Get Out
Director: Jordan Peele
Screenwriter: Jordan Peele
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Lil Rel Howery, Keith Stanfield, Stephen Root, Betty Gabriel
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Rated R | 103 Minutes
Release Date: February 24, 2017

Whether it’s Rosemary’s Baby, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or Videodrome, the best horror films act as subversive social commentaries, dealing with humanity’s fears on a subconscious level and offering a kind of communal catharsis.

In his 1981 non-fiction book, Danse Macabre, author Stephen King states that the horror genre can “serve as an extraordinarily accurate barometer of those things which trouble the night-thoughts of a whole society.” George A. Romero’s landmark 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead, for example, was rife with racial commentary during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

I, like many others, have a bunch of movie favorites I watched as a kid in the ’80s. Some well-known and enjoyed to this day; others much more obscure. One of the more obscure titles is 1987’s Benji the Hunted, part of the series of Benji the dog movies seen mostly in the ’70s and ’80s. How many of these Benji movies I actually saw, I couldn’t say, but Hunted has always stuck with me.

The series began in 1974 with the simply titled Benji, which was written, directed, and produced by Joe Camp. The movie did insanely well considering the year it was released, making $45 million at the box office on a $500,000 budget. Now comes word that the original is not only being remade by Camp’s son Brandon Camp, but it’s already begun filming.

A new trailer has been released for the horror movie Get Out. The movie comes from, believe it or not, Jordan Peele, one half of the duo behind the Comedy Central sketch comedy show Key & Peele. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the recent comedy Keanu, in which he starred alongside Keegan-Michael Key.

Peele pulls double duty this time around as both writer and director, his first time working behind the camera. The movie is described as a “speculative thriller,” and it comes from Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions, makers of hit low-budget horror franchises such as Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge.

You can read more about Get Out and watch the trailer below.

There have been seven sequels to director John Carpenter‘s original 1978 horror classic Halloween, as well as a remake by Rob Zombie that also had one sequel. But it’s been well over three decades now since Carpenter was last involved with the franchise as a producer on Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

Now comes word that a new Halloween movie is on the way, and Carpenter will be heavily involved in its creation. The movie is a joint venture between Blumhouse Productions and CEO Jason Blum, Miramax, producer Malek Akkad, and Trancas International Films. They’ve announced that not only has Carpenter officially signed on to be an executive producer and a “creative consultant” or “godfather” to the project, but there’s also a chance that he’ll even be composing music for the film’s score, just as he did on the original.

Hush
Written by Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Starring Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco, Samantha Sloyan, Emma Graves
Intrepid Pictures
Release Date: Friday, April 8th, 2016

If you’re a horror movie fan, you are constantly on the lookout for something of substance and quality. Sometimes, rarely, one of those films finds their way into the mainstream. Last year it was David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows that took horror fans by storm. Too often though, more than any other genre, horror gets bogged down in cash grab sequels, and pointless tone deaf remakes. When all the theatres can churn out are another Paranormal Activity or Purge film, fans must look to other places. Enter the wonderful streaming universe. This week, I was messaged on Facebook by a fellow horror-nut who recommended Hush, currently streaming on Netflix. When I looked it up and saw who the director was, I quickly grabbed for the remote.

Spoilers below.