Misc
Forget ‘Conclave’ (2024) – Watch This Marathon Of Horror Movies Made By 2025 Oscar Nominees
One of my favorite things to do every year is a bit of Oscar catchup once the Academy Award nominations come out. For some that might mean sitting down to marathon September 5, Flow, The Brutalist, etc. And while that’s all well and good, the real fun is in finding horror movies that the nominees made or starred in before they hit the prestige era of their career (though The Substance proves that those two eras aren’t always mutually exclusive). If you’d like to join in on this grand tradition, I have arranged an epic marathon that drags the horror movie skeletons out of these esteemed performers and filmmakers’ closets!
One of my favorite things to do every year is a bit of Oscar catchup once the Academy Award nominations come out. For some that might mean sitting down to marathon September 5, Flow, The Brutalist, etc. And while that’s all well and good, the real fun is in finding horror movies that the nominees made or starred in before they hit the prestige era of their career (though The Substance proves that those two eras aren’t always mutually exclusive).
If you’d like to join in on this grand tradition, I have arranged an epic marathon that drags the horror movie skeletons out of these esteemed performers and filmmakers’ closets!
An Oscar Inspired Horror Marathon
Brady Corbet in Funny Games (2007)
Before he was the esteemed director of The Brutalist, Brady Corbet was the less-esteemed director of the ludicrous pop music odyssey Vox Lux. And before that, he was a working actor, a gig that led him to star opposite Naomi Watts in Michael Haneke’s shot-for-shot remake of his notorious 1997 movie Funny Games. I’m just saying, if any Brady Corbet movie actually deserves to be called The Brutalist, it’s probably this one.
Traci Loader doing Possessor (2020)
From an English-language facsimile of an Austrian movie, we move on to a son’s facsimile of his father’s beloved subgenre. This body horror outing by Brandon Cronenberg featured work by Makeup and Hairstyling nominee Traci Loader. Traci is nominated this year for Nosferatu, another horror title getting big ups from the Academy this year, but she proved her mettle in the genre long before that with the visceral Possessor.
Possessor is streaming on Tubi
Demi Moore in Parasite (1982)
Before making a splash in St. Elmo’s Fire, Oscar-nominated The Substance star Demi Moore took on her second-ever feature film role in the 1982 sci-fi horror movie Parasite, in which she plays a lemon grower who helps fight off a post-apocalyptic parasite. This movie’s shlock credentials are unmatched, considering it is also an early outing from notorious Full Moon filmmaker Charles Band and was also originally distributed in 3-D.
Parasite is streaming on Plex
Timothée Chalamet in Bones and All (2022)
The theme connecting this to Parasite is “filmmakers who have lived in Italy.” (Never forget Charles Band lived and worked in a 12th century castle just outside Rome for years – check it out in Castle Freak.) Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal love story is a YA fantasy romance adaptation to beat the band, filled to the brim with carnal longings, whether it be for food, flesh, or A Complete Unknown nominee Timothée Chalamet. And when you’re watching a Guadagnino film, you know it’s mostly the latter.
Bones and All is streaming on MGM+
Guy Pearce in Ravenous (1999)
From one cannibal movie to another, it’s time to check out The Brutalist nominee Guy Pearce leading a cast studded with “that guy” actors including Robert Carlyle, Neal McDonough, and David Arquette. This Wendigo movie is unique among the horror genre in many ways, including its 1840s period setting and the fact that it’s a pre-2000 horror movie directed by a woman, in this case the late great Antonia Bird.
Coralie Fargeat doing Revenge (2018)
Speaking of horror movies directed by women… This isn’t necessarily a skeleton in the closet considering the fact that Coralie Fargeat has been nominated for directing The Substance, but her directorial debut Revenge is a must-watch. While this modernized rape-revenge movie feels like an entirely different beast from The Substance, it contains many of the same core nuggets, including a harrowing examination of a specific aspect of one woman’s experience with the patriarchy, a fuckton of blood, and a general top-to-bottom disgust with the human condition.
Revenge is streaming on Shudder
BONUS: Demi Moore on I Spit On Your Grave (1978)
So we’ve just talked about the rape-revenge genre AND The Substance, so let’s take a quick break to honor Demi Moore’s early work as the cover model on the poster for 1978’s I Spit On Your Grave. Feel free to watch the movie, if you can handle it, but it actually stars Camille Keaton, so it doesn’t technically count for this marathon.
