EDITORIAL: Hearing Fear: Why Music is Half the Battle in Horror Movies

Horror films rely heavily on sound and music to set the tone. The film score and soundtrack of a horror movie can make or break its capacity to strike fear into the hearts of audiences. The catharsis of a horror film—the death of an antagonist or the sudden revival of a monster—is nothing without the protracted, eerie build up throughout a film. Music matters in horror arguably more than it does in any other film genre. If you want to get over a movie that traumatized you in the past, try watching it with the sound muted. But if you want to keep the fear alive, brace yourself and turn the volume all the way up.

2019, Column, Editorial, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 15, 2019Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" YouTube channel talking "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood"

Huge kudos go out to Ian Simmons of the Kicking the Seat podcast for diving into the realm of YouTube! Enjoy Ian, David Fowlie of Keeping It Reel and Emmanuel Noisette of E-Man’s Movie Reviews, and swim across the 1960s and your very screen talking about Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood. It’s Ian’s inaugural YouTube round table. If you’ve always thought our podcasts sounded fun with us picking on points and each other, now you get to watch our obnoxious repartee. Enjoy this new video!

Media Appearance, Podcast, Social Media, SPECIAL, 2019Don ShanahanAugust 8, 2019Music Box TheatreKicking the SeatComment

INFOGRAPHIC: Which British Actors Guarantee Box Office Success?

British actors are making a name for themselves by starring in some of the most popular Hollywood releases. But, with all of the leading roles they take, what makes one actor more successful than the other? Which British actor guarantees box office success? The good people at Money Guru have crunched the numbers, analyzing which British actors offer the best Return On Investment (ROI) based on their box office sales as a leading actor and the respective film budgets. These are the stars that offer the biggest earnings, and the results will likely surprise you.

2019, Column, Editorial, Infographic, LIST, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 7, 2019Comment

GUEST EDITORIAL: 10 Mistakes to Avoid While Writing a Movie Review

by Daniela McVicker

Movie review writing mistakes can be very sneaky. They can slip into great movie reviews and can happen even to the best writers. A seemingly irrelevant mistake can corrupt a perfectly good movie review. If you want to write something that stands out and gives the reader relevant information, you should stay away from common mistakes and clichés. Knowing the following mistakes to avoid will make it easier for you to create an amazing movie review.

2019, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 7, 2019Comment

INFOGRAPHIC: Who is the Most Villainous Actress of All-Time?

Bellatrix Lestrange, Mystique and Cruella de Vil. All familiar names with movie buffs and filmgoers alike due to their cunning, cruelty and villainousness. One of the greatest female baddies, Maleficent, is due to return to cinema screens in October in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Played by Angelina Jolie, her character is a powerful fairy who curses the King’s daughter. That got the folks at Casino Kings thinking, who is the most villainous actress of all time? To find out, Casino Kings have trawled through over 1,000 movie bios and storylines to find the most villainous movie actress of all-time.

2019, Column, Editorial, GUEST EDITORIAL, Infographic, LIST, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 7, 2019Comment

INFOGRAPHIC: Disney Originals vs. Live-Action Remakes: Which is better?

We love our animated Disney classics—but the live-action interpretations have been met with mixed feelings. A more cynical person might say Disney is afraid to get creative with new stories, and these films are a terrific money-grubbing ploy. But at HowtoWatch.com, we wanted to see how fans and critics felt these remakes live up to the originals. HowToWatch brought in fan ratings from IMDb and critic ratings from Metacritic for the original animated films and their live-action reimaginings. After giving fan and critic ratings equal weight, here’s how the movies compared.

2019, Column, Editorial, Infographic, LIST, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 6, 2019Comment

GUEST EDITORIAL: 9 Iconic Movie Soundtracks to Learn on the Piano

Behind every great film is a meticulously planned soundtrack. Good soundtracks can make mediocre films unforgettable and bad ones can undermine stellar writing and performances. A soundtrack can build tension, establish characterization or even be part of the plot. Being nerds who spend most of our time in our basements, the folks at Jellynote LOVE a good soundtrack as it combines the two things we enjoy most in the world: music and living vicariously through other people. To celebrate the importance of the film soundtrack, they’ve compiled a list of our favorite soundtracks of all time and provided sheet music so you can have a go at playing them!

2019, Editorial, LIST, SPECIAL, Social MediaDon ShanahanAugust 6, 2019Comment

INFOGRAPHIC: Drive to a Kill: The most deadly James Bond vehicles and drivers

With a new James Bond film around the corner, the 25th in the iconic super-spy series, the folks at Leasing Options looked back over the entire franchise and delve into the stats to see which film, actor and most importantly, car, was the most deadly. To do this, they’ve been through all the Bond films multiple times and totaled how many kills, crashes and explosions, among other things, were caused by 007 whilst behind the wheel of a vehicle. Leasing Options have compiled all that data into one handy interactive piece called, Drive To A Kill. So, what did they discover when looking back through the films?

2019, Column, Editorial, Infographic, LIST, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 3, 2019Comment

EDITORIAL: How game developers use movies to attract players

Many conglomerate corporations have piggybacked on hypes that accompany the latest blockbuster film throughout the years from supermarkets, to clothing companies, home-ware stores and many, many more. In fact, in the UK alone, 8 out 10 people own a promotional product of some kind from a business, so it’s not surprising that the Slot game industry have jumped on the film industry bandwagon to promote their slot games and keep people coming back again and again, even when they keep losing money. Let’s take a further look into how the slot game industry are utilizing movies to promote slot games

2019, Column, Editorial, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanAugust 3, 2019Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on July 29, 2019

THIS WEEK'S QUESTION: What is the best Quentin Tarantino movie and why?

Friends and followers of my work and opinions on social media know that I differentiate “favorite” from “best.” Favorites are personal and very subjective. The things that are best tend to have a few more objective qualities and victories going for them. Sometimes a movie is both. For Quentin Tarantino, that’s not the case for me, but it’s close. My personal favorite is Jackie Brown. I love seeing what QT does within the boundaries of material that’s not his own, which, for me, shows more range that his absolute best self-made stuff. The best-of-the-best, though, is still an easy pick.

Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIAL, 2019Don ShanahanJuly 30, 2019David EhrlichComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on July 22, 2019

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION: What is the best ever horror performance and how did it leverage the genre to accomplish something that might not have been possible in a more grounded type of film?

Horror is not my cup of tea, coffee, cocktail, or even water, and I didn’t see Midsommar which inspired this week’s survey question, but I have dipped my toe in enough good and classic horror to pick out a great performance or two. I’ve seen no one unravel under the fictional stresses better than Mia Farrow in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby.

Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIAL, 2019Don ShanahanJuly 23, 2019David EhrlichComment

COLUMN: 5 Upcoming Epic Movies To Watch This Summer

It is again that time of the year when you are trying to take a break from the heat and look for a way to cool off. While some people enjoy drinking cocktails at the pool or escaping in the mountains, there is no doubt that cinema lovers just like you, are constantly refreshing their Netflix pages. Now that you have already watched the Avengers: Endgame, John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum, and Toy Story 4, don't despair, there are a lot of other epic movies that are just around the corner.

2019, Column, Editorial, LIST, Social MediaDon ShanahanJuly 19, 2019Comment