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by Chad Kennerk

Images courtesy of Silents Synced

In explaining montage, or ‘assembly’ as he liked to refer to it, Alfred Hitchcock once explained the Kuleshov Effect or, as Hitch called it, ‘pure cinematics’; the juxtaposition of imagery to create different ideas. In the same way, comparison and contrast of music and image have been used practically since the origins of film language to create additional meaning. What would the shower scene in Psycho be without Bernard Herrmann’s strings? Jaws wouldn’t be nearly as ominous sans John Williams’ iconic ‘da-dum…da-dum.’ In the same spirit, Silents Synced reimagines film score by pairing classic silent films with the music of contemporary artists. Specifically designed for independent movie theatres, the new event cinema series kicked off in the US with an appropriately released October pairing of the Radiohead albums Kid A and Amnesiac with F. W. Murnau’s 1922 symphony of horror,...

No matter whether your tastes tend toward Hollywood’s golden age or Broadway legends, sports history or high-end timepieces, the winter 2024 auction season is particularly rich in glamour, offering collectors a chance at snagging some truly museum worthy pieces.

High-wattage lots set for sale before the end of the year at five global auction houses include everything from a Bob Mackie dress Miley Cyrus wore at February’s Grammy Awards to a variety of watches owned by Tom Brady and the best actor Academy Award Humphrey Bogart won in 1952 for The African Queen. “Just as it is in Hollywood, the auction scene is abuzz with excitement over iconic pieces that epitomize glamour,” notes Martin Nolan, co-founder and executive director of Beverly Hills-based Julien’s Auctions, which is hosting “A Week of Hollywood Legends,” the latest sale in its partnership with Turner Classic Movies, set for Dec. 10-13. The offerings range from...

A century removed from his directorial debut, Alfred Hitchcock remains one of the most influential filmmakers in cinema — but how does his work and legacy hold up in today’s society?

My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock aims to tackle that question in the director’s own voice. The documentary will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 14 via Cohen Media Group.

Directed by award-winning documentarian Mark Cousins, the film is framed by Hitchcock (voiced by British impressionist Alistair McGowan) revisiting his filmography.

From his early silent efforts to iconic works like Psycho, Rear Window, Vertigo, and beyond, viewers are taken on an odyssey through Hitchcock’s storied career.

Special Features include:

Cinema Q&a with Chuck Rose: Interview with Director Mark Cousins Alternate trailer with narration by Mark Cousins Alastair McGowan voice test audio Graphics animation tests Mark Cousins introduces Notorious, Rope, and Saboteur

My Name Is Alfred...

Rue the Christmas blues no more — the Criterion Channel has you covered with plenty of great films to stream this holiday season thanks to the platform’s December lineup.

As announced on Wednesday, Criterion Channel starting December 1 will host a greatest-hits collection of “Pope of Trash” John Waters’ most iconic movies. Divine-starring classics such as “Multiple Maniacs” (1970), “Female Trouble” (1974), “Hairspray” (1988), and “Polyester” (1981) fit the bill, while you shouldn’t miss a camped-up Kathleen Turner as a murderous suburban matriarch in “Serial Mom,” a role her agents told her would ruin her career. Well, the rest is history. For a bonus, John Waters also provides interview commentary on a selection of some of his own favorite movies, including Ingmar Bergman’s 1958 “Brink of Life,” Samuel Fuller’s 1964 “The Naked Kiss,” and Barbara Loden’s influential 1970 classic “Wanda.”

Elsewhere, Criterion Channel celebrates five decades of Alfred Hitchcock’s career with a murderer’s row of all-timers,...

Now that they’ve set the year’s best film for a December 10 debut, the Criterion Channel have unveiled the rest of next month’s selection. John Waters’ films are inseparable from John Waters’ presence, making fitting Criterion’s decision to pair an eight-film retrospective (Multiple Maniacs to Cecil B. Demented) with his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” wherein the director extols virtues of Bergman, Chabrol, Barbara Loden, and Samuel Fuller. His own Polyester will have a Criterion Edition alongside the Bob Dylan doc Don’t Look Back, an iconic film in its own right and, I think, fitting companion to The Unknown with Lon Chaney, also streaming on Criterion. No Country for Old Men and Election receive likewise treatment; the latter appears in “MTV Productions,” a series featuring Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, The Original Kings of Comedy, and (coming close to Freddy Got Fingered for least-expected 2024 addition) Jackass: the Movie.

