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CNET
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNET
This Movie Is So '80s It Practically Bleeds Static -- and It's Free on Tubi
There's something about vintage horror that gets under my skin in the best way. The grainy visuals, the eerie synth soundtracks, the slow-building tension all feels so much more unsettling than flashy modern jump scares. Lately, I've noticed a lot of horror films diving back into that '80s vibe, but not all of them pull it off. The House of the Devil absolutely does. From the first scene, it feels like you've stumbled onto an old VHS tape in the best possible way. Ti West doesn't just borrow from the era, but he fully commits to it. The pacing, the atmosphere, the film grain,it's all there, and it works. It's not just style for nostalgia's sake. It's a slow-burn indie horror that taps into the kind of dread that sticks with you long after the credits roll. You can watch it for free on Tubi (which is one of the best places to find weird, wonderful horror right now). If you're into suspense-driven scares with that old-school flavor, this one's a must-watch. The movie follows Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), a college student desperate for cash who takes a babysitting job in a creepy old mansion. She soon discovers she's dealing with a much different charge than a child when she arrives on site. As she's left alone for the night, she orders a pizza and cues up a flick on TV, while the dread builds incrementally and the audience settles in for something horrific. The House of the Devil is reminiscent of classic films like Halloween and When a Stranger Calls, but ratcheted up tenfold. From the opening credits, The House of the Devil sets the tone with a ridiculously accurate and detailed retro aesthetic. It doesn't just take place in the 1980s -- it feels like it was made then. The grainy film texture, era-appropriate costumes and hair are absolutely perfect. It's set to a curated soundtrack with tracks including The Fixx's One Thing Leads To Another and The Greg Kihn Band's The Break Up Song. The movie doesn't just feel like it's dressing up in '80s tropes, but like it was birthed from that time. The movie was shot on 16mm film, creating its specialized throwback look. It lifts cinematography straight from '80s filmmakers along with a slew of other techniques to evoke classics of the era. Everything, down to the credits, is period accurate, and I appreciated all the attention given to making sure everything matches, down to the cups at the pizza restaurant seen early in the movie. The Ulmans have a secret reason why they hired Sam to watch "Mother." MPI Movie Group/Screenshot by CNET Sam realizes something is amiss when she stumbles upon proof that the family that hired her for the babysitting job isn't the same one in the photos. Realizing she might have been deceived, she attempts a 911 call, but she's already eaten a piece of tainted pizza. She passes out just as she gets a glimpse of what exactly it is she's been hired to "babysit." The movie's path is fraught with grisly moments (just ask Sam's best friend Megan, played by Barbie director Greta Gerwig), with believably gruesome practical effects that unsettle and chill to the bone. The hideous "Mother," who Sam discovers is connected to her original job, is an example of '80s filmmaking that would have made audiences sick to their stomachs. Sam's friend Megan is not pleased at all by the situation at the Ulmans' house. MPI Movie Group/Screenshot by CNET Without spoiling the climax, The House of the Devil maintains a gnawing, upsetting sense of dread throughout its runtime. It isn't afraid to use themes of isolation, the unknown and betrayal to keep you on the edge of your seat, which I appreciated on my first viewing and only grew to love more with each rewatch. As horrific as the story is, I firmly believe that this movie wouldn't have been possible without its commitment to staying true to the era that inspired it. If you're looking for a horror movie that doesn't rely on cheap jump scares or the overwrought parable "sex is bad" with a group of teens being picked off one by one, The House of the Devil is one of the best flicks you could put on your Halloween viewing list. It brings the golden years of '80s horror to life in believable, decadent ways that'll have you squirming in your seat. I'm still unpacking the gagworthy climax, and I bet you will be too.
