For many cinephiles, November becomes Noirvember, a month dedicated to noir movies.

Noir is often characterized by its fatalistic outlook, highly stylized imagery, down-on-their-luck and morally ambiguous protagonists, urban settings, shadows, corruption, narration, and of course, the femme fatale. All of these elements marry well with our favorite genre: horror.

This week’s streaming picks blend noir and horror together, kicking off your #Noirvember with horror movies that bear the earmarks of a classic noir film.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Angel Heart– Hoopla, Kanopy

The perfect marriage of psychological horror and noir, Angel Heart follows Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke), a private investigator that Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) hires to track down missing musician Johnny Favorite. Harry’s search leads him to New Orleans, where he finds voodoo, murder, love, and a deal with the devil.

Malaysian director Tsai Ming-liang might be done with his semi-retirement. “I have a strong desire to make another feature film,” he tells Variety at Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival.

“With my actors, we’ve been working together for such a long time. Recently, they’ve been starring in other people’s films and I want them to be in my film again. I am waiting for them to reach a certain age, and we will do it again. Hopefully, I’ll live long enough to see that happen. Just one more feature film! That’s enough for me.”

His biggest concern?

“My physicality. Do I still have the energy to shoot more films? Looking back, I can see I am different now, but I also like the idea of being old and having a different energy,” says the 67-year-old, still dedicated to “making portraits” of his actors.

“I want to...

Dust gets everywhere in director Karrie Crouse and Will Joines’ hard-scrabble horror. It fills the skies, covers the furniture, and chokes the characters’ lungs. Often it clouds their judgement, too. Anyone sensing a metaphor swirling here won’t be disappointed. But those hoping for a satisfying pay-off may well be.

Based on a long-gestating script by Crouse, who also worked on TV’s similarly sand-blasted Westworld, Hold Your Breath can’t be faulted for its ambition. For their feature debut, Crouse and Joines create a convincingly brutal world that their (largely female) characters must endure.

Having worked so hard to convince us of the reality of the characters’ plight, falling back on the usual crazy-woman stereotypes isn’t just disappointing, it’s disastrous.

Sarah Paulson is typically committed as Margaret, a woman on the edge. Her husband is working away, she’s lost a child to scarlet fever, and there...

The loss of a loved one gives way to full-fledged lunacy in Hold Your Breath, the feature debut from directing duo Karrie Crouse and Will Joines. Set in the Oklahoma panhandle circa 1933, the film depicts the brutal dust storms that ravaged the prairie and threatened the lives of its residents during the Dust Bowl.

Nothing is more terrifying than sitting in anticipation in the dark waiting for that unexpected jump scare mastered over the decades by directors who have defined the horror genre since the 1920s with spooky monsters, ghoulish demons and scream queens.

Directors like Hitchcock, Craven, and Carpenter have set the standard for the genre as rising horror directors today including Ari Aster and Jordan Peele make their mark on film with their own style of scare tactics.

Related: 25 Classic Film Mockumentaries Gallery: From ‘Spinal Tap’, ‘Best In Show’, ‘District 9’ To ‘Punishment Park’ & More

Some horror films are even considered to be the most iconic movies in cinematic history such as Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1955 arthouse thriller Diabolique, Charles Laughton’s psychological terror The Night of the Hunter, Brian De Palmas’ 1976 Carrie and Tobe Hooper’s slasher classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

We’ve chronicled our picks for Deadlines’ top 50 classic Halloween...

The Criterion Channel’s at its best when October rolls around, consistently engaging in the strongest horror line-ups of any streamer. 2024 will bring more than a few iterations of their spooky programming: “Horror F/X” highlights the best effects-based scares through the likes of Romero, Cronenberg, Lynch, Tobe Hooper, James Whale; “Witches” does what it says on the tin (and inside the tin is the underrated Italian anthology film featuring Clint Eastwood cuckolded by Batman); “Japanese Horror” runs the gamut of classics; a Stephen King series puts John Carpenter and The Lawnmower Man on equal playing ground; October’s Criterion Editions are Rosemary’s Baby, Night of the Hunter, Häxan; a made-for-tv duo includes Carpenter’s underrated Someone’s Watching Me!; meanwhile, The Wailing and The Babadook stream alongside a collection of Cronenberg and Stephanie Rothman titles.

Otherwise, Winona Ryder and Raúl Juliá are given retrospectives, as are filmmakers Arthur J. Bressan Jr. and Lionel Rogosin.