Ben Wheatley, the British indie filmmaker, somewhat rests on the periphery of the British film industry. Neither a social realist nor a James Bond action filmmaker, Wheatley seems more a forerunner of films like that from Robert Eggers. Wheatley, alongside his wife and screenwriter Amy Jump, has made a selection of diverse films, consistently inverting and manipulating genre tropes and playing with audience expectations. In some way or another, all of Wheatley’s work focus on varying oddball and sociopathic central characters who find honesty and loyalty hard to come by. While mixing scares, gore, and trippy action, Ben Wheatley deftly imbues each film with a dark comedy, underlying each situation with a satire and wit that has become a staple throughout his work.

Wheatley started his career as an internet phenomenon whereby his film, Cunning Stunt, was one of the first videos to ever go viral. After a hundred...

As the nights grow longer and the air turns crisp, it’s the perfect time to settle in with some of the best spooky films ever made. From eerie silent classics to modern horror hits, spooky cinema has evolved across decades, yet each era has its own spine-tingling gems. Whether you love atmospheric terror or heart-pounding scares, here’s a journey through the best films from the 1920s to today that will give you chills. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited Time Offer – Free Subscription to The Hollywood Insider Click here to read more on The Hollywood Insider’s vision, values and mission statement here – Media has the responsibility to better our world – The Hollywood Insider fully focuses on substance and meaningful entertainment, against gossip and scandal, by combining entertainment, education, and philanthropy. 1920s - 1980s ‘The Haunting’ (1963) Cast: Julie Harris,...

Oscar-winning actress Grace Kelly made just a handful of movies before transforming from a Hollywood princess into a real life one following her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. Let’s take a look back in the photo gallery above of all 11 of her films, ranked worst to best.

Kelly got her start performing onstage and in television before being drafted by Hollywood to appear in Henry Hathaway‘s ripped-from-the-headlines nail-biter “Fourteen Hours” (1951) when she was just 22-years-old. The next year found her starring as the concerned wife to an imperiled town marshal (Gary Cooper) in Fred Zinnemann‘s landmark western “High Noon” (1952).

She got her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for John Ford‘s adventure yarn “Mogambo” (1953), playing one of two love interests (along with Ava Gardner) to big game hunter Clark Gable. The next year, Kelly upset frontrunner Judy Garland, who made a massive comeback...

Director Robert Zemeckis is used to conjuring the impossible.

In “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” he had flesh-and-blood actors like Bob Hoskins convincingly interact with animated characters; with “Forrest Gump” he had the title character (essayed by Tom Hanks) meet famous historical figures; “What Lies Beneath” imagined what would happen if Alfred Hitchcock had access to cutting-edge visual effects. He made three entire movies exclusively using performance capture technology. And on and on and on.

His latest film “Here,” which is now playing in theaters, offered a different sort of challenge – the entire movie is told from a fixed vantagepoint, through various eras. The camera never moves. It begins in prehistoric times, eventually settling into a handful of suburban living rooms throughout the years. The one we chiefly focus on is the home of Hanks and Robin Wright, both “Forrest Gump” alums, who begin in the 1960s and travel through modern day.

The genre of horror films has been around for a very long time. Despite shocking and frightening audiences, this genre is very popular, and some filmmakers have made a living by creating horror films, especially after Alfred Hitchcock took the genre to new heights.

Wes Craven, John Carpenter, and George Romero are regarded as classics, but there are also a number of up-and-coming filmmakers who want to make a career in the genre.

One of them is Drew Hancock, whose upcoming sci-fi horror Companion is set to be released early next year, although we’ve just received news that the movie is being pushed back, although not by much.

As Bloody Disgusting reports, Companion has been pushed back from its initial January 10 release date, but it is still going to air in the same month, so everyone who’s expecting to see this movie won’t have to wait much...

Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary director known for his films like Psycho, The Birds, and Rear Window, has had quite some controversies surrounding him. There have been some accusations regarding the director’s behavior and his working style.

Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho | Credits: Shamley Productions

One of the more prominent cases from Hitchcock’s life was actress Tippi Hedren who accused the director twice. From misbehaving on sets to allegedly touching her inappropriately, the story is quite shocking.

When Alfred Hitchcock Misbehaved With Tippi Hedren

Alfred Hitchcock’s movies were crazy. From psycho killers to birds that attack humans, the movies were well received at the time. The director is also responsible for making several actors famous in Hollywood.

Tippi Hedren in The Birds | Credits: Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions

One of these actresses was Tippi Hedren. Working alongside the director in The Birds and Marnie, Hedren decided to...

The kindest thing that can be said about Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is that it’s unpredictable. There is little in it to prepare you for a climactic twist which is, in equal measure, audacious and ridiculous. While well-intentioned, it’s staged so clumsily that it fails to evoke the required empathy. But I will say — I did not see it coming.

