Movies

There was a time when a Disney remake arrived with the built-in advantage of nostalgia. *Cinderella*, *The Jungle Book*, and *Beauty and the Beast* returned to stories that had already spent decades becoming part of the culture. The audience had grown older, the films had settled into memory, and the remake could present itself as both something familiar and something new.

*Moana* is operating on a very different timetable.

There was a time when you didn't ask your friends whether they'd heard of the summer's biggest movie. You asked whether they'd seen it yet. And if they had, chances were they'd already bought another ticket to see it again.

That wasn't marketing hype. It was simply how summer movies worked.

Every year seemed to have the movie. Not one of several contenders. Not a streaming hit that trended for a weekend before disappearing beneath the next algorithmically recommended release. One movie dominated the conversation. Kids reenacted scenes on the playground. Adults quoted lines at work. Toy aisles filled with merchandise. Soundtracks climbed the charts. The local newspaper even covered box office numbers as though they were sports scores.

There are blockbuster movies, and then there are events. Some films become so ingrained in popular culture that it's almost impossible to separate the movie from the moment in which it was released. Thirty years after its theatrical debut, Independence Day remains one of those rare films. Released over the Fourth of July holiday in 1996, it wasn't simply a box office success—it became the movie everyone was talking about, quoting, and recommending to friends who hadn't seen it yet.

I've never been one of those people who rolls their eyes every time a new Minions movie is announced. Sure, the little yellow troublemakers have been merchandised into the ground, but there's a reason they've lasted this long. When they're used as comic relief instead of being expected to carry an entire movie on their own, they're genuinely funny. Minions & Monsters seems to understand that better than some of the franchise's recent outings, and that's a big reason why it works.

James Gunn's new DC Universe made a confident first impression with Superman, a film that embraced hope without feeling naïve. Supergirl immediately heads in a different direction. Rather than trying to give audiences "Superman with a skirt," it tells the story of a woman who remembers Krypton's destruction, carries that trauma with her every day, and isn't nearly as certain about justice as her famous cousin. That's a smart creative decision, and it gives Kara Zor-El an identity that's entirely her own. Whether it makes for a better superhero movie is another question.

To an outsider, the realm of fandom, whether it be for movies, comic books, anime, horror, sci-fi, or television shows, can be a strange landscape to traverse. The levels of veneration some fans have for their favorite intellectual properties often reach pseudo-religious levels (hence the terms ‘cult classic’ or ‘cult show’), with behaviors that sometimes amuse—or perplex—more casual consumers of entertainment. But for those involved in fandom, the cosplaying and convention-attending, the website devotionals and social media fan pages are ways to express just how important a movie or comic or television show can become to many people, and how potent the shared fan experience can be.

We here at Critical Blast love movies, which is a good thing, because 2025 was a spectacular year for cinema. While some hotly-anticipated franchise entries divided audiences (we’re looking at you, 28 Years Later), or were warmed-over vehicles for nostalgia (we’re looking at you, Jurassic World Rebirth), it was largely stand-alone films that earned the biggest critical and commercial rewards. Surprising, then, that our Best of 2025 countdown kicks off with a sequel

6: Final Destination: Bloodlines (Directors: Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein):

Who would’ve guessed that the sixth installment of a quarter-century old, fair-to-average teen horror franchise would be its greatest?

Certain subjects are considered taboo. Darker elements of the human experience concerning death, abuse, and mental health are often hidden away, whispered about or hinted at, and discouraged from being discussed openly. The great irony is that by maintaining silence about such topics, their damaging effects are allowed to continue unchecked.

Serial killers hold a morbid fascination for many. The monstrous crimes of Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, The Green River Killer and dozens of others have become grisly additions to humanity’s collective unconscious whether we like it or not, examined in an unending parade of true crime books and television documentaries and portrayed ad nauseam in any number of cinematic iterations. Indeed, the phenomenon of the horror film slasher is itself a sort of romanticized version of the real-life serial murderer, a usually single-minded killer hellbent on delivering death and destruction. But what if that murderous impulse served a purpose beyond mere mayhem?

Life. Oh, what’s the point of it all? Stuck in a daily grind doing menial jobs we can’t stand with coworkers we hate just to pay the bills. Faceless corporations manipulating our every waking hour through advertising, television, social media, price gouging and political propaganda. Even the daily news is a masochist’s wet dream: murder, rape, corruption, war, famine, disease, natural disasters, environmental destruction. Life’s miseries seemingly have no end. But end they do, of course, for each and every one of us. Death’s stark inevitability produces raw existential dread in many. But should it? As William, the central figure in the pitch-black British comedy Dead In A Week (Or Your Money Back) glumly notes, “Death is the one thing we all have in common.”

The new year has brought in some amazing new releases in movie theaters, and about to bring in some more, making the very first month a memorable one for cinema. There are semi-biographical musicals, horror adaptations retelling well-known children’s characters, and edge-of-the-seat thrillers among the new releases in January 2025. Of all the films to release in theaters this month, there are many exciting titles by acclaimed filmmakers that you do not want to miss. Let us find out all about the new movies in theaters now and those that are to be released soon.

