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  • The Worst Horror Sequels That Ruined Great Movies

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    When horror sequels work, they deepen a film’s spooky lore, elevate fear, or even reinvent their franchise altogether. But when they fail, they remind audiences just how hard it is to recapture what made a great horror flick so awesome in the first place.

    A great horror film can linger in the collective consciousness for decades — its atmosphere, performances, and themes becoming part of genre history, and even influencing countless other films and areas of pop culture.

    But a poorly made sequel can unravel that legacy almost overnight. When studios rush to capitalize on a hit, the results can often trade artistry for profit, draining all the blood out of what made the original so haunting to begin with.

    READ MORE: Great Movies That Were Ruined By Becoming Franchises

    Baffling sequels such as The Exorcist II: The Heretic, American Psycho 2, and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 are infamous examples of this unfortunate phenomenon. Each followed a groundbreaking, critically acclaimed, beloved film with a diluted continuation that misunderstood the tone, pacing, or purpose of its memorable predecessor.

    Ultimately, a bad sequel doesn’t just disappoint fans — it can tarnish how the franchise is remembered by the public forever. These terrible horror sequels serve as cautionary tales rather than scary stories, and the message is frighteningly clear: Even the most iconic and capable horror franchises can’t survive on name recognition alone.

    Terrible Sequels That Almost Ruined Great Horror Movies

    From silly, vengeful shark tales to boring, bland supernatural stories we’ve seen a million times before, these are the worst horror movie sequels that nearly ruined otherwise great horror franchises.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

    10 Great Horror Movies Audiences Got Wrong

    From slow-burn, arthouse horror films that bored viewers to campy cult classics some moviegoers just didn’t get at first, here are 10 great horror movies audiences were wrong about at first. 

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

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    Erica Russell

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  • 10 Horror Sequels You Forgot Existed

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    Forget monsters, slashers, or serial killers. The scariest thing in horror movies is box office failure.

    I’m serious. A great horror villain can survive forever — provided his movies keep making money. The minute their grosses started drying up, Jason Voorhees went to hell and Freddy Krueger stalked his final nightmare. In a weird way, ticket sales are what give every movie monster their power. Take them away, and what have they got? Some bloody machetes and some gnarly memories.

    Take the ten movies below, for example. These forgotten horror films drained the vitality out of their central antagonists, to the point that they ended their series for years or decades — or, at minimum, sent them out of theaters and into the purgatory known as straight-to-video.

    These days, these ten titles (and sometimes their entire franchise) are all but forgotten. And a couple of them aren’t even that old. (The most recent one on the list was released in this decade! Now that’s a forgotten film. The pandemic really did a number on the unlucky titles that came out in 2020, let me tell you.)

    You won’t find any Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th movies on this list; those films’ conclusions were temporary anyway, and both were quickly resurrected in reboots, sequels, crossovers, games, and so on. And anyway, those series’ bad movies were so bad they at least left an impression on die-hard fans. The films below have not been so lucky. They were something far worse, and far scarier, than bad. They were forgettable.

    Horror Sequels You Forgot Existed

    These sequels to popular horror movies have been totally forgotten, some in less than a decade since their initial release.

    READ MORE: The 10 Best Horror Films of the Last 10 Years

    Overlooked ’90s Movies That Should Have Been Bigger

    These movies should have ’90s classics. Maybe they still can be.

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    Matt Singer

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  • Drew Struzan’s Best Movie Posters

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    “It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that Drew Struzan has moved on from this world as of yesterday, October 13th. I feel it is important that you all know how many times he expressed to me the joy he felt knowing how much you appreciated his art.”

    That message was left today on the official Instagram account of Drew Struzan, an artist beloved to generations of film fans for his striking movie posters. Struzan was 78 years old.

    Although Struzan will be remembered best for a handful of painted posters he created for several of the biggest genre hits of the 1980s and ’90s, he was a very versatile artist. In addition to his film work, he also painted book and album covers. He could capture an actor’s likeness with uncanny accuracy, but he was also capable of exaggerating characters for the purposes of an illustration. Many of his most famous posters have a photorealistic quality but others are heavily stylized and heightened. He always seemed to know exactly what a poster needed for maximum impact.

    Instead of a typical obituary, the only tribute that seems to make sense here is a celebration of his work. Struzan maintained a website with images of much of his portfolio, but for a sense of the best of the best of his posters, I picked 15 of my favorites to list here. Certainly, there are many more. But these are the ones that I will personally remember first.

    Drew Struzan’s Greatest Movie Posters

    In honor of the late great poster artist, here are 15 of his greatest pieces.

    READ MORE: The Sexiest Movie Posters in History

    The Most Valuable Movie Posters

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    Matt Singer

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  • ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Fans Need to Watch These 10 Great Animated Movies

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    Fans of KPop: Demon Hunters, the critically acclaimed Netflix phenomenon that blends supernatural action, messages of self-acceptance, and the pulse of Korean pop culture, will find plenty to love in other stylish, emotionally charged animated movies that mix music, myth, romance, and adventure.

