I’ve been a Star Trek fan for nearly my entire life. My father introduced me to the franchise through the original films, and I still remember him telling me about the infamous Star Trek odd/even movie curse. The theory is simple: the odd-numbered entries in the theatrical series are supposedly weaker than their even-numbered counterparts. But does that reputation actually hold up across all 13 Star Trek movies? Let’s break them down one by one and see if the critics’ verdict proves whether the curse is fact or fiction.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

A mysterious, immensely powerful alien entity called V’Ger heads toward Earth, forcing Admiral Kirk to reunite the Enterprise crew to uncover its origins and stop it before Earth is destroyed.

In the decade following the cancellation of The Original Series, Star Trek had only grown in popularity. Syndication turned it into a cultural phenomenon, and with the massive success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars, Paramount decided the time was right to bring the franchise to the big screen. Unfortunately, while Star Trek: The Motion Picture boasted stunning visuals and an iconic Jerry Goldsmith score, it was also glacially paced and sorely lacking in urgency. Reviews were mixed, and the film currently holds a 51% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, it performed well enough at the box office for Paramount to greenlight a sequel—otherwise, we might not even be talking about the infamous odd/even movie curse today.

As a kid, The Motion Picture felt every bit like the “motionless picture” critics joked about. With age, though, I’ve come to appreciate it more. There’s something undeniably special about seeing the original cast reunited, soaking in those gorgeous, lingering shots of the Enterprise, and listening to Goldsmith’s all-timer score. There’s a lot to admire here, but there’s no denying that there was plenty of room for improvement.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Kirk faces his greatest enemy when Khan Noonien Singh seeks revenge, leading to a deadly showdown that tests leadership, sacrifice, and the cost of command.

Thankfully, Star Trek came roaring back with its first sequel. The Wrath of Khan isn’t just one of the best Star Trek movies ever made—it’s one of the greatest sci-fi films, period. Stripped of excess and packed with emotion, the film plays like a lean, mean submarine thriller set in space, with the cast delivering some of their finest work. Ricardo Montalbán returned as Khan, reprising the role he first played in The Original Series episode “Space Seed,” and absolutely devoured the screen. His performance was so iconic that nearly every Star Trek movie that followed spent years chasing that same lightning in a bottle.

Critics embraced The Wrath of Khan, hailing it as everything The Motion Picture should have been. The film currently sits at an impressive 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, and just like that, the infamous odd/even movie curse was born.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

After Spock’s death, Kirk defies Starfleet orders to recover his friend’s body, risking everything to reunite Spock’s mind and soul.

Picking up directly after the events of The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock can’t help but feel like a step down by comparison. It never reaches the same highs as its predecessor, but—much like The Motion Picture—it’s a sequel I’ve come to appreciate more with time. The film is slower and more intimate, driven less by spectacle than by themes of loyalty, friendship, and sacrifice. The destruction of the Enterprise and the death of Kirk’s son, David, remain landmark moments for the franchise, underscoring just how much is lost in the name of devotion.

Notably, audiences don’t see Leonard Nimoy’s Spock until the film’s closing moments, a choice that makes his return all the more powerful. “Jim. Your name… is Jim.”

I’d argue that The Search for Spock is one of the franchise’s most underrated entries. While it holds a respectable 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s still widely viewed as a comedown from The Wrath of Khan, meaning the odd/even curse remains firmly intact.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

To save Earth from an alien probe, the Enterprise crew travels back to 1980s San Francisco to retrieve humpback whales.

With no space battles, phaser fights, or even a traditional villain, The Voyage Home takes a sharp turn toward lighter, more comedic territory—but it’s packed with memorable moments and features a cast clearly having the time of their lives. Star Trek has no shortage of time-travel stories, but The Voyage Home remains one of the franchise’s most accessible entries, especially for newcomers, since much of the action unfolds in what was then the present day. At the same time, it never forgets longtime fans, smartly continuing threads from the previous two films and bringing the Genesis Trilogy to a satisfying close.

The movie is also genuinely hilarious, embracing a full-on fish-out-of-water vibe as the Enterprise crew grapples with money, annoying punks, and “barbaric” 20th-century hospitals. Critics and audiences alike embraced the film, which currently holds an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, an improvement over The Search for Spock and enough to keep the odd/even curse going.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

Spock’s half-brother hijacks the Enterprise in a quest to find God at the center of the galaxy, forcing Kirk to confront faith, friendship, and free will.

With The Final Frontier, Star Trek finally arrived at its first genuinely bad movie. After Leonard Nimoy successfully helmed the previous two films, William Shatner stepped behind the camera for his turn in the director’s chair—but the result is a mess buried under shoddy effects, weak villains, and extensive behind-the-scenes turmoil that prevented Shatner from fully realizing his vision. The film aims to explore profound ideas about faith and meaning, but it often fails to engage effectively. That’s a shame, because there are sparks of something worthwhile here.

The opening campfire scene with Kirk, Spock, and Bones—campy as it may be—perfectly captures how close these characters have become. Even when the movie falters, it’s that camaraderie that keeps things watchable. That said, it’s definitely the Star Trek sequel I revisit the least.

Sitting at a dismal 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Final Frontier is the lowest-rated theatrical Star Trek film—but hey, at least it does its part to keep the odd/even curse alive for another entry.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

With peace negotiations underway between the Federation and the Klingons, Kirk and McCoy are framed for assassination, threatening to plunge the galaxy into war.

The Final Frontier very nearly marked the end of the line for the original cast. After that film crashed and burned, Paramount began exploring a Starfleet Academy movie that would have recast Kirk, Spock, and McCoy with younger actors. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, and the decision was made to give these beloved characters a proper send-off. Bringing The Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer back into the fold proved to be the smartest move possible. The Undiscovered Country emerged as a sharp, politically charged thriller that also functioned as a classy and emotional farewell.

My dad always loves to quote the warden at Rura Penthe. “Work well, and you will be treated well. Work badly… and you will die.”

The film delivered everything fans could want from a Star Trek movie: suspense, adventure, rich character moments, and one of the franchise’s great villains in Christopher Plummer’s Shakespeare-quoting General Chang. The Undiscovered Country marked a major rebound, earning rave reviews and sitting at 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, while also becoming a solid box-office hit with nearly $100 million worldwide. Can you imagine if The Final Frontier had been the franchise’s final word? No thank you.

Alongside The Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home, The Undiscovered Country remains one of my all-time favourite Star Trek films, and its success, coming after such a low point, only helped cement the legend of the odd/even movie curse among fans.

Star Trek Generations (1994)

The original crew passes the torch to The Next Generation as Picard teams up with Kirk to stop a madman seeking godlike power within the Nexus.

The studio wanted Generations on screens as quickly as possible, with production kicking off while the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation was still finishing the series finale, “All Good Things.” A little breathing room might have helped, if only to give them time to reset before jumping straight into a feature film. On paper, the idea of bringing Jean-Luc Picard and James T. Kirk together is irresistible, but when the movie finally reaches that historic meeting, it feels oddly rushed and underwritten, never delivering the epic clash of philosophies fans had been promised. And then there’s the death of Kirk. Rather than going out in a blaze of glory, the legendary captain is reduced to dying beneath a collapsing bridge. Yes, his actions save an entire solar system, but it still feels like Kirk deserved a better send-off.

That said, Generations isn’t a bad movie, at least in my eyes. Patrick Stewart delivers some of his most vulnerable work as Picard grapples with personal loss, and seeing the TNG cast finally get their moment on the big screen is every bit as exciting as it was when the original crew made the jump to cinemas with The Motion Picture. And much like that first original-cast outing, the Next Generation crew would fare far better the second time around.

Sitting at 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, Generations lands squarely in mid-tier Star Trek territory, with the odd/even curse marching on.

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

The Borg travel back in time to prevent humanity’s first contact with aliens, forcing Picard to confront his past trauma while defending Earth’s future.

With First Contact, the Next Generation cast absolutely knocked it out of the park. The film leans heavily into action without ever losing sight of the characters we know and love. The Borg are reintroduced as a genuinely terrifying threat, the stakes are immediate, and once the movie kicks into gear, it never lets up. Where First Contact truly excels, though, is with Jean-Luc Picard. Patrick Stewart delivers one of his strongest performances as Picard confronts the lingering trauma of his assimilation, pushing the character into darker, angrier territory than we’d ever seen before. His obsessive need to stop the Borg — even at the cost of his own principles — gives the film real emotional weight. And then there’s Alice Krige as the chilling, seductive Borg Queen, easily the most memorable villain of the TNG films.

Despite its darker edge, First Contact is ultimately uplifting, with the entire crew working together to protect humanity’s future and ensure that we’ll all continue to boldly go where no one has gone before. The film was a genuine blockbuster, embraced by critics and audiences alike. Sitting at an impressive 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, First Contact is one of the highest-rated Star Trek movies in the franchise, and once again, the odd/even curse holds true.

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Picard rebels against Starfleet when a peaceful alien race is threatened, turning the Enterprise into a symbol of moral resistance.

Coming off the high of First Contact, Insurrection had an almost impossible act to follow, and unfortunately, it couldn’t rise to the challenge. The film feels less like a cinematic event and more like an extended two-part episode of The Next Generation. That isn’t inherently a bad thing, but it’s a tough sell for audiences expecting another big-screen spectacle. At its core, Insurrection presents a classic Star Trek moral dilemma, pitting Starfleet’s ideals against political compromise. Picard’s decision to rebel against the Federation in order to protect the Ba’ku taps directly into the franchise’s ethical backbone, and Patrick Stewart once again reminds us why Picard remains one of Trek’s greatest captains.

The movie also finds time for smaller, genuinely heartfelt moments, including a lovely scene in which LeVar Burton’s Geordi La Forge briefly regains his sight and witnesses a sunrise for the first time.

Unfortunately, the stakes feel oddly low, the villainous Son’a are underwhelming, and Picard’s romantic subplot lands awkwardly at best. Insurrection is pleasant enough, but ultimately forgettable. Sitting at 54% on Rotten Tomatoes, it once again lands in mid-tier Star Trek territory. Still, if the odd/even curse continues, that means the next film should be great… right?

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Picard faces Shinzon, a deadly clone with ties to his own past, leading to a personal and tragic final mission for the TNG crew.

Well, folks, this is where the odd/even curse finally comes to an end. Nemesis arrived promising something darker, more personal, and more cinematic — and on paper, it should have worked. The idea of Picard confronting a clone of himself is a strong hook, raising questions about nature versus nurture, identity, and the thin line between hero and villain. Tom Hardy, in his first major role, brings genuine intensity to Shinzon, and early on, there’s a sense that the film is aiming to be the Next Generation crew’s answer to The Wrath of Khan.

Unfortunately, the execution falls short. The tone is relentlessly grim, draining the warmth and camaraderie that defined The Next Generation, while much of the supporting cast is sidelined. Troi, in particular, is given some painfully ill-conceived material that feels out of step with the series’ values. Nemesis didn’t just fail as a sequel — it fundamentally misunderstood what The Next Generation was.

Worst of all, Nemesis feels oddly embarrassed to be Star Trek. The optimism, curiosity, and moral clarity that once defined the franchise are replaced with bleakness and generic sci-fi. The emotional sacrifice of Data does tug at the ol’ heartstrings, but by the time the credits roll, it doesn’t feel like a grand farewell; it feels like a franchise running out of steam. Sitting at 37% on Rotten Tomatoes, Nemesis wasn’t just a critical disappointment; it effectively brought the TNG film series to a halt… while finally snapping the odd/even curse.

Star Trek (2009)

A time-travelling Romulan alters history, creating an alternate timeline as a young James T. Kirk and Spock rise to command the Enterprise.

With Nemesis finally bringing an end to the odd/even curse, the question became: what do we make of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot? Is it the franchise’s 11th film, or is it a fresh starting point? Either way, it’s technically an odd-numbered entry — yet it defies the odds by becoming the highest-rated movie in the entire series. From here on out, the curse stops being useful. Say what you will about the obsession with lens flares and over-the-top action, one thing is undeniable: the casting was absolutely spot-on.

Chris Pine’s James T. Kirk is effortlessly charismatic; Zachary Quinto gives Spock a sharp, emotionally guarded edge; Karl Urban is uncannily perfect as Bones; and Zoe Saldaña’s Uhura emerges as a fully realized character rather than just a voice on the bridge. By introducing a time-travel twist that creates a branching timeline, the movie cleverly rebooted the franchise without erasing what came before, honouring established canon while freeing itself from decades of continuity. That connection is further reinforced by the deeply emotional return of Leonard Nimoy as Spock from the Prime Universe. Seeing Nimoy as Spock on the big screen again for the first time in almost thirty years is one of my favourite moments of the entire franchise.

The film isn’t without its flaws. The lens flares were… a lot. Character development occasionally takes a backseat to action, Kirk’s rapid rise through the ranks strains credibility, and Eric Bana’s Nero is an underutilized villain. Still, these shortcomings are easy to overlook given the movie’s accomplishments. Star Trek injected the series with a much-needed shot of adrenaline and opened the door for an entirely new generation of fans. It’s no surprise the film sits atop the franchise with an impressive 94% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

The crew confronts the genetically enhanced terrorist John Harrison—revealed to be Khan—in a story of vengeance, loyalty, and sacrifice.

Like many sequels, Into Darkness arrived burdened with expectations of a bigger budget, bigger action, and higher stakes, and on a surface level, it delivers precisely that. The film is slick, fast, and aggressively polished, with returning director J.J. Abrams leaning even harder into full-blown blockbuster spectacle. The cast remains terrific across the board, and Benedict Cumberbatch brings a cold, commanding presence as John Harrison, the villain eventually revealed to be none other than Khan Noonien Singh.

Unfortunately, that reveal is where the movie begins to wobble. After Abrams and Cumberbatch spent months publicly denying Harrison’s true identity, audiences not only saw the twist coming — they were already irritated by it. Since this version of Kirk and Spock has never encountered Khan before, the reveal carries little narrative weight and exists almost entirely for the audience. Rather than becoming The Wrath of Khan for a new generation, Into Darkness plays like an awkward remix, right down to the inverted death scenes that mimic iconic moments without earning the same emotional impact, despite the strength of the new cast.

While fans were divided, critics and general audiences largely enjoyed the ride, with the film earning a solid 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. Personally, I would’ve preferred to see Into Darkness stand on its own instead of leaning so heavily on callbacks to a better movie. As for the odd/even curse? At this point, we’re officially off the rails. The film takes a dip from the 2009 reboot, but no matter how you slice it, it’s still an even-numbered entry — albeit one that refuses to play by the old rules.

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Stranded on a hostile planet, the Enterprise crew must reunite and outthink a vengeful enemy while rediscovering the meaning of exploration.

We’ve arrived at the final — for now — film in the franchise, and it’s easily the most Star Trek-like entry in the Kelvin Universe. Beyond scales things back compared to its predecessors, but in doing so, it becomes more thoughtful, character-driven, and genuinely adventurous. Sofia Boutella’s Jaylah is a terrific new addition to the crew, injecting fresh energy into the mix. Idris Elba’s Krall, however, is more of a mixed bag. A late-film reveal adds some depth, but for much of the runtime, he plays like a fairly generic monster, which is a shame, given Elba’s considerable talent.

Like the previous two films, Beyond still delivers its share of blockbuster action, which certainly isn’t a bad thing. That said, it does make you wonder what a Kelvin Universe take on something like The Voyage Home or The Motion Picture might have looked like, a more purely sci-fi story driven by exploration, curiosity, and a sense of wonder. With the long-discussed fourth film now officially shelved in favour of yet another reboot, that particular “what if” may remain unanswered.

Still, Star Trek Beyond was warmly received, earning an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and widely viewed as a decent course correction after Into Darkness. It may have faltered at the box office, but it thankfully closed out the Kelvin era on a surprisingly heartfelt note.

What Did We Learn?

So, after all that, what have we actually learned? Does Star Trek’s infamous odd/even curse hold any real weight? I’d argue… yes, to a point. Up until Nemesis threw a wrench into the whole theory, the pattern was pretty straightforward: after a weaker entry, the franchise usually course-corrected with something stronger. For a while, it even felt like “every other movie is a letdown” might be the more accurate rule — but the back-to-back disappointments of Insurrection and Nemesis put that theory to rest pretty quickly.

Now it’s your turn. Did you ever buy into the odd/even curse to begin with? Do you secretly prefer some of the more divisive odd-numbered films over their beloved even-numbered counterparts? Let us know in the comments — and try not to start a Klingon blood feud while you’re at it.

The post Does Star Trek’s odd/even movie curse hold up? appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

There was a time when January was considered Hollywood’s ultimate dump month. Growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s, I vividly remember there being almost nothing worth seeing in theaters during early winter, as studios quietly released their weakest films after the holidays.

That perception has shifted in recent years. Studios have discovered that January audiences increasingly crave genre fare, particularly horror, thrillers, and high-concept spectacle. As a result, early winter has become fertile ground for movies that might once have been written off.

This weekend is a perfect example, with two notable genre releases hitting theaters: Primate, Paramount’s killer chimp thriller, and Greenland 2: Migration, the sequel to Gerard Butler’s 2020 disaster hit.

Which Movie Will Win the Box Office This Weekend?

First Place: Avatar: Fire and Ash

There’s little mystery at the top of the charts. Avatar: Fire and Ash is expected to continue its dominant run with an estimated $25 million weekend. While the film is past its initial surge, it remains the clear box-office leader.

Battle for Second Place: Primate vs. Greenland 2: Migration

Why Primate Has the Edge

I’m predicting second place will go to Primate. The film is earning strong reviews (including one from our own Mike Holtz), and the concept alone—a vicious killer chimp—feels tailor-made for post-holiday audiences looking for brain-off entertainment. Younger moviegoers, in particular, may be drawn to its outrageous genre appeal.

Why Greenland 2: Migration May Struggle

While Greenland 2: Migration has potential, Lionsgate’s release strategy could hurt its opening. The film is not opening theatrically in Canada, which is often a red flag for box-office performance. Based on past trends, movies that skip Canada typically struggle to exceed $8–9 million domestically.

Because of this, there’s a strong chance that holdovers like Zootopia 2 or even The Housemaid could leapfrog over it. It wouldn’t be shocking if Marty Supreme also outperformed expectations.

Box Office Predictions

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash – $25 million
2. Primate – $12 million
3. Zootopia 2 – $11 million
4. Greenland 2: Migration – $9 million
5. The Housemaid – $8 million

Final Takeaway

January may no longer be Hollywood’s dumping ground. With genre films finding eager audiences and big releases holding strong well into the new year, the early winter box office has become far more competitive—and unpredictable—than it once was.

What do you think will top the box office this weekend? Let us know in the comments!

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Avengers: Doomsday Finally Delivers an Exciting Teaser

Chris

One has to give Disney some credit here — of all the Avengers: Doomsday teaser trailers that have been dropping since the holidays, one has finally gotten people excited. We wrote a little earlier about how the re-introduction of Captain America (or at least Steve Rogers) in the first teaser felt like a bit of an anti-climax, and the second one featuring Chris Hemsworth’s return as Thor didn’t really move the needle (the biggest story was that he was sporting short hair this time).

The X-Men Reunion That Got Fans Talking

While the fourth teaser has yet to drop (and apparently features some Black Panther characters), the third teaser — featuring the reunion of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X and Ian McKellen’s Magneto — got people talking, especially with the teaser ending with a cool reveal of James Marsden in full Cyclops mode. To many, this last reveal was especially significant, as his iteration of the character has notoriously been poorly served by the films.

Are These Farewells Ever Really Final?

Yet, there also seems to be something almost funny about the fact that it’s being teased as one last adventure for the old group, as it feels like we’ve all said goodbye to these characters before. Charles Xavier got a magnificent send-off in Logan, but like that film’s titular character, his retirement from a role he clearly still likes to play was premature. Patrick Stewart really hasn’t aged much in the last thirty or so years and is still more than capable of playing the part, and there’s something genuinely touching about seeing him reunite with Ian McKellen as Magneto in the trailer.

As for Cyclops — let the man have his day.

Which X-Men Are Confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday?

Of course, they aren’t the only X-Men set to appear in Avengers: Doomsday. Confirmed returns include:

• Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
• Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler (his first time playing the role since X2: X-Men United)
• Kelsey Grammer as Beast (yes!)
• Channing Tatum as Gambit, who never appeared in a proper X-Men film but memorably played the character in Deadpool vs. Wolverine

What This Means for the Future of the X-Men

There are also plenty of other X-Men who could show up — if not in Doomsday, then almost certainly in Secret Wars — including Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds as the X-Men-adjacent Deadpool (who may actually appear in Doomsday as well).

All of this appears to be building toward a full reboot of the X-Men franchise, likely introducing a new cast via the Multiverse. Whether this truly ends up being the original team’s final hurrah remains to be seen.

At any rate, we want to know what you, our readers, think about the X-Men showing up in Avengers: Doomsday. Let us know your thoughts in the comments — we’d love to hear how you think the movie is shaping up.

The post The X-Men joining Avengers: Doomsday is the coolest thing about it (so far) appeared first on JoBlo.

Having watched my third Stephen King adaptation in the span of three months (The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, and The Running Man, all of which were really good, by the way), I figured it was time to head back to the Derry, Maine Memorial Library and check out another book. In this case, it was the same book I’d checked out recently, since it’s packed with short stories. Personally, I find King’s shorter story adaptations more interesting. The creative teams usually have to dig deep to stretch them into feature-length films, which leads to some fascinating (and sometimes unhinged) results. Some of these adaptations already have legendary reputations. Children of the Corn went from less than 20 pages to a staggering number of sequels. The Mangler lives on as pure Tobe Hooper cheesy gold. But today’s entry is something else entirely. This one was adapted twice, a decade apart, features one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, and stands as the only movie Stephen King ever directed himself—even if it took a Tony Montana–sized mountain of “special sauce” to get him and the crew through it.

So keep an eye on those trucks as we find out Who Made Who… I mean, what happened to this adaptation.

The Movie

While Stephen King adaptations had been rolling out since the mid-1970s, the 1980s were largely dominated by producer Dino De Laurentiis. Under his banner, we got The Dead Zone (directed by David Cronenberg), Cat’s Eye (Lewis Teague), and Firestarter (Mark L. Lester… almost John Carpenter, but that’s a different story). In 1985, King signed a three-picture deal, and his directorial debut would be an adaptation of his short story “Trucks,” originally published in Night Shift.

Production took place in Wilmington, North Carolina, for a couple of reasons. First, Dino had a production facility nearby. Second, it was a right-to-work state, meaning unions could be skirted and hiring could be… flexible.

King has famously claimed he was completely out of his mind during production. On-set translator Robert Croci, however, didn’t see much in the way of harder substances. What he did see were beers starting at 6 a.m. and continuing until about 8:30 at night… which, honestly, is one way to survive this movie.

That translator was necessary because Dino hired Italian cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi, a veteran of Italian cinema in the ’50s and ’60s. He’d also shot The Birdcage and Silver Bullet, another King adaptation filmed the year prior under De Laurentiis.

King himself rode his motorcycle from Maine to North Carolina because he wanted to get up close with big rigs and understand how terrifying they could be in real life. When he arrived at the studio, though, he was so disheveled that security wouldn’t let him in at first.

For the record, King hates this movie now. At the time, though, he wanted to direct because he felt his work hadn’t been adapted particularly well. He figured if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. That… did not pan out. But the movie did give us a few legendary things.

AC/DC, Evil Dead II, and Other Accidental Wins

The biggest win is the soundtrack. King personally asked AC/DC to handle the music. After he awkwardly sang one of their songs to them, they laughed and agreed, largely because he was clearly a genuine fan.

Most of the tracks are reused from earlier albums, and much of the original score wasn’t even used, but they did write “Who Made Who” specifically for the film. It’s an all-time banger.

Even stranger: we have Maximum Overdrive to thank for Evil Dead becoming a franchise. Sam Raimi and company were struggling to get traction, and King, who loved The Evil Dead, convinced Dino to finance Evil Dead II. Without this movie, that franchise might not exist as we know it.

Casting Chaos and On-Set Carnage

The cast includes some notable names: Frankie Faison, a very young Giancarlo Esposito, and Pat Hingle. King originally wanted Bruce Springsteen to star, but Dino shut that down immediately. Instead, the role went to brat-pack regular Emilio Estevez, future Mighty Ducks coach and part-time director. Some believe this is where the light left King’s eyes, but he powered through by teaching and entertaining the cast. He screened movies like Night of the Living Dead and Godzilla, offering commentary along the way.

Pat Hingle loved Wilmington so much that he moved there after production and stayed until his death in 2009. Unfortunately, tragedy also struck when cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi lost an eye after a piece of wood flew into it during the lawnmower scene. He later settled out of court but continued working until shortly before his death in 2001.

Release and Reception

Maximum Overdrive hit theaters on July 25, 1986, and was a failure with both critics and audiences. It made $7.4 million on a $9 million budget and was absolutely eviscerated by reviews. Over time, its reputation softened into cult-classic territory, especially compared to its 1997 made-for-TV remake Trucks, which starred Timothy Busfield and is somehow even weirder and less fun.

King himself has never softened. He regularly cites the film as the reason he never directed again. Still, the trailer remains legendary, featuring a wide-eyed King promising to “scare the hell out of you.”

The Story

“Trucks” was originally published in the June 1973 issue of Cavalier magazine before being collected in Night Shift in 1978. That collection is a breeding ground for adaptations, with over half of its stories eventually making it to the screen. As mentioned, “Trucks” has been adapted twice: once by King in 1986 and again in 1997 for the USA Network.

King’s influence also extends to his Dollar Babies program, where students can adapt his short stories for $1. This program helped launch Frank Darabont, who went on to direct The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile after adapting The Woman in the Room from Night Shift. Neat.

What’s the Same?

All versions share the same core idea: machines, especially vehicles, suddenly gain sentience and start killing people. There’s always a central truck stop or diner where survivors hide. Someone gets horrifically injured by a semi. A bulldozer attacks the building. One vehicle communicates via Morse code, revealing the horrifying truth: humans must refuel the machines forever, even when tankers arrive to keep the nightmare going.

What’s Different?

Both movie adaptations expand the story in different ways. The 1997 Trucks shifts action to Nevada near Area 51, adds rogue equipment like radiation suits and pickaxes, and hops between multiple locations. Maximum Overdrive leans into spectacle. We see King himself battle an ATM that calls him an asshole, kids get wiped out at a baseball field, and suburban neighborhoods turn deadly thanks to lawnmowers, hair dryers, and anything else with a plug.

King’s version also adds subplots: a runaway son, a hitchhiker romance, and a diner owner who may or may not be a drug runner.

The endings vary wildly. Trucks ends with survivors escaping in a helicopter, only to realize no one is piloting it. The short story ends with humanity fueling machines forever. Maximum Overdrive is the only one with an explanation and a happy ending, blaming a comet and a blown-up UFO for the chaos before letting the survivors escape to an island. It’s weird. But AC/DC plays over it, so it works.

Legacy

None of these versions hold a dominant place in horror history. The short story is overshadowed within Night Shift. The TV movie is mostly forgotten. That leaves Maximum Overdrive, a bad movie, but a fun bad movie. Between the soundtrack, the behind-the-scenes insanity, its role in saving Evil Dead II, and the answer to why Stephen King never directed again, it wins by default.

Now we know Who Made Who. And if you’re going to watch one story about killer trucks, make it the coke-fueled comet movie starring Emilio Estevez and directed by Stephen King himself. Just… keep an eye on the road while you do.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

The post From Trucks to Maximum Overdrive: Stephen King’s Most Chaotic Adaptation appeared first on JoBlo.

Jake

While The Matrix is rightly billed as the most successful and inventive science fiction film of the 1990s, Alex Proyas’ criminally overlooked Dark City deserves to be mentioned on the same level. After all, the Wachowski siblings were so impressed by the visual tableau and production design of Dark City that they purchased props and parts of the set and recycled them in the first Matrix movie. Fusing neo-noir tropes with science fiction tenets and a splash of old-school horror, Proyas set out to make a disorienting Kafkaesque nightmare on par with a classic Twilight Zone episode.

Alas, when New Line Cinema saw Proyas’ original vision, they deemed Dark City too confounding for audiences to understand and forced Proyas to simplify the story by adding an unnecessary voice-over narration to explain what transpires. In 2008, ten years after the film was released theatrically, Proyas edited a new director’s cut that eliminated the expository narration and challenged the audience to do the work and follow the story themselves. Regardless of which version you prefer, we’re tuning and tunneling deep into the architectural substructure beneath Dark City to discover what the f*ck happened to this movie nearly 30 years ago.

Development

Alex Proyas began writing the script for Dark City in 1990, four years before his sophomore feature film, The Crow, was released. Proyas conceived a story that would blend elements of film noir, Gothic horror, and steampunk science fiction, citing the 1940s detective classic The Maltese Falcon as a major influence. Also inspired by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, Proyas deliberately set out to unnerve audiences with an unforgettably nightmarish experience.

Upon writing the script, Proyas focused on a 1940s gumshoe who obsesses over getting the facts of a crime case correct. But when the facts don’t add up to make logical sense, the detective begins losing his sanity and spirals out of control. Reaching a dead end, Proyas redirected course by shifting the spotlight to the criminal whom the detective is pursuing—amnesiac murder suspect John Murdoch.

After completing a first draft, Proyas passed the script to David S. Goyer and Lem Dobbs. Goyer had already written The Crow: City of Angels, and Proyas was so impressed by Goyer’s script for the yet-to-be-released Blade that he recruited him for Dark City. Dobbs, who wrote Kafka for Steven Soderbergh earlier in the decade, seemed ideal for the wildly outlandish sci-fi tale. It’s understood that Dobbs rewrote most of Proyas’s original script and is responsible for the vast majority of the movie we all know and love, save for the scenes requiring special visual effects. Once Dobbs tightened the script, Goyer wrote the shooting script, adding the FX-driven action sequences and the mechanics of the city’s nocturnal operation.

Casting

With the script in order, Proyas set out to cast the movie. Although he was familiar with Rufus Sewell’s work, Proyas cast him as John Murdoch because he felt audiences wouldn’t recognize him as a big-name movie star and that his anonymity would help mystify the character and add to the story’s intrigue.

Richard O’Brien was always Proyas’s first choice to play Mr. Hand, one of the bald, pale Strangers assigned to tracking down Murdoch. Proyas wanted an “ethereal, androgynous” quality and specifically wrote the part for him, inspired by O’Brien’s performance as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The child companion of Mr. Sleep was played by Satya Gumbert and her twin brother Noah Gumbert, both massive Rocky Horror fans.

The key role of Dr. Daniel P. Schreber was named after real-life German judge Daniel Paul Schreber, whose autobiography Memoirs of My Nervous Illness heavily influenced the film’s themes. Concepts such as “fleetingly improvised men” and the cage-like head apparatus were drawn directly from Schreber’s writings.

William Hurt ultimately played Detective Frank Bumstead, though he was initially offered the role of Schreber. Sir Ben Kingsley was also considered. Kiefer Sutherland, when offered the role, initially assumed the script was meant for his father, Donald Sutherland, but agreed to participate anyway.

Production Design & Visual Style

After The Crow, Proyas reunited with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and production designer Patrick Tatopoulos. Proyas asked Tatopoulos to imagine a city in constant flux—one built from fragments of different places, intentionally disorienting.

The Strangers’ original design as bug-like creatures was abandoned in favor of pale, corpse-like entities inhabiting human shells. Early drafts even featured a robotic guard dog with steel jaws.

Principal Photography

With a $27 million budget, Dark City filmed from December 1996 to April 1997 in New South Wales, Australia. The entire city was constructed on soundstages—no real locations were used, aside from the ocean pier shot at the end.

Proyas avoided the exaggerated artifice of Tim Burton’s Gotham City, opting instead for a grounded yet uncanny environment. Tatopoulos described the city as a patchwork of global architecture, designed to feel familiar but placeless.

The film was shot on 35mm using a Panavision Panaflex Gold II camera, with extensive use of natural light sources like street lamps. Sets such as the Strangers’ underground lair reached heights of 50 feet, far taller than standard soundstage builds.

The Ending, the Confusion, and Studio Panic

Proyas originally envisioned a Kafka-esque courtroom ending inspired by Orson Welles’ The Trial. That version was scrapped in favor of Shell Beach, but preview audiences were baffled by the physics of the city floating in space.

To clarify matters, force-field effects were added. Despite this, confusion persisted, leading to the dreaded opening narration—something Proyas loathed and later removed in the 2008 director’s cut.

Release & Reception

Originally intended for a 1997 release, Dark City was delayed to February 27, 1998. Title changes were briefly considered due to studio concerns, but the original title was restored after Mad City flopped.

The film grossed $27.2 million worldwide against its $27 million budget. While not a hit, it earned strong critical acclaim. Roger Ebert named it the best film of 1998 and later added it to his Great Movies list.

As of 2025, Dark City holds a 78% Tomatometer score, an 85% audience score, a 66 Metascore, and a 7.6 IMDb rating.

The Director’s Cut vs. Theatrical Cut

The 2008 director’s cut removes the opening narration and restores 11 minutes of footage. Changes include:

• Jennifer Connelly’s real singing voice in the nightclub
• Extended scenes clarifying Anna/Emma’s false memories
• Added spiral imagery reinforcing the Strangers’ control
• New character moments humanizing the murder victims

Final Take

Despite studio meddling and box-office disappointment, Dark City has only grown in stature. Its influence on The Matrix, Inception, and modern sci-fi is undeniable. While the theatrical cut was compromised, the director’s cut restores Alex Proyas’ original intent—cementing Dark City as one of the most visually and thematically daring science-fiction films of the 1990s.

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Chris

Patrick Swayze was one of a kind. He’s the only actor I can think of who was as comfortable cutting a rug on the dance floor as demolishing a room full of bad guys with his fists of fury. When he passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2009, we lost an icon who was never really recognized as the legend he is in his time. In the years since many Patrick Swayze movies have become cult favourites, and with a Road House remake recently a hit, we decided now would be a good time to pick the five best Patrick Swayze movies. 

Red Dawn (1984) 

John Millius’s cold war “what if” thriller goes down in the history books as the first-ever PG-13 movie. It was also Patrick Swayze’s first major leading role, with him best known up to this point for a supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders. Here, he plays the young leader of a rag-tag group of local teens – including Charlie Sheen, The Outsiders co-star C. Thomas Howell, and future Dirty Dancing co-star Jennifer Grey – who become a deadly militia when the Soviets opt to kick off World War III in their small town. It sounds much sillier than it is, with this a pretty grim (but still butt-kicking) depiction of young people forced to become old before their time to defend their homes. The remake of this was God-awful.

Dirty Dancing (1987)

Of all the Patrick Swayze movies on this list, Dirty Dancing was the one that made him one of the biggest stars of the eighties. While he’s about fifteen years too old to be playing the young Johnny Castle, the bad boy dance instructor at the Catskills resort visited by our heroine, “Baby” (Jennifer Grey), the energy and charisma he brings to the role makes us forget all that. This movie not only made him a movie star but also a pop star, with his song off the soundtrack, “She’s Like The Wind,” rocketing up the charts.

Road House (1989)

While Swayze could have just stuck to romantic movies, he opted to branch out into action, and did so brilliantly with Road House. While it’s a cult sensation now, the truth of the matter was that this movie wasn’t a box office hit in 1989 and was widely mocked. Oh, how the times have changed. I stand by including this on my recent list of the 25 Greatest Action Movies Ever.

Ghost (1990)

While one of his biggest box office hits, of all of Patrick Swayze’s movies on this list, I daresay this is the most underrated. People have forgotten what a powerful romantic thriller this is, with some really nifty genre elements, worked into this story of a ghost (Swayze) trying to solve his own murder. Demi Moore is gorgeous as his true love, while Whoopi Goldberg steals the show as the con-artist psychic helping him. It’s crazy that this came from one of the directors of The Naked Gun (Jerry Zucker), with the climactic scenes of the bad guys being dragged to hell, kicking and screaming pretty gnarly.

Point Break (1991)

Without a doubt, Point Break is the best Patrick Swayze movie on this list. Like Road House, it’s one of the greatest action movies of all time, and Swayze is cast against type as the movie’s bad guy, a surfing zen master bank robber named Bodhi. One of the reasons this movie works as well as it does is that even though you know Bodhi is the guy Keanu Reeves’ FBI agent Johnny Utah is after, you don’t want to believe it’s true. He’s so likable that you are actually rooting against Utah, to a point, and to me, their chemistry is a huge part of the movie’s appeal. 