There’s a saying: ‘All monsters are human’. Melodramatic, perhaps, but also true. The supernatural beings that permeate folklore have shaped the horror genre in innumerable ways, but nothing—nothing—is more frightening than a diseased psychopathic mind. Vampires, demons, ghouls, werewolves, poltergeists, extraterrestrial invaders, each can be rationalized away as dreams, hallucinations or eyewitness error, but the murderous acts perpetuated by one human against another are undeniably real and sadly commonplace.

Every neighborhood has that house, avoided by other residents, talked of in whispers and nothing more. Maybe a terrible crime was committed there. Perhaps the owner was a notorious eccentric, or rumors persist of ghosts. For whatever reason, the property sits forlorn and abandoned, a bastion of dark imaginings.

Shunned homes have long been a Hollywood staple, from the classic black-and-white frights of The Old Dark House and The Haunting, to the murderous familial dens in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of 1000 Corpses. Those foolhardy enough to visit such dwellings do so at their own peril, as the central players in the spooky new ARC Entertainment/G57 Films motion picture Voice of Shadows learn the hard way.

The descendant of the campfire fable of yore, anthology films are the modern-day inheritors of classic gothic- and pulp-era short stories. Sharpened to visceral perfection by EC Comics during the 1950’s, anthologies distill horror to its most essential elements: a grimly humorous host announcing a simple set-up, a twist, and (hopefully) a jolt of disquieting terror. Movies such as The House That Dripped Blood, Creepshow, Tales From The Darkside: The Movie (and it’s urban-centric cousin Tales From The Hood), Two Evil Eyes, Trick ‘r Treat and the V/H/S series have kept anthologies undead throughout the ‘70’s, ‘80’s, ‘90’s and deep into the 21st century. Now Sea & Sky Productions brings a new entry to the fore with Lore, a delightfully dread-inducing compilation that kicks off the spooky season with ample thrills and chills.

Fallen far from their King-of-the-Hill status in the Reagan-era celluloid landscape, vampires endured a difficult period beginning in the mid-‘90’s. After the prestige treatment of Francis Ford Coppola’s bravura Draculaand Neil Jordan’s Interview With The Vampire adaptations early in the decade, bloodsuckers were largely banished to low budget, direct-to-video fare featuring rehashed plots and/or chintzy production values (see: Dracula 2000 and its sequels, the diminishing Full Moon’s Subspecies franchise, et al). For every From Dusk Til Dawn or Blade that attempted to revitalize the subgenre, studios in the post-Scream millennial years were interested solely in slick slasher whodunits, found footage, and megabuck remakes.

Acccording to Social Media Statistics, in 2024 an estimated 5.17 billion people—over half the global population—are regular users of social networking sites. While social media allows easy connectivity to others, as the world becomes increasingly digital the negative effects of such platforms continue to rise. Depression, anxiety, catfishing, sexual harassment, cyber-bullying and -stalking are just some of the dangers faced by millions, and as laws in many nations have failed to keep up with constantly-evolving technology, there are often few legal avenues victims may pursue in order to attain justice from online tormentors.

There’s something about the drama and high stakes of a casino that lends itself perfectly to climactic movie scenes.

Whether our heroes are gambling with the villain as he tries to discern their identity or pulling off the heist of a lifetime, casinos have provided the backdrop to some of the best and most memorable scenes in cinema.

We’ve put together a rundown of the 10 best casino scenes in movie history to help you relive the high-rolling majesty of some of the big screen’s most iconic moments.

If you find yourself wanting to play for real after watching some of these, remember that some casino operators offer 120 free spins for real money, so you’ve got plenty of options for casino gaming online!

1. Casino Royale (2006)

Two movies exist under the Casino Royale name, but only one of them is worthy of this list

For seemingly every holiday there exists a horror film that adapts and exploits its unique festive rituals and pageantry for their own devious ends. Movies such as New Year’s Evil and Bloody New Year illustrate the perils surrounding the transition from December to January; the labyrinthine mine shafts of My Bloody Valentine (and its subsequent remake), and the cupid-masked killer from 2001’s Valentine turn the lover’s holiday red; the Leprechaun franchise proves St. Patrick’s Day isn’t always lucky. Even April Fool’s Day has been (twice) made into a slasher flick; ditto for Mother’s Day and Halloween. Thanksgiving has been represented by Home Sweet Home, Blood Rage, and Eli Roth’s recent titular hack n’ slash masterwork.

Ah, the vampire. Those ever-seductive, everlasting children of the night, with their designer wardrobes, hypnotic stares and insatiable thirst for blood. Innumerable movies have been made since F.W. Murnau’s unsanctioned Dracula adaptation Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Garuens was filmed over a hundred years ago, and the public’s hunger for the nocturnal doings of the undead shows no sign of abating well into the twenty-first century.

The loss of a loved one is unquestionably the cruelest of life’s misfortunes. When that passing is of a child, the grief is compounded by a sense of guilt; all responsible parents feel a protective duty towards their offspring, and when a son or daughter dies through illness, accident or, most tragically of all, at the hands of another, the psychological weight accompanying the event can drag even the sturdiest soul into the depths of despair. But what if there was a way to contact your dearly departed? What would you endure to gaze upon their face, to hear their cherished voice, to feel their touch? To imagine such a possibility is to abandon all worldly reason and delve unflinchingly into the mystic. But is there truly something tangible in that veil between life and death? And do any of us dare cross those invisible boundaries to find out?