Matt Donato – All Things Ick

Splatter Remake ‘2001 Maniacs’ Can’t Beat Herschell Gordon Lewis Gore

January 23, 2026 Matt Donato 2001 Maniacs, Editorials, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Movies, Revenge of the Remakes, Robert Englund, Tim Sullivan, Two Thousand Maniacs

The tale of Two Thousand Maniacs! and its remake, 2001 Maniacs, is a lesson in what makes for compelling exploitation motivations. Herschell Gordon Lewis’ beloved 1960s splatter picture is the despicable grandpappy of Hickspoitation cinema. Tim Sullivan‘s lecherous 2005 remake is brutally gory, but softcore skin-flick desires cheapen the product. That’s not to say exploitation […]

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‘Poltergeist’ – The 2015 Remake Speedruns Through Tobe Hooper’s Haunted House Classic

November 28, 2025 Matt Donato Editorials, Gil Kenan, Jared Harris, Movies, Poltergeist, Poltergeist (2015), Poltergeist (remake), Revenge of the Remakes, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sam Rockwell, Tobe Hooper

Upon reflection, Poltergeist (2015) marks the whimpering deflation of multiple horror genre eras. The 2000s transitioned into the 2010s with a surge of high-profile remakes like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but by 2015, attention was shifting gears to the “Trauma Horror,” A24-ification phase à la The Babadook and The […]

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‘The Death Artist’ – Anthony Michael Hall Was No Dick Miller in This 1990s ‘Bucket of Blood’ Remake

October 14, 2025 Matt Donato A Bucket of Blood, Editorials, Movies, Revenge of the Remakes

Graciously, Bloody Disgusting has allowed me to write over 40 entries for my “Revenge of the Remakes” column. I’ve hit plenty of popular franchises and mainstream renovations, but as of late, I’ve veered into more obscure territories. That’s where the fun begins, frankly. As this series’ author and a hardcore genre fan, I’ve recently challenged […]

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Dick Maas Turned His Own Elevator Horror Movie ‘The Lift’ into ‘The Shaft’ [Revenge of the Remakes]

August 29, 2024 Matt Donato Down, Editorials, Movies, Revenge of the Remakes, The Life, The Shaft

While horror remakes are inevitable, its rare that international filmmakers are hired to helm American remakes of their originals. Even fewer filmmakers get to make not one, but TWO movies about sentient killer elevators (Killovators? Murdervators?). Lucky for us, Dick Maas laughs in the face of convention. His feature debut, The Lift, is a zany […]

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‘How to Make a Monster’: The 1950s Original and the 2001 Update [Revenge of the Remakes]

June 28, 2024 Matt Donato Editorials, How to Make a Monster, Movies, Revenge of the Remakes

Before you dart toward the comments to argue that George Huang’s How to Make a Monster isn’t a remake, let me explain why it’s my focus this month. In 2001, legendary special effects artist Stan Winston co-produced a series of made-for-cable “remakes” alongside Colleen Camp and Lou Arkoff based on AIP horror flicks of the […]

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‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ Only Got Better from 1956 to 1978 [Revenge of the Remakes]

May 3, 2024 Matt Donato Editorials, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Movies, Revenge of the Remakes

We’re zapping into science fiction territory and back into “re-adaptation” conversations this month for Revenge of the Remakes. Don Siegel and Philip Kaufman bring vastly different approaches to their Invasion of the Body Snatchers films, uniformly citing Jack Finney’s 1954 novel “The Body Snatchers” as their source. Kaufman isn’t directly remaking Siegel’s film but acknowledges […]

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‘Livescreamers’ Review – Virtual Haunted House Movie Tackles the Perils of Online Content Creation

April 2, 2024 Matt Donato Livescreamers, Movies, Reviews, Unnamed Footage Festival 2024

As Screenlife storytelling transitions into the livestream era, movies like Michelle Iannantuono’s Livescreamers have me most excited. Early Screenlife films like Unfriended and The Den read like one-takers but are computer-set events like someone recorded their computer monitor or laptop screen. What Livescreamers offers — or examples like Spree, Deadstream, and #chadgetstheaxe — is the […]

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‘Mind Body Spirit’ Review – A Knockout Found Footage Horror Movie for the Livestream Era

