The 2010s felt like a banner decade for the horror genre. It’s difficult to say that definitively as time is the only thing that can really make that distinction, but as the decade comes to a close, it feels like one that is going to be held up as a “golden era.”

READ MORE: The 25 Best Foreign Language Horror Movies Of All Time

It’s easy to understand why. After a decade filled with remakes, cheap, careless gunk from the likes of Dark Castle and Platinum Dunes, and the “torture porn” movement that metastasized from taking the extreme violence out of the “French New Extremity” (at least in mainstream horror), audiences were yearning for something more adventurous, and filmmakers were more than happy to oblige.

Continue reading The Best Horror Movies Of The Decade [2010s] at The Playlist.

Timothée Chalamet is one of the hottest stars in film today. And no, that has nothing to do with his looks, although he is awfully dreamy. But I digress. Over the course of his relatively short career, Chalamet impressed audiences and critics last year with incredible performances in “Lady Bird” and “Call Me By Your Name.” The latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination.

Continue reading Timothée Chalamet Reveals He “Wept For Hours” After Audition For ‘White Boy Rick’ & Talks Other Missed Roles at The Playlist.

Welcome to #FlashbackFriday, where we look at past moments with filmmakers, actors, etc. and highlight something in cinema history that’s fascinating, amusing, perhaps something you never knew or have seen, you name it.

As we approach the end of the first week of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, we thought it would be appropriate to share a special Cannes clip for this week’s #FlashbackFriday. In the clip, we see filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn questioned about the famously mixed reactions that his film “The Neon Demon” received two years ago.

Continue reading Nicolas Winding Refn Discusses Reviews Of ‘The Neon Demon’ In Classic Cannes Press Conference at The Playlist.

Nicolas Winding Refn has never hid the fact that music has greatly inspired him as a filmmaker, and that carries through to his latest effort, the glossy fashion-world horror “The Neon Demon.” While the score has been available for a while now, Refn is about to release something special for fans of the film: a collection of songs that helped inspire him during the creation of the film.

READ MORE: The 30 Best Film Scores & Soundtracks Of 2016

Milan Records is teaming up with Refn to release “The Wicked Die Young” on vinyl.

Continue reading Nicolas Winding Refn Releasing ‘The Wicked Die Young’ Vinyl Soundtrack Compilation Of Songs That Inspired ‘The Neon Demon’ at The Playlist.

Maybe it was just because it provided a respite from the year’s most terrifying drama, “American Horror Story: The 2016 Presidential Election,” but the past 12 months have been unusually good for the horror movie. In a year where franchise after franchise underperformed, horror films remained a consistent draw in multiplexes, and for the most part with new original movies rather than the umpteenth sequel or reboot of “Friday The 13th,” “Saw” or “Paranormal Activity.”

Away from mainstream theaters, there was great stuff too, whether it was Netflix getting into the scary game with a pair of excellent low-key chillers, A24 having their biggest hit ever with a Sundance fave, a couple of inventive Korean pics, or arthouse crossovers drawing on fears from Iran and Portugal.

Continue reading The 15 Best Horror Films Of 2016 at The Playlist.

As we slowly and eagerly await the end of a year that history will squint back on forever, we can take some solace in knowing that it hasn’t been completely devoid of good things. And if you’ve been following our marathon year-end coverage from the beginning of December, which course you have been, you know of what we speak. Today we finally zero in on the element that best illuminates the unassailable power of the silver screen — cinematography.

Continue reading The Best Cinematography Of 2016 at The Playlist.

There’s an old saying at the Playlist Mansion: you do not truly know a person until you’ve asked them to chose the one film they feel was most overrated and the one they feel was most underrated in any given year. It’s not very catchy. But it is a credo with a surprising amount of wisdom in it, as well as the welcome potential for our beloved, esteemed and generally faultless contributors to make complete public fools of themselves.

Continue reading The Most Overrated & Underrated Films Of 2016 at The Playlist.

It’s been something of a mixed year for movies in some ways — a fairly sparse first half of the year, including the worst blockbuster season in living memory, followed by an absolutely rammed fall season that, even more than most, has seen a wealth of pleasures in movie theaters. But one thing for sure is that it’s been a really great year for music and the movies (and yes, .)

READ MORE: 11-Minute Video Essay Listens To The Power Of A Film’s Score

Perhaps appropriately for a year where a musical looks to be the Oscar front-runner, we’ve had all kinds of wonderful scores and soundtracks, from a young composer turning the biopic on its head to an instantly iconic Netflix synthpop score, from a blast of original hip-hop from a little-seen indie to some unusually convincing comedy songs from some ex-SNLers.

Continue reading The 30 Best Film Scores & Soundtracks Of 2016 at The Playlist.

We have a love/hate relationship with movie trailers (don’t even get Kevin started on teaser trailers), that is, we love to talk about how much we hate them. But they’re an unavoidable fact of the business, and while we try not to feed the beast of pre-trailer teasers and trailer release date hype, we can’t ignore that our trailer posts are among the best performing parts of our news coverage – we might dislike them in general, you might dislike them in general, but apparently most of us watch them.

