CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Blumhouse Productions
Boring ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ is Five Nights Too Many
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 27, 2023 - 12:15pm![]() Rating: 1.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – For the uninitiated, “Five Nights At Freddy’s” is based on a popular series of video games with a simple premise … you play a security guard trapped inside a Chuck E Cheese-type pizzeria where the animatronics come to life and keep trying to kill you. Yet the biggest threat facing audiences with the film is that they just might die… of boredom.
Domo Arigato Child Roboto! On-Air Film Review of ‘M3GAN’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on January 7, 2023 - 10:23am![]() Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on January 5th, 2023, reviewing “M3GAN” a term pronounced “Megan” but short for Model 3 Generative Android. This robot film is in theaters beginning January 6th.
'Halloween Kills' Challenges What We Think We Know About the Franchise
Submitted by JonHC on October 15, 2021 - 1:25pm![]() Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – There’s no way around it, horror is one of the most difficult film genres to work within. It constantly needs to be evolving in order to keep up with the ever-growing terror that is living in the 21st century. In a time where you can get taken out by a plague, or simply get shot based on the color of your skin, horror draws the short straw in that it has to come up with something much scarier than real life.
The P of July! On-Air Review of ‘The Forever Purge’
Submitted by PatrickMcD on July 2, 2021 - 12:13am![]() Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on July 1st, 2021, reviewing the latest film in the long-running series, “The Forever Purge,” in theaters on July 2nd.
He’s a Super Freak! On-Air Review of ‘Freaky'
Submitted by PatrickMcD on November 13, 2020 - 7:52pm![]() Rating: 4.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on November 12th, 2020, reviewing the new horror comedy “Freaky,” featuring Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton and Alan Ruck.
‘The Invisible Man’ is a True Heart Pounding Thriller
Submitted by PatrickMcD on February 28, 2020 - 4:15pm![]() Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – When I think of “The Invisible Man” the first thing I think of is the special effects… and that’s largely what it’s been about … from Claude Raines initial portrayal of “The I Man” in the 1930s, all the way through more modern takes like Kevin Bacon in the thriller “Hollow Man” (2000).
Rebooted ‘Halloween’ Sequel Offers Nothing New in 2018
Submitted by PatrickMcD on October 19, 2018 - 12:47pm![]() Rating: 2.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – At this point, the “Halloween” franchise is looking as tattered and tired as Michael Myers old William Shatner mask… fraying around the edges and on the verge of falling apart. The 2018 “reboot” sequel brings back former scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, along with original Michael Myers, Nick Castle.
Despite Same Stale Producer, ‘The Gallows’ a Refreshing Horror Original From New Filmmakers
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on July 12, 2015 - 12:58pm![]() Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – We all know dramatic films win most of the awards, comedies are hit or miss and horrors often don’t deliver the scares they promise. The problem with the horror genre lately is Hollywood is afraid to go against a “proven” formula (for financial reasons) and really think outside the box.
The Worst Horror Film of 2014, ‘Ouija’ is ‘Mama’ From 11 Narcoleptic Producers
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on October 24, 2014 - 7:59pm- Adam Fendelman
- Ana Coto
- Bianca Santos
- Blumhouse Productions
- Daren Kagasoff
- Douglas Smith
- HollywoodChicago.com Content
- Insidious
- Jason Blum
- Juliet Snowden
- Movie Review
- Olivia Cooke
- Ouija
- Paranormal Activity
- Shelley Hennig
- Sierra Heuermann
- Stiles White
- The Purge
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Universal Pictures
![]() Rating: 1.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Out of respect for the filmmakers and actors, I don’t walk out on films. I hold true to that even when I know in the first 10 minutes the film’s not for me. Perhaps the second act could surprise me. Maybe the whole film is a flop but it redeems itself with shock and awe in the last 5 minutes.
‘Oculus’ Succeeds Psychologically, Fails Supernaturally
Submitted by HollywoodChicago.com on April 12, 2014 - 4:07pm![]() Rating: 3.0/5.0 |
CHICAGO – Films in general are knocked for being knockoffs of something else. Horror films in particular have it especially hard in the “new” department because we’re so quickly annoyed when we’ve “seen it all before.”
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