Of course, those aren’t the only great Patrick Swayze movies, with Steel Dawn (1987), Next of Kin (1989), City of Joy (1992), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), Black Dog (1998), Donnie Darko (2001), One Last Dance (2003) – which was directed by his wife Lisa Niemi – and many others all being well worth checking out. Do you agree with our picks? Let us know in the comments what you think are the best Patrick Swayze movies!

The post The Best Patrick Swayze Movies: Five of Our Favorites appeared first on JoBlo.

Mike

When you think of the early ’90s and the action sci-fi epics that pushed special effects to the brink, you’re probably thinking of Terminator 2 and James Cameron… or maybe Spielberg and Jurassic Park. But you’d be wrong. Today, we’re talking about the unheralded, maligned, 1992 face-melter Nemesis. This is the making and the magic of a ’90s, balls-to-the-wall sci-fi action epic that feels like Hard Target made love to Demolition Man and had a baby together… but the father might also be RoboCop. The Temu version. And I mean that in a good way. This movie even boasts Terminator 2 Academy Award–winning special effects artist Gene Warren, so don’t think I’m messing around.

Strap in. It’s time to learn about the coolest cyberpunk action movie you may not have known existed. And yes, get ready for some crack house karate. Again, I mean that in a good way.

From Cannon Films Chaos to Cyberpunk Madness

The story of Nemesis begins in 1987 with late director Albert Pyun, before his success directing Jean-Claude Van Damme in Cyborg (or the JCVD-free Kickboxer 2). Pyun was finishing the last film in a three-picture deal with the infamous Cannon Films and had begun writing a futuristic thriller called Alex Rain. The story followed a female cop battling Nazis on Mars in the future, starring Road House’s Kelly Lynch.

Unfortunately, Cannon was doing Cannon things. The project was shelved so Pyun could help salvage other troubled productions, most notably their 1988 Journey to the Center of the Earth, which currently enjoys a legendary 2.6 rating on IMDb. Then came Cyborg… and even the real first Avenger, Captain America (1990).

A year later, Pyun returned to Alex Rain with an extremely strange new idea: What if the lead character was now a 13-year-old girl working undercover for the LAPD? Thankfully, when funding finally arrived via Imperial Entertainment, they had one rule: Replace the teenage girl with 30-year-old French kickboxer Olivier Gruner.

Imperial gave Pyun free rein over everything else. And just like that, Nemesis was born.

Familiar Faces and Absolute Maniacs

The cast came together beautifully and includes:

• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (sadly, recently lost) as a Hawaiian-shirt-wearing dude-bro villain
• Friday the 13th royalty Thom Matthews
• Thomas Jane, doing Thomas Jane things
• And many more familiar faces we’ll meet along the ride

Welcome to 2027: Cyborg Prostitutes, Terrible Aim, and Instant Chaos

The movie opens and you immediately know you’re in good hands when the score blends made-for-TV Stephen King miniseries piano with cheap flute or plastic recorder straight out of a Cannon Films fever dream.

Our hero Alex Rain solemnly monologues about cyborg outlaws and information terrorists before dropping us into smog-choked California, 2027. Just a few short years away, Simba. Moments later, we jump straight into a bizarre encounter between Rain and a supposed prostitute. Wait… is this Hellraiser? Is skinless Frank watching from the corner? Nope. She’s a hot cyborg. And Alex shoots her in the face.

Boom. Title drop.

We’re gonna have a good time tonight.

Guns, Guitar Cases, and John Woo Moves

What follows is a shootout and chase sequence involving cyborg prostitute friends on a set that looks ripped straight out of a Call of Duty map. Some call this B-movie schlock. I call it Robert Rodriguez directing Desperado.

• Guitar case? Check.
• Future guns? Bigger check.
• Terrible aim? Legendary.
• John Woo moves? Oh yeah.
• Wilhelm scream? You bet your ass.

This movie is as entertaining as the villains’ outfits are short.

Poles, Puppies, and RoboCop Déjà Vu

While escaping, Rain performs a ridiculous stunt involving a giant pole in the desert. So ridiculous, they reportedly tested three different poles to find one strong enough. Naturally, he runs into an open field with zero cover, gets shot anyway, and drops a JCVD-level one-liner. And then… Oh my God. It’s a puppy. A cute, designer puppy… just hanging out in a random ware-whatever.

Only 5,000 bullets left. Better use this clip sparingly.

Death, Rebirth, and Even More RoboCop

We get a tiny bit of backstory before Alex is brutally killed and rebuilt in scenes that feel suspiciously like RoboCop. Then rebuilt again.

Fast-forward to Baja, New America, where Alex is left to rehabilitate his synthetic flesh and bio-engineered organs. He keeps the dog. Good.

Gruner now looks like a completely different human being with a fade haircut and possible addiction to… something.

Corporate Cyborgs, Dead Dogs, and One Bad Retirement

Alex hunts vengeance in a restaurant emptier than a Cracker Barrel during the Logo Wars of 2025, quickly dispatching his enemies, including what appears to be trailer-park Wolverine. Corporate cyborg agents show up, including one inexplicably named Jared, and we learn:

• Alex was sprung from prison to work for them
• Farnsworth was the boss
• Jared and Alex used to date
• Yes, she’s a cyborg

Alex quits. Walks away. And then… They kill the dog. Which, honestly, is kind of on Alex for leaving it behind. But still.

Cue artsy abyss-staring burial shot.

Shang Loo, Naked Sweat, and Peak Insanity

One year later, Alex becomes a black-market smuggler with an even worse haircut until Thom Matthews’ face literally opens up and kills him. He’s rebuilt again, now looking like a mix of Rambo, Tom Cruise, and The Crow.

Enter the corporate villains:

• Brion James, eternally punchable and glorious
• Nicholas Guest, stealing every scene like an ’80s French Patrick Bateman

They reveal they’ve Amanda-Wallered Alex and planted a bomb in his chest. Mission: kill his cyborg ex-lover. Destination: Shang Loo.

Eyeballs, Slides, and the Coolest Action Scene Ever Filmed

Shang Loo delivers:

• Roundhouse kicks
• Naked, sweating Thomas Jane
• AOL surveillance cameras
• Shang Tsung with a surfer accent

An eyeball is removed using a finger plunger. People are shot up walls. Alex fires guns while sliding backward down a slide. I have never wanted to do anything more in my entire life.

The Finale: Volcanoes, Stop-Motion, and a Shot to the Dick

Everything explodes. Tim Thomerson delivers an incredible physical performance as Old Man T-1000. There’s stop-motion robot action hijacking an airplane on a microscopic budget, and somehow it works. Alex frees himself, says goodbye to his hot robot, and walks into a new life looking like Halloween 4 Michael Myers.

Six months later, he’s back hunting cyborgs with new eyes. The movie ends the only way it possibly could: With a shot to the dick.

Legacy: A Forgotten Cyberpunk Gem

Nemesis was released in January 1993, earned roughly $2 million (about its budget), and went through multiple re-cuts and home-video releases. It spawned five sequels, none of which feature Alex Rain again. There was even an unreleased crossover with Cyborg called The Dark Rift.

Weird? Absolutely. But Nemesis remains a forgotten 1992 cyberpunk action gem, and we’re happy as hell we experienced it with you. Take care, everyone.

Some of the previous episodes of the show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

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2025 may go down as a turning point for theatrical exhibition. While Netflix’s much-discussed attempt to buy Warner Bros. hasn’t gone through (yet), this felt like the year many people truly fell out of love with going to the movies.

The writing has been on the wall for some time. The pandemic fundamentally changed how audiences consume media, and the box office has yet to reclaim its pre-COVID heights. While some movies still did very well, 2025 was also defined by an unusually high number of major flops—including from studios once considered bulletproof.

Below is a breakdown of the biggest box office winners and losers of 2025.

Box Office Loser: Marvel Studios

2025 was a rough year for the formerly untouchable Marvel juggernaut.

While none of the studio’s releases misfired quite as badly as Ms. Marvel, both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts failed to break even.

• Captain America: Brave New World grossed $415 million worldwide. While Disney maintains the budget was around $180 million, many industry insiders peg the true cost much higher due to extensive reshoots.
• Thunderbolts earned an underwhelming $382 million worldwide against a similarly reported $180 million budget, meaning Disney likely lost a significant sum once marketing costs were factored in.

Marvel did fare somewhat better with Fantastic Four: First Steps, which made $521 million worldwide, but given a reported budget north of $200 million, profits were likely slim.

Box Office Winner: Warner Bros. and DC

Going into 2025, many believed Warner Bros. co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were on borrowed time due to the studio’s risky slate. The failure of 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux cast a long shadow, and things didn’t improve early in the year when Mickey 17 flopped.

Then came the rebound.

Warner Bros. and its New Line Cinema shingle delivered one hit after another, including:

• A Minecraft Movie
• Sinners
• Final Destination: Bloodlines
• Weapons
• F1
• The Conjuring: Last Rites

And yes—DC’s Superman, which earned $616 million worldwide.

While Superman was far from a smash (especially compared to Man of Steel, which performed much better when adjusted for inflation), it still outperformed anything Marvel released in 2025. Warner Bros. did take a loss on One Battle After Another, which is unlikely to turn a profit, but given the awards attention it’s receiving, the studio probably isn’t losing sleep over it.

The Curious Case of Disney in 2025

Disney’s year was defined by extreme highs and lows.

On the losing side:

• Snow White was a disastrous reboot
• Tron: Ares failed to connect
• Ella McCay fizzled
• Marvel continued to struggle

Yet Disney also released some of the year’s biggest hits, including:

• Lilo & Stitch
• Zootopia 2
• Avatar: Fire and Ash

Love them or hate them, Disney still commands a massive share of the theatrical marketplace, even in a down year.

New Movie Stars Delivered Mixed Results

Hollywood remains desperate for new stars as legends like Tom Cruise age out of their primes—but 2025 showed just how unpredictable star power has become.

• Glen Powell, once seen as the next Cruise after Anyone But You and Twisters, had a disastrous year. His Hulu series Chad Powers earned poor reviews (although our critic really liked it), while his big-budget Running Man remake became one of the year’s biggest flops.
• Sydney Sweeney endured brutal publicity and suffered a major bomb with her boxing drama Christy, though she rebounded with The Housemaid, which performed solidly.
• Ana de Armas failed to ignite a franchise with Ballerina, which largely fell flat.

Two actors, however, proved they still have genuine box office muscle:

• Michael B. Jordan: Sinners, featuring Jordan in a dual role, was one of the year’s biggest hits. Since breaking out with Creed, he’s rarely missed financially.
• Timothée Chalamet: Marty Supreme may have been the only prestige drama of 2025 to turn a profit, and his track record remains remarkably consistent.

Box Office Losers: Prestige Dramas

2025 was brutal for star-driven prestige dramas, with almost all of them failing theatrically.

• The Smashing Machine became the biggest box office disaster of Dwayne Johnson’s career.
• After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts (who reportedly earned $20 million), grossed just $3.26 million domestically.
• Kiss of the Spider Woman, starring Jennifer Lopez, fared even worse, earning only $2 million.
• Even Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell couldn’t turn A Big Bold Beautiful Journey into a hit.

For adult-oriented prestige cinema, theatrical exhibition in 2025 was nearly a bloodbath.

Final Thoughts: What Were the Biggest Box Office Stories of 2025?

From Marvel’s stumble to Warner Bros.’ resurgence, Disney’s whiplash year, and the near-collapse of prestige dramas, 2025 was one of the most volatile box office years in recent memory.

What do you think were the biggest box office stories of the year?
Let us know in the comments.

The post 2025 Box Office Winners and Losers: Was this year the beginning of the end for theatrical movies? appeared first on JoBlo.

Cody

From the moment the villainous Vecna was brought into the hit Netflix series Stranger Things during its fourth season, series creators the Duffer Brothers have been open about the fact that the character was directly inspired by genre icons like Freddy Krueger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. They even said that the first and third Elm Street movies were a major source of inspiration for the show’s fourth season – and in the build-up to season five, the final season of the series, the Duffers said we would be seeing a Vecna who was stronger and scarier than ever before, “like Freddy on steroids.” So, now that Stranger Things has run its course and we may never see Vecna again, it’s no surprise to hear that some fans have started viewing actor Jamie Campbell Bower’s performance as a test run for the chance to play Freddy himself. Could Jamie Campbell Bower be the next Freddy Krueger?

For decades and several movies, the only Freddy we ever knew was Robert Englund, who also played Vecna’s father on Stranger Things because the Duffers were not being subtle about entering Freddy territory. Following in his footsteps can be quite a challenge. Just ask Jackie Earle Haley, whose version of Freddy in the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street remake was not warmly received. But through his work on Stranger Things, Bower has shown that he could make for a solid replacement. There’s no question that he could play Freddy; in some ways, he already has.

Freddy is a disfigured supernatural being who can be found in the dream world, where he torments his victims and preys on their fears. Vecna is a disfigured supernatural being who dwells in the “Upside Down” dimension and messes with the minds of his victims, preying on their vulnerabilities. Give Vecna the right wardrobe and a razor-tipped glove, and he’s almost Freddy. He just needs to loosen up a bit and drop some quips.

Would Bower want to play Freddy? That’s the bigger question here, as going from Vecna to Freddy might feel like too much of the same old thing for him. I think he could be a great Freddy, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he were to pass on the gig.

Of course, it doesn’t look like it would be a decision he would have to make any time soon, as the Elm Street franchise seems to be trapped in limbo at the moment. It was in September of 2019 that we heard Wes Craven’s estate had secured the rights to the Elm Street franchise. In November of that year, it was said that they were actively taking pitches. But apparently the rights issue isn’t as clear-cut as it appeared to be. Mike Flanagan has let it be known that he has an idea for a new movie in mind, but his agent can’t figure out who to have him pitch it to. Elijah Wood and his SpectreVision producing partner Daniel Noah have said they want to make an Elm Street movie and have “been in touch with the rights holders many times,” but that hasn’t gone anywhere. Blumhouse founder Jason Blum has said he’s interested in going to Elm Street. Guy Busick, co-writer of Scream 2022 and Scream VI, wants to write Elm Street and Friday the 13th movies… But there’s no sign of a new Nightmare on Elm Street movie going forward.

Devon Sawa, Sung Kang, and Kevin Bacon have all previously said they’d be interested in replacing Englund in the role of Freddy Krueger as well. Would you like to see one of them play the character, or do you think Jamie Campbell Bower is the actor for the job? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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Mike

The early ’90s were a buffet of sexy danger for thriller fans, and today’s unheralded 1992 man-vs-man-for-all-the-marbles psycho-fest has it all. It’s a creepy stalker movie packed with all-time great actors and a look into what happens when a happy couple has their world wrecked by inner-city crime reaching into their suburban safe haven. This movie is full of sex, horror, and questionable decisions. It even ends with a fistfight in the kitchen that makes the Halloween Ends Laurie vs. Michael Myers throwdown look like a gentle cuddle. Unfortunately, it also involves a scene depicting police brutality during a boiling point in America, something that cast a shadow over the film’s release and nearly buried it forever. This is the story of what happened to Unlawful Entry.

The Simple, Terrifying Premise

There isn’t a ton of information about where the inspiration for Unlawful Entry came from. Maybe it was simply a desire to jump on the thriller boom with a psycho-cop angle. At its most basic level, the movie asks a genuinely unsettling question: Who do you call when the guy who wants your wife is a cop?

That question was explored by writers George Putnam (NYPD Blue, Deadwood), John Katchmer, and Lewis Colick, who would later write thrillers like Judgment Night and Domestic Disturbance. Largo Entertainment, fresh off several entertaining Fox releases including Point Break and The Super, optioned the script in the summer of 1991.

When Suburban Safety Shatters

The film follows Michael Carr, a wealthy but otherwise average guy, and his beautiful yet naive wife Karen. Their suburban bliss is shattered when a home intruder puts a knife to Karen’s throat after Michael fails to restrain him. The intruder flees, but the psychological damage is done. When the police arrive, Officers Pete Davis and Roy Cole take the report. Almost immediately, something feels off about Pete. His stare lingers too long. His interest in Karen is unmistakable. Even his partner senses it. From that moment on, you know this situation is going to spiral.

Horror From Both Sides of the Badge

What makes Unlawful Entry so effective is its two-pronged horror. On one level, it’s about a rage-fueled, mentally unstable cop roaming the streets of Los Angeles at night. On the other, it forces the audience to imagine what they’d do if that cop turned his attention toward their spouse.

To make matters worse, Karen is clearly drawn to Pete’s sad-eyed, misunderstood-cop persona. It’s a nightmare scenario for Michael, who soon finds himself targeted in the most sadistic ways possible. As Pete uses his authority and connections to dismantle Michael’s life piece by piece, Michael is forced to rise to the occasion to save both himself and his wife.

Jonathan Kaplan and a Perfectly Cast Trio

The film was directed by Jonathan Kaplan, best known for The Accused and a long list of music video work. His approach turns Unlawful Entry into a psychological karate kick aimed squarely at the average man’s worst fears.

Casting was crucial, and they nailed it.

Ray Liotta, fresh off Goodfellas and Field of Dreams, plays Officer Pete Davis in one of his most underappreciated performances. His presence is deeply unsettling. Sometimes he doesn’t even do anything, he just watches. His performance evokes echoes of Taxi Driver, Nightcrawler, and even American Psycho. The difference is that this Patrick Bateman has a badge.

Opposite him is Kurt Russell, who deserves serious credit for taking a role many actors would’ve passed on. For much of the movie, Russell plays a man who is powerless, scared, and being outmatched at every turn. But when the time comes, he snaps, and it’s deeply satisfying. Russell perfected this “everyman pushed too far” role in films like Breakdown and Executive Decision, and Unlawful Entry is an early example of how well he could sell it.

Roger Ebert even noted that Russell and Liotta felt like twisted reflections of one another on screen. Their face-off is pitch-perfect; more Cape Fear than traditional stalker fare.

Between them is Madeleine Stowe as Karen, delivering a performance that walks a tricky line. She’s strong, likable, and tragically blind to how dangerous Pete truly is. Stowe had already proven herself in erotic thrillers like Revenge, and here she makes Karen’s denial feel frustrating but believable. When the film shifts from stalking to full-blown slasher territory, Stowe sells the desperation and terror without losing the audience’s sympathy.

The supporting cast is stacked with reliable character actors, including Roger E. Mosley, Ken Lerner, and Deborah Offner, all adding weight to the story.

Real-World Tragedy and an Uncomfortable Parallel

Unlawful Entry was filmed in Los Angeles in 1991, and the production became unintentionally entangled with real-world events. On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was brutally beaten by LAPD officers following a high-speed chase. The footage was released publicly the next day. Unfortunately, Unlawful Entry featured a pivotal scene in which Officer Pete brutally assaults the man who broke into the Carrs’ home, partly to show off in front of Michael. As the Rodney King case unfolded and the 1992 LA riots erupted just two months before the film’s release, the similarities became impossible to ignore.

The director and producers heavily edited the scene, and the cast repeatedly emphasized in interviews that the film was intended purely as entertainment. Thankfully, audiences seemed to understand this context, and the film was able to survive rather than be erased.

Chaos on Set and a Reworked Ending

Behind the scenes, the production was just as intense as the movie itself. Liotta described Kaplan as “an intense little dude,” while Russell affectionately referred to him as “a frantic Santa Claus.” Stowe even admitted that while she and Liotta barely spoke off-camera, she found herself genuinely drawn to him while in character, a strange but telling detail.

The film’s ending was rewritten multiple times, leading to confusion even among the cast during filming. While some critics felt the final act was rushed, the chaotic energy actually works in the movie’s favor. The final confrontation between Michael and Pete is raw, frantic, and vicious, culminating in a kitchen fight that feels earned after all the psychological torment.

Yes, Even the Cat Matters

One unforgettable element of the film is the Carrs’ cat, Tiny, which was played by three different cats during production. The cat consistently prefers Pete over Michael, subtly undermining the old horror-movie idea that animals can sense evil. It’s a small but clever touch that adds another layer of humiliation and unease for Michael.

Even after everything Michael endures to save his family, the cat still chooses Karen over him. It’s darkly funny, strangely human, and maybe proof that I’ve watched this movie too many times.

Music, Release, and Legacy

Legendary composer James Horner scored the film, though not without some creative friction. Kaplan, whose father was composer Sol Kaplan, had very specific ideas about the music’s tone. The result is an underrated score that feels like a traditional thriller theme with just enough eerie restraint to avoid tipping the audience off too early.

Unlawful Entry hit theaters on June 26, 1992, opening in second place at the box office. It grossed over $10 million its first weekend and went on to earn $57 million domestically against a $23 million budget. A solid success. Critical reception was generally positive, with many reviewers praising Liotta’s performance while acknowledging some stretches in believability.

Final Verdict

Even if it doesn’t have the name recognition of Basic Instinct, Unlawful Entry remains one of the most entertaining, rewatchable, and well-acted thrillers from the golden age of the genre. And that is what happened to Unlawful Entry.

A couple of previous episodes of this show can be seen below. For more, check out the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel—and don’t forget to subscribe!

The post Why Unlawful Entry Is One of the Most Underrated Thrillers of the 90s appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

You ever watch a movie and, by the time it’s over, just know that one of the people in it—someone you’d never heard of before—is going to become a major star?

That happened to me when I was fourteen years old and saw Primal Fear.

A mid-level legal thriller released in early spring 1996, the film was never meant to be much more than a programmer for Paramount Pictures. Instead, it became a classic—largely because it marked the screen debut of Edward Norton. His performance made him a star overnight, earned him an Oscar nomination, and propelled him into two more high-profile supporting roles before the year was out. By the time 1997 rolled around, Norton was a bona fide movie star.

So how does a complete unknown deliver a career-changing performance?

Why Legal Thrillers Ruled the 1990s

In some ways, you can thank John Grisham—though Primal Fear has nothing to do with him directly. The film is based on a novel by William Diehl, but it never would have been made if legal thrillers hadn’t been all the rage in the early-to-mid 1990s.

Grisham’s The Firm became a massive blockbuster starring Tom Cruise, who had already scored with A Few Good Men. Its success triggered a gold rush of courtroom thrillers. Many were adapted from Grisham novels and many became hits, including The Pelican Brief and Joel Schumacher’s The Client.

Today, a film with the pedigree of Primal Fear would likely be positioned as Oscar bait—or more likely turned into a prestige streaming series. In 1996, though, a twisty legal thriller was money in the bank.

From William Diehl’s Novel to the Big Screen

With most of Grisham’s novels already optioned, other legal writers had their moment. William Diehl, a former photojournalist, was already in his sixties when Primal Fear was published in 1993. He’d previously had a hit adaptation with Sharky’s Machine in 1981, directed by and starring Burt Reynolds.

Primal Fear was a different beast. The story centers on Martin Vail, a bad-boy defense attorney who takes on the case of Aaron Stampler, a seemingly simple altar boy accused of brutally murdering Chicago Archbishop Richard Rushman. What looks like an open-and-shut case quickly becomes something far more complicated.

Vail takes the case largely for the publicity—and for the chance to go head-to-head with his ex-girlfriend Janet, the ambitious prosecutor handling the case.

Richard Gere’s Perfect Comeback Role

Martin Vail was written as a man in his forties, making the role a perfect fit for Richard Gere, who was in the midst of his “mature sex symbol” phase.

After early superstardom with American Gigolo and An Officer and a Gentleman, Gere’s career had cratered in the late ’80s. He rebounded in 1990 with Pretty Woman and delivered one of his strongest performances in Internal Affairs. Still, a string of misfires followed—particularly ill-advised period films. His miscasting as Lancelot in First Knight didn’t help.

Primal Fear was exactly what he needed. Paramount, under Sherry Lansing, backed him, and Gere slid effortlessly into Vail—a slick, egotistical lawyer who never quite crosses into sleaze.

He was surrounded by a killer ensemble: Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Terry O’Quinn, Frances McDormand, André Braugher, Alfre Woodard, Steven Bauer, and Maura Tierney. And yet, every one of them—including Gere—would be blown off the screen by an actor with zero prior screen credits.

The Performance That Changed Everything (Spoilers Ahead)

If you haven’t seen Primal Fear, spoiler warning.

Throughout the film, Aaron Stampler appears to be a traumatized victim suffering from dissociative identity disorder. His violent alter ego, “Roy,” seems responsible for the crime—a byproduct of horrific lifelong abuse.

Then comes the final scene.

A slip of the tongue reveals the truth: Aaron never existed. Roy is the real personality. He isn’t mentally ill—he’s evil. He killed the Archbishop because he wanted to. He murdered another victim simply for kicks. The stammer, the innocence, the vulnerability—it was all an act.

That reveal made the role legendary.

The Role Every Young Actor Wanted

The part was initially offered to Leonardo DiCaprio, who turned it down after What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Will Wheaton later blamed passing on the role—choosing acting school instead—for derailing his adult career.

Pedro Pascal has said it was his first audition. Matt Damon desperately wanted it, and losing the role helped motivate him and Ben Affleck to write Good Will Hunting. Ironically, Damon would later star in The Rainmaker, another Grisham adaptation, which proved far less impactful.

Norton, an unknown, was billed sixth. Today, he shares top billing with Gere on every re-release.

A Perfectly Crafted Thriller

Norton’s performance is the headline, but Primal Fear works because everything around it is strong.

The script is sharp. Diehl’s novel is gripping. Director Gregory Hoblit—making his feature debut after TV work on L.A. Law and NYPD Blue—keeps the tension tight. Cinematographer Michael Chapman brings a moody, polished look, and James Newton Howard’s score became a trailer staple.

The film’s signature needle drop, the haunting Portuguese ballad “Canção do Mar” by Dulce Pontes, later became iconic in its own right.

Box Office Success and a Star Is Born

Released in April 1996—a traditionally quiet month—the film’s $56 million domestic gross was considered excellent. Worldwide, it topped $100 million on a $30 million budget.

Its real explosion came on VHS and cable, as word spread about Edward Norton. By year’s end, he’d landed The People vs. Larry Flynt and Everyone Says I Love You, earned an Oscar nomination, and become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after young actors.

What followed—American History X, Fight Club, Rounders—cemented his legacy.

Why Primal Fear Still Matters

Rewatching Primal Fear today is a reminder of how rare it is for talent and opportunity to collide so perfectly. Edward Norton didn’t just break out—he announced himself.

It’s one of the great star-making performances in modern cinema, and a reminder that sometimes, one role really can change everything.

The post Here’s How Primal Fear Turned Edward Norton Into a Movie Star Overnight  appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

And so another year is in the books, and 2025 proved to be a rough one for Hollywood. While box office grosses ticked up slightly, they remain well below pre-pandemic norms—levels the industry has never truly recovered.

Several formerly indestructible franchises stumbled. Marvel, in particular, is likely uneasy after the relative underperformance of Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts (though Fantastic Four: First Steps performed reasonably well).

Even DC wasn’t immune. While Superman earned praise, its roughly $600 million global gross would once have been considered merely acceptable for a superhero tentpole—not a triumph.

Is Netflix a Threat to Theatrical Movies?

One of the biggest clouds hanging over the industry is the possibility of Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. If that deal goes through, the streamer’s proposed 17-day theatrical window would be devastating for exhibitors. At a time when theaters are already fighting for relevance, such a move could accelerate the decline of traditional exhibition.

Why 2026 Could Be a Make-or-Break Year

Despite the gloom, 2026 is shaping up to be massive—and potentially decisive for several studios. At the center of it all is Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday.

If that film underperforms, it would represent a seismic blow to what was once the most reliable franchise in Hollywood history. Success, on the other hand, could help stabilize the genre and restore some confidence in big-screen spectacle.

Are There Too Many Sequels and Reboots?

One thing is immediately obvious when looking at the 2026 slate: it’s dominated by sequels and reboots. Original films are few and far between, though there are notable exceptions—most prominently Disclosure Day from Steven Spielberg.

We’ve already posted an extensive horror preview, along with another broader movie preview earlier this week, but the overall trend is clear: studios are leaning heavily on familiar IP as risk aversion continues to define the post-pandemic era.

The Big Question

What movie are you most looking forward to in 2026?
Take the poll—or let us know your pick in the comments.

The post POLL: What 2026 Movie Are You Most Excited For? appeared first on JoBlo.

2025 ended up being a pretty decent year for movies, with some true standouts like Marty Supreme, Weapons, and Hamnet. But with the sun setting on 2025, it’s time to look forward to the films being released in 2026. And boy are there a lot of sequels and adaptations. I suppose that’s just the nature of modern day cinema and that’s not to say that there won’t be some original films that really blow us away this year. But those tend to be a bit more under the radar until closer to release. Even still, I’m pretty excited for many releases this year and think that we should be in store for some great additions to already established franchises. So let’s take a look at some of the upcoming movies in 2026.

And don’t forget to check out our 2026 Horror Preview as well!

Wuthering Heights (February 13th)

Emerald Fennell has really made quite the impact with films like Promising Young Woman and Saltburn. Now it’s time for her to adapt one of the most famous novels out there with Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. It is “A passionate and tumultuous love story set against the backdrop of the Yorkshire moors, exploring the intense and destructive relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw.” Pairing Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi seems like the work of some mad genius. The Valentine’s Day release is sure to make this one another win for Fennell.

Crime 101 (February 13)

Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Halle Berry star in this action-thriller based on the work of Don Winslow (writer of Savages). Directed by Bart Layton, whose American Animals was quite the Sundance gem eight years back, this is the kind of adrenaline-charged original fare you don’t get too often in theaters anymore. Here’s the synopsis:

Set against the sun-bleached grit of Los Angeles, CRIME 101 weaves the tale of an elusive thief (Chris Hemsworth) whose high-stakes heists unfolding along the iconic 101 freeway have mystified police. When he eyes the score of a lifetime with hopes of this being his final job, his path collides with a disillusioned insurance broker (Halle Berry) who is facing her own crossroads, forcing the two to collaborate. Determined to crack the case, a relentless detective (Mark Ruffalo) closes in on the operation, raising the stakes even higher. As the multimillion-dollar heist approaches, the line between hunter and hunted begins to blur, and all three are forced to confront the cost of their choices–and the realization that there’s no turning back. 

Project Hail Mary (March 20th)

Andy Weir writes some of the most interesting science fiction of the modern era and it’s been far too long since we got an adaptation of one of his other big works, The Martian. The story involves: “Science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction… but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.” While the trailer gave away a little much for my liking, it’s hard to count against Ryan Gosling in the entertainment department.

Disclosure Day (June 12th)

I’m still not sold on the title, but it’s hard not to be excited at the concept of Steven Spielberg returning to the world of Aliens with this UFO thriller. With a cast that includes Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Wyatt Russell and Colman Domingo, this look very intriguing. Plot details are still pretty scant but it looks more in line with Close Encounters than War of the Worlds.

Toy Story 5 (June 12th)

It’s always interesting to see what new obstacles the filmmakers manage to put in the way of our favorite toys, and the plot for Toy Story 5 seems like a long time coming: “Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the rest of the gang’s jobs are challenged when they’re introduced to electronics, a new threat to playtime.” With all the main cast returning, plus fun additions like Conan O’Brien, it’ll be nice to see another story within this world. While the third entry provided the perfect ending, the fourth proved that there’s still some juice left in the tank, and I’m excited to see what they do with this one.

Supergirl (June 26th, 2026)

The second film in James Gunn’s DCU has some pretty high expectations going in. But if Superman was any indication, we’re in for a much less gloomy version of a Superhero movie. And while we just got a taste of her last year, this origin story should give us a better overall picture of what Supes’ cousin has been up to. Plus, it’s going to be awesome to see Jason Momoa’s Lobo chomp on a cigar in a role that he was born to play.

The Odyssey (July 17th)

I’m not sure if there’s any other film releasing that has the level of hype of this film. With opening day showings already being sold out for the last 6 months, there’s nothing quite like a Christopher Nolan movie. For those that never had to read the book in school, The Odyssey “After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Circe along the way.“

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31st)

There’s a certain excitement to any new Spider-man moving coming out and, thankfully, we’ve never been too many years without one. With Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton taking over behind the camera, it’ll be interesting to see what he brings to the table. Even more exciting is that this should be putting Spidey more street level and allow us to see him less MCU-afied. Though, it’s hard to say since this will also be featuring a tons of other characters like Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and Sadie Sink’s mystery character. Here’s hoping they allow the character to be a bit more independent and less reliant on what’s going on with the rest of the MCU.

The Social Reckoning (October 9th)

I would have never expected there to be a sequel to David Fincher’s The Social Network yet here we are. And honestly? I’m actually pretty intrigued. A lot has happened in the world of Mark Zuckerberg since the creation of Facebook and it will be interesting to see how writer Aaron Sorkin (who is now taking over directing duties) presents the story which follows “Frances Haugen, a young Facebook engineer, who enlisted the help of Jeff Horwitz, a Wall Street Journal reporter, to blow the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.“

The Hunger Games: Sunrise of the Reaping (November 20th)

I’ve been pretty let down by many of the films in the Hunger Game series so when I tell you this one has me excited, just know that I’m a hard sell for these. But having read the book that this one is based, this is easily the best story yet and I can’t wait to see some of these scenes come to life. The casting has been perfect and it’ll be great to see Haymitch’s time in the games. Plus, it’s cool that they were able to get Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson back, even if it’s likely just a bookends role, where Harrelson’s Haymitch is likely telling them his story. Either way Sunrise of the Reaping “Explores Panem 24 years before Katniss’ saga, starting on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, where a young Haymitch Abernathy participates.“

Avengers Doomsday (December 18th)

It seems like just about everyone who’s ever put on a supersuit is returning for Doomsday, not to mention Robert Downey Jr, whose Tony Stark famously died in the last Avengers teamup. Whether it’s Marvel calling a hail mary and trying to save the MCU is irrelevant if they’re able to pull off a massive spectacle that brings in the money. And they’re doing a great job of building that hype already as there have already been multiple teaser trailers (four revealing different characters returning). The story appears to feature Doctor Doom going after the children of famous superheroes, causing them to all band together to try and take him out. We’ve got the OG X-Men returning.

Dune Part Three (December 18th)

Part of me thinks that Dune is going to move at some point to avoid Doomsday. I just can’t imagine it competing with a behemoth like an Avengers film, but I guess crazier things have been done. We’re still following Timothy Chalamet’s Paul Atreides but given how crazy the source material gets, I’ll be curious to see how it translates to a movie, as it’s always felt pretty unadaptable. Though, if anyone can do it, I’m sure Denis Villeneuve is up to the task.

What film are you looking forward to the most in 2026? Are there any Original films that you think will be sleeper hits? Let us know in the comments!

The post 2026 Movie Preview: Will Any Original Films Surprise Us? appeared first on JoBlo.

Theodore

For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net. In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…

Huan Do

Huan Do is a senior creative lead, art director, and artist known for crafting bold, concept-driven visuals. He has a particular focus on original tribute poster work, guided by storytelling sensibility and a designer’s eye. A UCLA graduate in Graphic Design, his work spans theatrical, streaming, and home entertainment campaigns, where he approaches key art as a narrative device – distilling character, tone, and emotion into a single, striking image.

Working fluidly across studio and freelance environments, Huan blends strategic thinking with a hands-on design process, transforming ideas into finished visual experiences. His work is defined by clarity, precision, and cinematic intent, rooted in the pursuit of compelling compositions and original concepts. The result is art that feels purposeful, cohesive, and built to resonate with audiences long after the first impression.

JOBLO: What got you started as an artist?
HUAN: I think I always had a deep appreciation for art, even as a child. I was pretty introverted then – and still am – and art gave me a way to escape into a world where imagination felt limitless. It was a quiet, personal space where I could explore ideas freely, and creating was simply fun. That interest became something more tangible when I took an oil painting class in junior high. At the time, it was the only school in our area offering a course like that, and working with paint, color, and composition really clicked for me. From that point on, I was hooked.

It wasn’t until college, though, that things really started to take shape. I began taking design classes, and that’s when the seed was planted that maybe this wasn’t just something I enjoyed – it could actually be a path. Learning about layout, typography, and visual problem-solving opened my eyes to the idea of becoming a graphic artist and communicating ideas through design.

Naturally, my love for cinema eventually found its way into my work. Film had always been a huge influence on me, and discovering that I could fuse those two passions – art and cinema – into a single discipline felt incredibly exciting. It gave me the opportunity to explore focal points, interpretation, mood, and visual experimentation all at once.

