Movies
3 Modern Horror Films With Classic Giallo Influences
While there are many parallels between giallo and American slasher films, the latter often abandons that signature blend of horror and mystery so commonplace in giallo, instead opting for a high body count and choreographed kills. While giallo remains an influence for modern filmmakers like Luca Guadagnino and James Wan, modern parallels in non-slasher horror films and giallo provide intriguing information on how giallo shapes the stories we tell in horror.

Italian giallo is a subgenre of horror as visually slicing as it is brutally bloody. But at the heart of giallo films is mystery. Bodies are mangled, sliced to bits, or to the police’s chagrin, disappear into thin air with nothing but missing posters and heartbroken hanger-ons. But as the body count grows, a hand will once again wield the knife. Eyes go wide. A shallow gasp before a blade slashes across the victim’s throat. Music swelling as candy apple red blood pools on the floor. Our killer, masked or shadow obscured, will circle our heroine, the music will crescendo, only for one last final battle before the detective close on the killer’s tail kicks down the door.
How Do Modern Horror Films Incorporate Giallo?
While there are many parallels between giallo and American slasher films, the latter often abandons that signature blend of horror and mystery so commonplace in giallo, instead opting for a high body count and choreographed kills. While giallo remains an influence for modern filmmakers like Luca Guadagnino and James Wan, modern parallels in non-slasher horror films and giallo provide intriguing information on how giallo shapes the stories we tell in horror.
Last Night in Soho (2021)
Edgar Wright’s 2021 film Last Night in SoHo follows smalltown dreamer Eloise Turner (Tomasin Mackenzie), a first year fashion student at a London fashion school, as she finds herself spiraling into a sparkling, neon nightmare as she inhabits the body of 1960s lounge singer Sandie (Anya Taylor Joy) as she desperately seeks fame. Visually, Last Night in SoHo’s giallo influences are clear. Glowing neon lights flood Eloise’s vision, eyes growing wide and even more unhinged as her grasp of reality becomes unsteady.
But the film draws parallels with the stories we’ve seen time and time again in giallo films. Notably, the trope of the giallo heroine being a fish out of water, often in a strange, foreign land. She’ll find herself at the heart of a mystery hidden beneath the façade of her own precious dream. Be it Susie Banon’s arrival at the famed dance academy at the center of Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) or Liza Merril’s lucky inheritance of a cursed inn in Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (1981), giallo films frequently throw our heroines into the unknown, luring them with the promise of what they’ve always wanted. Eloise’s abandonment of her small-town life to achieve her fashion goals in London aligns with the tradition of giallo films while incorporating supernatural and psychological elements to modernize the film.
As Eloise becomes more enamored with this sexual, violent 1960s, she becomes attached to her avatar Sandie, developing an intense need to discover what happened to her. Eloise inhabits the role of your classic giallo detective and heroine in one world, while losing her grasp of reality in the other. Haunted by Sandie in the modern world, Eloise has no option but to find answers, even if that means putting herself in harm’s way. Edgar Wright creates a modern horror film that draws inspiration from giallo without trying to imitate it.
Giallo is a genre conveyed in pieces. The glaring shine of a knife. A gasp from a parted, lipstick-painted mouth. Manicured fingernails scratching at the floor as the knife pierces skin. Again. And again. The killer’s crime hidden from the viewer by the absence of all the details, the victim reduced to little more than a body for a disillusioned detective to ponder over. Giallo is a genre whose violence is incompressible in its entirety.
Under the Skin (2013)
Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013) shows an alien invader whose malevolent appetite is concealed beneath the guise of a beautiful woman (Scarlett Johansson) stalking the Irish countryside for rides and the men who provide them to her. The alien invader draws the attention of the male eye, entices them to slow to a stop and let her into the car. When small talk proves tedious, she seduces them, drawing them in with sex. She undresses, a naked woman upon inspection. Her victim’s gaze falls upon the curve of a hip. An uncovered breast. She draws them in to consume their very essence.
Unlike a classic giallo where the lack of the whole obscures our killer, Under the Skin’s use of imagery in pieces is one grounded in the familiar. A naked body, no matter how beautiful, is something that we as human beings recognize. But the horrifying thing about Johansson’s portrayal is that even if we were to see her in her entirety, the thing that is deadly and violent about her is beneath the skin. Under the Skin may not be a giallo movie, but it engages with the visual styles so popular in the subgenre, creating a film that is hypnotic and erotic.
