News

Re-Visiting ‘Lovecraft Country’ and Its Special Features on Blu-Ray

Published

3 years ago

February 23, 2021

I love a good ritual. A good Sunday night series can make a huge difference to your week. The fun of having that ritual where you get snacks, cozy up and take part in a truly great weekly experience, is one of the little things that makes life great sometimes and maybe even comes with a little dark magic. Lovecraft Country was exactly that sort of series. The Blu-ray is out now from HBO and it’s been a very special revisit with some cool special features to boot.

Lovecraft Country’s synopsis broke down like this:

“Lovecraft Country” is based on the 2016 novel by Matt Ruff, and follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) as he joins up with his friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father (Michael Kenneth Williams). This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the terrifying monsters that could be ripped from an H.P. Lovecraft paperback.

Watching Lovecraft Country during the protests we had in our country due to the atrocity that was George Floyd’s murder by police. This show running parallel to those events were surreal.

Everyone is familiar with the fact that HP Lovecraft was a racist and bigot. It was obviously a very different time, but that is barely an excuse at all. The fact is Lovecraft was a fantastic writer of the macabre but he was not a good person when it came to real life. The series picks up on that and doesn’t go easy on him for it. The villains in the series are all obsessed with forms of purity in race and in magic. All of that while the characters are facing the very real terrors of the civil rights movement.

Our team of good guys are out to undo everything that is control and segregation. Atticus, Leti, Hippolyta and George are huge heroes and have a natural way of bringing that magic into the world of magic and spells but organically. It’s a fantastic show because of the talent involved and the natural way it does manage to combine the dramatic with the horrific. A lot of times the monsters that Lovecraft dreamed up aren’t as terrifying as the racist cops assaulting a young black girl in an alley. And that is a line that the brilliant creator Misha Green executes beautifully.

In one of Lovecraft Country’s best episodes, Holy Ghost Leti moves into a house in a white neighborhood that is haunted by its fair share of terrors. While Leti is dealing with the racists assholes trying to push her out of their neighborhood, she is also unwittingly dealing with the ghosts of several black people who were made to take part in horrific medical experiments. The house is haunted and things definitely go bump in the night and Green delivers the big scares by way of practical fx that mirrored medical experiments that were executed on those poor unwilling patients. Baby arms attached to grown men, jaw bones removed from still living souls. A lot of terrible experiments that are all revealed in the episodes finale. All of the tortured ghosts come out and show themselves to their soon to be victim and watching a racist get his via furious old souls is so damn satisfying.

That’s what the series does perfectly. Tons of real life events and locations that are constantly being thrown in along with the horror movie content. Now, that is a pretty spoiler free setup. I suppose if you haven’t read the book or watched the series you want everything to remain as spoil free as possible. But, I will say, its wildly imaginative, and provocative and plays on H.P. Lovecraft’s works by deconstructing them with no reverence what so ever toward a know racist.

There are plenty of great special features here too. Each digs into the real bits of horror as well as the stuff that the show touches on that HP Lovecraft’s works brought to the show.

The disc includes an exploration of the series that include items like:

Compendium of Horrors (NEW)
Orithyia Blue and the Imagination of Diana Freeman (NEW)
Crafting “Lovecraft Country”
Exploring “Lovecraft Country”
“Lovecraft Country”: The Craft

Lovecraft Country hits shelves on February, 2021. Go ahead and head over here to order your copy.

Army of the Dead gets its first teaser trailer. Check it out here.

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Related Topics:H.P. Lovecraft HBO lovecraft country Misha Green

Editorial

Yay or Nay: What’s Good and Bad in Horror This Week

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Welcome to Yay or Nay a weekly mini post about what I think is good and bad news in the horror community written in bite-sized chunks.

Yay:

Mike Flanagan talking about directing the next chapter in the Exorcist trilogy. That might mean he saw the last one and realized there were two left and if he does anything well it’s draw out a story.

Yay:

To the announcement of a new IP-based film Mickey Vs Winnie. It’s fun to read comical hot takes from people who haven’t even seen the movie yet.