Actor Demián Bichir has joined the cast of Scott Derrickson’s upcoming horror sequel The Black Phone 2.

The Black Phone was a huge success for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, so it’s really no wonder a sequel was greenlit so quickly. The sequel, simply titled The Black Phone 2, will hit cinemas next year and we already know Ethan Hawke will reprise his role as The Grabber.

Demián Bichir has now also joined the sequel in an undisclosed role, as reported by Deadline. All plot details are also being kept under wraps, but something tells us The Grabber might be grabbing kids again.

The first film grossed over $160m at the global box office and received generally positive reviews from critics. Director Scott Derrickson is set to return to direct the sequel and the script is also his handiwork, again with frequent collaborator Robert C Cargill.

Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw,...

What would happen if Raymond Chandler and H.P. Lovecraft wrote a novel together? Comic series "Fatale" by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips offers an answer. Published from 2012 to 2014 across 24 issues at Image Comics, "Fatale" is named for the archetype every film noir needs: the femme fatale, the sultry knockout who wraps men around her fingers without a care for what happens to their twisted forms (phallic cigarette optional).

The center of "Fatale" is one such woman, named Josephine or simply Jo. Colorists David Stewart and Elizabeth Breitweiser give her blood red lips and hair as black as Ava Gardner. Is her raven hair the same shade as her heart? Not quite. You see, Jo simply can't help making men desire and chase after her — especially men who want her for an occult sacrifice. Brubaker and Phillips mostly cook their comics hardboiled, such as "Criminal" (soon to be a Prime Video...

With nearly 1,700 titles in their catalog, it’s hard to discern where exactly to start when exploring the Criterion Collection. To celebrate their 40th anniversary, the company has now made it a bit easier as they’ve unveiled CC40, a 40-film, 49-disc collection retailing for around $640 that is now the new go-to gift for that budding cinephile in your life.

“This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition,” they note. “CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series. Neither a historical survey nor a top-forty compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology...

The devilishly charming, rugged Robert Mitchum made a name for himself with a number of classics spanning many genres, most notably noirs, westerns, war dramas and crime thrillers. But how many of his titles stand the test of time? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1917 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mitchum cut his teeth in a number of bit parts before landing his star-making turn in “The Story of G.I. Joe” (1945), playing an army captain in WWII. The film brought him his sole Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor and solidified his screen persona as a world-weary, hardbitten antihero.

Mitchum found his greatest success in film noirs, where his cynical, playfully ironic demeanor proved a perfect match for the ultra-dark genre. Whether playing the hero in “Out of the Past” (1947) or the villain in “The Night of the Hunter...

Bruce Timm’s Batman: Caped Crusader begins with a group of armed goons getting up to no good in the middle of the night. “There ain’t no freakin’ Batman,” one of them confidently proclaims, only to have the last word cut off by an expertly thrown Batarang. It’s a quick, effective way of telling us where in this oft told and re-told story we’ll be picking up: This Batman might still be early enough in his crimefighting career that his very existence is in doubt, but the caped crusader (gruffly voiced by Hamish Linklater) is no beginner.

Timm, creator of Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond, has described Caped Crusader as less like Frank Miller’s original story comic Year One and something closer to Week Two. This isn’t Christian Bale’s Batman clambering around Gotham with a ski mask and a handful of gadgets.

Horror picture "Longlegs" is proving to be a surprising box office success. A lot of credit must go to indie studio Neon's marketing campaign, which was scary enough to get people paying attention, yet restrained enough to not give the whole movie away.

Starring Maika Monroe as FBI Agent Lee Harker, "Longlegs" follows the hunt for a serial killer, played by a well-disguised Nicolas Cage. Cage's killer character is mercifully kept at a distance or off-screen for most of the movie; the rare times we get an up-close look, it's like we're intruding on something devilish.

Director Osgood Perkins' previous films have felt a bit too empty for me. The procedural core of "Longlegs," though, gives the movie enough of a skeleton that I could appreciate Perkins' craftsmanship without it trying my patience. Is "Longlegs" the scariest movie ever? No, but it is the movie equivalent of a page-turner,...

France’s Deauville American Film Festival has announced a retrospective gathering 50 U.S. features that have challenged perceptions of the world to mark its 50th anniversary.