    For starters, there’s Belle, Mamoru Hosoda’s visually striking 2021 re-imagining of Beauty and the Beast. Like KPop: Demon Hunters, it fuses a pop-inspired soundtrack with dazzling visuals and explores the intersection of identity, fame, and trauma. Similarly, 2014’s Big Hero 6 delivers action, humor, and heart as its titular team of tech-savvy, young superheroes navigate grief, friendship, and responsibility to save their city.

    Fans who love KPop Demon Hunters’ high energy and sleek fight choreography will undoubtedly enjoy 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which pushes animation boundaries with kinetic, music-driven visuals, while 2020’s Trolls World Tour, though much more light-hearted, doubles down on the whole save-the-world-using-music thing.

    READ MORE: 10 Animated Films Every Studio Ghibli Fan Must See

    For something more intimate but still fantastical, Disney’s 2022 film Turning Red captures the chaos of growing up, the power of friendship, and the influence of fandom culture — themes that parallel the story of KPop: Demon Hunters. Meanwhile, mature viewers looking for something more edgy won’t be able to look away from 1997’s Perfect Blue, which tackles the dark side of fame as it follows the sinister journey of a young J-pop idol.

    Whether it’s big, magical battles, poignant messages about self-determination, or stories about friendship you crave, these animated movies share the same beating heart as KPop: Demon Hunters as they celebrate empowerment, community, and the transformative magic of music.

    Animated Movies KPop Demon Hunters Fans Must See

    From action-packed adventures to folklore-inspired fantasies, these gorgeously animated movies are filled with music, romance, magic, and thrills perfectly suited for fans of KPop Demon Hunters.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

    READ MORE: A Brutally Honest Kid’s Review of KPop Demon Hunters

    Forgotten Animated Disney Movies That Deserve Another Look

    From groundbreaking CGI animated movies to lesser-known traditionally hand-drawn gems, here are 11 Disney movies that deserve to be rediscovered.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

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    Erica Russell

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  • Overlooked ’90s Movies That Should Have Been Bigger

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    Here is a fear that I have. People who want to watch old movies take their cues from Google — and Google increasingly seems to recommend a smaller and smaller batch of films. You Google “90s movies” and you will see the same titles over and over as you scroll: Clueless, The Truman Show, Scream, 10 Things I Hate About You, Forrest Gump, Goodfellas, Toy Story. (These are not hypothetical examples; those are literally the movies Google gave me this morning.)

    Those are very good movies for the most part. A movie lover interested in ’90s cinema should see those titles. But what movie lover interested in ’90s cinema hasn’t already seen them anyway? The further the past recedes, the more an enormous collection of old films gets whittled down to just the smallest handful of “essential” classics.

    We can do better. And ’90s cinema did better too — there were so many interesting, funny, powerful, exciting films beyond the dozen or so you see on Google or lists of great ’90s movies. Hopefully the list below, of 15 overlooked ’90s movies, does a little bit to fix that.

    They’re arranged in descending box-office total order. The first movie on the list did okay; not horrible by the standards of its genre, but not great, and it certainly is not regarded as one of its Oscar-winning director’s superior efforts. The last film on the list made less than $1 million in theaters and was almost entirely forgotten until recently, when it was restored and re-released to theaters.

    Which just goes to show you: It’s never too late to rediscover an overlooked film. Provided Google actually shows you pieces like this instead of those same titles you see over and over again.

    Overlooked ’90s Movies That Should Have Been Bigger

    These movies should have ’90s classics. Maybe they still can be.

    READ MORE: 10 Horror Movies So Extreme They Made People Sick

    2005 Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

    These movies are only 20 years old. They almost certainly couldn’t be made today.

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    Matt Singer

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  • 10 Cancelled TV Shows That Were Saved by Netflix

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    Netflix is notorious for many things, but one of the better ones is its commitment to rescuing TV shows from the brink of death. Every time a show with a moderate yet sizable following gets canceled by one of the more traditional networks (TV channels, remember those??) Netflix seems to be waiting in the wings, ready to swoop in and snatch the show from the jaws of oblivion for at least one more season.

    Sometimes, the gamble works, and Netflix gains yet another original program that delivers the kind of viewership the higher ups hoped for when they chose to see if viewers would follow their fav from cable to streaming, if perhaps a streaming app would be the better fit for a riskier type of program. This isn’t specific to genre: Sure, there are a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy shows that have gotten this treatment, but Netflix has also set its eyes on comedies, dramas, murder mysteries, and detective shows in the past.

    Whether or not they last past another season on the platform, it’s interesting to see which shows a company like Netflix looks for, how long they wait until they choose to revive something, and how well they do once they’ve been acquired. Usually, it’s good news when a beloved show gets a second life at a place like Netflix, where the budgets are big and the oversight is small. Whether or not they stick around for more than another season or two, at least these shows got another shot at breaking big.

    10 TV Shows That Were Rescued by Netflix

    A lot of shows would have been canceled a lot earlier if not for Netflix.

    Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

    READ MORE: The 10 Best Netflix Movies of the Last 10 Years

    The 10 Darkest Shows on Netflix

    These shows will have you making sure you locked your doors at night. 

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    Emma Stefansky

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  • 10 Shockingly Disturbing Scenes From Disney Movies

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    Disney is known for its heartwarming fairy tales and colorful animation, but many of the studio’s films also contain moments that are surprisingly dark, or even downright disturbing. While Disney is often associated with the notion of dreams coming true, it’s also responsible for more than a few childhood nightmares.

