RANTS & RAVINGS ABOUT HORROR - "Why I Love SHUDDER!"

“Why I Love SHUDDER!”

I’ve been reading a whole lot about people wanting to know whether or not the streaming service for horror fans Shudder is worth the monthly service fees.  There are those in the horror community that say Yes and those that say No, so for this “Rants & Ravings About Horror” I wanted to give everyone my opinion on the controversy.

 

I am the first to admit that there are too many streaming services out there and I only have access to Netflix and Amazon Prime because there are just too many of them out there.  Then COVID-19 and the quarantine happened and every streaming service was offering discounts and free months.  Shudder was cheap and didn’t have commercials (or multiple tears) and since I’m a horror fan I decided to go with that one.  I could’ve done Criteria Collection (which is the only other one that interest me) or Disney+ (the number one that didn’t interest me at all) or HBO Max, Hulu, Full Moon, etc. There are just too many streaming services to keep track nor even care about.

 

Shudder is geared towards horror fans!  Now in March when I first signed up there was a complete mixture of old school horror films verses lower end fare with a small selection of indie darlings.  They also had several podcasts and series.  One of the main reasons I wanted to sign up was the fact that they had the Wolf Creek series from Australia which was hard to find.  One of the real reasons I decided to go ahead with Shudder is the fact that they had several Lucio Fulci films especially the “Gates of Hells” trilogy which is not something you’re going to find on Hulu or Netflix.  If you look closer to their catalog they also had Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox to name a few of the more hardcore cult horror films, so even if they didn’t have a strong selection of recent Hollywood horror they knew what their main audience was craving for.

 

What I especially enjoyed in those first couple months were the podcasts as they had a nice curated selection which includes – Horror Noire Uncut, Video Palace, and The Narrow Caves, to name a few.  I was actually quite surprised at the quality.  Over the next few months during the lock-down, I got reacquainted with some old classics but also got to watch a lot of international and old classics that I had heard about but never had access to see like Boar , Darling, Hands of the Ripper, Deadly Games, Vampire Circus, and Blood Rage, to name a few.

 

Now catching up with old school and international horror films has its place especially since it allows Shudder to advertise when they acquire new and interesting little seen, cult, and international films, but soon I noticed that there were more films being added every month that were “Shudder Exclusives” which meant that they were now acquiring plenty of films that you couldn’t find anywhere else.  This is particularly important as it justifies continuing my subscription of the service.  Some of these films include Host, The Marshes, The Ranger, Bliss, Found Footage 3D, and Housewife, to name a few.

 

One of the next big draws to the service is their original series Creepshow (based on the original Stephen King and George A. Romero films) which they have thus far produced a first season in addition to two holiday specials.  An amazing show that I can’t wait for Season 2 to be unleashed!

 

Now, all of this is well and good but why should horror fans care?  There are so many other streaming services out there but what sets this one apart from the others?  The thing that I love about Shudder is the fact that it caters to the horror connoisseur.  That person that enjoys all types of horror films of all sub genres.  There are films for fans of the slasher to the giallo to the psychological thriller in addition to the fans of the extreme gory variety to those in which there is almost no gore at all.  If you like films from other countries you’re sure to find some gems - Italian, French, Danish, Canadian, Korean, and even Japanese, to name a few.  Shudder is a treasure trove of hard to find gems and over the last year since the lock down they’ve acquired an even more diverse slate of films while adding even more cult and infamous films.

 

If there is something I believe they need more of, it would be more animated films and more great podcasts (since no new ones has been added since I joined).  There are some great animated films that could be added such as Heavy Metal and Heavy Metal 2000, Lady Death, or any of the Dead Space and Resident Evil films.  More podcasts would be an excellent addition to their current list.  Shudder may not be the best horror streaming service out there (as it is the only one I’ve bothered to try out) but is grown a lot in the year since I’ve had it and the selection and diversity of programing just gets better and better.  It is definitely a service I would recommend to any horror fan.

 

"Rants & Ravings About Horror": Week 14: “Tom Holland: The Underappreciated Director”

Week 14: “Tom Holland: The Underappreciated Director”

When you think of great horror directors the name Tom Holland is never at the top of the list and for many his name is completely unknown.  With the exception of his debut feature Fright Night (1985) and the original Child’s Play (1988) most of the rest of his films have been mostly forgotten but I’m here to say that Mr. Holland has crafted some excellent and underappreciated films and if you don’t know his films then maybe you should take a few moments to do so.