Who were some of your favorite artists growing up?
Growing up, I was always interested in artists who blurred the line between illustration and design. Patrick Nagel was a huge influence on me – his stylized portraits of women just felt so modern, even while pulling from styles like Art Nouveau and traditional Japanese woodcuts. I really connected with how clean and assured his compositions were, and how he could strip things down to just what was necessary. That way of thinking about clarity and impact definitely stuck with me.

I was also a big fan of Guy Billout. His illustrations were always clever and plenty whimsical, and they made you look at everyday situations from totally unexpected angles. There was always this effortless sense of humor and imagination in his work that I really admired.

Looking back, both of them helped shape how I see illustration and design – not just as something that looks good, but as something that’s concept-driven and thoughtful. That influence still shows up in how I approach my own work today.

Who do you really dig these days, follow on Instagram?
There’s so much incredible art out there right now that it’s honestly hard to narrow things down, but a few artists I really admire and consistently follow definitely stand out.

At the top of my list is Bruno Vergauwen. His work feels next level – his compositions, and cinematic interpretations are incredibly unique. I really admire how he weaves his technique so seamlessly into his take on film; every piece feels thoughtfully constructed.

I’m also a big fan of Laurent Durieux. His posters are always clever and conceptually sharp, and he’s worked on many of my all-time favorite classic films. There’s a timeless quality to his work that makes each piece feel iconic.

Orlando Arocena (Mexifunk) is another standout. His mastery of vector art is undeniable, and his horror work in particular is phenomenal. His steel book series is some of the best genre artwork out there – bold, and instantly recognizable.

I always look forward to new releases from Eileen Steinbach (sg_posters) as well. Her designs are incredibly smart, with a strong minimalist flair that communicates so much depth through simplicity.

Ian Permana is another artist I follow closely; his use of bright, neon-heavy color palettes creates striking, energetic compositions that really command attention.

Seb Ruiz (brgrface) is also someone whose work I greatly admire. Her expert line work and sophisticated use of color translate beautifully across a wide range of projects, showcasing both technical mastery and versatility. Her art is simply gorgeous.

I’m also really inspired by Jeff Jacobs (retro1sheet), especially his ability to transform static artwork into animated pieces. Watching his art come to life adds an entirely new dimension that’s just extremely fun to explore.

On the fine art side, I’m currently obsessed with the paintings of Inka Essenhigh. Her ethereal imagery – blending natural forms with imagined elements – creates these otherworldly landscapes that feel both exotic and deeply symbolic. Her work is endlessly inspiring and unlike anything else, so yeah… I pretty much get lost in the fantastic realms that she creates.

What advice would you have for budding artists today?
In today’s creative landscape – where there are countless incredibly talented and already established artists – it’s more important than ever to develop a clear, personal point of view. Finding your own unique style can help you stand out, even if it starts with something simple that clearly differentiates your work from the next artist’s. That sense of identity is what makes your art recognizable and memorable.

It can take time to get there, and that process isn’t always easy – but that’s part of the challenge, and honestly, part of the fun. Experimenting, working through iterations, and steadily refining your voice is how that style begins to take shape. The key is to stay curious and open while trusting your instincts along the way.

Most importantly, keep pushing forward with your work. In many cases, you have to be relentless – show up consistently, keep creating even when momentum feels slow, and believe in the value of what you’re making. Persistence, combined with authenticity, can go a long way in carving out your own space as an artist.

What should we be looking out for from you in the future?
You can expect a continued expansion of my alternative movie poster work, especially across several ongoing series I’ve been building – Horror Thriller, Crime Thriller, and most recently, Sci-Fi Thriller. Each series allows me to explore a distinct visual language while pushing atmosphere, symbolism, and mood in different ways.

I love the freedom that comes with being an alternative movie poster artist. It’s about taking iconic films and reimagining them in bold, visually striking ways while staying true to the core mood of each genre. Each series is its own visual universe, and my goal is to keep pushing the scale, the atmosphere, and the impact of the artwork.

Moving forward, I’ll be continuing to grow these series while evolving their visual identity, along with new explorations as inspiration strikes. My hope is to bring an audience along for the journey – people who enjoy seeing familiar films reimagined through a cinematic, design-forward lens and who appreciate thoughtful, expressive artwork.

Being a fansite, we have to ask you… What are some of your favorite movies/TV shows of all time?
I’m naturally drawn to films that explore the human spirit – stories of lost love, new beginnings, and characters shaped by imperfect choices and attempts at redemption.

At the very top of my list is Love Me If You Dare (2003), directed by Yann Samuell and starring Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet. It’s a brilliant French dark romantic comedy – To me, the film balances whimsical charm and emotional danger, ending on the quiet notion that some loves persist, no matter how flawed the path.

Another favorite is The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), directed by Philip Kaufman and based on Milan Kundera’s novel. It has always stayed with me for its meditation on love, freedom, and impermanence. It captures how desire and intimacy can feel both weightless and deeply consequential, and that emotional tension is what makes the film so great. Robert Redford’s Ordinary People (1980) is another standout – a quietly devastating exploration of grief and family trauma. In a similar vein, Wim Wenders’ Paris,Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987) explore those same emotional themes with a calm sensitivity that resonated deeply with me.

My favorite crime thriller of all time is Michael Mann’s Heat (1995). Beyond its iconic performances, it’s a fascinating study of two opposing forces – men driven by discipline, code, and obsession – making it as much a character study as it is a genre classic. A close second is The Mechanic (1972). Charles Bronson as a hitman is just so good – cold, methodical, and packed with that raw, gritty action that still hits hard. When it comes to neo-noir thrillers, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011) is a winner for me – an incredibly stylish and stunning piece of filmmaking. Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential (1997) feels like a perfect film – an immersive world that blends classic crime drama with the nostalgia of a bygone golden era.

Of course, I’ll watch anything from Quentin Tarantino – Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) & Vol. 2 (2004), Pulp Fiction (1994), and Inglorious Basterds (2009) are my top picks – films that showcase bold storytelling, creative dialog, and unmistakable style. They’re confident, unapologetic, and endlessly entertaining.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have a deep appreciation for science fiction and horror. Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is always thrilling, and Blade Runner (1982) remains one of my all-time favorites for its landmark world-building and art direction. Rogue One (2016) from the Star Wars universe absolutely delivers, especially that heart-pounding finale. I also enjoy a good vampire story, so Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In (2008) immediately comes to mind – haunting, intimate, and beautifully shot. Smile 2 (2024) is absolutely worth calling out – Naomi Scott delivers a fearless, fully committed performance that sears. And of course, John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) was absolutely mind-blowing the first time I saw it; his mastery of suspense, paranoia, and practical effects is simply unmatched.

I’m also a big fan of Asian cinema, where the creative range feels especially diverse and where some truly remarkable films can be found. Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers (2004) stand out for their visual poetry, emotional depth, and elegance – traits that elevate them far beyond traditional martial arts films. John Woo’s Hard Boiled (1992) is relentless, over-the-top action at its finest – always exciting to watch. I also love Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Lady Vengeance (2005)) because it’s just so uncompromising in its brutality and sharp exploration of morality and obsession. And then there’s Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle (2005), which is just pure fun – wild, inventive, and completely unhinged in the best way.

I also gravitate toward films from the 1970’s – The Deer Hunter, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, The Warriors, Deliverance, Marathon Man, Mad Max, The Exorcist, and Saturday Night Fever, in particular – a period where filmmaking felt raw, grounded, and unfiltered.
Overall, my tastes are pretty diverse. As long as a film is engaging, thoughtfully made, and willing to take creative risks, I’m in.

Scroll down to check out some of our favorite art pieces from Huan as we continue to follow his journey across his website (www.huanstudio.com) and social media hubs: Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/huanartposters/) / PosterSpy (https://posterspy.com/profile/huanandonly/) / Alternative Movie Posters (https://alternativemovieposters.com/portfolio_tags/huan-do/) LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/huando1/) / Store (huan.studio@yahoo.com)

28 Years Later

Alien

Alien: Romulus

An American Werewolf In London

Cujo

Daredevil: Born Again

Drive

Dune Part Two

Escape From New York

The Evil Dead

The French Connection

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Goodfellas

Heat

Hellraiser

Interstellar

Kill Bill

Longlegs

The Monkey

Nosferatu

Old Boy

Reservoir Dogs

Scarface

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Stranger Things

The Substance

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The post Awesome Art Spotlight and Interview: Huan Do appeared first on JoBlo.

Cody

It’s that time again. With the calendar about to flip over to a fresh, new year, we have compliled a list of some of the most interesting horror movies that are scheduled to be released over the next twelve months. And here it is, the 2026 Horror Preview:

WE BURY THE DEAD – Theatrical, January 2

From Zak Hilditch, writer/director of the Stephen King adaptation 1922, comes “a story about grief, loss, and the undead.” Daisy Ridley of the Star Wars franchise takes on the role of Ava, a desperate woman whose husband is missing in the aftermath of a catastrophic military experiment. Hoping to find him alive, Ava joins a “body retrieval unit,” but her search takes a chilling turn when the corpses she’s burying start showing signs of life. Ridley is joined in the cast by Brenton Thwaites (Titans) and Mark Coles Smith (Mystery Road: Origin). JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray had the chance to see the movie a while back and wasn’t overly impressed by it (you can read his 6/10 review HERE), writing that “with so much zombie content out there, it’s very difficult to add anything new to the genre. Inevitably, this movie doesn’t manage to overcome the familiarity of the genre, but even still, it is mostly entertaining for much of its running time thanks to the ace technical packaging, and good performances from Ridley and Thwaites. It’s solid but unspectacular. “

PRIMATE – Theatrical, January 9

At the helm of Primate is genre regular Johannes Roberts, who has previously directed Hellbreeder, Darkhunters, Forest of the Damned, F, Roadkill, Storage 24, The Other Side of the Door, 47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. He also contributed a segment to the horror anthology V/H/S/99. Roberts has written the Primate screenplay with his frequent collaborator Ernest Riera. In this one, a group of friends’ tropical vacation turns into a terrifying, primal tale of horror and survival. If you’d like more information on what’s going on, you can check out the 8/10 review from JoBlo’s own Mike Holtz at THIS LINK. He described the film as “an unapologetic blood bath of fun” that’s about a rabies-crazed chimp. Oscar-winner Troy Kotsur (CODA) stars alongside Johnny Sequoyah (Dexter: New Blood), Jessica Alexander (Amadeus), Victoria Wyant (My Fault: London), Benjamin Cheng (d’ILLUSION: The Houdini Musical), Gia Hunter (Sherlock and Daughter), Miguel Torres Umba (National Theatre co-production Kin), Kae Alexander (Ready Player One), Tienne Simon (Grime Kids), Charlie Mann (Lazarus), newcomer Amina Abdi, and Albert Magashi (National Theatre Live: Dear England).

28 YEARS LATER PART II: THE BONE TEMPLE – Theatrical, January 16

28 Days Later director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland finally reunited to make a sequel to their zombie (or, if you prefer, infected people) movie classic. 28 Years Later, which was meant to launch a whole trilogy of 28 Days Later sequels, reached theatres at the end of June 2025, and the second chapter in the trilogy, 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple, will help us kick off the new year. Garland also wrote the screenplays for the sequels that will come after 28 Years Later, but Boyle passed the helm over to Candyman and The Marvels director Nia DaCosta for the sequel. (He might circle back for the trilogy capper.) A lot of viewers seemed to find 28 Years Later to be underwhelming, but the first reactions to the sequel have described the new film as brutal, bonkers, and brilliant.

KILLER WHALE – Theatrical, Digital, and VOD, January 16 

Virginia Gardner of Halloween, Fall, and A Breed Apart dives into aquatic horror with Killer Whale, which was directed by Jo-Anne Brechin from a screenplay she crafted with Katharine E. McPhee (no, that Katharine McPhee is not the same person as the singer who was on American Idol.) The synopsis: Hold your breath as you witness revenge rise from the deep. After a life-shattering tragedy, Trish tries to comfort her best friend, Maddie, by taking her on a spectacular adventure in a private lagoon halfway across the world. Their peaceful retreat soon becomes a terrifying fight to stay alive when the ocean’s most bloodthirsty predator seeks vengeance for a brutal life in captivity. Mel Jarnson (Mortal Kombat), Mitchell Hope (Descendants), Ron Smyck (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire), Scott James George (Thor: Love and Thunder), Isaac Crawley (Sacrifice), Aliandra Calabrese (Joe vs. Carole), and Mia Grunwald (Designing Christmas with You) round out the cast.

NIGHT PATROL – Theatrical, January 16

Starring Jermaine Fowler (The Blackening), Justin Long (Tusk), wrestler CM Punk (Girl on the Third Floor), Dermot Mulroney (Young Guns), RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Freddie Gibbs (Down With The King), YG (White Boy Rick), Flying Lotus (Ash), Jon Oswald (Lowlife), and Nicki Micheaux (Lowlife), director Ryan Prows’ Night Patrol follows an LAPD officer (Fowler) who must put aside his differences with the area’s street gangs when he discovers a local police task force is harboring a horrific secret that endangers the residents of the housing projects he grew up in. Long plays the officer’s partner, recruited as a legacy into night patrol. Cyler stars as the officer’s brother, who sees what he isn’t supposed to see, while Mulroney plays Long’s character’s father, a sergeant with many secrets. Punk rounds out the cast as the sergeant’s brutal right-hand man. Prows wrote the script with Shaye Ogbonna, Tim Cairo, and Jake Gibson. This quartet previously collaborated on the screenplay for Prows’ feature directorial debut, the quirky crime thriller Lowlife.

RETURN TO SILENT HILL – Theatrical, January 23

Brotherhood of the Wolf and Silent Hill director Christophe Gans’ new Silent Hill movie Return to Silent Hill, which is said to be “totally independent from the two previous movies” in the film franchise, is based on the video game Silent Hill 2. The story follows James, a man broken after being separated from his one true love. When a mysterious letter calls him back to Silent Hill in search of her, he finds a once-recognizable town transformed by an unknown evil. As James descends deeper into the darkness, he encounters terrifying figures both familiar and new and begins to question his own sanity as he struggles to make sense of reality and hold on long enough to save his lost love. The film stars Jeremy Irvine (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) and Hannah Emily Anderson (Jigsaw).

UNTITLED HOME INVASION ROMANCE – Digital, January 27

Directed by American Pie legend Jason Biggs, who also stars in the film, the comedy thriller Untitled Home Invasion Romance (that does seem to be the final title) will tell us the following story: With his marriage on the rocks, Kevin whisks his wife Suzie away on a romantic getaway with a wildly misguided plan: fake a break-in and play the hero. But when things spiral and someone turns up dead, Kevin finds himself at the center of a murder investigation, with lies piling up faster than the alibis. Biggs’s co-stars include Meaghan Rath (Hawaii Five-0), Anna Konkle (PEN15), Justin H. Min (Beef), and Arturo Castro (Broad City).

SEND HELP – Theatrical, January 30

Rachel McAdams reteams with her Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness director Sam Raimi for a “really outrageous” survival horror thriller from the writers of Freddy vs. Jason and Friday the 13th 2009, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. (With some revisions by A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods.) Deadline mentioned, “the film is described as a two-hander horror thriller set on an island, falling somewhere between Rob Reiner’s Stephen King adaptation Misery and Robert Zemeckis’ classic Castaway.” They reported that the film is a survival horror thriller about two colleagues who become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it’s a battle of wills and wits to make it out alive. McAdams is joined in the cast by Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner), Chris Pang (Interior Chinatown), and Dennis Haysbert (24).

WORLDBREAKER – Theatrical, January 30

 Brad Anderson, whose credits include Session 9 and The Call, directed the sci-fi action creature feature Worldbreaker, which is described as being “a pulse-pounding sci-fi action thriller about survival, sacrifice, and a young woman’s fight to step out of the shadows and into the war she was born to face.” Here’s the synopsis: After the Breakers rose—monsters that infect and twist their victims—men fell first, leaving women to lead the fight. Willa’s mother is one of the war’s fiercest warriors; her father, a battle-scarred veteran, hides with Willa on a remote island, training her to survive. Their fragile peace is shattered when a mysterious girl drifts ashore. Willa, longing for connection, shelters her in secret—until the truth emerges and danger follows. With Breakers closing in, Willa must rely on her father’s training and her own courage to survive. The stars Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil), Luke Evans (Beauty and the Beast), Billie Boullet (The Worst Witch), and Mila Harris (Coyotes).

IRON LUNG – Theatrical, January 30

Content creator and entrepreneur Markiplier has written, directed, and self-financed a horror film based on the video game Iron Lung, created by David Szymanski, and he also stars in the movie. Here’s the synopsis, straight from Markiplier: The stars are gone. The planets have disappeared. Only individuals aboard space stations or starships were left to give the end a name — The Quiet Rapture. After decades of decay and crumbling infrastructure, the Consolidation of Iron has made a discovery on a barren moon designated AT-5. An ocean of blood.
Hoping to discover desperately needed resources they immediately launch an expedition. A submarine is crafted and a convict is welded inside. Due to the pressure and depth of the ocean the forward viewport has been encased in metal. If successful, they will earn their freedom. If not, another will follow. This will be the 13th expedition. Markiplier is also self-distributing the film, aiming to get it into 50 to 100 independent theaters on its opening weekend.

GRIZZLY NIGHT – Digital and VOD, January 30

Directed by Burke Doeren, Grizzly Night is a fact-based “nature run amok” movie with the following synopsis: Based on true events, this terrifying survival thriller follows a rookie park ranger thrust into the fight of her life when Glacier National Park becomes the scene of deadly grizzly attacks. As panic spreads and communication breaks down, she must lead a group of frightened strangers through the darkness, confronting both the untamed wilderness and her own fears. What begins as a quiet summer evening turns into a night of chaos that changes the nation’s understanding of wildlife forever. Charles Esten (Outer Banks), Brec Bassinger (Stargirl), Oded Fehr (The Mummy), Jack Griffo (The Thundermans), Josh Zuckerman (Oppenheimer), Joel Johnstone (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), and Matt Lintz (Ms. Marvel) star.

TWISTED – Digital, February 6

Originally announced under the title The Monster, this horror thriller from director Darren Lynn Bousman (who’s best known for directing Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, and Spiral: From the Book of Saw) tells the story of two millennials who make quick money by leasing incredible New York City apartments they don’t own to people who don’t know they are being scammed. The con works brilliantly until they run into an apartment owner with a dark secret who flips the game on them. Djimon Hounsou of A Quiet Place Part II and A Quiet Place: Day One stars alongside Lauren LaVera, who played heroine Sienna in Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3, Alicia Witt (Longlegs), Gina Philips (Jeepers Creepers), Neal McDonough (Band of Brothers), Mia Healey (The Wilds), Michael Lombardi (The Deuce), David Call (Insidious: The Red Door), Victor Del Rio (Precognito), Cedric Benjamin (Luke Cage), Zac Jaffee (Hustlers), Renés Rivera (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Hari Bhaskar (First Shift), Kristina Krasniqi (Celebrity Ghost Stories), and rapper Jacob Lukas Anderson, a.k.a. Prof.

DRACULA – Theatrical, February 6

Director Luc Besson’s “big-budget reimagining” of the Dracula concept was given a theatrical release in the summer of 2025, but won’t be reaching North American theatres until February. The story follows Dracula as he connects with a woman in Belle Epoque Paris, who resembles his beloved wife Elisabeta, who died in mid-15th century Transylvania. Per legend, it was Elisabeta’s suicide that led Romanian ruler Prince Vlad III (the real-life inspiration for Dracula) to forsake God and embrace life as a vampire. The action moves between time and the settings of Dracula’s castle in Romania’s Transylvanian Mountains and Belle Epoque Paris, which substitutes Stoker’s original UK settings of Whitby and London. The Paris-set scenes in the second part of the film unfold in the lead up to July 14, 1989, as the city gears up to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution. The title character is played by Caleb Landry Jones, who just worked with Besson on his previous film, Dogman.

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 3 – Theatrical, February 6

Director Renny Harlin shot an entire trilogy of Strangers movies at the same time, and while there was a point when it looked like Lionsgate might be releasing all three of the movies within 2024, that idea was clearly pushed aside. The Strangers: Chapter 1 (read our review HERE) reached theatres back in May of 2024, and The Strangers: Chapter 2 (read that review HERE) didn’t come along until September of 2025. Thankfully, the wait for The Strangers: Chapter 3 won’t be as long. Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) stars in this trilogy and is joined in the cast by the likes of Richard Brake (31), Froy Gutierrez (Cruel Summer), Rachel Shenton (All Creatures Great and Small), Gabriel Basso (Hillbilly Elegy), and Ema Horvath (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power). The Strangers: Chapter 1 centered on Petsch’s character as she drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers. Lionsgate plans from there to expand the story in new and unexpected ways with its sequels. Here’s the synopsis for Chapter 3: This final chapter delves into newer and darker territory, the franchise’s darkest descent yet — a ruthless thriller with scares that deliver. The Strangers: Chapter 3 closes the trilogy with a full-circle reckoning that expands the mythology of the iconic masked killers. Madelaine Petsch returns as Maya for the Final Girl’s long-awaited vengeance, delivering a final chapter that fans won’t want to miss. Tethered by a frightening conclusion, Maya and the Strangers are locked on an unavoidable, unforgiving collision course — a showdown that proves they’re far from strangers now.

WHISTLE – Theatrical, February 6

Dafne Keen of Logan and His Dark Materials and Sophie Nélisse of Yellowjackets and The Book Thief star in Whistle, the latest horror film from The Hallow and The Nun director Corin Hardy. Scripted by Owen Egerton from his own short story, Whistle has the following synopsis: A misfit group of unwitting high school students stumble upon a cursed object, an ancient Aztec Death Whistle. They discover that blowing the whistle and the terrifying sound it emits will summon their future deaths to hunt them down. As the body count rises, the friends investigate the origins of the deadly artifact in a desperate effort to stop the horrifying chain of events that they have set in motion. Keen and Nélisse are joined in the cast by Sky Yang (Rebel Moon), Percy Hynes White (Wednesday), and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead). 

PSYCHO KILLER – Theatrical, February 20

Psycho Killer is based on a screenplay written by Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker. Gavin Polone, producer of Zombieland and the Walker-scripted 8MM, is at the helm of the film, with Georgina Campbell (Barbarian) and Logan Miller (Escape Room) in lead roles and 6’5″+ former professional wrestler James Preston Rogers in the title role. Campbell is taking on the role of Jane Thorne, a police officer who makes it her mission to take down a serial killer referred to on the news as the ‘Satanic Slasher,’ following the murder of her state trooper husband. We had previously heard that Miller’s character is Marvin, a goth-type nebbish who works for the mysterious Pendleton in his massive mansion. Pendleton is so mysterious, Deadline didn’t even explain who they were referencing when they dropped that description. Months later, in their release date report, they credited Miller with playing the ill-fated state trooper husband… so this movie is so shrouded in mystery, even Deadline is confused.

THIS IS NOT A TEST – Theatrical, February 20

Director Adam MacDonald (Backcountry, Pyewacket, Out Come the Wolves) teams with Totally Killer and Heart Eyes star Olivia Holt for an apocalyptic horror thriller that’s based on a YA novel by bestselling author Courtney Summers and described as “The Breakfast Club meets 28 Weeks Later.” The film follows Sloane and a small group of her classmates who take cover in their high school to escape their suddenly apocalyptic hometown. As danger relentlessly pounds on the doors, Sloane begins to see the world through the eyes of people who actually want to live and takes matters into her own hands. Holt is joined in the cast by Froy Gutierrez (The Strangers: Chapter 1), Luke MacFarlane (Bros), Corteon Moore (Overcompensating), Chloe Avakian (John Wayne Gacy), and Carson MacCormac (Clown in a Cornfield).

SCREAM 7 – Theatrical, February 27

After a behind-the-scenes shake-up that saw the exit of Scream (2022) and Scream VI stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega from the franchise (along with the director who was originally signed to direct Scream 7, Christopher Landon), this slasher sequel has been reworked to focus on original heroine Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell. Original Scream writer Kevin Williamson directed the film, working from a screenplay by returning writer Guy Busick, who crafted the story with his co-writer on the fifth and sixth films, James Vanderbilt. Campbell is joined in the cast by Isabel May (1883), Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Grace’s Ghostbusters co-star Celeste O’Connor, Asa Germann (Gen V), Sam Rechner (The Fabelmans), Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), Mark Consuelos (Riverdale), fellow franchise star Courteney Cox, Joel McHale (Community), and Ethan Embray (The Devil’s Candy). Although two of the “core four” characters established in the previous two movies are no longer around, Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are back… and so are Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley, who played Ghostface killers in the original Scream and Scream 3, respectively, and did not appear to make it out of those movies alive. David Arquette is also back as the dearly departed Dewey, who exited the world of the living in the fifth movie. It hasn’t been revealed how these dead characters are making a comeback.

THE BRIDE! – Theatrical, March 6

Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Bride! is a new take on the concept of the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein. Starring Peter Sarsgaard (Garden State), Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky), Annette Bening (American Beauty), Julianne Hough (Rock of Ages), John Magaro (September 5), Jeannie Berlin (The Heartbreak Kid), and Gyllenhaal’s brother Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), with Jessie Buckley (Men) as The Bride and Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) as Frankenstein’s Monster, The Bride! has the following synopsis: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement. Bening plays Dr. Euphronius. Sarsgaard has denied the rumors that the movie is a musical, but also admitted that there are some dance routines.

TOUCH ME – Theatrical, March 20

Written and directed by Addison Heimann, Touch Me is described as being “a wacky, wild, sensual homage to Japanese exploitation films.” Starring Olivia Taylor Dudley (The Magicians), Lou Taylor Pucci (Evil Dead), Jordan Gavaris (Orphan Black), Marlene Forte (A Haunted House), and Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds), it tells the story of two cringe millennials, Joey and Craig, who do everything in their power to do absolutely nothing. Of course they have capital T childhood trauma, but so does everyone, so like, judge them however you like. Seriously, JUDGE THEM. One regular day, Joey’s super hot alien ex, Brian, comes back into town begging for her to forgive him and come back to his desert mansion for the weekend. With nothing better to do (and also a pretty unfortunate sewer explosion in Craig’s house), the two trepidatiously accept. Also the fact that Brian’s slimy sexual tentacle appendage removes anxiety and depression maybe helps solidify their decision. But at the house, under Brian’s veneer of healing is a sinister plot filled with murder, mayhem, and blood. Then again, maybe they can all get along in the most glorious throuple you’ve ever seen. A press release lets us know that this is “a psychosexual horror-comedy with 100% old-school practical effects, about the nature of co-dependent friendships and how far we are willing to go for a slice of happiness.”

THEY WILL KILL YOU – Theatrical, March 27

Director Andy Muschietti and his producer / sister Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking team behind Mama and the $1 billion grossing adaptations of Stephen King’s It, recently teamed up with Skydance to form a new horror label called Nocturna, and the first project to come out of the Nocturna partnership is the “blood-soaked, high-octane horror-action-comedy” They Will Kill You. Zazie Beetz, whose credits include Joker, Bullet Train, and Deadpool 2, stars as a woman who answers a help wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious high-rise in New York City, not realizing she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years and may be under the grip of a Satanic cult. Beetz is joined in the cast by Patricia Arquette (True Romance), Tom Felton of the Harry Potter franchise, Heather Graham of Boogie Nights and Suitable Flesh, and Myha’la of Industry and Bodies Bodies Bodies. Arquette’s character is one of the leads, the head of the co-op. Felton is a member of the cult. Kirill Sokolov – who is said to be known for his dark sense of humor – directed the film from a screenplay he wrote with Alex Litvak.

READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME – Theatrical, March 27

Six years ago, genre regular Samara Weaving starred in a very cool horror comedy called Ready or Not, which was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who went on to make the two most recent Scream sequels and the “Dracula’s daughter” movie Abigail. Now, the team has come back together for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, where Weaving is joined in the cast by Kathryn Newton (who worked with the directors on Abigail), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings), Shawn Hatosy (The Faculty), Néstor Carbonell (Lost), Kevin Durand (also from Abigail), Kara Wooten (Revival), Juan Pablo Romero (Please, After You), Varun Saranga (Wynonna Earp), Masa Lizdek (Simulant), Nadeem Umar-Khitab (Wedding Season), Daniel Beirne (Ginny & Georgia), Antony Hall (Run the Burbs), Olivia Cheng (Warrior), and legendary filmmaker David Cronenberg. Moments after surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace (Samara Weaving) discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game — and this time with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) at her side. Grace has one chance to survive, keep her sister alive, and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins rules it all.

THE YETI – Theatrical and Digital, April 10

From the writing and directing duo of Gene Gallerano and William Pisciotta comes The Yeti, which tells the following story: Merriell Sunday Sr. and Hollis Bannister vanished in Alaska. Ellie and Merriell Jr. mount a search, but an ancient threat stalks their expedition into the wilderness, hunting them as they seek the truth behind the disappearances. Brittany Allen (Dexter: Original Sin), Eric Nelsen (1883), Jim Cummings (The Last Stop in Yuma County), Christina Bennett Lind (The Lonely Man with the Ghost Machine), and Linc Hand (42) star with William Sadler (Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight) and Corbin Bernsen (Major League).

THE MUMMY – Theatrical, April 17

Don’t let the title fool you: this movie is coming our way from New Line Cinema, so it’s a “new take on the horror trope revolving around the ancient mummified undead” that has nothing to do with the classic Universal horror property (in fact – don’t be surprised if it gets renamed). Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin teamed with Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions for this one, which Cronin said “will be unlike any Mummy movie you ever laid eyeballs on before. I’m digging deep into the earth to raise something very ancient and very frightening.” Jack Reynor (Midsommar), Laia Costa (Victoria), May Calamawy (Moon Knight), Veronica Falcón (Queen of the South), Hayat Kamille (Vikings: Valhalla), and May Elghety (Clash) star. Details on their characters have not been revealed. We do know that Reynor will not be playing the mummy in this film.

HOKUM – Theatrical, May 1

Adam Scott (Severance) stars in writer/director Damian McCarthy’s Irish supernatural horror film Hokum, which tells the story of a horror novelist who visits a remote Irish inn to spread his parents’ ashes, unaware the place is rumored to be haunted by a witch. Here’s the synopsis: When reclusive novelist Ohm Bauman (Scott) retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, the staff’s tales of an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite take hold of his mind. Soon, disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance draw him into a nightmarish confrontation with the darkest corners of his past. Scott is joined in the cast by Peter Coonan (Bad Sisters) and David Wilmot (Bodkin).

DEEP WATER – Theatrical, May 1

Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss has launched a new production company with Gary Hamilton (so the company is appropriately called Simmons/Hamilton Productions), and the first project they gave the greenlight to was a shark thriller called Deep Water – with Deep Blue Sea director Renny Harlin at the helm! Scripted by Pete Bridges and Shayne Armstrong & SP Krause, Deep Water centers on an eclectic group of international passengers whose plane, en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai, is forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. The terrified group is forced to work together and overcome their differences if they hope to escape their sinking plane and the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage. The film stars Aaron Eckhart of Harlin’s The Bricklayer, Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), Molly Wright (Netflix’s True Spirit), Angus Sampson (Mad Max: Fury Road), Kelly Gale (Plane), singer and actor Li Wenhan, who is a member of the Chinese-Korean K-Pop group UNIQ, and Nashi (Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms).

OBSESSION – Theatrical, May 15

In 2024, Curry Barker wrote, directed, and starred in the found footage horror movie Milk & Serial, which is said to have had a budget of $800. Baker then released the movie through YouTube, where the free-to-watch video has racked up more than 2 million views. Even though he already sent Milk & Serial out into the world, it’s his new horror movie, Obsession, that’s being billed as his feature directorial debut. Starring Michael Johnston (Teen Wolf) and Inde Navarrette (Superman & Lois), Obsession is a story about a hopeless romantic who makes a wish that his long-time crush falls in love with him. A sinister enchantment ensues. Here’s the official synopsis: After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price. Cooper Tomlinson (Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (Killer Rental), and Andy Richter (Conan) are also in the cast.

SCARY MOVIE 6 – Theatrical, June 12

After a thirteen year break, the Scary Movie horror parody franchise is back – and it’s being revived with the help of the people who got it started in the first place: the Wayans Brothers! The Wayans Brothers have written the screenplay with Rick Alvarez, with director Michael Tiddes bringing the wackiness to the screen. Franchise stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall returning after sitting out Scary Movie 5 and are joined in the cast by Damon Wayans Jr. (Let’s Be Cops), Kim Wayans (Dance Flick), Heidi Gardner (Hustle), Cheri Oteri (Liar Liar), Chris Elliott (Cabin Boy), Lochlyn Monroe (Freddy vs. Jason), Dave Sheridan (The Devil’s Rejects), Jon Abrahams (House of Wax), Olivia Rose Keegan (Minx), Savannah Lee Nassif (Dance Rivals), Cameron Scott Roberts (Departing Seniors), Sydney Park (There’s Someone Inside Your House), Gregg Wayans (Fifty Shades of Black), Ruby Snowber (Yellowstone), newcomer Benny Zielke, Shawn Wayans (White Chicks), and Marlon Wayans (Him). It has been hinted that I Know What You Did Last Summer, the Scream franchise, Heretic, Longlegs, Get Out, Nope, and Sinners may be among the movies that get spoofed this time around.

EVIL DEAD BURN – Theatrical, July 24

In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. They have proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Sébastien Vaniček, who made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, to write and direct a new installment in the franchise. They gave the director complete creative control on the movie, which he says has “a French twist.” Francis Galluppi, who just made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, has already been hired to make the next Evil Dead movie after this one.

FLOWERVALE STREET – Theatrical, August 14

Pretty much everything about Flowervale Street is being kept under wraps. Last year, film journalist Jeff Sneider reported the rumor that Flowervale Street happens to be “a dinosaur movie set in the ’80s,” and The Hollywood Reporter’s sources have said it’s “a family adventure set in the 1980s that involves dinosaurs.” We know for sure that it has been directed by It Follows‘ David Robert Mitchell for Warner Bros. Pictures, Jackson Pictures, and J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot. The cast includes Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Maisy Stella (Nashville), and Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth). The movie was previously scheduled to reach theatres on May 16, 2025, then March 13, 2026. We’ll see if it sticks with August 14.

CLAYFACE – Theatrical, September 11

Back in 2021, filmmaker Mike Flanagan let it be known on social media that he was interested in making a “standalone horror/thriller/tragedy” movie that would center on the DC Comics Clayface character. When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios and launched the DC Universe, he got his chance. Flanagan wrote the screenplay for Clayface, which has been brought to the screen by Speak No Evil director James Watkins. Deadline reminds us, “Clayface is shape-shifting villain in the Batman comics and got his introduction as part of Detective Comics #40. The original Clayface was a moderately successful actor who adopted the identity of a character he’d portrayed in a horror pic after turning to crime. Clayface has a body seemingly made out of clay and has appeared over the years in various films, series, animated works, video games and other forms of media.”Tom Rhys Harries (Kandahar) plays the title character and is joined in the cast by Naomi Ackie (I Want to Dance With Somebody)  and Max Minghella (Spiral: From the Book of Saw).

RESIDENT EVIL – Theatrical, September 18

Zach Cregger, writer/director of Barbarian and the recently released film Weapons, is directing the new Resident Evil movie for Sony and also wrote the screenplay with Shay Hatten (Army of the Dead) and the story apparently harkens back to the original Capcom game’s horror roots. Here’s the supposed logline: Bryan, a laid-back organ courier, is sent on a late-night delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. En route through a snowy mountain road, he accidentally hits a strange woman with his car. She survives—but something is very wrong. As he tries to help, Bryan stumbles into a full-blown outbreak involving horrifying tentacle-based mutations and bio-engineered monstrosities. Weapons cast member Austin Abrams has the lead role and is joined in the cast by Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai), Zach Cherry (Severance), Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country), and Johnno Wilson (I Love That for You). Cherry is said to be playing a scientist at a hospital and Reis plays an ex-military character that was initially written for a male actor. Cregger took the approach of telling an original story with original characters that’s set within the world of the Resident Evil video game franchise because he feels that the stories of the video game characters are already being perfectly told in the games.

OTHER MOMMY – Theatrical, October 9

Rob Savage moves on from a Stephen King adaptation to a Josh Malerman adaptation, as The Boogeyman director is at the helm of this film adaptation of Bird Box author Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House, which is coming our way from Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. Jessica Chastain (It Chapter Two), Jay Duplass (Transparent), Dichen Lachman (Severance), Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark), and Arabella Olivia Clark (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere) star in Other Mommy, which centers on 8-year-old Bela (Clark), who lives in a home strained by her parents’ troubled marriage, only to see her life further upended by a sinister entity she calls “Other Mommy.” When this malevolent presence emerges from her closet, persistently asking “Can I go inside your heart?”, Bela refuses. But soon, Other Mommy’s manifestations become increasingly aggressive, threatening the safety of Bela’s family.