Continue reading The 20 Best Movie Trailers Of 2016 at The Playlist.

Well, would you look at the date? It’s the first of December, which means we’re going to start looking back on all the great stuff 2016 has brought to us at the movies. And like the considerate film lovers we are, it’s a process we’re kicking off in gentle, colorful style by running down the best in movie posters.

Since we’re not limited to films that have already opened, just to posters that have appeared since January, there are a couple of teasers for films not yet playing included below.

Continue reading The 20 Best Movie Posters Of 2016 at The Playlist.

December is almost here, which means top ten lists are going to start coming hard, but few of the them will be as eclectic as the one from Cahiers du Cinema. The cinephile publication always goes its own way (Nanni Moretti‘s “Mia Madre” was their best film of 2015, for example), but this year, few will disagree or question their top pick.

Maren Ade‘s critically acclaimed “Toni Erdmann” came out victorious, and hopefully that will put the movie on a few more radars as it gears up to open in limited release next month.

Continue reading Cahiers Du Cinema’s Top 10 Films Of 2016 at The Playlist.

There were few films as polarizing to audiences and critics this year as Nicolas Winding Refn’s “The Neon Demon.” However, this writer was still haunted by the visual and musical wonder for weeks after first seeing it at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. As awards season heats up Amazon Studios smartly wants to give one man responsible for that experience, composer Cliff Martinez, his due.

Continue reading Exclusive: Nicolas Winding Refn, Cliff Martinez On The ‘Sci-Fi’ Feel Of ‘Neon Demon’s’ Music at The Playlist.

Sexy, sleazy, audacious and thrilling, Nicolas Winding Refn‘s “The Neon Demon” is a glossy fashion-world fable the way only he could tell. And if you missed his glitter-filled picture on the big screen this summer, we’ve got some Blu-ray copies of the movie for some lucky readers.

READ MORE: Cannes Review: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Spectacular, Gross & Delicious ‘The Neon Demon’ With Elle Fanning

Starring Elle Fanning, Karl Glusman, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Christina Hendricks, and Keanu Reeves, the horror-thriller flick is set in the highly competitive and often vicious world of fashion modeling, where the term “eat their own” takes on a decidedly new meaning.

Continue reading Contest: Win Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘The Neon Demon’ On Blu-ray at The Playlist.

The Hollywood gender divide isn’t exclusive to acting or directing; there is a serious gap in the world of cinematography, notwithstanding some of the boundless, triumphant work that has been created by women in the past decade (and then some). For every Roger Deakins or Emmanuel Lubezki there’s a Reed Morano or a Maryse Alberti, women who have shot some of the most notoriously beautiful and breathtaking films, yet you, and even this author alike, perhaps didn’t know about all of them.

Continue reading The Extraordinary Vision Of 12 Essential Female Cinematographers at The Playlist.

September is here, and the fall film festivals have started —check out our Venice coverage so far, and our Telluride coverage starts tomorrow and TIFF next week. Nevertheless, the days are getting shorter and the temperature a little cooler, so it’s time to look back on 2016’s moviegoing summer.

In most respects, it was a bad one. Most tentpoles disappointed, and unusually, it seemed that most underperformed at the box office (though it’s interesting to note that total box office is up about 3% from last year, thanks to a few monster hits).

Continue reading The Winners & Losers Of The 2016 Summer Movie Season at The Playlist.

Have you been bored with most movies this summer? Does it feel like things in the film world are changing, but not necessarily towards better movies? Well, Adjust Your Tracking is back, and we share your anxieties. We don’t really have a traditional review in this installment: While we fit in some thoughts on “Swiss Army Man,” the Sundance conversation starter in which Paul Dano‘s character encounters a new friend, namely Daniel Radcliffe‘s rotting, farting (and so much more) corpse, this show is primarily concerned with a state of the industry discussion.

Continue reading Podcast: Adjust Your Tracking Talks ‘Swiss Army Man’ & The (Dismal) State Of This Year’s Summer Movies at The Playlist.

There were few films as divisive at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as Nicolas Winding Refn‘s glittery, ghoulish “The Neon Demon.” But few films survive that kind of scrutiny and leave the Croisette with just as much buzz and anticipation as it had going in. So it seemed logical that Amazon Studios and their theatrical distribution partner on this picture, Broad Green, would strike while the iron is hot and bring the movie into cinemas not long after its much-covered debut.

Continue reading Alex Ross Perry Says ‘The Neon Demon’ Is “A Masterpiece,” Calls Out Flawed Indie Movie Distribution at The Playlist.

Nicolas Winding Refn has turned into a total cinematic enigma. If his earlier films such as “Drive,” “Pusher,” and “Bronson” had critics on his side, his last two features have split the cinematic world in half and left many audience members in total and utter puzzlement.

