Halloween - That time of year where we celebrate our love of cult horror movies in place of whatever actual significance this spooky holiday originally held. Odds are most fancy dress parties this year will be populated by cobbled together outfits of genre icons. While it’s reassuring to see the films that terrified us all growing up get the attention they so deserve, the future of would-be-cult-classics could be in peril. It’s not an output issue - dodgy horror films are being made faster than ever these days but the way they reach us has changed dramatically. 

Think back. The majority of movie-fans will no doubt have fond memories of spending countless hours perusing the shelves of pokey, family run video rental stores. Sure, they were filled with cigarette smoke and pretty much always out of copies of the video you came in to rent but they provided great exposure to titles you wouldn’t get a chance to see otherwise. Movies had a harder time grabbing your attention back then too. There was no internet on which to drip-feed promo clips of your low budget indie horror. Filmmakers had to pump all their efforts into crafting artwork worthy of catching your eye. 

Today, audiences don’t seem to have the same patience or sense of discovery. For every Stranger Things-sized hit released on Netflix, there’s probably another ten or so just as inventive indie horrors dwelling in its dark streaming depths. Despite being faced with a seemingly neverending abundance of choice, it feels as though viewers are actually watching less these days. It’s a strange counterintuitive turn, perhaps brought on by people wanting to use the little free time they have wisely and in turn choosing a show everyone’s talking about instead of taking a chance on something new. 

Nothing wrong with that on the surface, however with your desired content delivered straight to your eyeballs with minimal fuss the shows that go ignored, stay ignored. Chance encounters, just like those you experienced back in Blockbusters a decade or more ago, may now be a thing of the past. Remember when you picked up that cool looking VHS on the bottom row after an hour of searching and it became one of your so-bad-it’s-great all time faves? Savour it. It’s unlikely to happen again. 

This blog is now on Nerdly.co.uk, take a look here!

Do you miss the days of video rental stores? Let me know in the comments below!

2017 is a weird place to live. Pretty, pretty weird. Just look at what it’s done to ace telly show Curb Your Enthusiasm. Back when it debuted in October 2000, us fresh-faced nice folk were completely different people. Larry David’s fictionalised version of Larry David was a breath of fresh air. Here was a guy who was unafraid to say everything we wanted to say but were just a little too polite and bounded by social graces to actually blurt it out. His awkwardly accurate encounters in coffee shops, waiting rooms and carparks became a weird form of therapy. Larry David was a vent through which all of us could exhale a nice big chorus of ‘Fucking yes, right?!’.

Cut to today and things are very different. Larry’s back on our screens for a so-far stellar ninth season and is as abrasive as ever but his shrewd attitude and brutal honesty seem to have lost some of their shock impact. It’s not his fault though. As the ad campaign for this new slew of episodes rightly points out, Larry’s not changed at all since we last saw him. It’s us. We’re the ones that have changed - or more accurately have been changed over time by social media.

It seems we no longer need that loud mouth advocate for saying whatever the hell you want regardless of the consequences because we all carry around with us the power to do just that every day in our pockets. Notice something you don’t agree with but has nothing at all to do with you? Send a tweet. Catch someone out in an online lie? Those 140 characters are just waiting to be filled. Fancy getting into a heated debate with a complete stranger that’ll quickly turn into a vicious shouting match? Easy, just whip out your phone! You really don’t have to look far to see the shift of power.

Social media, most notably Twitter, has turned us all into angry little Larry Davids, all eager to fire our opinions at others regardless of whether or not we were ever asked for them in the first place. Sadly, our Larry-ness ends there. If you’re looking for some Curb-like humour or morals to tie up these ugly online excursions into a nice neat bow you’re going to be scrolling for a long time. Like some Black Mirror B-Side episode, in reality we don’t come across a fraction as endearing as the real Larry David and as for making it to nine seasons? Forget about it. Perhaps we’d be better returning this power to its rightful owner because it’s a bad situation to be in. Pretty, pretty bad.

This blog is now on Nerdly.co.uk, take a look here!

Do you think social media has made us better or worse? Let me know in the comments below! 