REMAIN – Theatrical, October 23

The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan and The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks have teamed up for the supernatural romantic thriller Remain. They created the original story together, with Shyamalan going off to write a screenplay based on the story while Sparks turned the idea into a novel. As was said at the time, “Both will be based on the same concept and set of characters but designed for their individual mediums.” The Sparks novel is already on store shelves and is available for purchase at THIS LINK, sporting the following description: A one-of-a-kind novel that grapples with the supernatural mysteries of life, death, and human connection—an unprecedented collaboration between the globally bestselling author of love stories like The Notebook and the renowned writer and director of blockbuster thrillers like The Sixth Sense. When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia’s deathbed revelation—that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family—sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world. Tate and Wren find themselves forging an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before. But Tate gradually discovers that below the surface of Wren’s idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy, and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out . . . a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves, and the laws that govern our existence. Love—while transformative—can sometimes be frightening. A story about the power of transcendent emotion, Remain asks us all: Can love set us free not only from our greatest sorrows, but even from the boundaries of life and death? Shyamalan’s film stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton), Julie Hagerty (Airplane), Jay O. Sanders (When You Finishing Saving the World) Tracy Ifeachor (The Pitt), Hannah James (Mercy Street), Caleb Ruminer (The Irrational), Kieran Mulcare (Jessica Jones), Maria Dizzia (My Old Ass), and Ashley Walters (Adolescence).

THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD – Theatrical, November

Forty years ago, writer/director Dan O’Bannon delivered one of the most highly entertaining zombie movies of all time with The Return of the Living Dead – and now, we’re getting a reboot from Muck and Kill Her Goats director Steve Wolsh. Information found on the Living Dead Media website reveals: Our reboot of Return of the Living Dead will expand the existing world created by the original 5 films, while staying true to the R-rated, sci-fi, horror, dark comedy roots adored by fans of the cult classic around the world for the last 35 years. ​We are excited to resurrect this storied franchise for current fans and new generations of zombie fans. Here’s the set up: Taking place 18 months after the events at the UNEEDA Warehouse in Louisville, KY, a new Trioxin 2-4-5 leak puts a small Pennsylvania town on the brink of a zombie outbreak during Christmas, 1985. If surviving a zombie outbreak isn’t hard enough, the characters and the Army will have to also contend with blizzard conditions. This Christmas, it’s Tarman who will be coming to town. Devon Sawa (Final Destination) plays a character named Isaac Horton in the film, with Casimere “Cash” Jollette (Tiny Pretty Things) as Delilah Horton and Kynlee Heiman (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever) as Sophia Horton. Alexander Ward, who has played “demons, monsters and villains” in the likes of Teen Wolf, Ghosted, Annabelle Comes Home, Westworld and American Horror Story, is this project’s version of Tarman.

EBENEZER: A CHRISTMAS CAROL – Theatrical, November 13

Sure, this movie is likely to be a heartwarming viewing experience fit for the whole family, but the Charles Dickens source material will also give director Ti West, whose filmography has primarily consisted of horror movies up to this point, the opportunity to tell “a thrilling ghost story.” Deadline reminds us, the classic Charles Dickens story has seen its fair share of retellings over the years with its tale of an elderly miser visited by the ghost of his former business partner and the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come. For his first major studio movie, West will be telling a thrilling ghost story set in Dickens’ London, following one man’s supernatural journey to face his past, present and future and fight for a second chance. Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands) plays Ebenezer Scrooge and is joined in the cast by Andrea Riseborough (Mandy), Ian McKellen of the X-Men and Lord of the Rings franchises, Tramell Tillman (Severance), Daisy Ridley (the Star Wars franchise), Rupert Grint (the Harry Potter franchise), Sam Claflin (Daisy Jones & The Six), Charlie Murphy (Halo), Arthur Conti (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), and Ellie Bamber (Willow).

WERWULF – Theatrical, December 25

The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, and Nosferatu writer/director Robert Eggers has dealt with some dark subject matter over the course of his career – but the darkest story is yet to come. Eggers has written the screenplay for Werwulf with Sjón, his co-writer on the Viking saga The Northman. Details are being kept under wraps, but The Hollywood Reporter’s sources told them “the story is set in 13th century England. The script also features dialogue that was true to the time period and has translations and annotations for those uninitiated to Old English. Initially, Eggers was planning on shooting the feature in black and white, but that is no longer the case. Suffice to say that considering the setting and the dialect, Eggers is promising another deep dive into a muddy, costumed, and violent time period consistent with his oeuvre which has earned him a loyal film following.“ Screen Daily adds that the story centers on a mysterious creature who stalks a foggy countryside as local folklore becomes a terrifying reality for the villagers. During a recent Q&A event, Eggers told the audience that his “medieval werewolf movie” is, “the darkest thing I’ve ever written, by far.” The film is also a Nosferatu reunion for Eggers and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, and Willem Dafoe.

THE BACKROOMS – Release TBD

Some of today’s biggest genre companies – A24, James Wan‘s Atomic Monster, the Stranger Things makers at 21 Laps, and Planet of the Apes producers Chernin Entertainment – are joining forces for The Backrooms, which marks the feature directorial debut of teenage director and VFX artist Kane Parsons. The film is based on a series of viral videos Parsons released through his YouTube channel Kane Pixels. If you were to splice those videos together they would reach feature length, but the feature version of The Backrooms is going to be something entirely new. The screenplay for the feature has been written by Roberto Patino (DMZ). Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) and Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) star alongside Mark Duplass (Creep), Finn Bennett (True Detective), Lukita Maxwell (Shrinking), and Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap) 

FORBIDDEN FRUITS – Release TBD

Oscar-winning Juno writer Diablo Cody, who has also written the genre films Jennifer’s Body and Lisa Frankenstein, is producing Forbidden Fruits, which marks the feature directorial debut of Meredith Alloway and is an adaptation of the Lily Houghton stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die. Lili Reinhart (Hustlers), Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Victoria Pedretti (You), Alexandra Shipp (Barbie) and newcomer Emma Chamberlain star in the film, which has the following synopsis: Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.

ICE CREAM MAN – Release TDB

Director Eli Roth had been planning to make a sequel to his slasher movie Thanksgiving in 2025, but when he wasn’t able to get that one into production, he just pivoted over to another horror movie,Ice Cream Man. The film follows an idyllic summer town descending into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results. Plot details are being kept under wraps. Roth directed the film from a screenplay he wrote with Noah Belson, based on “an original idea he has had for over twenty years, but studios were too nervous to finance.” Roth’s company The Horror Section fully financed the film with Media Capital Technologies.

SOULM8TE – Release TBD

Universal had been given this film, a Blumhouse/Atomic Monster production that’s set in the universe of the M3GAN films, a theatrical release on January 2 – but a month before that date, they dropped it from their release schedule and the producers started shopping it around to other distributors. It’s not clear why Universal lost faith in SOULM8TE, although the box office disappointment of M3GAN 2.0 might be to blame. Described as “Fatal Attraction with robots,” the movie will show us what happens when a man acquires an Artificially Intelligent android to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate. This “1990s erotic thriller with a new technological twist” stars Evil Dead Rise actress Lily Sullivan, Claudia Doumit (The Boys), and David Rysdahl (Booger.) Rysdahl is playing the man, while Sullivan plays the android. Details on the role Doumit will be playing have not been revealed. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray saw an early preview of the film at CinemaCon last April and reported, “Seems similar to Companion. Centers on a sexbot that becomes so obsessed with her “owner” that she kills anyone close to him and goes on a murder spree. Looks more violent (and kinkier) than M3GAN but has the same humor. When a woman she’s about to kill says ‘Women aren’t supposed to be pitted against each other,’ she answers, ‘Don’t start that girl power shit with me.’“

TRASH’S REVENGE – Release TBD

Trash was the character played by scream queen Linnea Quigley in The Return of the Living Dead – and yes, Quigley is also back for Trash’s Revenge. Her Return co-stars Beverly Randolph, Thom Mathews, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., John Philbin, and Drew Deighan are also in the cast. Plus, the late James Karen and Don Calfa are going to be resurrected through the use of CGI! Eric Roberts and Michelle Bauer are in the cast as well, along with Andrew Pierson, playing a Elon Musk type character named Nathan Virel; news anchorman Danny Langston; and zombies Kevin Plantz, Dave Knee, and Sean Wolfe. Quigley is producing Trash’s Revenge, with Randolph serving as an associate producer and Night of the Living Dead co-creator John A. Russo co-producing. Richard Driscoll is the writer/director. Here’s what it’s all about: As the saga continues decades after the horrific events of the 1985 cult classic, Trash the notorious punk rocker, played by Linnea Quigley, finds herself trapped in a past where fame has faded. Once a rebellious icon, Trash now embraces the persona of a grotesque Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, attending conventions to sign autographs while her co-stars rise to greater heights. For Linnea, her legacy as a star of Return of the Living Dead becomes both a curse and a twisted ticket to notoriety in an industry obsessed with horror and scandal. But when a young filmmaker approaches her to make a documentary with staged re-enactments from the original film to celebrate the film’s 40th Anniversary, Linnea sees an opportunity to reclaim her place in the spotlight no matter the cost. As the documentary delves into her past, a shocking truth emerges: Return of the Living Dead wasn’t just fiction, part of it was real. Linnea confesses that she still possesses three original cannisters from the film, hidden away in her basement. Cannisters that were never revealed to the public… until now. Here’s a shorter description: A punk rocker rises from the dead, hungry for fame and flesh. She heads to Hollywood, manipulating a filmmaker to document her gruesome “comeback.” Her notoriety and body count grows, leading to a bloody showdown that will decide her fate.

THE YOUNG PEOPLE – Release TBD

Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty) and Nico Parker (How to Train Your Dragon) star in The Young People, the latest horror film from Longlegs and Keeper director Osgood Perkins. Also in the cast are Tatiana Maslany (The Monkey), Heather Graham (Suitable Flesh), Johnny Knoxville (Jackass), Lexi Minetree (The Paramedic Who Stalked Me), Lily Collias (Good One), Brendan Hines (Lie to Me), Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife), and Best Actress Oscar winner (for The Hours) Nicole Kidman. Details on the role Kidman will be playing have not been revealed. In fact, we don’t know who anyone’s playing. This project is being kept tightly under wraps. Perkins is directing The Young People from his own script. When filming began, an image of the script was shared online, and a glimpse of the top line of page 76 indicates that Perkins is entering Lovecraftian territory with this film, because there’s a reference to “The Old Ones.”

The post 2026 Horror Preview: Will It Live Up to 2025? appeared first on JoBlo.

Imagine being a real-life gangster, minding your own criminal business, when a Hollywood actor starts calling you seven times a day… asking how you shake a ketchup bottle.

What seems pointless, bizarre, and downright silly to us was all part of the artistic process for Robert De Niro. This is a man who once terrified audiences without moving his face. Today, many people look at his later career choices and wonder how one of the most disciplined, obsessive, method-driven actors of his generation ended up here.

So… what happened to Robert De Niro?

Early Years: Learning How to Disappear

Born in 1943 in New York City, De Niro didn’t arrive as a legend. He clawed his way there through obscure early roles in films like The Wedding Party, Sam’s Song, and Three Rooms in Manhattan. He cut his teeth in counterculture cinema with Brian De Palma on Greetings and Hi, Mom!, then slid into Roger Corman exploitation territory with Bloody Mama and Born to Win.

These weren’t star-making performances. They were training exercises. Dark, uncomfortable, arthouse films where actors weren’t polished — they were exposed. This is where De Niro learned how to disappear.

The Scorsese Effect

Everything changed when De Niro collided with Martin Scorsese on Mean Streets. The result wasn’t just a career boost — it was a new acting language.

In Mean Streets, De Niro didn’t perform chaos. He embodied it. He wasn’t acting — he was combusting. That combustion became a career-defining inferno.

In The Godfather Part II, he didn’t imitate Marlon Brando. He absorbed him — dialects, rhythms, gestures — winning an Oscar without ever appearing to ask for one.

Total Immersion

By the time Taxi Driver hit theaters, De Niro wasn’t preparing — he was transforming his entire existence.

He drove a real cab for months, worked 15-hour shifts through New York nights, studied mental illness, read criminal diaries, learned firearms, lost thirty-five pounds, and stayed in character constantly. Travis Bickle wasn’t a role — he was a pressure cooker.

The mirror monologue was improvised. The result wasn’t just a great performance — it was a cultural wound that never healed.

Physical Extremes and Artistic Risk

After The Last Tycoon and 1900, De Niro delivered The Deer Hunter, a grim and controversial film where trauma replaced heroism. The shoot was punishing, exhausting, and physically dangerous. Urban legends of real slaps, real punches, and live rounds circulated through Hollywood.

Then came Raging Bull. De Niro trained as a boxer, fought real matches, gained sixty pounds, and destroyed his body to show the cost of rage and ego. It wasn’t just acting — it was self-harm elevated to art. Another Oscar followed.

At this point, De Niro was no longer a movie star. He was the benchmark.

Risk Over Comfort

Instead of coasting, De Niro took risks.

The King of Comedy presented a stalker disguised as a dreamer. It bombed on release but proved eerily prophetic. Once Upon a Time in America was butchered by studios before being reclaimed as a masterpiece. Even failures like New York, New York showed an actor still pushing, still experimenting.

Even when the movies faltered, De Niro didn’t.

Crime, Comedy, and Control

De Niro proved his range repeatedly — terrifying in Goodfellas, monstrous in Cape Fear, restrained in Heat, tragic in Casino, soulful in Awakenings, and electric in Ronin.

Comedy worked when handled carefully. Midnight Run succeeded because the joke wasn’t that De Niro was silly — it was that a rigid, dangerous man had been dropped into an absurd situation. Comedy required restraint. Without it, the balance tipped.

The Shift

Analyze This worked. Meet the Parents worked even better.

Suddenly, De Niro wasn’t subverting his image — he was becoming the punchline. Studios leaned in hard. What followed was an uneven stretch of projects: louder comedies, thinner dramas, and roles that felt more transactional than inspired.

This wasn’t failure. It was dilution.

Did He Lose It?

No.

When a filmmaker takes control — real control — the danger comes roaring back.

Joker used De Niro as a cold mirror of celebrity cruelty. The Irishman turned aging itself into performance. Killers of the Flower Moon revealed a quiet, polite villain whose evil was all the more horrifying because it was disguised as civility.

The craft never left.

The Real Answer

Robert De Niro doesn’t need reinvention.

He needs resistance.

When challenged, he becomes lethal again. When unchecked, he drifts into parody. That’s always been the truth of his career.

You can’t expect a man who once destroyed his body for art to do that forever. But when he locks in — even now — the pause, the stare, and the calculation are still there.

Final Verdict

Robert De Niro didn’t fall.

He drifted.

And when the right filmmaker grabs him by the collar, he still becomes what he’s always been:

A quiet storm.
A thinking weapon.
An actor who can terrify you with just a smirk.

The post What Happened to Robert De Niro? appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

It’s the end of the year, and while it’s a great time to look back at all the year’s best movies, it’s also time to look back at some of the ones that… well… weren’t so good. Now, “Worst of the Year” lists are sometimes unpopular, as they’re considered mean, but anything that came out in theaters that people were expected to spend money on is fair game. All of the movies on this list are legitimately bad—although if anyone checking out this list really loves (or even likes) any of the movies on it, we’d love to hear from you in the comments. Movies are subjective: I could like a movie, you could hate it (and vice versa), and we’d both be right.

So, without further ado, here are the worst movies of 2025.

10. Ella McKay:

James L. Brooks’ first movie since his disastrous How Do You Know turned out to be an even bigger misfire, which is a shame, as it’s likely the last movie we’ll ever see from the formerly great writer/director behind Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, and As Good as It Gets. It was meant to launch Emma Mackey as a star, but she’s saddled with a terrible role as perhaps the most unconvincing screen politician in movie history. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ayo Edebiri, Woody Harrelson, and especially Leo Woodall (who, at one point, has to convincingly play a sixteen-year-old) all come across pretty poorly in a movie I’m shocked Disney/20th Century Studios ever greenlit in the first place.

9. Snow White:

While I’ve seen worse movies this year, Snow White kind of sums up exactly what’s wrong with a lot of modern Disney fare, in that there’s no reason for it to exist. The movie was sunk with audiences before it ever hit theaters thanks to the misguided comments of star Rachel Zegler, who threw the original classic—without which modern Disney wouldn’t exist—under the bus. Instead, the movie was given an “empowering” new spin which, truth be told, was done way better not too long ago with Snow White and the Huntsman. It also feels like a movie that was reshot to death (Disney’s other winter misfire, Captain America: Brave New World, suffered the same fate) in order to please the widest audience possible—but in the end, it pleased no one. A lot of folks involved with this one seemed to take a major career hit, not only Zegler but also co-star Gal Gadot, whose performance as the Evil Queen was so abysmal that clips from it have gone viral for all the wrong reasons.

8. Wolf Man:

More than any other movie on this list, Wolf Man should have been good. After all, it was directed by Leigh Whannell, who made the amazing Upgrade and the solid remake of The Invisible Man, which was a huge hit for Blumhouse. The biggest problem with Wolf Man is that it’s not a Wolf Man movie. Nothing of the classic formula remains, with it reimagined as a body-horror movie that more or less rips off The Fly and adds nothing new to the genre. Of all the classic Universal Monsters, the Wolf Man always held the most promise as an antihero, and Whannell’s movie just wastes the opportunity by delivering a boring, thrill-less, wannabe horror movie. It’s a huge waste of stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, the latter of whom has the distinction of appearing in both one of the best horror movies of the year (Weapons) and one of the very worst.

7. Star Trek: Section 31:

Paramount has done a pretty good job harming its Star Trek franchise this year by throwing way too much content out there—whether it justified it or not. The worst of the lot was Star Trek: Section 31, the first Star Trek movie in nine years, but one that was so bad Trekkies everywhere wished it had never been made. It’s a cringe effort that tries to spin off Michelle Yeoh’s antihero from Star Trek: Discovery into her own franchise, which mercifully died once this came out and fans all over slammed it. The trailers certainly didn’t help matters, with someone calling Yeoh a “bad bitch” (admiringly) while a Beyoncé song played in the background. Yep. That’s Star Trek, all right.

6. Holland:

One of the more disappointing film experiences I had this year was with a movie I bet the majority of you have never heard of—Prime Video’s Holland, starring Nicole Kidman, which was buried on streaming after its disastrous SXSW premiere, which I attended. Kidman plays a housewife who becomes suspicious that her husband (Matthew Macfadyen) is cheating on her, only to fall into a ludicrously dark plot that—rather than entertaining anyone—seemed to come out of nowhere. It was a pretty rough follow-up for director Mimi Cave to her excellent horror comedy Fresh. She aims for a Coen Bros. tone filtered through a feminist lens, and… well… it doesn’t quite come off. Hopefully she rebounds with her next movie, as Fresh proved she has a lot of talent. I doubt all of the blame can be laid at her feet.

5. Death of a Unicorn:

This was another huge misfire I caught at SXSW, and part of a rough series of movies put out by A24 during the first half of the year that had many people wondering whether they’d lost their mojo. Luckily, they redeemed themselves with Bring Her Back, Marty Supreme, and a few others. Death of a Unicorn has a cool cast, including Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega, and a fun premise, but it’s an utterly idiotic attempt at satire, aiming to skewer families like the Sacklers in the most inane, toothless way possible. This was painful to watch.

4. The Electric State:

The Russo Bros. had an embarrassing disaster with this Chris Pratt- and Millie Bobby Brown-led epic that cost a reported $320 million and was seemingly skipped by most Netflix viewers, resulting in one of the streamer’s biggest flops ever. It took a great book by Simon Stålenhag and reimagined it into the most soulless, vapid excuse for a tentpole movie in a year full of them. The only bright side is that—were this not such a disaster in the making (it was delayed a long time)—the Russo Bros. would likely never have returned to the Marvel fold.

3. Hurry Up Tomorrow:

This will no doubt go down as one of the most misguided vanity projects of all time, with The Weeknd starring as himself in this psychological thriller in which he’s taken captive by a crazed fan played by Jenna Ortega. How bad is this movie? Take a shot every time The Weeknd soulfully gazes into the camera and cries. You won’t make it through forty-five minutes, in which case you’ll miss the ending, where Ortega is seemingly cured of her homicidal impulses by the beauty of The Weeknd’s singing.

2. War of the Worlds:

Whose idea was this? Hey—let’s do a new version of War of the Worlds, set entirely online, with Ice Cube as the star. It was very quietly dumped onto streaming after having been shot five years ago, at the height of the pandemic. Yes, the fact that it’s a pandemic movie shot during lockdown partially explains why it feels so homemade and amateur-hour (complete with hilarious product placement), but it should have stayed on the shelf. As much as Amazon tried to bury it, the internet found it, with it becoming one of the most infamously bad films of all time.

1. I Know What You Did Last Summer:

And yet, I wouldn’t say War of the Worlds is a worse movie than the “requel” to I Know What You Did Last Summer. The thing is, unlike War of the Worlds, I Know What You Did Last Summer is a real movie—but it’s also a movie that feels like it was written and directed by people with no appreciation whatsoever for the franchise it’s trying to reignite. The idea to take one of the franchise’s heroes and turn him into the killer was absolutely inane, and horror fans rejected the film so strongly that it’s unlikely any other slasher franchise will ever dare to repeat its mistakes—which is good, as this utterly spat in the faces of all the horror fans who loved the first movie.

And there you have it—that’s my list. What were the worst movies of the year for you? Let us know in the comments!

The post The 10 Worst Movies of 2025 appeared first on JoBlo.

Horror franchises aren’t inherently bad. They can give you something almost yearly to look forward to, like when Saw was popping them out every October, or they can give you something to hold onto nostalgia-wise from your childhood, like the Friday the 13th movies. For studios, they’re cash cows that executives don’t want to let go of, always hoping one of them will pop off and hit that golden $100 million mark at the box office.

They’re also cheap to produce and come with a built-in fanbase that guarantees press, both negative and positive, and viewership fueled by genuine love, curiosity, or even hate-watching.

Some franchises ran their course and still left an indelible mark on the horror lexicon, even if they fell off toward the end. Romero’s Dead films or A Nightmare on Elm Street, whose regrettable remake seemingly put the nail in the coffin, are good examples.

Others, though…. some of these franchises just refuse to die, much like their stalker killers on screen. Unfortunately, the time has come to let them go. Like it or not, these franchises need to die. In many cases, they needed to die several movies ago. That doesn’t mean the movies that already exist should be forgotten. Far from it. Every film in these series either has enjoyable moments or stands as a solid argument for why some things are better left alone.

Let’s start with the most recent offender.

Predator: Let the Hunt End

Predator: Badlands was released in early November 2025, and while it slowly crept toward profitability, grossing $184 million on a $105 million budget, it also kind of lost the plot. Literally, yes, it still follows Predators, but it’s about as far from the original film as you can get.

The first Predator remains one of the greatest sci-fi action movies of all time. A macho group of military operators becomes the ultimate hunt for the galaxy’s ultimate predator. The story unfolds almost entirely in real time, with the characters piecing together what’s happening. Crucially, very little is explained, and that’s what made it work. The creature’s technology, language, motives, and culture were mostly left in the dark, and that was okay. There was no sequel baiting. It stood on its own and still does.

Sequels, of course, aren’t inherently bad. Predator 2 is divisive, but it’s a fun and logical progression. One action star is swapped for another. Danny Glover may not be Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he’s great. The jungle becomes the urban jungle, the action is still strong, and we get just enough expansion of the lore. The government knows about the Predator and wants to trap it. We see the ship, the trophies, and that iconic xenomorph skull tease. Another perfect stopping point.

And for a while, it actually stopped.

Aside from the Alien vs. Predator films, which honestly do a better job showing the Yautja culture than some later entries, there was no Predator until 2010’s Predators. This movie starts with a solid idea and slowly turns into a remake of the original. Adrian Brody bulks up and follows Arnold’s footsteps almost beat for beat. We get a hunting planet, Earth’s deadliest warriors, and expanded lore like Predator classes and hunting animals. It’s fun, but unnecessary.

Then came 2018’s The Predator. This is where the franchise falls into the trap nearly all of these series do: trying to recreate what made them successful. Shane Black returned to write and direct with Fred Dekker, turning the movie into a comedy with a deeply questionable take on autism and some unfortunate casting decisions. It still made money, which meant we weren’t done.

The Dan Trachtenberg era has been both a blessing and a curse. Prey stripped things back and became one of the best movies of the early 2020s. Killer of Killers delivered almost everything fans had been asking for in a standalone animated anthology. But the most recent entry is the clearest sign the franchise has overstayed its welcome. No humans to hunt, a Disneyfied tone, sidekicks, and an identity crisis that makes it feel more like a generic sci-fi universe movie than a Predator film. Of course, it’s setting up a sequel.

Great sci-fi. Bad Predator. Let the hunt end.

Scream: Meta Doesn’t Mean Infinite

Scream is another franchise I just don’t get anymore. Call it an old man shaking his fist at the sky, but hear me out.

The original Scream was revolutionary. It arrived during a weird time for horror, brought Wes Craven back into the spotlight, and perfected meta-horror. The opening kill with Drew Barrymore was shocking, gory, and instantly told audiences that no one was safe. It saved slashers. It was a massive success ($173 million on a $15 million budget) and critically respected, even by critics like Roger Ebert. It gave us Ghostface, a new horror icon powered by the costume and Roger L. Jackson’s voice.

Naturally, sequels followed. The original trilogy came out over four years, and honestly, that should’ve been it. Even with Scream 3 being a dud and featuring one of the worst haircuts this side of Halloween H20, it ended beautifully. Sidney Prescott, traumatized beyond belief, leaves her door open. Closure. Unfortunately, that open door also left a financial one open. Eleven years later, Scream 4 arrived.

Scream 4 is fun, and it works as a swan song for Craven, but it highlights the franchise’s biggest problem: it cannot let go of its main characters. Everyone comes back. Same town. Same trauma. Even Sidney’s cousin is a killer, purely out of jealousy. It’s a very small universe for a globally famous murder spree.

Then came Scream (2022), right in the middle of the legacy sequel boom. New characters played by Jack Quaid, Jenna Ortega, and Melissa Barrera were genuinely compelling. But they couldn’t exist independently. The heroine is revealed to be the daughter of one of the original killers. Again, everything loops back. Even killing off Dewey wasn’t enough. The sequel that followed repeats Scream 2’s revenge plot, and now, with behind-the-scenes chaos, we’re going all the way back. Neve Campbell returns. Courteney Cox returns. Kevin Williamson returns. The cycle continues.

We need slashers. We don’t need a 30-year-old franchise stuck in narrative quicksand.

Halloween: A Franchise With No Identity

The Halloween franchise has more entries than Predator or Scream, and that’s exactly the problem. It has no identity. It’s been called the “Choose Your Own Adventure” horror franchise, and that’s accurate. Look at the timelines:

• 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
• 1, 2, H20, Resurrection
• 1, 2018, Kills, Ends
• The Rob Zombie duology

So what is Michael Myers? Human? Superhuman? A cult symbol? The embodiment of evil? Depends on the movie.

John Carpenter never wanted a sequel. When one happened, it introduced the sibling twist, which is something even Carpenter later regretted. The boldest idea the franchise ever had was Halloween III: turning the series into an anthology centered on the holiday itself. Fans rejected it. Everything went downhill from there.

Nearly 50 years later, the franchise has become a buffet. Pick what you like. Ignore the rest. That’s not cohesion, that’s exhaustion.

Michael Myers can never truly die due to rights issues, meaning the cycle will always restart. But there’s nothing left to say. Evil should’ve died in 2022. Not just “tonight.”

The Exorcist: Prestige Can’t Save a Dead Franchise

Which brings us to The Exorcist. It’s older than Halloween, carries more prestige, and has fewer entries, but somehow refuses to stay buried. The original remains one of the scariest films ever made, and it also pulled in 10 Oscar nominations and nearly $450 million in box office gross.

Exorcist II is famously terrible. Exorcist III, however, is quietly one of the greatest horror sequels ever made. Written and directed by William Peter Blatty, it delivers a powerful exploration of faith and one of the greatest jump scares of all time. That’s where it should have ended.

Then came the early-2000s remake/prequel nonsense. Two versions of the same movie. Neither good. Neither necessary.

Then David Gordon Green happened. The success of Halloween (2018) somehow spawned an attempt at making an Exorcist trilogy, and it failed for all the same reasons: legacy characters, identity loss, and confusion over what kind of movie it wanted to be.

Now Mike Flanagan is attached to the franchise. I love Mike Flanagan. That’s the problem. If you need to bring in someone of his caliber, just let him do something original. Midnight Mass, Oculus, The Life of Chuck, that’s where he shines. When your franchise requires a creative nuclear weapon to stay relevant, it’s time to let it go.

Do you agree that these franchises need to die? Or do you think there’s still life left in them? What other horror series should finally go away? Let us know in the comments.

The post From Predator to Scream: Franchises That Have Overstayed Their Welcome appeared first on JoBlo.

As 2025 comes to a close, we here at JoBlo.com would like to take a moment to pay tribute to some of the people who sadly passed away this year. Our deepest respect goes out to everyone in the industry we have lost, and our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of those who died in 2025. These talented individuals will always be remembered for their impact on the world of film and television.

In Memory Of…

Jeff Baena

Jeff Baena died on January 3 at the age of 47. Baena got his start as a production assistant for Robert Zemeckis before becoming an assistant editor for David O. Russell. However, after a minor car accident injured one of Baena’s eyes, Russell encouraged him to start writing. “He was super-generous, creatively. He allowed me to advocate for any ideas that were in conflict with his ideas,” Baena said of Russell. “We were on the same wavelength, had the same style and interests…It allowed me to have the feeling that I deserved to be there, as opposed to just riding someone’s coattails.” The pair wrote I Heart Huckabees together, which put Baena on the map.

He made his directorial debut with Life After Beth, a zombie comedy starring his future wife, Aubrey Plaza. Baena went on to write and direct Joshy, The Little Hours, Horse Girl, and Spin Me Round. He also created Cinema Toast, an anthology series which told new stories with re-edited, re-scored, and re-dubbed performances from public domain movies.

David Lynch

True to his creative spirit, David Lynch was developing new projects right up until his death on January 9 at the age of 78. Those include a limited series titled Unrecorded Night and a possible return to Twin Peaks.

Lynch made his feature directorial debut with Eraserhead, a surrealist body horror that put him on the map. His next film was The Elephant Man, a historical biopic about the life of Joseph Merrick. It was an enormous critical and commercial success, landing eight Academy Award nominations, including nods for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and more.

From there, Lynch adapted Frank Herbert’s Dune, a project which he essentially disowned but is still well worth watching. “It was horrible, just horrible,” Lynch said of Dune. “It was like a nightmare what was being done to the film to make this two-hour-and-17-minute running time that was required. Things were truncated, and whispered voice-overs were added because everybody thought audiences wouldn’t understand what was going on.” He also directed Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, Mulholland Drive, and Inland Empire. He could always be counted upon to deliver a story that fired your imagination.

On television, Lynch permanently altered what the medium could be. With Twin Peaks, Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost blended soap opera, murder mystery, and cosmic horror into something wholly new, influencing decades of serialized storytelling and prestige TV. The 2017 revival, Twin Peaks: The Return, was less a nostalgia play than an audacious, 18-hour film that challenged viewers and defied expectations. Lynch also helmed Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a prequel movie which was released the year after the original series was cancelled.

Jeannot Szwarc

Jeannot Szwarc is best known for directing Jaws 2. Much like the first movie directed by Steven Spielberg, the sequel was a troubled production even before Szwarc signed on. John Hancock was the original director, but after weeks of filming, it became clear that it wasn’t working out, and executives demanded a change.

“I was brought in for this meeting,” Szwarc said in a 2019 interview. “I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t have a clue. So they gave me the script, I read it, and they asked, ‘What do you think?’ I told them that the dialogue was terrible, but the action was good.“

He continued, “I went back, and [Universal executive] Ned Tanen said, ‘Look Jeannot, if you do this, it will be under horrible conditions. You’ll only have one week to prepare, it’s a nightmare, so what do you want from me? Would you like a multiple picture deal?’ I said, ‘No, I only want a handshake that you owe me a favor.’ And he said, ‘Okay.’” That favour was Somewhere in Time, a romantic fantasy drama starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour

Szwarc also directed Extreme Close-Up, Bug, Enigma, Santa Claus: The Movie, and Supergirl. He also became quite a prolific television director, helming episodes of Night Gallery, The Twilight Zone, Ally McBeal, Smallville, Heroes, Bones, Supernatural, Grey’s Anatomy, Fringe, Private Practice, Castle, and much more. Szwarc died on January 15 at the age of 87

Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman was one of the greatest actors of his generation, but early on, success hardly seemed guaranteed. When he joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California at the beginning of his career, he — along with classmate Dustin Hoffman — was famously voted “the least likely to succeed.”

Hackman later told Vanity Fair that the constant rejection amounted to “more psychological warfare, because I wasn’t going to let those f***ers get me down. I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you’re really interested in acting there is a part of you that relishes the struggle. It’s a narcotic in the way that you are trained to do this work and nobody will let you do it, so you’re a little bit nuts. You lie to people, you cheat, you do whatever it takes to get an audition, get a job.“

Hackman more than proved his doubters wrong. He earned an Academy Award nomination for Bonnie and Clyde and went on to build one of the most formidable filmographies in Hollywood history, appearing in classics such as Downhill Racer, I Never Sang for My Father, The Poseidon Adventure, The Conversation, Young Frankenstein, Night Moves, A Bridge Too Far, Reds, Hoosiers, No Way Out, Mississippi Burning, The Firm, Wyatt Earp, The Quick and the Dead, Crimson Tide, Get Shorty, The Birdcage, Absolute Power, Enemy of the State, The Replacements, Heist, Behind Enemy Lines, The Royal Tenenbaums, Runaway Jury, and Welcome to Mooseport, which marked his final film role before retiring.

Among his most iconic performances was the volatile New York police detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection, a role that earned Hackman his first Academy Award. He reprised the character in French Connection II and later became equally unforgettable to a new generation as Lex Luthor in Superman, Superman II, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. He won his second Academy Award for his chilling turn as Sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven.

Gene Hackman died on February 18 at the age of 95.

Peter Jason

Peter Jason died on February 20 at the age of 80. A prolific character actor, Jason has nearly 300 acting credits on IMDb, so chances are you’ve seen him in more than a few projects.

He made his feature film debut in Rio Lobo, the final film from director Howard Hawks. From there, Jason appeared in movies such as The Driver, The Long Riders, Mommie Dearest, 48 Hrs, Streets of Fire, The Karate Kid, Dreamscape, Brewsters Millions, Red Heat, Alien Nation, The Hunt for Red October, Arachnophobia, Congo, Dante’s Peak, Seabiscuit, Kicking & Screaming, Hail, Caesar!, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and much more.

He also worked frequently with director John Carpenter, appearing in Prince of Darkness, They Live, Body Bags, In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A., and Ghosts of Mars.

To me, Jason is best known for playing Con Stapleton on HBO’s Deadwood. “That character was just so much fun,” Jason said. “I mean jeez, talking to breasts? What’s more fun than that? (Laughs) Anytime you can do a Western and not get on a horse, I’m there! Horses, unpredictable beasts that they are, I’ve had to ride a lot of them over the years, because I started off in Gunsmoke, Cimarron Strip, The Blue and the Grey, stuff like that and I can ride them, I just don’t like to. I was always hurting at the end of the week, so damn sore.” Like much of the cast, he also returned for Deadwood: The Movie in 2019.

Jason appeared on television as often as on the big screen, including shows like Gunsmoke, The Incredible Hulk, Starsky & Hutch, Remington Steele, Webster, The Golden Girls, Quantum Leap, Mike Hammer, Private Eye, Carnivàle, Arrested Development, Mad Men, Justified, and more.

