Does anyone remember the Satanic panic? It was a bizarre mix of urban legend, conspiracy theory, media frenzy, and religious fanaticism that occurred primarily in the early 1980s. The phenomenon was marked by thousands of alleged incidents of ritualized abuse, often involving children, and desecrations reportedly perpetrated across the nation by scores of so-called Satanic cults in towns and cities everywhere. While many of the reports were later found to be baseless—and the initial investigative techniques used to supposedly substantiate them discredited—the aftermath of the panic remains with us today in the shape of things such as QAnon and PizzaGate.…

Though the Sith may keep their numbers small, out of choice and necessity depending on which time period you’re looking at, they’ve still managed to be the ultimate enemy of the Jedi for millennia. In fact, there have been many powerful Sith Lords throughout the galaxy’s history, both in current canon and the Legends timeline that have challenged and defeated the guardians of peace throughout Star Wars history. With The Acolyte offering another perspective on the Sith’s master/apprentice dynamic, it seems like a great time to look back on the most powerful Sith Lords in the Star Wars universe, both…

“You’ve got the wrong guy,” sneers Wolverine in the latest and final trailer for Deadpool & Wolverine. “You were always the wrong guy,” comes the rejoinder, which would have been powerful said by anyone, but gets all the more cutting because of who delivered it: Laura aka X-23, once again played by Dafne Keen. Ever since Hugh Jackman announced his return to the world of superheroes as Wolverine, fans have worried about the sanctity of his last outing, Logan. In addition to fully embracing the themes of regret and violence that have always driven Wolverine, Logan gave the hero a…

“Joe and Anthony Russo will return.” The Hollywood Reporter reports that Marvel is now in talks to bring Joe and Anthony Russo back as directors of Avengers 5 and 6. The Russos helmed some of the franchise’s biggest hits, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the discussions are still in early phases, but they seem to be on their way. Given the success of those films, and the difficulty that MCU head Kevin Fiege has had finding someone to helm the next Avengers movies, having gone through Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten…

When Duke Leto Atreides took on stewardship of Arrakis, he did so at the behest of the Imperium. The transfer of stewardship featured all manner of pomp, which cost the Imperium “1.46 million and 62 solares,” according to Mentat Thufir Hawat. Those external shows of extravagance are about all that viewers get to see with the Imperium, in both Dune and its sequel Dune: Part Two. Even when Christopher Walken joined the cast of the second film as Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, he makes only infrequent appearances, surely not enough to flesh out the Imperium’s workings. Fortunately, the newest…

The Alien franchise has a lot of scary elements: the uncaring company Weyland-Yutani, androids that look like humans, and, oh yeah, freaking Xenomorphs, based on an unnerving design by Swiss artist H.R. Giger. Underpinning many of these things is a fear of rape and pregnancy, especially inflicted upon men. Many have written about how the first chestburster scene in Alien represents a man giving horrific birth, after being violated by a facehugger. Ash’s analysis of the facehugger in that movie gave viewers a sense of how the creature worked, including a tube that ran down the victim’s throat. But, at…

Oddity begins with a delicious horror conundrum. Alone in her newly purchased country house while her psychiatrist husband Ted (Gwylim Lee) works an overnight shift nearby, Dani (Carolyn Bracken) runs out into the dark to retrieve something from her car. When she hears a strange noise, she rushes back into the house and locks the door. The sounds from outside intensify, prompting Dani to open a slot on the door, revealing a shocking sight: a haggard and intense man, staring at her with one glowing glass eye. The man begs Dani to let him in, a request she denies until…

Film critic Andrew Sarris changed his profession forever when he introduced, to English-speaking cinephiles at least, the concept of “auteur theory.” The general conceit is that some rarified directors are so gifted, or commanding, in their control over the process of film production that they alone can give a film a “personal or unique stamp.” They are the ones who become the author of the movie you’re watching. If anyone. It’s a seductive theory which encourages the critic to look for points of narrative, visual, or thematic similarity between a filmmaker’s work. The more ideas or images that rhyme, the…

The ‘autobiography’ of female brindle Cairn Terrier Terry was titled I, Toto and told the story of her role in which classic 1939 movie?The Wizard of OzGone With the WindMr. Smith Goes to WashingtonStagecoachDowngraded in 2006 to a dwarf planet, what is the name of the animated Disney dog owned by Mickey Mouse?PlutoCeresMakemakeErisEddie from US sitcom Frasier was a wire-haired Jack Russell Terrier who shared his real name with which species, also the state mammal of Maine, USA?MooseBeaverBuffaloCoyoteWhich of these members of the family Canidae was the only non-dog to have been nominated for the Palm Dog award at Cannes…

In a moment of great American tension and yearning for comity, Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters doesn’t exactly arrive like a gift from the heavens, but it sure does its damndest to take you back to the “simpler” times of ‘90s high-concept popcorn thrills and goofy grins. And the high-concept at play here is very goofy too. Take the film’s lead characters: she’s a transplant city girl who for years has chosen to observe tornadoes from the safety of a Manhattan high-rise; he’s a rough and tumble cowboy, or “tornado wrangler,” who might have studied meteorology at some point, but insists…

