Showbiz History: New Streisand and Old Horror Classics

Boo! October is here. Are you excited for this month (it's myfavorite for a variety of reasons). Since it's the spooky month (among other things) I've personally started it off with a night of insomnia after a nightmare -- ON TREND! 

Here are 9 random things that happened on this day, October 1st, in showbiz history...

1962 Barbra Streisand signs her first recording contract with Columbia. Offers had started to come in after she brought down the house on Broadway in I Can Get It For You Wholesale that spring. It was a one year contract (with an option for five) giving her 5% of royalties on albums sold. Streisand has never left Columbia and her 37th studio album Walls drops a month from now. People are already meme-ing the album cover left and right since it's accidentally in keeping with the horror theme of October...  

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Posterized: Movies About Nun

by Nathaniel R

Sally Field as "The Flying Nun"... but that's a TV showThough we hate that every movie wants to become a 'universe' now, box office pundits predict that The Nun -- part of The Conjuring series -- is going to be huge. And, hell, we kind of love nun movies because we didn't grow up Catholic so it always seems like a fun or exotic other to us with peculiar hangups and fashion sense. Perhaps Catholics don't like nun movies quite as much or go into them with far more complicated baggage?

There are LOTS of B movies about nuns -- particular of the naughty variety (whether that's horror films or sexual films) but we're looking at only the more known titles here. (And surely there are a TON of foreign films about nuns that we're unfamiliar with though we've included a few famous ones in the list below.) 

This list is dedicated to Sally Field The Flying Nun, and Ann Dowd's nun in the short-lived TV series Nothing Sacred (both of whom we love) because this list is about nun movies.

OK, let's survey the posters. How many of these 39 nun movies have you seen?  If we've discussed the movie, it's linked up below... 

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Review: "The Little Stranger"

by Chris Feil

Adapted from the Sarah Waters novel, The Little Stranger is a ghost story in a lower register, more a delicate gothic character study than a stone cold chiller. Think of it like a Shirley Jackson tale turned inward, where the separation of class and circumstance draw the demons from within and without. It’s not a horror film to satisfy the jump hungry or the thrill seekers, but one that slowly grips you from behind and one you will unexpectedly recall vividly.

The staples of such subtle genre pieces are all present: a once lively mansion lost to decay, the somewhat reclusive family that remains, the weight of a dead child covering it all in a fine layer of dust. A local doctor Faraday pays a visit to Hundreds Hall to tend to the maid of the Ayres family. Though its residents have worn along with the estate, Faraday is still taken by the memory of when he had visited it as a boy, on the very day that the Ayres daughter Susan became deathly ill.

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Yes, No, Maybe So: Suspiria

What’s good? It's Salim. Yesterday, Amazon Studios graced us with the second trailer to their upcoming horror film, Suspiria, a film that performs double duty as the remake to one of the seminal horror films in cinematic history by Italian legend Dario Argento and Luca Guadagnino’s follow-up to his acclaimed Oscar contender Call Me by Your Name. To some, the attempt to remake such a perfect masterpiece as Suspiria may feel like sacrilege. To yours truly, it has been one of my most anticipated movies ever since Guadagnino was announced as the director years ago (Much less so when the poor fit of David Gordon Green was attached) and seeing the cryptic first teaser months ago felt like manna after long speculation of how the results would be (including Armie Hammer going on record after seeing it calling the movie “evil”). 

More on the Trailer After the Jump

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Bye, Fantasia

by Jason Adams

The 2018 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal just finished its three-week run on August 2nd, and yours truly covered it here from my perch six hundred whole kilometers away thanks to the wonders of the internet and the great generosity of the fest's programmers. We introduced the fest right here, listing what looked of interest. And now down below here's a round-up of what we eventually reviewed (you can click on the film titles to read each review):

Fleuve Noir -- Vincent Cassel and Romain Duris circle each other suspiciously (with sexy results!) in this off-beat crime-thriller from Julia director Erick Zonca

Knuckleball -- A kid fights off home invaders in a super dark twist on Home Alone 

Blue My Mind -- Add mermaid to the list of movie puberty hells getting the updated girlhood spin in this beautifully acted and photographed Swiss flick

Cold Skin -- Lovecraft meets Old-timey Lighthouse Keeper Sweater Porn

Chained For Life -- This movie (within a movie) starring Jess Weixler about our culture of beauty fetishization is a real trip and a half

Cam -- Madeline Brewer from The Handmaid's Tale proves she's no one-eyed fluke in this candy-colored Lynchian spin on online sex-work (PS Cam just got picked up for release this fall so stay tuned!)