CNET
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
This Movie Feels Like It Escaped a VHS Tape and It's Free on Tubi
There's something about vintage horror that just hits different. The grainy visuals, the synth-heavy scores, the creeping sense of dread, it all makes the scares feel a little too real. And lately, the '80s have reclaimed their spot as horror's favorite playground. But not every throwback gets it right. That's what makes The House of the Devil such a standout. Instead of just borrowing the style, it fully immerses you in the era. Directed by Ti West, this indie horror slow-burn feels like it was plucked straight from an old VHS shelf. It's not just retro for the sake of nostalgia - it's a love letter to the decade when horror thrived on atmosphere, tension, and pure psychological terror. You can watch it for free on Tubi (which is one of the best places to find weird, wonderful horror right now). If you're into suspense-driven scares with that old-school flavor, this one's a must-watch. The movie follows Samantha (Jocelin Donahue), a college student desperate for cash who takes a babysitting job in a creepy old mansion. She soon discovers she's dealing with a much different charge than a child when she arrives on site. As she's left alone for the night, she orders a pizza and cues up a flick on TV, while the dread builds incrementally and the audience settles in for something horrific. The House of the Devil is reminiscent of classic films like Halloween and When a Stranger Calls, but ratcheted up tenfold. From the opening credits, The House of the Devil sets the tone with a ridiculously accurate and detailed retro aesthetic. It doesn't just take place in the 1980s -- it feels like it was made then. The grainy film texture, era-appropriate costumes and hair are absolutely perfect. It's set to a curated soundtrack with tracks including The Fixx's One Thing Leads To Another and The Greg Kihn Band's The Break Up Song. The movie doesn't just feel like it's dressing up in '80s tropes, but like it was birthed from that time. The movie was shot on 16mm film, creating its specialized throwback look. It lifts cinematography straight from '80s filmmakers along with a slew of other techniques to evoke classics of the era. Everything, down to the credits, is period accurate, and I appreciated all the attention given to making sure everything matches, down to the cups at the pizza restaurant seen early in the movie. The Ulmans have a secret reason why they hired Sam to watch "Mother." MPI Movie Group/Screenshot by CNET Sam realizes something is amiss when she stumbles upon proof that the family that hired her for the babysitting job isn't the same one in the photos. Realizing she might have been deceived, she attempts a 911 call, but she's already eaten a piece of tainted pizza. She passes out just as she gets a glimpse of what exactly it is she's been hired to "babysit." The movie's path is fraught with grisly moments (just ask Sam's best friend Megan, played by Barbie director Greta Gerwig), with believably gruesome practical effects that unsettle and chill to the bone. The hideous "Mother," who Sam discovers is connected to her original job, is an example of '80s filmmaking that would have made audiences sick to their stomachs. Sam's friend Megan is not pleased at all by the situation at the Ulmans' house. MPI Movie Group/Screenshot by CNET Without spoiling the climax, The House of the Devil maintains a gnawing, upsetting sense of dread throughout its runtime. It isn't afraid to use themes of isolation, the unknown and betrayal to keep you on the edge of your seat, which I appreciated on my first viewing and only grew to love more with each rewatch. As horrific as the story is, I firmly believe that this movie wouldn't have been possible without its commitment to staying true to the era that inspired it. If you're looking for a horror movie that doesn't rely on cheap jump scares or the overwrought parable "sex is bad" with a group of teens being picked off one by one, The House of the Devil is one of the best flicks you could put on your Halloween viewing list. It brings the golden years of '80s horror to life in believable, decadent ways that'll have you squirming in your seat. I'm still unpacking the gagworthy climax, and I bet you will be too.
The Independent
12-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
A24: The best of the cult studio's films ranked, from Moonlight to Lady Bird
There are few companies across the entire entertainment industry that evoke more brand loyalty than A24. Over the past decade, the hip distributor has taken the world of film fanatics by storm, releasing a host of the most acclaimed indie films in recent memory, among them Aftersun, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Midsommar, The Zone of Interest and Ti West's X trilogy. While the phrase 'an A24 film' has almost become a term with a specific set of stylistic connotations, the fact is that the company has released a multitude of different films, spanning all sorts of styles and genres. From coming-of-age comedies to sweeping period epics, here are the 15 best A24 movies ranked... 15. Climax (2018) A great workout playlist disguised as a grimy, slimy psychosexual thriller, Gaspar Noé's Climax plays out in a series of long takes (one is 42 minutes long), with a troupe of French dancers spiralling out of control after imbibing spiked sangria. Like the best of Noé's films (among them the 'stoner in film class' fave Enter the Void and the distressing Irreversible), Climax is practically designed to be divisive, and its striking mix of horror, psychedelia and pure aesthetic razzle-dazzle make it peak A24. Adam White 14. Under the Silver Lake (2018) Another divisive A24 cult classic, Under the Silver Lake tends to inspire groans as often as it does praise – and that's really OK! Filmmaker David Robert Mitchell seemed to be given creative carte blanche after the success of his 2014 micro-budget horror It Follows, and voila: a chaotic, romantic neo-noir conspiracy tale that wears its inspirations, notably Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, on its sleeve, tosses in a great fake-band song ('Turning Teeth' by the fictional Jesus & The Brides of Dracula), and boasts an irresistibly committed performance by Andrew Garfield as an aimless Los Angeleno investigating his neighbour's disappearance. What a weird, wondrous pleasure. AW 13. The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth was the first answer to the decades-old hypothetical, 'What would