Deadpool seems like he’s one of a kind, right? Somehow sweet and hyper violent, lovable and extremely annoying, aware that he’s a fictional character. Surely there can’t be more like him, right? Of course there are! Multiverses and variants are all the rage right now, especially in superhero movie universes. In fact, one of the most exciting aspects of Deadpool & Wolverine has been the promise of various Wades Wilson from across realities. We’ve already seen glimpses of a handsome, maybe samurai Deadpool as well as Dogpool, the cute lil’ good boy with a mouth. But now two more variants…

In the summer of 1994, no one could go for more than 15 minutes without hearing the words, “Oh! Somebody stop me!” More than “Aaaaalll righty then!” or “I like it a lot!” that line from The Mask captured 1994: the year where Jim Carrey dominated the box office with three blockbuster comedies. In addition to The Mask in July, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective released in February, and Dumb and Dumber came out in December. But whereas Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber were a bit too raunchy for moms and uncles, the cartoon logic and zany big band music…

Joe Johnston’s 1991 superhero movie The Rocketeer begins in the usual way, with orange opening credits against a black screen. Only the slight tinkling of piano hints at something greater, little notes of inspiration under the art deco script on display. Sure enough, after the title reveal, the score pauses. The black screen is revealed to actually be the doors of a hangar bay, and the strings in James Horner’s score rise to a crescendo. They are announcing the hopes hanging on the yellow biplane that emerges. A warm, confident scene of pilot Cliff Secord (Billy Campbell) proving to his…

Sam Wilson is ready to pick up the shield, and not a moment too soon. The first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World has dropped. Anthony Mackie’s feature debut as Cap feels more like a thriller from the 1990s, and not just because it has Harrison Ford in a presidential role. Directed by Julius Onah and co-written by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman, Brave New World deals with a conspiracy within the White House, which means a lot of folks in nice clothes pulling guns and looking concerned in boardrooms. But as Captain America: The…

The world of The Imaginary is as lush and enchanting as you’d expect if you’re familiar with the artists behind the onscreen magic. It’s the second feature film from Studio Ponoc, an animation house led by Studio Ghibli alums. And much like their debut feature, Mary and the Witch’s Flower, The Imaginary is a deluge of cinematic delights and confections supported by a touching story that leaves you with a fuller heart than you had going in. The movie is based on a novel by A.F. Harrold and centers on Rudger (voiced in the English dub by Louie Rudge-Buchanan), the…

This article contains major Longlegs spoilers. A mother is dead. A whole other family is ruined. And a doll survives. These are the sinister details which sum up the final scene of Longlegs, Oz Perkins’ nasty little mash-up of serial killer thrillers with “the devil made me do it” religious horror movies. In the film’s closing moments, poor Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) at last understands that her own mother Ruth (Alicia Witt) is the accomplice to Nicolas Cage’s “Longlegs” serial killer. And though the fiend is dead, dear mom was still in service to “Mr. Downstairs.” Hence the ending of…

Frank Herbert once said there is no real ending. It’s just where you stop the story. This is perhaps ironic given the author famously wrote six Dune novels without ever coming to a final satisfying conclusion to his millennia-spanning saga. But then knowing when and how to stop has always remained an elusive challenge for storytellers, even when they’re working at the height of their craft. The history of cinema is littered with many great films that seemed to breeze right past the most obvious grace note in favor of underlining, expanding, or even subverting a theme or idea integral…

This article contains Fly Me to the Moon spoilers. It’s a breathtaking shot. More than 50 years after the world watched Neil Armstrong take his one small step for man, and his one giant leap for all mankind, we now see those steps toward the lunar surface from Armstrong’s point-of-view. As the door to the Apollo 11 capsule opens, it is from the astronauts’ perspective we glimpse the fresh, unvarnished moon rock awaiting human footprints. If this image felt faintly familiar while watching Greg Berlanti’s Fly Me to the Moon, a fusion of the an old school ‘90s romantic comedy…

It might seem an unusual place to start from, but for director and actor alike, Longlegs is a film about mothers. Their mothers. The very idea of it is a curious admission since Longlegs is an infinitely disturbing hybrid of the religious horror movie and the serial killer thriller. Yet Oz Perkins still makes the point while discussing how the movie’s script brought him and Nicolas Cage together—and with the latter playing one of the most disturbing characters to date in Cage’s oeuvre. Set in the 1990s, Longlegs is a period piece which revisits the era when the serial killer…

“Let’s make an R-rated cartoon about an R-rated cartoon coming out” was the original concept pitched when Matt Stone and Trey Parker were developing their classic animated musical opus, South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut. Twenty-five years later, it remains a brilliantly meta idea. But before Canada-blaming glory, South Park’s road to the silver screen was paved with many blockades, mainly from within their parent company of Viacom, which owned both Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures, and their biggest formidable foe, the then-named Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).  And as if it wasn’t ironic enough, the biggest bone of contention…