Otherwise, we are back in familiar territory. The Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchise started with the classic 1993 Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu, which was remade in Hindi in 2007. Both versions delivered a skillful cocktail of laughs and scares without true paranormal activity. In each, the real culprit causing the leading lady to turn into Manjulika, the unhinged spirit of a royal dancer, was eventually identified as dissociative identity disorder.

But when director Anees Bazmee took over the reins with the 2022 reboot, the horror became real. Black magic, spirits, jump scares, ominous backgrounds and, of course,...

The Producers Guild said Monday that Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden will receive the Milestone Award, given annually by the PGA for extraordinary contribution to the entertainment industry. The honor will be bestowed during the 36th annual PGA Awards on February 8.

Past recipients of the Milestone Award include the likes of Louis B. Mayer, Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, and more recently Steven Spielberg, Bob Iger, Sherry Lansing, George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy, Clint Eastwood, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Donna Langley and Charles D. King.

“Dana Walden has made incredible contributions to the entertainment industry, overseeing the production and development of many of the most iconic and award-winning shows in history,” PGA presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line said today in a joint statement. “Her leadership, first as CEO of Fox Television Group and now as co-chairman overseeing Disney’s global television portfolio, has had a major impact on the business.

Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden will receive the Milestone Award at the 36th Producers Guild Awards, the PGA announced Monday.

The ceremony will take place on Saturday, Feb. 8, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. The Milestone Award “honors individuals or teams who have made historic contributions to the entertainment industry,” according to the PGA.

In a joint statement, PGA presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line said, “Dana Walden has made incredible contributions to the entertainment industry, overseeing the production and development of many of the most iconic and award-winning shows in history. Her leadership, first as CEO of Fox Television Group and now as co-chairman overseeing Disney’s global television portfolio, has had a major impact on the business. We are proud to recognize her exceptional and long-standing work in this industry.”

Walden oversees Disney’s global TV portfolio, including Disney+ and Hulu, and she co-runs Platform Distribution,...

Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden will be honored with the Milestone Award at the 2025 Producers Guild Awards. She will accept the honor at the 36th annual PGA Awards on Feb. 8, 2025, at the Fairmont Century Plaza in L.A.

The PGA’s Milestone Award honors individuals or teams who have made historic contributions to the entertainment industry. Recipients of the Milestone Award include Hollywood legends Louis B. Mayer, Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as contemporary innovators Steven Spielberg, Bob Iger, Sherry Lansing, George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy, Clint Eastwood, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Donna Langley and Charles D. King.

“Dana Walden has made incredible contributions to the entertainment industry, overseeing the production and development of many of the most iconic and award-winning shows in history,” said PGA presidents Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line in a joint statement. “Her leadership, first as CEO of Fox Television Group and...

For many cinephiles, November becomes Noirvember, a month dedicated to noir movies.

Noir is often characterized by its fatalistic outlook, highly stylized imagery, down-on-their-luck and morally ambiguous protagonists, urban settings, shadows, corruption, narration, and of course, the femme fatale. All of these elements marry well with our favorite genre: horror.

This week’s streaming picks blend noir and horror together, kicking off your #Noirvember with horror movies that bear the earmarks of a classic noir film.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

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

Angel Heart– Hoopla, Kanopy

The perfect marriage of psychological horror and noir, Angel Heart follows Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke), a private investigator that Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) hires to track down missing musician Johnny Favorite. Harry’s search leads him to New Orleans, where he finds voodoo, murder, love, and a deal with the devil.

If we’re putting Alfred Hitchcock, who was a genius in every aspect and one of the best and most important filmmakers of all time, aside, the first major horror director who influenced the genre in a major way was the legendary George A. Romero, whose 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead is still considered to be a classic of cinema in general.

This low-budget indie horror became exceptionally influential, with many later horror directors, such as John Carpenter or Wes Craven, being influenced by Romero and his work. And while the legendary director passed away in 2017 after battling cancer, it seems that he is coming back from the grave – which is most fitting, seeing how his specialty was zombie films – to give us one last movie.

His final script for a movie titled Twilight of the Dead, which would conclude his zombie series started back in 1968, was left unfinished...

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Most Hollywood stars become synonymous with the films they star in, but every so often, a celebrity's unapologetic love of another movie becomes a part of their "brand." It's very common with directors when their styles reflect their inspirations, most notably, Brian De Palma with Alfred Hitchcock. It's not as common with actors, however, who are often cagey or diplomatic when talking about their cinematic likes and dislikes, because you never know who you're going to work with (or for) in this business. We know what films an actor like Bruce Willis loves because he's been open about it in interviews, but it's doubtful a movie fan would sit down to watch Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show" and think to themselves, "You know, Bruce Willis loves this movie."