Nay:

The new Faces of Death reboot gets an R rating. It’s not really fair — Gen-Z should get an unrated version like past generations so they can question their mortality the same as the rest of us did.

Yay:

Russell Crowe is doing another possession movie. He’s quickly becoming another Nic Cage by saying yes to every script, bringing the magic back to B-movies, and more money into VOD.

Nay:

Putting The Crow back in theaters for its 30th anniversary. Re-releasing classic movies at the cinema to celebrate a milestone is perfectly fine, but doing so when the lead actor in that film was killed on set due to neglect is a cash grab of the worst kind.

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Lists

The Top-Searched Free Horror/Action Movies on Tubi This Week

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2024

Timothy Rawles

The free streaming service Tubi is a great place to scroll when you’re unsure what to watch. They are not sponsored or affiliated with iHorror. Still, we really appreciate their library because it’s so robust and has many obscure horror movies so rare you can’t find them anywhere in the wild except, if you’re lucky, in a moist cardboard box at a yard sale. Other than Tubi, where else are you going to find Nightwish (1990), Spookies (1986), or The Power (1984)?

We take a look at the most searched horror titles on the platform this week, hopefully, to save you some time in your endeavor to find something free to watch on Tubi.

Interestingly at the top of the list is one of the most polarizing sequels ever made, the female-led Ghostbusters reboot from 2016. Perhaps viewers have seen the latest sequel Frozen Empire and are curious about this franchise anomaly. They will be happy to know it’s not as bad as some think and is genuinely funny in spots.

So take a look at the list below and tell us if you are interested in any of them this weekend.

1. Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters (2016)

An otherworldly invasion of New York City assembles a pair of proton-packed paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker for battle.An otherworldly invasion of New York City assembles a pair of proton-packed paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker for battle.

2. Rampage

When a group of animals becomes vicious after a genetic experiment goes awry, a primatologist must find an antidote to avert a global catastrophe.

3. The Conjuring The Devil Made Me Do It

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren uncover an occult conspiracy as they help a defendant argue that a demon forced him to commit murder.

4. Terrifier 2

After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to Miles County, where his next victims, a teenage girl and her brother, await.

5. Don’t Breathe

A group of teens breaks into a blind man’s home, thinking they’ll get away with the perfect crime but get more than they bargained for once inside.

6. The Conjuring 2

In one of their most terrifying paranormal investigations, Lorraine and Ed Warren help a single mother of four in a house plagued by sinister spirits.

7. Child’s Play (1988)

A dying serial killer uses voodoo to transfer his soul into a Chucky doll which winds up in the hands of a boy who may be the doll’s next victim.

8. Jeepers Creepers 2

When their bus breaks down on a deserted road, a team of high school athletes discovers an opponent they cannot defeat and may not survive.

9. Jeepers Creepers

After making a horrific discovery in the basement of an old church, a pair of siblings find themselves the chosen prey of an indestructible force.

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News

Morticia & Wednesday Addams Join Monster High Skullector Series

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Believe it or not, Mattel’s Monster High doll brand has an immense following with both young and not-so-young collectors.

In that same vein, the fan base for The Addams Family is also very large. Now, the two are collaborating to create a line of collectible dolls that celebrate both worlds and what they have created is a combination of fashion dolls and goth fantasy. Forget Barbie, these ladies know who they are.

The dolls are based on Morticia and Wednesday Addams from the 2019 Addams Family animated movie.

As with any niche collectibles these aren’t cheap they bring with them a $90 price tag, but it’s an investment as a lot of these toys become more valuable over time.

“There goes the neighborhood. Meet the Addams Family’s ghoulishly glamorous mother-daughter duo with a Monster High twist. Inspired by the animated movie and clad in spiderweb lace and skull prints, the Morticia and Wednesday Addams Skullector doll two-pack makes for a gift that’s so macabre, it’s downright pathological.”

If you want to pre-purchase this set check out The Monster High website.