Appreciation

Grant Wahl could throw a dinner party. He and his wife, Dr. Céline Gounder, hosted them monthly for Grant’s Sports Illustrated colleagues. The idea wasn’t to bring together a collection of the familiar, but to gather a group of co-workers who might know little about the others, if they knew anything at all. The invite list offered no deference to one’s place on the masthead; in fact, it was deliberately anti-hierarchal, designed to confirm to the freshly-hired web producer that they were every bit the VIP that the most…

Image: Oscilloscope Cosmic horror saw a massive resurgence in the 2010s thanks to a new wave of directors being influenced by H.P. Lovecraft stories and a newfound love for the eternal abyss of space. The niche subgenre feeds on mystery and relishes its bizarreness, but one film from 2013 has got everyone stumped still. Coherence has remained a tough cookie to fully decipher, with the film absolutely reveling in its own uneasy mystery which still has no clear answer. Directed by James Ward Byrkit who…

Image: Momentum Pictures Clowns are universally agreed to be scary, unneccessary, and allowed to get away for too long with cars with TARDIS-like properties, so they’re perfect for horror movies. Everyone and their cat is afraid of clowns, and if you’re not, you’re clearly not paying attention. Clown horror films have been punctuated in recent years by Pennywise in It and Art from the Terrifier duology, but one mostly mediocre slasher from 2019 is getting revaluated in Haunt. Mostly forgotten, thanks to its…

via Drafthouse In one of those Hollywood coincidences you couldn’t make up, this year saw Jessica M. Thompson’s Dracula retelling The Invitation opened at the top of the domestic box office earlier in the summer. While that isn’t strange in itself, it can’t be ignored that filmmaker Karyn Kusama was also working on a modern-day update on the iconic vampire story before it was canceled weeks before the start of shooting, with the project marking the Jennifer Body‘s director’s first foray into horror since her…

The Dead Kennedys were already punk-popular when drummer D.H. Peligro joined the San Francisco-based group in 1981. The band’s debut album — 1980’s “Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables” and four singles — melded surf rock and Bay Area psychedelia in a way that disproved the trope about punk musicians who couldn’t play their instruments. Not well, anyway.Peligro — born Darren Henley — died Friday at his Los Angeles home. According to a statement issued by the band, police “stated that he died from trauma to the head caused…

Image: United Artists The most wonderful time of year is nearly upon us for horror aficionados, and an oft forgotten classic is rearing its head again in spooky season discussion. Pumpkinhead was the directorial debut of Stan Winston following an extensive career in special effects and prosthetics, including credits on Aliens, The Thing, and the incredibly ill-fated Island of Dr. Moreau. Like those other credits, Pumpkinhead is absolutely masterful with its special effects and feverishly fun to watch.…

Spider-Man (2002) Quite a few spectacular villains have graced the screens of Marvel projects. The MCU boasts nearly 30 films in total, and — for the most part — each one contains a different villain. These costumed criminals, plucked directly from the pages of our favorite comic books, are vital elements to what makes the best MCU films truly shine. Not all villains are created equal, however. Some of the MCU’s most memorable villains have left a far more permanent mark on the Marvel universe — and the…

via WWE Even though it’s comfortably been deemed as one of the year’s best and most successful horror movies, enthusiasm for Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone has tapered off quite a bit for a supernatural chiller that was only released in June. Maybe it’s because we’re being inundated with top-tier scary content on what feels like a weekly basis, or perhaps it’s all just down to the general flash-in-the-pan nature of the genre itself, where any release finds it tough to continue dominating the discourse for…

Judy Tenuta — Love Goddess, Petite Flower, wispy sleeves floating, glittered flower in her hair — has set a dainty foot upon a passing cloud headed to the moon. Once there, she will convert the angels to Judyism, spit her gum into their mouths, ride on their backs, baptize them “love slaves,” “stud puppets” and “pigs,” and they will absolutely and forever fall in love with her. Just like we did.Judy’s list of artistic accomplishments is admirably long and can be found online. What can also be found online is an outpouring…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, Sept. 29. I’m Ada Tseng, assistant editor on the Utility Journalism Team, which you were introduced to in Tuesday’s newsletter. On Wednesday, you heard more about our mental health coverage.Today, I want to tell you about Alex Daniels, a veteran stunt performer and coordinator who was David Hasselhoff’s double on “Baywatch” — the classic action drama about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles. He, along with a handful of other…