The selection ranges from D. W. Griffith’s 1916 silent epic Intolerance to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and also includes Ida Lupino’s groundbreaking 1950 rape drama Outrage as well as Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. (see full list below)

“Cinema has always made us dream, travel, desire, fantasize, laugh, cry. But how many films have been able to shake up our certainties, question our beliefs, question our prejudices and put our own views into perspective?,” said the festival.

“The Deauville American Film Festival wanted to highlight a selection of 50 films that have changed the way we look at the world,” it continued.

Launched in 1975, the festival unfolding in the swanky Normandy beach resort of Deauville, annually fetes Hollywood...

Nineteen forty-seven was a crucial year for Robert Mitchum’s rising star. The enduring popular classic, of course, is Jacques Tourneur’s seminal Out of the Past, and he headlined Edward Dmytryk’s Oscar-nominated prestige thriller Crossfire. It’s in Raoul Walsh’s noirish, Freudian western Pursued, though, that we see Mitchum crossing the divide between what Hollywood expected of the young man and the godlike figure they got in return.

The performance is a total menu of Mitchum’s various modes: an uneven mix of the young, beefy neurotic with a few too many shirt buttons undone; the high-riding titan who would star in Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter; and the varnished-oak elder statesman who still has a few moves left in him, in Dick Richards’s Farewell, My Lovely and Peter Yates’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle. But it’s an unevenness that’s...

With its list of May 2024 releases, Amazon Prime Video is giving us the kindest gift of all: cougar Anne Hathaway.

May 2 sees the premiere of The Idea of You, a romantic-comedy that features Hathaway as a 40-year-old mom finding romance with a 24-year-old boy band singer (Nicholas Galitzine). Having saved the medium of film forever, Prime Video is celebrating with some big time library titles this month as well. American Fiction and BlacKkKlansman arrive on May 14 and will be followed by Creed and Pearl: An X-traordinary Origin Story on May 16.

For its TV offerings, Prime is leading off with Outer Range season 2 on May 16. This James Brolin sci-fi Western will continue the mysteries of the strange happenings on Thanos’ ranch. Reality TV fans will be able to enjoy the Daniel Tosh-hosted competition series The Goat on May 9.

Here’s everything coming to Prime Video and Freevee in April – Amazon...

Clockwise left to right: Get Out (Universal Pictures), This Is Spinal Tap (MGM Home Entertainment), That Thing You Do! (20th Century Studios), Lady Bird (A24)Graphic: The A.V. Club

It’s always neat when someone you’ve admired shows off a hidden talent that makes you see them in a different light.

How many great films does it take to designate a director as a historically significant auteur? Jean Vigo only directed a few shorts and one feature, but they were enough to make him a hero to the pioneers of the French New Wave. Actor-turned-helmer Charles Laughton directed just one movie — “The Night of the Hunter” — but it was such a haunting and singular masterpiece that few would argue that Laughton was one of the medium’s masters. Elaine May stopped directing after four movies, but she’d probably be considered one of the greatest directors who ever lived if she had only made “Mikey and Nicky.”

Christina Hornisher is nowhere near as well known as Vigo, Laughton, or May, but she should be — and now, thanks to a pristine restoration of her sole feature, “Hollywood 90028,” perhaps she will. Released in 1974 after Hornisher earned critical accolades for her UCLA film school shorts,...

One of the most reliable partnerships in modern spooky cinema is that between director Scott Derrickson, and writer C. Robert Cargill. Together, the pair delivered Sinister, Doctor Strange, and The Black Phone, and they’re currently working together on a script for The Black Phone 2. But beyond that, the duo has a new project lined up together – a new take on legendary noir thriller classic The Night Of The Hunter. Davis Grubb’s novel was previously adapted for the screen in 1955 by director Charles Laughton, and now nearly 70 years on will be getting a whole new life on the big screen.

The new version of The Night Of The Hunter has both Derrickson and Cargill on writing duties, and Derrickson is officially on board to direct for Universal. No casting has been announced yet, but the story revolves around a serial killer who hides behind his veneer as a preacher,...

Marking his first feature in five years, Election and Drug War director Johnnie To has quietly embarked on his next project. Although no official details have been announced regarding the title or plot, HK01 (via Frank Yan) spotted To filming a scene with Hong Kong pop star Anson Lo, who plays a driver in the film. There’ll surely be more to come, but it’s exciting to see one of our great directors back at work.

