Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark Gets Its Frights Right

Children love a good scare. Kids literature has proved this countless time over the centuries, dating back to all those gruesome Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales. In the modern era, the likes of R.L. Stine and Neil Gaiman have delivered books that give youngsters chills they can't get enough of. The book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, penned by Alvin Schwartz, has proved to be such a popular example of kids horror literature that it's a shock it's never been adapted into a film before now. Such an adaptation has finally come to life from director Andre Overdal as well as from producer Guillermo Del Toro, who also penned the screenstory for this feature.

Robots And Monsters Fighting Aren't Enough To Keep Pacific Rim: Uprising From Being Underwhelming

I loved the first Pacific Rim from 2013. I know some didn't care for it because they thought it was too goofy or messy, but I thought it worked like gangbusters. Guillermo Del Toro's ode to the monster movies that shaped his entire cinematic sensibility was full of lovingly rendered awe-inspiring imagery and an uplifting message of unity that resonated deeply with me. The prospect of returning to this universe was a tantalizing one for me, especially since Del Toro publicly said he had plenty of ideas for follow-up stories in this universe. We've finally gotten a sequel in the form of Pacific Rim: Uprising, though not with Del Toro either writing or directing the project (he only produces) and boy does that make all the difference in the world in terms of quality.

Water You Waiting For? Go See The Thoughtful And Engrossing Romantic Monster Movie Drama The Shape of Water

Fairy tales have always been used to impart larger ideas regarding the societies they originated in within the confines of something palatable to the general public and Guillermo Del Toro, a fellow whose filmography clearly indicates a love for fairy tales, has used his movies that are heavily informed by fairy tales of old as ways to explore all kinds of weighty ideas or societally relevant concepts. The Devil's Backbone is ostensibly a ghost story but it's also a tale of how people show off their true selves in times of war while his project most explicitly evocative of fairy tales, Pan's Labyrinth, is set in the real world conflict of the Spanish Civil War. Even his movies about robot and monsters punching each other takes time to demonstrate how walls dividing countries only create more problems, a concept that's become all the more relevant as the years go by.

The Devil's Backbone Is Yet Another Guillermo Del Toro Winner That Merges Scares With Brains

Guillermo Del Toro writing and directing tales that shine a more humanistic gaze upon fantasy creatures in the middle of a large-scale war seems to serve the auteur filmmaker well if his 2006 classic Pan's Labyrinth and the subject of this review, The Devil's Backbone, are any indication. For the premise of the latter film, Del Toro, along with David Munoz and Antonio Trashorras, have concocted a tale about orphan Carlos (Fernando Tielve) being dropped off at an orphanage in the middle of the Spanish Civil War. Here, Carlos finds himself the target of constant bullying by the orphans who have been held here for far longer than he has, though this bullying does result in Carlos making a major discovery.

Mama Just Killed A Man....Put A Gun Against His Head...Pulled My Trigger Now He's Dead....

Now that It looks to be well on its way to becoming a box office phenomenon like we've never seen for the horror genre before (it already made $51 million yesterday and will probably make as much as $105 million by the time the weekend is done), it looks like director Andy Muschietti is well on his way to becoming a big modern day horror movie filmmaker with only his second feature film. What was his first movie prior to It? Why it was none other than the 2013 feature Mama, a horror movie executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro (who is additionally credited as "presenting" the movie) that debuted back in January 2013.

Journey To A Captivating World In Pan's Labyrinth

Despite being a massive Guillermo Del Toro fanboy, I've never seen his 2006 feature film Pan's Labyrinth before, which I suppose is akin to being a massive fan of The Beatles while thinking Abbey Road is solely a road in London. Anywho, sitting down to watch this one was a fascinating experience in terms of placing it in the larger picture Del Toro's filmography, as his later films would carry over certain elements of Pan's Labyrinth, such as a period era setting that plays heavily into the story (Crimson Peak) and the heavy use of mythic fairy tale characters (Hellboy II: The Golden Army). It's apparent that the experience of Pan's Labyrinth left a profound impact on Guillermo Del Toro as a director.

Crimson Peak Review

God bless Guillermo Del Toro. He's such a fascinating filmmaker, so obviously in love with the worlds he creates, it's endlessly charming. Also fun to see is how much variety there is in his filmography in terms of what genres he'll explore. Fantasy for Pan's Labyrinth, sci-fi for Pacific Rim, and now dramatic supernatural romantic period piece horror in Crimson Peak. That description may make the project sound like a hodgepodge of a creation, but don't fret, it's instead a delightful mixture that utilizes each of its distinct individual elements to their fullest potential.

Goosebumps And Crimson Peak Blaze Uncertain Box Office Trails On Thursday Night

This weeks three new wide releases got their box office runs started last night, though it's hard to use their Thursday night numbers to foretell how exactly the films will do in the coming weekend for a variety of reasons. The largest of last nights performances was Crimson Peak, which grossed $855 thousand in Thursday night screenings. That's about 14% below the Thursday night grosses for Universal Studios most recent previous horror film The Visit, which grossed $1 million at these showings last month. It's likely Guillermo Del Toro's fanbase came out to see it last night, potentially making the film have a frontloaded weekend, though it's still too early to tell if that'll come to pass.

Come On And Grab Your Friends...And Go See The Adventure Time Movie!

I've always thought Adventure Time would make a damn fine, with my dream scenario being that Guillermo Del Toro would handle a ballsy live-action version of the program. The next thing has just been announced though, as Deadline reports an animated feature film based on Adventure Time is in development.

Guillermo Del Toro+Gothic Imagery+Awesome Cast=Crimson Peak Trailer

The works of Guillermo Del Toro thrive on captivating imagery, and it looks like his next film, Crimson Peak, will follow suit. There's some top-notch talent in here (Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston? Be still my beating heart!) and it looks like he's pulled out some extraordinary visuals here. Not too surprising on the latter, but it's still awesome to watch. Check out the teaser below!

The Book Of Life Review

Guillermo Del Toro has lent his name to a vast amount of projects since he became a household name with the Hellboy features and Pans Labyrinth. Since the second Hellboy, he's only directed one feature (last years beautifully exciting Pacific Rim), but has produced several more than that. His most recent endeavor as a producer is The Book Of Life, an animated feature from Reel FX and director Jorge R. Gutierrez. Gutierrez makes his debut as a director of a feature length film with this production, his previous defining work being the Nickelodeon program El Tigre.

Franchise Frenzy: Hellboy

In a recent Reddit AMA (that stands for Ask Me Anything), one of my favorite directors of all-time, Guillermo Del Toro, finally threw in the towel. He finally admitted Hellboy 3 wasn't happening. The reason wasn't for lack of trying, oh goodness no. The problem was that no studio was willing to finance the project, which required a massive budget to depict the apocalyptic scenarios that occured in Del Toro's proposed story for it.

PACIFIC RIM 2 IS HAPPENING OH YES YES OH YES YES OH YES

Just to let you guys know...Pacific Rim 2 has been set for April 7, 2017!!! All the Kaiju and Jaegars will be back to take part if deliriously well made Guillermo Del Toro mayhem!! Guillermo Del Toro told Buzzfeed this about the awesome sounding film:

"The characters I love will return, Raleigh, Mako, Newt, Gottlieb and who knows, maybe even Hannibal Chau – but we are taking them into a fresh territory that will display amazing sights and battles. The first film set the stage and now we’re ready to have a blast."