Roberto Orci

Roberto Orci died on February 25 at the age of 51. Together with his writing partner Alex Kurtzman, Orci was involved in some of the biggest sci-fi/adventure movies and TV shows of the first two decades of the 2000s. After getting his start as a writer on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, Orci made his big-screen writing debut on Michael Bay’s The Island, which he co-wrote with Kurtzman. The pair went on to write The Legend of Zorro, Mission: Impossible III, Transformers, Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Cowboys & Aliens, People Like Us, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Orci was a big Star Trek fan and played a crucial role in reviving the franchise with the 2009 movie. The story which Orci and Kurtzman pitched to Paramount relied entirely on Leonard Nimoy agreeing to return as Spock, and Orci told Trek Movie in 2019 that they didn’t have a backup plan. “There was never a plan B for me. Maybe Paramount had a plan B, but for me and Alex, it has to be Nimoy or bust and that is why that meeting with him was so pivotal,” Orci said. “His role had to be essential, otherwise, he wouldn’t have done it. So, to have a plan B would have been disrespectful to him, and the franchise. I didn’t know how else to do an in-canon reboot/sequel original story. If you have a plan B, then your plan A wasn’t so great.“

Michelle Trachtenberg

Gone too soon, Michelle Trachtenberg passed away on February 26 at just 39 years old. She rose to prominence early in her career with her starring role in Harriet the Spy, the 1996 film adaptation of Louise Fitzhugh’s beloved novel, quickly establishing herself as a standout young performer.

Trachtenberg went on to build an impressively diverse résumé, appearing in films such as Inspector Gadget, EuroTrip, Black Christmas, 17 Again, and Cop Out, while also making memorable appearances on television series including All My Children, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Six Feet Under, House, Robot Chicken, Mercy, Weeds, Criminal Minds, NCIS: Los Angeles, Sleepy Hollow, and more.

She remains best known to many fans for her role as Dawn Summers, the younger sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Introduced in the show’s fifth season as if she had always been part of the series, Dawn proved to be a divisive character at first. Over time, however, audience sentiment shifted, a change Trachtenberg acknowledged with characteristic honesty. “Most of the haters don’t have the guts to say things in person,” she said. “I still get comments like, ‘Oh my God! I think Dawn is so annoying!’ I get it. It’s fine. It used to be a 60-40 ‘I hate Dawn.’ Then, it became 50-50. Now, I think it’s 60-40 being supportive of Dawn. Maybe even 70-30.“

Trachtenberg also left a lasting impression as the deliciously manipulative Georgina Sparks on Gossip Girl, a role she later reprised in several episodes of the sequel series. Playing a villain was something she openly relished. “It’s actually kind of easy because the words that they write are so fantastic. It’s kind of easy to be evil when you’re saying evil things,” she said. “It’s definitely a lot more fun than playing the good girl. I love the reaction you get. I never understood why some actors don’t want to play villains or evil characters.“

Clive Revill

Clive Revill died on March 11 at the age of 94. Sadly, one of his most well-known performances no longer exists in its original form. Revill was the original voice of Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back, but his work was replaced by Ian McDiarmid in the 2004 home-video release to better align the character with Return of the Jedi and the prequel trilogy.

Though the Emperor appears only briefly and speaks just a handful of lines, Revill made a lasting impression. “I got a call from the director, Irvin Kershner, who I’d worked with on ‘A Fine Madness,’” Revill said in 2015. “He needed a voice for the Emperor who would be only appearing as a holographic image. So I tried it several times and found it worked best with no emotion whatsoever.“

Beyond The Empire Strikes Back, Revill enjoyed a long and eclectic career, appearing in films such as Bunny Lake Is Missing, Kaleidoscope, The Assassination Bureau, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Avanti!, The Legend of Hell House, The Black Windmill, One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing, Zorro, The Gay Blade, Transformers: The Movie, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It, among many others.

On television, he guest-starred in series including Columbo, Murder, She Wrote, The Transformers, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Babylon 5. He also provided the voice of Alfred Pennyworth in the first three episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, before being replaced by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. due to scheduling conflicts.

While his version of Emperor Palpatine was ultimately replaced, Revill’s voice continues to live on in the Star Wars universe. He lent his talents to several video games, including Star Wars: X-Wing, Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Bruce Glover

Bruce Glover was best known for playing the sinister Mr. Wint in Diamonds Are Forever, who, alongside Mr. Kidd (Putter Smith), spent much of the film attempting to assassinate James Bond in increasingly bizarre fashion.

Glover’s career began in an unconventional way. While posing for students in an art class, Glover was approached by one of his fellow models and asked if he would don a gorilla suit to help with an act. As it turned out, the model was a stripper. “[She] needed a guy strong enough to wear a 100-pound ape suit and toss her around for 15 minutes,” he said. “I thought, ‘Well, that sounds like a very dignified thing to do,’ and I did it.”

Never one to half-commit to a role, Glover decided to research the part properly by studying real gorillas at the zoo. “I went down to the [Lincoln Park] zoo and studied Bushman, the famous gorilla, which the guy who owned the act told me to do,” Glover said. “Bushman gave me my first acting lesson. He said, ‘Think my thoughts and do my moves.’”

Over the course of his career, Glover appeared in films such as Chinatown, Hard Times, The Big Score, Popcorn, Warlock: The Armageddon, Night of the Scarecrow, and Ghost World. He also played Deputy Grady Coker opposite Joe Don Baker’s Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, later returning for Walking Tall Part 2 and Walking Tall: Final Chapter, with Bo Svenson taking over the lead role.

On television, Glover was a familiar face across decades, appearing in series including Bonanza, Mission: Impossible, The Mod Squad, Gunsmoke, The Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica, B.J. and the Bear, T.J. Hooker, The A-Team, and many more. Bruce Glover died on March 12 at the age of 92.

Richard Chamberlain

Richard Chamberlain died on March 29 at the age of 90. He achieved significant success early in his career, starring in Dr. Kildare, where his portrayal of the compassionate young intern quickly turned him into a television sensation. At the height of the show’s popularity, Chamberlain was reportedly receiving more than 12,000 fan letters a week. Yet behind the scenes, he lived with constant fear of being outed as a gay man.

“When you grow up in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s being gay, it not only ain’t easy, it’s just impossible,” Chamberlain said in 2014, adding that he was taught “that being gay was the worst thing you can possibly be. I assumed there was something terribly wrong with me. And even becoming famous and all that, it was still there.” Despite the overwhelming success of Dr. Kildare, he explained, “There was a terrible danger of being outed. I was a romantic lead, for God’s sake; that was my whole career, practically.” Chamberlain did not publicly come out until 2003, with the release of his autobiography, Shattered Love.

“Suddenly, all that fear, all that self-dislike … it was like an angel had put her hand on my head and said, ‘It’s over, all that negative stuff is over,’” he said. “Being gay is one of the least interesting facts you can know about a person.”

Later in his career, Chamberlain became known as the King of the Miniseries, thanks to starring roles in Centennial, The Thorn Birds, and Shōgun. His television work also included appearances on Touched by an Angel, The Drew Carey Show, Will & Grace, Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, Chuck, Brothers & Sisters, and Twin Peaks: The Return. He also made history as the first actor to portray Jason Bourne, leading the 1988 television adaptation of The Bourne Identity.

On the big screen, Chamberlain appeared in films such as Petulia, Julius Caesar, The Music Lovers, The Towering Inferno, The Swarm, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. He also memorably played Aramis in The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and The Return of the Musketeers, and starred as Allan Quatermain in King Solomon’s Mines and Lost City of Gold.

Val Kilmer

Val Kilmer’s career was far too brief, but he managed to pack an extraordinary amount into it. He soared through the skies at breathtaking speed, hunted man-eating lions, embodied a rock ’n’ roll icon, fought underwater, and even became the world’s greatest detective. Kilmer died on April 1 at the age of 65.

A certified movie star almost from the start, Kilmer broke out with the anarchic action comedy Top Secret! from Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker. He quickly followed that with an eclectic and impressive run that included Real Genius, Willow, The Doors, Tombstone, True Romance, Heat, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Saint, The Prince of Egypt, At First Sight, Red Planet, The Salton Sea, Wonderland, The Missing, Spartan, Alexander, Mindhunter, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Déjà Vu, Felon, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, MacGruber, Twixt, The Snowman, and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.

One of Kilmer’s most iconic roles came opposite Tom Cruise in Tony Scott’s Top Gun, where he played Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, Maverick’s cool, confident rival. Ironically, Kilmer was initially reluctant to take the part. “I told Tony at the meeting, ‘Frankly, I don’t like this.’ I loved what I’d seen of his work, but I just didn’t want to do that movie,” Kilmer recalled. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, your hair will look great.’ He thought that would make a difference. He was infectious that way.”

Kilmer later donned the cape and cowl as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever, stepping into the role after Michael Keaton’s departure. He agreed to the film without even reading the script, but an experience during production made him realize that playing Batman was ultimately a thankless task and that it didn’t much matter who was inside the suit. When billionaire Warren Buffett visited the set with his grandchildren, Kilmer stayed in costume to meet them, only to find the kids far more interested in the Batmobile and props. “That’s why it’s so easy to have five or six Batmans,” he said. “It’s not about Batman. There is no Batman.”

Lar Park Lincoln

Lar Park Lincoln died on April 22 at the age of 63. She was best known for playing Tina Shepard in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, portraying a young woman with telekinetic powers who goes toe-to-toe with Jason Voorhees and delivers an ass-kickin’ he wouldn’t soon forget.

Lincoln was already a fan of the Friday the 13th franchise before landing the role, and her excitement only grew when she realized that the project she had auditioned for—then operating under the working title Birthday Bash—was actually a Jason movie. “I was so excited,” she told Daily Dead in 2017. “And when my husband Michael read it… he read it and said, ‘Oh my God, this is Jason… you go get this.’ Because we used to watch it at drive-ins.” Her love for the character endured, and she later wrote a sequel script that would have seen an adult Tina return as a psychiatrist.

Beyond horror, Lincoln was also well known for her role as the scheming Linda Fairgate on Knots Landing. “I would guess Linda was popular because she was so rotten and so fun at the same time,” Lincoln said in a 2022 interview. “I studied a few people to become Linda, as she went from the brown hair to the blond meanie. I remember having lunch with [series creator] David Jacobs when he told me that they were changing my hair to blond and he said, ‘I’m doing this because you look so sweet and everyone will be shocked how you turn out.’“

Lincoln made numerous television appearances over the years, including episodes of Highway to Heaven, Freddy’s Nightmares, Murder, She Wrote, Space: Above and Beyond, Beverly Hills, 90210, and more. Her film credits included The Princess Academy and House II: The Second Story. She also returned to her most iconic role, reprising Tina Shepard in Rose Blood: A Friday the 13th Fan Film.

James Foley

James Foley died on May 5 at the age of 71. He made his feature directorial debut with Reckless, a romantic drama starring Aidan Quinn and Daryl Hannah. Foley quickly demonstrated an ability to move comfortably between styles and mediums, next collaborating with Madonna on several of her most iconic music videos, including Live to Tell, Papa Don’t Preach, and True Blue. He also directed the pop star in the 1987 screwball comedy Who’s That Girl.

Over the course of his film career, Foley helmed a wide range of projects, including At Close Range, After Dark, My Sweet, Two Bits, The Chamber, Fear, The Corruptor, Confidence, and Perfect Stranger. Late in his career, he took over the Fifty Shades franchise from Sam Taylor-Johnson, directing the final two entries, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed.

Foley also made a significant impact on television, directing episodes of Twin Peaks, Hannibal, Wayward Pines, and Billions. However, it was Netflix’s House of Cards where he left his biggest mark, ultimately directing a dozen episodes of the acclaimed series. In a 2017 interview with THR, Foley reflected on his career and his habit of moving freely between genres in both film and television.

“What I love is that it’s fluid. I’ve had a very fluid career of ups and downs and lefts and rights, and I always just responded to what I was interested in at the moment and I was very unconscious about genre,” Foley said. “So the thing I would say I least like is there is an understandable tendency to, of course, pigeonhole somebody or identify them as, ‘He does this kind of movie, so if we’re making that kind of movie, we should get him and he’ll make it like the other ones he’s made.’ That is of no interest to me, personally, to repeat myself. So I’ve always just followed my nose, for better or for worse, sometimes for worse.“

He continued, “What’s best and what’s worst [about the industry] are almost the same to me. Because what’s worst is you get pigeonholed, and what’s best is I haven’t been. It means that I’m still making movies, despite hopping all over the place, so there’s a great thing about Hollywood where it’s not so purely linear, in terms of a director having a success critically and commercially and continuing that in an unbroken stream, which is true of no one.“

Joe Don Baker

Joe Don Baker died on May 7 at the age of 89. One of his earliest and most impactful successes came with Walking Tall, in which Baker portrayed Buford Pusser, the real-life former professional wrestler turned lawman. The film struck a nerve with audiences in the early 1970s, tapping into the cultural frustration of the era. “In those days in the early ’70s, I think a lot of people wanted to take a stick to Nixon and all those Watergate guys,” Baker said. “[The story] touched a vigilante nerve in everybody who would like to do in the bad guys but don’t have the power and would get in trouble if [they] did. But Buford was able to pull it off.” Baker did not return for subsequent installments, but Walking Tall spawned two sequels, a TV movie, and a later remake starring Dwayne Johnson, which itself generated two sequels.

Over a long and prolific career, Baker appeared in a wide range of films, including Cool Hand Luke, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, Junior Bonner, Charley Varrick, The Outfit, Golden Needles, Framed, Mitchell — famously lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000 — Checkered Flag or Crash, The Natural, Final Justice (another MST3K favorite), Fletch, The Killing Time, Leonard Part 6, Cape Fear, Congo, Mars Attacks!, Joe Dirt, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Mud.

Baker was also one of the few actors to play multiple prominent roles within the James Bond franchise. He portrayed villainous arms dealer Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights, then returned in a very different capacity as CIA agent Jack Wade in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies.

On television, Baker appeared in series such as Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Lancer, Mission: Impossible, Edge of Darkness, The Cleaner, and more. He also stepped in for Carroll O’Connor for four episodes of In the Heat of the Night while O’Connor was recovering from coronary bypass surgery.

Robert Benton

Robert Benton died on May 11 at the age of 92. As a child, Benton was dyslexic and struggled in school at a time when the condition was poorly understood. “Nobody knew about dyslexia in those days,” Benton said. “If I read for about 10 minutes, I would get wired and couldn’t read any more. But I could draw, and that uses the other side of the brain. So I drew and I drew and I drew. I took my identity off of that. The other thing that happened was my father would come home from work and instead of saying, ‘Have you done your homework?’ … he would say, ‘Do you want to go to the movies?’ I learned narrative from movies, not books.”

Benton first made his mark as a screenwriter, penning Bonnie and Clyde, There Was a Crooked Man, and What’s Up, Doc? before stepping behind the camera for his feature directorial debut with Bad Company. He went on to direct an acclaimed and varied body of work, including The Late Show, Still of the Night, Places in the Heart, Nadine, Billy Bathgate, Nobody’s Fool, Twilight, The Human Stain, and Feast of Love.

He was also brought in to rewrite Mario Puzo’s Superman script alongside David and Leslie Newman. “The initial script that David and I did was based on the Puzo story,” Benton said in 2018. “It was Superman on the farm, and we also wrote some of the stuff where he first rescues Lois Lane. David wrote one of the movie’s best lines, when Lois is [literally swept off her feet for the first time by Superman] and says: ‘I know you’re holding me but who’s holding you?’ That was David Newman’s line.”

However, Benton is best known for writing and directing Kramer vs. Kramer, the landmark drama starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep as a divorcing couple and the toll their separation takes on their young son, Billy.

Knowing the child actor would need to hold his own opposite Hoffman and Streep, Benton took a direct approach during auditions. “[At the auditions] I told Dustin, ‘throw everything you have at these kids, because if they can’t take it, we’ve got to find out now,’” he said. “And the one person who gave back as good as he got was Justin [Henry]. He had this authority.” Henry went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the age of eight and remains the youngest Oscar nominee in any category. The film was both a massive critical and commercial success, winning five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Hoffman), Best Supporting Actress (Streep), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director.

George Wendt

Along with Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman, George Wendt was the only member of the Cheers cast to appear in every single episode. Although Norm Peterson famously drank copious amounts of beer throughout the series, the beverage Wendt actually consumed was far less appealing: a warm, flat, non-alcoholic concoction layered with salt to create a foamy head. It sounds… awful. “There I was slamming those down for a whole day. It not only tastes disgusting, I was afraid of keeling over from high blood pressure,” he told The Washington Post in 1985. “Then I got the knack. I didn’t have to put all those brews away. It only mattered when the camera was pointing my way. It took a couple of years, but now I watch the camera. That’s how I make my money. That’s acting.“

Norm Peterson quickly became one of the most beloved characters on Cheers, a status cemented by the thunderous cry of “Norm!” every time he entered the bar. Wendt’s affable, perfectly timed performance earned him six Primetime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series—though he never took home the award. His association with the character didn’t end when Cheers wrapped, either; Wendt reprised Norm on the short-lived spinoff The Tortellis, centered on Carla’s boorish ex-husband (played by Dan Hedaya), and made memorable appearances as Norm on St. Elsewhere, Wings, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Frasier.

After Cheers ended, Wendt starred in his own sitcom, The George Wendt Show, though it was cancelled after just six episodes.

Of course, Wendt’s career extended far beyond the walls of Cheers. His film credits include Airplane II: The Sequel, Dreamscape, Fletch, House, Guilty by Suspicion, Forever Young, Hostage for a Day, The Little Rascals, Space Truckers, King of the Ants, Sandy Wexler, and more. On television, he appeared in episodes of Taxi, Alice, MASH*, Tales from the Crypt, Seinfeld, Columbo, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Becker, Masters of Horror, Ghost Whisperer, Hot in Cleveland, Portlandia, The Goldbergs, and many others.

George Wendt died on May 20 at the age of 76.

Alf Clausen

Alf Clausen, the prolific composer who gave The Simpsons its musical identity for nearly three decades, died on May 29 at the age of 84.

Clausen’s first major break as a television composer came with Moonlighting, the genre-blending comedy-drama starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis. He was initially hired alongside another composer, with the intention that they would alternate episodes. However, by the fourth episode, the other composer had been let go, and Clausen went on to score the series for its entire five-season run.

After Moonlighting wrapped, Clausen found himself searching for his next project when Matt Groening approached him about scoring The Simpsons, which had just completed its first season. Clausen was hesitant. “I was posed the question, ‘Would you like to score an animated show?’ and I said, ‘No,’” Clausen recalled during a 2015 interview. “I said, ‘I just got off of four years of Moonlighting and I really want to be a drama composer. I’m more interested in doing longform feature films.’“

Groening, however, made it clear that The Simpsons was not being approached as a traditional cartoon. Instead, he described it as a drama with drawn characters—one that needed to be scored accordingly. “He said he didn’t want it scored like a typical Warner Bros. cartoon. He didn’t want it scored like a typical Disney cartoon,” Clausen said. “He wanted something different.” That conversation marked the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration. Clausen went on to score more than 550 episodes of the series, including his first Treehouse of Horror, and created some of the show’s most iconic musical numbers, such as “We Put the Spring in Springfield,” “See My Vest,” “You’re Checkin’ In,” and countless others.

That relationship came to a bitter end in 2017 when Clausen was dismissed from the series. He later filed a lawsuit against Disney and Fox, alleging that his firing was the result of ageism and disability discrimination. Producers countered that Clausen was let go because he was unable to adapt to more modern musical styles—a claim that struck many as dubious given the extraordinary range of music he had delivered for the show over decades.

Over the course of his career, Clausen received 30 Emmy nominations—more than any other musician.

Loretta Swit

Loretta Swit was best known for her iconic role as Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on the long-running television series M*A*S*H.

Swit’s career spanned television, film, and the stage, but it was her portrayal of the fiercely independent, deeply compassionate Army nurse during the Korean War that made her a household name. She joined M*A*S*H when it debuted in 1972 and remained a central figure throughout the show’s 11-season run, earning two Emmy Awards and the admiration of millions of viewers. Along with Alan Alda, Swit was the only original cast member to appear in both the pilot episode and the series finale. Sally Kellerman, who originally played Houlihan in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H film, died in 2022.

“[Houlihan] was [unique] at the time and in her time, which was the ’50s, when [the Korean War] was happening,” Swit said in a 2004 interview. “And she became even more unique, I think, because we allowed her to continue to grow — we watched her evolve. I don’t think that’s ever been done in quite that way.“

The emotionally charged finale of M*A*S*H proved just as powerful behind the scenes as it was onscreen. In a 2018 interview with THR, Swit recalled filming the moment when her character said goodbye to Col. Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan). “We could hardly rehearse,” she said. “I had to look at this man whom I adore and say, ‘You dear, sweet man, I’ll never forget you,’ without getting emotional — and I couldn’t. I can’t now even. [Morgan died in 2011.] It wasn’t words on a page. You knew what you were saying was truth.“

Near the end of M*A*S*H’s run, Swit starred alongside Tyne Daly in the movie pilot for Cagney & Lacey. When CBS ordered the series, however, she was unable to continue in the role due to her contractual obligations to M*A*S*H. Meg Foster assumed the role of Christine Cagney for the first season, before Sharon Gless took over for the remainder of the series.

Beyond M*A*S*H, Swit appeared in television series such as Hawaii Five-O, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Bonanza, The Love Boat, and Murder, She Wrote, as well as films including Freebie and the Bean, Race with the Devil, and S.O.B. Off-screen, she was a devoted animal rights activist, author, and philanthropist, dedicating much of her later life to advocacy and humanitarian causes.

Loretta Swit died on May 30 at the age of 87.

Valerie Mahaffey

Valerie Mahaffey died on May 30 at the age of 71. She was best known for playing the wealthy, pathologically hypochondriac wife of Adam (Adam Arkin) on Northern Exposure. Although she hadn’t seen the show when she was cast, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else in the role. “Well, you have to play opposite Adam Arkin, do you think you can be really, really mean?’” Mahaffey recalled. “I yelled at him real good and I guess he thought I was funny. That’s how it went. Apparently, they had been looking for [an actress to play] this girl for a long time. Later, I was told there was this big search.”

She continued, “I got a letter from a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in years. I went to school with him and he’s now a doctor. He wrote to me and said, ‘I just wanted to let you know you’re frightening. You’re so much like my hypochondriac patients. You’re great.’ It was the most wonderful letter from somebody I knew. I just gave him the chills, you know?”

Mahaffey was also well known for portraying Alma Hodge on Desperate Housewives, the manipulative ex-wife of Kyle MacLachlan’s character.

A prolific television actor, Mahaffey appeared in an extraordinary range of series over the years, including Newhart, Quantum Leap, Cheers, Seinfeld, Wings, L.A. Law, The Client, ER, Ally McBeal, Judging Amy, The West Wing, Frasier, CSI, Private Practice, Boston Legal, United States of Tara, Glee, Devious Maids, Grey’s Anatomy, Hart of Dixie, The Mindy Project, The Man in the High Castle, Young Sheldon, Dead to Me, Big Sky, and many more.

On the big screen, she appeared in films such as National Lampoon’s Senior Trip, Jungle 2 Jungle, Seabiscuit, My First Wedding, Jack and Jill, Sully, and French Exit.

Jonathan Joss

Jonathan Joss died on June 1 at the age of 59. From 1997 to 2009, Joss provided the voice of John Redcorn on King of the Hill, taking over the role after the death of the original voice actor, Victor Aaron, who was killed in a car accident in 1996. Joss later returned for the King of the Hill revival, recording several episodes before his death. The final episode of the revival’s first season was dedicated to him.

John Redcorn appeared throughout the series’ original 13-season run, and Joss was deeply invested in expanding the character beyond the stereotype of a New Age healer engaged in an affair. “He has his own business. Native characters and guest characters in general aren’t allowed to arc like that,” Joss said in 2013. “People have hit me over the head, saying I was that character sleeping with the white lady and having a kid I don’t care about; but I tell him you didn’t see King of the Hill after the first few seasons. Redcorn changed.”

Joss was also widely recognized for his role as Ken Hotate on Parks and Recreation, playing the shrewd tribal elder of the Wamapoke Native American tribe and owner of the Wamapoke Casino. He told Entertainment Weekly that he considered Hotate to be one of the strongest Native characters ever depicted on television. “In Hollywood, you don’t have a lot of Native people writing for Native characters,” Joss said. “I think the writers developed the character and trusted me enough, because I am a Native person, to step in those shoes and be able to create this three-dimensional character.… He was essentially the best Native character on television.”

Beyond those standout roles, Joss appeared in numerous television series, including Walker, Texas Ranger, Charmed, ER, Friday Night Lights, Ray Donovan, and Tulsa King. His film credits included Almost Heroes, True Grit, The Magnificent Seven, and The Forever Purge.

Harris Yulin

Harris Yulin died on June 10 at the age of 87. Over a career spanning six decades, Yulin began as a stage actor before transitioning to film and television, becoming one of those instantly recognizable performers whose work left a lasting impression across numerous projects. One of his earliest significant screen roles saw him portray Wyatt Earp in Doc, a revisionist Western that retold the story of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The film also starred Stacey Keach as Doc Holliday and Faye Dunaway—who Yulin dated for a time—as Kate Elder.

Yulin went on to appear in a wide range of films, including Night Moves, Ghostbusters II, Clear and Present Danger, The Baby-Sitters Club, Cutthroat Island, Multiplicity, Bean, The Hurricane, Rush Hour 2, Training Day, My Soul to Take, and The Place Beyond the Pines, among many others. He also memorably played Mel Bernstein in Scarface, the corrupt Miami police detective on Frank Lopez’s payroll who attempts to extort Tony Montana—an encounter that, unsurprisingly, does not end well.

Just as prolific on television, Yulin delivered standout performances in series such as Little House on the Prairie, Wonder Woman, Law & Order, Murphy Brown, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, 24, The Blacklist, Veep, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Billions, and more. For Star Trek fans, his turn as Aamin Marritza in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Duet remains especially notable, widely regarded as one of the series’ finest episodes. Yulin reportedly became so invested in the role that he attempted to persuade producers not to kill the character off—an unusual move for a guest actor on a television series.

Yulin also played Buddy Dieker during the first two seasons of Netflix’s Ozark and earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as crime boss Jerome Belasco on Frasier.

He may never have been a traditional household name, but Harris Yulin was undeniably a familiar and respected presence. “I just do the next thing that comes along,” he said. “Whatever comes along that I want to do or that I feel I need to do. Oftentimes the things one does you don’t think of doing or you have no idea that you’re going to do.”

Rick Hurst

Rick Hurst was best known for playing Deputy Cletus Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard. His acting career began remarkably early—at just five years old—when a trip to the Houston Public Library with his mother led to an unexpected opportunity. A stranger tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he’d like to star in a commercial for the library. “My pay was a chocolate soda,” he recalled in 2022.

Years later, Hurst launched his television career with an appearance on Sanford and Son, kicking off a long run of guest roles across some of the most popular shows of the era. His television credits included The Bob Newhart Show, Kung Fu, Gunsmoke, Happy Days, Little House on the Prairie, The Six Million Dollar Man, M*A*S*H*, From Here to Eternity, Highway to Heaven, Perfect Strangers, The Wonder Years, Family Matters, and many more.

Hurst also starred in On the Rocks, a short-lived sitcom centered on inmates at the Alamesa Minimum Security Prison.

On the big screen, Hurst appeared in films such as The Cat From Outer Space, Going Ape, Earth Girls Are Easy, The Karate Kid Part III, Steel Magnolias, In the Line of Fire, and Anywhere But Here. He also reprised his most famous role in two Dukes of Hazzard TV movies: The Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion! in 1997 and The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood in 2000.

Rick Hurst died on June 26 at the age of 79.

Lalo Schifrin

Lalo Schifrin, the man behind one of the most iconic (and hummable) pieces of cinematic music, died on June 26 at 93 years old.

Schifrin told the New York Post in 2015 that he created the Mission: Impossible theme in just three minutes, without seeing any footage from the show. “Orchestration’s not the problem for me. It’s like writing a letter. When you write a letter, you don’t have to think what grammar or what syntaxes you’re going to use, you just write a letter. And that’s the way it came,” Schifrin said. “Bruce Geller, who was the producer of the series, put together the pilot and came to me and said, ‘I want you to write something exciting, something that when people are in the living room and go into the kitchen to have a soft drink, and they hear it, they will know what it is. I want it to be identifiable, recognizable and a signature.’ And this is what I did.“

The theme won Schifrin a Grammy Award and continued to be used for all the big-screen movies starring Tom Cruise.

Of course, Schifrin is known for so much more than just Mission: Impossible. He composed music for movies such as Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, Kelly’s Heroes, Dirty Harry, The Beguiled, THX 1138, Joe Kidd, Enter the Dragon, Magnum Force, The Eagle Has Landed, The Amityville Horror, Sudden Impact, The Sting II, the Rush Hour trilogy, and much more.

He also composed themes and music for many TV shows, such as Mannix, Starsky & Hutch, Planet of the Apes, and more.

Schifrin was also the original composer of The Exorcist before he was replaced. He recorded six minutes of music, which was used in the movie’s trailer, but executives told director William Friedkin to instruct Schifrin to tone it down. He didn’t pass on the message.

Julian McMahon

Julian McMahon died on July 2 at the age of 56. One of his most high-profile film roles saw him portraying Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, though he often felt he never fully got the chance to explore the character’s potential.

“I never got to express Doctor Doom the way that I saw Doctor Doom,” McMahon said in a 2017 interview. “If Marvel Studios got Doctor Doom back, and I could play him the way I always wanted to, as a sniveling, conniving, freaky guy, I would do that for sure. The character I most want to play is the character I’ve already played! There’s so much there!”

Beyond the Fantastic Four films, McMahon appeared in movies such as Premonition, Red, Faces in the Crowd, Bait 3D, Swinging Safari, and The Surfer.

On television, he played FBI Special Supervisory Agent Jess LaCroix across the FBI franchise, appearing in FBI and FBI: International before leading the first three seasons of FBI: Most Wanted. He also co-starred as Agent John Grant throughout all four seasons of Profiler, portrayed the cunning and manipulative Cole Turner on Charmed, and starred opposite Dylan Walsh in Nip/Tuck.

McMahon’s extensive TV résumé further included appearances on Home and Away, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Runaways, The Residence, and many others, cementing a career defined by charismatic, often darkly compelling performances across film and television.

Michael Madsen

Michael Madsen was extraordinarily prolific, appearing in more than 300 film and television productions over the course of his career. Yet for many, he will always be most closely associated with his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, beginning with Reservoir Dogs, where he delivered an indelible performance as the sadistic Mr. Blonde, forever linked to his chilling, ear-slicing dance routine set to “Stuck in the Middle With You.” He went on to play Budd in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2, Joe Gage in The Hateful Eight, and Sheriff Hackett in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

“Quentin is, in my estimation, the best director of my generation. He’s up there with George Stevens and Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan,” Madsen said. “Because of that, because of my relationship with him, it became bigger than anything I ever did. And then Kill Bill put the final stamp on that one. It’s a great blessing to have that and at the same time, it is really hard to get out of it. And people don’t want you to get out of it.”

Outside of his Tarantino work, Madsen’s filmography spanned decades and genres, with roles in WarGames, The Natural, The Killing Time, Kill Me Again, The Doors, Thelma & Louise, Trouble Bound, Free Willy, Money for Nothing, Wyatt Earp, Species, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Mulholland Falls, Donnie Brasco, Species II, Die Another Day, Sin City, Scary Movie 4, BloodRayne, Outlaw Johnny Black, and many more.

He was equally familiar to television audiences, appearing in series such as Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, 24, Bob’s Burgers, Blue Bloods, The Mob Doctor, Hawaii Five-0, and others.

Though he built a formidable screen persona playing hardened criminals and intimidating heavyweights, Madsen was keenly aware of the disconnect between perception and reality. “Fame is a two-edged sword,” he told THR in 2018. “There are a lot of blessings but also a lot of heavy things that come with it. I think it has a lot to do with the characters I’ve played. I think I’ve been more believable than I should have been. I think people really fear me. They see me and go: ‘Holy shit, there’s that guy!’ But I’m not that guy. I’m just an actor.”

Michael Madsen died on July 3 at the age of 67

Mark Snow

It’s difficult to imagine The X-Files without its instantly recognizable theme music, composed by Mark Snow, which set the series’ eerie tone from the very first episode.

Series creator Chris Carter initially had a few ideas about what the theme should sound like and brought Snow a handful of CDs as inspiration. Even so, finding the right approach proved challenging. Snow later admitted that his early attempts sounded “a little generic or what you think would be on a sci-fi show. More pounding and rhythmic and dangerous and muscular.” The breakthrough came unexpectedly—when he accidentally rested his elbow on his keyboard.

“It was that accompanying theme, the ‘da-ba-da-da-ba-da…’ I had some echo-delay thing on the keyboard and I thought it worked well,” Snow told Empire. “Chris was always talking about simple, under-produced, not slick music. So I thought, ‘Okay, that’s a nice part of this.’ Then I had to figure out what else it would be a three-part piece. Some sustained low notes underneath that, some low drums hits here and there, then all we needed was a melody on top of it. That was simple enough. I tried different instruments, including strings and sax and flute and it sounded ordinary. How about piano? Oh, no. So I stumbled upon the whistle sound and my wife said, ‘That’s cool! You should keep that.’ She whistled along with it too, so that’s where that came from.”

Beyond The X-Files television series and feature films, Snow continued his collaboration with Carter by composing the scores for Millennium, Harsh Realm, and The Lone Gunman. His prolific career also included work on series such as Starsky & Hutch, Hart to Hart, Falcon Crest, Dark Justice, Smallville, The Twilight Zone, and Blue Bloods, as well as feature films including Ernest Saves Christmas, Dolly Dearest, Disturbing Behavior, The New Mutants, and more.

Mark Snow died on July 4 at the age of 78.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner

Malcolm-Jamal Warner died on July 20 at the age of 54. He was best known for his portrayal of Theodore “Theo” Huxtable on The Cosby Show, a role he reprised multiple times on the spin-off series A Different World.

Reflecting on the show’s cultural impact, Warner explained how it stood apart from earlier sitcoms. “When you look at the history of black sitcoms, they’re all predicated upon the, quote, ‘black experience.’ And therefore, much of the humor is predicated on being black,” Warner told NPR in 2014. “Mr. Cosby wanted to do a show not about an upper-middle-class black family, but an upper-middle-class family that happened to be black. Though it sounds like semantics, they’re very different approaches. Yet the Huxtables were very black, from the style of dress, to the art to the music, to just the culture. So, being black without having to act black, if you will.“

Beyond The Cosby Show, Warner built an extensive television résumé, with appearances on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Here and Now, The Magic School Bus, Touched by an Angel, Sliders, Dexter, The Cleaner, Community, Key & Peele, Sons of Anarchy, American Horror Story: Freak Show, Suits, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, Sneaky Pete, The Resident, 9-1-1, Alert: Missing Persons Unit, and more.

He also starred opposite Eddie Griffin in Malcolm & Eddie, which ran for four seasons on UPN, and alongside Luke Perry in J. Michael Straczynski’s post-apocalyptic action drama Jeremiah. Though Straczynski had mapped out a five-year plan for the series, it was abruptly cancelled midway through its second season. Fans mounted a campaign to save the show and secure a third year, but ultimately, the effort was unsuccessful.

Ozzy Osbourne

As the co-founder of Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne helped invent heavy metal, but his impact extended far beyond music, leaving an unexpected and indelible mark on television as well.

After a memorable appearance on MTV Cribs, a reality series centered on Osbourne and his family—his wife Sharon, daughter Kelly, and son Jack—was put into production. The Osbournes became an instant phenomenon as the most-watched series in MTV history. The show chronicled their daily lives and the often chaotic, frequently hilarious antics of the Osbourne household. Its success helped usher in a new era of celebrity-focused reality television, paving the way for franchises like The Real Housewives and Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Ozzy never took The Osbournes too seriously, later admitting he was “stoned during the entire filming” of the series, but even he was taken aback by how profoundly it reshaped his public image. “I never realised TV is the most powerful form of entertainment on the planet. I still wonder what it all means,” he said in a 2002 interview. “I was in Boston, where I’ve performed thousands of times, and this respectable middle-aged woman comes up to me and says, ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ I tell her I’m here to perform, and she goes, ‘F***. You do that as well?’ I’ve reached an audience with no idea I’m a rock ‘n’ roller. I’m pleased about that. I’m the working-class hero. Not bad for a guy from Aston.”

He went on to make numerous television appearances—almost always as himself—on shows such as South Park, The Bernie Mac Show, CSI, The Conners, and more. His film appearances were equally eclectic, ranging from Trick or Treat and Private Parts to Little Nicky, Moulin Rouge!, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Gnomeo & Juliet, Ghostbusters, Sherlock Gnomes, and Trolls World Tour.