But then there's Willem Dafoe, who might be the world's...

Horror movies have been with us for a very, very long time. This genre, despite inducing shock and fear among the viewers, is extremely popular, and starting with Alfred Hitchcock, some directors have made careers by making horrors. George Romero, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven are considered classics, while today, we have a series of new, young directors who are great in the genre.

And since we’re writing this in a period of year when horrors are even more popular than usual, we have found a very interesting report that has seemingly determined the scariest horror movie of all time based on objective scientific criteria.

If you want to know how the guys at Science of Scare determined this and which horror movie actually won the prestigious title, we advise you to stick with us until the end as we are going to reveal absolutely everything you need to know.

Like its genre cousin, science fiction, horror films have long used supernatural terrors as stand-ins for real-life fears. When Jordan Peele used the genre to show white supremacy as the ultimate terror in “Get Out,” he was inspired by years of socio-political readings of his favorite horror films. Even though openly LGBTQ characters in horror were rare until recently, when it comes to queer subtext, the genre is ripe for exploring themes such as possession, body transformation, fear of the other, uncontrollable desire, and hidden identities.

As explored in Shudder’s exhaustive docuseries “Queer For Fear: The History of Queer Horror,” the history of horror aligns pretty significantly with the history of queer film. The series traces the genre’s origins, beginning with a reclamation of Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker as queer writers, through Alfred Hitchcock’s many queer-coded films, and runs all the way to Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” empire.

“There are certain rules one must abide by to survive a horror movie,” explains Randy (Jamie Kennedy) in Wes Craven’s 1996 post-mo slasher revival Scream. “Number one: You can never have sex.” Sex and horror movies go together more naturally than just about any else in pop culture, right up there with,...

The American Film Institute has announced that veteran director Francis Ford Coppola will receive its 50th Life Achievement Award. The honor has previously gone to filmmakers John Ford, William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Mike Nichols, among many others. This comes after Coppola won our poll as the director most deserving of the AFI’s honor, so our readers are bound to be happy.

Kathleen Kennedy, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees, said in a statement, “Francis Ford Coppola is a peerless artist — one who has created seminal works in the canon of American film, and has also inspired generations of filmmakers who now embody his artistry and his independent spirit. AFI is honored to present him with the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award.”

SEEFrancis Ford Coppola movies: 16 greatest films ranked worst to best

Coppola has divided critics with his latest film — the ambitious, self-funded epic “Megalopolis” — but...

An artist and writer as well as documentary filmmaker, Johan Grimonprez takes a multidisciplinary approach to his subjects, combining archival footage, interviews, and cultural artifacts to dismantle how history is shaped and presented to us. As French writer Voltaire writes: “History is the lie commonly agreed upon”

Centered around the assassination of Congo leader Patrice Lumumba in 1961, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a kaleidoscope of politicians, spies, colonialism, revolution, and music––specifically jazz music of the 1950s and 1960s. Weaving together strands from Africa, Europe, and the United States, Grimonprez makes a compelling case that Lumumba’s death reverberates through society to this day.

Grimonprez uses jazz as a thread to tie together stories as disparate as Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe at the United Nations, the CIA sponsoring “jazz ambassador” tours of Africa, and Belgian leaders holding onto Congolese resources while ceding control of the country.

Getting a film made is far easier said than done. That's why most Hollywood movies are based on pre-existing material -- both to try and speed up the process of generating a story itself, and to have some assurance that there's an audience for the story. This mentality has led to truly original movies becoming something of a rarity. Truth is, Hollywood has always looked to existing IP (intellectual property).What's new about today's situation is that the IP they're generally tapping tends to be of a short-form or experiential variety: either remakes, reboots, and legacy sequels to older movies, or TV shows, comic books, and video games.

In the early decades of cinema, however, the main source for adaptations was literature. Where comics, games, TV and other movies are all visual mediums and come pre-loaded with their own imagery, books are a covenant between the author and reader's imagination,...

After wasting Todd Haynes' time and, subsequently, the precious time of Joker: Folie À Deux's meager audience, Joaquin Phoenix is now just talking about other, better Jokers he may have almost played. Appearing on Rick Rubin's perfectly pronounceable Tetragrammaton podcast, Phoenix claimed that he and Christopher Nolan had talked...