Fernanda Torres in Gêmeas (1999)
OK, we’ve hit a bit of a snag here. If you don’t speak Portuguese, this one will be harder to find, so feel free to skip it if you’re actually following along. But I’m Still Here nominee Fernanda Torres has dabbled in horror, and it is well worth acknowledging this psychological thriller about twin sisters (both played by Torres) who fight over the same man.
Adrien Brody in Splice (2009)
And now we move on from characters who share DNA to characters who specifically mutate DNA. In Splice, which was helmed by Cube’s Vincenzo Natali, The Brutalist nominee Adrien Brody plays a geneticist who is part of a team that accidentally creates a monster.
Splice is streaming on Max
Jarin Blaschke doing Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet (2009)
Splice’s B-movie nature leaves a huge gulf in esteem between it and The Brutalist, but I think we can widen that gulf here. Jarin Blaschke has been nominated for lensing Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu after collaborating with the aesthetically inclined filmmaker previously on The Witch, The Lighthouse (for which Blaschke was nominated for his first Oscar), and The Northman. However, way back in the day, he was cutting his teeth on the down-and-dirty direct-to-DVD slasher Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet, which features appearances from horror royalty in the form of Bill Moseley and Danielle Harris.
Mikey Madison in Scream (2022)
And so we move from one slasher to another, though this one is much better known. Not only is Anora nominee Mikey Madison in the 2022 legacy sequel Scream, but she also gets to (SPOILER ALERT) play one of the Ghostface killers. Honestly, that’s a much bigger honor than some paltry Oscar.
Scream is streaming on Netflix (and also Paramount+)
BONUS: Ariana Grande in Scream Queens Season 1 (2015)
If you’re still thirsty for slashers after all that, why not have a cool-down at the end of your marathon with the first couple episodes of Ryan Murphy’s short-lived horror-comedy series Scream Queens? The Wicked nominee has a memorable death scene early on, and you’ll get to witness the ignoble birth of the cringe-inducing “Señorita Awesome” meme that you may have seen floating around the Internet lately.
Scream Queens is streaming on Hulu
Misc
Our Halloween Giveaway Is Here!
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What You’ll Win
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Limited Edition 4K UHD from Arrow Video
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original DTS-HD MA 7.1 and 5.1 surround audio and lossless stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary with Dread Central co-founder Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton and co-host of The Spooky Picture Show podcast Chris MacGibbon
- Archival audio commentary with director Marcus Nispel, producer Michael Bay, executive producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form and New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye
- Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, director of photography Daniel Pearl, production designer Greg Blair, art director Scott Gallager, sound supervisor Trevor Jolly and composer Steve Jablonsky
- Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, Michael Bay, writer Scott Kosar, Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and actors Jessica Biel, Erica Leerhsen, Eric Balfour Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel and Andrew Bryniarski
- Reimagining a Classic, a brand new interview with director Marcus Nispel
- Shadows of Yesteryear, a brand new interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl
- The Lost Leatherface, a brand new interview with actor Brett Wagner
- Masks and Massacres, a brand new interview with makeup effects artist Scott Stoddard
- Chainsaw Symphony, a brand new interview with composer Steve Jablonsky
- Chainsaw Redux: Making A Massacre, a making-of documentary
- Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, an in-depth look at the infamous killer who inspired the character of Leatherface
- Severed Parts, a look at the cutting room floor and some of the scenes excised from the final edit
- Deleted scenes including an alternate opening and ending
- Screen tests for Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour and Erica Leerhsen
- Behind-the-scenes featurette
- Cast and crew interviews
- Theatrical trailers and TV spots
- Concept art galleries
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
- Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michael Gingold
Misc
NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights: A Sneak Peek at ‘The Lost Boys’ Musical, ‘Resident Evil: Requiem,’ and More!
As soon as New York Comic Con announced that its 2025 theme would be “haunted,” I started lacing up my comfy shoes and making a beeline for the Javitz Center! Horror has always been represented at the con, but it felt fitting that it should play a central role in this year’s event at a time when the genre seems more popular than ever.
