“I will not allow violence against this house.”
-David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) in ‘Straw Dogs’
One of the hardest horror sub-genres to master, home invasion films are truly a terrifying concept. The place you are meant to feel safe is terrorized. The things you love are destroyed while someone or something wreaks havoc. Very few filmmakers have got the formula perfected for making a successful home invasion. Needing to equally terrify & entertain your viewer, you also have to leave a lasting impression. The point of these films is to be the reason you always lock your front door at night.
All of the films below have what makes this sub-genre so enthralling so let’s look back at the best home invasion films throughout horror history.
5. ‘Wait Until Dark’ (1967)
-Starring Alan Arkin and Audrey Hepburn, ‘Wait Until Dark‘ is probably the classiest film on this list. Terence Young, famous for directing 3 James Bond films, attempted something so different at the time. Right before the exploitation film craze of the 1970’s, Young pushed the boundaries with this stage-play adaptation.
4. ‘Straw Dogs’ (1971)
-If the movie before this pushed boundaries, ‘Straw Dogs‘ shattered them. The first non-western made by iconic director Sam Peckinpah brings violence out of the old west and into your home. Not only is the movie important to home invasion films but it also ushered in the “rape & revenge” sub-genre.
3. ‘Inside’ or ‘À l’intérieur’ (2007)
-Hailing from France, ‘Inside‘ is probably one of the most brutal films ever. We get an attack on a woman home alone but she is also pregnant. Like 9-months, ready to burst pregnant. The woman who breaks into her house wants the baby and the plot just keeps getting more twisted from there. Be careful watching this!
2. ‘You’re Next’ (2011)
-Yup. Many are thinking ‘The Strangers‘ should be in place of this film but ‘You’re Next‘ is so next level. Pun intended. Elevating the genre past the usual terrifying concept, director Adam Wingard turned up the fun with this one. Maybe it was the score he composed or the bad-ass lead actress but this is pure modern magic.
1. ‘Funny Games’ (1997 and 2007)
-The film so nice they made it twice. Director Michael Haneke remade his 1997 Austrian home invasion film in 2007 with an American crew. Remakes are common but by the same director? That’s how amazing ‘Funny Games‘ is. With graphic violence & fourth-wall breaks, both films are immersive. I am partial to the original film though. More raw for my taste and truly the best home invasion movie.
The fifth movie in the Bourne series has been out for two weeks, making $60 Million on its opening weekend in North America and has already made $246.2 Million internationally. However the critical reaction for Jason Bourne has been mixed, having a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, 1% more than The Bourne Legacy, and its IMDB score tumbled quickly. Despite the Bourne series being a cash-cow for Universal, there is clearly something wrong at the heart of the series and the studio needs to plan their next move carefully if they want to ensure the franchise’s survival.
First and foremost the original trilogy was a perfect set of movies, ‘Identity‘ had the mystery of Bourne having to find out who he is and why he had all those spying abilities – piecing together all the clues he had to find out who he really is and who was after it. ‘Identity’ even worked as a standalone film if the series never to took off. ‘Supremacy‘ forced Bourne out of hiding in the best way possible – it had the balls to kill off Marie, Bourne’s ally and love interest, in the first ten minutes. Combined with his personal grief, rogue factions trying to frame Bourne and Bourne seeking redemption, ‘Supremacy’ was a perfect storm for an action-thriller while ‘Ultimatum‘ tied up all the loose ends with Bourne finding out who he really is and exposing the CIA’s crimes. There was little room for the series to progress from that point.
Despite this Universal wanted to continue the series but Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass were reluctant to return – Greengrass jokingly said that if there were a fourth Bourne movie, it would have been called ‘The Bourne Redundancy’ and Damon refused to return to the series unless Greengrass was directing. Universal hired the screenwriter of the first three movies Tony Gilroy to direct The Bourne Legacy – a film that was meant to be a sequel and spin-off to the trilogy. Gilroy seemed like a solid choice to replace Greengrass because of his experience on the series and his directional debut the thriller Michael Clayton was well received by critics. However, there were problems – back in 2011 Matt Damon called Gilroy’s screenplay for The Bourne Ultimatum ‘unreadable’ and Gilroy admitted hardly any of his ideas made it into the finished film.