With Thor: Ragnarok, Marvel has once again flipped the tempo of their long-running superhero saga by recruiting someone not known for world-saving action epics. It’s yet-another smart move from the studio giant, especially if all those glowing early reactions are anything to go by. Asgard’s family drama may have reached Jeremy Kyle-like proportions but through the lens of Kiwi filmmaker Taika Waititi and his kitchen-sink adlib comedic style, the whole thing feels fresher than ever. It’s a small tweak to the formula and undeniably a bit of a gamble but looking back at the ups and downs of the superhero movie perhaps it’s a sign of something far more important. Could comedy be the secret ingredient behind the longevity of the entire genre? 

It’s far from an unbelievable thought. Laughs certainly have had their place within the world of capes and tights, providing a much-needed escape from the more-often-than-not dark and gritty route these films can take. When used properly, comedy has even helped the superhero genre transcend to new heights and break new ground. Just look at Tim Miller’s surprise smash Deadpool - a movie once deemed too much of a risk to realise that went on to prove what we all already knew - that audiences want a hero that can drop F-bombs just as easily as they drop maniacal baddies bent on global destruction. 

Miller’s ‘Merc with a Mouth’ movie may have officially set the bar but switching things up with the help of a few belly laughs - and the filmmakers that specialise in them - has clearly been the key to Marvel’s continued success. It helped them hit the ground running with Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr as they kept things loose with billionaire Tony Stark, it made us care about a ragtag group of largely unknown heroes in James Gunn’s addictive Guardians of the Galaxy and it let their rendition of Spidey come out swinging with a web-load of laughs. 

Compare this track record to the rocky output of studio rival DC and the importance of humour becomes all the more apparent. Sure, in the right hands a little deft and dark storytelling can make for an unforgettable superhero experience (The Dark Knight, we’re looking at you) but there’s only so many pensive looks, slow-motion action shots and movies helmed by the same Zack Snyder-shaped director an audience can take. Comic book movies seem to work far better when they prioritise laughter over layers, both onscreen and off. Forget God-like Kryptonians, rogue mutants or magical hammers, the real hero here of this genre is humour. 

This blog is now on Nerdly.co.uk, take a look here!

Are Infinity Stones more important than humour to superheroes? Let me know what you think in the comments section below!

The jury’s in. The debate’s over. In fact, there was no debate, just a whole load of common sense. If you’re in a cinema, you can’t really justify being on your mobile phone. That’s that. It’s time to face facts when it comes to those who choose a dark room in which to check their empty inbox or send cat memes to their mates. If you’ve made the decision to leave the comfort of your own home in favor of a multiplex or indie screening room, then you’ve temporarily lost the ability to constantly check that mini-torch you keep in your pocket. Sorry about that. 

Actually, is sorry the right word? Surely it’s not that much to ask. Two hours of your undivided attention in exchange for something you’ve voluntarily paid money to see in a venue that comes with a few specific social rules? You wouldn’t visit a library to try out your new fog horn yet when it comes to mobile phones and cinemas, people seem to think they’re the exception to the rule. Maybe it’s a generational thing. Maybe it’s a terrifying sign of how knackered our attention spans have become. Either way, it’s an irritating trait that shows no sign of going anywhere.  

Cinemas do little to battle it. While multiplexes go all infrared black-ops policing would-be picture pirates, they seem considerably less bothered about doing anything about this regular experience-ruiner. Some have even gone so for as to question whether or not it’s even a bad thing, with AMC head-honcho Adam Aron suggesting the chain launch ‘texting friendly’ screenings - a desperate attempt to keep paying punters on seats that instead sounds like a worrying lack of understanding of their own core audience. 

Thankfully, some venues lead by example. Like die-hard film hub The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas. These guys have a pretty no-bullshit approach when it comes to mid-film distractions. “If you are a person who likes to talk, text or use your cell phone during a movie, we are not the place for you!” explains their website, shortly before stating that all offenders will be unceremoniously booted. 

It’s hard to have much sympathy for distraction-addicts who break every cinephile's cardinal rule but it’s still worth asking why this even happens in the first place. Perhaps it’s an unexpected side-effect from a generation born into a world of readily available content, maybe movie marketers are contributing to the issue, selling introspective head-scratchers to audiences expecting mile-a-minute romps or it could be that we’re all a little more addicted than we’d like to admit? Whatever the reason, if a phoneless, chatter-free couple of hours is too much for you to stomach, perhaps the cinema isn't for you. 

This blog is now on Nerdly.co.uk, take a look here!

Yes, I did have an unfortunate experience with someone using a phone in a cinema recently, have you? Let me know in the comments below!