From beloved family-friendly properties like The Nightmare Before Christmas to pants-dampening titles like the upcoming Resident Evil: Requiem, horror appeared in countless shapes and forms. Here are all the best and scariest insights I gleaned from the show floor, panel rooms, and pop-ups of New York Comic Con 2025!
Our NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights
Resident Evil: Requiem Is Going to Test Your Bladder Strength
Full disclaimer: I’m not a gamer. I’m honestly pretty bad at games, which made my Resident Evil: Requiem play session all the more frightening because I was convinced that everyone around me would realize I’m a fraud. But with easy-to-grasp controls, even for a newb like me, the latest installment in the iconic horror franchise quickly sucked me in and left me on edge for entirely different reasons.
During my 30-minute session, I was introduced to FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, Requiem’s central character. She swims to consciousness to find herself strapped upside down on a gurney with a needle in her arm, siphoning her blood. After Grace managed to free herself, the controls were handed over to me to explore the creepy facility through Grace’s eyes, looking for a fuse. Some spaces were bathed in red light; others were lit only by flickering bulbs that left me white-knuckling the controller, waiting for something to emerge from the shadows and swallow me whole, not helped by Grace’s anxious, stuttering breathing in my ear.
I took a moment to appreciate how detailed video games have become since my childhood experiences playing Evil Dead: Hail to the King on the original PlayStation (seriously, you can see the dust drifting in beams of light now?!), only for the sound of movement somewhere in the facility to yank me back to the present. I renewed my frantic search for the fuse, only to run blindly into a pitch-black room and encounter something enormous that dragged me into the darkness. Sorry, Grace!
You can find out what happens next when Resident Evil: Requiem releases for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 27, 2026.
Megan Fox Is Among the New Cast Members in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2—And Blumhouse Hasn’t Given Up on Its Other m3gan Yet
Blumhouse made several announcements at their NYCC panel, most notably that Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body) is voicing Toy Chica in director Emma Tammi’s highly anticipated sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, coming to theaters on December 5. Other new additions to the cast include YouTuber Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, who cameoed in the first movie and will voice Toy Bonnie, and Kellen Goff, who has voiced multiple characters in the game series and will now lend his pipes to Toy Freddy.
I’m interested in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, not least because my best friend is terrified of the franchise and makes a wildly entertaining moviegoing companion—but I’m more interested in the future of another Blumhouse franchise, M3GAN. After the sequel underperformed, likely due in part to its hard genre pivot away from horror and into action territory, the future of the killer doll is uncertain. But in a special industry presentation on “The Business of Fear,” Jason Blum revealed that “we’re all working to keep M3GAN alive,” adding that Blumhouse is exploring other potential mediums before trying to resurrect her on film.
Does that mean a M3GAN video game might come our way in the future, or perhaps a TV series? I don’t know, but I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the silicone diva.

Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.
The Lost Boys: A New Musical Will Feature Flying Stunts and a Live Vampire Band
My queer heart is a sucker for musical adaptations of horror films I love, so you can be certain that I’ll be heading down to the Santa Carla Boulevard—aka Broadway’s Palace Theater—for The Lost Boys: A New Musical, which begins previews on March 27, 2026. At their NYCC panel, producer Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring franchise), director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending), and cast members LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Maria Wirries revealed why they feel Joel Schumacher’s 1987 classic translates so well to the stage, and what audiences can look forward to.
“There’s something that I see with both horror movies, musicals, and superhero movies—there’s an element of melodrama that’s really rewarding,” says Wilson, who began his career in musical theater and worked with Schumacher on the director’s 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. “Some people view it as camp, but there’s a reality of it being heightened that felt like this story cemented itself so much to being a musical.”
“They’re a biker gang, after all, and there’s a level of theatricality to that in and of itself,” says Arden. “Our biker gang also happens to play instruments.”
That’s right: the vampires will be playing instruments live on stage, which made casting twice as hard. Ali Louis Bourzgui, who plays David, the character portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the film, reveals that he plays guitar. And that wasn’t the only unusual request in the casting call: auditions included a flying test. (Presumably wires were involved, unless Arden has found himself a real cabal of vampires in his cast.)