Refn followed up “Drive,” his greatest critical and commercial triumph, with “Only God Forgives,” a very black, nearly abstract piece of work that came out as his own bloody, twisted version of Stephen Frears’ 1990 classic “The Grifters.” It was perverse art-action and again starred “Drive” lead Ryan Gosling.

Continue reading “Seeing Is Understanding”: Nicolas Winding Refn Talks Cinema, Sight, And ‘The Neon Demon’ at The Playlist.

Your chance to see Nicolas Winding Refn‘s “The Neon Demon” on the big screen — where it really deserves to be seen — is probably dwindling, as the movie flopped pretty hard when it opened last weekend. And even though I can’t say the movie is a success, it’s worth paying a ticket for at the multiplex for the imagery alone, and to hear Cliff Martinez‘s great score on supersized sound system.

Continue reading Check Out The Gorgeous Opening Credits For ‘The Neon Demon,’ Plus Alternate Poster, Podcast Talk, And More at The Playlist.

“The Neon Demon” opened last weekend and performed rather poorly at the box office, but there’s still a lot to discuss about the film and its director, Nicolas Winding Refn. That’s where Joe von Appen and myself step in on this latest episode of Adjust Your Tracking. Most of the podcast is spent discussing Refn’s latest (and, appropriate for his typically divisive work, you’ll find us more negative towards the film then most other Playlisters), where his career can go from here and in the back half of the show we even dig into spoilers and what the film is trying to say.

Continue reading Podcast: Does Good Or Bad Really Matter? Adjust Your Tracking Bites Into Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘The Neon Demon’ at The Playlist.

There is no compromise when it comes to the vision of Nicolas Winding Refn. The director has created a body of work that’s distinctly singular, and makes no attempt to reach a pre-conceived audience. Rather, the filmmaker asks audiences to give themselves over to an experience, and they are often rewarded with bold movies presenting stories that you simply won’t find anywhere else. And that’s true of “The Neon Demon,” now in playing in theaters, which stars Elle Fanning as a young ingenue who enters the modeling world and quickly becomes the envy of everyone around her.

Continue reading Nicolas Winding Refn Discusses Fear, Horror & Beauty In Our 45-Minute Talk About ‘The Neon Demon’ at The Playlist.

While audiences keep asking for original movies from visionary directors, when they get delivered, no one seems to bother. You would think that the incredible buzz around Nicolas Winding Refn‘s bonkers “The Neon Demon” might generate some box office heat, but it utterly flopped this past weekend, making it a particularly high-profile disappointment for Amazon and Broad Green Pictures. And even composer Cliff Martinez, once again collaborating with the filmmaker, reveals that expectations were certainly high in an interview given before the film’s release.

Continue reading Listen To Cliff Martinez’s Full Score For Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘The Neon Demon’ at The Playlist.

Intellectual property is a tricky thing in Hollywood. It’s really all the studios want to make, whether it’s an adaptation of a well-known video game, a remake, a comic book property, a popular, best-selling book or some form of branded entertainment. I.P. drives Hollywood and informs nearly all of its decisions. But as 2016 has shown, I.P. isn’t performing well, at least in the U.S. See: “Warcraft,”“Independence Day: Resurgence,” “Alice In Wonderland: Through The Looking Glass,” “Snow White And The Huntsman,” “X-Men: Apocalypse” and most likely this weekend, “Tarzan.”

READ MORE: How Summer 2016 Could Rock Hollywood’s Confidence In Franchises & Sequels

But while some filmmakers flirt with I.P., director Nicolas Winding Refn being one of them, not all directors stick it through.

Continue reading Nicolas Winding Refn Suggests ‘Barbarella’ Show Isn’t Happening; Admits To Meetings About ‘Bond’ & ‘Wonder Woman’ at The Playlist.

Despite having flirted with the idea several times — a “Logan’s Run” remake, a Harrison Ford movie, “The Equalizer” — Nicolas Winding Refn has yet to make a proper Hollywood studio movie. “Drive” came closest, though was still an independent film, and he returned to L.A. for this past weekend’s “The Neon Demon” (which just opened wide to semi-disastrous effects), but a true mainstream breakthrough is yet to come for the provocative Dane.

Continue reading Nicolas Winding Refn Says He Wants To Direct A ‘Batgirl’ Movie, Watch A 30-Min Interview With The ‘Neon Demon’ Director at The Playlist.

Keeping the movie out of reach of most critics, 20th Century Fox could already see the writing on the wall about “Independence Day: Resurgence,” but the final numbers have confirmed what happens when you make a sequel to a movie starring Will Smith without Will Smith.

READ MORE: The Uninspired ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ Is Recycled, Disjointed Mush [Review]

‘Resurgence’ brought mega-destruction to cinemas to the tune of $41 million, falling behind the $50 million opening weekend haul of the original “Independence Day.” This may be a signal that director Roland Emmerich‘s particular brand of blockbuster moviemaking is now somewhat passé.

Continue reading ‘Finding Dory’ Keeps Swimming, Stays Ahead Of ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ [Box Office] at The Playlist.