Category: urban legends

Famous Actors Who Got Their Start in Horror Movies

October 16, 2018 / SARussell / 1 Comment

Few things make me happier than finding one of my favorite actors starring in an old horror movie. The cheesier and more awful the movie, the better I enjoy the newbie actor’s performance. It’s comforting to know that these rich and famous actors, all at the top of their industry, started at the bottom like everybody else.

For a genre that doesn’t get much respect, horror consistently delivers new talent. Many of today’s A-Listers got their start in low-budget and shoddy horror films, while others were a little luckier with their early roles.

I figured, being as it’s Halloween time, I should pay homage to their early roles. First, it shows you just how much, um, range, some of these actors have (or not). Second, it’s fun to wonder how their careers would have been different had they not been Classroom Girl #1 in Urban Legends: Bloody Mary.

There’s also something so delightful about knowing that Tom Hanks, one of my favorite actors, started his acting career in a horror/thriller with terrible dialogue and ATROCIOUS acting, as evidenced by this clip.

If nothing else, I hope you enjoy this list for its Bad Movie Night potential. Seriously, I’ve never seen Leprechaun or Hellraiser: Hell World (what an amazing title!).

So, without further adieu, here is a list of 20 actors who saw their film debut in horror, followed by 20 actors who had early roles in some “iconic” horror films.

Enjoy!

13 of the Creepiest, Most Disturbing Lore Episodes

October 13, 2017 / SARussell / 3 Comments

Today is Friday the 13^th, which makes it a perfect release date for Amazon’s new series, Lore. This new anthology series is directly inspired by Lore, an awesome and exquisitely researched podcast started by novelist Aaron Mahnke.

And I could not be more excited. Lore is one of my favorite podcasts.

As a podcast, Lore retells old legends, myths, and real-life ghost stories from America and Europe, but these aren’t your average campfire takes. Mahnke is a wonderful storyteller who carefully researches and questions the stories he tells, all of which weaves a stunning picture of human nature. You may have heard stories of the Moth Man or the Jersey Devil or Elizabeth Bathory, but never like this. And Amazon’s new series continues this tradition by adapting Mahnke’s podcast episodes for the small screen.

In honor of the new series, I wanted to share my 13 favorite Lore episodes with you. It was no small task to narrow down the 70 (and counting!) episodes to 13, so I had to make some hard choices. I hope you enjoy them!

All the Freshest Horror Films at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

April 18, 2017 / SARussell / 0 Comments

The Tribeca Film Festival starts tomorrow! The film festival circuit is in full swing and Tribeca is the latest prestigious stop. And I’m going to tell you all about the featured horror films.

Tribeca may not be Cannes, but in its relatively short existence, Tribeca has proven itself a formidable and important film festival. Founded in 2002 by producer Jane Rosenthal, renowned actor Robert De Niro, and real estate mogul Craig Hatkoff, Tribeca has made a name for itself as a festival dedicated to presenting discerning and innovative filmmaking. More than the Cannes Film Festival or the Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca is about independent films over “prestige studio movies.”

This year, there’s a great mix of various horror subgenres, from serial killer movies to artistic slashers to psychological horror, with loads of films falling between those categories or smashing through them. I have a feeling that some of these feature and short films will go on to generate plenty of buzz. Hopefully, we will see general releases of some of these. I’m particularly excited about Hounds of Love, Psychopaths, and Retouch.

Enjoy!

January 2017 Horror – Vampires, Zombies, and James McAvoy

January 6, 2017 / SARussell / 1 Comment

Happy New Year!

January is one of my favorite times of the year because there’s so much hope for this brand new shiny year we have before us. With a new year comes new surprises and delights, and I feel particularly optimistic since I think 2017 owes us for 2016. Hopefully that will extend to horror movies.

The good news is that, if the January horror movie release calendar is anything to go on, 2017 is off to a solid start. We’ve got some awesome horror-action films, a M. Night Shyamalan psychological thriller, and a promising urban legend supernatural horror movie, among others that could surprise us.

Enjoy!

Recap Post – My First Séance

December 8, 2016 / SARussell / 1 Comment

**This post is a follow-up to my history of the séance post.**

Part of my enjoyment of horror the genre is how effective scary movies and stories are at suspending my disbelief. Without exposing me to actual threats, a good movie can horrify and terrify me. With just ink and paper, a good ghost story can momentarily convince me that poltergeists exist. It’s the best kind of make-believe. When the credits roll, when I close my book, I can go about my day changed. I’ve been made to confront something illogical and frightening and uncomfortable. And I’m better for it.

That is the kind of experience I expected when I attended a séance a few weeks back. I didn’t expect to really contact a ghost or commune with supernatural entities. But I did expect a good deal of drama and excitement and freaky shit. I was really looking forward to it. I thought I would be treated to a solid ninety minutes of impressively executed tricks and seamless transitions from ghost story to ghostly encounter. I thought I’d be scared, faced with some eerie phenomena I could not rationally explain.

But that is not what happened.

My Favorite Creepypastas to Keep You Awake Tonight

October 7, 2016 / SARussell / 0 Comments

I have this really bad habit where, when I’m home by myself, I hop on the internet and venture into dark corners to find scary stories. Sometimes I go to Wikipedia and fall into a black hole of unsolved mystery pages, emerging hours later. Sometimes I go to true crime sites and then I have to get up and double check to make sure all the doors and windows in my house are locked. If there’s a spooky story on the internet, I’ll probably read it and freak myself out. But, my favorite internet scary stories, hands down, are Creepypastas.

I don’t know why I do it–maybe I get bored, maybe I have an overwhelming case of morbid curiosity. I don’t know why, but I love Creepypastas.

Part ghost story, part urban legend, part cursed email chain, these tales thrive for the same reasons folklore thrives. We love to hear outlandish, frightening, gruesome stories, and even the tiniest kernel of truth puts us under a spell. Creepypastas (so named for its original term of “copypasta” which refers to copy-and-pasted text that has gone viral) are user generated, meaning any random person on the internet has the power to contribute a creepy story.

The internet can be a nasty place, but Creepypastas are one of the nice (albeit weird and terrifying) parts about the internet. People from anywhere in the world can read a person’s strange story and have an immediate reaction. Indeed, Creepypastas are shared everywhere. People who have nothing else in common might bond over the chills they felt after reading a particularly good Creepypasta. Authors have gone on to write whole novels out of their Creepypastas, and Creepypastas have been adapted into short films on Youtube. There are whole communities devoted them writing and sharing them. They spread and grow and develop their own gravitas, their own lore.

In a way, Creepypastas are the 21st century equivalent of ghost stories told around campfire.

So come, gather round and let me share with you some of my absolute favorite awesome Creepypastas. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments!

Category: urban legends

Famous Actors Who Got Their Start in Horror Movies

13 of the Creepiest, Most Disturbing Lore Episodes

All the Freshest Horror Films at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival

January 2017 Horror – Vampires, Zombies, and James McAvoy

Recap Post – My First Séance

My Favorite Creepypastas to Keep You Awake Tonight

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