Is living with the results of the 2024 election as painful as cutting off your own foot with a rusty saw in a grimy bathroom? No, and that’s a weird analogy? Horror columnist Niko Kay Smith SC ’25 doesn’t care, and explains why “Saw” (2004) provided the escapist self care he needed the weekend after election day.
Film
Girl Power: The consequences of female body horror in ‘The Substance’
“The Substance” uses body horror towards feminist ends — but does its graphic imagery also inadvertently create a spectacle out of female pain? Anna Peterson SC ’25 discusses this difficult tension.
A Nightmare on 6th St: The brilliant, doomed marketing of ‘Longlegs’
If you were brave enough to call the phone number on a mysterious Los Angeles billboard this summer, you would’ve heard the voice of a serial killer singing “Happy Birthday.” Horror columnist Niko Kay Smith SC ’25 unpacks “Longlegs” (2024), the movie behind this stunt, and explains how this incredible viral marketing set the film up to disappoint.
A Nightmare on 6th St: How horror movie exposure therapy eased my anxiety
Does the idea of watching a horror movie this Halloween give you the shivers? Horror columnist Niko Kay Smith SC ‘25 shares tips she learned on her journey from scaredy cat to a horror fan, and shares how scary movies helped her confront her anxiety.
Girl Power: What “Lady Bird” gets wrong about girlhood
Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed 2017 film “Lady Bird” artfully depicts mother-daughter relationships and growing out of girlhood, among other things but falls short in other places. Columnist Anna Peterson SC ’25 compares the movie with 2002’s “Real Women Have Curves.”
A Nightmare on 6th St: How ‘I Saw the TV Glow’ uses your memories against you
When is a movie not just a movie? Horror columnist Niko Kay Smith dives deep into the trans phenomenon of Jane Schoenbrun’s recent coming-of-age horror film “I Saw The TV Glow” and the ways it demands participation from its audience.
Girl Power: Cult Classics in the post Roe v. Wade era
Last summer was “Barbie;” this summer is “brat.” Columnist Anna Peterson SC ‘25 unpacks what it means to release these two pieces of media in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision.
A Nightmare on 6th St: A sincere defense of ‘Dream Warriors’ and 80s cheese
Horror columnist Niko Kay Smith (SC ‘25) risks their reputation as a critic to passionately defend “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” (1987). Jam packed with see-it-to-believe-it 80s absurdity, the film also proves surprisingly relatable for Gen Z living through the nightmare that is the 2020s.
Frame Rating: A really, really half-hearted defense of David Lynch’s “Dune”
With the recent success of Denis Villenueve’s Dune 2 (2024), film columnist Gerrit Punt theorizes about David Lynch’s Dune adaptation (1984). He argues that Dune (1984) is a remnant of a forgotten 1980s science-fiction film genre, and that movie lovers should find what works instead of casting it aside.
Frame Rating: “The Room” is high art (and I’m not kidding)
Film columnist Gerrit Punt PO ’24 defends “The Room” as a legitimate work of art and attempts to challenge the notion that movies like it are only “so bad they’re good.”