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.
Supernatural (37)
May 19, 2026A Christmas Carol (1984)
George C. Scott plays Scrooge in a faithful television adaptation that became a holiday staple after theatrical release.
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, 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, 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, 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, 2026Fright Night (1985)
A teenager discovers his new neighbor is a vampire and seeks help from a washed-up TV horror host.
May 16, 2026Ghost (1990)
Jerry Zucker's 1990 supernatural romance. Swayze, Moore, Goldberg. The pottery scene, the subway ghost. Holds up better than expected.
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, 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, 2026Krampus (2015)
A dysfunctional family's hostile Christmas attracts the attention of the anti-Santa demon Krampus, who arrives with monstrous helpers.
May 19, 2026Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
A department store Santa claims to be the real Kris Kringle, and a lawyer must defend him in court.
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 16, 2026Poltergeist 1 & 2 (1982, 1986)
Two Poltergeist films, 1982 and 1986. Spielberg-Hooper directorial credit complications. Foundational suburban horror cinema.
May 19, 2026Ringu (1998)
Hideo Nakata directs the Japanese supernatural horror about a cursed videotape that kills viewers seven days after watching.
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, 2026Scrooge (1951)
Alastair Sim plays Ebenezer Scrooge in the definitive screen adaptation of Dickens, visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve.
May 19, 2026Scrooged (1988)
A cynical TV executive producing a live Christmas Carol broadcast is visited by three spirits who confront his soul.
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 Bishop’s Wife (1947)
An Episcopal bishop praying for help with his cathedral project receives an angel who arrives to assist, though not in the way expected.
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.
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 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 Fog (1980)
John Carpenter directs the story of a California coastal town haunted by the vengeful ghosts of mariners killed a century earlier.
May 17, 2026The Green Mile (1999)
Darabont's 1999 King prison drama. Hanks, Duncan, James Cromwell. Death row, supernatural healing, electric chair. Three hours and earns the length.
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 19, 2026The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Michael Caine plays Scrooge opposite Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the Muppet ensemble in a sincere adaptation of Dickens.
May 19, 2026The Omen (1976)
An American diplomat learns his adopted son may be the Antichrist as people around the boy die in supernatural accidents.
May 19, 2026The Others (2001)
Amenabar's 2001 haunted house with Nicole Kidman. WWII period, light-sensitive children, accumulated dread. Twist that works.
May 19, 2026The Santa Clause (1994)
A divorced father inadvertently kills Santa Claus and discovers a contractual clause requiring him to take over the role permanently.
May 19, 2026The Sixth Sense (1999)
M. Night Shyamalan's story of a child psychologist treating a boy who sees dead people, with the famous third-act revelation.
May 16, 2026The Sixth Sense (1999)
M. Night Shyamalan's 1999 ghost story with the most-quoted twist of its decade. Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, a script that earns its reveal twice.
May 19, 2026The Wolf Man (1941)
Lon Chaney Jr. plays a man bitten by a werewolf in a Welsh village who transforms during the full moon.