Gilroy did get a fantastic cast that included Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and Ed Norton and the early trailers for ‘Legacy’ made the movie seem promising – focusing on Ed Norton’s Eric Byer convincing Aaron Cross (Renner) to join a secret intelligence program. The story itself also seemed like a logical continuation of the ‘Bourne’ story, because of Bourne’s exposing Blackbriar forcing all American intelligence agencies to destroy all evidence of their covert programs and kill all the agents and anyone connected to them. But Gilroy decided to take the franchise into a sci-fi direction – a big departure for a series that aimed for realism. The program that Cross was in – Outcome – gave the agents pills that made them stronger, faster and smarter. That was bad enough, but it was made worse when it was revealed that that Cross was developmentally challenged, and he needed the pills to keep his intelligence – this idea would have been more fitting for an American Dad episode.
The Bourne Legacy also suffered from having a cripplingly slow pace and a lack of action for a movie that was supposed to be an action-thriller. This made The Bourne Legacy a surprisingly dull film with the sci-fi obscurity that makes it unmemorable.
Because of the failure of The Bourne Legacy, Universal decided to rehire Greengrass and Damon and allowed Greengrass to write the screenplay with his editor Christopher Rouse. Greengrass had stated he would only return to the series if the script were good enough – well you know what they say about people who live in glass houses. Jason Bourne was essentially a retread of The Bourne Supremacy, having the same setup and plot points – Jason Bourne is in hiding and comes out of hiding because of the actions of others and a person he is close to dies. He also has to figure out a mystery about his past, this time about his father. Alicia Vikander was pretty much playing the Joan Allen role and Bourne confronts Tommy Lee Jones’; Robert Dewey faced Bourne-like Dr. Hirsch in ‘Ultimatum’. The movie was basically a series of action scenes loosely tied together.
Greengrass and Damon are both known for being politically minded and since The Bourne Ultimatum they brought out the worst in each other. In 2010 they released Green Zone, a movie that criticizes the reasoning for the Iraq War and how the American government handled the aftermath of the invasion. They wanted to make a politically themed action movie that would appeal to mainstream audiences: what we got was an obnoxious piece that failed as an action movie had some of the worst camera work ever in a major film and simplified the history and politics to the point it was insulting.
The Bourne Ultimatum was political in nature, it was made during the height of the War on Terror, and it used these themes to great effect, being central to the plot. Jason Bourne had themes about mass surveillance of the population, but this was really a subplot shoed-in to inject some relevance into the fifth entry, and the subplot involving the publication of CIA files on the internet just gave Greengrass a chance to sound-off against Julian Assange and how he releases information.
Greengrass and Damon have also been critical of Bourne’s spying rival James Bond. Greengrass had called Bond ‘an imperialist fuckface’ and Damon has described the MI6 agent as a ‘misogynist’ and a ‘sociopath.’ By describing Bond like this, the pair trapped Bourne in a corner that does not allow him to grow or have any real flaws. The more we know about Bourne the less interesting he has becomes. Even worst the Greengrass/Damon partnership has made Bourne into a Mary Sue – he cannot show darkness or moral ambiguity. At the end of ‘Ultimatum,’ it was revealed that Bourne it had joined the Treatstone program willingly, but that idea was retconned in the latest movie because it showed Bourne joined under false pretenses.
Jason Bourne has a great example of Greengrass and Damon’s lack of willingness to show shades of gray with Bourne’s actions in the form of Vincent Cassel’s The Asset. The Asset was a Treatstone/Blackbriar agent who was found to be working undercover in Syria, and it resulted in him being captured and tortured. This could have led to a number of possible storylines – from The Asset wanting to go after Bourne for revenge, forcing the exiled spy back in action, or The Asset going rogue and Bourne is the only man who could stop him. It was understandable why The Asset would have hated Bourne and why he would have had a cruel streak – but it was nullified by showing that he was the agent who assassinated Bourne’s dad.
The Bourne Legacy did have a gateway for Jason Bourne to return to this series. It ended with Pamela Landy being made the scapegoat for the Blackbriar operation. It would have been easy enough for the series to continue down this route because Bourne would have had to come out of hiding once again to right the injustice of Landy getting the blame and show how ruthless the CIA and its hierarchy is in protecting its interests. Obviously, Greengrass decided not to go down this route.