    One of the most haunting scenes in Disney animation history comes from 1940’s Pinocchio, when a group of mischievous little boys are transformed into donkeys on Pleasure Island. The terrified cries of children losing their voices as their bodies contort into animals to be sold into slave labor are chilling, and much more scary than the movie’s monstrous whale.

    Similarly frightening, 1996’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame features the corrupt Judge Frollo’s “Hellfire” sequence — a fiery, feverish depiction of lust and religious hypocrisy set against flames and shadow, more akin to Dante than Disney.

    READ MORE: Lost Disney Animated Movies That Were Never Made

    In 1994’s The Lion King, the heartbreaking but instant death of Mufasa is a kind end compared to Scar being mauled and likely eaten alive by his hungry hyena horde, while Clayton, the villain of 1999’s Tarzan, meets his end by accidentally hanging himself — a gruesome fate shown in eerie silhouette.

    But these are just a few of the moments of sheer darkness in Disney’s animated filmography, where bright-eyed characters face tragedy, death, and existential dread, among other, more subtle horrors.

    Meanwhile, these memorably dark Disney scenes endure because they confront the shadows lurking just beyond the magic. They remind audiences, especially young viewers, that fear, loss, and real-world consequences are as much a part of growing up as fairy godmothers, wishing stars, and happily-ever-afters.

    Dark and Disturbing Scenes From Animated Disney Movies

    Child abuse, gruesome deaths, and existential dread—plenty of animated Disney movies have dark moments, but these scenes are just disturbing. 

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

    READ MORE: 11 Forgotten Live-Action Disney Movies

    Forgotten Animated Disney Movies That Deserve Another Look

    From groundbreaking CGI animated movies to lesser-known traditionally hand-drawn gems, here are 11 Disney movies that deserve to be rediscovered.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

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    Erica Russell

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  • 15 Great Movies That Were Ruined By Becoming Franchises

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    There are plenty of reasons to make a movie sequel, but there’s really just one that matters to a Hollywood studio: Money. If a film was a hit, and there’s an opportunity to make more money with a second, a studio is going to take it.

    Some movies come with ready-made sequels. A movie about a brave police detective who solves a particularly complicated case? She can go solve another case. A war between humans and aliens for control of a planet and its rich natural resources? Wars can stretch on for years or decades! A superhero defeats a dastardly villain? They don’t call it a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way for nothing.

    Ah, but Hollywood doesn’t care if a movie comes with ready-made sequels. If it’s a hit, it’s going to get a sequel one way or another. (Conversely, if it’s a flop, it doesn’t matter if the film ended on a cliffhanger teeing up the next installment in the franchise; it’s not gonna happen. Just ask the folks who made Green Lantern.) In a few cases, a great movie spawned a bunch of sequels so underwhelming they tarnished the reputation of the original film — like the 15 titles below.

    Note that I only included franchises that generated at least two sequels. There’s a fair number of excellent films that spawned one sequel that was so bad the studio immediately went “Nope! Our bad! That was a mistake!” They learned their lesson the first time. (Speed and The Odd Couple are two examples that come immediately to mind.)

    No, to qualify for this list, a series’ stewards had to doggedly refuse to learn any lessons on multiple occasions. It’s like the Spaceballs sequel they never made (until, uh, now): It’s all about the search for more money.

    Great Movies That Were Ruined By Becoming Franchises

    Sometimes a great movie doesn’t need a sequel. These films, for example, were much better off as a single standalone story.

    READ MORE: Forgotten Movies From 20 Years Ago That Deserve to Be Rediscovered

    The Best Movie of Every Year for the Last 100 Years (According to Letterboxd)

    According to the users of the movie website Letterboxd, here is the single best movie of every year dating all the way back to 1925.

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    Matt Singer

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  • Famous Horror Movies That Got Bad Reviews

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    Every year around Halloween, horror movie lovers look for films to satisfy their seasonal craving for scares. It’s fun to revisit a favorite like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Psycho, but a horror movie is almost always scarier the first time you watch it, when it can sneak up on you and surprise you with unexpected twists and gore.

    But if you look for new horror films to watch by Googling something like “best horror films” or “most famous horror films,” and then you cross-reference those results against a site like Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, you’ll find that many of the best-known and most-watched horror movies in history got pretty bad reviews from film critics. We’re not just talking about schlock like your Troll 2s of the world. These are movies that launched massive multimedia franchises; titles that continue to spawn sequels and spinoffs and TV shows to this day.

    Below, you’ll find 15 such examples; horror films that have stood the test of time to become home video and streaming classics that did not receive much in the way of critical admiration on their initial release to theaters. (There are titles dating back almost 50 years, so I’m not joking around about the stood the test of time part.) I’ve provided the Rotten Tomatoes score for each film, along with a sample review so you can get a sense of what critics had to say about them.

    It just goes to show that horror, like every other kind of movie, is subjective. What one person finds shocking, another might find tacky or tasteless or banal. So don’t rule any of these films out of your Halloween rotation just because of their reviews.

    Famous Horror Movies That Got Bad Reviews

    These huge horror movies — most of which launched franchises — got bad reviews from film critics.