On Sunday, October 27, 2024, Clint Eastwood will premiere his fortieth feature directorial effort, "Juror #2," at the American Film Institute Festival. This feels like a landmark number. It's certainly a landmark achievement, given that Eastwood is 94 years old, an age at which most people are interred. So it's frankly despicable that Warner Bros-Discovery, headed by noted enemy of cinema David Zaslav, has chosen to unceremoniously dump "Juror #2" on 50 screens over its opening weekend, with no plans for expansion or an awards campaign.

While it's possible the film is not, in the eyes of its studio, an awards contender, it has a commercially viable hook (as evidenced by its compelling trailer) and a killer cast headed up by Nicholas Hoult. Moreover, it's a film by Clint Eastwood, a man whose films have earned WB loads of money over the last 50-plus years. He's had an office on the lot for nearly as long,...

In 1996, two notable blockbusters, each based on TV shows, were released by Paramount. On May 22, Brian De Palma's "Mission: Impossible" hit screens, detailing the adventures of super-spy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) as he went on the lam after being framed for killing his super-spy teammates. It was a massive hit and set the stage for a supra-action franchise that has lasted to this day. The film cost a sizeable $80 million to make but earned $457 million at the box office. 

Six months later, on November 22, the eighth film in the "Star Trek" franchise, "Star Trek: First Contact" was released to much acclaim. "First Contact," based on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," boasted a time travel plot wherein the U.S.S. Enterprise traveled back to the year 2063 to face off against the malevolent cyborgs known as the Borg. It wasn't as thoughtful or diplomatic as the show on which it was based,...

Mark Cousins has long established himself as one of film’s most thoughtful commentators, crafting illuminating documentaries that uncover new layers of understanding. In his latest, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock, the director works his analytical magic on one of cinema’s true legends. What makes this film especially fascinating is the innovative format—it plays like an evening spent chatting with Hitchcock himself.

Through the skilled vocal impersonation of Alistair McGowan, the droll yet perceptive Master of Suspense acts as our guide. He walks us through his own vast body of work, bringing a personal touch lacking in other analytical profiles.

Cousins has divided the film into thematic chapters, with Hitchcock pointing out recurring motifs and ingenious techniques. We cover topics like escape, desire, loneliness, and the tantalizing effects of suspended time.

By imagining this lively dialogue with Hitchcock across the ages, Cousins keeps the late director’s mystique alive while offering fresh insights.

On Saturday October 26 2024, Pix broadcasts I Am Alfred Hitchcock!

Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “I Am Alfred Hitchcock” promises to be a captivating exploration of one of cinema’s greatest figures. Set to air on Pix, this episode will delve into the life and work of Alfred Hitchcock, known as the Master of Suspense. Through a blend of interviews and archival footage, viewers will gain insight into Hitchcock’s unique approach to filmmaking and his lasting impact on the industry.

The episode will feature conversations with film scholars and experts who will share their perspectives on Hitchcock’s techniques and innovations. These discussions aim to highlight how his storytelling methods have influenced countless filmmakers over the years. The use of archival footage will bring to life key moments from Hitchcock’s career, showcasing his most iconic films and the creative processes behind them.

As the episode unfolds, it will...

Luca Guadagnino and Lionsgate announced that the “Call Me by Your Name” and “Queer” director is in final discussions to film a new version of Bret Eason Ellis’ dark horror novel “American Psycho,” nearly 25 years after the same company released Mary Harron’s satirical adaptation. In a key role that elevated his career, the 2000 film starred Christian Bale as yuppie investment banker-turned-serial killer Patrick Bateman.

It’s the kind of announcement destined to raise eyebrows. Guadagnino is in a career sweet spot after “Challengers” and “Queer” this year (and “After the Hunt” in post); he already has many projects in the works, including “Separate Rooms” with Josh O’Connor and a Thomas Mann adaptation in early development. So why is he choosing a remake — and for a film that doesn’t seem that long ago?

New versions of older films are not unusual. Even the word “remake” is tricky here — does that apply with adaptations?...

Gazer, at its core, is a film about voyeurism and humanity’s innate compulsion to not just want to be voyeurs, but to understand and make sense of the people who are being spied on. People, by nature, have an urge to act as a storyteller and connect disparate ideas, even if they don’t naturally go together. There’s a very human desire to do these things and apply logic and reason to a species that can be inherently chaotic, messy, and illogical. There are definitely pangs of Rear Window in Gazer. In fact, the film feels like a very post-modern deconstruction of many of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, albeit with a more horror-centric slant. However, there are also traces of other polarizing character studies like Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, or Chan Wook-park’s Decision to Leave. Gazer is about making sense of madness...

