Horror – Media Shower

How Well Do Festival Films Hold Up?

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with South by Southwest, the multimedia festival that just ended its 2025 run. On the one hand, it showcases various musicians, filmmakers, educators, and innovators who may not get exposure elsewhere. On the other hand, it’s now so damned expensive that only people with thousands of dollars to spare can experience the full scope of the event. (“Free” badges are available to volunteers who work a certain number of hours, but that’s a whole other can of worms.)

10 years ago, when you could still snag a film festival wristband for $90, I was lucky enough to binge several movies with my mom and my longtime friend Victoria. Rather than spend an entire post kvetching about SXSW’s badge system, I thought I’d take a look back at what I saw in 2015, how much of it stuck with me, and how much of it is still relevant in the popular consciousness.

At the time, I didn’t think to take notes, so I’m going off my memory—which fluctuates between extremely spotty and borderline eidetic, depending on what I’m trying to recall. (I remember things like random-ass trivia and all my kindergarten classmates’ first names in alphabetical order, but I sometimes have to dig cooking instructions out of the trash because I’ve already forgotten whether to preheat the oven to 400 or 425° F.) Anyway, these are the movies I saw at SXSW 2015, and my impressions of them after a tumultuous decade.

Less Obvious Public Domain Stuff to Adapt in 2025

It’s a newish year, which means we’ve got a newish batch of old material available for use without exorbitant fees.

Copyright laws can get pretty convoluted, but as a general rule, expiration depends on the death of the author (no, not that one). In many countries, a work enters the public domain either 50 or 70 full calendar years after its maker’s passing; as of 2025, this means copyright has lapsed for the intellectual properties of several creators who died in 1954 or 1974. While the U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act stretched out renewals for works that were still under copyright as of 1998, even some of those IPs are now up for grabs.

The batshit post-pandemic media landscape has produced a surge of cheap, rushed, and poorly-reviewed horror movies based on freshly public domain characters. 2023’s Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey takes advantage of the earliest incarnations of A.A. Milne’s Pooh and Piglet, though writer/director Rhys Frake-Waterfield had to wait until the sequel to use Tigger. Meanwhile, the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse has already spawned at least two slashers: The Mouse Trap and Screamboat.

David Howard Thornton as the killer in “*Screamboat.*” It’s a cleverer title than “*The Mouse Trap*,” but this evil Mickey looks too much like an extra in the stage version of “*Cats*.”

These movies thrive on the shock value of turning beloved family-friendly characters into bloodthirsty monsters. But as long as people keep watching and talking about them, even solely to complain, opportunists will continue to make them.

While I don’t particularly care for the trend, it doesn’t bother me on a personal level; I have similar feelings toward things like Disney’s “live-action” remakes, or the Kardashians/Jenners. That said, I can’t help wondering if people seeking to cash in on the public domain are overlooking some high-potential material.

Just for fun, I’ve decided to brainstorm possible adaptations for a handful of media whose copyrights recently expired. On the off-chance that any reader actually turns at least one of these elevator pitches into a real movie, I ask that you hire a union cast and crew, put my name in the credits (preferably spelled correctly), and give me 1% of streaming revenue if applicable.

Sawcial Commentary

(Spoiler alert for pretty much the whole Saw franchise.)

When I started this blog, I didn’t expect to hop on current events beyond passing mentions. I also didn’t anticipate my blog would become quite so horror-dominated. In fact, I thought it might be too soon for another horror post, and perhaps I should write something about Christmas or Hanukkah/Chanukah (like why the latter seemingly has 50 acceptable English spellings).

Plans change.

The killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, and the widespread, persistent public adulation of the alleged shooter (even by some people who normally don’t condone violence of any kind), got me thinking.

Wasn’t this the plot of an entire Saw movie?

I’m not here to argue politics or the (de)merits of vigilantism; there are plenty of other online venues for that sort of thing. However, I’m totally down to analyze Jigsaw’s warped ideas of justice and their long-term effects within the Sawniverse.

Top 10 Best Uses of Diegetic Music in Modern Horror

The horror genre is a fertile ground for diegetic scores—tunes actually playing in-universe—which frequently serve to build dramatic tension, but can evoke a wide variety of emotions. These songs include bona fide classics, novelties, annoyingly catchy guilty pleasures, and straight-up auditory hell. All of the following examples manage to enhance the works featuring them.

I’ve done my best to include clips of scenes when possible, but studios can be extremely stingy with copyrighted music, and a few examples only seem to exist online in crappy edits. If an entry is missing a video of a moment you really want to see, I highly encourage you to check out the movie or show for yourself.

By no means have I seen all horror media from this millennium. If you can think of any glaring omissions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Going in Knowing the Twist

This post contains spoilers for High Tension, Sleepaway Camp, and The Sixth Sense. If you’ve been meaning to watch any of them and prefer not to go in knowing the twist, get the hell out of here and return to my blog when you’re ready.

Ready?