Darren Aronofsky has found his next film and star. Following The Whale, he’ll direct Austin Butler in Caught Stealing, Deadline reports, a sports crime drama scripted by Charlie Huston based on his own book. The Sony Pictures project is described as an “adrenaline-soaked roller coaster ride” and will follow Butler as Hank Thompson, “a burned-out former baseball player, as he’s unwittingly plunged into a wild fight for survival in the downtown criminal underworld of ‘90s NYC.

Director Scott Derrickson, known for his work on “The Black Phone,” is embarking on a unique journey with his remake of the classic noir film “The Night of The Hunter.” This adaptation of the original 1953 novel by David Grubbs promises a much darker tone than the 1955 Charles Laughton-directed movie. The news, reported by Deadline, also reveals that Derrickson’s longtime creative writing partner, C.

Continue reading Scott Derrickson To Remake A Darker ‘Night Of The Hunter’ With ‘Doctor Strange’ Writer at The Playlist.

Scott Derrickson is set to adapt Davis Grubb’s novel that was turned into a classic film back in 1955. More on The Night Of The Hunter adaptation below.

While we’re still waiting for The Black Phone 2 to hit cinemas next year, director Scott Derrickson is adding another project to his growing roster of films he wants to make.

Not only is he directing the star-studded The Gorge, but Derrickson will now also reunite with his frequent collaborator, writer C Robert Cargill, to re-adapt The Night Of The Hunter. The duo previously made Sinister (2012), Sinister 2 (2015), Doctor Strange (2016) and The Black Phone (2021) together. The news of their latest project comes to us via The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on a 1953 novel by Davis Grubb, The Night Of The Hunter tells the story of Harry Powell, an ex-con who poses as a preacher as he sets out to find his old cellmate’s hidden cash.

Well, here's news you don't see every day.

Director Scott Derrickson and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill, the same horror filmmaking duo that gave us "Sinister" (read /Film's oral history here) and "The Black Phone," have confirmed their next project: "The Night of the Hunter," adapted from the 1953 novel by Davis Grubb. The project is being developed at Universal.

"The Night of the Hunter" follows Harry Powell, a faux-preacher, and misogynistic serial killer, in the 1930s Ohio River Valley. After Powell is arrested for stealing a car (from one of his brides-turned-victims), his cellmate is Ben Harper, who's on death row for armed robbery/homicide. Harper hid the stolen money in his daughter Pearl's doll, intending it to be her and his son John's birthright, and took that secret to his grave. Once Powell is walking free, however, he makes his way to the Harper family, seducing Ben's widow Willa so...

Scott Derrickson is set to direct a new adaptation of Davis Grubb’s classic 1953 crime novel, The Night of the Hunter.

The Night of the Hunter tells the twisted story of Harry Powell, a serial killer who poses as a preacher and marries a widow in order to get his hands on her deceased husband’s hidden fortune. Unfortunately, Powell’s new stepchildren, John and Pearl, grow suspicious and quickly become his targets. The novel was previously adapted in 1955 with Robert Mitchum starring as Powell and delivering one of his very best performances. Although the film is now considered to be one of the best of all time (and one of my personal favourites), it received negative reviews upon its release. Acclaimed actor Charles Laughton made his directorial debut with the film, but he took the failure personally and never directed another movie again.

Related The Black Phone 2: Everything...

The classic 1955 movie The Night of the Hunter was adapted from Davis Grubb’s same-titled novel, and we’ve learned tonight that a brand new adaptation is now in the works.

THR reports this afternoon that Scott Derrickson will be directing the new take on The Night of the Hunter, with C. Robert Cargill (Sinister) writing.

Derrickson will write the script alongside Cargill, the report adds.

Cargill previews on the platform formerly known as Twitter tonight, “For those unfamiliar, Night of the Hunter was based on a novel that was *Much Darker* than the 1950s would allow. Very excited about this project and thrilled we can finally talk about it.”

The Night of the Hunter follows a religious fanatic, con man and murderer who marries a widow, knowing that her deceased husband had hid $10,000 from authorities following a bank robbery. The widow’s young children are reluctant to tell him...

Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, the terrorific team behind horror hits Sinister and The Black Phone, are going noir.

Universal has tapped Derrickson to direct an adaptation of The Night of the Hunter, the acclaimed 1953 crime novel by Davis Grubb that was previously turned into a 1955 thriller starring Robert Mitchum.

Derrickson will write the script with Cargill, his frequent collaborator who also worked with him on Marvel Studios entry Doctor Strange.