Intense and violent murders are frequently featured in giallo films, but giallo also juxtaposes brutality with beauty. Characters meet their ends in settings with striking, original architecture, neon lit backdrops, and exquisite, detailed set dressing only deserving of a gorgeously shot murder.
But modern horror films tend to be more fixated on the uniqueness of the kill. Be it a bread slicer or paper shredder, the settings in many modern slashers tend to just be dressing to set up the kill. However, Peter Strickland’s In Fabric manages to do both, juxtaposing violence with beautiful imagery as a beautiful dress causes her life to spin into a dizzying spiral.
In Fabric (2018)
Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a recently divorced mother of artistic hanger-on son Vince (Jaygann Ayeh). Caught up in the humdrum of her job as a bank teller and her uneventful social life, Sheila finds herself drawn in by a bizarre television advert marketing a new boutique. Enraged at the news that her ex-husband is dating, Sheila sets out to find her very own revenge dress, or more accurately, find something she can wear out on a date. And as a strange shop merchant walks Sheila through the boutique’s inventory, she comes upon a dazzling red dress.
Even as she finds her fingers flitting over the dress’s skirt, her eye adoring the red fabric demarcated by nothing more than a single black slash at the hip, she wonders aloud if it’s too provocative yet allows herself to be led to a dressing room. Even though Sheila admits she could never fit into a size 36, the dress fits. It’s almost like it was made for her, predestined perhaps.
While the date leads nowhere except disappointment, Sheila dreams visions of the dress’ twirling skirt, stirred by a ghostly wind. The garment constricts against her body as she gasps in, the red striking against the intricately designed interior of the restroom. When she removes the dress, it harms her too, leaving Sheila with a painful rash then later turning her washing machine into a bucking, feral interloper on Sheila’s domestic solitude.
In classic giallo fashion, the story behind the dress and its many victims threads through the film. Just when we come to know Sheila, she dies at the dress’ hands. She’s just another death for the dress’ next investigator and victim to stumble upon. In Fabric is a neo-giallo meets existential dilemma, as the dress mystifies and transforms its wearers to the point of madness and inevitable death.
Giallo is a genre of strange machinations and dangerous mysteries. A dream becomes entangled in a deadly plot, a question the only thing between a heroine’s redemption and her unfortunate death. Giallo is a tense & thrilling genre of horror, neon-soaked extravagance setting the scene for extraordinary violence. It’s no wonder that modern filmmakers find themselves drawn to take influences from giallo. After all, in an era where everyone’s eyes are on the next big thing, you need to find a way to catch your audience’s attention. Add a dash of mystery to your horror, and make it big, beautiful, and brutal all around, and you’re set.
Movies
The Best Horror You Can Stream on Shudder in February 2025
The Shudder February lineup is after my heart. Obviously, the app is adding more 2024 titles like The Dead Thing and Little Bites. However, they are also adding so many cool movies I have been dying to make my friends watch these last few years. There are some films guaranteed to make some heads roll alongside some cute vampire rom-coms hitting the horror streamer this month, and I cannot wait to revisit each title. Check out the five movies I’m highlighting this year, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! So here are the best movies to stream on Shudder this February!

The Shudder February lineup is after my heart. Obviously, the app is adding more 2024 titles like The Dead Thing and Little Bites. However, they are also adding so many cool movies I have been dying to make my friends watch these last few years. There are some films guaranteed to make some heads roll alongside some cute vampire rom-coms hitting the horror streamer this month, and I cannot wait to revisit each title. Check out the five movies I’m highlighting this year, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
The Best Movies to Stream on Shudder This Month
The Coffee Table (2022)
A couple of new parents experiencing a rough patch decide to buy a coffee table, not knowing that the decision will alter their lives forever. The Coffee Table was one of my favorite movies of last year, and it is one of those titles you want to know as little as possible when you hit play. It is the bleakest and most stressful comedy I have seen in years, and I love it. This one goes out to my fellow sickos (complimentary). Please watch it the day it hits Shudder before the internet can ruin it for you.
