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Happy Birthday, Horror Press! Finding Community in Horror

Published

3 years ago

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I don’t like to get personal often, but the occasion begs the exception. 

Horror Press turned two today, and I’d be remiss not to take this opportunity to express my gratitude. Not only for Horror Press, which has given me a platform to share my nerdy thoughts on horror with others, but to the fans who actually take the time to read what we write, watch the videos we put out, listen to the podcast, and everything else. 

I’m typically not big on social media because I’m such a closed-off person. 

But Horror Press was only 3 months old when I came aboard, and any opportunity I can take to shout Horror Press from the rooftops, I will.

You see, James-Michael Fleites, the Curator of All Things Horror Press, told me a long time ago that he started this website so that people could see horror from a wide range of perspectives, giving a voice to underrepresented voices in horror. 

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Since then, Horror Press has grown and still continues to grow, giving unique voices a platform to share their thoughts on the genre we love so much. 

I’m so proud to be a part of this small business that doesn’t have a hateful bone in its body. 

So when I first started writing for Horror Press, I immediately made a Twitter account to achieve the aforementioned shouting from the rooftops. 

Diana Prince AKA Darcy the Mail Girl

Almost immediately, I caught wind of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. 

I truthfully had never watched it before. 

But it was a chance to watch a creepy double feature, and tweet along with other horror fans watching it live. Also, a huge shout out to Joe Bob Briggs’ co-host, my idol, Diana Prince, aka rcy the Mail Girl. 

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Before I go on, it’s paramount to understand what a lonely, depressed adolescent I was. The scary stories I read and the horror movies I watched were the company I kept. 

During a particularly lonely, sad time in my life, I watched Night of The Living Dead for the first time. It became a core memory for me – how I spent the film alone, barely paying attention, just losing my mind by myself in my room. 

The time in my life was so low, that I had no interest in watching the movie ever again. No matter the time that passed or the company I’d have, I was positive that watching it again would take me back to that dark, hollow, lonely feeling. 

Fast forward 16 years later, and as I readied myself on Twitter for my first experience with The Last Drive-In, what would be showing than The Night of the Living Dead? 

The whole time watching, I was struck by the contrast in experiences. How I’d gone from watching the movie alone as a lonely suicidal teen, to now watching the film as a wife and mother of 3, with a whole community of horror fans and my new Horror Press family directly at my fingertips. 

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I’m equally as amazed today as I was then, at how funny life is. 

Of course, I was physically still watching it alone -I’m the only nut in my house that really wants to watch The Last Drive In – but emotionally, it felt like a stadium was beside me, watching too. It was then that I realized I was home. Home with all my fellow horror fans. Alone but not alone, some of my favorite kind of company. 

The internet is a powerful thing, isn’t it?

Being able to share the experience is one of my favorite parts of working for Horror Press. I’ve always been weird and have a hard time fitting in places. But I’ve found a home in Horror Press, and I see family in our fans. 

So, to any horror fan out there who feels alone, I hope Horror Press can do for you every day what that first episode of The Last Drive-In and everything since did for me. We are a little horror community right at your fingertips, and we love it when you join in the conversation with us. 

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Welcome home, horror fan. 

Thank you for all that you do in helping to keep this small business alive, and thriving. 

Here’s to this one and many more; Happy birthday Horror Press! 

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A writer by both passion and profession: Tiffany Taylor is a mother of three with a lifelong interest in all things strange or mysterious. Her love for the written word blossomed from her love of horror at a young age because scary stories played an integral role in her childhood. Today, when she isn’t reading, writing, or watching scary movies, Tiffany enjoys cooking, stargazing, and listening to music.

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Misc

The ‘Urban Legend’ Franchise RANKED

Published

1 month ago

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August 12, 2026

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Ah, Urban Legend…the plucky younger sibling franchise to Scream. If this is the first time you realize that it’s a franchise at all, that is totally fair. The cult classic slasher’s only theatrical sequel was a critical and box office flop. The third film, Bloody Mary, was direct-to-video. The film has an interesting comparative pitch to Scream. While Scream is a meta-slasher toying with the rules of horror, Urban Legend has its killer basing its slice-and-dicin’ off of famous urban legends…and then they just basically did a version of Scream 3 for its sequel. It’s a fascinating trilogy, particularly in how the movies connect. In Final Cut, the first film exists as an urban legend itself. Bloody Mary, however, is a complete standalone that could be read as an urban legend within the universe of the first entry.