Peter Gethers will produce through his KramMar Delicious Mystery Productions, and Amy Pascal will produce through her Pascal Pictures first-look deal with Universal Pictures. 

Hunter told the story of Harry Powell, a murderous ex-con who takes up the identity of a preacher in order to do his misdeeds. While in prison, a cellmate slated for execution tells Powell that he hid stolen cash with his kids. Upon his release, Powell finds the widow, woos her and marries her,...

Scott Derrickson has been set to direct an adaptation of Davis Grubb’s classic 1953 novel The Night of the Hunter for Universal Pictures, working from his script written with C. Robert Cargill, his longtime collaborator on The Black Phone, Doctor Strange and other projects.

Peter Gethers will produce through his KramMar Delicious Mystery Productions, alongside Amy Pascal, whose Pascal Pictures has a first-look deal with the studio.

The Night of the Hunter revolves around Harry Powell, a serial killer posing as a preacher, who marries a widow solely to gain access to her deceased husband’s hidden fortune. Powell’s stepchildren, John and Pearl, become the targets of his relentless pursuit as he seeks the money hidden by their father.

An instant bestseller and finalist for the National Book Award, The Night of the Hunter was the first of Grubb’s 10 novels. Previously, the book was adapted into a classic film,...

Today we are featuring this lovely, high-contrast key art for a repertory screening of The Night of the Hunter in Toronto's iconic century-old Revue Cinema. It is very likely that the cinema played Charles Laughton's film back in 1955 upon its original release.  Designer and visual artist John Godfrey, who has been featured in these pages before, offers a dramatic, almost minimal, take on the film's most revered sequence, where the imperilled child protagonists narrowly escape by commandeering a small boat, and then gently float away in a very dreamlike or fairy tale journey. In his own words: "The thing that stood out the most to me was Stanley Cortez's dreamlike cinematography. Every shot was like a perfectly composed painting, painted with light in an intentional way,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

There’ll be some happy holidays on Prime Video in December, as the streamer’s seasonal offerings hope to keep the fires warm in your home this month!

As such, there are quite a few new original holiday movies coming to the service. At the beginning of the month, Eddie Murphy stars in Candy Cane Lane. In this film, the Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America star plays a determined man who is willing to go above and beyond to win the annual Christmas home decoration contest in his neighborhood – even if it means making a very magical deal.

The DC universe will also be getting festive in December thanks to Merry Little Batman, an animated feature that sees Batman’s son, Damian Wayne, stumble upon a villainous plot on Christmas eve, one that may give him a chance to save the day when his dad isn’t around.

The only thing better than a free thing is more of that free thing. This month, Amazon’s ad-supported streamer Freevee is adding dozens of new titles to its existing library of thousands, and no matter your choice (or choices), Freevee titles are available for free on the platform with no additional membership required, so you can watch without an additional hit to the bank account this holiday season!

Take a tour through both the classic and current this December, including the 1950s classic film noir “The Night of the Hunter,” the queer history classic “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” and the complete series collection of “Night Court,” “The Waltons,” and more.

Once you brush up on your history, catch up with the contemporaries, such as the beloved sci-fi series “Fringe”, the animated hit “Hotel Transylvania,” and the superhero black comedy “Kick-Ass.”

Check out The Streamable’s...

The holidays are upon us, so whether you looking for film-related gifts or simply want to pick up some of the finest the year had to offer in the category for yourself, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection and more home-video picks, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.

Giveaways

In celebration of our holiday gift guide, we’ll be doing a number of giveaways! First up, we’re giving away My First Movie Vol. 2, a three-part ‘lil cinephile series by Cory Everett and illustrator Julie Olivi, featuring My First Spaghetti Western, My First Yakuza Movie, and My First Hollywood Musical.

Enter on Instagram (for My First Yakuza Movie), Twitter (for My First Hollywood Musical), and/or Facebook (for My First Spaghetti Western) by Sunday, November 26 at 11:59pm Et. Those that enter on all three platforms...

Taika Waititi in What We Do In The Shadows (courtesy Paladin Pictures), Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (Universal Pictures), Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice (Warner Bros.), Anjelica Huston in Addams Family Values (Paramount Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Every October, horror filmmakers and fans come together to celebrate the season, eagerly seeking out entertainment laced with blood,...