You can watch The Coffee Table on February 24th.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2024)
A young vampire who is too sensitive to kill for her supper meets a young loner with suicidal tendencies. What starts as a transactional relationship soon blossoms into an unexpected friendship. This movie is much cuter than I like my vampire movies. However, it is still a nice time for those looking to fill the void left by What We Do in the Shadows ending. It’s also not the worst romantic horror movie we have ever seen. I had very few notes for it in my review, and I know it made it onto quite a few top 10 lists of last year.
You can watch Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person on February 10th.
My Animal (2023)
An outcast falls for a new girl in her small town, which makes it difficult to keep her darkest secret hidden. My Animal is a severely overlooked lesbian werewolf tale. It has been stuck in streamer purgatory for years, so finally finding a streaming home is a big deal. This moody story stars Bobbi Salvör Menuez and Amandla Stenberg and deserves your attention. It belongs somewhere between Ginger Snaps and Good Manners in the women werewolves we must celebrate. Make this feral love story a date night this winter, preferably during a full moon.
You can watch My Animal on February 1st.
Nightsiren (2022)
A woman returns to her birthplace, searching for answers to questions about her childhood. However, she is met with ancient superstitions and a community accusing her of witchcraft and murder. Nightsiren has been on my radar for a couple of years and is the only movie I have not seen. I love that Shudder is letting me find out if it’s as good as it looks this February. Worst-case scenario, I can say that I watched a Slovak-Czech feminist psychological horror this month, and that feels like a win.
You can watch Nightsiren on February 10th.
Tiger Stripes (2024)
An 11-year-old discovers the body horror of puberty as her body begins to change. Gothic horror is out, and menstruation is in because Tiger Stripes is the kind of period horror we need more of in the world. I fell for this cute little movie during a festival a couple of years ago and am so glad it has finally made its way to Shudder. It’s funny and very relatable. It is also a new genre entry destigmatizing the menses, and we need more movies in this subgenre. So, while you should watch it with as many people as possible, it’s also a delightful brunch body horror moment.
You can watch Tiger Stripes on February 24th.
It seems like Shudder has read my diary and added titles that I need the rest of you to see. I hope you check out these tales of lesbian werewolves, fun period horror, and everything between this February. You truly deserve cool new stories by cool new filmmakers, and that is exactly what the streamer is giving us almost weekly this month. What a time to be a subscriber!
Movies
Revisiting The Stepfather Films (And The Insane Real Crime Spree That Inspired Them)

We all have one person in our lives who carries everything on their backs. It could be a family member whose work ethic shocks everyone around them or a friend juggling dozens of projects at once and still managing to get everything done just right. Thankless individuals who go unrecognized, but sometimes, that person ends up getting the spotlight they deserve.
To me, the Stepfather series is the perfect example of that in cinematic terms.
The Stepfather, directed by Joseph Ruben in 1987, is the first in a small franchise of horror films that feels pretty forgotten in the grand scheme of 80s slashers and thrillers. But the film is a really interesting study of how one actor can take a role and make it their own, in a way that’s so compelling it makes you want to see more of that character even when the movies he’s in are kind of mediocre.
ODDLY MEMORABLE FOR A FORGOTTEN FRANCHISE
As the cultural conversation of the era has turned into a lot of circular discourse about how much better effects were back then and how unproven concepts made it to the screen more often, it should be easy to forget a psychological horror film with such a simple premise: what if your stepfather you hated was actually a freaky serial killer who was going to take your family out? From that premise sprung an unexpectedly great film, carried entirely by its lead actor.
I have a weird connection to The Stepfather because it was written by Richard Stark, who wrote one of my favorite crime stories of all time: The Hunter. I didn’t even know Richard Stark was only a pseudonym until I watched The Stepfatherand discovered it was writer Donald E. Westlake’s pen name. And Westlake’s proficiency with crime fiction translates here smoothly, because he took a horrifying real-life story of absolute evil (straight out of Westfield, New Jersey) and brought it to the screen with a true-to-life character.
THE CRIMINAL BEHIND THE STEPFATHER SERIES
The real-life killer behind The Stepfather films was John List. To most people, he was a family man, living the dream with his wife and three children. He was a banker, hard-working and clean living, on the outside at least. He had a close relationship with many of the people in the Lutheran church he attended every Sunday, and was well-liked. But in reality, List was about to become one of the most infamous mass murderers in American history.