It does not take much time to see what director David Moreau intends to do with his maddeningly zesty zombie thriller “MadS.” The film, released on Shudder, provides a detailed exploration of a viral outbreak, from the eyes of the patient zero. It is relentless when it comes to escalating the situation, and quite cool when it comes to depicting it. Moreau’s one-take experiment in the film elevates the nauseating tension as the camera only leaves one despicable situation for a more deteriorating one.

The opening title scene where our drugged-up protagonist, Romain (Milton Riche), drives a sports car toward, and later through, the letters “Mads,” establishes the visual style that director Moreau has in his mind. As the camera continues to follow Romain through his nightmarish ordeal, it becomes apparent Moreau has opted for one of filmmaking’s notorious but engrossing gimmicks. The craft of telling a story in one take,...

Alfred Hitchcock, the director as well as self-analyzing critical observer, is evoked in the latest documentary from Mark Cousins, titled, appropriately, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock. During the pandemic lockdown, Cousins was invited by producer John Archer to make a film about the great director timed to the 100th anniversary of his debut film. Cousins set about watching all of Hitchcock’s films in chronological order, reading various critical book as well as works by his daughter and The Birds actress Tippi Hedren, all the while filling up notebooks of thoughts, reflections and details. That research and viewing produced a script, […]

The post Watch: An Exclusive Clip from Mark Cousins’s Forthcoming My Name is Alfred Hitchcock first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Alfred Hitchcock, the director as well as self-analyzing critical observer, is evoked in the latest documentary from Mark Cousins, titled, appropriately, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock. During the pandemic lockdown, Cousins was invited by producer John Archer to make a film about the great director timed to the 100th anniversary of his debut film. Cousins set about watching all of Hitchcock’s films in chronological order, reading various critical book as well as works by his daughter and The Birds actress Tippi Hedren, all the while filling up notebooks of thoughts, reflections and details. That research and viewing produced a script, […]

The post Watch: An Exclusive Clip from Mark Cousins’s Forthcoming My Name is Alfred Hitchcock first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Month Two Take-Aways.

It’s been a month filled with bangers on Bloody FM’s Murder Made Fiction Podcast. Joe and I have spent spooky season digging into films that have little in common to the naked eye, but they’re all based on the life of a quietly disturbed and dangerous man from rural Wisconsin. Ed Gein’s gruesome crimes not only shocked the nation, they would inspire some of the genre’s most beloved texts.

We kicked off the month with a mini-primer on Gein‘s backstory, beginning with his complicated relationship with mother Augusta leading to a series of unthinkably grisly crimes. Content warnings abound as we discuss necrophilia, cannibalism, taxidermy, and a real life house of dismembered corpses.

We followed this gruesome episode with a docuseries featuring newly discovered audio of Gein’s multi-hour confession tapes. Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein allows us to...

These are frightening times. Of this, there is no doubt. We may even believe there’s never been more to fear. And for some populations, that’s true. But humanity has always lived in frightening times.

Since we first cast shadows onto cavern walls, we’ve made things to fear. Over time, those shadows evolved into performers donning masks, authors putting ink to paper, and filmmakers harnessing technology to project our nightmares onto the screen as we returned to our cave-dwelling roots to sit in the dark with others. We are a horror people. And as the world has gotten scarier, horror has been there to reflect back our fears.

The rise of Hollywood and independent filmmaking in the 20th century created a lasting dialogue between what we see in the fear-seeking news, and what films are made in response. Early American horror movies of the mid-1920s and 30s,...

Update: Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is planning to make a decision about the fate of the Menendez brothers and their possible early release very soon

“There’s actually two different camps in my office,” Gascón told CNN (via Deadline). “I have a group of people, including some that were involved in the original trial, that are adamant that they should spend the rest of their life in prison and that they were not molested. I have other people in the office that believe actually, that they probably were molested and that they deserve to have some relief… I plan to have a decision by the end of this week.“

— Original article follows —

Earlier this month, Monsters creator Ryan Murphy predicted that Erik and Lyle Menendez could be released by Christmas, and it may actually happen. Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is said to be mulling an early...

Colman Domingo is set to make his feature directorial debut with “Scandalous,” a period drama about the 1950s romance between movie star Kim Novak and singer Sammy Davis Jr., and the bigoted scrutiny that the pair faced once their relationship came to light. Sydney Sweeney and David Jonsson are in talks to play the two leads.

Miramax is working to fast track the project, which remains in early stages of development. Producers have hopes to shoot next year after Domingo and Sweeney have finished filming the third season of HBO’s “Euphoria.”

