horror | the m0vie blog

327. Child’s Play 3 (#—)

Posted on July 1, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Charlene Lydon, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, Jack Bender’s Child’s Play 3.

After years of legal trouble arising from a high-profile controversy surrounding an alleged “killer doll”, Play Pals is back in business. However, the first doll off the line turns out to have a pretty mean attitude. Reconstituted from the remains of the original possessed doll, Charles Lee Ray once again finds himself trapped in a plastic body. Setting out to avenge himself on Andy Barclay, Chucky discovers that his old adversary has been sent to military school. This time, it seems, it’s war.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: andy barclay, Brad Dourif, charlene lydon, child's play, child's play 3, chucky, doll, gender, horror, killer doll, masculinity, military school, slasher | Leave a comment »

326. Child’s Play 2 (#—)

Posted on June 3, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Charlene Lydon, this week joined by special guest Diamanda Hagan, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, John Lafia’s Child’s Play 2.

Following a series of unexplained traumatic events, Andy Barclay has been taken into foster care, hoping to put the nightmare of “Chucky” behind him. Unfortunately, the Play Pal Corporation has other ideas. Desperate to put rumours about their Good Guy Dolls to rest, the company decides to reconstruct the doll at the centre of that horrific incident. Naturally, the doll takes on a life of its own, and Chucky resumes his fixation on the young victim who got away.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: andy barclay, Brad Dourif, charlene lydon, charles lee ray, child's play, child's play 2, chucky, diamanda hagan, don mancini, horror, john lafia, roger ebert, sequel, slasher | Leave a comment »

336. Jeepers Creepers: Reborn (-#37)

Posted on May 27, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guests Joey Keogh and Billie Jean Doheny, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, Timo Vuorensola’s Jeepers Creepers: Reborn.

Twenty-three years after its last feeding frenzy, the mysterious “Creeper” has emerged from its rest, and it hungers. Finding itself drawn to a horror convention in Louisiana, the Creeper plans to unleash a nightmare all of its own upon the unsuspecting cosplayers.

At time of recording, it was ranked 37th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The Bottom 100, This Just In | Tagged: #metoo, billie jean doheny, hollywood, horror, ip, jeepers creeper, jeepers creepers: reborn, joey keogh, me too, nathan winters, podcast, reboot, sequel, sexual assault, slasher, The 250, The Bottom 100, the creeper, Timo Vuorensola, victor salva | Leave a comment »

325. Child’s Play (#—)

Posted on May 20, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Charlene Lydon, this week joined by special guest Bren Murphy, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, Tom Holland’s Child’s Play.

Young Andy Barclay just wants one thing for his birthday: a Good Guy Doll. However, the coveted toy is outside his mother’s price range. Luckily, fate brings a discount doll into her hands, but things quickly become complicated. Andy finds himself at the centre of a series of mysterious deaths and is convinced that his beloved companion has taken on a life of his own, inheriting the spirit of the serial killer Charles Lee Ray, better known as “Chucky.”

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: Brad Dourif, charlene lydon, child's play, consumerism, don mancini, horror, imdb, killer dolls, mayhem, murder, podcast, slasher, The 250, Tom Holland | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Scream VI is a Safe but Sturdy Slasher”

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a five-minute film review of Scream VI, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: escapist, franchise, high-concept, horror, Randy, review, Scream, scream vi, sequel, slasher, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Scream 4” Took the Franchise’s Self-Awareness to Its Logical Endpoint…

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Darren

We’re launching a new column at The Escapist, called Out of Focus. It will publish every Wednesday, and the plan is to use it to look at some film and television that would maybe fall outside the remit of In the Frame, more marginal titles or objects of cult interest. With the upcoming release of Scream VI, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the criminally underrated Scream 4.

The last film in the franchise to be written by Kevin Williamson or directed by Wes Craven, Scream 4 exists in a weird space. It is separated from the two film either side of it by more than a decade, the only point in time where the franchise wasn’t coming out on a regular basis. However, it’s a movie that feels very firmly ahead of its time. It was released years before Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and David Gordon Green’s Halloween, but it feels in conversation with a wider culture caught in a feedback loop of Gen X nostalgia.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 1990s, Emma Roberts, franchise, gen x, horror, Kevin Williamson, meta, nineties, nostalgia, out of focus, Scream, self-awareness, slasher, wes craven | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On M. Night Shyamalan’s Fascination with Faith…

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Darren

We’re launching a new column at The Escapist, called Out of Focus. It will publish every Wednesday, and the plan is to use it to look at some film and television that would maybe fall outside the remit of In the Frame, more marginal titles or objects of cult interest. This week, with the release of Knock at the Cabin, it seemed wothing taking a look at the films of M. Night Shyamalan.

Shyamalan is a filmmaker with a unique perspective, and many of his films circle around the same sets of themes concerned with family and horror. However, Shyamalan is also a director fascinated by faith and belief. He’s often horrified by characters who hold firmly to seemingly irrational beliefs. More than that, though, Shyamalan’s films often mine a sense of dread and horror from something even more fundamental: the fear that, against all odds, these irrational understandings of the universe might be correct.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: agnosticism, Atheism, belief, faith, fear, horror, insanity, knock at the cabin, m. nigth shyamalan, rationality, uncertainty | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Thrills and Disappointments of “Knock at the Cabin”…

Posted on February 5, 2023 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist during the week. With the release of Knock at the Cabin this weekend, it seemed worth taking a look at the latest movie from M. Night Shyamalan.

Knock at the Cabin is by turns fascinating and frustrating. It is a movie that works really well as a claustrophic and ambiguous thriller, a home invasion movie that is essentially a battle of wills over belief. However, it suffers somewhat from the fact that Shyamalan can’t stay within the cabin. At various points, the narrative has to become bigger and more epic, and in doing so, it unravels the tension that makes the best scenes in the movie so compelling.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: belief, faith, horror, knock at the cabin, M. Night Shyamalan, review, suspense, tension, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “The Last of Us” Establishes the Rules of the Game…

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Darren

I am doing weekly reviews of The Last of Us at The Escapist. They’ll be dropping every Sunday evening while the show is on, looking at the video game adaptation as the show progresses. This week, the show’s second episode.

The Last of Us is an interesting piece of adaptation. It comes with a weight of expectation. There’s a sense in which the show needs to proves its adaptational bona fides to fans, by proving that it can faithfully adapt both the world and the internal logic of the source material. So the show’s second episode is an interesting fusion, a clear attempt to directly translate the experience of playing the source video game to a television series.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: adaptation, horror, infected, logic, story, the escapist, the last of us, Video game | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Scream” Went From a Deconstruction to a Celebration of Horror Tropes…

Posted on January 23, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the looming release of Scream VI, it seemed like as good a time as any to consider the state of the modern horror franchise.

When Scream premiered, it was a radical deconstruction of classic slasher movie tropes that breathed new life into the genre. It even helped to resurrect troubled slasher franchises like Halloween or Child’s Play. So it’s interesting that, as the series has progressed, it has become more and more like the kinds of movies that it was originally a reaction against. It’s a fascinating illustration of how these franchises evolve over the decades since their original release.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.