2010s / Comedy / Family / Fantasy / Horror
by Vincent Leo · Published September 25, 2018 · Last modified October 2, 2018
Gore-meister Eli Roth tones his usual style way, way down for The House with a Clock in Its Walls, a PG-rated, semi-Spielbergian big screen adaptation (no surprise, given Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment is the production house)...
They’re ba-a-a-ack… 1982’s Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper and co-written by (and likely co-directed by) producer Steven Spielberg, remains one of my favorite horror films of all time, drafting up the blueprint for most haunting-in-the-house productions...
When the Lutz family sold their story to author Jay Anson of their account purchasing a home in Amityville, Long Island, that they left after 28 days due to demonic goings-on, they neglected to...
Steven Spielberg’s intended follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a darker alien-invasion concept called Night Skies. The story idea came during Spielberg’s UFO research, stumbling across the Kelly-Hopkinsville incident in which aliens...
On November 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronnie “Butch” DeFeo Jr. shot and murdered his parents, two brothers, and two sisters with a high-powered rifle as they were sleeping in their Amityville, Long Island home. DeFeo...
1980s / Animation / Family / Fantasy
by Vincent Leo · Published February 19, 2003 · Last modified April 20, 2019
For the record, I watched the dubbed American version of My Neighbor Totoro (or Tonari No Totoro if you need the Japanese title) because it was the only option available to me at the time. I try to...
by Vincent Leo · Published October 30, 2001 · Last modified November 21, 2019
I am not exactly sure why schlock horror director William Castle has been such a source for remaking films for today’s audiences, except the idea that his films might be better if they weren’t...
With all due respect to the fans of The Sixth Sense, with which others may draw comparisons due to its ending, I’m going to go against the grain and proclaim The Others as the best horror film...
by Vincent Leo · Published January 23, 2000 · Last modified February 18, 2019
A grandiose mansion called Hill House is the setting for Dr. Marrow’s (Neeson, The Phantom Menace) experiments on insomnia, thinking it is one’s fears that keeps them awake, and if they can sleep while in a...
1980s / Comedy / Fantasy / Horror
by Vincent Leo · Published February 11, 1997 · Last modified March 16, 2021
The idea for Beetlejuice developed when Michael McDowell, a horror novelist and occasional television writer for “Tales from the Darkside”, sold the rights to some of his Southern Gothic novels to a former studio...
Reviews from film writer Vince Leo, covering all eras and genres of films from classics to the latest releases.
Film reviews from Vince Leo, from classics to new releases, since 1996.
