Resident Evil ...Again.

by Brian Zitzelman

One of the strangest things about Oscar month is that the movies that open during it are usually the opposite of prestige. Tomorrow sees the release of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the allegedly last installment of this long-running franchise. With more than a decade's worth of subpar critical reviews, it's nonetheless more notable than it might seem upon first glance.  

Superhero movies aside, R-rated action franchises haven't especially been booming in the twenty-first century, or even in the post Arnold/Stallone/Willis dominated run of the 80s to mid-90s...

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46 Days Until "Feud"

first promotional shot from FEUD

The new Ryan Murphy anthology TV series' first eight-episode season, premieres on Sunday March 5th (yes exactly one week after the Oscars which seems very kind). The season looks at the legendarily bitchy Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) vs Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) wars. Two Oscar winners playing two Oscar winners. We're in!

We don't want to know too much ahead of time as that ruins so many TV shows and movies these days but it would be nice to have a leaked list of films referenced beyond Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) so we could do a little revisiting of some key titles before the premiere, though it seems likely that the series will also cover the production of Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964) given the character list in the credits. Jessica Lange doesn't look or feel much like Joan Crawford in face or persona which could be a problem but Sarandon might well be the perfect choice for Davis. Alfred Molina is playing the director Robert Aldrich and Kiernan Shipka will play Bette Davis daughter B.D. Hyman. Other celebrity mimicry going on will include Sarah Paulson as Oscar-winner Geraldine Page, Catherine Zeta Jones as Oscar-winner Olivia de Havilland, Kathy Bates as Joan Blondell, Judy Davis as the oft-played gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren recently played her in Trumbo and Tilda Swinton played a twinned riff on her in Hail Caesar!), and multiple non-famous actors playing various Oscar winners (Gregory Peck, Eva Marie Saint, Maximillian Schell) in single episode showcases and/or cameos... who knows.

QUICK POLL
The image above most makes you want to...

🔲  Watch Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? again for the umpteenth time
🔲  Give in to the impending T***pocalypse and regress to childhood fantasies with ice cream in hand...
🔲  Find a time machine and skip the next 45 days.
🔲  Other [please describe] 

Interview: Babak Anvari on British Oscar Submission 'Under the Shadow'

By Jose Solís.

At first glance, Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow seems to announce itself as a fine Iran-set social drama, as we meet Shideh (Narges Rashidi) a young mother who discovers her political past - she protested the war against Iraq - has deemed her ineligible to return to medical school. When her husband (Bobby Baderi) gets sent to a battle zone for work, she is left behind with her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) trying to make sense of her life, while their city is under the constant threat of Iraqi missiles. If that wasn’t enough, strange things begin to occur in their home as Dorsa is convinced there is a presence that wants to take her away.

Even though this is Anvari’s first feature film, he displays a mastery of horror techniques that would put others to shame...

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75th Anniversary: The Wolf Man

by Tim Brayton

This weekend marks the 75th anniversary of one of the most special of all horror classics: it was on December 9, 1941 that Universal Pictures released The Wolf Man. And in so doing, the studio that did so much to invent American horror cinema made one of its most lasting contributions to popular culture.

The Wolf Man was not the first werewolf movie (though it can be easily argued that, at the time it was released, it was the best), but its success did more to pave the way for future werewolves in film and literature than any other individual work of art...

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October Highlights

October was busy busy busy with two festivals, the classic NYFF and the new Middleburg and our semi-annual Oscar Horrors (though a fourth season is somewhat unlikely given that we're running out of nominees outside of music and sound categories!). Here are 16 highlights from the spooky best-weather month in case you missed any of them. The fall is too too short, don't you agree?

8 Favorites
re: Isabelle Huppert's emails -Nick's scandalous discovery
Kiss Me Kate the peak of George Sidney's fluffy fun as a director? 
Loving those 20th Century Women a first impressions top ten 
Moonlight in Three Acts a tag team review 
Janis Joplin Biopics an incomplete history 
Judy & Liza "Together Wherever We Go" 
Oscar Horrors: Flatliners' Sound a confession of love for Schumacher 
Lion at Middleburg  a new festival, a winning film

8 Most Discussed
Viola Davis will be an Oscar record breaker in January
The Departed 10th Anniversary Oscar Look-back
Glenn Close is The Wife a new fim lined up
Pablo Larrain's Great Year Jackie and Neruda
Gwyneth Goes Grocery Shopping a photoshoot 
Michelle Williams Oscar Moment? Manchester by the Sea 
Oscar Horrors: The Sixth Sense Do you remember your first time? 
Posterized: Emily Blunt are you a fan?

Coming in November:
Jessica Chastain as Miss Sloane, the wonders of Lion and Arrival, Cape Fear's 25th Anniversary, Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply, The Honorary Oscars, Disney's Moana and a look back at our favorite film noirs. Any requests?