As it went, Novak and Davis first connected when they both appeared as guests on “The Steve Allen Show” in 1956. The two continued to meet, with Davis making visits to the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” during the next year. They met again at a Thanksgiving charity ball in California, which led to the pair spending the holidays together.

“My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock” is Mark Cousins’ latest cine-essay, and it’s legitimately a film that can make you see the Master of Suspense’s work in a new way. Working not chronologically but thematically, Cousins finds connections among films made decades apart around the ideas Escape, Desire, Loneliness, Time, Fulfillment, and Height.

This is no Wikipedia-like film documentary as all too many are made these days. This is genuinely a film about looking: About seeing things you didn’t see before in some of the most watched films ever made. It’s a sensory and cinematic experience, and I wrote, when it premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival, that it’s “what film documentaries should be.” And it’s all the more unique for having it feel like Hitchcock himself is narrating this, with impressionist Alistair McGowan delivering a remarkable voiceover performance that makes you think the director,...

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Poff) has selected 10 world premieres for its Critics’ Picks section, including titles from Italy, Bhutan and Kazakhstan.

Three of the features hail from Italy, including Vincenzo Alfieri’s crime thriller The Body, in which an inspector begins to question whether the businesswoman whose death he is investigating is really dead.

Scroll down for the full list of Tallinn Critics’ Picks titles

Starring Claudia Gerini and Giuseppe Battiston, it is produced by Roberto Proia with Columbia Pictures Industries handling world sales.

The section will open with Paolo Marinou-Blanco’s Dreaming Of Lions, which was previously presented...

Alfred Hitchcock is one of those filmmakers who is considered untouchable. The very idea of remaking a Hitchcock movie, or making a sequel to one of his films, often sounds like sacrilege, although that hasn't stopped people from doing it over the years. Many of Hitchcock's films are considered classics, and I think it's fair to say that one of his most-famous, most-beloved movies is 1960's "Psycho." Adapting the pulpy novel by Robert Bloch, Hitchcock created a brilliant thriller with a killer twist ending, and even if you've somehow never seen the film, you're probably very aware of the famous shower scene, where Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is stabbed to death. It's a scene considered groundbreaking and innovative for its quick editing, which convinces us we're watching Leigh get sliced and diced even though we never actually see the knife pierce her flesh.

Hitchcock shot "Psycho" for under $1 million,...

Pop sensation and actor Lady Gaga is no stranger to the macabre. With her fierce love for all things gothic and horror-inspired, she’s brought dark and edgy elements to both her music and on-screen performances, like Lady Gaga’s unforgettable role in American Horror Story. Whether it’s her iconic meat dress or a performance with fake blood at the 2009 VMAs, Gaga has always embraced her love for the eerie. But which horror and thriller films rank as her personal favorites?

Gaga’s admiration for legendary director Alfred Hitchcock is no secret. In her hit song Bad Romance, she famously references three Hitchcock masterpieces: Psycho, Vertigo, and Rear Window. Her love for these films is deeply ingrained in her artistic identity.

In a 2015 interview on The Tonight Show, she even described thrillers and horror as calming for her, elaborating on her affection for the genre. This appreciation for Hitchcock extends to her music,...

There are two kinds of people in the world: People who love “Love Actually” and people who want to give those other people such a pinch. Richard Curtis’ all-star Christmas classic (you can add quotes to “classic” if you want to) quickly became a perennial yuletide favorite for its treacly melodrama and/or its melodramatic treacle. Like many Christmas movies, it’s sappy to a laughable extreme. But also like many Christmas movies, that’s why people love it. Or hate it.

“Love Actually” is such a ubiquitous holiday staple now that even characters in Richard Curtis movies have to watch it. The new animated Netflix movie “That Christmas,” directed by Simon Otto, is based on three children’s books penned by Curtis — “That Christmas,” “Snow Day” and “The Empty Stocking” — which now take place at the same time, in the same town. It’s an idea that would be...

Pop singer and actor Lady Gaga is no stranger to the horror genre, having starred in two seasons of Ryan Murphy's "American Horror Story," and she's always been a fan of the creepier side of entertainment. After all, this is a woman who calls her fans her "Little Monsters," wore a dress made of actual meat, and had the world's coolest live performance at the VMAs in 2009 when she started pouring fake blood from her abdomen mid-song. Even her turn as a very different take on Harley Quinn in "Joker: Folie à Deux" is horror-tinged, and she has a fabulously fierce, fearsome sense of style that's clearly inspired by gothic and horror aesthetics, too. It's clear that Gaga loves horror, but which horror movies rank among her favorites? 

Over the years, Gaga has hinted at which horror films have influenced her the most, either by revealing on social media...

