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Stand by Me (1986)

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Before I begin this review, allow me to address the gargantuan, corpulent elephant in the room: despite ironically materializing from the mind of Stephen King, quite inarguably the most renowned horror author in the universe, Stand by Me , a cinematic adaptation of a 1982 coming-of-age novella ominously titled The Body , is for all intents and purposes not a horror movie. Rather, it's one of the horror legend's relatively few horror-free excursions into the darker dimensions of the human mind and experience. Make no mistake, however, there are elements in Stand by Me that expose the DNA of King's affection for the genre that has defined him since he first composed the tragic story of a teenaged girl who used her telekinetic ability to exact vengeance on the town that belittled her her entire life: wandering out alone into the wilderness and coming face to face with an oncoming train, facing the wrath of bullies seemingly too large and in control to stand up to, coming to te...
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The Devil's Rejects (2005)

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While musician-turned-filmmaker Rob Zombie was in the process of writing House of 1,000 Corpses , his first foray into both the art of filmmaking and the genre on which he was nurtured, he had a "vague idea for a story" about the brother of the sheriff, George Wydell, who was murdered by Mother Firefly coming for revenge against the family. After Lions Gate Entertainment made all their money back on the first day of Corpses ' theatrical release, they wanted Zombie to produce a follow-up, and he began to seriously think about writing a new story. Not content to settle for a rehash of his predecessor's Texas Chainsaw -inspired plot, Zombie set out to make his sequel "more horrific" and his villainous characters less cartoonish than in their debut outing, opting "to make something that was almost like a violent western. Sort of like a road movie." While still utilizing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a source of inspiration, albeit less overtly this ti...
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