Enough has been said about Fright Night and Child’s Play to fill an entire book and I’ve already written a detailed account of my love for Child’s Play and the Chucky franchise but I would like to add that these films are a perfect genesis of childhood trauma.  Child’s Play deals with a young innocent child whose doll is corrupted by a serial killer and Fright Night deals with teen angst and fear in the disguise of a “boy who cried wolf” story.  In ’93 he directed the thriller The Temp, which starred an amazing Lara Flynn Boyle and Timothy Hutton in a suspenseful thriller of a hostile takeover and a temp too good to be true.  Boyle is at her most Sharon Stone ala Basic Instinct in this film and you can’t take your eyes off of her (and why would you want to).  This film did horrible business at the Box Office and was quickly forgotten but it is an early film of Holland’s that shows he knows how to bring the suspense without any supernatural elements.

For Stephen King fans he is known for the TV adaptation of The Langoliers (1995) and Thinner (1996).  I’ve never been a big fan of The Langoliers but I’ve always been under the impression that most King TV adaptations were more miss than hit because of the limitations of what can be shown on TV.  This being said, it is the first film in which I became known of who David Morse was and I’ve always been a huge fan of Dean Stockwell having grown up watching plenty of TV’s Quantum Leap.  Thinner, on the other hand, is one of my favorite King adaptations more for the story than any of the horror elements contained within.  This is not your typical King story as there are no monsters of real supernatural elements – just a Gypsy curse which eats away at the characters.  The film contains one of actor Robert John Burke’s finest starring performances (the other being ‘92’s Dust Devil).  The other great thing about this film is that Joe Mantegna gives one of his most entertaining performances and steals every scene he’s in.

After the dismal returns of Thinner the big screen films disappeared for Mr. Holland which is a shame since I saw this film on opening night in ’96 (like I did pretty much any film based on the works of Stephen King).  It was hard to figure out where the director of such classics (in my opinion) had disappeared off to.  Mr. Holland didn’t really disappear though but went to the small screen.

In ’90 he directed the TV movie The Stranger Within another rural thriller starring Ricky Schroder and his Fright Night pal Chris Sarandon.  I saw the film once a long time ago but have forgotten much about it.   I enjoyed more his contributions to the anthology film Two-Fisted Tales (1992) and HBO’s Tales From the Crypt.  I’m still a huge fan of Tales From the Crypt even to this day and his episode “Four-Sided Triangle” is my favorite of the three he directed.  He also contributed to Amazing Stories but I never saw his episode.   What I did enjoy was his contribution to the beloved anthology series Masters of Horror with the episode “We All Scream for Ice Cream” which starred William Forsythe.  It wasn’t one of the best episodes of the series but it was one of the more entertaining of the second (and final) seasons.  Even though Mr. Holland seems to have more or less disappeared the success of the Masters of Horror series added a renewed lease on life for him and paved the way for his own anthology series Twisted Tales (2013), which can be found on DVD/BD as Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales.  These are hit or miss but it has allowed Mr. Holland to continue to contribute to this genre that we all love.

Many of you who only know Mr. Holland from the films he directed should also know that he got his start writing the screenplays of such cult classics as The Beast Within (1982), Class of 1984 (1982), Psycho II (1983), and The Initiation of Sarah (1978).  He also delved into non-horror by writing Cloak & Dagger (1984) and directing the Whoopi Goldberg favorite Fatal Beauty (1987) but he had his greatest success in the horror and thriller genre.

The greatest thing about Mr. Holland is that he contributed so many great films that were not simple slasher or monster films but all had deeper meaning and subtext which cannot be said of many horror films.  This is one of the reasons why he has always been on my radar and why I continue to eagerly await his next film or television project.  As of right now there are rumors that he is finally working on a new feature called Killing Frank which he wrote and is directing and which stars Freddie Highmore, Melanie Lynskey, Rebecca De Mornay, and Bruce Davison.  If this is true then we all have something to look forward to in the near future.