Osbourne ultimately reunited with Black Sabbath for the Back to the Beginning farewell tour. Unable to walk due to advanced Parkinson’s disease, he performed seated on a throne, powering through classics like “Crazy Train,” “Iron Man,” and “Mama, I’m Coming Home.” He died just 17 days later, on July 22, at the age of 76.

Hulk Hogan

Hulk Hogan died on July 24 at the age of 71. One of the biggest stars professional wrestling has ever produced, Hogan ignited the Hulkamania phenomenon and became a global household name. But before he ever stepped into the ring, Hogan was a musician playing clubs around Tampa Bay.

In his 2002 autobiography, Hogan recalled working out at Hector’s Gym when he was spotted by wrestling scouts and encouraged to train with Japanese star Hiro Matsuda. “The wrestlers were like Greek gods to me,” he wrote. “They were giants, larger than life, and the combination of entertainment and physicality that I saw in the wrestling ring was something I had never seen in other sports. And that, I guess you’d say, was where it all started for me.”

Hogan’s popularity eventually extended far beyond wrestling, enabling him to crossover into movies and television. He made his film debut as Thunderlips in Rocky III and went on to star in No Holds Barred, Suburban Commando, Mr. Nanny, The Secret Agent Club, Santa with Muscles, and 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain. He also delivered a famously unforgettable cameo in Gremlins 2: The New Batch. On television, Hogan appeared in shows such as The A-Team, Baywatch, Suddenly Susan, Walker, Texas Ranger, American Dad!, The Inbetweeners, and The Goldbergs.

Loni Anderson

Loni Anderson was best known for playing Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati, but she initially turned down the now-iconic role. While she liked the show’s premise, Anderson wasn’t enthusiastic about the version of the character creator Hugh Wilson had in mind, “so I refused.”

“I went in and sat on my little soapbox and said, ‘I don’t want to play this part because she’s just here to deliver messages and is window dressing,’” she explained in a 2020 interview. “Then Hugh said, ‘Well, how would you do it?’ … He said, ‘Let’s make her look like Lana Turner and be the smartest person in the room.’” The role earned Anderson three Golden Globe nominations and two Emmy nominations.

Beyond WKRP in Cincinnati, Anderson appeared in films such as Vigilante Force, The Jayne Mansfield Story, Stroker Ace, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Munchie, 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, and A Night at the Roxbury. On television, she made memorable appearances on S.W.A.T., Barnaby Jones, The Bob Newhart Show, The Love Boat, The Incredible Hulk, Three’s Company, Empty Nest, Nurses, and Melrose Place.

Loni Anderson died on August 3 at the age of 79.

Terence Stamp

Terence Stamp was best known to mainstream audiences for playing General Zod in Superman and Superman II, and he relished the opportunity to appear onscreen alongside Marlon Brando. “Two actors of my generations were Brando and [James] Dean,” Stamp said in 1988. “They were the two idols. Dean was no longer with us and Brando was still around, so the idea of getting up on film with him, albeit brief, was irresistible.”

That excitement was tempered, however, when Stamp realized Brando hadn’t bothered to learn his lines, instead relying on large cue cards. Frustrated, Stamp asked him, “How are you going to play King Lear and Macbeth if you can’t learn a line?” to which Brando coolly replied, “I’ve learned them already.”

Stamp also earned widespread acclaim for his performance as Bernadette Bassenger in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. At first, he was reluctant to take on the role, until a friend helped put his fears into perspective. “She said, ‘Look, just say yes and maybe it will go away. And if it doesn’t, you’ll just have to address the fear,’” Stamp told the BFI in 2013. “And then she said this wonderful thing: ‘Terence, this is not a career move, this is a growth move.’” Stamp later reflected that it was “a challenge, a challenge I couldn’t resist because [otherwise] my life would have been a lie.” He added that the film “became one of the great experiences of my whole career. It was probably the most fun thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Stamp returned to the role in September 2025, filming all of his scenes for a sequel that has yet to be completed.

Over the course of his long and varied career, Stamp appeared in films such as Billy Budd, The Collector, Far from the Madding Crowd, Teorema, The Company of Wolves, Link, The Sicilian, Young Guns, Alien Nation, The Limey, Bowfinger, Red Planet, The Haunted Mansion, Elektra, Wanted, Get Smart, Yes Man, Valkyrie, The Adjustment Bureau, Big Eyes, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and Last Night in Soho. He also portrayed Supreme Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Terence Stamp died on August 17 at the age of 87.

Jerry Adler

Jerry Adler didn’t begin his on-screen acting career until his 60s, but the theater was always in his blood. Several members of his family worked in the business—most notably his cousin, legendary acting teacher Stella Adler—and he initially made his mark behind the scenes. Adler started out as a stage manager, later becoming a production supervisor, and eventually went on to direct productions of his own.

One of his most memorable early experiences came in 1969, when he worked on Coco, the Broadway musical inspired by the life of Coco Chanel. Katharine Hepburn starred in the production, but a problem arose during one of the show’s quieter songs. Construction on the nearby Uris Building (now known as Paramount Plaza) could be heard over the song, disrupting the performance. Hepburn summoned Adler to her dressing room and instructed him to cross the street and ask the workers to halt construction during that single song.

“So I went over to the engineering hut, got a hold of the boss and said I was the stage manager of the show across the street starring Katharine Hepburn and she would like to stop work on the building when she sings this song. They thought I was a [expletive] lunatic,” Adler said. “So I go back to her and tell her it’s impossible and then she goes out, goes across the street, gets in one of those open construction elevators and arranges with the workers herself on every floor that when I come out of the stage door and give them the signal, they stop work and then restart when I come out again. They did that at every matinee for her.”

When Adler eventually transitioned to acting, he found lasting fame as Herman “Hesh” Rabkin on The Sopranos, where he memorably played the sharp-tongued loan shark and trusted advisor to Tony Soprano.

He also appeared as Howard Lyman on The Good Wife and its spinoff, The Good Fight, as well as as NYFD station chief Sidney Feinberg on Rescue Me. Over the course of his career, Adler made guest appearances on numerous television series, including Quantum Leap, Mad About You, Northern Exposure, Hudson Street, Raising Dad, ’Til Death, Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent, and Broad City.

Jerry Adler died on August 23 at the age of 96.

Graham Greene

Graham Greene died on September 1 at the age of 73. He was best known for his acclaimed performance as Kicking Bird in Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves, a role that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Acting wasn’t Greene’s original plan. He held a wide range of jobs before finding his way in front of the camera, and when the opportunity finally presented itself, he realized it suited him just fine. “I started out as a carpenter, a welder, a draftsman, a carpet layer, a roadie and an audio tech,” he said in a 2018 interview. “I stumbled into acting and I thought, These people keep me in the shade, give me food and water, take me over to where I say what I’m supposed to say, then they take me back. Wow—this is the life of a dog!”

Greene went on to build an extensive film career, appearing in movies such as Thunderheart, Maverick, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Grey Owl, The Green Mile, Transamerica, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Wind River, Molly’s Game, Antlers, and many others.

His television work was equally prolific, with appearances on L.A. Law, Murder, She Wrote, Northern Exposure, The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon, The Outer Limits, Numbers, Defiance, Longmire, Goliath, 1883, American Gods, The Last of Us, Reservation Dogs, and Tulsa King. He was also well remembered for playing Edgar K.B. Montrose, an explosives expert, on The Red Green Show.

Scott Spiegel

Scott Spiegel is best known for co-writing Evil Dead II with Sam Raimi, but his connection to the iconic horror franchise stretches back to its very origins. Spiegel met Raimi—and Bruce Campbell—while still in high school, and the trio quickly began collaborating on homemade films. Spiegel appeared as Scotty in Within the Woods, the short film that served as a proof of concept for The Evil Dead.

When it came time to make The Evil Dead, Spiegel was unable to participate directly, though he still found ways to contribute. “I couldn’t break away at the time because I was helping support my family,” he said in a 2011 interview. “The boys called me several times (to work on the movie) down in Morristown but I was making $28,000 back then and that was decent money. When they came back home I helped out in post production. I got a couple of my girlfriends to double some of the actresses in the film, and I supplied a bunch of the meat parts.”

Spiegel was able to return for Evil Dead II, and the film’s success led to his opportunity to write and direct Intruder, a cult slasher notable for its especially brutal practical effects. Among its most famous moments is a kill in which Billy Marti’s character has his head sliced in half with a bandsaw. “When we were about to shoot the sawing of the gelatin head, Billy Marti turned to me and said ‘My Mom can never see this,’” Spiegel recalled. “We rolled cameras and turned on the band saw and sawed the gelatin head in half and it was so real it upset many crew members. Joyce Pepper, our script supervisor was crying. I seriously questioned what I was doing. Man, that’s horrifying but I was, after all making a horror film. This wasn’t Bambi.”

Beyond his work behind the camera, Spiegel made cameo appearances in many of Raimi’s films, including Darkman, The Quick and the Dead, Spider-Man 2, Drag Me to Hell, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He also co-wrote Clint Eastwood’s buddy-cop action thriller The Rookie, wrote and directed From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, executive-produced Eli Roth’s Hostel and Hostel Part II, and later directed Hostel Part III.

Scott Spiegel died on September 1 at the age of 67.

Robert Redford

Robert Redford died on September 16 at the age of 89. He became a bona fide movie star after appearing opposite Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, though the career-defining role nearly passed him by. The studio was initially hesitant to cast Redford, having already offered the part to Jack Lemmon, Warren Beatty, and Steve McQueen. Redford later credited Newman with stepping in and giving him the break that changed everything.

“The studio didn’t want me,” he recalled. “It all depended on Paul, and I met him and he was very generous and said, ‘Let’s go for this.’ He knew I was serious about the craft. That’s what brought us together, and we became friends.” Four years later, the pair reunited for another classic, The Sting.

Redford went on to appear in an extraordinary range of films, including Barefoot in the Park, Downhill Racer, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, Jeremiah Johnson, The Candidate, The Way We Were, The Great Gatsby, Three Days of the Condor, The Great Waldo Pepper, All the President’s Men, A Bridge Too Far, The Natural, Out of Africa, Legal Eagles, Sneakers, Indecent Proposal, The Horse Whisperer, The Last Castle, Spy Game, Lions for Lambs, All Is Lost, Pete’s Dragon, and The Old Man and the Gun.

Late in his career, Redford also entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, before returning for a brief cameo in Avengers: Endgame.

Behind the camera, Redford proved just as accomplished. He directed films such as Ordinary People, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Director, along with A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, The Horse Whisperer, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Lions for Lambs, and The Conspirator.

Beyond his own filmography, Redford’s legacy extended to the industry itself. He founded the Sundance Film Festival, which has grown into the largest independent film festival in the United States and helped launch numerous careers.

Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale died on September 23 at the age of 87. She’s best known for playing Princess Dala in The Pink Panther and starring alongside Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West.

She’s also known for her leading roles in Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 and Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, which she shot back-to-back. “Visconti was precise and meticulous, spoke to me in French and wanted me to have long brown hair,” she told Le Monde in 2017. “Fellini was chaotic and didn’t have a script; he spoke Italian to me, cut my hair short and dyed it blond. Those were the two most important films of my life.“

Although Cardinale is best known for her work in Italian films, she was actually born in Tunisia and grew up speaking French, Arabic, and her parents’ native Sicilian dialect. She only learned Italian as an adult. She made her feature film debut in Goha alongside Omar Sharif and was later dubbed “The Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia.” Offers for movie roles soon followed, but she was reluctant to pursue them. Her father eventually convinced her to “give this cinema thing a go.“

However, just as her career was starting, she was raped and became pregnant. To avoid scandal, she went to London to give birth. “I gave birth in London, because in those days it would have been a scandal,” she told Variety in 2017. “We pretended that my son was my little brother. I didn’t want to become an actress; I did it so I could be independent.” She later revealed the truth to her son seven years later.

Her role in Once Upon a Time in the West was special. “I was the only woman in that movie! The thing is … I love music. And that was the first time I worked on a film where the music was composed [by Ennio Morricone] before the cameras started rolling,” she said. “So before shooting my scenes, Sergio would play the music … which really helped me get into the part. Morricone recently invited me to his concert in Paris. I was sitting in the front row and he opened with the theme from Once Upon a Time in the West, while looking straight at me.“

Cardinale also appeared in Big Deal on Madonna Street, Rocco and His Brothers, Circus World, The Professionals, The Hell With Heroes, Fitzcarraldo, and much more.

Patricia Routledge

Patricia Routledge died on October 3 at the age of 96. She was best known for playing the gloriously snobbish social climber Hyacinth Bucket (It’s Bouquet!) on Keeping Up Appearances.

Although Routledge had built a long and varied career across film, television, radio, and the stage, it was Keeping Up Appearances that marked a true turning point. “My life didn’t quite take shape until my forties. I had worked steadily—on provincial stages, in radio plays, in West End productions—but I often felt adrift, as though I was searching for a home within myself that I hadn’t quite found,” she said. “At 50, I accepted the role of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances. I thought it would be a small part in a little series. I never imagined that it would take me into people’s living rooms and hearts around the world.”

Beyond her iconic television role, Routledge appeared in films such as To Sir, With Love, Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River, and Lock Up Your Daughters, and made memorable appearances on television series including Coronation Street, Sense and Sensibility, David Copperfield, and Nicholas Nickleby. Following the success of Keeping Up Appearances, she went on to headline Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, playing Henrietta “Hetty” Wainthropp, a sharp-witted retired working-class woman with a talent for solving crimes.

In recognition of her extraordinary career and charitable work, Routledge was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017.

Diane Keaton

Diane Keaton had relatively few screen credits when she was cast as Kay Adams, the girlfriend of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. Even she was baffled by the decision. “I didn’t understand why me,” she recalled. “I mean, I went up to the audition. I didn’t even really — I hadn’t read it. See, this is bad! But I needed a job, so I got up there. I’d been auditioning around for about a year, and then this happened like that. And I kept thinking, ‘Why me? Why would he cast me?’ I didn’t understand it. I still don’t, really.”

Keaton returned for The Godfather Part II, though she later admitted she was initially hesitant to sign on. “At first, I was skeptical about playing Kay again in the Godfather sequel,” she said. “But when I read the script, the character seemed much more substantial than in the first film.” She ultimately reprised the role once more in The Godfather Part III.

Beyond the Godfather trilogy, Keaton became closely associated with director Woody Allen, collaborating with him on films such as Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan, Radio Days, and Manhattan Murder Mystery. Her unconventional wardrobe in Annie Hall turned her into an unlikely fashion icon of the late 1970s.

Her extensive filmography also includes Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Reds, Baby Boom, The Good Mother, Father of the Bride, Look Who’s Talking Now!, Father of the Bride Part II, The First Wives Club, Marvin’s Room, The Other Sister, Town & Country, Something’s Gotta Give, The Family Stone, Finding Dory, Book Club, and Book Club: The Next Chapter. On television, she appeared in Night Gallery, The Young Pope, and Green Eggs and Ham.

Diane Keaton died on October 11 at the age of 79.

Drew Struzan

Drew Struzan died on October 13 at the age of 78. Long before movie posters became dominated by rows of Photoshopped faces, Struzan was creating genuine works of art for countless films. His style was instantly recognizable, and for many fans, his posters were just as iconic and enduring as the movies they represented.

While in college, Struzan was told that his career path would likely lead to either fine art or illustration. He chose illustration for practical reasons. “I was poor and hungry, and illustration was the shortest path to a slice of bread, as compared to a gallery showing,” he said. “I had nothing as a child. I drew on toilet paper with pencils – that was the only paper around. Probably why I love drawing so much today is because it was just all I had at the time.”

Struzan became closely associated with the Star Wars franchise and was involved early in its history. For the 1978 re-release of Star Wars, 20th Century Fox initially hired Charles White III to create a new poster. However, White was uncomfortable with portraiture and turned to Struzan for help. The result was the now-famous “Circus” poster, one of the most unique pieces of artwork in the entire franchise.

He went on to design the posters for the Star Wars Special Edition Trilogy, as well as the Prequel Trilogy, with his work on The Phantom Menace remaining a particular favourite of mine.

It would be impossible to catalogue all of Struzan’s extraordinary work in a single paragraph, but his credits include posters for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, The Cannonball Run, The Goonies, Hook, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Green Mile, and many more. He even created the iconic poster for John Carpenter’s The Thing in just a few hours, without being given any details about the film. When the artwork was delivered to the studio the following morning, he received a call saying, “The painting’s still wet.”

When asked which of his posters was his favourite, Struzan offered a characteristically thoughtful response: “If I had a favorite, then I would have already done the best I can do. I’d lose my spark of creativity. My favorite is always the very next one.”

Samantha Eggar

Samantha Eggar died on October 15 at the age of 86. One of her earliest major roles saw her starring opposite Terence Stamp in The Collector, in which she played a young art student kidnapped by a deeply disturbed and lonely man. While the film is harrowing to watch, the ordeal Eggar endured during production was, by her own account, even more challenging than what appears onscreen.

Director William Wyler was famously exacting and went to extraordinary lengths to ensure Eggar felt genuinely isolated on set. He instructed Stamp to remain in character at all times and treat Eggar coldly, and if Wyler felt a scene lacked sufficient tension, he would escalate matters himself. “And if the tension wasn’t there — if I didn’t exude precisely what he wanted — well, Willie just poured cold water over me,” she said. “You remember I was tied up by black leather? Well, use your imagination and go from there! What you see onscreen was really taking place on set.“

Despite the grueling process, Eggar later acknowledged the results of Wyler’s methods. “He works you to your peak,” she said. “When it’s over, you realize that you have done the best you could possibly do.” Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress.

Eggar’s filmography also included Return From the Ashes, Doctor Dolittle, The Molly Maguires, The Light at the Edge of the World, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The Uncanny, Demonoid, Curtains, The Phantom, and The Astronaut’s Wife.

One of her most memorable later roles came in David Cronenberg’s The Brood. “I was really fascinated by how David had come upon this idea of the hives growing on me, these children of anger growing on the outside of my stomach. This little army I was bearing. I thought … ‘Goodness, what a mind this is … to conceive such a fantastical thing,’” she said. “And it wasn’t only David’s concept that was multilayered, multidimensional. It was also reflected in the writing. As an actor, when you have a sort of Shakespearean way to the writing that is so rich and robust, you revel in it.”

Beyond live-action roles, Eggar voiced Hera in Disney’s animated Hercules and reprised the role for the television series. She also made numerous television appearances over the years, popping up on shows such as Columbo, Starsky & Hutch, Hawaii Five-O, The Love Boat, Magnum, P.I., Star Trek: The Next Generation, Commander in Chief, and more. She also starred alongside Yul Brynner in Anna and the King, a non-musical TV adaptation of The King and I.

June Lockhart

June Lockhart died on October 23 at the age of 100. She was best known for playing two of television’s most beloved mothers: Dr. Maureen Robinson on Lost in Space and Ruth Martin on the long-running Lassie series.

Lockhart’s remarkable nine-decade career began with an appearance in MGM’s 1938 production of A Christmas Carol. Her parents, Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, portrayed Bob and Emily Cratchit, while June appeared as one of their children. From there, she went on to appear in a wide range of films, including Sergeant York, Son of Lassie, She-Wolf of London, Deadly Games, Troll, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D., and many others.

She joined Lassie in its fifth season, replacing Cloris Leachman as Ruth Martin. Lockhart had initially been offered the role before Leachman but declined it—a decision she later came to regret. When the opportunity arose again, she embraced it wholeheartedly. “I thought about what I had been offered and said to myself, ‘What am I being so damn grand about?’” she recalled. “I have two children to support, the part they want me to play has a lot of dignity, the show is already on the air, I wouldn’t have to film a pilot, and they have a sponsor. This is a really great gift that has been offered to me.”

Her role on Lost in Space sparked a lifelong fascination with astronomy, an interest that extended well beyond the screen. In 2014, she was awarded the NASA Exceptional Public Achievement Medal. “I have been told that my contribution inspired many astronauts to pursue a career in space science and exploration,” Lockhart said. “It is lovely to know that I touched so many people by doing things that interested me!” She later made a cameo appearance in the 1998 Lost in Space feature film and provided a voice cameo in the 2021 Netflix series.

Following Lost in Space, Lockhart played Dr. Janet Craig on Petticoat Junction and continued to work steadily on television for decades. Her many guest appearances included Have Gun — Will Travel, Wagon Train, Rawhide, Bewitched, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Happy Days, Magnum P.I., The Greatest American Hero, General Hospital, Full House, Babylon 5, 7th Heaven, Beverly Hills, 90210, The Drew Carey Show, Grey’s Anatomy, and more.

Prunella Scales

Prunella Scales was best known for her iconic turn as Sybil Fawlty on Fawlty Towers, widely regarded as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. The role produced countless unforgettable moments: Sybil consoling her friend Audrey over the phone (“Oh, I know”), bellowing “BASIL!” at her long-suffering husband, and, of course, unleashing that unmistakable laugh—one which Basil memorably says “always reminds me of somebody machine-gunning a seal.”

At the very first table read for Fawlty Towers, Scales questioned a fundamental aspect of the characters, asking why Sybil and Basil had ever married in the first place. “Oh God, I was afraid you’d ask me that!” Cleese reportedly replied. In response, Scales crafted her own detailed backstory for the couple, imagining that Sybil’s family worked as caterers at a small hotel, where she met Basil when he stopped in for a drink shortly after completing his National Service.

“Sybil’s trouble was that, having married out of her class and been fooled by Fawlty’s flannel, she realized, too late, that she had landed with an upper-class twit for a husband,” Scales wrote in Fawlty Towers: The Story of a Sitcom. “But behind all of Sybil’s apparent disenchantment with Basil, there is still some — just enough — real affection for him, and that is probably what makes her stay.”

Beyond Fawlty Towers, Scales appeared in a wide range of films, including Hobson’s Choice, The Littlest Horse Thieves, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Boys from Brazil, Howards End, Wolf, An Ideal Husband, Johnny English, and many others.

Prunella Scales died on October 27 at the age of 93.

Tchéky Karyo

Tchéky Karyo was born in Istanbul, before moving with his family to Paris at a young age. He first gained widespread recognition with his breakthrough performance in La Balance, which earned him a César nomination for Most Promising Actor. He went on to appear in a remarkable range of films, including La Femme Nikita, in which he played Bob, one of the handlers of the titular assassin. His extensive filmography also includes Vincent and Me, The Bear (in one of the film’s few human roles), 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Nostradamus, Bad Boys, GoldenEye, Operation Dumbo Drop, To Have & To Hold, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, The Patriot, Kiss of the Dragon, The Core, A Very Long Engagement, Mary Magdalene, and many more.

For me, Karyo is most closely associated with the role of Julien Baptiste. In the first season of the acclaimed mystery series The Missing, the French detective assists Tony Hughes (James Nesbitt) and his wife Emily (Frances O’Connor) in uncovering the fate of their kidnapped son. Spanning more than a decade, the story allowed Karyo to deliver one of the show’s most compelling performances, making it little surprise that Baptiste returned in the second season. The character proved so popular that creators Harry and Jack Williams developed a spin-off series, Baptiste, which ran for two seasons.

Baptiste was also one of Karyo’s favorite roles. “What I love about him is he’s a man of action, but he’s also a deep thinker,” the actor told the BBC. “It’s interesting because even when he’s in a moment of action, he never forgets to think or to express something about the situation. For him…to follow these monsters who did these unspeakable crimes, it’s not a risk, it’s a responsibility.“

Tchéky Karyo died on October 31 at the age of 72.

Diane Ladd

Diane Ladd died on November 3 at the age of 89. Although she had been an established actress for more than a decade, it was her scene-stealing turn as Flo, the sharp-tongued waitress at Mel and Ruby’s Cafe in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, that elevated her career to a new level. Her memorable lines—such as “Kiss me where the sun don’t shine”—had audiences howling, and the performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The film went on to inspire the long-running sitcom Alice; while Polly Holliday ultimately played Flo on television, Ladd later joined the series for seasons four and five in a new role.

Ladd received another Oscar nomination for her performance in Wild at Heart as the mother of Laura Dern’s character. Director David Lynch later recalled that Ladd’s instinctive, improvisational approach made it difficult to stick closely to the script. “When she was in her first scene, she was miles away from the text that I’d written. She got the spirit of the scene perfectly, but she didn’t re-create a single word,” he said. “So I took her aside and after that we worked very well together. She was bad at sticking to the dialogue, but she really loved to be seized by an emotion and to be carried away by it. It was quite something to contain all that energy.“

She later reunited with her daughter Laura Dern in Rambling Rose, with both actresses earning Academy Award nominations.

Ladd’s extensive film credits also include White Lightning, Chinatown, Embryo, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Black Widow, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Carnosaur, 28 Days, Inland Empire, Joy, and more. On television, she was a frequent presence on series such as Gunsmoke, The Love Boat, L.A. Law, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Grace Under Fire, ER, Enlightened, Ray Donovan, Young Sheldon, and others.

Lee Tamahori

Lee Tamahori died on November 7 at the age of 75. He made his feature directorial debut with Once Were Warriors, widely regarded as one of the finest films ever to emerge from New Zealand. Ironically, it was a project Tamahori was deeply reluctant to take on, convinced from the outset that it was destined to fail.

After reading the novel on which the film was based, Tamahori was blunt in his assessment, saying, “This is the worst movie you could ever f….ing imagine – it’s [got] death, suicide, drugs, alienation, alcoholism, brute force, domination.” When producer Robin Scholes acquired the rights and approached him to direct, Tamahori repeatedly turned her down.

“I said, ‘look, I think it’s a terrible idea. I think it’s doomed to failure’. I said, ‘nobody will go and see a film like this, nobody goes and sees New Zealand films anyway,’” he explained. “I said, ‘I admire your zeal, but this is not going to succeed and so thanks for asking me but no, I’m going to look for another project.’” Eventually, Tamahori relented — a decision that paid off spectacularly, as Once Were Warriors became a major critical and commercial success, earning widespread acclaim and numerous awards.

The film launched an international career that saw Tamahori direct Mulholland Falls, The Edge, Along Came a Spider, XXX: State of the Union, Next, The Devil’s Double, Mahana, and The Convert. He also worked extensively in television, directing episodes of The Sopranos and Billions.

Among his most high-profile projects was Die Another Day, the final James Bond film to star Pierce Brosnan. A lifelong fan of the franchise, Tamahori deliberately leaned into the series’ more flamboyant traditions, embracing larger-than-life villains, outrageous gadgets, and globe-threatening plots. “Basically I was attracted to it because I knew it was going to be the last of the Pierce Brosnan movies, and I was very much in favour – I was a fan – of the James Bond era when there were lasers in space destroying the earth,” he said. “Just over the top, larger than life, where everything is in peril from a space laser, and Bond has got to stop it. Unlike the way the series has gone into Jason Bourne mode with Daniel Craig. I love Daniel’s films, but they went off in a different tangent.”

“I guess I made the last of the big Moonraker, Goldfinger type of James Bond films,” he added.

Sally Kirkland

Sally Kirkland died on November 11 at the age of 84. One of her earliest standout roles saw her make a memorable impression as Crystal opposite Robert Redford in The Sting. “I had a scene with Robert Redford, and the part was enough for me to sink my teeth into and for people to remember me,” she said in 2014. “Over the years, a lot of people have told me that their favourite Redford moment is when he is watching me strip with that huge grin on his face, holding a champagne glass in one hand and a bunch of roses in the other. Redford turned up for rehearsals and watched me in the wings. He said to me ‘Wow! Where did you learn how to do that?’”

Kirkland went on to appear in an eclectic mix of films, including The Way We Were, Big Bad Mama, Blazing Saddles, Breakheart Pass, A Star Is Born, Private Benjamin, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Best of the Best, Two Evil Eyes, Revenge, JFK, The Player, EDtv, Bruce Almighty, and more.

She achieved her greatest critical acclaim starring in Anna, a drama about a former Czech movie star who takes a younger woman under her wing to teach her the ins and outs of acting, only for her protégée to eclipse her own success. Kirkland desperately wanted the role, particularly after learning that director Yurek Bogayevicz didn’t think she was right for the character.

“I would stand in the rain outside Bogayevicz’s apartment waiting for him, so I could persuade him to cast me,” she said. “I sent him flowers all the time, and wrote him long letters.” The persistence paid off. She was eventually invited to audition, though she was committed to teaching an acting workshop in Australia and told Bogayevicz she couldn’t make it. He was stunned but agreed to wait. When she returned, she landed the role, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and winning the Golden Globe.

In addition to her film work, Kirkland appeared on numerous television series, including Kojak, Three’s Company, The Incredible Hulk, Charlie’s Angels, Falcon Crest, Roseanne, The Nanny, Criminal Minds, and more. She also starred in a short-lived soap opera based on Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls.

Udo Kier

Udo Kier died on November 23 at the age of 81. He first made a major impression after being cast as Baron von Frankenstein in Paul Morrissey’s Flesh for Frankenstein. When production wrapped, Kier headed to a cantina for a glass of wine—only for Morrissey to walk in and inform him that he would also be starring in Blood for Dracula.

“They were filming Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula back to back, and he said: ‘I guess we have a German Count Dracula now.’ I said: ‘Who?’ and he said: ‘You, but you have to lose 10 pounds in one week.’ I said: ‘No problem,’ and ate only salad leaves and water for a week,” Kier explained in a 2022 interview. “On the first day of shooting, I was introduced to Vittorio De Sica – this great Italian actor who was also in Dracula. I was so weak from only eating salad leaves and water, I was in a wheelchair because I couldn’t stand up.”

Over the decades that followed, Kier built one of the most eclectic and prolific careers in cinema, appearing in films such as Mark of the Devil, Story of O, Suspiria, My Own Private Idaho, For Love or Money, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Johnny Mnemonic, Barb Wire, The End of Violence, Armageddon, Blade, End of Days, Spy Games, BloodRayne, Grindhouse, Halloween, Iron Sky, Downsizing, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, Iron Sky: The Coming Race, and many more.

He also enjoyed a long and fruitful collaboration with director Lars von Trier, appearing in nearly all of his films, beginning with Epidemic in 1987 and continuing through Europa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Manderlay, Melancholia, and Nymphomaniac. Kier also appeared in von Trier’s cult horror miniseries The Kingdom.

On television, Kier made memorable appearances on series such as Red Shoe Diaries, seaQuest DSV, Nash Bridges, Chuck, Borgia, and Hunters.

Kier relished playing villainous characters, believing those roles left the strongest impression. “If you play small or guest parts in movies, it is better to be evil and scare people than be the guy who works in the post office and goes home to his wife and children,” he said in a 2021 interview. “Audiences will remember you more.”

Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard died on November 28 at the age of 88. The acclaimed playwright was best known for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a tragicomedy that unfolds “in the wings” of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play proved to be a career-defining breakthrough, earning Stoppard his first Tony Award when he was just thirty years old.

While Stoppard’s primary home was the theatre, he also made a significant impact in film. He was involved with the scripts for The Human Factor, Brazil, Empire of the Sun, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Russia House, Billy Bathgate, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Anna Karenina, and Tulip Fever.

He also wrote and directed the feature film adaptation of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, though his most celebrated cinematic work remains Shakespeare in Love. The romantic comedy tells a fictionalized story of William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and his romance with a young woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) who inspires the writing of Romeo and Juliet.

“There were moments when the challenge became, ‘How does Shakespeare speak when he’s just speaking to a friend?’” Stoppard said in 1998. “Does he sound like Shakespeare? Does he sound as though he’s going to be Shakespeare, or does he sound like anybody else?”

He continued, “The thing that makes life easier for someone writing fiction about Shakespeare is that there are very few signposts, very few agreed-upon facts and lots of spaces to invent [during his life from 1585-92]. Some of the film is pure mischief. But then again, you’re riding on the back of [Romeo and Juliet,] the most famous love story ever written, so there are lots of strands to work with.” Stoppard won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for the film.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa died on December 4 at the age of 75. He’s best known for bringing Shang Tsung to life in Paul W.S. Anderson’s Mortal Kombat, delivering a deliciously sinister turn that became one of the film’s standout elements. His take on the soul-stealing sorcerer proved so memorable that he later reprised the character in episodes of Mortal Kombat: Legacy and Mortal Kombat X: Generations, and even returned to lend both his voice and likeness to the character in the Mortal Kombat 11 video game.

“Mortal Combat, to me, is as classic a bad guy as I can create,” he said in a 2001 interview. “And when I did that, my choice was to go so far over the top for a few reasons. One is, I didn’t think I’d want to play the evil sorcerer again, and I wanted to give him a power and a strength that people would remember. One other thing was the dialogue. As actors, we are reading scripts, and I wasn’t familiar with the game, and when I saw the game, it made more sense. But even more so when I went to act it, I thought, ‘Oh, I can do this. I’ll give him the meanest, nastiest lines.’ And sure enough, it was fun. I never realized I was making him that mean. Sort of shocked me a bit, but certainly that was one of my greatest experiences in acting.“

And while Shang Tsung remains one of Tagawa’s most iconic roles, it represents just a fraction of a career that spanned more than four decades and encompassed far more than a single villainous performance. He appeared in movies such as Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Emperor, Twins, Licence to Kill, Nemesis, The Phantom, Snow Falling on Cedars, Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes, Elektra, Memoirs of a Geisha, 47 Ronin, Kubo and the Two Strings, and many more.

As for the small screen, he made appearances in shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Miami Vice, Moonlighting, Babylon 5, Nash Bridges, Stargate SG-1, Heroes, Revenge, Grimm, Star Wars: Rebels, Lost in Space, Star Wars: Visions, and Blue Eye Samurai. But his most prominent TV role found him playing Trade Minister Nobusuke Tagomi in The Man in the High Castle. The series took place in an alternate world where the Axis powers of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan rule the world after their victory in World War II.

Peter Greene

Peter Greene died on December 12 at the age of 60. He was best known for his chilling turn as the sadistic Zed in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and for playing gangster Dorian Tyrell in The Mask, both of which were released in 1994.

In a 2011 interview, Greene admitted that despite the excitement surrounding the project, he was initially reluctant to take part in Pulp Fiction. “There was this big buzz about Pulp Fiction and I hadn’t seen the script, and they wanted me in it. I didn’t know what the role was, so when I got the script, I was thoroughly disappointed,” he said. “The way it was written wasn’t my cup of tea. If you ever saw Deliverance, you never saw the guy who took Ned Beatty and made him ‘squeal like a pig’ ever again, so I didn’t think it was a great career move.”

Greene explained that he ultimately convinced Tarantino to let him approach the scene on his own terms. “Quentin, I don’t know why he pressed me to do it, but he came back a couple of times and then I finally said, ‘I’ll do it if I can do it any way I wanted to,’ thinking he would never allow me to do it,” he said. “And so we just improvised the whole scene. We kept the language that was there. It was a much more graphic scene originally.”

Beyond Pulp Fiction and The Mask, Greene appeared in films such as Judgment Night, The Usual Suspects, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, The Rich Man’s Wife, Blue Streak, Training Day, The Bounty Hunter, Tesla, and more. He also made memorable television appearances on Law & Order, Justified, Hawaii Five-0, Chicago P.D., Still the King, For Life, and The Continental: From the World of John Wick. Greene was also part of the main cast of The Black Donnellys, in which he played an Irish gangster.

Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, died on December 14. He was 78 years old, and she was 70.

As the son of legendary comedian and filmmaker Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner grew up with a towering legacy, and he once recalled telling his father that he wanted to change his name. “My father thought, ‘Oh, my God, this poor kid is worried about being in the shadow of a famous father,’” Reiner said. “And he says, ‘What do you want to change your name to?’ And I said, ‘Carl.’ I just wanted to be like him.”

Reiner began his career with early appearances on television series such as That Girl, Batman, Gomer Pyle – U.S.M.C., and The Beverly Hillbillies, but he achieved stardom playing Michael “Meathead” Stivic on All in the Family. The role became so iconic that Reiner later joked, “I could win the Nobel Prize, and the headline would read, ‘Meathead wins Nobel.’ I wear it as a badge of honor.”

After All in the Family ended, Reiner successfully reinvented himself as a filmmaker, launching his directing career with the rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, in which he also memorably appeared as documentary filmmaker Martin “Marty” Di Bergi. His final film, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, brought his career full circle.

As a director, Reiner built one of the most eclectic and beloved filmographies in Hollywood, helming The Sure Thing, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men, North, The American President, Ghosts of Mississippi, The Story of Us, Rumor Has It, The Bucket List, And So It Goes, and many more.