    READ MORE: 25 Classic Movies That Got Bad Reviews

    Great Comedies That Got Bad Reviews

    These comedies are audience favorites — but critics disagreed.

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    Matt Singer

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  • Why Does Every Theme Park Ride Have the Exact Same Premise?

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    Theme park rides can take guests into outer space or the center of the Earth. They feature mind-boggling sights ranging from gigantic serpents to Vin Diesel in a tight T-shirt. Their subject matter is limited only by the boundaries of their creators’ imaginations (and whatever IP their bosses at Disney and Universal hold the rights to at any given time).

    So why does it feel like every theme park ride has the exact same premise?

    This is a slight exaggeration, of course. Disneyland’s Soarin’ Around the World is a picturesque tour of famous global landmarks in a hang glider. Velocicoaster at Universal Islands of Adventure is a roller coaster that Jurassic World supposedly built inside a raptor pen to increase attendance? (Whatever, the ride is so much fun it doesn’t matter.)

    But if you visit Walt Disney World or Universal Studios Florida enough, you will notice how many rides at both parks repeat the same basic premise in a million different ways: A leisurely visit to some exotic (and often obviously deadly) location goes wildly out of control, at which point guests get involved in saving the day.

    I love a lot of these rides, so this is less of a criticism than a bemused observation and a question — why does this trope keep getting repeated over and over? These rides are made by enormously creative people, but they keep recycling the same structural conceit. So there must be a reason. Are theme park guests comforted by the familiar? Do visitor surveys reveal people are less scared by thrill rides like these? I don’t know!

    All I know is so many Disney and Universal rides utilize this same story framework that it’s become a cliché. Here are nearly 20 examples I thought of off the top of my head…

    Star Tours (Various Disney Parks)

    Opening Date: 1987

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Taking a space tourist flight to Endor.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: The robot pilot is very bad at his job, nearly crashes your spaceship within seconds, then overshoots Endor, flies into a storm of comets, and gets captured by a Star Destroyer before taking part in the destruction of the Death Star.

    READ MORE: Once-Beloved Disney Rides That Closed Forever

    Jaws (Universal Studios Florida and Japan)

    Opening Date: 1990

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Enjoying a guided boat tour of Amity Island.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: A shark! First it eats another tour boat. Then it comes for yours. After hiding in a boathouse, the guide tries to kill the shark with a grenade launcher (it’s my understanding that grenade launchers are standard equipment on boat tours), but accidentally causes an explosion on a nearby gas dock instead.

    Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies (Universal Studios Florida)

    Opening Date: 1990

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Watching a collection of footage from Alfred Hitchcock’s career, including rarely seen scenes from Dial M For Murder, projected in 3D as they were originally intended.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: Shortly after the 3D portion of the film begins, a flock of birds tears through the screen and swarms the theater, hungry for revenge against the man who portrayed them as such vicious monsters in The Birds. 

    Back to the Future: The Ride (Various Universal Parks)

    Opening Date: 1991

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Visiting Doc Brown’s “Institute of Future Technology” for a time-travel experiment using Doc’s new 8-Passenger DeLorean.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: Before the ride even begins, Biff Tannen arrives at the Institute, traps Doc Brown in his office, then steals the original DeLorean. Doc remote controls the 8-Passenger DeLorean to chase Biff through time. Along the way to recapturing him, they destroy large portions of Hill Valley circa 2015, nearly get trapped in the Ice Age, and get swallowed by a dinosaur. Take that, butterfly effect! Why Doc couldn’t just remote control the DeLorean without sticking eight tourists inside and sending them to their likely deaths I do not know.

    Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! (Various Disney Parks)

    Opening Date: 1994

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Attending the Inventor of the Year Award at the “Imagination Institute.”

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: The recipient of said award is Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) the dude who repeatedly shrinks or expands his various family members in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids films. So obviously he shrinks the entire audience. (He also blows up his dog. The man is a menace.)

    Indiana Jones Adventure (Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea)

    Opening Date: 1995

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Taking a tour of the recently unearthed Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: So the whole forbidden eye thing should have probably been a clue that a tour of the place was not a great idea. There’s one particular idol of Mara that you’re not supposed to look at, but someone always does, sending you through the “Gates of Doom” and into a variety of death traps including a hallway filled with millions of beetles, a pit of lava, and a giant snake. (Why did it have to be a giant snake?!?)

    ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter (Magic Kingdom)

    Opening Date: 1995

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Observing a demonstration of a futuristic teleportation technology.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: The dopes running the demonstration accidentally teleport a monstrous alien akin to the xenomorph from Alien into the testing lab. The creature breaks out of the teleporter and then the power goes out. Guests are restrained in their chairs as the alien pokes them, drools on them, and breathes on their necks, all in total darkness. Sounds fun, right? Somehow this was deemed an appropriate attraction for children.

    T2-3D: Battle Across Time (Various Universal Parks)

    Opening Date: 1996

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Watching a demonstration of Cyberdyne Systems’ new technology.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: Cyberdyne’s new technology is the Terminator robot, and they’re about to show off their other big innovation, Skynet, the AI that destroys the world in The Terminator movies, when John and Sarah Connor show up, followed by the T-1000 and the T-800. Cue the massive battle in the auditorium and accompanying 3D movie. On the plus side, the heroes manage to prevent the destruction of all of humanity — at least until the next showtime began 20 minutes later.