Behind the scenes, List was struck with financial trouble after financial trouble that exacerbated his already worsening mental health problems. A number of layoffs and setbacks left him and his family teetering on the brink of poverty despite the fact they lived in a 19-room mansion (I couldn’t even begin to explain how that works, don’t ask). List’s relationship with his wife was damaged by her spending habits, alcoholism, and deteriorating mental state due to untreated syphilis.
He was left to “raise” three children, whom he was verbally and physically abusive to; his daughter Patricia even warned her drama coach that she was certain her father was going to kill her. Then her father actually sat all the kids down and told them they should prepare to die. And eventually, Patricia, her mother and grandmother, and both of her brothers became List’s victims in 1971.
List left his car in long-term parking at JFK International and disappeared with almost nothing in his name. Leaving a confession for his pastor behind in the form of a letter, it took weeks for neighbors to report the family’s disappearance, thanks to List’s meticulous planning. He had already slipped through the hands of the police by running from state to state, before eventually settling down into a new persona: Robert Clark. He eventually “fell in love” with a woman named Delores Miller, and the two moved to Virginia together soon after that.
Their relationship ended abruptly after an episode of America’s Most Wanted aired, in which famous forensic artist Frank Bender made an incredibly accurate sculpt of what List looked like at the time. After years of close calls and narrow captures, List was discovered. It took 17 and a half years for List to be caught. He was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences and died in jail in 2008.
THE ACTOR WHO GAVE LIFE TO THE STEPFATHER SERIES
Now, I mention all of this above to punctuate one thing: The Stepfather isn’t the only fictionalized retelling of List’s story, but it is the most effective. Its opening scene is a gruesome recounting of List’s disaffected disappearance, how he slipped off to freedom, to an alternate life of his own design for nearly two decades, with little emotion at all. It opens on a mystery—what kind of man is he, if he is human at all? How does one simply walk away from a crime scene so calm and collected?
Because at the heart of the List case is the intensely intriguing and horrifying persona that is John List. To adapt that kind of personality, that deeply unhinged and deceptive person, is the kind of acting challenge many actors would pounce on immediately. And for horror fans, an unlikely hero stepped up to the plate: Terry O’Quinn. He’s best known for playing John Locke on the show Lost, but he’s also a quintessential “that one guy” character actor; he’s been in so many films and television shows you can probably throw a dart in any direction and hit his filmography.
I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call the first two Stepfather movies iconic (entertaining, definitely). Still, our main man Terry O’Quinn is incredibly iconic in his performance of Jerry Blake. O’Quinn really does enthrall you, and he’s an actor to beat when it comes to depicting someone slowly unraveling and releasing bursts of madness along the way like solar flares on a star’s surface. And I don’t just say that because he bears a bizarre resemblance to an older Anthony Starr.
He even almost tricks you into thinking Jerry’s moments of manufactured sweetness and maudlin family-man aesthetic are genuine, but then you remember what you’re watching and go right back to hating him with a passion. He is a quintessential horror movie villain because you despise him, but you’re transfixed by him.
He’s an emotionally disturbed con man, a parasite who can worm his way into a new skin with sociopathic ease. And when it all comes crashing down, to the point where even he isn’t sure what role he’s supposed to play for his fake family, its fantastic. With a line as simple as, “Wait a minute, who am I here?”, O’Quinn cemented himself as the definitive depiction of the character.
WHY EACH OF THE STEPFATHER FILMS IS WORTH WATCHING
As I said, these films are far from perfect, but each one brings something a little new and different to the table. It’s fun to see O’Quinn return to the role in Stepfather 2, playing opposite of the legendary Caroline Williams and Meg Foster; a psycho-slasher finale at a wedding is just hard to beat. Stepfather 3 brings a surprisingly good changing of hands to the title role, though, since despite O’Quinn being replaced by Robert Wightman, Wightman brings just the right kind of energy to the role; he’s the perfect fit for the much campier and goofier tone of the 3rd film, and I was honestly very impressed with how he brought the role to life. But be warned: don’t bother with the remake. It is borderline bloodless, and incredibly boring. You can put a million Penn Badgley’s in that film, I’m not watching it again.
The Stepfather films aren’t anyone’s favorite of the many horror fans I’ve met and spoken with. But they are a capsule of how one artist can have enough staying power to keep them in your mind. So, for all my people out there who are going to check the trilogy out now thanks to this article: happy watching horror fans, and have fun!