Reiner never abandoned acting, however, and continued to appear on screen when the right opportunity arose. His film credits include The Jerk, Throw Momma from the Train, Postcards from the Edge, Sleepless in Seattle, Mixed Nuts, The First Wives Club, EDtv, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Sandy Wexler. On television, he made memorable appearances on The Odd Couple, Frasier, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Simpsons, 30 Rock, New Girl, Hollywood, and The Bear.

Gil Gerard

Gil Gerard died on December 16 at the age of 82. He was best known for playing Buck Rogers in the classic sci-fi adventure series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The show followed the titular character, a 20th-century astronaut who becomes frozen in space for 504 years before awakening in the year 2491. Despite the project’s eventual success, Gerard was initially hesitant when producer Glen A. Larson approached him about taking on the role.

“I saw what it did to Adam West‘s career with Batman, and this was another cartoon character,” Gerard said. “I didn’t want to do this campy stuff.“

Eventually, however, Gerard came around, finding something relatable in Rogers’ personality and worldview. “I thought the character had a sense of reality about him,” he said. “The sense of humor I liked very much and his humanity, I liked. I thought it was kind of cool. He wasn’t a stiff kind of a guy. He was a guy who could solve problems on his feet, and he wasn’t a superhero.“

Originally intended as a made-for-TV movie, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was released theatrically in 1979, where it grossed $21 million. A weekly television series was quickly ordered, with the film re-edited to serve as the first two episodes. While the show only ran for two seasons, its impact and cult following have endured for decades.

Beyond Buck Rogers, Gerard appeared in films such as Airport ’77 and The Nice Guys, as well as a wide range of television series, including The Doctors, Baretta, Little House on the Prairie, Sidekicks, Drop Dead Diva, and Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

James Ransone

James Ransone died on December 19 at the age of 46. He was best known for his portrayal of Ziggy Sobotka in the second season of The Wire. The character became one of the season’s most memorable figures, sharply dividing fans who either loved or loathed him. As the series grew in stature over the years, Ransone found himself wrestling with how closely he was identified with Ziggy long after the show ended.

“I did [get annoyed at being recognized as Ziggy] for a long time and now some of it has aged with me being more mature. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I should embrace that.’ It’s part of what I did. I should accept that my career wouldn’t be as rich as it is had I not done that,” he said in 2016. “I mistook people’s perception of me as a projection of them thinking that I was weak or incompetent or that I was that person. I don’t know what they’re thinking so that’s none of my business if they think I’m that character. If they do that’s fine because that means they were really invested in the story that I was lucky enough to be a part of. Some of it also is it was so long ago. I don’t think about it. To me it was 14 years ago.“

Ransone later reunited with The Wire creator David Simon on the HBO miniseries Generation Kill and went on to play a recurring role on Simon’s Treme, further cementing a creative partnership that extended beyond his breakout role.

His television work also included appearances on Law & Order, How to Make It in America, Burn Notice, Low Winter Sun, Bosch, Mosaic, The First, SEAL Team, and Poker Face. On the big screen, Ransone appeared in films such as A Dirty Shame, Inside Man, Prom Night, The Next Three Days, Sinister, Starlet, Red Hook Summer, Broken City, Oldboy, Tangerine, Sinister II, In a Valley of Violence, It Chapter Two, The Black Phone, V/H/S/85, and Black Phone 2.

Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot died on December 28 at the age of 91. She made her film debut in Crazy for Love, later appearing in films such as Marina, The Girl in the Bikini, Act of Love, Concert of Intrigue, and Helen of Troy before becoming an international sensation with And God Created Woman. The film pushed the boundaries of on-screen sexuality for its time, earning a “C” for “Condemned” rating from the Catholic National Legion of Decency. It also cemented Bardot’s image as a pop-culture icon, saddling her with the nickname “sex kitten,” as audiences around the world couldn’t get enough of her.

Bardot went on to star in films including The Truth, A Very Private Affair, Contempt, Dear Brigitte, Shalako, and many others, but she abruptly stepped away from acting in 1973 while shooting The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot. While on location, she made her decision clear to a journalist: “I’m done with movies. It’s over — this film is the last one. I’m sick of it.“

Following her retirement from the screen, Bardot devoted herself entirely to animal rights activism. She became a vegetarian and founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the welfare and protection of animals, using her fame to campaign against seal hunting, bullfighting, poaching, the farming of horse meat, and other forms of animal cruelty. As she later explained, “I gave my beauty and my youth to men,” she said. “I am going to give my wisdom and experience, the best of me, to animals.“

Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Isiah Whitlock Jr. died on December 30 at the age of 71. He was best known for playing Clayton “Clay” Davis in The Wire, a corrupt Maryland State Senator with a reputation for pocketing bribes and getting into trouble. He was fantastic in the role, which was made all the more popular by his catchphrase. No one could stretch out the word shit as he could, and series creator David Simon knew it would follow the actor for the rest of his life.

“I remember at the closing night party, David Simon came up to me and he said, ‘You know you’re going to have to live with that.’ I said, ‘Eh, you know, in a year or so it’s going to be over.’ He said, ‘I don’t know,’ and it turned into everywhere I went,” Whitlock Jr. told The AV Club. “And I’m talking like around the world. I heard people saying —I saw it in Amsterdam on the other side of the tracks, written in like graffiti with a guy who looked like Fat Albert. I guess that was supposed to be me—I had a problem with that part. [Laughs.] But it was this [graffiti drawing] saying it, and I thought, ‘You know, I’m going to have to deal with this.’“

The actor also frequently collaborated with director Spike Lee, appearing in films such as 25th Hour, She Hate Me, Red Hook Summer, Chi-Raq, BlacKkKlansman, and Da 5 Bloods. In fact, his catchphrase didn’t actually originate in The Wire, but was first said in 25th Hour.

Whitlock Jr. also built an extensive film and television résumé, appearing in movies such as Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Goodfellas, Eddie, 1408, Enchanted, Choke, Cedar Rapids, The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, Pete’s Dragon, Cars 3, The Old Man & the Gun, I Care a Lot, Lightyear, and Cocaine Bear. On television, his credits were just as impressive, with memorable roles on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NYPD Blue, Chappelle’s Show, Rubicon, The Good Wife, Veep, The Blacklist, Gotham, Lucifer, The Mist, The Good Cop, Your Honor, and countless others.

Other notables we lost this year include Ernest Saves Christmas actor Bill Byrge, Enchanted April actress Dame Joan Plowright, Mr. Belvedere actor Bob Uecker, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter actor Horst Janson, Annie Hall actor Tony Roberts, Street Fighter actor Peter “Navy” Tuiasosopo, Full Metal Jacket actor Kevyn Major Howard, Ellen actress Alice Hirson, Grosse Pointe Blank director George Armitage, Pee-wee’s Playhouse actress Lynne Marie Stewart, The Facts of Life actor John Lawlor, West Side Story actress Carole D’Andrea, Tough Guys Don’t Dance actor Wings Hauser, Little House on the Prairie actor Jack Lilley, Mad Max: Fury Road fight coordinator Richard Norton, Dennis the Menace actor Jay North, Boston Public actor Nicky Katt, First Blood director Ted Kotcheff, Upstairs, Downstairs actress and co-creator Jean Marsh, The Wire actor Charles Joseph Scalies Jr., Happy Gilmore actor Morris the Alligator, Drag Me to Hell actress Lorna Raver, Manifest actor Devin Harjes, Big Trouble in Little China actor Peter Kwong, Weeds actress Renée Victor, Sanford and Son actress Lynn Hamilton, Spider-Man actor Jack Betts, The Empire Strikes Back actor Kenneth Colley, Hogan’s Heroes actor Kenneth Washington, The Cannonball Run actor Alfie Wise, King of the Hill actor and musician Chuck Mangione, Coming Home editor Don Zimmerman, The Dark Knight Rises actor Alon Aboutboul, The Walking Dead actress Kelley Mack, Get Smart actor David Ketchum, What’s Happening!! actress Danielle Spencer, Alice actress Polly Holliday, Freddy vs Jason actress Paula Shaw, Port Charles actress Patricia Crowley, Harry Potter production designer Stuart Craig, Vice Principals actress Kimberly Hébert Gregory, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor Floyd Roger Myers Jr, Terminator 2: Judgment Day cinematographer Adam Greenberg, Ran actor Tatsuya Nakadai, The Fantastic Four actor Carl Ciarfalio, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius actor Jeff Garcia, and Murphy Brown actor Pat Finn.

The post In Memoriam 2025 Tribute: All Those We Lost in Movies & TV appeared first on JoBlo.

Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III came out 35 years ago after a slight delay and was drastically different from Part 2, which itself was drastically different from Part 1. The franchise moved from a failed but very fun company (Cannon) to one that knew a thing or two about building horror franchises (New Line Cinema). Gone was the over-the-top silliness of the second movie. Instead, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III aimed for a return to form, or at least an attempt at one, with gritty, harsh kills, completely unlikable characters, and the hope of box office success that could launch a new killer franchise to be milked for years to come. I revisited Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 recently and had a complete turnaround on it in the most positive way. Will the opposite happen today, or does Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III stand the test of time? Let’s find out if the saw really is family.

The Plot

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre became a somewhat unlikely series in 1986, twelve years after the original, when Cannon Films and Tobe Hooper released a tonally different sequel. It did okay at the box office, pulling in about $8 million on a $4.5 million budget, but Cannon wasn’t in a position to continue the series. They burned bright but brief, and later efforts like the gloriously stupid Masters of the Universe helped shut them down. Enter New Line Cinema, the house that Freddy built. They scooped up the rights with hopes of turning the franchise into another Nightmare on Elm Street–level moneymaker. Studio head Bob Shaye fast-tracked the project so aggressively that a teaser trailer was shot before casting, a finished script, or even a director were in place.

Some say Kane Hodder appears as Leatherface in that teaser. Even if that’s untrue, he did perform stunts in the film and played Leatherface in select sequences, making him the only man to portray Jason, Leatherface, and technically Freddy’s hand in Jason Goes to Hell. The teaser tells you nothing about the actual movie, but man, it’s a cool one.

Tobe Hooper was approached to return and even submitted a treatment, but commitments to Spontaneous Combustion pulled him away. The studio considered a wild lineup of replacements: Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, Scott Spiegel, Renny Harlin… but none worked out. Instead, we got Jeff Burr, one of my favorite journeyman directors. Burr, who sadly passed in 2023, gave us gems like From a Whisper to a Scream, Night of the Scarecrow, Puppet Master 4 & 5, and Pumpkinhead II. The script was written by David J. Schow, known for Critters 3 & 4, The Crow, and later The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. His original draft was far darker and more graphic, but studio mandates cut it down, pun intended, out of fear it would limit release and appeal.

The cast includes Kate Hodge (She-Wolf of London), William Butler (Ghoulies II, Friday the 13th Part VII), and of course Ken Foree, who has more horror credits than I could reasonably list. The Sawyer family features an early role from Viggo Mortensen, alongside Joe Unger (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Jennifer Banko (Friday the 13th Part VII), Miriam Byrd-Nethery (From a Whisper to a Scream), Tom Everett (Best of the Best), and R.A. Mihailoff as Leatherface. Gore effects were handled by KNB, though significantly toned down.

Production was chaotic. Originally planned for a Texas shoot on 16mm, filming moved to California and was done on 35mm. Viggo Mortensen broke ribs during a fight scene. Fires caused safety concerns. Jeff Burr was fired, rehired, and asked to remove his name, only to find the film already shipped with credits intact.

The movie opens with a Leatherface kill before introducing Michelle and Ryan, who stop at a remote gas station and unknowingly encounter members of the Sawyer clan. After being attacked by Leatherface and a family member named Tinker, they cross paths with a survivalist named Benny. Chaos ensues, bodies drop, and the survivors escape… only to hear the chainsaw roar once more.

Signs of the Time

Let’s start with something familiar: early horror appearances from future stars. We talked about this recently with Halloween 6, and today’s surprise actor is Viggo Mortensen. While not quite Ant-Man level, a three-time Oscar nominee who knows hobbits bow to no man is still a fascinating pull. His career clearly splits into pre- and post-Lord of the Rings. Post-Rings gives us The Road, Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, and Green Book. But pre-Rings Viggo is just plain fun: The Prophecy, Prison, Young Guns II. Absolute must-watches.

Then there’s Ken Foree, one of the greatest journeyman horror actors ever. Need a Lovecraftian tough guy? Give him a tank top. Need someone who can plausibly stand up to Zombie’s Michael Myers? He’s your guy. Zombies overrunning the mall? Let him cook with a monologue. Just an all-around legend.

On the directing side, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III fits neatly into the early ’90s era of journeyman directors, guys like Jeff Burr, John Carl Buechler, Brian Yuzna, Jim Wynorski, and Ted Nicolaou. These filmmakers often worked on low-profile projects that still earn cult love today.

The film also exists in a strange limbo: an early ’90s movie that still feels like the ’80s, while trying to channel the nihilism of the ’70s.

What Holds Up?

The opening crawl is surprisingly effective and may be the best one not narrated by John Larroquette. It sets the stage for a film that genuinely tries to course-correct after Part 2’s silliness.

The Sawyer family is at least interesting: the mother’s voice box, Tinker’s hook hand, Viggo Mortensen playing Tex as a gay man, and Leatherface himself being unsettling, even if a bit over the top. While it’s nowhere near the scene-stealing heights of R. Lee Ermey in the remake and prequel, it’s leagues better than entries like Texas Chainsaw 3D.

The gore was heavily cut after earning an initial X rating, but what remains mostly works. One death was changed from something straight out of Bone Tomahawk to a subtler and arguably more horrifying hammer kill. The Warner Archive Blu-ray restores some of the gore, but both cuts at least make do.

And yes, that teaser trailer still rules. It just hurts that the movie never lives up to it.

What Doesn’t Hold Up?

First of all: release the original script, you cowards. Censoring a movie called Texas Chainsaw Massacre is absurd. The film flopped anyway, why not let it be infamous?

The characters are another weak spot. Viggo Mortensen and Ken Foree carry the load, but no one else really stands out. Leatherface looks cool and the performance is fine, but he never feels as brutal or formidable as he should. The protagonists aren’t particularly likable, even if you sympathize with what they endure.

At the end of the day, it’s a story we’ve seen before, and one the franchise would keep telling over and over. This series isn’t much of a series. And while Halloween also has atrocious continuity, it simply has more enjoyable one-off entries to choose from.

Verdict

I was deeply disappointed revisiting Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. In my personal head canon, no pun intended, the Cannon sequel was the disposable one, and this was supposed to restore credibility to the franchise. Instead, I’ve come to appreciate what a gem Part 2 really is and just how much wasted potential Part 3 represents. I don’t blame the cast or crew; too much was changed before shooting and too much was cut afterward.

Like Hellraiser III, it’s still worth watching as part of the franchise’s history… but unfortunately, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III does not stand the test of time.

A couple of the previous episodes of The Test of Time can be seen below. To see more, click over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

The post Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) – A Gritty Comeback That Never Quite Lands appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

Let’s take loving look back at 1979’s The Warriors — a film that probably needs no introduction. It’s a full-blown classic, and even people who’ve never seen it recognize its dialogue.

What many don’t know is just how cursed the production really was. “Suffer for your art” took on a whole new meaning during the making of this movie, and the behind-the-scenes stories are almost as wild as the film itself.

What Is The Warriors About?

For the uninitiated (get it? Because it’s a gang movie), The Warriors follows a Coney Island gang in the late ’70s forced to fight their way from New York City back home while every gang in the city hunts them down.

They’re framed for a murder they didn’t commit, and suddenly it’s kill or be killed — basically a grimy, neon-lit urban Hunger Games with leather vests and baseball bats.

And yes… you can dig it.

From Novel to Screen: A Risky Adaptation

The film is a loose adaptation of Sol Yurick’s 1965 novel, which leaned far more into character psychology and social themes than action. While the movie carries some of that DNA, Walter Hill transformed it into a pure survival thriller.

The book was already a bestseller by 1969, and American International Pictures snapped up the rights — but the project stalled. The material was raw, intimate, and violent, making studios hesitant.

Eventually, producer Lawrence Gordon acquired the rights and hired David Shaber (Hard Times) to write the script. Shaber sent the script to his friend Walter Hill with one simple request: read it and direct it.

Hill loved it — but doubted anyone would let them make it.

He was wrong.

How Paramount Greenlit The Warriors

Hill and Gordon took the script to Paramount Pictures, promising a fast, cheap shoot. Paramount greenlit the movie almost immediately, and pre-production began.

That’s where things started to get messy.

Casting Realism Over Star Power

This was never going to be a movie with Al Pacino or Jack Nicholson. Hill wanted unknown actors so the world would feel authentic — and many cast members were real gang affiliates.

Originally, the role of Cyrus was supposed to be played by an actual gang leader. He vanished the night before filming. Roger Hill stepped in at the last minute and delivered one of the most iconic speeches in movie history.

Michael Beck and Deborah Van Valkenburgh were cast as Swan and Mercy, with James Remar (Ajax), Dorsey Wright (Cleon), David Patrick Kelly (Luther), Tom McKitterick (Cowboy), and the unforgettable Lynne Thigpen as the DJ.

The Fox Incident: Firing an Actor On Screen

One of the most infamous moments in the production involved Thomas G. Waites, cast as Fox.

Hill admired his performance in All My Children but clashed with him constantly on set. The shoot was brutal: real NYC streets, real gangs nearby, minimal security, freezing overnight shoots.

During the subway fight scene, Hill instructed the stunt coordinator to improvise Fox’s death — effectively firing Waites on camera. That haunting shot of Fox being thrown in front of the train was Hill’s way of writing him out.

Waites demanded his name be removed from the credits. Years later, both men admitted regret and eventually made peace.

Filming Conditions: Controlled Chaos

The production couldn’t afford seasoned stunt performers, so stunt coordinator Craig R. Baxley ran a crash-course “stunt school” for the cast.

They shot almost exclusively from sunset to sunrise to avoid daylight, with most locations being real parks, subways, and neighborhoods. New Yorkers appear throughout the film simply because they were there.

The result? A movie that feels raw, dangerous, and alive.

“Warriors, Come Out to Play” Was Improvised

David Patrick Kelly’s iconic bottle-clinking taunt wasn’t scripted. Hill asked the actors to improvise, Kelly returned from a cigarette break clanking bottles, and Hill knew instantly he had gold.

They shot it exactly as is.

Release, Riots, and Controversy

Released in February 1979 in 670 theaters, The Warriors had almost no marketing. It quickly gained momentum, earning $3.5 million on a $4 million budget — until reports of real-world violence broke out at screenings across the country.

Over 200 theaters hired extra security.

Critics were divided. Many praised its style and energy, while Gene Siskel famously gave it one star, dismissing it as juvenile.

How The Warriors Became a Cult Classic

International releases were heavily censored. The director’s cut later restored Hill’s original vision, including comic-book transitions and mythic framing.

Over time, critics reassessed the film:

• 88% on Rotten Tomatoes
• 65 on Metacritic
• Named one of The New York Times’ “1,000 Greatest Films Ever Made”
• Ranked among the most controversial films ever by Entertainment Weekly

Hill later expressed amazement that audiences still embraced the film decades later.

Should The Warriors Be Remade?

It doesn’t need one — but imagining a version directed by Paul Thomas Anderson or Shane Black is undeniably tempting.

Final Verdict

The Warriors is a movie so intense that even the real gang members involved couldn’t handle the heat. A miracle it exists at all — and proof that sometimes chaos creates classics.

The post WTF Happened to The Warriors? Inside the Chaotic, Dangerous Making of a Cult Classic appeared first on JoBlo.

Tyler

2025 was a strong year for horror overall—but not every film made us scream for the right reasons. While the genre delivered plenty of hits (check out our list of the 10 Best Horror Movies of the Year), there were also a handful of releases that made us regret even stepping into the theater. Below are the worst horror movies of 2025, ranked from disappointing to outright disastrous.

5. The Home

Honestly, I almost didn’t put this one on the list because, as stupid as it is, it falls pretty heavily into the so bad, it’s good category. Watch as Pete Davidson has to work at a nursing home as a form of probation because of… his graffiti work? Wait, is that really all he does? Christ. Davidson is such a boring lead, and everything looks so stale and lifeless. The final ten minutes are so batshit insane that it’s one of the most entertaining things you could imagine. Maybe it’s just because the prior 80 minutes are so stale that it makes that ending seem better than it is. But boy oh boy is it stupid fun.

4. I Know What You Did Last Summer

If you’re ever wondering how not to make a legacy sequel, be sure to check out I Know What You Did Last Summer, as it’s among the worst we’ve gotten. With lame kills, an infuriating cast, dumb red herrings, and some of the cringiest dialogue I’ve ever heard, this is one bad time. I don’t know who approved this dumb Sarah Michelle Gellar zombie dream sequence, but they should probably live the rest of their life in shame. And then there’s the absolutely boneheaded decision to make Freddie Prinze Jr.’s Ray one of the killers. Nothing like shitting on the prior films in one fell swoop. It doesn’t help that Jennifer Love Hewitt looks and sounds like she doesn’t even want to be there. Me neither, girl.

3. The Ritual

I’ve always said that the biggest crime a film can commit is being boring. I can stand terrible movies so long as they have some entertainment value, but it’s hard to be entertained by boring. And there are few films more boring than The Ritual. How many times are we going to get a film based on “the real events behind The Exorcist”? As it turns out, the quote-unquote “real” part of this amounts to very little, and we just watch Dan Stevens and Al Pacino in a standard possession film. It all feels very been there, done that. And there’s not even some over-the-top Pacino performance to get a kick out of.

2. Wolf Man

After The Invisible Man, it really seemed like Leigh Whannell had discovered the formula for updating the classic Universal Monsters. Then he decided to make a Wolf Man movie that doesn’t actually have a Wolf Man in it. It could have just been called The Diseased Man, and it would have been more accurate. Even Julia Garner couldn’t save this film from being so misguided that I question what on earth the filmmakers were even thinking. I’ve yet to meet a single person who likes this movie, so please, get in those comments if you happen to be one of them. I’m starting to believe they don’t exist.

1. The Strangers: Chapter 2

This certainly does not bode well for the third entry in the series, but they made just about every wrong decision they could have with this second one. Giving us the follow-up to Chapter 1, where after the home invasion of Maya and her boyfriend, we now see the aftermath as she hangs out in a hospital. And in the woods. And battles a boar. No, seriously. It really just felt like they were stretching this one out until the finale. Also, whose big idea was it to only reveal one of the Strangers when that was the entire marketing campaign behind it? Sure, we can assume that this guy is one, but there’s only one girl that’s fully revealed, and that’s told to the audience in the first minute of the film. Like… what are we even doing here?

So, as good as this year was for horror, there were definitely some stinkers as well. Make sure to get in those comments and let us know which were your favorites, which were the worst, and what you’re looking forward to in 2026. Let us know, and fingers crossed for a strong horror slate in 2026.

The post The 5 Worst Horror Movies of 2025 appeared first on JoBlo.

Tyler

It’s the end of 2025, so you know what that means: rounding up our favourite films of the year! From singing vampires to couples melding together to alien splatterfests, this was a pretty eclectic year. It felt like the year of the original movie, with only one sequel and two adaptations making our list—and that feels damn good. So here’s JoBlo Horror’s Best Films of 2025.

And, as can be expected for any Best of the Year list, spoilers ahead!

10. Dangerous Animals

I love a good shark movie, and Dangerous Animals certainly fits the bill. With an unhinged performance from Jai Courtney and a more grounded approach to the sharks themselves, there’s a lot to like about this film. The concept of a man kidnapping people is already horrifying enough, but then using those people as live bait for sharks is a whole other kind of insane. We don’t often get good shark movies, so it’s worth celebrating when we finally get one that’s more than silly jump scares. Just don’t expect me to be going on any shark-diving expeditions anytime soon. No thank you.

9. Together

Body horror has been in a good place this decade, with last year’s The Substance being among the year’s best. And while this one doesn’t go nearly as hard, Together has plenty of great moments for the squeamish. With real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie stepping away from city life to enjoy the countryside—only to come across a weird ritual site that causes them to start to fuse together. It’s a tale of relationships and codependency, resulting in plenty of gross-out moments.

8. The Monkey

I love the idea of people dying in over-the-top ways. I mean, hell, there are two entries on this list that feature that, so that may be a bit of an understatement. But The Monkey manages to tell the story of a monkey toy that causes the deaths of those around it in absurdly over-the-top ways. And it gets so crazy that the only appropriate reaction is to simply laugh at it all. Osgood Perkins is a unique filmmaker, and it’s impressive to see how he was able to expand upon Stephen King’s short story. I still remember being in the theater going, “Wait, is that fucking Adam Scott?”

7. Final Destination: Bloodlines

As a big fan of the Final Destination franchise, I never expected it to come back—let alone come back in such a strong way. The idea of focusing on an accident in the past involving over a hundred people, to the point where they have kids and grandkids and death has to come after generations of family members, is pretty brilliant. This manages to be extremely violent while still keeping the series’ wry sense of humor. This has some all-timer deaths in it and makes me excited for the franchise’s future. And I will always love that beautiful moment with Tony Todd, in one of his last-ever roles.

6. Sinners

I know some people will be upset about Sinners’ placement on this list, but hey—at least it’s on here at all. Ryan Coogler managed to create a vampire movie that transcended the horror genre and earned worldwide praise. It’s already been nominated for some Golden Globes and is likely to get some Oscar noms as well. And it’s no surprise: this story expertly weaves together vampires, sex, music, and evil racism in a way that both makes you think and entertains. Michael B. Jordan really gets to flex those acting muscles as twin brothers, and Jack O’Connell makes for one devilish vampire. Come for the vampires, stay for the soulful tunes.

5. Bring Her Back

Speaking of awards consideration, dear God—should Sally Hawkins be getting some kind of accolades for her performance as a grieving mother who is willing to do absolutely terrible things to, quote-unquote, “bring her back.” There are some genuinely unnerving moments, like this boy chomping on everything in sight, including a knife. There are few films that have made me squirm as much as this one, and it’s a truly satisfying narrative by the end. The less said about this one, the better. Just go watch it.

4. Companion

Reminder that at the beginning of this article I said spoilers, because this has to be experienced as purely as possible. Set in the future, a couple played by Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher head out on a weekend getaway with friends. We find out that she’s actually a robot and has been hacked for nefarious reasons—so now she has to fight back for her own autonomy. It’s a brilliantly written script that features both an intriguing and terrifying future. Thatcher is a great lead who delivers a nuanced performance, and Quaid is so good you just love to hate him. And can we talk about the marketing for a moment? Why on earth did they spoil this film? Why, oh why!? I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive that blunder.

3. Jimmy and Stiggs

I love a film set in a single location that manages to still be entertaining throughout, and Jimmy and Stiggs is a downright blast. Writer-director Joe Begos also stars in this low-budget film about a guy who, in a drug- and alcohol-fueled stupor, must fend off aliens within his apartment. This may have genuinely been my favorite theatrical experience of the entire year. I had a smile on my face the entire time, as it’s so batshit insane. I sang this movie’s praises so hard that I was lucky enough to appear on the cover of the physical release. This is “an absolutely bonkers splatterfest” that reminds me of why I love both 16mm film and practical FX.

2. The Long Walk

Just like the story, things are pretty simple here: The Long Walk is one of the best Stephen King adaptations we’ve had this century. It takes the concept of a group of teens walking and makes it absolutely harrowing, with the momentum never breaking or the need to add some other element. The walk is all we need. The characters and their dialogue feel straight out of classic King, like Stand by Me. You feel for these boys with every death, as they come to some very violent ends. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson have you rooting for them to the very end.

1. Weapons

Weapons is arguably just the plain ol’ best film of the year—horror or not (in fact – it also made our non-horror best of 2025 list). Its storyline approach, giving us different character perspectives and jumping all over the timeline, almost feels like Pulp Fiction’s witchy little baby. The first half is pure confusion as you’re trying to parse out what the hell happened to this classroom full of kids. When it’s finally revealed, we’re met with one of the greatest villains of the modern era: Amy Madigan as Gladys. Her look, her demeanor, and her actions make for the stuff of nightmares. And she has one of the greatest—and most deserving—deaths in all of horror. Zach Cregger has cemented himself as one of the most intriguing names in the genre.

The post The 10 Best Horror Movies of 2025! appeared first on JoBlo.

2025 was another great year for television. We’ve had a ton of new series and returning favorites over the last twelve months, including a masterpiece from Stephen Graham, the sensational conclusion to a Star Wars series, and follow-up seasons to perennially great shows. We could barely keep up with everything, from event series to revivals, comedies, dramas, and genre offerings. With hundreds of shows to choose from and thousands of hours of programming, here is our list of the best television series of 2025.

Honorable Mentions

MobLand, Black Rabbit, Landman, Murderbot, Chad Powers, The Beast in Me, Poker Face, The Righteous Gemstones, Stick, Bad Thoughts, The Bear, Hal & Harper, Death by Lightning

There have been many good shows this year, but not enough to make it into our top twenty. Of all the shows reviewed in 2025, the above series is worth checking out if you have already plowed through the top series listed below. From returning series to limited-run events and unique genre offerings, there are many quality shows that we just couldn’t fit into our top list. Check out reviews for each series by clicking the title above.

20. Dying for Sex (FX on Hulu)

Based on a true story, this limited series follows Michelle Williams as Molly Kochan who learns she is dying with mere months to live. Molly leaves her husband and embarks on exploring her sexuality while she still can. A hilarious look at mortality and sexual identity, this series is also about the close friendship between Molly and her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate), on whose podcast this series is based. A beautiful series with amazing performances from Williams and Slate as well as supporting players Rob Delaney, Jay Duplass, and Sissy Spacek amongst others. Definitely an emotional ride but one full of hope and humor.

Read our review here.

19. American Primeval (Netflix)

From creator Mark L. Smith (Untamed, Twisters) and director Peter Berg, this western started 2025 with a bang. Chronicling the clash between the Mormons settling Utah in 1857 with the indigineous people living there, this is a brutal and powerful series about a forgotten chapter of American history. Led by Taylor Kitsch, Dane DeHaan, and Betty Gilpin, this is a stunning western unlike any others on the small screen and the perfect streaming binge for those who love their history with a heaping dose of violence and drama.

Read our review here.

18. The Studio (AppleTV)

A hilariously cringy comedy about the inner workings of a Hollywood movie studio, this series from creators Seth Rogeen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez is a hilarious satire in the same vein as This is the End blended with The Player. Full of celebrity cameos and brilliant writing, the cast is top notch including great performances ffrom Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, Kathryn Hahn, and Bryan Cranston. I laughed hard through the entire first season and cannot figure out how Rogen manages to be great in this and his other AppleTV series, Platonic, but he proves once again to be one of the hardest working people in Hollywood.

Read our review here.

17. The White Lotus (HBO)

Mike White somehow keeps improving on his original concept that was designed as a limited series. Shifting to Thailand, the third season connects to the first two entries in interesting ways while creating fascinating parallel storylines for the ensemble cast. With fantastic performances from Jason Isaacs, Carrie Coon, and Patrick Schwarzenegger, this series is showcase for the always fantastic Walton Goggins while featuring Sam Rockwell delivering one of the greatest monologues in recent memory. Bring on the fourth season so we can see if there is any way it can improve on this great third run.

Read our review here.

16. Daredevil: Born Again (Disney+)

After seven years, the end of Netflix’s street level heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe join the main timeline with Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprising their fan favorite roles in a partial reboot/continuation of the Daredevil storyline. Setting up a showdown in the second season, the first season combined references to other elements of the MCU while keeping the focus on the Man Without Fear and his nemesis who is now Mayor of New York City. A perfectly timed entry for our politically contentious times, this is a brilliant and brutal evolution for Marvel Studios that made fans very happy.

Read our review here.

15. Paradise (Hulu)

If you passed judgment on the new series from Dan Fogelman, the creator of This Is Us, and the star of that series, Sterling K. Brown, you missed out on one of the biggest plot twists of all time. What starts as a political thriller turns into a dystopian drama about survival. Taking the form of a murder mystery, Brown and co-stars Julianne Nicholson and James Marsden delivered one of the biggest surprises of the year and one of the most intriguing new series in a long time. With season two already set to premiere in a few months, catch up on this one if you haven’t seen it already.

Read our review here.

14. Fallout (Prime Video)

The first season of Fallout debuted and put it in the running as one of the best video game adaptations of all time. Continuing the story of Vault dweller Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), Brotherhood of Steel knight Maximus (Aaron Moten), and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), the second season adds even more settings and characters from the video game franchise while expanding this entirely original foray into the world of a post-nuclear world. With new cast member Justin Theroux joining as Robert House, the new season is every bit worth the wait and a great way to end this solid year of small-screen goodness.

Read our season two review here.

13. Chief of War (AppleTV)

Jason Momoa’s passion project, which explores the unification of the Hawaiian islands into a single kingdom, is a massive achievement. Co-created by Momoa with Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, the actor stars, produces, and co-wrote each episode, as well as helms the epic finale. With a solid ensemble that performs the series entirely in the nearly extinct Hawaiian language, this series is action-packed and emotionally resonant, providing insight into a history that many of us have never learned about. The first season in an ongoing series, this is a story that could not have been done as a feature film and works thanks to the long format of the small screen and the deep pockets of Apple Studios.

Read our review here.

12. Alien: Earth (FX on Hulu)

After the box office success of Alien: Romulus, Fargo creator Noah Hawley has taken the iconic xenomorph franchise into a new direction by bringing the deadly aliens to Earth. Led by Sydney Chandler, a human/android hybrid who leads a Peter Pan-inspired team, Hawley’s series combines canon from the film series and brings it into a new setting that expands the types of creatures Weyland-Yutani has pursued, while also providing character-based drama that has worked well in the showrunner’s acclaimed projects. This series has been divisive for fans of the movies, but those who appreciate great storytelling have found a lot to dig into in this series.

Read our review here.

11. Dope Thief (AppleTV)

Peter Craig’s adaptation of the novel of the same name, Dope Thief, rests on the sensational performances from Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as childhood best friends who pose as DEA agents to rob drug houses. When they cross the wrong gang, the pair becomes the target of criminals, as well as the veteran agent (Marin Ireland) caught in the crossfire. Nesta Cooper and Kate Mulgrew are excellent in supporting roles, but this is another showcase for Henry and Moura who have proven time and again to be two of the best actors working today.

Read our review here.

10. It: Welcome To Derry (HBO)

Jason Fuchs teamed with Andy and Barbara Muschietti to expand the backstory of Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgaard) hinted at in Stephen King’s original novel. Taking the story back twenty-seven years before the events of the feature films, this series forges connections to King’s multiverse, including The Dark Tower and The Shining, while carefully building more about the origin of Pennywise. With King’s seal of approval, this series may be the single best expansion of the horror author’s works, earning a spot alongside Muschietti’s movies. With the season finale hinting at more chapters to come, this could be the start of the scariest television series ever.

Read our review here.

9. The Chair Company (HBO)

Tim Robinson’s unique brand of comedy has already resulted in one of the best movies of the year (Friendship). This series, which has already been greenlit for a second season, expands on similar themes to Robinson and co-creator Zach Kanin’s film work by blending cringe humor with a surreal mystery. This is an incredibly engaging story that should have been too stupid to become an HBO project. Thankfully, HBO has taken a chance and allowed the world to experience Tim Robinson at his weirdest. Now, we need to determine the extent of the conspiracy behind how Robinson consistently attracts so much talent to appear in his projects.

Read our review here.

8. The Last of Us (HBO)

The first season of the video game adaptation was heralded as one of the best adaptations of all time. The second season continues that hype by taking on the first half of the sequel to the titular game. Once again, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are perfectly cast as Joel and Ellie. Joel’s fate caught those not familiar with the game off guard, but it still managed to capture the raw emotion of the scene and set up the eventual clash between Ellie and Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) that will happen in the third season. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann remain faithful to the games while still expanding elements of the story to keep the series fresh, making this one of the best sophomore seasons ever.

Read our season two review here.

7. The Lowdown (FX)

It is rare for an actor to deliver one of the best performances of the year on television and the big screen, but Ethan Hawke has done it this year. Created by Reservation Dogs’ Sterlin Harjo, Hawke leads the series as Lee Raybon, a writer and journalist in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who gets embroiled in a murder conspiracy involving local criminals, white supremacists, and politicians that could make his career. Well, that is if he survives. With Kyle MacLachlan, Tim Blake Nelson, and Jeanne Tripplehorn in the cast, Hawke gets to emulate The Big Lebowski but with his own signature style. This is a fun series that is one of the most entertaining performances that the actor has put on screen, and paired with his Blue Moon performance, shows that he is still one of the singular acting talents of our time.

