Death’s halo lands not just on everyone, but everything. It is the crown of that nostalgic smile which whispers subconsciously, telling an entire culture that something wonderful is now gone forever. Often this silent voice […]
MIXTAPE: GRUMPY ’95
Five years into the decade, ‘90s music still wasn’t totally sure what it was doing. While most agree 1995 was a pivotal year in music, marked by release after release that helped define the decade’s […]
‘Dial Code Santa Claus’ and ‘Home Alone’: A Study In Pop-Cultural Cross-Pollination
In the social media age, ironic Christmas movies are losing their jingle almost as quickly as we can meme them into existence. Die Hard is old hat. Batman Returns is a snore. Eyes Wide Shut remains too topical. […]
SPOOKY STREAMING WRAP UP
Another Halloween came and rotted, and streaming services continued to be the home of the most horror movie premieres. Grumpire has been unscientifically tracking this trend for a few years, and 2024 was no different. […]
A Canadian Giallo? A Case for ‘EVIL JUDGMENT’
The Italians know how to kill people in imaginative ways. Of course, I’m referring to their rich horror film history that started with I Vampiri, Italy’s first horror film, in 1957, directed by Riccardo Freda; […]
LET JASON BUILD A HOUSE AGAIN
Looming slow as molasses, A24’s Friday The 13th prequel series Crystal Lake is as cursed as the entire franchise has been, with the most recent news being the loss of their showrunner. This is on […]
HIP-HOP DAY 2024
Our second annual celebration of Hip-Hop Day comes just as a building block of hip-hop culture is globally recognized in the 2024 Paris Olympics! Very cool to see breaking added as an Olympic sport this […]
The Dork Universe: On recent trends in non-sequitur horror
It is no revelation that the reputation of Horror has vastly improved in the past decade’s time. It wouldn’t even be a stretch to say it is fully redeemed and in a new golden era. […]
MIXTAPE: GRUMPY ’94
“Peace, love, empathy”. Those words hit me like a truck when Courtney Love spoke them. Hearing her read from her late husband Kurt Cobain’s suicide note that April of 1994 on MTV News of all […]
The Architect of the Post-Modern Haunted House Story: Richard Matheson and The Legend of Hell House
Another Halloween is upon us and I’m very happy to focus on ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and other supernatural phenomena that can only be found in works of fiction (I do not believe in such phenomena […]
BIMBO BRUTALE: WHY 2000-2009 IS THE GOLDEN AGE OF FEMALE-LED ACTION/HORROR MOVIES
“And it’s stupid when they say, ‘You only use your body. You are an object of men.’ No, I’m the subject. I’m not an object.” – Sabrina Salerno, Italian singer and showgirl, 1988 A hard-bodied […]
ELBEE & ANDREW’S SPOOKY WATCHLIST
Take a look inside what the Head Grumps are watching around Grumpire HQ this October in Elbee & Andrew‘s Letterboxd list: “True to our name, we get a little grumpy when planning our Halloween watchlist […]
TYLER’S SPOOKY WATCHLIST
Take a look inside frequent contributor Tyler Peterson‘s Spooky Season Letterboxd Watchlist! Some highlights from Tyler himself: The Faculty (1998) “Has it really been twenty-five years since I told my mom I was going to […]
BRIAN’S SPOOKY WATCHLIST
Here’s a look inside Deathbomb Arc founder and Grumpire regular Brian Miller‘s Spooky Season Letterboxd Watchlist: “An honest list of exactly what is in our Blu-ray (and digital) stack here at my home to watch […]
BECAUSE THE SOUL IS PROGRESSIVE, IT NEVER QUITE REPEATS ITSELF: ON THE SO-CALLED CLONES OF ‘SCREAM’
What if God fell into the darkness of Hell? Into the prison He had made for His own enemies, for those diametrically opposite of Him… into a realm so far from the beauty of Heaven, […]