If all went according to plan, Jon would drive his friend/mentor Daryl on a 3,000-mile trip to the Pacific Northwest on a custom motorcycle fitted with a sidecar. The trip would fulfill a longstanding promise and allow Jon to pay Daryl back for helping him through rough times. It had a sense of urgency as Daryl suffered from degenerative eye disease that’ll leave him blind. He’d likely never have another opportunity like this one. But in the grand tradition of road trips, nothing went as planned.
Read MoreCaroline Williams is one of those actresses you never forget. In 1986 she starred in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Tobe Hooper’s bonkers and wildly entertaining sequel to the original horror classic. As disc jockey Stretch Brock, she fought to survive an unfortunate run-in with Leatherface and the rest of the sadistic Sawyer clan. Following that iconic performance, she appeared in dozens of other films, including another of my favorite horror sequels, Stepfather 2. This month marks the 30th anniversary of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, as well as the release of her latest film, Syfy’s Sharknado 4. To celebrate, we reached out (and geeked out a little) to Ms. Williams about her historic horror career.
Read MoreHope Ann Gregory (Melissa Rauch) was the star of her hometown after making it to the Olympics for gymnastics. A career-ending injury left her with the Bronze medal, but in the ensuing decade Hope clung to the glory lavished upon her as a child. Enabled by her well-meaning father Stan (Gary Cole), Hope became an adult who never quite grew up, entirely dependent on her father’s financial support as well as the small town’s emotional support. She still wants everyone to see her as a star, even though she’s lost much of her shine. Bossy, selfish, and foul-mouthed, Hope is perfectly fine with her lot in life, though her father wants more for her. She begrudgingly takes on training Maggie (Haley Lu Richardson), a talented young gymnast who could possibly surpass Hope’s own accomplishments. She even more begrudgingly entertains a romance with Ben (Thomas Middleditch), an adorably awkward employee of the gym who is sweeter to Hope than she deserves. Hope’s rival Lance (Sebastian Stan) is eager to take over as Maggie’s trainer, but his antagonism isn’t nearly as much of an obstacle as Hope’s own self-destructive tendencies. Both her and Maggie’s futures are at stake in this debut comedy by Bryan Buckley was written by Rauch and her husband Winston Rauch.
Read MoreLace Crater is the debut feature film by Harrison Atkins. Produced (and co-starring) Joe Swanberg, the film has all traits of the mumblecore genre that Swanberg helped popularize a decade ago. Atkins cleverly plays on those conventions with the influence of body horror traditions, using them to bolster the film’s mumblecore framework.
Read MoreYou’d think being taken hostage during a bank robbery gone awry would the worst thing to happen to Vivian (Ashley Bell) on a sweltering day in the California desert in 1978. In a race to get away from the police, her captors inadvertently drive onto the property of Wyatt Moss (Pat Healy), a crazed former military sniper with a deadly pastime. Until now Wyatt’s brother, the local sheriff (Alan Ruck), has turned a blind eye to his sibling’s activities. But, with the missing Vivian, the Sheriff might have to intervene. Whether Vivian survives long enough to be found is a whole another story.
Read MoreThe first live-action team-up of DC Comics icons Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman should have been a game-changer in the comic book movie genre. Instead, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (BvS), both a sequel to 2013’s Man of Steeland the stepping stone to ambitious slate of upcoming films from Warner Bros., was met with savage reviews (27% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and underwhelming box office numbers. $872 million worldwide is hardly a failure but given the production and marketing costs, anything less than a billion dollars would be seen as a disappointment. In the United States alone, it couldn’t outperform Fox’s Deadpool, which was an R-rated superhero equivalent of an episode of Family Guy. What went wrong?
Read MoreActor Anton Yelchin died unexpected this weekend in what’s been called a freak accident. He was only 27 years old. Shock and sadness often comes along with the news of the death of a young and beloved public figure. Given the bizarre circumstances of Yelchin’s death, the news stings a bit more than usual. The actor emigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union with his parents—both star figure skaters—when he was only 6 months old. He began acting professionally when he was 9. During his 16 years working, he amassed an impressive 65 film and TV credits, but it’s hard not to think he was just getting started.
Read MoreMiles (Shane Callahan) finds himself on the losing end of a coin toss to determine whether he gets promoted or fired, and is subsequently dumped by his high-strung and materialistic girlfriend. But just as he’s at his lowest, he comes up with a genius but crazy scheme to amass a fortune by collecting the coins in wishing fountains. When the endeavor grows bigger than he originally planned, he recruits his best friend Jack (Cullen Moss) and a friendly local homeless man Durwood (Don Henderson Baker) to help. With the team in place, Miles travels around North Carolina gathering coins. In one park, he has a fateful encounter with Penelope (Anna Stromberg), a woman running from her troubles and eager to join Miles on his trek.
Read MoreAfter suffering her fourth miscarriage, American obstetrician Dr. Tora Hamilton (Radha Mitchell) moves with her husband Duncan Guthrie (Rupert Graves) to his hometown on one of the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, where they plan to adopt a child. On her new property, she soon discovers the body of a young woman. The corpse has been mutilated with strange symbols and its heart has been removed. The police believe the corpse to be centuries old, but Dr. Hamilton soon deduces the woman’s body is only a few years old and she had given birth shortly before being killed. The island’s Detective Inspector McKie (Ian McElhinney) considers the case closed, so Dr. Hamilton takes it upon herself to uncover the truth of what happened. Aided only by the skeptical Sgt. Dana Tulloch (Joanne Crawford), Dr. Hamilton begins to uncover the island’s sinister secrets involving an ancient religious sect, and even those closest to her.
Read MoreThe other day I fell into one of those wonderful internet sinkholes and began browsing through pages featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures I played with as a child. I couldn’t get enough of them and Playmates knew there were many kids like me, so they kept churning out more and more toys. More often than not, the toys had nothing to do with the animated series, comics, or movies. They were just bizarre interpretations of the characters. At the time, I never put much thought into who was coming up with these toys. Looking at these action figures now, I noticed a not so sly recurring theme – Many of them were just really queer.
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