I love such evocative movie titles. We’ve had The Night of the Hunter, and now here comes Night of the Hunted. They are not related in any way, though. Just the title reminded me of that great noir classic. Night of the Hunted is a ‘situation movie,’ as described by Quentin Tarantino on a reel I saw the other day. “Speed,” he said, is an example of a situation movie done to perfection, but there’s no story there, he added. Night of the Hunted is as situational as they come. The characters are stuck in a place, and so are we, and the whole concept is based on a whimsical plot that entertains for just a bit and then fizzles out faster than a helium balloon. Did this film have potential? Absolutely. Is the second half of the movie terrible? Most certainly.

There is a hint of a...

The Scarecrow, aka Dr. Jonathan Crane, is my favorite Batman villain. I've always been drawn to his eponymous motif, his horror-twinged stories, and how he contests Batman for the title "The Master of Fear." Hence, though "Batman: The Animated Series" holds a special place in my heart, I've always been disappointed that Scarecrow wasn't an A-list player.

Crane is the antagonist in only three episodes and in each one is mostly an obstacle for Batman to develop against. In his villainous debut, "Nothing to Fear," Batman is dosed with Scarecrow's Fear Toxin and haunted by an apparition of his father, leading to the Dark Knight's most famous line. In "Dreams in Darkness," the Fear Toxin drives Batman temporarily insane and he's locked in Arkham Asylum. He must escape both his physical and mental prison before Scarecrow can poison Gotham City.

"Batman: The Animated Series" has many superlative takes on...

Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter is so loaded with neurotic symbology that you can attach nearly any meaning to it, and that’s the source of its uneasy, primordial power. In 1955, it might’ve been logical to assume that Laughton and critic turned screenwriter James Agee, working from David Grubb’s novel, were intending the film as an allegory for McCarthyism. After all, the villain, Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), cannily exploits people’s panic in order to line his pockets, turning them on one another so as to distract them from the true evildoings being committed.

Like those in the grip of the second Red Scare, most of Harry’s victims are easily exploited because they willingly forfeit individual judgment in the presence of reassuringly unquestioned leadership. As in other McCarthyism parables (most obviously Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers), only the children and...

Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their work. Léa Mysius's The Five Devils is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries in the series The New Auteurs. Five inspirations for The Five Devils:Inspiration #1The Shining (1980) by Stanley KubrickI will always remember the opening scene…Inspiration #2Jonathan FranzenThe character of Patty in Freedom, whom I think of often. Inspiration #3Deana Lawson's photographyI love her portraits, set in domestic interiors. So modern, tender, and beautiful.Inspiration #4The Tin Drum (1979) by Volker SchlöndorffThe eyes of David Bennent…Inspiration #5James BaldwinHow I love him!...and a few more inspirations, in general:The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Charles Laughton: First seen at age two with my twin sister, and on a loop throughout my childhood. It returns to me unconsciously in all of my films.Dalva by...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Godzilla & Godzilla Raids Again Novelizations from University of Minnesota Press

First published in Japan in 1955, the original novelizations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again will be released in English for the first time on October 3 via University of Minnesota Press.

Jeffrey Angles, professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University, has newly translated the original material written by Shigeru Kayama, who conceived the initial story for Godzilla.

The two young adult novellas are being published together in one 256-page book, which is available to pre-order in paperback for $17.41 and and e-book for $9.99.

Scooby-Doo Play Set from Mezco Toyz

Mezco Toyz has announced a Scooby-Doo Friends & Foes box set as part of its 5 Points line of retro-style 3.75” scale action figures.

While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.

Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.

Check out the list below,...

With Michael B. Jordan making his directorial debut with Creed III this weekend, we wanted to know what film by a first time Actor turned Director has been your favorite? Some came out of the gates with Oscar Glory (Kevin Costner/ Robert Redford) while others found a passion they haven’t looked back from (Ron Howard/ Sofia Coppola). If you don’t see your favorite listed, please let us know what (and who) it is in the comments section.

Update: I have rightly been called out for listing Braveheart as Mel Gibson’s first film when he actually directed a film prior to that called The Man Without a Face in 1993. So I guess the results are slightly skewed, but really, wasn’t Braveheart the first Mel Gibson directed film we all saw?!

Favorite Film by a First Time Actor Turned DirectorThat Thing You Do! (1996) (Tom Hanks)Ordinary People (1980) (Robert Redford)In a World…...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Japan Society

A series celebrating Seijun Suzuki’s centennial begins with imported 35mm prints.

Roxy Cinema

35mm showings of Happiness continue; a Sara Driver series brings Stranger Than Paradise and Sleepwalk on 35mm, as well as Boom for Real.