If we compare Bourne to Bond we have seen Bond have dark moments like his guilt-ridden face during his first kill (Casino Royale), coldly killing Emile Leopold Locque and Elektra King in For Your Eyes Only and The World is Not Enough and seeing his wife killed in front of him in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Jason Bourne touched on similar territory as 2012’s Skyfall, an agent, comes out of hiding and looks at the issues of espionage in the digital age – Skyfall looked at where Bond stood in a world of hacking and cyber attacks, as well as looking at governmental oversight and the impact of 24 hour media. It showed how the Bond series could evolve with the times. Bourne is stuck in the same place.
So where could the Bourne series go? The recent movies have had good ideas, but they have been squandered. The Bourne series is set in a grounded universe, so this prevents Bourne and other agents going on outlandish global adventures where spies go to high-end events, meet extravaganza villains and stop some devastating weapon being captured or released. The series itself has set up some avenues to explore – there is already the idea that Landy is set up by the CIA, and she is demanded to get payback and in Jason Bourne’s psychological report states that he is still a patriot and could be convinced to rejoin the CIA. However, it would go against the series’ theme of Bourne being an outsider and the CIA being the big bad villain. Ways around it could be Bourne reluctantly rejoining the CIA, either to stop a greater threat, the CIA needing Bourne because he is the only man who can go on a dangerous mission, has vital intelligence from his past that could save civilians or goes the Captain America route, he stands for American value but not necessarily the American government. Bourne could also be forced back into the CIA because he is targeted by a rogue agent who Bourne crossed in his past, or we could see a super-spy having to fight another super-spy – this was what should have happened in Jason Bourne or face a super-spy from a foreign power. Jason Bourne also did leave the door open for a team up between Jason Bourne and Aaron Cross, referring to the Outcome and Larx programs. Or Bourne could go down a route like Jack Reacher in his series or Robert McCall in The Equalizer movie, becoming a vigilante who uses his spy skills to right wrongs.
Continuing the Bourne series would be a tough challenge that has been made more difficult because Jason Bourne has wasted some excellent story ideas. Whatever happens, the series needs to let Bourne evolve as a character and because of its realistic world, they need to accept the world isn’t black-and-white. If Greengrass does return to the series, the producers need to rein him in and make him and Damon collaborate more with the producers and writers in finding a way to continue the series – and not let it be a way to for the pair to simply air their political grievances. Story and characters come first.
Walking Dead fans are passionate and love their show, but now AMC is just messing with them. The network released a clip from season 7 that can only be a red-herring to get your blood boiling.
Dwight rides up on Daryl’s motorcycle while wearing his iconic leather vest as well. Does this mean that Daryl died at the hands of Negan, and Dwight stole his ride? Absolutely not!
Daryl, Rick, Carl, Michonne, Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, Sasha, Aaron, Rosita, and Eugene, were all in the lineup that night and AMC wants you to believe any one of them could have died. But AMC wants to make sure that fans of Daryl agonize for the next two months.
The Negan finale was the second-most-watched episode of season six with 14.2 million viewers but was down from season five when the series peaked at 17.3 million viewers.
The Walking Dead returns Sunday, October 23 on AMC.
Who do you think Negan killed in the season six finale? Comment below.
If you aren’t watching HBO’s limited series The Night Of, you should do two things. 1) stop reading this because spoilers will be everywhere, and 2) go watch The Night Of immediately.
In the void created by no third season of True Detective, HBO has delivered a pitch-perfect procedural thriller about a young Muslim man, Nasir (Riz Ahmed), accused of murder. It’s clinical in its dissection of the justice system – a detailed examination of local government and due process that would make David Simon proud – loaded with tremendous performances from Ahmed to John Turturro and on down the line, and with each passing episode the layers of our lead have been peeled back with brilliant subtlety.
The entire setup for the story has been anchored by Nasir, Nas, and the way the brutal murder of which he is accused doesn’t fit with his mild-mannered, amazingly naive young college kid. How could he stab this woman so many times? He doesn’t even look like he has the arm strength to stab someone once, let alone the rage it takes for such a heinous act. That’s what initially drew Turturro’s attorney, Jack Stone (and his horrific feet), to the case.
For the first four episodes, as Nas is arrested, convicted, and the legal system swirls around him, Nas is held at Riker’s Island. Upon his arrival at Riker’s he looks like bloody chum being thrown into shark-infested waters. His wide eyes and slumped shoulders make him ripe for harassment and rape and any other atrocities that seem to be commonplace in the prison system. That is, until he makes an alliance with Michael K. Williams’ Freddy, a lifer who has the cell block under his thumb. It frees Nas from threats, and it allows him to exist in this system.
