Posts by Matt Donato

Published posts credited to Matt Donato.

Page 3

Feb 3, 20239 min read

‘The Wizard of Gore’ – Only Crispin Glover Shines in 2007’s Herschell Gordon Lewis Update [Revenge of the Remakes]

To say Herschell Gordon Lewis‘ and Jeremy Kasten‘s respective The Wizard of Gore releases pushed me to my limits is correct for all the wrong reasons. My choice to stack the 1970 original and 2007 remake back-to-back stands as one of my least favorite Revenge of the Remakes double-bills thus far. I’ve no objection to […] The post ‘The Wizard of Gore’ – Only Crispin Glover Shines in 2007’s Herschell Gordon Lewis Update [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Jan 31, 202313 min read

Level Up: Why Horror Titles Make for the Best Video Game Adaptations

Video game adaptations: one of cinema’s most hated-on subgenres. Whenever another beloved controllable franchise is announced for moviegoing treatment, eyes roll. Critics quiver. Visions of Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne or Uwe Boll’s crimes against both gamersphere credibility and audience standards montage a hard-fast argument for such scoffs. Fantastical play-alongs turned theatrical try-hards have long […] The post Level Up: Why Horror Titles Make for the Best Video Game Adaptations appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Dec 16, 20228 min read

Cabinets of Curiosities: Why Horror Anthologies Are Such an Important Horror Staple

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities — a marvelous compendium of streaming deadtime stories — emphasizes everything that lures me to horror anthologies. It feels like a reinvention of Showtime’s Masters of Horror, highlighting everything I appreciate about the format. One might balk at calling Cabinet of Curiosities an outright horror anthology, more a miniseries? […] The post Cabinets of Curiosities: Why Horror Anthologies Are Such an Important Horror Staple appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Dec 7, 20227 min read

‘Deadly Games’ and ‘Violent Night’ – The Christmas Movie Double Feature You Need to Experience

Tommy Wirkola‘s Violent Night is taking the holiday movie season by storm (and force). As you already know, David Harbour plays an action-hero version of Santa Claus who eliminates mercenaries during a hostage crisis on Christmas Eve. Commercials are everywhere, selling what’s now dubbed “Die Hard meets Home Alone.” That’s very much correct as a […] The post ‘Deadly Games’ and ‘Violent Night’ – The Christmas Movie Double Feature You Need to Experience appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Dec 2, 20229 min read

‘Willard’ – An Inferior Remake Despite the Dream Casting of Crispin Glover [Revenge of the Remakes]

The producers of 2003’s Willard chose to nix “remake” from the film’s marketing vocabulary, but 2003’s Willard adaptation is irrefutably a remake of 1971’s furry social outcast chiller. At the forefront of 2000s remake trends, Glen Morgan‘s Willard features altered themes and a deeper thirst for suspense, going the “darker and grittier” route displayed by […] The post ‘Willard’ – An Inferior Remake Despite the Dream Casting of Crispin Glover [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Oct 31, 20229 min read

‘Halloween’ – How Rob Zombie Made a Horror Classic Entirely His Own [Revenge of the Remakes]

In discussions about slasher infamy, all roads lead to Haddonfield. The Halloween franchise has amassed a convoluted franchise canon since the late 1970s, filled with retcons and redos as recently as Halloween Ends — including Rob Zombie‘s universally divisive 2007 remake. Countless horror screenwriters, including Josh Stolberg (no stranger to “Revenge of the Remakes”), attempted […] The post ‘Halloween’ – How Rob Zombie Made a Horror Classic Entirely His Own [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Sep 27, 20228 min read

‘Goodnight Mommy’ – The Kind of Remake That Gives Remakes a Bad Name [Revenge of the Remakes]

Anyone who’s kept pace with “Revenge of the Remakes” here on Bloody Disgusting knows I’m a rather outspoken advocate for horror remakes. They’re inevitable, serve multiple purposes, and aren’t the poison to filmmaking culture some claim. That said? Matt Sobel’s American remake of Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s Goodnight Mommy exemplifies everything you hate to […] The post ‘Goodnight Mommy’ – The Kind of Remake That Gives Remakes a Bad Name [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Sep 5, 202210 min read

‘The House on Sorority Row’ and ‘Sorority Row’ Fulfill Different Horror Cravings [Revenge of the Remakes]

Mark Rosman‘s The House on Sorority Row (1982) and Stewart Hendler‘s Sorority Row (2009) feel shoved aside in their respective horror classes. Titles like Pieces, Black Christmas, and The Dorm That Dripped Blood get more frequent mentions when discussing pre-90s sorority or dormitory slashers. Remake debates rarely include Sorority Row in their reassessments of unfairly […] The post ‘The House on Sorority Row’ and ‘Sorority Row’ Fulfill Different Horror Cravings [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Aug 12, 20225 min read

‘Shark Side of the Moon’ Review – Tubi Hopes You’re in the Mood for Russian Space Shark Silliness

From the directors of The Asylum’s Dune knockoff and the writers/director of The Asylum’s Aladdin ripoff comes The Asylum’s Tubi Original Shark Side of the Moon. Just when you thought it was safe to colonize Earth’s crater-covered moon again, Glenn Campbell and Tammy Klein introduce Russian human-shark hybrids as cosmic predators. Or, more appropriately, lower-than-low-budget […] The post ‘Shark Side of the Moon’ Review – Tubi Hopes You’re in the Mood for Russian Space Shark Silliness appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Aug 4, 20228 min read