a Coen film be like if Joel and Ethan separated?' (The second answer was, Ethan's 2024 romp Drive-Away Dolls.) This Macbeth is a pretty compelling answer, and remains one of the best, and most cinematic, Shakespeare adaptations put to screen. Denzel Washington is magnificent as the scheming king-to-be, while Frances McDormand sizzles as his poisonous paramour. Louis Chilton 12. Eighth Grade (2018) Heartbreakingly honest when it comes to coming-of-age, Eighth Grade is anything but easy viewing. We follow young Kayla (a revelatory Elsie Fisher) as she transitions between years in school, her fears and anxieties rising to the surface while she desperately attempts to mask them. The specificities here – vlogging, iPhones, the internet – feel decidedly of the 2010s, but there's a universal melancholy to Eighth Grade that will strike a chord with audiences of any age. Shamefully, director Bo Burnham – a graduate of internet comedy – has yet to make his follow-up feature. AW 11. The Brutalist (2024) Brady Corbet's architecture epic was a frontrunner for many of the major 2025 Academy Awards, and will partially be remembered as the film that birthed the most interminable Best Actor speech of all time (Adrien Brody's). Thankfully, The Brutalist is sure to be remembered for other things too: it's a film of staggering ambition, rich in meaning and audaciously stylish. It's one of the best films A24 has released, and one of the best films in recent memory. LC 10. Janet Planet (2023) While A24 has certainly increased its commercial aspirations in the last year or two (most notably via films including Alex Garland's Civil War and indistinct horror comedies such as Death of a Unicorn and Opus), they are also a company still eager to make films like Annie Baker's tender, intimate Janet Planet. Zoe Ziegler is the quiet 11-year-old of the title, a girl trapped in a cycle of odd father figures and endless existential yearning courtesy of her mother (a spellbinding Julianne Nicholson). AW 9. Lady Bird (2017) Greta Gerwig's debut feature as a solo director is a charming and specific coming-of-age story following 17-year-old Sacramento misfit Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson (Saoirse Ronan). It's by turns funny, moving, world-wise, and wonderfully shot, with Laurie Metcalf turning in career-best work as Lady Bird's combative mother. This is the movie that really put Gerwig on the map as a filmmaker; it's no less than she deserved. LC 8. High Life (2018) High Life is an utterly unique sci-fi drama from French maestra Claire Denis. Robert Pattinson plays a prisoner on board a spaceship bound for a black hole, alongside Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth and Andre 3000. Some clunky, stylised dialogue only heightens the weirdness of this film, which is all things to all people: vibrant, tactile, philosophical, sexually perverse and even, at times, quite moving. LC 7. Hereditary (2018) Much like Robert Eggers's A24 folktale The Witch – which just missed a spot on this ranking – Hereditary felt like the birth of an incredibly special horror visionary. Ari Aster's haunting and genuinely scary feature debut revolves around a fractured family (led by Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne) seemingly cursed by ancient evil. The film travels to ghoulish places consistently, notably in a shock end-of-act-one plot twist involving a telephone pole that entirely upends where you think Hereditary is going. AW 6. 20th Century Women (2016) Mike Mills's 2016 drama is a warm hug of a film, bursting with such lived-in feeling that it wouldn't be too surprising if you burst into tears repeatedly while watching it. Annette Bening is the free-spirited yet overbearing, wise yet drifting single mother determined to raise her young son right at the tail end of the Seventies, and roping in friends and lovers to help her. AW 5. Under the Skin (2013) Jonathan Glazer boggles the mind. The British director has made just four films – each of them a masterpiece and each entirely distinct from what's come before. Under the Skin is an arthouse horror starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien who assumes the appearance of, well, Scarlett Johansson in order to lure randy Scottish men into some kind of lair. It's a completely singular piece of work, endlessly inventive and both emotionally and philosophically profound. LC 4. American Honey (2016) British filmmaker Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank; Red Road) turned her attention to US poverty with American Honey, a vivacious and poignant film about love on the road. Then-newcomer Sasha Lane is utterly transfixing as Star, a teenager who flees her home to join a band of travelling magazine hustlers. (Shia LaBeouf, as her rough-and-tumble love interest, gives an unexpectedly brilliant performance too.) There is life in every crevice of this film: a total triumph. LC 3. Moonlight (2016) It's still remarkable that Moonlight, from a then-unknown director named Barry Jenkins and a nascent film studio with only so much awards campaign money to their name, won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2017. But it's deserving of its acclaim in every frame, this being a richly human triptych of tales in the coming of age of a gay Black man from childhood to adulthood. Sensationally acted and absolutely gorgeous to look at, it's deservedly something of a modern classic at this point. AW 2. I Saw the TV Glow (2024) Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow revolves around two teenage loners drawn together by an alluring fantasy series – a Buffy -like Nineties horror hit – and finding their own lives mirroring its strange, surrealist twists. Primarily, though, it's about growing up trans, and the trauma of ultimately living a life that doesn't fit right. This is dazzling, beguiling filmmaking, Schoenbrun conjuring a dream-like suburban fantasia full of purple neon, moon men and Caroline Polacheck wailing on the soundtrack. Glorious. AW 1. Uncut Gems (2019) A film with tension so thick that you'd need a machete to cut through it, Josh and Benny Safdie's Uncut Gems is the story of Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a New York diamond dealer consumed by his chaotic gambling addiction. It's brilliant and transformative work from Sandler, in service of one of the funniest, tensest, and altogether best films the 21st century has yet produced. LC
The Guardian
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
TV tonight: it's time to meet your new favourite detective!