The Urban Legend Franchise Ranked From Worst to Best

So…how do these three films rank against each other? Are the sequels worth checking out at all? Pull up a chair, relax, and start mixing your Pop-Rocks and soda; this is the worst-to-best ranking of the Urban Legend trilogy.

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005)

Unsurprisingly, the straight-to-video, nearly completely forgotten supernatural entry is last. Directed by Mary Lambert of Pet Sematary acclaim, the movie is a straightforward supernatural horror. Three teen girls say “Bloody Mary” three times into a mirror, and it resurrects a vengeful spirit.

The movie is not terrible by any means. It is just pretty standard, with some good moments of schlocky, 2000s fun. For those that grew up in this era, it can be a goofy little nostalgia trip! The cheesy SFX, hilariously awkward teen acting, and cinematography of a Coke commercial make it a really easy watch. It’s almost like a much bloodier Goosebumps episode! However, for those not fans of this divisive era of TV-horror, it can be a bit of a slog.

The idea of making a movie that feels in-Universe to the first film is clever. However, it is unclear whether that was the exact intention. Despite this critic’s personal, nostalgic love of this film, it is not connected to the franchise at all. Even if this was a masterpiece, this detail makes it hard to put it anything above last place. Sorry Bloody Mary, I still love you.

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Urban Legend (1998)

Ready the guillotine. Light up the torches. Find the IP address this article was written on-but let me explain. Yes, it is controversial not to put this one in first place. Still, it is really more of a tie than second placement. This and Final Cut are vastly different, which makes the franchise interesting, nearly incomparable. They each succeed in their own sub-genres…but this one misses the mark.

Urban Legend is a cult classic for a reason. It is completely itself as a late-90s, teen campus-slasher. The movie takes a simple premise, combining it with a likeable cast and a gothic, dark-academia setting. It feels like it was made for slumber parties and sleepovers. A combination of 80s slashers and campfire tales? Amazing. Plus, the soundtrack is killer.

That being said, the mystery, story, and characters are all just okay. The answers to the mystery (spoilers…?) fall in line with I Know What You Did Last Summer, and many films from the 80s. Prom Night, April Fool’s Day, and The Burning all come to mind. If this came out before Scream, this would be number one, for sure. It is probably, technically, the best film of the franchise, if I had to be objective. However, it just doesn’t reach the levels of originality the final film on this list does.

Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)

Urban Legends: Final Cut is fantastic. No, really. It’s great, and one of the most underrated slashers of its time. While Scream picked apart the slasher genre in a meta-horror classic, this movie picks apart the horror film industry. The film has a lot of commentary on toxicity in the industry, and it is matched by an on-brand mystery.

A big issue with movies is finding a decent throughline. Look at the first Urban Legend, for example. The reason the killer kills has nothing to do with urban legends themselves-it is just a creepy MO. However, the killer in Final Cut has a motive rooted in filmmaking itself. The movie stays on brand, delivering on its promise. It is distinctly different from Scream, while still being perfect for fans of that franchise.

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Without spoiling, the mystery is great. While the final reveal is somewhat predictable, the twists and turns of the story itself are great. For fans of lost media horror like Red Rooms or Cigarette Burns, the mystery veers into that. One part of the film involves a student film with a mystery splice in the film spool. While the movie is funnier than it is scary, and somewhat outdated at points, it still feels the most rewatchable of all three movies.