‘The Hills Have Eyes’ Took a Horror Classic and Made It Even Better [Revenge of the Remakes]

Wes Craven‘s The Hills Have Eyes is a seminal “Sunny Scary” horror flick renowned for its cannibalistic hilltop clan, but it certainly presents as one of Craven’s earliest works. The sorely missed master of horror went on to hone his craft as a writer and director, tidying visions and coaxing stronger performances. Craven’s 1977 The […] The post ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ Took a Horror Classic and Made It Even Better [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Jul 4, 20228 min read

‘Fright Night’ – ‘Supergirl’ Director’s Remake Is So Good It May Outshine the Original Classic

Tom Holland‘s Fright Night has cemented itself as a crucial pillar in ’80s vampire canon. There’s an embrace of bloodsucker mythologies in addition to cheeky commentaries about how vamps are perceived in the media (using the character of Peter Vincent). It’s a tale as old as Dracula between eternal lust and pointed fangs that sometimes […] The post ‘Fright Night’ – ‘Supergirl’ Director’s Remake Is So Good It May Outshine the Original Classic appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

May 24, 20229 min read

How ‘Firestarter’ Fails to Clear Even a Low Bar for Stephen King Adaptations [Revenge of the Remakes]

There’s a thin, blurry line between remake and adaptation. Keith Thomas’ Firestarter is both an adaptation of Stephen King‘s incendiary novel and a remake of Mark L. Lester‘s 1984 adaptation with the same name. Any crossover depends on how screenwriters take creative liberties with King’s source or how strictly each title follows the horror author’s […] The post How ‘Firestarter’ Fails to Clear Even a Low Bar for Stephen King Adaptations [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

May 13, 20225 min read

‘Shark Bait’ Review – Another Mediocre Shark Attack Movie That At Least Has Gory Bite

James Nunn‘s Shark Bait earns its praise only by comparison in today’s grim state of contemporary fin flicks. Anyone could record more thrilling aquatic horrors than 2021’s Great White or 2022’s The Requin with a handheld camera, a kiddie pool, and a Street Sharks puppet. Not since 2020’s Deep Blue Sea 3 has shark cinema […] The post ‘Shark Bait’ Review – Another Mediocre Shark Attack Movie That At Least Has Gory Bite appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Apr 28, 202210 min read

David Cronenberg’s ‘The Fly’ Continues to Make a Strong Pro-Remake Argument [Revenge of the Remakes]

David Cronenberg‘s The Fly (1986) upholds a storied tradition of 80s remakes reinventing classic horrors through emblematic practical effects. John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and Chuck Russell’s The Blob (1988) both embrace the spectacle of SFX advancement to build a better goopy mass or parasitic entity. Kurt Neumann‘s 1958 iteration of The Fly, co-starring Vincent […] The post David Cronenberg’s ‘The Fly’ Continues to Make a Strong Pro-Remake Argument [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Apr 14, 202210 min read

“Good Taste Is Not a Democracy”: Slasher-Comedy ‘Detention’ Is Better Than Ever 10 Years Later

Joseph Kahn‘s Detention deserves its own club when we talk about underappreciated, before-their-time strokes of brilliance. What an embarrassment of riches in a post-meta Scream world where so few imitators live up to Wes Craven’s redefinition of evolutionary slashers. Yes, initial reception led to negative aggregator scores for numerous reasons — too many subgenres smashed […] The post “Good Taste Is Not a Democracy”: Slasher-Comedy ‘Detention’ Is Better Than Ever 10 Years Later appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Feb 23, 20229 min read

‘The Town That Dreaded Sundown’ Proves Originality Can Come from Recreations [Revenge of the Remakes]

Through my “Revenge of the Remakes” odyssey — today’s marks lucky number 20 — there haven’t been many disparities in quality like that between Alfonso Gomez-Rejon‘s and Charles B. Pierce‘s The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Pierce’s 1976 original adapts 1946’s Texarkana Moonlight Murders as a 40’s crime thriller that’s hokey, tonally abysmal, and dull with […] The post ‘The Town That Dreaded Sundown’ Proves Originality Can Come from Recreations [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Jan 31, 20229 min read

‘House of Wax’ 2005 Turned a 1950s Horror Movie into a Slasher Spectacle [Revenge of the Remakes]

Jaume Collet-Serra‘s 2005 House of Wax remake is a mashup of influences and intentions. It’s supposedly based on Andre DeToth‘s 1953 thriller of the same name, itself a remake of 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum — but you couldn’t tell based on watches alone. Collet-Serra admits in Fangoria Magazine that his House of Wax […] The post ‘House of Wax’ 2005 Turned a 1950s Horror Movie into a Slasher Spectacle [Revenge of the Remakes] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Matt Donato

Dec 3, 202110 min read

‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ Kick-Started the Modern Franchise Remake With Relentless Inhumanity [Revenge of the Remakes]

Welcome to Revenge of the Remakes, where columnist Matt Donato takes us on a journey through the world of horror remakes. We all complain about Hollywood’s lack of originality whenever studios announce new remakes, reboots, and reimaginings, but the reality? Far more positive examples of refurbished classics and updated legacies exist than you’re willing to remember […]

Matt Donato

Nov 4, 20219 min read

The ‘April Fool’s Day’ Remake Kills Off All the Charm of the Original Slasher [Revenge of the Remakes]

Matt Donato

Sep 2, 202110 min read

Nia DaCosta’s ‘Candyman’ Reimagines the Mythology With a Sequel-Reboot Hybrid [Revenge of the Remakes]

Matt Donato