April 2, 2024 Matt Donato Mind Body Spirit, Movies, Reviews, Unnamed Footage Festival 2024

Filmmakers could spend the next decade highlighting the mounting horrors of influencer culture, especially with standout dissections like Alex Henes and Matthew Merenda’s Mind Body Spirit. The filmmaking duo organically recreates a hopeful celebrity vlogger’s downward spiral with the utmost Screenlife dedication. Henes and Merenda make tremendous use of a single-location California estate that never […]

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‘Do Not Watch’ Review – An Innovative Reinvention of the Found Footage Format

April 1, 2024 Matt Donato Do Not Watch, Movies, Reviews, Unnamed Footage Festival 2024

Justin Janowitz’s spellbinding feature debut, Do Not Watch, follows the tradition of cursed footage like 2018’s Antrum or 2022’s Incantation. Subliminal messages are baked into Ryan Toyama’s screenplay and imprinted onto the screen. Traditional barriers between screens and their audiences are shattered; characters plead with us to do what the title commends. Do Not Watch […]

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‘The Fog’ 19 Years Later: There’s a Reason You Don’t Remember This John Carpenter Remake

March 28, 2024 Matt Donato Editorials, John Carpenter, Movies, Revenge of the Remakes, The Fog

John Carpenter’s illustrious catalog of horror and non-horror classics has already seen three remakes (Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, and this column’s focus), with at least one more kinda-sorta confirmed on the way (Escape from New York). If you consider 2011’s The Thing enough of a remake, notch another on the bedpost. It makes sense; […]

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‘Frogman’ Review – Found Footage Oddity Finds a Bizarre Monster and Delivers on Its Promises

March 6, 2024 Matt Donato found footage, Frogman, Movies, Reviews

It was only a matter of time before we got a found footage horror film about Ohio’s cryptid oddity, Loveland’s Frogman (that’s not sarcastic; I’ve seen far stranger indie horror concepts). Anthony Cousins’ search for a slimy urban legend (shot almost exclusively on HI-8), aptly titled Frogman, is a weirdo treat for fans of V/H/S/94‘s […]

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‘Camp Pleasant Lake’ Review – Micro-Budget Slasher Movie Offers a Dull Trip to Sleepaway Camp

February 27, 2024 Matt Donato Camp Pleasant Lake, Movies

The classless practice of traumatic profiteering is alive and well in Thomas Walton’s micro-budget slasher Camp Pleasant Lake. We’ve become a society obsessed with gnarly true crime documentaries and podcasts, lifting infamous serial killers to celebrity status. As superfans once wrote letters to Charles Manson in prison, studios now churn out streaming programs about despicable […]

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‘Rollerball’ Turned a 1970s Cult Classic into an Early 2000s Studio Disaster [Revenge of the Remakes]

February 21, 2024 Matt Donato Editorials, Movies, Revenge of the Remakes, Rollerball

In life, spewing hate comes easy; finding the good takes effort. That’s my mantra for “Revenge of the Remakes.” Get dirty and identify value where others hastily — maybe unfairly — laid harsh criticisms. Any remake, in any genre, faces biased outrage from peanut galleries who refuse to remove their nostalgia goggles. It’s easy to […]

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‘Alice in Terrorland’ Review – ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Horror Movie Isn’t Great But It’s Better Than Expected

February 15, 2024 Matt Donato Alice in Terrorland, Movies, Reviews, Richard John Taylor

Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” isn’t new to the “turn something innocent into a horror movie” fad. Brave gamers might remember diving into the twisted mind of American McGee’s Alice, or indie film diehards could have caught 2010’s Alice in Murderland. Writer and director Richard John Taylor explores forbidden but charted territory with his […]

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‘Departing Seniors’ Review – Middling Teen Slasher Can’t Slay Its Own Shortcomings

February 2, 2024 Matt Donato Departing Seniors, Movies, Reviews

In the canon of high school-set slashers, Departing Seniors is a moderate achiever — the middle of the pack. Jose Nateras’ screenplay massages LGBTQ+ themes into an adorable-awkward-angsty teen romance threatened by deadly obstacles (outside cruel bigotry). It’s refreshingly genuine in terms of treating queer relationships with normalcy, but schoolyard slasher tension dulls without sharp […]

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