Other highlights that fans can look forward to include killer music from one of Arden’s favorite bands, The Rescues. You can listen to the song “Have to Have You” right now, featuring instrumentals from Slash. The director also teases that many fan-favorite moments from the film will feature in some way in the musical, including the bridge scene and, yes, even the sexy saxophone guy.
Greg Nicotero’s Guts & Glory Marks a New Challenge for a Legend of the Business
If you like looking at gnarly practical effects in horror movies, chances are you’re familiar with Greg Nicotero’s work, whether you realize it or not. The legendary SFX artist has worked on everything from George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II to Kill Bill and, more recently, The Walking Dead. The impressive extent of his resume was made clear at the panel “Shudder is Here to Scare the S*** Out of You,” in which almost any film mentioned by the other panelists was met by a small smile and a humble murmur of “worked on that” into the mic, often followed by a wild anecdote. Nicotero seems like the most interesting man in the world to grab a drink with, and his new horror competition show for Shudder—Guts & Glory—will let us see more of the man behind the makeup brush.
“Guts & Glory is one of the most fun times I’ve had on a show,” Nicotero says, teasing that the series is “part Sam Raimi, part Halloween Horror Nights, and part Survivor.”
In the six-episode first season, contestants are dropped into an Alabama swamp, where there’s an urban legend about an evil spirit. “One of the contestants gets possessed by the evil spirit, people start dying off, but in the meantime, they’re still competing and there’s a prize,” Nicotero explains.
Guts & Glory is effects-heavy, which was challenging to do in an unscripted series relying on real people’s real-time reactions. “You do a movie, you can cut and try it again,” Nicotero explains. “[This] was completely out of my wheelhouse and out of my comfort zone, but I’m really, really proud of it.”
Nicotero’s Creepshow was one of the first original shows to debut on Shudder, so he’s truly part of the DNA of the horror streamer, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. Guts & Glory premieres on October 14 as part of Shudder’s Season of Screams programming.
Horror Short The Littles Deserves the Big-Screen Feature Treatment
Some short films are perfectly suited to their bite-sized format, while others contain the seeds of something much bigger. At the New York Premiere of The Littles, a new short written and directed by American Horror Story producer Andrew Duplessie, I could immediately see the potential for the feature film that Duplessie hopes to make.
Equal parts charming and unsettling, The Littles stars M3GAN’s Violet McGraw as a little girl with a loose floorboard in her bedroom. One night, a scuffling sound and a crack of light between the boards lead the little girl to discover that her family isn’t alone in the house…
Duplessie says The Littles was inspired by his own experiences growing up in a creaky old house with a no-doubt overactive imagination. The short features creepy-cute stop-motion animation from Anthony Scott (The Nightmare Before Christmas), puppets by Katy Strutz (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), and some truly adorable miniature sets by Aiden Creates, all blended perfectly with the live-action scenes. Check it out if it’s playing at a festival near you, and watch this space for a (fingers-crossed) future feature!

Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.
Disney Publishing’s New The Nightmare Before Christmas Tie-in Novel Welcomes Younger Fans into the Scary Fun
NYCC’s horror happenings weren’t all geared toward an adult audience. Disney Publishing took over Daily Provisions Manhattan West for a pop-up experience inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, featuring themed food and drinks like a delectable Pumpkin Potion coffee that I could honestly drink all season long.
At a media and creator event in the space, I took a look at the newly released Hour of the Pumpkin Queen from New York Times best-selling author Megan Shepherd, who also wrote the official novelization of The Nightmare Before Christmas for the film’s 30th anniversary in 2023. In this new tie-in novel, Sally and her rag doll apprentice, Luna, embark on a time-bending adventure to save Jack Skellington and Halloween Town after falling through a mysterious portal.
I was gifted a copy of the book by Disney, but all opinions are my own here. I’m looking forward to giving it a read during the inevitable Halloween hangover that takes place in November, before likely passing it on to my young nieces when they’re old enough. It’s a full novel, not a picture book, so definitely geared more toward a YA audience, but between the beautiful artwork on the cover and the seasonal theme, it might just be the perfect gift for the budding horror lover in your life.
That’s a wrap on New York Comic Con 2025! Be sure to bookmark Horror Press if you haven’t already so you never miss our coverage of conventions, festivals, and more.





