Elizabeth Olsen to vomit green slime

Another day, another announcement of a franchise needlessly yanked, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. This time – and seeing that horror’s rather fashionable at the moment – it’s the turn of the 1973 classic The Exorcist. But wait! Before you let out that hangdog, undone sigh and bemoan the state of the universe you might want to reflect on the finer details.

Harald Zwart, while speaking about his adaptation of young adult fantasy novel The Mortal Instruments, has cited The Exorcist and the original version of The Thing as influences. Zwart says he thinks it’s good for kids to be scared, and I agree to some extent. Children use films to explore feeling. Fear, loss, confusion; they’re all up on screens from the get go. But Zwart’s desire to scare seems too outspoken, too full-frontal for a children’s tale.

To celebrate Hallowe’en, the good folks at Rakuten’s Play.com spent a huge amount of time and money faffing around with heart monitors and spooky DVDs to decide what the scariest film ever was. They decided, and then we sent Duncan along to watch it. It’s Abattoir Blues, but with more infographics than usual…

The Conjuring is, in its basest form, a ghost story. And, while ghost stories are usually pretty terrifying, in their own little way, there’s USUALLY a get-out clause of some kind. Haunted houses, for example, are just that; haunted houses. Ghost stays in, you run outside screaming and bag yourself a room at the local…

Returning to LA to visit friend and Knocked Up co-star Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel is looking forward to a quiet night in. Upon his arrival, however, he learns that they have been invited to a party at James Franco’s new house, and, reluctantly, accompanies Rogen across town. Before he can convince his friend to take…

For about the last two years, BFF stalwart Duncan has been talking about writing a column – and, thanks to Evil Dead remaker Fede Alvarez, he’s finally pulled his finger out and done it. Abattoir Blues will be creeping out of BFF’s cellar twice a month to shine a torch into the murky corners of horror, and where better to start than with the wholly unnecessary redux of 1981’s most plant-rapey gorefest? Turn down the lights and read on…

Dark Skies had so much potential to be a truly terrifying invasion film but, thanks to the stilted dialogue, cliched lines and unimaginative alien, it has fallen short of “out of this world” and become a semi-enjoyable (yet ultimately forgettable) popcorn flick instead…

Boxing Day at its best.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a horror movie with a domestic gross amounting to a small fortune must be in line for a string of sequels of ever-diminishing quality. Almost all of them are terrible, being licenses to print money and all. But every now and then, by some strange alchemy, one of them.. isn’t. Here are five of our favorites, and one that we’re clearly over thinking.