Museum of Modern Art

A series on Claudia Cardinale begins, including Rocco and His Brothers this Saturday.

Film Forum

Dino Risi’s Una Vita Difficile has begun playing in a 4K restoration, while Howl’s Moving Castle screens on Sunday.

Museum of the Moving Image

A series on awards-snubbed films continues with Sirk, Cukor, and The Night of the Hunter.

IFC Center

28 Days Later, The Big Lebowski, Eraserhead, The Witches, and Psycho play.

The post NYC Weekend Watch: Seijun Suzuki, Sara Driver, Claudia Cardinale & More first appeared on The Film Stage.

Of the many macabre quotes attributed to writer-poet and goth luminary Edgar Allan Poe, one of the most implemented in fiction is his insistence that the death of a gorgeous woman is the "most poetical topic in the world." It's the focal point of his celebrated 1841 short story, "The Murders of the Rue Morgue," concerning the procedural investigation into the brutal death of a mother and adult daughter. It's a detective story crafted before such a term existed, and one of its big-screen adaptations featured a completed scene so vicious that the powers-that-be kept it from seeing the light of day, no matter how "poetical."

The year is 1932. Audiences are reeling in the wake of two major horror game-changers; James Whale's "Frankenstein" and Tod Browning's "Dracula" were both fairly faithful adaptations of their respective novels the previous year and (no thanks to the restrictive Hays Code) pushed the...

Home video label Vinegar Syndrome is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, and today brings along with it the launch of a brand new sub-label from the company.

Titled Vinegar Syndrome Labs (Vsl), the aim of the sub-label is to expand and defy expectations with the diversity of films the company restores and releases. The team explains, “As the name implies, Vsl will serve as a kind of testing area for releasing genres and eras of film that one might not immediately expect to come from Vs.

“The ultimate objective of Vsl will be to see if these types of films will find an audience, and if so, pursue and release more of them…and even if not, still serve as a means of restoring more of the weird, rare, and unusual movies you might not expect from Vinegar Syndrome.”

The first release from the new label, now available for pre-order,...

The 1955 cult classic horror "The Night of the Hunter" may be one of the scariest films of all time, but not because of a well-timed jump-scare or dazzling practical effects. What is it that makes Charles Laughton's sole directorial credit so very terrifying? Robert Mitchum's performance as a Bible-thumping villain is enough to set your teeth on edge, but it's the haunting set design and Hilyard M. Brown and skillful camera work by Stanley Cortez that have always struck me to my core.

"The Night of the Hunter" was filmed at the tail end of Hollywood's golden era. Most of the major studios were running out of money in the mid-50s and early '60s, and there are tell-tale signs of budget cuts in a lot of films, a sort of canned quality. Cut costs meant that studios were forcing directors to put their huge sound stages...

The disc of the year has finally arrived and it’s 1000 worth the wait. William Cameron Menzies’ flight into schoolboy paranoia now really looks like it ought to hang in the Louvre; the entire show is inspired Modern Art. When Martians conduct a brain-snatching takeover of Middle America little David MacLean must save the day, with an assist from an astronomer buddy and a sexy city nurse. The review is mostly concerned with how the new Ignite release looks and sounds. The rejuvenation of this fantasy masterpiece will turn fans of the 1950s sci-fi boom back into delighted ‘Gee Whiz’ kids.

Invaders from Mars

Blu-ray

Ignite Films

1953 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 that was the plan … delivery expected . . . ? / Available from Ignite Films / 55.00

Starring: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Morris Ankrum, Max Wagner, William Phipps, Milburn Stone, Janine Perreau, Barbara Billingsley, Peter Brocco, Richard Deacon,...

"The Night of the Hunter" may hold back from showing any murders onscreen, but that doesn't make Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) any less creepy. A fanatical Christian that's equally misogynist, Powell roams the Great Depression Ohio valley, marrying widows before robbing them of both of their largesse and lives. The not-at-all-good reverend sees no conflict between his faith and his black widowing. After all, the Bible is full of killings.

While Powell is said to have a high body count, only two of his killings are directly featured in "The Night of the Hunter." The film opens with him fleeing from one, catching a glimpse of his victim's lifeless legs from her basement door. Powell then marries Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) to find money stolen and hidden away by her late husband. After brainwashing her into his faith, he disposes of her. She ends up being so robbed of...