However, in episode five, and last night’s episode six, “Samson and Delilah,” something has changed, not only in Nas’s situation behind bars; something has changed inside Nas. His wide eyes have narrowed, he’s gotten tattoos on his knuckles (S-I-N), and he has grown fond of freebasing in Freddy’s cell. Nas has a new edge, certainly through his new life in prison, but the complete 180 has come a little faster and a little more intensely than anyone could have expected.
Has Nas fooled us all along?
Let’s back up to the first few episodes. Back then, the entire narrative focused on this gentle little honors student, the son of two hard-working immigrant parents, who we can’t imagine has ever had a date let alone a steady girlfriend. Nas is a scared little puppy, there’s no way he could have committed this crime. But what do we really know about Nas? Aside from some periphery expositions, mostly after the arrest, we have no idea what’s inside Nas in the days before he decides to steal his dad’s cab and try and find a party. We basically start this story, well, The Night Of the murder, and from that moment any characterization of Nas outside of the immediate has been scant (until the most recent episode, when we learn he pushed a student down the stairs in school and was transferred across town).
When Nas wakes up in the girl’s home, in the kitchen, and discovers the body, he flees the scene while making about a thousand mistakes. If he would have murdered this girl, surely he wouldn’t have made so many stupid mistakes. Or would he?
And that is where I’m at with Nas after “Samson and Delilah.” Doubt has crept in, or should I say it’s shoved its way through the open door. In a monologue to Freddy, Nas mentions 9/11, that he was in fifth grade when the towers fell, and the harassment seemingly built up years of rage he’s never been able to release. Perhaps he was drunk and high that night, and that rage exposed itself. This meek little boy has become a broad-chested man, with a shaved head, and a growing inventory of demons hiding behind that doe-eyed gaze. He might have had us fooled this entire time; or, more aptly, creators Steven Zaillian and Richard Price have brilliantly pulled the wool over our eyes.
Well, here’s some sad and rather unexpected news to start the week: The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, which took over The Colbert Report in January 2015, just got cancelled after a mere two seasons. The last new episode will air Thursday night. There’s no word yet on who will replace Wilmore’s position, although we do know why the station cut the cord.
According to THR (via Collider), Comedy Central found the show’s lackluster ratings and its inability to connect to an audience “in ways that we need it to” as the reasons behind its termination. The Nightly Show averaged 0.2 ratings in the key 18-49 demo, and with the contracts of Wilmore and his team up for renewal, the station felt it wasn’t worth keeping it on the air. The 259th episode will air Thursday.
Wilmore appropriately kept it 100 regarding his cancellation.
I’m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and our fans to have had this opportunity. But I’m also saddened and surprised we won’t be covering this crazy election or “The Unblackening” as we’ve coined it. And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn’t counted on “The Unblackening” happening to my time slot as well… It’s not designed to have the type of things that [Jimmy] Fallon and [James] Corden do, like the [carpool] karaoke type of thing or lip sync battle and those types of things because those are such pure comic things. Ours is so much more specific and has different structure to it, so it does get shared, but it’s just a different tone.
Executive producer Jon Stewart championed The Nightly Show in the beginning. When he left The Daily Show last summer, the series never quite recovered. Still, Wilmore offered insightful, passionate coverage in the last few months — especially during the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement — and he was just finding his footing before his cancellation. Although rumors suggest Jessica Williams might take his place, that’s not set to happen. The Daily Show alum reportedly is working on her own scripted half-hour comedy series and, once again, she is forging her own path (she was also heavily rumored to take Stewart’s position).
Meanwhile, despite tepid response and declining ratings, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah is not going anywhere. His calmer, composed demeanor has not attracted the interest in the program that Stewart brought on a daily basis, but Comedy Central want to give him another shot. They believe he’ll still find his chance. At the moment, Trevor still faces tough competition from Daily Show alums Samantha Bee and John Oliver, who have essentially filled the void left by Stewart and Colbert with their own weekly nightly talk show programs, TBS’ Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, respectively.
Wilmore’s next step remains unclear. He’s still an executive producer on black-ish, the ABC series he was set to showrun before taking the The Nightly Show gig. And here’s perhaps the saddest news of all: while Comedy Central looks for Wilmore’s replacement, they will air @Midnight with Chris Hardwick in its place. How tragic.