    Jurassic Park: The Ride (Various Universal Parks)

    Opening Date: 1996

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Touring Jurassic Park on an oversized raft.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: It’s Jurassic Park, so within about 45 seconds of the ride departing, the entire park has descended into chaos. A destroyed raft blocks the path your boat is supposed to take, sending you into the raptor area. Whoopsie! An assortment of dinosaur encounters ensue, until a final showdown with a T-rex and then a plunge down a massive 84-foot drop.

    The Incredible Hulk Coaster (Universal Islands of Adventure)

    Opening Date: 1999

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: The ride’s “story” has been updated in recent years, but in the original version you were observers at Dr. Bruce Banner’s latest experiment, which was supposed to reverse the effects of the gamma radiation exposure that caused him to turn into the Hulk.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: You’re never going to believe this, but the experiment is a complete disaster. Instead of reversing the effects of gamma radiation, Banner turns into the Hulk, and your train is blasted out of the station and onto the track. It is very fortunate that this experiment took place while guests were comfortably seated inside a roller coaster.

    The Simpsons Ride (Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood)

    Opening Date: 2008

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Visiting Krustyland, the fictional theme park from The Simpsons.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: Sideshow Bob shows up and tries to kill the Simpsons. As he chases Homer and the rest of the family across Krustyland, they systematically destroy the entire park and all of its attractions. Oh, also at one point your ride vehicle falls down a hole in the ground all the way to Hell. (Don’t worry. Professor Frink saves the day.)

    Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Various Universal Parks)

    Opening Date: 2010

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Joining Harry, Ron, and Hermoine on a flying tour of Hogwarts.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: What doesn’t go wrong? As you’re flying around the castle on an enchanted bench, you get attacked by a dragon, menaced by a giant spider, and pursued by Dementors.

    Star Tours: The Adventure Continues (Various Disney Parks)

    Opening Date: 2011

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Taking a space tourist flight (again).

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: This time C-3PO is your incompetent tour guide (although I think technically R2-D2 is the one piloting the ship). Before your ship has even departed the hanger it’s accosted by Imperial forces, searching for a Rebel spy. Making a hasty getaway sends your vessel careening through a series of randomly selected adventures on various Star Wars planets — all of which involve things going horribly wrong and C-3PO screaming in terror.

    Despicable Me Minion Mayhem (Various Universal Parks)

    Opening Date: 2012

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Participating in an experiment where Gru transforms humans into Minions.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: The experiment is a success, but the newly “Minionized” guests accidentaly wind up in the restricted area of Gru’s lab, where they set off a variety of explosive calamities and Gru’s daughters lose a gift they intend to give to Gru to celebrate the anniversary of their adoption. (Don’t worry, it works out in the end.)

    Fast & Furious: Supercharged (Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida)

    Opening Date: 2015

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Attending a party celebrating Dominic Toretto’s latest street racing victory.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: Guests’ “party bus” ride gets interrupted by Owen Shaw, the villain from Fast & Furious 6, who wants to kill a witness supposedly hidden on board. What a jerk. Thankfully, Dom and his crew show up to save the day by hanging off a Harrier jet and jumping their cars through the air. But you know what? You never do get to enjoy that party. What a ripoff.

    Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland)

    Opening Date: 2019

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Riding a Transport Shuttle to a Resistance base on another world.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: The First Order shows up and captures your transport shuttle, then sticks everyone inside in a detention cell. Thankfully, the Resistance breaks you out. Before you can actually return to Batuu, though, there are all sorts of other crises, including run-ins with probe droids, Stormtroopers, and Kylo Ren. Your “successful” escape also involves a vertiginous drop in an escape pod from the Star Destroyer all the way back down to the planet for a rough crash landing.

    Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure (Disney California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios Park)

    Opening Date: 2021

    What You’re Supposed to Be Doing: Exploring an open house at the Worldwide Engineering Brigade, an organization created by Tony Stark to promote technological innovations.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: One of Peter Parker’s inventions, a Spider-Bot, begins endlessly replicating itself, creating a massive swarm of the robots that threatens to destroy all of Avengers Campus. Guests then board “WEB Slinger” vehicles that shoot webs, which they use to get the Spider-Bot infestation under control.

    Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry (Universal Epic Universe)

    Opening Date: 2025

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Attending the trial of evil wizard Dolores Umbridge.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: A massive fight breaks out inside the Ministry of Magic. Guests are buffeted about by Death Eaters, assorted fantastical beasts, and CGI recreations of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson from 15 years ago.

    Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment (Universal Epic Universe)

    Opening Date: 2025

    What You’re Supposed To Be Doing: Witnessing an experiment by Dr. Victoria Frankenstein, who wishes to repair her family’s legacy by capturing all the Universal Monsters.

    What Goes Horribly Wrong: Nothing you wouldn’t expect from a ride called “Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment.”