Read our review here.

6. Task (HBO)

Brad Ingelsby ranked on this list back in 2021 with Mare of Easttown. The showrunner and writer returns to the unique outskirts of Philadelphia with this crime saga following Catholic priest turned FBI agent Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) and his titular task force as they investigate a string of robberies led by Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) that ignites a war with a crime ring in their town. There are echoes of Michael Mann’s Heat combined with the small-town charm of Inglesby’s previous HBO series that result in stellar performances from Ruffalo and Pelphrey, as well as supporting turns from Emilia Jones and Martha Plimpton. Presented as a limited series, Task has been renewed for a second season that will surely make its way onto this list again next year.

Read our review here.

5. The Pitt (HBO Max)

Despite legal proceedings from the estate of Michael Crichton citing similarities between this show and the long-running NBC medical drama ER, The Pitt is already returning in just a few weeks for its sophomore season. Set in real-time with each episode chronicling an hour in a shift at a Pittsburgh emergency room, the series stars Noah Wyle playing a doctor suffering from PTSD due to the COVID-10 pandemic. ER defined the medical drama and The Pitt plays in that same sandbox, but without any of the network limits that prevent some of the intense visuals seen in this series. A great binge watch with great acting and propulsive momentum that does not let up for the entire season.

Read our review here.

4. Pluribus (AppleTV)

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has reunited with his Better Call Saul star, Rhea Seehorn, for this wholly original take on the end of the world. Seehorn plays romance novelist Carol Sturka, who is one of only a handful of people left after an alien pathogen turns the world into a collective consciousness. Full of pitch black comedy, prescient social insight, and another awards-worthy performance from Seehorn, Pluribus is the most original new series to debut this year and will hopefully keep airing for several seasons to come.

Read our review here.

3. Andor (Disney+)

The first season of Andor was unlike any Star Wars project, as it chronicled the Empire and Rebellion in their infancy, with the ground-level denizens of the galaxy far, far away vying for control and freedom. Diego Luna reprised his role as Cassian Andor in these four mini-movies. Each set of three episodes follows a consecutive year leading up to the events of Rogue One, as Cassian becomes increasingly vital to the Rebellion. Boasting no Jedi or Sith but keeping Mon Mothma and other season one characters in the mix, this series not only eclipses the quality of the first season but may be the best Star Wars entry since George Lucas’ original movies.

Read our review here.

2. Severance (AppleTV)

There was almost a three-year gap between seasons of this series. Still, it was worth the wait. Ben Stiller returned to direct, with showrunner Dan Erickson deepening the story of the Innies working at Lumon and trying to uncover the mysteries of the Eagan family and their intentions. John Turturro, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, and Adam Scott return as our favorite Innies, along with Trammel Tillman, Patricia Arquette, and Christopher Walken, along with several new additions. The cliffhanger ending had us all with our jaws dropped as we hope the third season won’t require years to return to the airwaves.

Read our review here.

1. Adolescence (Netflix)

There is nothing on television or the big screen that can compare with the artistry, acting, and writing of Adolescence. Created by star Stephen Graham along with writer Jack Thorne, this four-episode series is presented as slices in the investigation involving a teenage boy and a brutal murder influenced by the toxic online world of the manosphere. Showing the chaos in the lives of the perpetrator, the victim, the famiilies, and those involved in the investigation, each chapter is presented as an uninterupted long take that builds the tension and anxiety of every traumatic part of this, sadly, realistic take on what happens in the real world far too often. You will not walk away from this series without being deeply affected. An absolute masterpiece.

Read our review here.

What were your favorite shows of 2025? Let us know your ranking in the comments below.

The post The 20 Best Television Series of 2025 appeared first on JoBlo.

Throughout 2024, I kept hearing a phrase, a mantra, if you will, concerning the entertainment industry. “Keep hope alive until 2025.” Mainly, this sentiment referred to 2025 becoming the Year of the Rebound. We were going to repair the remaining damage left by the COVID-19 pandemic, the SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the distressing box office returns of films that, by all accounts, should have been blockbusters. Alas, despite some outliers like A Minecraft Movie, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, and Taylor Sheridan’s universe of must-see TV, Hollywood is still scrambling to make sense of where they lost control of people’s hearts and minds. Still, everything’s not all doom and gloom, as 2025 also surprised audiences and industry analysts alike thanks to an unlikely underdog: anime.

Is anime done being the underdog?

Traditionally, Hollywood pays little attention to anime outside of Studio Ghibli. It’s nothing personal; animation is forever fighting an uphill battle for attention from people concerned with reading the Oscar tea leaves each year, with many still viewing the art form as a genre reserved only for kids and families. People who adore animation and recognize the painstaking artistry that goes into the genre know better, and thankfully, others are starting to catch on.

I like to think of 2025 as a year filled with numerous animation milestones. Disney‘s Zootopia 2 is currently dominating the box office with an unexpected $1.4B+ in worldwide ticket sales, eager to pounce on last year’s $1.69B+ set by Pixar‘s Inside Out 2. While Zootopia‘s outstanding success is something to cheer for indeed, it’s not impossible to imagine a sequel from the House of Mouse racking up dollars like a Vegas high roller on a winning streak. What gives the industry pause are movies like China’s Ne Zha 2, Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, and theatrical anime arcs on the silver screen, such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, and Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution.

Ne Zha 2 gets the anime ball rolling…

To put things into perspective, Ne Zha 2 grossed over $2.2 billion worldwide. While most of the film’s earnings hail from China, the financial impact of the Yu Yang-directed sequel is undeniable. Ne Zha 2 is like the spark that lit the fire for animation in 2025. The film was released early in the year, with territories such as the United States and Canada receiving a theatrical release only in February. However, positive word of mouth about the film spread like wildfire, helping Ne Zha 2 reach an additional $23.3 million in North America. Suddenly, industry analysts were paying close attention to overseas animation, wondering if Ne Zha 2 was a flash in the pan or if anime was building traction in 2025. As the year progressed, outlets throughout the entertainment industry began seeing the forward momentum of anime as something to get excited about, a genre that could energize the box office in unexpected ways.

Chainsaw Man – Reze Arc revs up audiences

So, what makes 2025 and titles like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, and Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution so special? I think it has a lot to do with built-in fanbases and anticipation for chapters of stories audiences care about, making their way to the silver screen. A fantastic example of this is Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc. Continuing from the core anime series, Reze Arc brings one of the anime franchise’s most bombastic storylines to life in a way that goes beyond streaming the spectacle on Crunchyroll. Before Reze Arc‘s IMAX release, the tragic love story of Denji and Reze only existed as part of the ongoing manga series. As expertly crafted as Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man manga is, there’s nothing quite like watching those pages come to life in gorgeous, visceral animation. The core anime series is a brutal display of character-driven story and action. However, Reze Arc takes the sensation of slaying demons alongside Denji to the next level with a dynamic screen ratio, earth-shattering sound design, and mind-bending visuals that cranks the volume of the core series to eleven.

Audiences don’t just want movies; they want an experience

When people go to the movies, they don’t just want to watch the film; they want to experience it. Movies like Reze Arc, Infinity Castle, and Execution bring more to the table for anime fans because they offer a cinematic experience that punches you in the face, grabs you by the ankles, and whips you around like a ragdoll. When I saw Reze Arc on the big screen, I felt as if I’d been riding a roller coaster by the time credits rolled. I literally needed to sit for a few minutes before exiting the theater because the movie felt like such a rush. I can’t recall the last time I felt this way watching an animated film in theaters. It made Reze Arc something unique and unforgettable.

Why is anime on the rise?

Why is anime on the rise? In my humble opinion, it’s because audiences are changing. Studios like Disney, Pixar, Illumination, and Dreamworks are always rolling the dice when it comes to animation. It’s challenging to predict what will hit and miss. Examining Disney, we see the unmitigated failure of Snow White, yet marvel at the overwhelming success of Lilo and Stitch. Say what you will about either film, but I doubt even Disney could have predicted a $1 billion return from the live-action version of its 2002 animated classic. With anime performing so well at the box office, it’s a sign that audiences are craving something new. They want to see beloved characters from their favorite series on the silver screen, larger-than-life, with stakes that deliver a direct knock-on effect to a thing they’re already invested in.

Anime films bring existing IPs to new heights

There’s much to say about the characters and stories anime offers. In some cases, fans have had years (and multiple volumes, seasons) to fall in love with characters like Denji (Chainsaw Man), Deku (My Hero Academia), and Tanjiro (Demon Slayer). That built-in affinity goes a long way to put asses in seats. Fans identify with these characters. They learn valuable lessons from them, see themselves reflected in their values and motivations. Or at least they’d like to think they do. What happens to these characters matters to them. The story doesn’t end when the credits roll. The characters endure. Hopefully, they’ll have changed by the time the movie’s over, bringing that growth into the next chapter of the series. There’s plenty to say about getting in and out of an animated experience in close to two hours, but anime tends to go beyond the barriers of standard theatrical runtimes. Anime films also provide audiences with a reason to rewatch material that preceded the theatrical presentation. Infinity Castle is the reason I’m currently watching the Demon Slayer series, and Reze Arc is why I loaded my Amazon wishlist with Chainsaw Man-related merch. My wife and I also plan to rewatch Chainsaw Man Season 1 on Crunchyroll, as this is uncharted territory for her.

I can keep pulling reasons that anime is growing in popularity from the ether, but at the end of the day, it boils down to a desire for the unexpected. Not every anime film is inviting (I’m looking at you, Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution), but at the very least, if you watch an anime film, you’re guaranteed to experience something outside the likes of Disney, Pixar, Illumination, and so on. Let’s face it, our attention spans are trash. Anime moves. It’s often manic, unpredictable, and pushes the boundaries of what artists can do with stories and characters that matter to so many. 2025 hit hard with it being a year when so many beloved series make their way to the silver screen, but 2026 is right around the corner, and if Kpop Demon Hunters proves anything, it’s that the next sensation can come from anywhere at any time.

The post Why Did Anime Explode in 2025? appeared first on JoBlo.

Cody

The What Happened to This Horror Movie episode on Damien: The Omen II was written by Jaime Vasquez:

Following The Exorcist, creepy kids and demonic entities were box-office gold, and The Omen stood out as one of the best of its kind. The spooky flick about a wealthy couple unknowingly adopting the Antichrist became one of the biggest hits of 1976, both critically and commercially, even winning an Oscar for Best Score. But sequels weren’t as easily greenlit back then as they are today. In fact, they were often seen as lowbrow cash-ins. Despite that stigma, and despite losing its original writer and director, Damien: The Omen II still got the go-ahead. So how did the movie fare without its original creators? Why did it have two directors, and what caused the first to walk off set? Why does Lance Henriksen look back on the experience as miserable? And which actor insisted on performing their own stunt in one of the film’s most gruesome death scenes? We’re taking the stairs instead of the elevator, keeping an eye out for evil-eyed ravens, as we find out what happened to Damien: The Omen II.

Building the Sequel Without the Original Team

Screenwriter Stanley Mann already had an impressive résumé, including The Collector… no, not that Collector. This 1965 psychological horror-thriller, directed by William Wyler, followed a man whose obsession with a woman spirals dangerously out of control. The film earned several Academy Award nominations, including Best Screenplay for Mann and co-writer John Kohn.

Mann continued working steadily in film and television before teaming up with writer-director Mike Hodges for the follow-up to The Omen. Hodges was still relatively new to Hollywood, but he’d already made waves with the gritty revenge classic Get Carter, starring Michael Caine (basically young Alfred Pennyworth doing things Batman never would.)

Hodges was originally hired to direct Damien: Omen II as well, though his time behind the camera would be short-lived.

A Revolving Door of Directors

Stepping in to replace Hodges was Don Taylor, best known for Escape from the Planet of the Apes and the 1977 remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau. Taylor was actually the third person considered to direct the sequel.

First up was Richard Donner, director of the 1976 original, but Donner was already busy making Superman… the 1978 one with Christopher Reeve, not the ten or so that came later.

Keeping the Music, Losing the Writer

Producer Harvey Bernhard was determined to bring back composer Jerry Goldsmith. Fortunately, that worked out. Goldsmith, fresh off his Oscar win for The Omen, returned with an even more intense score. His blend of choral and classical elements was cranked up to eleven, giving the sequel a sense of scale and gravitas that helped it feel like a true continuation of the franchise.

Once you heard that music, you knew Damien was nearby, and that it might be time to move to another country.

Bernhard also reached out to Omen co-writer David Seltzer, but Seltzer declined, saying he had no interest in sequels. He later admitted that if he had written it, the story would’ve picked up the very next day after the original, with Damien living in the White House. While evil enough to be a politician, Damien might’ve been a bit young to run for office.

Early Story Ideas That Never Made It

One early concept involved aging Damien up to 15 and giving him a girlfriend, creating a tragic “Rosemary’s Baby meets Romeo and Juliet” dynamic. The emotional core would’ve centered on Damien struggling against his destiny.

That psychological angle survived only briefly in the final cut, before the movie pivoted into what amounts to an unofficial prequel to Final Destination.

Casting the Antichrist (Again)

William Holden was originally offered the role of Robert Thorn in the first film but turned it down because he didn’t want to star in a movie about the devil. The role went to Gregory Peck instead, and the rest is horror history. Holden later admitted he regretted passing on The Omen, so when the sequel came around, he jumped at the chance to play Richard Thorn, Robert’s brother and Damien’s new guardian. Apparently, starring in a movie about the devil was fine once the box office numbers were proven.

Harvey Spencer Stephens was too young to return as Damien, so the role went to Jonathan Scott-Taylor. Scott-Taylor cited Carrie as an influence on his performance, which makes sense, as both characters kill people without lifting a finger.

Lee Grant signed on as Aunt Ann Thorn, while Lance Henriksen appeared as Sergeant Neff, a man who encourages Damien to read the Bible… which does not go well.

Sylvia Sidney plays the doomed Aunt Marion, and Lew Ayres and Meshach Taylor round out the supporting cast. Taylor, in his debut role, also gets the movie’s most gut-wrenching death. Literally.

Creative Clashes Behind the Scenes

Mike Hodges clashed almost immediately with producer Harvey Bernhard over major creative decisions, including Damien’s age. Bernhard allegedly rewrote scenes without informing Hodges, while Hodges’ perfectionism reportedly slowed production to a crawl, right down to spending hours on details like a flag blowing in the wind.

After just three weeks, Hodges walked off the project.

Some of his footage made it into the final cut, including the factory scenes, military school sequences, and the dinner scene where Aunt Marion voices her suspicions about Damien. You know, standard family dinner conversation.

Don Taylor Takes Over

Don Taylor’s approach was reportedly far more relaxed, and most of the cast and crew warmed to him quickly. Lance Henriksen, however, did not.

Henriksen was originally meant to have a much larger role, mentoring Damien and guiding him toward the dark side. His character was basically Darth Vader without the helmet, or a male version of Mrs. Baylock from the first film. Instead, his role was cut down to the point that many fans consider it a cameo. Henriksen later said he disliked the final cut and felt the film didn’t help his career. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t return for Part III.

The Most Disturbing Death Scene

While most of the film’s deaths border on dark comedy, one stands out as genuinely upsetting. Bill Atherton’s character falls through the ice of a frozen lake while skating, pounding helplessly beneath the surface as onlookers watch in horror.

The scene was filmed in Eagle River, Wisconsin, using local kids as background skaters. Paramedics were on standby, which turned out to be wise because nobody on set really knew how to skate. Even William Holden fell during filming, and that accidental tumble made it into the movie.

Lew Ayres insisted on doing his own stunt work for the drowning sequence, despite Lee Grant warning him not to. He performed everything up until the moment it became too dangerous, at which point a stunt double took over. Still, credit where it’s due: Ayres fully committed to one of the film’s most unsettling moments.

Box Office, Reception, and Legacy

Damien: Omen II hit theaters in June 1978, nearly two years after the original. Despite releasing only in the U.S. and Canada, it earned a respectable $26 million on a $6.8 million budget, easily turning a profit.

Critical reception was mixed. The film currently sits at around 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, with similar audience scores, and a 6.2/10 on IMDb. Critics praised the cinematography and noted that it was more fun than the original… which, honestly, works as a compliment to both films.

The first Omen took itself deadly seriously. The sequel leaned into gory theatrics years before gore became mainstream, making horror more fun in its own twisted way.

Influence and Final Thoughts

While the original Omen became infamous for its alleged curse, the real curse of Omen II was the behind-the-scenes tension. Hodges wanted a psychological story about identity and destiny. Bernhard wanted shock and spectacle. In the end, spectacle won.

Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris has credited the film with inspiring “The Number of the Beast” after a nightmare following a late-night viewing. It was a song and album that would define the band.

Some fans also see Omen II as a precursor to the Final Destination franchise, thanks to its elaborate, Rube Goldberg-style death scenes. Whether direct inspiration or subconscious influence, its impact is hard to ignore.

The movie’s best moments come when it lets Damien be clever instead of violent, like the infamous classroom scene where he humiliates his teacher with a flawless pop quiz performance. Unfortunately, moments like that are rare.

Ultimately, the plot boils down to this: anyone who threatens to expose Damien as the Antichrist gets taken out by ravens, trucks, frozen lakes, or elevators slicing people in half. It’s over-the-top, ridiculous, and oddly entertaining. And that, my friends, is what happened to Damien: The Omen II.

A couple of previous episodes of this show can be seen below. For more, check out the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel—and don’t forget to subscribe!

The post Damien: The Omen II – Inside the Troubled Sequel That Turned Death Into Spectacle appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

In the list of all-time Christmas movies, one that always gets overlooked is Doug Liman’s Go.
Wait—how is Go a Christmas movie, you might be asking?

Well, despite not being a movie about Christmas per se, it actually all takes place over one VERY eventful Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, with the film revolving around a couple of loosely connected groups as they share a somewhat seedy holiday.

There are two grocery store clerks looking to score by selling ecstasy pills at a Christmas rave, a group of bros who head to Vegas to make trouble, two gay actors working a sting with a cop, and more. It barely made a dime in theaters, but it proved to be a great kickoff to what would later emerge as one of the greatest years in modern cinema history: 1999.

So let’s take a deep dive into Doug Liman’s cult classic.

From Swingers to Go: Doug Liman’s Indie Breakout

Flash back to the year 1996 and the release of a micro-budget comedy called Swingers. While now a hugely iconic indie hit, Swingers was made for only $250K and came from the pen of a struggling young actor named Jon Favreau.

Deciding to write his own ticket—much like other burgeoning actors of the era did, most famously Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with Good Will Hunting (although Swingers predates it by a year)—the movie also proved to be the big break for star Vince Vaughn.

While many look back at it now as one of the great Sundance success stories, it actually did not play that festival. Sure, it feels like the kind of movie that should have, but it was never even submitted, as the producers didn’t consider it a serious enough film. They were planning to release it themselves in a regional Los Angeles pattern, but a buyer’s screening late in the year caused a sensation, and Miramax bought it for $5 million.

Ironically, the film wasn’t a particularly big commercial success, earning about $4.5 million—which was good for an indie, but less than Miramax paid for it. Still, it was seen by the right people, and everyone involved got a huge boost.

Vince Vaughn became a hot leading man, landing a co-starring role in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Jon Favreau ended up being cast on Friends as a love interest for Monica and soon after showed up in Deep Impact.

How Go Came Together

As for Doug Liman, he did get a few studio offers to direct movies, but he opted to stay in the indie zone when he was approached by writer John August with the script for Go.

Initially pitched as a short film, August expanded the script to feature length. At the time, August was a rising talent known mostly as a much-in-demand script doctor—meaning he often rewrote movies but received no credit. Yet he was known around town, and the combination of him and Liman was enough to secure the movie a modest $3.5 million budget, which is unthinkable now for a film shot entirely on location in Los Angeles.

Again, Liman’s work had been seen by enough power players in Hollywood to make Go a hot project despite its low budget. Given that it centered on a bunch of characters in their twenties and was exceedingly edgy, it was a movie many young actors wanted to do to shake up their image.

The Cast: On the Brink of Fame

The biggest name in the cast when it came out was Katie Holmes, who plays Claire, a supermarket cashier left as collateral with a hunky drug dealer played by a pre-fame Timothy Olyphant, while her best friend Ronna tries to make a mint selling E to ravers.

Holmes, of course, was a huge rising star thanks to Dawson’s Creek, the hottest teen show on TV. All of the stars of that series were able to land movies, with Holmes having appeared in the teen horror flick Disturbing Behavior the year before. This role was meant to change her image—somewhat.

Yet the juiciest role in the movie was reserved for Sarah Polley. At the time, Polley wasn’t especially well known in the U.S., but she was a household name in Canada. She had starred in the long-running series Road to Avonlea and also had a standout role in Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter.

Go would remain one of her few American starring roles, as she often turned down projects to work on low-budget Canadian fare, eventually finding her greatest fame as an acclaimed director.

Risks, Representation, and ’90s Reality

Probably the most controversial segment revolved around the two gay TV actors, played by Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf. While Mohr, having acted on SNL, was likely comfortable taking on a risqué role, the movie was a huge risk for Wolf, who was starring on Party of Five at the time.

Back then, it was considered risky for straight male actors to play gay characters, lest they be identified that way. Same-sex kisses were still taboo; in Philadelphia, despite playing a gay lawyer, you never see Tom Hanks kiss Antonio Banderas on the mouth.

In today’s era, that may be hard to believe—but that was the reality. Wolf later said the script for Go was so cool that every young actor at the time wanted to be in it.

Why Go Failed in Theaters

Despite all this, Go almost didn’t happen at all, as financing fell through at the eleventh hour—apparently due to the lack of a bankable white male lead. Sony ultimately stepped in, ballooning the budget to roughly $20 million, which explains why the film looks so slick.

So why did it still fizzle when it hit theaters in April 1999?

I can speak to this firsthand. I was seventeen at the time and an avid moviegoer. I remember seeing the film heavily advertised on TV and in theaters, yet I had zero interest in seeing it. The teen TV cast turned me off completely. I was sick to death of Dawson’s Creek and Party of Five, and you would’ve had to put a gun to my head to get me into a theater to watch a movie starring their cast.

Early reviews didn’t help, with critics dismissing it as “Tarantino-lite,” a lazy insult often thrown at indie crime films of the era. Sony’s aggressive push of the soundtrack—including “Steal My Sunshine”—made it seem like just another disposable teen crime movie.

The Matrix had opened the week before and sucked up all the oxygen. The following week, Never Been Kissed opened and became a major hit. Go never had a chance.

Why Go Endures

Yet Go eventually became a cult classic. I caught it on Canada’s HBO equivalent, The Movie Network, in the winter of 2000 and was shocked by how good it was. I watched it repeatedly and quickly realized I’d missed the boat, as had many others.

It became one of the first films released on DVD in a deluxe special edition and sold extremely well. Liman emerged from the film with enough heat to land The Bourne Identity.

In hindsight, Go stands the test of time as one of the definitive ’90s movies, perfectly capturing the vibe of being a twenty-something on the make in that era. Kids were different then. Most of us didn’t care about politics—we just wanted to party and, yes, do light drugs.

With its killer soundtrack, hot cast, and relentless energy, Go previewed a cinematic wave that would crest later that year with Fight Club, Three Kings, Magnolia, and Being John Malkovich.

In many ways, Go got there first—and it deserves to be remembered as one of 1999’s true classics.

The post Is Go a Christmas Movie? Why Doug Liman’s Cult Classic Deserves Holiday Canon Status appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

And so another year ends, and if I do say so myself, it ends on a note of serious uncertainty for Hollywood. Attendance is down, more movies than ever are tanking, and even franchises that have been unbeatable in the past, such as the MCU and the Avatar series, are taking a beating at the box office. With Netflix on the cusp of making its deal for Warner Bros. go through, theatrical exhibition has become an increasingly endangered part of moviegoing. Yet, as bad of a year as this might have been for Hollywood, there were still movies that cut through and made an impact with audiences. Here are 10 of them in our annual Best Movies of the Year list!

10. A House of Dynamite:

The scariest movie of the year wasn’t really a horror movie. Instead, it was director Kathryn Bigelow’s anxiety-inducing look at what would happen were a lone nuclear missile launched at the United States. While many took issue with some of the lapses in logic, and others didn’t care for the real-time, multiple-perspective aspect and the open ending, it’s a nail-biting movie with some powerhouse performances, particularly from Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Jason Clarke, and a few others. Bigelow’s first movie in eight years wasn’t a disappointment.

9. Friendship:

In a year that saw precious few comedies released into theaters, A24 actually released a gem called Friendship, which comes from I Think You Should Leave star Tim Robinson and co-stars a well-cast Paul Rudd in this cringe-inducing story of adult friendships gone awry. This kind of flew under the radar, but the success of Robinson’s The Chair Company on HBO might raise its profile now that it’s streaming.

8. Weapons:

Zach Cregger’s sophomore movie became a total phenomenon when it came out last summer. Using a Magnolia-esque format and adapting it to the horror genre proved to be a winner, with Josh Brolin and Julia Garner delivering powerhouse performances. However, it was Amy Madigan as the terrifying Aunt Gladys who became our newest horror icon. Although I beg WB—don’t make an Aunt Gladys prequel. We don’t need it. Let Weapons be a one-and-done.

7. Caught Stealing:

It’s ironic that Darren Aronofsky’s most commercial movie ever turned out to be one of his biggest flops, but don’t let that dissuade you from checking out this homage to nineties crime flicks, starring an expertly cast Austin Butler as a former ballplayer turned bartender who winds up in terrible trouble with some dangerous people thanks to his idiotic neighbour, a punk rocker played by Matt Smith. This one is BRUTAL at times, with a shocking twist about a half hour in really dividing audiences.

6. F1:

In terms of a big-screen experience, F1: The Movie can’t be beat. Brad Pitt once again proves why he’s a movie star in Joseph Kosinski’s kick-ass follow-up to Top Gun: Maverick, with it being the most immersive racing movie ever made. My only caveat is that this movie begs to be seen on a big screen, so those of you watching it at home may not get the full effect, as this was dazzling in IMAX.

5. Train Dreams:

Clint Bentley’s quiet, meditative story of a logger living in the early twentieth century turned out to be a real sleeper right off its Sundance debut. It was bought by Netflix, and it’s turned out to be the one movie they’ve put out this year that really seems like it will walk away with some major awards. Joel Edgerton delivers a career-best performance.

4. Sentimental Value:

Joachim Trier’s latest is one of the most powerful films of the year, zeroing in on the frayed relationship between an arthouse director, played by Stellan Skarsgård, and the two daughters he’s neglected. Yet, as serious a movie as this is, it also has some huge laughs, and hopefully Skarsgård and co-star Renate Reinsve land much-deserved Oscar nominations, with Stellan actually having a strong chance of winning.

3. Sinners:

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, like F1, was one of the few movies to really make the most of its big-screen format and become a must-see in theaters. Coogler made a movie that thrilled audiences and became an instant classic, thanks largely to Michael B. Jordan’s dual leading role, as well as a cast-against-type Hailee Steinfeld, a charmingly evil Jack O’Connell, and more. Heck, even before the vampires showed up in the movie’s second half, I was loving Sinners, with Coogler effortlessly creating a real sense of atmosphere and family. It’s not a perfect movie, as some have claimed (there are some silly parts), but I doubt any other movie this year was as purely entertaining as this one (that said, our Unpopular Opinion writer thought differently).

2. One Battle After Another:

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another has become one of the year’s big water-cooler movies, with it launching a thousand think pieces over its perceived politics. That aside, the craft behind it is thrilling, with Anderson using the VistaVision 35mm process to dazzle his audience, while Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti deliver some of the year’s best performances.

1. Marty Supreme:

If anyone out there still doubts that Timothée Chalamet is one of the greatest actors of his era, they need to see this movie. A masterfully propulsive tale of a hustler on the make, Josh Safdie has crafted a period epic unlike anything you’ve ever seen, daringly scoring this fifties-set drama like it was made in the eighties, and filling it with an unconventional—but awesome—supporting cast that includes Abel Ferrara, Penn Jillette, Kevin O’Leary, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, and even Tyler, the Creator. Like many other movies on this list, it begs to be seen on the big screen, although it’s so propulsive you might need to treat yourself to a Valium by the time it’s over.

And that’s our list. What do you think deserves to be in the top 10? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Best Movies of 2025: From Sinners, to Marty Supreme and more! appeared first on JoBlo.

Chris

Christmas may be in the rearview mirror, but another massive holiday is fast approaching: New Year’s Eve. As the one night of the year when everyone seems primed to celebrate, reflect, or self-destruct, it’s no surprise that filmmakers across genres have gravitated toward December 31 as a setting. New Year’s Eve naturally lends itself to themes of renewal, regret, romance, and chaos—perfect fuel for storytelling.

Classic New Year’s Eve Movies Across Genres

While romantic comedies may dominate the conversation, New Year’s Eve has served as the backdrop for some of cinema’s most memorable moments across multiple genres:

• When Harry Met Sally – The late Rob Reiner’s all-time rom-com classic, and arguably the definitive New Year’s Eve movie.
• The Apartment – Billy Wilder’s seminal masterpiece, featuring one of the most moving countdown-to-midnight endings in film history.
• Trading Places – Its climactic finale unfolds on December 31, blending high comedy with holiday chaos.
• 200 Cigarettes – A cult favorite that captures the messy, chaotic spirit of a New York City New Year’s Eve.

Y2K Panic and Movies Set on December 31, 1999

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many New Year’s Eve movies are set on December 31, 1999, when Y2K fears gripped the world. Throughout the 1990s, filmmakers leaned hard into millennial anxiety, particularly in genre films:

• End of Days – A wild horror-action hybrid starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, exploiting end-of-the-world panic.
• Strange Days – A dystopian, adrenaline-fueled thriller set entirely on the final day of 1999.
• Entrapment – An underrated caper starring Sean Connery, also culminating on New Year’s Eve 1999.

Cult Classics and Masterpieces Set on New Year’s Eve

Beyond rom-coms and Y2K thrillers, New Year’s Eve has hosted everything from cult horror to full-blown cinematic masterpieces:

• Terror Train – A cult slasher that uses the holiday as a backdrop for mayhem.
• Boogie Nights – A modern classic whose New Year’s Eve sequence is one of its most iconic moments.

What’s the Best Movie Set on New Year’s Eve?

With so many films—spanning romance, comedy, horror, sci-fi, and drama—choosing the best movie set on New Year’s Eve is no easy task. From crowd-pleasing classics to cult favorites and prestige masterpieces, December 31 has proven to be one of cinema’s most versatile settings.

Take the poll below and let us know which New Year’s Eve movie you think takes the crown.

The post Poll: What’s the Best Movie Set on New Year’s Eve? appeared first on JoBlo.

Steve

Every year without fail, Hollywood and other foreign markets bring unforgettable cinematic experiences to the masses, feeding our senses with creativity, imagination, and in rare cases, the impossible. In many cases,  we’re spoiled when it comes to live-action offerings, but what about animation? Today, we’re looking back on the year 2001, the year Pottermania and the Lord of the Rings trilogy began at the cinema, Tool returned after a five-year hiatus with their most hypnotic album, “Lateralus,” and Nintendo unleashed the mighty Gamecube.”

Looking back, there are any number of wild pop culture milestones to mark the turn of the century, but today, we’re setting our sights on the greatest animated films of 2001, with a Top 5 list that’s sure to make you feel nostalgic and appreciative of the leaps we’ve made in the cinematic art form since then. Let us begin!

5) Atlantis: The Lost Empire

If there were such a thing as a Disney cult classic, the studio’s 41st animated feature and first science fiction film in the animated canon, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, would be at the top of a short list. Starring the voices of Michael J. Fox, Cree Summer, Leonard Nimoy, Jim Varney in what would be his final role, and more, Atlantis tells the story of a young explorer who, upon taking possession of a sacred book, uses its contents to chart a course toward what he believes is the Lost City of Atlantis, where a technologically-advanced race creates wonders beyond humankind’s wildest dreams.

What makes Atlantis special is that the film eschews Disney’s formulaic musical approach in favor of an action-adventure thrill ride inspired by the works of Jules Verne, a pioneer of the science fiction genre. Visually, the film borrows much from Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, with the comic book creator’s distinctive human and creature design proudly on display. The film marks Disney’s transition from traditional hand-drawn animation to incorporating CGI elements, an approach to storytelling that the studio was initially cautious about adopting. The result is a rip-roaring underwater adventure that highlights a rare release, pushing Disney outside its comfort zone.

4) Metropolis

While there’s no shortage of outstanding anime in 2001, with films like Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Sakura Wars, and Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress delighting fans worldwide, Rintaro’s loose adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis stands tall above the rest as a can’t-miss anime of that year. In the industrial, tri-level world of Metropolis, Duke Red is an influential leader with plans to unveil a highly advanced robot named Tima. But when Duke Red’s anti-robot son, Rock, makes it his mission to destroy Tima, the confusing Labyrinth beneath Metropolis becomes a hunting ground for one of the year’s most visually stunning spectacles, set to an unforgettable soundtrack arranged by Toshiyuki Honda.

Written by Akira‘s Katsuhiro Otomo, Metropolis mixes steampunk with industrial futurism, creating a blend that’s part fantasy and all action. As the gears of Metropolis turn, Tezuka’s version of the classic tale explores elements of class warfare, discrimination, fear-mongering, and the weaponization of trust in leaders meant to protect the impoverished human race. Metropolis is at times more than an anime; it’s a thought piece about who’s in charge of our well-being, and what becomes of us when discrimination guides a violent hand, when the only honest answer to peace is understanding.

3) Shrek

Before Shrek became a bona fide meme machine, the swamp-dwelling green behemoth ruled the animation roost for years alongside his pals Donkey, Fiona, and a seemingly endless cast of fairy tale royalty. In this 2001 mud-covered gem, Mike Myers cranks his Scottish accent up to 11 to play Shrek, a grumpy ogre who must go on a quest and rescue a princess for a sniveling lord to get his land back.

Packed with tons of fairy tale Easter eggs, Shrek begged audiences to give the adventure repeat viewings lest they miss one of the film’s hilarious inside jokes. Setting itself apart from other animated films by opting for a rather drab color palette, Shrek isn’t concerned with being a looker. It wants your nostalgia in the palm of its hand as the brilliant cast, including Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow, chew scenery like ravenous thespians hoping to impress Shakespeare. With a fifth movie on the way, it feels good to throw flowers at Shrek’s stinky feet with a spot on this list.

2) Spirited Away

While Spirited Away is arguably one of the best films of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s storied career, it’s also one of the greatest animated films ever. During her family’s move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl, Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase), wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, hoping to rescue her parents, who have transformed into ravenous beasts.

Following its initial release and anniversary, Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away is one of the genre’s most successful films, with a global box office of over $360 million. Numbers aside, Spirited Away is as whimsical as Labyrinth, as sinister as The Dark Crystal, and as intrepid as The Green Knight. Running rampant with drop-dead gorgeous visuals, a world-building narrative with endless possibilities, and a love everlasting between Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi) and the mysterious Haku (Miyu Irino), it’s impossible not to feel the magic of one of the Godfather of Anime’s most enigmatic films.

1) Monsters Inc.

For generations, children have been terrified of what lurks under their beds, in their closets, and beyond the veil of our reality. In 2001, Disney and Pixar wrapped that fear in a big, warm hug for Monsters Inc., an uproariously funny, imaginative, and timeless tale of misinterpretation and misadventure. Spearheaded by Pete Docter, Monsters Inc. stars John Goodman and Billy Crystal as Sullivan and Mike, respectively, two professional scarers who discover that children aren’t toxic, and that monster society has been misinformed about their nature for as long as things have gone bump in the night.

Still one of Pixar‘s best films, Monsters Inc. invites audiences into a world not unlike our own, showing us that judging a book by its cover is never wise and that all it takes to change the status quo is embracing your fear of the unknown. The appeal and popularity of Monsters Inc. endures, with sequels, spinoffs, theme park attractions, and more expanding the monster universe for each generation. While many of Pixar’s films raise the bar of excellence in animation, Monsters Inc. continues to inspire and inform other titles in the studio’s beloved library. No other movie left as much of an impact on 2001 as this one.

There you have it, folks. What do you think about our Top 5 Animated Films of 2001 list? Are your favorite films represented here? Are there any grievous omissions? Leave us a comment and let us know what your Top 5 Animated Films of 2001 are! Until next time. Cheers!

The post Animated Films of 2001 That Still Feel Magical appeared first on JoBlo.