The Cherry Hill Chainsaw Massacre

Kevin Williamson's Scream appears to meet David Fincher's Panic Room in the seventh installment of every horror fan's favorite meta teen slasher franchise. It's been a whole two years since Ghostface last terrorized the horror-savvy characters of the Big Apple, and by early next year, he'll be back for another round of gleefully gory mayhem and self-aware, tongue-in-cheek, pitch-black humor. Based on the results of this first trailer, released yesterday, the day before Halloween (kind of seems like today would have been a more poetic release date for the initial unmasking), Scream 7 looks like it's taking the franchise in a suitably refreshing direction, headlined by the unanimously welcome return of one of the genre's most iconic and badass final women, who has now entered a new chapter in her tortured life as a wife and mother. Shades of David Gordon Green and Danny McBride's rebooted Halloween trilogy are guaranteed to follow. First things first: I f...

With visually awe-inspiring cinematography, a soothingly riveting musical score, and a pair of compelling lead performances from Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson, Gore Verbinski's English-language remake of Hideo Nakata's 1998 Japanese supernatural horror film, Ring , itself an adaptation of the 1991 novel of the same name by Koji Suzuki, is a quiet, somber, patiently crafted, and aesthetically resplendent ghost story that relies on absorbing atmosphere, nerve-shredding visuals, and intelligent dialogue over graphic displays of violence or numerous ghostly confrontations, paving the way for an influx of American remakes of Asian and Japanese horror films in the process.  Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is a single mother who lives in a high-rise apartment in Seattle, Washington with her preteen son, Aidan (David Dorfman), and works full-time as a journalist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. At the funeral of her 16-year-old niece, Katie Embry (Amber Tamblyn), she's requested b...

Around the 45-minute mark of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge , the sequel to Wes Craven's 1984 supernatural slasher hybrid, my previously placid viewing experience was suddenly interrupted by the most frightening of scenarios. While sitting in my basement watching the movie, I heard the front door open, and dashing in was my mother, screaming frantically, the shrill sound of her voice obstructed by the ceiling. It wasn't until then that I could smell the hint of a pungent odor like that of burning chili. Because I was so wrapped up in the movie unfolding before me, the smell didn't immediately register. Maybe I was so immersed in this fictional world that I assumed I was smelling the power plant where the two protagonists were wandering. Concerned, I paused the movie, stood up, and yelled from the basement to find out what was going on. Unbeknown to me, my mom was cooking beets on the stove, and made the nearly fatally misguided decision to go outside, whe...