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Misc

‘The Fly’ Movies Ranked (There’s More Than You Think)

Published

3 months ago

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June 3, 2026

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When people talk about the 1980s’ great horror remakes, they always bring up three titles updating 1950s sci-fi classics. Those would be John Carpenter’s The Thing, David Cronenberg’s The Fly, and Chuck Russell’s The Blob. It is generally recognized that both the originals and the remakes are pretty great in all three cases. However, when it came time to bring you good folks a ranking for Horror Press’ sci-fi month, one emerged victorious. Now, each franchise has at least three movies. 1958’s The Blob has a sequel (Beware! The Blob, from 1972). And 1982’s The Thing has a prequel (2011’s The Thing). However, The Fly franchise actually has five movies altogether. The extended Fly franchise isn’t talked about as much as it should be, and it’s highly deserving of a ranking. So let’s take a deeper look at this oh-so underrated series.

The Fly Movies Ranked

#5 The Fly II (1989)

The sequel to David Cronenberg’s The Fly gets a bad rap, because it’s not David Cronenberg’s The Fly. In The Fly II, Eric Stoltz plays Seth Brundle’s son, Martin. In the tradition of many a puberty metaphor, his dormant fly DNA triggers a transformation when he reaches sexual maturity. All in all, this movie is actually pretty good. It has a decently emotional narrative centered on the idea of parents passing a disease to their children. It has a bombastic score by Christopher Young. And it’s pretty gooey and gross, in the grand tradition of fun 1980s horror. However, it’s still a bit goofy and repetitive in a way that prevents it from climbing higher up the list. Plus, the only actor from the original 1986 movie who comes back (outside of archive footage) is John Getz. No shade on Getz, but he’s no Jeff Goldblum or Geena Davis.

#4 Curse of the Fly (1965)

On the other hand, Curse of the Fly wields goofiness as its most memorable strength. It gets away with it because it is never ever boring. However, the third Fly movie goes totally off the rails as far as the franchise is concerned. So it’s not going to be that satisfying as the third stepping stone of a larger marathon. It basically forgets that these movies are about scientists accidentally blending their DNA with houseflies. Instead, it expands its scope to a broader “mad science” realm. Primarily, it follows a young woman discovering the sinister secrets harbored by the rich family she hastily married into. It’s part Rebecca, part The Island of Dr. Moreau, and all weird. In a very good way.

#3 Return of the Fly (1959)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The son of the guy from 1958’s The Fly finds himself caught up in the aftermath of his father’s experiment. Unfortunately, the human-fly hybrid stuff here isn’t that interesting. It plays more like a generic 1950s monster movie than any of the other installments. However, that bit only comes in the third act, after an hour of pure mayhem! We’re talking even more experiments gone wrong (a guinea pig is given human hands in one memorably surreal moment). We’re talking juicy family melodrama. We’re talking backstabbing, duplicity, and Vincent Price. Overall, it’s a pretty good time! Also the male lead, Brett Halsey, is a total babe. You know, if that helps.

#2 The Fly (1958)

The Fly could easily have been terrible. It’s quite obviously cheap, and some of its special effects are dodgy. It’s not particularly action-packed, either. It mostly focuses on the investigation of the mysterious death of the brother of François Delambre (Vincent Price). Given that this is a movie called The Fly, you get no points for guessing what happened to him. However, even if you’re several steps ahead of the mystery, it’s still a rock-solid thrill ride. Both in the present and in flashbacks, the movie largely focuses on the dead man’s wife, Helene (Patricia Owens). This allows it to revel in watching her cozy domestic life swiftly unravel, which requires no special effects at all. It’s a hell of a satisfying watch that swivels between nihilistic horror movie and charming 1950s sci-fi romp. And I like both of those things very much!

#1 The Fly (1986)

I sometimes break from tradition with my No. 1 picks, but that will not be the case here. No way, no how! Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly does everything you want a remake to do. First, it amps up the special effects something fierce. His The Fly is a gruesome, gut-churning adventure. It constantly asks, “Could the human body get any grosser?” and always answers that question with a firm yes. However, it also takes the bare-bones plot of the original and adds a huge amount of depth. While both movies follow couples being challenged by the man becoming a fly-human hybrid, the remake’s romance is infinitely richer. The Fly is not only a great remake, but the ultimate auteur horror film. It feels like nothing less than David Cronenberg cracking open his skull and smearing his brain across the camera lens.
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