The Cherry Hill Chainsaw Massacre

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...

As of 2024, only three motion pictures in history have walked away with the "Big Five" (otherwise known as the "grand slam") awards at the Academy Awards. Those five major accomplishments pertain to Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted). The recipients of said achievement are It Happened One Night (1934), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), and most stunningly of all, Jonathan Demme's 1991 psychological slasher masterpiece, The Silence of the Lambs . It's no secret the Academy holds a fairly undisguised bias against the horror genre, as evidenced by the myriad genre entries of the 21st century that have failed to garner either more than a meager technical nomination ( A Quiet Place - Sound Editing,  The Lighthouse - Cinematography) or any at all. The only film that received its fair share of nominations, including the only win of the century thus far, is Jordan Peele's groundbreaking soci...