Disasters. Heatwaves. Brexit. Political turmoil. It feels like society really is crumbling. Could the end of days be just around the corner? And it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. American Horror Story – which begins its eighth season on FOX on 27th September at 10pm, appropriately called “Apocalypse” – has been warning us for years. Don’t believe us? Here are seven ways American Horror Story is predicting that the apocalypse is coming. The Anti-Christ Is Here As Seen In: Season 1, “Murder House” In The Show: Fathered by the evil seed of ghostly high school shooter Tate (Evan Peters – in full BDSM “Rubber Man” costume no less) and delivered by Dr. Montgomery (Matt Ross) – an already-de
Women have always played a major role in horror films. For years they may have had very limited choices in terms of the types of characters they played (usually either the smart, virginal female – who usually survived, or someone slightly more promiscuous – who tended not to survive) Fortunately things are changing and women are no longer restricted to such stereotypes. However, what about behind the camera? Female film-makers, especially within horror, have historically been virtually non-existant up until about twenty years ago or so. There are a number of reasons for this yet I don't intend to cover them in this article – for it's really about celebrating those women who have made (or are
WHY CAN'T STUDIOS GET TRAILERS RIGHT? When submitting editorials, this writer tends to gravitate towards personal annoyances for some reason, rather than providing incisive essays on genre media. Apologies for that… but here’s another one. Studio movie trailers. At their very best they raise expectations and tease cinema-goers with highlights of a film, whilst holding back the main thrills and plot twists. At their very worst they show ALL the highlights, showcase moments that don’t appear in the final version, share scenes that are shown greatly out of context, or … and here’s the real teeth-grinder… blatantly include an important plot development which ruins the narrative of the film by th
They say success in Hollywood is about “who you know.” That’s only partly true. In fact, you need to do two things to break in as a screenwriter, and the first is far more important and difficult: you need to write at least one excellent, spectacular spec script. (Two is better. Three is even better.) It has to be excellent, not just good. You’re competing against the 12,000 or so members of the Writers Guild who have already broken in, and the hundreds of thousands of other writers out there trying to break in. With only two or three hundred theatrical releases of studio and major independent films per year, and only about 600 scripted television series airing per year (even in this peak
