Staying Fit
Paramount Pictures
Horror is a hot genre this week, as the much-buzzed Scream VI and School Spirits scare their way onto screens big and small. In 2023, the killer-doll flick M3GAN (now streaming), made for $12 million, earned $173 million at the box office, and Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, made for under $100,000, grossed over $3 million. Scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis’ recent Halloween films broke box office records, proving the viability of 64-year-old actresses and the horror genre.
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Horror is even making inroads among grownup viewers. A recent YouGov poll found that more than one-quarter of people over 65 are horror fans, as are about half of those ages 45 to 64. Most of the cohort right behind them, ages 30 to 44, fancies horror: 64 percent.
But let’s face it, lots of horror hits are shlock. Get with the trend by checking out these 10 recent horror hits that are worth a grownup’s time:
M3GAN (2023)
Allison Williams (Girls, Get Out) executive produced this horror romp and stars as Gemma, the unmaternal Oregon inventor of a life-size, uncannily lifelike tweener girl doll, M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android). When Gemma’s orphaned niece comes to live with her, she has M3GAN handle child care. The doll is infinitely more attuned to the niece’s emotions than Gemma is, and she’s a toy that can dance and sing, and dice and slice humans. It’s more like a Chucky flick than a dark-robot masterpiece like Spielberg’s AI, or Ex Machina or Her, but M3GAN was the best-reviewed Blumhouse studio horror film since Get Out in 2017.
Watch it: M3GAN on Peacock
Scream VI
Call it Ghostface Takes Manhattan. After traumatically battling the big-mouthed slasher in the past, two sisters (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega) hope to start over in the Big Apple. Unfortunately, so does Ghostface. It’s the arrival of Scream legacy actors — Courteney Cox as TV reporter Gale Weathers and Hayden Panettiere as an FBI agent — who whip up the most audience frenzy. Come for the carnage, stay for the witty, meta dialogue.
Watch it: Scream VI, in theaters March 10
Nope (2022)
Among the best movies of 2022, Nope follows the travails of a Black ranching family in inland California struggling to survive not just drought or flash floods but supernatural shenanigans, too. Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun star in Jordan Peele’s gripping sci-fi suspense flick. Run!
Watch it: Nope on Peacock, Prime Video
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