Author: Ada Blood

In January 2025, retailer Target ended its 3-year DEI program, kicking off massive boycotts. The company was starting to recover financially through some new initiatives, none of them involving reinstating any DEI program. Now the chain store is apologizing for stocking an offensive and racist Halloween costume. But we are sure these two things are totally unrelated. “As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry. The costume is offensive and should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer available for sale. We know this is especially hurtful for our Black guests,…

A story about an idol-obsessed teen abandoning everything for a parasocial relationship sounds like peak 2026, doesn’t it? Well, on this week’s Art History Uncensored, we’ll be talking about Eckhart Schmidt’s 1982 film Der Fan, aka The Fan.  It’s about a West German teenager doing just that for a famous singer, with catastrophic results.  Der Fan tells the story of Simone (Désirée Nosbusch), who is just crazy about the singer R (Bodo Staiger). She obsessively writes him letters, and when they aren’t responded to, she convinces herself that the mail carrier is stealing them. Fed up with a lack of letters…

The horror genre loves to play up our culture’s unhealthy obsession with youth and beauty. And the upcoming Southern Gothic Scissor Mouth will be the newest addition to the well-loved genre. Starring Tara Reid (Sharknado) and Johnny Pemberton (Fallout), it is written and directed by Deborah Richards (Move Me No Mountain). American Settings Meet Japanese Folktales Set in the early 1980s, Scissor Mouth follows a teen girl whose abusive, beauty-obsessed mother holds her captive. She must escape her basement prison in rural Texas to show the world how cruel vanity can be. Though it’s set in America, an ancient Japanese folktale…

Since 2009, Pittsburgh’s Horror Realm Convention has been a mecca for genre enthusiasts, which is really saying something when you’re in the zombie capital of the country. But what is a horror convention without independent films? Nothing, that’s what!  Organizers have officially opened up entries for film submissions for the 2027 festival! This year, Horror Realm is emphasising shorter works by only showing two feature films. All feature submissions should have run times under 2 hours, an 18×24 ratio movie poster in .jpg/.png format, and a synopsis under 300 characters.   For filmmakers looking to submit shorts, they can range from…

Drunken recall can be a bit messy, can’t it? Well, the upcoming horror comedy Buzzkill intends to crank that concept up to 11. This Tubi Original is directed by Jem Garrard (R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead) from a script by Suzanne Keilly (2021’s Slumber Party Massacre).  Buzzkill stars Siena Agudong (Sidelined: The QB and Me), Brec Bassinger (Final Destination: Bloodlines), and Aliyah’s Interlude (English Teacher). It follows a group of sorority sisters who become trapped with a murderer. Their only chance at survival is Nora’s (Agudong) tipsy memories, which hold the clues to identifying who killed their friends. The problem is she…

Buffy Summers is back! This time in Polly Pocket form! That’s right, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been given the pocket-sized treatment, and it could not be cuter. This upcoming playset will include figures of the core Scoobies: Buffy, Willow, and Xander. Along with a mini stake weapon and a Vampyr book accessory that can be held by the micro figures. Fans can have them reenact iconic scenes at either Sunnydale High or Restfield Cemetery. The school setting contains the library and classrooms for secret planning sessions. Restfield’s setting has headstones for Tara, Joyce Summers, and Buffy. The slayer’s grave…

Filmmaker Addison Binek has been hard at work shooting the sequel to his second cult hit, Magnum Opus: The .MOVie. His follow-up, Magnum Opus Presents: Magnum Foodus, is moving into the final stages of filming. Now, Binek is teasing a huge finale starring Bill Weeden (Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.). Magnum Opus: The .MOVie is described as Boyhood meets Jackass, following the director and his friends as they do sometimes dangerous stunts. This film starts as a group of preteen boys slowly morphs into teens and young adults. Since the bulk of this was shot in the 90s/early 2000s, the film becomes…

The Vietnamese found-footage horror film Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion took theaters by storm upon its release. Now, thanks to Mockingbird Pictures, the film will be hitting select AMC, Regal, and Cinemark locations in North America. Directed by Hùng Trần, the story is based on an urban legend about the alleged haunting of the Hứa family mansion.   A group of young streamers forces their way into the notorious Hứa family estate, obviously looking to rake in views. However, they get more than they bargained for when a malevolent force decides to awaken. Legend has it that the estate is haunted…

Welcome back to another Art History Uncensored. Last week we briefly mentioned Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 film Possession among the other movies deemed video nasties. The thing is, the controversy surrounding Possession, like many other films mentioned in that article, needs much more explanation than we could give it there. So this week we’ll be diving into Żuławski’s heavily censored masterpiece to try to see why it may have been banned. Possession The film stars Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill playing Anna and Mark, a married couple living in West Berlin during the Cold War. When Anna (Adjani) asks for a…

This article is going to very briefly discuss the topic of suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing a crisis or may try to harm themselves, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. We’re back with another edition of Urban Legend: Fact or Fiction. In this chapter, we are going to look at the viral rumor that the late actor/comedian Robin Williams had a contract rider that required each of his projects to hire 10 homeless people.  In 2014, the world lost Williams when he tragically took his own life. After his passing, a…