There are fewer joys in filmmaking than successfully pulling off an ambitious movie trick. For example, in his sci-fi classic "The Thing," director John Carpenter hired a double-amputee actor to stand in during the famous defibrillation scene, convincing viewers that Richard Dysart's character had his arms bitten off. The CGI-averse Christopher Nolan similarly orchestrated the zero-gravity hallway fight in "Inception" via massive centrifuge-style rotating sets, earning the film a Best Visual Effects Oscar. But some of the most marvelous movie illusions didn't require elaborate constructions. In fact, one of the most exemplary images of classic cinema was nothing more than a trick of the eye.

Shamefully, "The Night of the Hunter" is Charles Laughton's only feature film as director due to its poor reception at the time. A noir thriller based on the novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, the 1955 movie is now widely considered a true classic.

When it comes to movies by one-and-done directors, there is no greater achievement than Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter," one of the most singular American films ever made. Nowadays, we'd probably pitch it as somewhere between a pastoral fable and a proto-slasher, but when it was released in 1955 it was a vision so unique that neither critics nor audiences knew what to make of it. It became such a monstrous flop that Laughton never directed another film.

Thankfully, time has been extremely kind to "The Night of the Hunter," and Laughton's neglected masterpiece is now receiving the recognition it deserves. In this year's Sight and Sound Top 100 list of the greatest films of all time, it vaulted 38 places from 63rd in the 2012 edition to joint 25th alongside "Au Hasard Balthazar." It didn't even make the list in the previous decade's poll, so at this rate of critical reappraisal,...

At a time when heritage cinema is booming – thanks to outstanding progress in conservation standards and a growth in demand – Lyon’s Lumière heritage film festival Lumière is playing a leading role in uncovering long-forgotten cinematic gems.

“Dans la Nuit” (“In the Night”), widely considered one of the last, if not the last major French silent film, is one of them. It is the only film shot by French actor Charles Vanel, perhaps best remembered for his role as a desperate truck driver in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s acclaimed “The Wages of Fear,” which won both the Golden Bear and the Palme d’Or in 1953. Vanel also stars in the film, alongside Russian-French actress Sandra Milovanoff, who became a silent film era casualty as her Slavic accent was considered unsuitable for talkies.

The newly restored version of the film is having its world premiere at the fest, which is headed by Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux.

Many movie stars of the Hollywood Golden Age were "the strong, silent type" — Robert Mitchum was definitely one of them. That silence and piercing gaze meant Mitchum could play villains more convincingly than many of his contemporaries. He played not one but two serial killers — Harry Powell in "The Night of The Hunter" and Max Cady in "Cape Fear" — before the phrase even entered the popular lexicon. Even his heroic roles, such as Jeff Markham in the noir "Out of the Past," had as much edge as the Hays Code would permit.

Mitchum's stardom even survived brushes with the law. In 1949, he served two months in prison for marijuana possession. So, why was Mitchum in such demand? It wasn't just because audiences loved him.

Where The Demand Came From

A 1982 Village Voice profile explores why Mitchum was popular with both Hollywood money-men and movie-goers. For the former, it's because he...

Author and Tfh Guru Dennis Lehane joins Josh and Joe to discuss a few of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness

Home Alone (1990)

Mystic River (2003)

Shutter Island (2010)

Live By Night (2016)

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

The Drop (2014)

The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Apocalypse Now (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Apocalypse Now: Redux (2001)

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut (2019) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Crying Game (1992)

Diner (1982)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

American Graffiti (1973) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Body Heat (1981) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Blue Velvet (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Raging Bull (1980) – Dan Perri’s trailer commentary

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars: The Special Edition (1997)

Manhunter (1986) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Public Enemies (2009)

Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Miller’s Crossing (1990) – Josh Olson...

Hello, dear readers! We’re back with a brand new edition of our rundown of this week’s home media releases, and it’s definitely a good time to be a Nicolas Cage fan as we have two different films featuring the iconic actor headed to various formats - The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Vampire’s Kiss which is receiving the Special Edition treatment from Mvd Visual. We also have some killer new horror movies headed home today too, including The Cellar and You Are Not My Mother, and one of my favorite ‘90s sci-fi/horror movies is also headed to Blu-ray today courtesy of Scream Factory as well: Fire in the Sky.

Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for June 21st include Uncle Sam 4K, The Initiation of Sarah, The Brain From Planet Arous, Forced Entry and Monday Morning.

The Brain From Planet Arous: Special Edition

When Gor,...