Marvel Comics’ writer Brian Michael Bendis answered questions on his Tumblr account Sunday, Civil War 2 was brought up.
Civil War II #5 was due out in August but is now 14th September – Why? Is this event going to be another delay hell, like ‘Secret Wars’ was? – Anonymous.
Bendis responded with a detailed answer:
“Well, if you peak over at @davidmarquez Facebook, you’ll discover that he and his amazing wife Tara just had a kick ass baby boy. A very cute baby too. And not all babies are cute at the start,” said Bendis.
“Not a delay hell, or a conspiracy, just a new baby in the middle of the hardest issue to draw. the ending of four shows that five is a monster,” said Bendis. “David has been handing in about a page a day for the last couple of weeks, so we’re getting back on track. So much so that Marvel greenlit an 8th issue for us. I came up with a better ending but needed the pages. Very grateful that they let us do our thing. So a little late and you get a little more.”
Two things stand out in Bendis’ response. First, Marvel knew about Marquez’s situation and didn’t prepare for it. Secondly, why is Bendis writing ‘Civil War 2’ on the fly? The event book should have been planned out properly from the beginning, with staffing and script a priority. It amazes me that Marvel can run a business without any regard for running a business properly and respect for the fans that support its product.
The last sentence by Bendis is the biggest insult. “So a little late and you get a little more,” which translates into “you have to wait, and we’re going to charge you more.”
Are you reading ‘Civil War 2’ and will you drop it because of the delay? Comment below.
Guillermo del Toro’s latest, The Shape of Water, has started production. It’s a project del Toro has been taking up on Twitter for some time now, and it seems things are ready to go. And the cast is impressive.
Michael Shannon, Doug Jones, Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, and Michael Stuhlbarg headline the story of a human who falls in love with a merman (no, not Channing Tatum’s merman in the Splash reboot), set against the backdrop of the 60s Cold War. That definitely sounds like something unique.
“I started working on The Shape of Water right around the time we moved to Toronto for Pacific Rim” del Toro said. “Working with Fox Searchlight and being supported by this beautiful group of actors and artists, I feel extremely blessed and brave.”
Producer J. Miles Dale added: “It feels like we have an embarrassment of riches on this film. An ensemble of incredible actors who are working at the very top of their craft, a wildly original story from Guillermo’s one-of-a-kind mind, and the brilliant team at Fox Searchlight to shepherd us along.”
There’s no indication that the supernatural/horror elements – aside from a man with a fish tail – typical in a Guillermo del Toro Joint will be prevalent in The Shape of Water. The rest of the story is under wraps. There’s no release date yet either, but hey, cameras are rolling, and when it comes to Guillermo del Toro that is great news.
Back when the Punisher Netflix series was officially announced, many fans began to wonder when we’d actually be seeing the show. As it stands now, Marvel on Netflix drops two shows per year; Daredevil season two and Luke Cage in 2016, Iron Fist and The Defenders in 2017, and Daredevil season three and Jessica Jones season two in 2018. So, when will the Punisher show actually have time to be released?
According to a screenshot via Reddit, the Netflix mobile app claims that the John Bernthal led Punisher show is set to hit Netflix in 2017.
Although this information could be wrong, it’s likely that we’ll be seeing three Netflix Marvel shows in 2017, as opposed to two.
Are you pumped about the Punisher Netflix series? Be sure to let us know in the comments section down below.
After finally receiving recognition for helping form the mythos of one of comic book’s endearing character, Batman, Bill Finger will finally be the subject of his own documentary.
Normally attributed solely towards Bob Kane, Finger’s contributions are now finally brought to light.
The project is currently titled Limelight, and will be available on Hulu.com. Not much else is known about the project aside from the main subject.
What do you guys think of the project, or of the whole Bill Finger/Bob Kane controversy?
DC Comics has hired Jenny Frisson to replace Frank Cho in creatingWonder Woman‘s variant covers. Cho left recently following severe creative differences with writer Greg Rucka.
The row began with Rucka censoring Cho’s work as being overly sexual. Cho, who cited Rucka as the sole reason for his departure, claims this limited his creative vision and thus felt compelled to leave.
Frisson, who has drawn the Amazon for DC in the past, will have her first cover in print for issue number 7. What do you guys think of the controversy? Was Rucka overstepping bounds?