9pm, BBC FourThis knotty Welsh crime drama opens with a nurse heading for a romantic weekend in Paris. She is later found dead in the woods, with a heart-knot carved into a nearby tree. Enter your new favourite no-nonsense detective: Ffion Lloyd (Elen Rhys). The hotshot is called back from Cardiff to team up with ex-partner (and lover!) DS Rick Sheldon (Richard Harrington), and the pair wonder if, based on a previous murder they solved, there is a copycat killer on the loose. Hollie Richardson 5.45pm, BBC One Quarter-finalists, unleash hell! A shockwave floods the arena as a gladiator suffers their first ever Hang Tough defeat. Meanwhile, a new gladiator owns the Duel podium – and series history is made with the fastest female Eliminator yet. Ali Catterall 7.20pm, Channel 4 It's lambing season in the Yorkshire Dales. But Amanda Owen and the family already have their hands full, with drainage issues outside the barn they're renovating. There's some good news ahead, though: news from planners promises big renovation dreams (which also means even more work). HR 8.15pm, ITV1 Pop bombshell Sabrina Carpenter will dazzle the stage at this year's Brits, where she's up for international artist and song of the year. The Last Dinner Party and Teddy Swims will also perform live, with Jack Whitehall returning to host for the fifth time. But all eyes will be on chief Brat Charli XCX, who has five nominations. HR 8.30pm, Channel 5 Portillo's new six-part travel series around Portugal starts in its second biggest city, beautiful Porto. In the Bolhão neighbourhood, he eats with local 'tripeiros' – tripe eaters, that is – before crossing the Douro River to visit a port lodge. He also learns about Porto's industrial revolution and discovers illegally built houses. HR 9.20pm, BBC One Episode two of the Peaky Blinders-ish drama about female hustlers in post-first world war Soho. Having crossed the Salucci family, Billie (Umi Myers) fears reprisals from the 'criminally insane' gangsters. Elsewhere, rookie copper Violet (Eliza Scanlen) puts on an impressive performance as she goes undercover. Hannah J Davies MaXXXine (Ti West, 2024), 9.45pm, Sky Cinema Premiere There's more than a touch of Brian De Palma to this gloriously febrile mix of sex and stardom, religion and death. The third (and last?) in Ti West's X series of retro gorefests, this sequel again features the unstoppable Mia Goth as preacher's daughter turned porn star Maxine Minx. Trying to put the bloodbath of the first film behind her, Maxine is determined to go 'legit' with a role in hot director Elizabeth Bender's (Elizabeth Debecki) new horror flick. But a serial killer who knows about her past is on the loose in Hollywood … SW Champions Trophy Cricket: South Africa v England, 8.30am, Sky Sports Main Event The Group B match in Cup Football: Crystal Palace v Millwall, noon, BBC One The fifth-round match from Selhurst Park. Preston v Burnley is on the iPlayer and Red Button. Man City v Plymouth is on ITV4 at Open Darts, 12.45pm, ITV4 Day two from Butlin's Minehead. Super League Rugby: Wakefield v St Helens, 2.25pm, BBC Two Followed by Wigan v Warrington on Sky Sports Main Event at 8.30pm.