    Lost Disney Animated Movies That Were Never Made

    From scrapped princess movies to sequels that never panned out, fans will sadly never see these lost Disney animated movies.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

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    Matt Singer

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  • 20 Great Comedies That Got Bad Reviews From Critics

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    Movies never change. (Unless they were directed George Lucas. Then they might change.) Once a director locks their movie and releases it into the theaters, it’s incredibly rare (again, unless the director is named George Walton Lucas Jr.) for the film to evolve with the times. Sometimes, as new generations of viewers discover a film, the consensus opinion might change. The movie itself does not.

    That’s also true of individual movie reviews. A website like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic might add new takes on an old film, but the original ones from the initial release sit in their archive forever. So you can go look back at how a film was first received, and compare that to a film’s reputation today. And nowhere is that contrast more stark than on comedies, where even some of the most beloved examples in recent history got negative reviews, and often continue to hold very low scores on sites like Rotten Tomatoes.

    Below, you’ll find 20 striking examples of just this phenomenon. They’re all comedies of the last 50 years that have gone down in history as classics of their form. Many of them were huge box-office hits, although a few flopped in theaters (the bad reviews probably didn’t help in that regard) before finding a cult audience on home video. Just don’t go looking for George Lucas’ Radioland Murders. That’s not on there. (Come to think of it, Lucas never recut that film for DVD release … coincidence?!?)

    Great Comedies That Got Bad Reviews

    These comedies are audience favorites — but critics disagreed.

    READ MORE: The 10 Best Comedies of the Last 10 Years

    The Best Comedy Movie Posters Ever

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    Matt Singer

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  • 11 Recent Live-Action Disney Movies No One Remembers

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    When looking beyond Disney’s animated blockbusters and billion-dollar franchises, the company’s live-action movies of the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s reveals a long list of titles that have largely been forgotten, even among diehard Disney fans.

    At the height of Disney’s animated renaissance in the 1990s, the company also produced many live-action movies ranging from family adventure films to goofy teen comedies. Released in 1993, A Far Off Place starring a young Reese Witherspoon is rarely remembered today, despite fitting in with the now-nostalgic trend of ‘90s kids-on-grand-adventures movies. Meanwhile, 1998’s Meet the Deedles, a zany comedy about two lazy surfer brothers sent to boot camp, never reached the same cult status of other similar buddy comedies of the decade.

    The 2000s saw Disney experimenting with more ambitious, even weirder projects, but several have fallen into obscurity over the years. The 2001 comedy Max Keeble’s Big Move, for example, doesn’t seem to be as well remembered as similar kids-centric movies such as Big Fat Liar, while 2009’s forgettable Old Dogs appears to have been put to sleep despite its star-studded cast. (That one stars the late, great Robin Williams, but you’ve probably never even heard of it.)

    READ MORE: 15 Lost Disney Animated Movies That Will Never See the Light of Day

    By the 2010s, Disney was prioritizing remakes and franchises, leaving little space for smaller live-action originals. Films such as 2015’s Tomorrowland, a lavish sci-fi adventure starring George Clooney, and 2010’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a Nicolas Cage-led fantasy epic loosely based on a segment from 1940’s Fantasia, were costly experiments that failed to capture audiences.

    Whether they’re unfairly ignored hidden gems, or unmemorable flops that deserve to be lost to time, these live-action Disney movies failed to leave a lasting cultural mark, and years after release they remain largely relegated to the forgotten side of Disney’s lengthy filmography.

    Forgotten Live-Action Disney Movies

    From star-powered remakes to kid-friendly comedies, it seems even the most diehard Disney fans forget these live-action movies from the ’90s, 2000s, and 2010s exist.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

    Forgotten Animated Disney Movies That Deserve Another Look

    From groundbreaking CGI animated movies to lesser-known traditionally hand-drawn gems, here are 11 Disney movies that deserve to be rediscovered.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

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    Erica Russell

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  • The Best Horror Movie From Every Year of the Past 100+ Years

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    It wasn’t long after the history of cinema began at the dawn of the 20th century that horror movies started to appear on the screen. Like many early films, these short, silent pioneering works were often theatrical — a byproduct of their stage origins — and based on established literary pieces.

    But it wasn’t long before the genre took on a life of its own, as you’ll see in the list below of the Best Horror Movie From Every Year. So, even though horror movies existed before 1920, it wasn’t until that year that they became a viable genre film and expert directors found ways — through lighting, camera angles and even storytelling — to make them infinitely more interesting than their stagey predecessors.

    Movies like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu paved the way for Frankenstein, Dracula and Universal’s famous monsters in the ’30s. Initially, the genre developed in stages — first by incorporating social commentary into its narrative, and later by addressing topics such as sexuality and psychology, as horror films matured alongside their audience.

    Along the way, demonic possession, alien beings and serial killers found horror in disparate places, whether in the church, outer space or your neighborhood. Themes came and went, but mainstays remain: Vampires and ghosts have been popular subjects ever since the ’20s.

    No matter what form they take, these films have one thing in common: They want you to jump in your seat, scream, spill your popcorn and soil your pants. Haunting images from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) remain as frightening as those seen in 2019’s Midsommar, as you’ll see in the list below of the Best Horror Movie From Every Year.

    The Best Horror Movie From Every Year

    Counting down more than a century’s worth of monsters, demons and things that go bump in the night.

    Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci

    READ MORE: 10 Great Horror Movies Audiences Hated (At First)

    10 Times Suspiciously Similar Films Came Out at the Same Time

    No, you’re not going crazy: these are all different movies. 

    Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

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    Michael Gallucci

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  • 10 Great Horror Movies Audiences Got Wrong

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    When it comes to horror movies, audiences don’t always get it right the first time.

    Some of the most celebrated horror films today were dismissed, misunderstood, or even ridiculed upon release, only to be reevaluated in later years as genre-defining or cult classics.

    Take 1982’s The Thing, for example. John Carpenter’s bleak, chilly sci-fi thriller was trashed by critics and largely ignored at the box office, overshadowed by more upbeat flicks such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Decades later, however, it’s hailed as one of the greatest sci-fi horror films ever made, and has influenced dozens of other movies since its initially maligned release.

    Similarly, The Shining was not immediately embraced in 1980. Stephen King himself criticized Stanley Kubrick’s haunting adaptation, which initial moviegoers found cold and confusing. Over time, however, audiences began to recognize its slow-burn tension, chilling atmosphere, and layered performances, elevating it to masterpiece status.

    Even more recent examples, such as 2009’s Jennifer’s Body, reveal how audience perception can shift over time. Poorly marketed and dismissed as meaningless pop culture camp, it’s now celebrated as a sharp, tongue-in-cheek feminist horror-comedy that moviegoers simply weren’t ready for at the time.

    These movies remind us that with a little time and distance, some of the best horror films reveal their intelligence, artistry, and lasting cultural resonance when revisited later on with fresh eyes and softened expectations. Sometimes, it can take years for audiences to finally see and appreciate what was there all along: great horror that endures.

    10 Great Horror Movies Audiences Got Wrong

    From slow-burn, arthouse horror films that bored viewers to campy cult classics some moviegoers just didn’t get at first, here are 10 great horror movies audiences were wrong about at first. 

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

    READ MORE: Nicolas Cage Is Making a Horror Movie About Jesus

    10 Horror Movies That Saved Bad Franchises

    These good movies saved struggling horror sagas from oblivion.

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    Erica Russell

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  • 2005 Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

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    2005 doesn’t seem that long ago. I remember 2005 well. I had a flip phone. It was great.

    But 2005 is also 20 years ago now. And when I was a kid, a movie that was 20 years old was ancient. For example, if I went on one of my weekly vists to Blockbuster Video at any point during my prime movie-obsessed teen years, and I rented a film from 1974 — like let’s say Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation — I would have patted myself on the back for broadening my cinematic horizons with an old, old movie.

    So with certain amount of reluctance, I must state for the record: A movie released in 2005 is now an old, old movie. It sucks, it’s not fair, but it is true.

    As evidence of that truth, I humbly submit the following list of 2005 titles that are so much of a bygone era they could not be made today. The reasons why vary from title to title. In some cases, their subject matter would not fly with modern tastes. In others, the filmmakers chosen to adapt that subject matter to the screen would never get hired now. In others, the whole film is based on dated concepts or properties that hold very little marquee value in the 2020s.

    What these titles share regardless of their genre or creative team is my firm belief that none of them would be produced and then released to theaters today. There’s just no way. I’d bet my flip phone on it.

    2005 Movies That Could Never Be Made Today

    These movies are only 20 years old. They almost certainly couldn’t be made today.

    READ MORE: 10 Great Movies Where the Hero Is Secretly the Villain

    20 Sequels That Were Drastically Different From the Original

    These movies are all sequels, but they don’t look much like the films that inspired them.

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    Matt Singer

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  • The Best Black List Movies Ever Made

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    Every year, The Black List publishes a list of the most notable unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. (They take pains to note their picks should not be looked at as the “best” screenplays; instead, they describe them as the “most liked” scripts, based on a survey of various executives from throughout the world of movies.)

    2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the first Black List, which was assembled by development executive Franklin Leonard. In the decades since, the Black List has become an annual event anticipated by the entire movie business. Literally hundreds of screenplays that have appeared on the Black List has been made into movies (and, to a lesser extent, TV shows).

    Some of those films didn’t quite pan out — sometimes a script went unproduced because it was too challenging or too bold, and when it was finally adapted, those appealing edges were sanded down. But a large percentage of Black List screenplays that became films turned out pretty darn well. Four Black List scripts have even won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

    A couple of those movies appear on the list below, my picks for the 15 best movies made from Black List scripts. (There are ten more honorable mentions below that — like I said, a lot of good Black List movies had been made in 20+ years.)

    The Best Black List Movies

    The best films made from scripts that appeared in the annual “Black List” survey up unproduced screenplays.

    Honorable Mentions (In Alphabetical Order): Arrival, Blockers, Booksmart, Burn After Reading, Easy A, Edge of Tomorrow, Michael Clayton, Slumdog Millionaire, Take This Waltz, Whip It

    READ MORE: The Most Shocking Disneyland Incidents Ever

    The New York Times Picks for the Best Movies of the 21st Century

    Critics and filmmakers voted and chose the top films of the century so far.

