follows (2014)
David Robert Mitchell's allegorical horror where a sexually transmitted curse manifests as a slow-moving figure visible only to the victim.
May 19, 2026Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Karyn Kusama's 2009 American horror comedy with screenplay by Diablo Cody about a high school cheerleader possessed by a demon who feeds on her male classmates. Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried star in the substantially reappraised feminist horror landmark of the late 2000s.
May 19, 2026Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)
Takashi Shimizu's haunted house horror where a curse spreads from anyone who enters a Tokyo home where a murder occurred.
May 19, 2026King Kong (1933)
Cooper-Schoedsack 1933 monster adventure. Willis O'Brien stop-motion. Skull Island to Empire State. Template for everything since.
May 19, 2026Krampus (2015)
A dysfunctional family's hostile Christmas attracts the attention of the anti-Santa demon Krampus, who arrives with monstrous helpers.
Jun 6, 2026Let Me In (2010)
Matt Reeves remakes Let the Right One In with care and conviction. A haunting 8/10 about two lonely children, reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 17, 2026Let the Right One In (2008)
Alfredson's 2008 Swedish vampire film. A bullied 12-year-old boy and the girl-shaped vampire next door. The American remake softened everything that worked.
Jun 6, 2026Martin (1977)
George Romero's Martin asks whether vampires exist at all. A grim, intelligent 8/10 set in dying steel-country Pennsylvania, reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 17, 2026Midsommar (2019)
Aster's 2019 Swedish cult drama. Florence Pugh as a grieving woman dragged to a midsummer festival. Daylight horror. Two hours twenty, longer cut available.
May 19, 2026Misery (1990)
A romance novelist crashes in a Colorado snowstorm and is rescued by a deranged fan who imprisons him in her remote home.
Jun 6, 2026Nadja (1994)
Michael Almereyda's black-and-white art-house vampire film filters Dracula through nineties indie cool. A singular, niche 6.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
Jun 6, 2026Near Dark (1987)
Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark strips every vampire cliche and builds a Western instead. A feral, frightening 8.5/10 reviewed in depth at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Night of the Living Dead (1968)
George Romero's 1968 zombie template. Public domain accident. Black protagonist in 1968. The genre's foundational document.
Jun 6, 2026Nosferatu (1922)
F.W. Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu invented vampire cinema and still frightens a century later. A 9/10 landmark reviewed in depth at Master of Worlds.
Jun 6, 2026Nosferatu (2024)
Robert Eggers brings obsessive period craft to the third great Nosferatu, with a ferocious Lily-Rose Depp at its center. A demanding 8/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
Jun 6, 2026Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Werner Herzog remakes Murnau as a tragedy, and Klaus Kinski's Dracula is the genre's saddest monster. A haunting 8.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Pet Sematary (1989)
A family discovers an ancient burial ground behind their Maine home that returns the dead to life, but wrong.
May 19, 2026Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Brian De Palma's 1974 cult musical horror. Faust crossed with Phantom of the Opera. Paul Williams as the devil. Strange and singular.
May 16, 2026Poltergeist 1 & 2 (1982, 1986)
Two Poltergeist films, 1982 and 1986. Spielberg-Hooper directorial credit complications. Foundational suburban horror cinema.
May 19, 2026Psycho (1960)
Hitchcock's adaptation of Robert Bloch's novel about a woman who steals from her employer and stops at the wrong motel.
May 19, 2026Re-Animator (1985)
Stuart Gordon adapts H.P. Lovecraft's story about a medical student who develops a serum that revives the dead.
Jun 6, 2026Renfield (2023)
Nicolas Cage's gloriously unhinged Dracula anchors a comedy about escaping a toxic boss, undercut by an overstuffed plot. A flawed, fun 6/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Ringu (1998)
Hideo Nakata directs the Japanese supernatural horror about a cursed videotape that kills viewers seven days after watching.
May 19, 2026Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Roman Polanski's 1968 satanic pregnancy drama. Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes. The Dakota apartment building. Coven of nice neighbors.
Jun 6, 2026Salem’s Lot (1979)
Tobe Hooper made one of the finest TV horror productions ever, with a silent Nosferatu-style vampire and unforgettable scares. A 7.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977)
Greydon Clark's 1977 American horror film about a high school cheerleading squad kidnapped by Satanic cultists for a sacrifice ritual. Canonical entry in the cheerleader-horror crossover with John Carradine and Yvonne De Carlo in supporting roles.
May 19, 2026Saw (2004)
Two men wake chained in a filthy bathroom and discover they are pawns in a sadistic puzzle designed by the Jigsaw killer.
May 19, 2026Scream (1996)
Wes Craven directs the meta slasher about a high school targeted by a killer in a Ghostface mask who knows horror conventions.