There are few better ways to spend a half hour than with an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Funny, scary, mysterious, cynical, sinister, and sometimes even sexy, the anthology series created and presented (and sometimes directed) by the Master of Suspense is the complete package. The show was indelible when it first aired in the 1950s, and it remains so today, with storylines that feel surprisingly modern, twists designed to leave you gasping, and an unrelenting fixation on the darkest corners of the human heart.

To choose the best episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" is a bit of a fool's errand, the kind of task Hitch himself would probably scoff at in one of his campy, sarcastic episode introductions. This is, after all, a show that multiple generations watched solely via linear TV, catching stray episodes in syndication rather than binge-watching it in its entirety. It's also a series with...

Spoilers for "Smile 2" follow.

By necessity, "Smile 2" remixes director Parker Finn's original film. "Smile" concluded with lead Rose (Sosie Bacon) succumbing to her curse; the smiling demon possessed and murdered her, passing itself onto Rose's ex Joel (Kyle Gallner). After a cold opening resolving Joel's fate, "Smile 2" jumps to our round two antiheroine: pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott).

The original "Smile" was about a therapist's own mental health unraveling. By switching protagonists, "Smile 2" takes on a new theme, but one also as old as the movies: the psychic torture of fame. It's impossible to watch Skye and not think of real female celebrities like Britney Spears who were chewed up and spit out by tabloid media and impossible expectations.

Even before the smiling demon shows up, Skye is feeling uneasy, as if she's balancing on the top loop of a spiral. A recovering addict...

This article contains mild spoilers for "Smile 2."

As I write this article, the third installment of the gore-laden "Terrifier" series is obliterating the competition at the box office, a win for independent film, extreme horror, and non-studio-owned IP everywhere. Lifelong horror fans are no strangers to films with the same levels of ultraviolence and blood-soaked mania on glorious display, but these scenes are overwhelmingly found in independent or underground horror movies. This isn't to say that studio-backed horror films are incapable of bringing the pain, but even looking at something as notoriously grisly as the "Saw" series, the graphic depictions are stylized. Shots of dismembered limbs or meat being torn from the bone are interspersed between adventurous camera movement, cleverly spaced reactions to the carnage, and juuuuust enough of the gruesome goodies to throw the audience's imagination into overdrive. It's taking a page out of Alfred Hitchcock's handbook...

Damien Leone’s “Terrifier 3” (Iconic/Cineverse) grossed about $27 million in the U.S./Canada in its first week. That will make it easily #1, helped by the second-week collapse of “Joker: Folie à Deux” (Warner Bros.), which will end up #4 with around $10 million.

The slasher/horror sequel will ultimately earn a massive profit. With a reported production and marketing cost of around $5 million and additional revenues, “Terrifier 3” investors could easily see profits far exceeding $50 million.

Apart from its cost, other elements leading up to the slasher film’s success are unusual. As with any sleeper hit, its successes will be examined by studios to see if they can be replicated.

If “Terrifier 3” does lead to major changes, it will follow the lead of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” (1978) and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s “The Blair Witch Project” (1999). And not just in terms of its impact on the horror genre.

During the fall season, which has become popularly known these days as "spooky season," most of us prefer to watch horror movies and thrillers leading up to Halloween. Thankfully, Netflix has plenty of horror movie titles streaming right now or coming soon that you will want to add to your watch list.

But if jump scares and gore aren't quite your cup of tea, the best new Netflix original thriller movie was released on Oct. 18. Woman of the Hour comes from Academy Award nominated actress Anna Kendrick, who makes her directorial debut with the film that's based on a chilling true story.

Here's a little bit more about the movie's plot via Netflix:

The stranger-than-fiction story of an aspiring actress in 1970s Los Angeles and a serial killer in the midst of a yearslong murder spree, whose lives intersect when they’re cast on an episode of The Dating Game.

“I Am Alfred Hitchcock” is set to air at 8:00 Pm on Saturday, October 26, 2024, on Pix. This documentary promises to take audiences on a captivating journey through the life and career of one of cinema’s most iconic figures. Alfred Hitchcock, known as the Master of Suspense, left a lasting impact on the film industry, and this program aims to explore his influence and artistry.

The film combines insightful interviews with experts and rare archival footage to paint a vivid picture of Hitchcock’s genius. Viewers will get a glimpse into his creative process and the techniques that made his films unforgettable. From his early days in silent films to his rise as a Hollywood legend, the documentary covers it all.

With its rich storytelling and fascinating insights, “I Am Alfred Hitchcock” offers a unique chance to understand the man behind classics like “Psycho” and “Rear Window.” This is a...