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    Matt Singer

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  • 10 Times Identical Films Were Released in the Same Year

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    Every now and then, moviegoers experience an eerie phenomenon. They buy a ticket to see the newest, biggest release of the moment, only to feel as if they’ve already seen it. Not only that, they saw it not that long ago. Maybe, in some cases, within the same year. They’re (probably) not going crazy—this is a phenomenon so well-documented it has its own name.

    “Twin films” are movies that are spookily similar in plot and also share a release year, or were released within about twelve months of each other, and it happens more often than you think. There are many possible reasons for this. Hollywood is always making the same types of movies, so a lot of studios often have similar movies in development at the same time. Sometimes they’re about topical subjects — digital anxiety during the turn of the millennium, or terrorist attacks, or the threat of space debris crashing into Earth. Sometimes that’s just how two studios’ schedules happen to work out. Or maybe one studio or writer or director actually did just straight up plagiarize another.

    Whatever the reason, not a year goes by without at least a couple of twin films raising questions about which idea came first, or debates about which film turned out to execute the premise better than the other. We’ve gathered ten pairs of the most suspiciously similar movies that famously share the same plot, the same premise, and sometimes nearly the same release date. Now that’s what we’d call a true double feature.

    10 Times Suspiciously Similar Films Came Out at the Same Time

    No, you’re not going crazy: these are all different movies. 

    Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

    READ MORE: 10 Famous TV Shows That Shared Sets

    The Most Obvious Times Movie Trailers Used Music from Other Movies

    Do these trailers sound familiar? There’s a good reason for that. 

    Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

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    Emma Stefansky

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  • 15 Lost Disney Animated Movies That Will Never See the Light of Day

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    Disney has released dozens and dozens of animated feature films in theaters over the course of its more than 100 years in operation.

    From 1937’s classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to its many ’90s Renaissance films and 2000s Pixar smashes, all the way up to recent releases like Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King, Elio, and Zootopia 2, Disney’s greatest legacy is undoubtedly its ever-growing catalog of animated feature-length movies.

    While Disney has released many animated movies in theaters over the decades, more than a handful of projects have unfortunately fallen through the cracks.

    Some of these lost Disney animated movies were announced, in early stages of development, or even deep into production when they were unceremoniously canceled or shelved indefinitely for various reasons.

    READ MORE: 10 Animated Films Every Studio Ghibli Fan Must See

    Some of these forgotten, never-to-be-seen films would have introduced new Disney princesses into the royal lineup. Others would have provided long-awaited sequels to beloved films, while some would have explored brand new, fantastical stories through a hybrid mix of CGI and traditional animation.

    A few of these lost Disney movies, such as Gigantic, were heavily promoted by the company before they were suddenly shelved. Others, such as Kingdom of the Sun, were retooled into different films entirely, while some, such as A Princess of Mars, eventually transitioned to live-action.

    Whether they were doomed from the start by behind-the-scenes creative differences or corporate meddling, or fell victim to unfortunate timing and were inevitably overshadowed by other theatrical releases, we can’t help but wonder what might have been if these unreleased Disney animated movies actually saw the light of day.

    Lost Disney Animated Movies That Were Never Made

    From scrapped princess movies to sequels that never panned out, fans will sadly never see these lost Disney animated movies.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

    Forgotten Animated Disney Movies That Deserve Another Look

    From groundbreaking CGI animated movies to lesser-known traditionally hand-drawn gems, here are 11 Disney movies that deserve to be rediscovered.

    Gallery Credit: Erica Russell

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    Erica Russell

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  • The 13 best record stores in metro Phoenix

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    Like with any industry, record stores tend to come and go. Beloved vinyl emporiums may close, but over time, new shops will open up where entrepreneurial record collectors see a need, while older chains expand as they refine their successful habits…

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    Phoenix New Times Writers

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  • The 24 Best A24 Movies

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    In 2012, a trio of Hollywood veterans — David Fenkel, John Hodges, and Daniel Katz — founded a new production and distribution company called A24, named for the road in Italy where the idea was first hatched. Within a few years, the little label had grown into the biggest name in American indie film. They’ve released several small movies that have grossed upwards of $100 million worldwide, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2017 for Moonlight and again in 2023 for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

    Their track record isn’t perfect — no film company’s is — but on a whole it’s awfully impressive, especially given their relatively short history and their long list of zeitgeist-shaping hits. They’ve helped discover up-and-coming filmmakers and championed veteran directors looking for artistic freedom (and, more importantly, a medium-sized budget) to make their most personal cinematic statements.

    Although A24’s probably best known for their horror movies, the company’s filmography covers every genre imaginable, including some really outstanding documentaries, and they’ve recently branched out into television as well. If you don’t have an A24 title released in the last decade among your favorite films of that period, odds are you don’t go see a lot of movies. (You should work on that.)

    But which is the best? That is a matter of personal preference, of course, but here are my picks. And since it’s A24 we’re talking about, I named their 24 best movies. (I’m so clever, aren’t I?)

    The 24 Best A24 Movies

    Ranking the best movies by the premiere name in modern American cinema.

    READ MORE: The 10 Best Comedies of the Last 10 Years

    10 Horror Movies So Extreme They Made People Physically Sick

    Don’t watch these movies if you have a weak stomach!

    Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky

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    Matt Singer

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