Sara Paxton

CHICAGO – When we first met photographer Dale Robinette (click here) he had just taken one of the most iconic movie photos of the last ten years. Well, his work as “Unit Still Photographer” goes on, and he recently contacted HollywoodChicago.com to share one of his on-set photos from “The Front Runner,” which opened in Chicago last week.

CHICAGO – The year 1988 marked a border crossing in the way that the media covered national candidates. Senator Gary Hart seemed destined for president, until a extramarital relationship with Donna Rice became the focus of media attention. Director Jason Reitman tells the story in a new film, “The Front Runner.”

CHICAGO – “Cheap Thrills” is a case study in human desperation and depravity. It’s a sick and twisted film, but it goes about it in a most absorbing albeit uncomfortable way. It’s one of those films that forces the viewer to place themselves in the protagonist’s unpredictable position, asking a question like, “What would you do for money?” Once you do it, what else are you willing to do for more and then, “How far is too far?” 

CHICAGO – Ti West’s “The Innkeepers” is one of the most divisive films of the year, a love-it-or-hate-it affair — my favorite kind of movie. I see both sides. I get how the slow burn doesn’t work for some people (and, honestly, it didn’t really work for me in West’s “House of the Devil”) and I get how modern horror fans might be upset at the lack of a sure payoff in this ghost story.

CHICAGO – Ti West’s “The Innkeepers” is one of the most effective horror movies of the last several years, a true gem of the genre that reminds a scary movie junkie like myself why I fell in love with them in the first place.

CHICAGO – Director Ti West has formulated a career re-imagining some of the scare tactics used in the classic horror films of the late 1970s and early ‘80s. His deliberately paced style created a frightening “House of the Devil” in 2009, and now he’s back with up-and-coming Sara Paxton for “The Innkeepers.”

CHICAGO – In our latest horror/thriller edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two movie passes up for grabs to the advance screening of “The Innkeepers” starring Sara Paxton from “The House of the Devil” director Ti West!

CHICAGO – There may be little LESS scary in horror than a CGI shark. From the very first scene of “Shark Night,” one knows they’re in movie-watching trouble. A personality-less drone in a bikini gets tossed around a seemingly placid lake by an unseen shark. One can’t tell what the hell is going on. There’s no shots below the surface (not really to build tension but because this movie is inexplicably PG-13). And there’s no fear, tension, or actual interest. From here, it’s much of the same. Dull, dull, shark attack, dull, shark attack, end. Throw this one back in the water.

CHICAGO – “Shark Night 3D” is at the top of the food chain when it comes to the people-so-stupid-they-lack-basic-survival-skills category of horror thrillers, and has so many wrong elements it nearly swings back to be right.

CHICAGO – Dennis Iliadis’ brutal and accomplished remake of Wes Craven’s influential horror classic “The Last House on the Left,” now available on Blu-Ray and DVD, deserves a much better home release than the typically reliable Universal/Rogue has delivered for horror fans this week.