Inverse

What is goodness without evil? The basic question of the 1985 Ridley Scott-directed fantasy epic Legend suggests that the villain of any major fairy tale is just as important, if not more important, than its heroes. And, although the late, great Tim Curry has many, many famous roles — from Clue to Rocky Horror Picture Show — his role as the devlish creature known as “Darkness” may be his most underrated, and one of the most truly unique performances of his career.

Before DeForest Kelley’s Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy became the most beloved (and crankiest) physician in the original Star Trek, there were actually not one but two different characters who were his predecessors.

There are a few voices that just can’t be separated from their characters. Hulk’s screams will always be Lou Ferrigno, C-3PO will always be Anthony Daniels, and Optimus Prime will always be Peter Cullen. The longtime voice actor was behind a number of recognizable characters, including King Kong, the Predator, and Eeyore, but for many fans, he will always be Optimus Prime.

Now that we’re in James Gunn’s new DCU, DC has mostly moved beyond the Zack Snyder era. Kicked off by 2013’s Man of Steel, the original DCEU was never quite able to escape the shadow of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a disastrous theatrical release for Justice League was the final nail in its coffin.

Hollywood has been searching for the successor to Greta Gerwig’s Barbie since it became a bona fide cultural phenomenon three years ago. But no amount of halfhearted toy movies or baldfaced IP cash grabs could capture that specific combination of earnest homage and campy meta-humor that made Barbie such a success. It’s ironic, then, that the closest Hollywood has gotten was hiding under Warner Bros.’ nose — and would’ve never made it to the big screen if the studio had gotten its way.

Ever since Ridley Scott first changed science fiction and horror forever with his 1979 masterwork Alien, the Xenomorph and the legacy it leaves behind have been pretty inescapable on-screen.

When the undead start ravaging a mall, it’s impossible not to think about George Romero. The influence of the Dawn of the Dead filmmaker is pretty inescapable in zombie movies in general, but it’s particularly pronounced when one of them adds a dab of social commentary to its bloody mayhem.

There are roughly four gazillion true crime podcasts and documentaries available today, and if that’s not enough for you to consume, you could always take a true crime cruise. This morbid industry was presaged by the 2014 movie Nightcrawler, which follows freelancer Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he goes to greater and greater lengths to film bloody events and sell them to TV stations.

Remember Buddy, the friendly orange unicorn created to teach kids about right and wrong, sharing, and caring? Casper Kelly’s feature debut, so named for its mascot, doesn’t actually expect you to (Buddy is fictional, after all), but it helps to be familiar with the kids’ shows that Buddy is so eagerly skewering here.

It’s rare for a remake of a genre film to be better than the original, but a second remake that goes toe-to-toe with both its predecessors is rarer still. Abel Ferrara, the New York exploitation auteur behind The Driller Killer and Ms. 45, expanded his career to more ambitious and experimental extremes in the 1990s, and that included Body Snatchers, Ferrara’s first sci-fi, his first for a major studio, and the third overall adaptation of Jack Finney’s sci-fi novel The Body Snatchers.