Jun 6, 2026Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
What if the actor in Nosferatu was a real vampire? Willem Dafoe is extraordinary in this clever 7.5/10 horror film reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
A traumatized young man dons a Santa suit and goes on a killing spree, in the controversial slasher that protested over its release.
Jun 6, 2026Sinners (2025)
Ryan Coogler's Jim Crow-era vampire film uses the genre to explore Black art and cultural memory. The most ambitious vampire film in a generation, a 9/10 at Master of Worlds.
May 18, 2026Sleepy Hollow (1999)
1999 Tim Burton gothic horror with Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane investigating Headless Horseman beheadings in 1799 New York.
Jun 6, 2026Stake Land (2010)
Jim Mickle's Stake Land uses vampires as backdrop for a melancholy survival drama. A sincere, atmospheric 7/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026Suspiria (1977)
Dario Argento directs the giallo horror about an American dance student who discovers her German ballet academy is run by witches.
May 19, 2026The Amityville Horror (1979)
A family moves into a Long Island house where a mass murder occurred, and supernatural events drive them out.
May 19, 2026The Babadook (2014)
Jennifer Kent's 2014 Australian grief horror. Essie Davis as widowed mother. Mister Babadook book. Practical effects throughout.
May 15, 2026The Birds (1963) — Review
The Birds is one of Alfred Hitchcock's great achievements and one of the most influential horror productions in American cinema history. Alfred Hitchcock directed. Evan Hunter wrote the screenplay from a Daphne du Maurier short story. The film was released in March 1963. It grossed approximately...
May 19, 2026The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Three student filmmakers documenting a Maryland witch legend get lost in the woods, in the found-footage horror pioneer.
Jun 6, 2026The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Hammer built a gorgeous sequel without Christopher Lee, and it may be better than the original. A beautiful 7.5/10 gothic reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's meta-horror about college students at a remote cabin who discover their ordeal is engineered.
May 19, 2026The Conjuring (2013)
James Wan directs the period haunting based on the Warrens' investigation of a Rhode Island farmhouse in 1971.
May 19, 2026The Descent (2005)
Neil Marshall directs the story of six women on a caving expedition trapped in unmapped Appalachian caverns inhabited by predators.
May 18, 2026The Devil’s Advocate (1997)
1997 Taylor Hackford supernatural thriller with Keanu Reeves as a defense lawyer recruited by Al Pacino's New York firm.
May 19, 2026The Evil Dead (1981)
Five college students vacationing at a Tennessee cabin awaken demonic spirits through a Sumerian text, in Sam Raimi's debut.
May 19, 2026The Exorcist (1973)
William Friedkin's 1973 demonic possession drama. Linda Blair as Regan, Max von Sydow as Father Merrin. Highest-grossing horror.
Jun 6, 2026The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
Roman Polanski's affectionate Hammer parody is more gorgeous gothic fairy tale than laugh-out-loud comedy. A charming, uneven 6.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 19, 2026The Final Girls (2015)
Todd Strauss-Schulson's 2015 American meta-horror comedy about a grieving teenager and her friends pulled into the 1980s slasher film starring her dead mother where the cheerleader and counselor characters are stalked by a masked killer. Taissa Farmiga and Malin Akerman star in the canonical 2010s meta-slasher.
May 19, 2026The Fly (1986)
David Cronenberg's body horror about a scientist whose teleportation experiment merges his DNA with a housefly.
May 19, 2026The Fog (1980)
John Carpenter directs the story of a California coastal town haunted by the vengeful ghosts of mariners killed a century earlier.
May 19, 2026The Haunting (1963)
Robert Wise's 1963 Shirley Jackson adaptation. Hill House through implication rather than effects. Influenced every haunted house since.
Jun 6, 2026The Hunger (1983)
Tony Scott's The Hunger is one of the most beautiful and emptiest vampire films ever made. Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie in a stylish 6.5/10.
May 19, 2026The Innocents (1961)
Jack Clayton's 1961 Turn of the Screw adaptation. Deborah Kerr as the governess. Atmospheric horror that earns its slow burn.
Jun 6, 2026The Invitation (2022)
A promising gothic premise about a sinister aristocratic family hiding a Dracula secret, sanded smooth for mass appeal. A forgettable 5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
Jun 6, 2026The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)
A few haunting pages of Dracula become a contained creature feature aboard a doomed ship. A handsome, uneven 6.5/10 reviewed at Master of Worlds.
May 17, 2026The Lighthouse (2019)
Eggers's 2019 black-and-white nightmare. Dafoe and Pattinson trapped on a New England rock. 1.19:1 aspect ratio. Lobster, mermaid, gull.
May 19, 2026The Lost Boys (1987)
Joel Schumacher directs the story of teenage brothers moving to a California coastal town where the local cool kids are vampires.
May 18, 2026The Mummy (2017)
2017 Alex Kurtzman action horror with Tom Cruise unleashing an ancient Egyptian princess. Universal's failed Dark Universe launch.