Dystopian films from Metropolis to Mad Max: where to start
Fritz Lang's Metropolis set the template in 1927, and Kubrick, Miller and Cuarón built on it. How screen dystopias grew, and nine films to start with.
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Hollywood made film noir before anyone named it
Director Edward Dmytryk said he had no idea what film noir was. Émigrés such as Billy Wilder and cameramen such as John Alton built it. Eight films to watch.
Why horror fell for found footage, and eight films to start
From a 1980 Amazon reel to Blair Witch and Backrooms, how fake recovered tapes became horror's favourite trick, plus eight films for Halloween.
The horror of the body, from The Fly to The Substance
Cronenberg made audiences fear their own flesh. Julia Ducournau and Coralie Fargeat took it to Cannes. Where body horror began, and 10 films to watch.
Before Halloween, a British flop wrote the slasher's rules
Peeping Tom and Psycho started the slasher in 1960. Follow it from Texas to Scream and beyond, then pick from eight films for Halloween night.
Eight werewolf films to see first, and how the genre grew up
From a lost 1913 silent short to Rick Baker's Oscar-winning 1981 transformation, the werewolf film took decades to learn its craft. Start with these.
Harrison Ford swept a floor, then landed Han Solo
Harrison Ford was a carpenter when George Lucas cast him as Han Solo. The piece traces his career through its directors, then picks ten films to watch first.
Universal's first monster wore a face Lon Chaney made himself
Lon Chaney's Phantom set the template and Karloff and Lugosi made it a genre in 1931. Here is who made the monsters, and eight films to start with.
The Wicker Man still burns: where folk horror came from
Nobody called it folk horror until decades later. Here is how folk horror grew from three British films, and nine films to watch this Halloween.
How horror film scores learned to scare, and eight to hear first
From Herrmann's Psycho strings to Carpenter's Halloween piano and Goblin's Suspiria, how horror scores learned to scare, plus eight to hear first.
Audiences who fainted gave The Exorcist its cursed name
IndieWire says cinemagoers fainted and fell ill in 1973, which fed talk of a curse. William Friedkin says he made a film about faith, not horror.