loaded question: do you like scary movies?
For me, I don’t like most of the movies Hollywood considers scary — such as most of what is labeled “horror” — primarily because I simply don’t find that sort of thing scary.
Threads
War Book movie review: the fate of humanity
Riveting, terrifying, and unafraid to confront its own quiet horror. One of the most important movies ever about nuclear weapons and modern governance.
The Man Who Saved the World documentary review: no nukes
Meet the crotchety, bitter old man who, back in 1983 as a crotchety, bitter younger man, refused to initiate global nuclear war. A true story!
The Babadook movie review: mother of nightmares
Genuinely horrific and deeply scary in a way that draws on the most primal of emotions. A horror flick with rare emotional and psychological resonance.
November 25: DVD alternatives to this weekend’s multiplex offerings
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this long holiday weekend, but you won’t be able to move off the sofa after all that turkey, plus: football! But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you on Monday, … more…
Paranormal Activity (review)
So I finally saw this Paranormal Activity flick that all the kids are into today, and all I could conclude was, Really? They think this is pants-wetting scary?
question of the day: What movies have given you nightmares?
Today’s QOTD comes from reader Paul, who asks: What movies have given you nightmares? I’ll refine Paul’s question: Not metaphoric nightmares, not just unpleasant thoughts in the waking world, but actual, genuine, for-real scary dreams as you sleep. Bonus if the nightmares were so bad they actually woke you up. As an adult no movie … more…
‘Doctor Who’ blogging: “World War III”
Tons of spoilers! Don’t read unless you’ve seen the episode!
question of the day: What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
No explanation needed: What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen? Mine is Threads, the 1983 British TV movie about an all-out global nuclear war. It’s so horrifyingly straightforward that it still gives me nightmares… and at the time that I saw it, in the 80s (it aired on PBS in the States), it was something … more…
The Day After, Threads, Testament, and Special Bulletin (review)
It’s easy to forget today how close global nuclear annihilation genuinely seemed in the 1980s.
