From wicked spells cast over the Sanderson Sisters’ spooky cauldron to Thackery Binx doing whatever it takes to stop Winifred, Hocus Pocus is full of twists and turns at every corner — although the location where it was filmed seems to be one of the most intriguing aspects about the Disney project.
Released back in 1993, the fantasy extravaganza absolutely bombed at the box office while no-nonsense critics gave it a super-sized beating. Despite unfavorable reviews and critical bashing, the Halloween classic undisputedly became a cultural phenomenon and one of the most sought-after spooky movies which is enjoyed by millions of fans every Halloween season.
Of course, the intrigue has survived for decades thanks to the inclusion of witchy elements as Max Dennison, his sister Dani, and his crush Allison try to stop the Sanderson Sisters from taking over Salem after Max accidentally resurrects them. Aside from its most captivating themes, one question continues to swirl around the minds of folks all across the globe — and that’s to do with where the iconic movie was filmed.
Where was Hocus Pocus filmed?
Image via Disney Plus
As a way of celebrating, trios often dress in clothing like the witches as millions visit Salem each year to partake in various celebrations — which just so happens to be where parts of the unforgettable 1993 film were filmed. With the movie’s plot taking place in Salem, Massachusetts, it certainly added realism to the plot as it was filmed in that exact location during specific daytime scenes. Filming for Hocus Pocus began in October 1992 and wrapped in February 1993.
That being said, a large portion of scenes were shot on particular sound stages in Burbank, California. Alongside these sound stages, specific landmark locations around Salem were used for filming certain scenes such as Max and Dani’s house and the opening of the Halloween movie.
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Face it, Star Wars is absolutely iconic. From its sweeping vistas and gorgeous costume designs to it’s memorable characters and operatic writing style, the franchise has so much to offer.
But as much as it gets right, there is plenty that it gets wrong. Anyone who’s sat through all 418 minutes of the prequel trilogy knows that most of Star Wars is to romance what Saw is to wholesome family fun. Despite the series’ lackluster follow-ups, there is one couple that fully earned their place in the romance hall fame.
The original trilogy managed to inject enough romance to make multiple generations swoon with Han Solo and Leia Organa’s truly adorable relationship built on sass, trust, and good ol’ sexual tension. So how is it that one line from Return of the Jedi managed to build a better romance than all three entries built around Padme and Anakin’s tragic love story?
What does Han say to Leia in Return of the Jedi?
Throughout Return of the Jedi, Han practically wears his heart on his sleeve. Well, as much as an arrogant, scruffy, full-of-himself smuggler possibly could. His actions consistently speak louder than his complaint-laden words every time he opts to stay in harm’s way when it would be in his best interest to leave it all behind.
When Han is captured by Darth Vader and Boba Fett in Cloud City, the pair has only seconds to work through months of playful flirting and grapple with their pride.
As Han is lowered into the carbonite chamber, Leia says to him, “I love you”. And in true Han fashion he says simply, “I know.”
It’s a deliciously bad-boy thing to say, laced with emotion that Han rarely shows. He ever takes his eyes off hers, and even as the fear of what’s to come starts to show on Leia’s face, Han keeps his cool. It’s a perfect moment and one we have Harrison Ford to thank. The original script called for Han to reply, I Love you too.” But Ford felt that Solo was much too arrogant to simply admit to his feelings. It’s hard to imagine this scene playing out any other way.
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It’s pretty impossible to imagine a world without the sitcom Friends. After all, it’s what made Jennifer Aniston and her co-stars household names. However, while it’s easy to always imagine her as Rachel Green, Aniston’s showed off her acting chops in many more projects.
In fact, as iconic as Friends is, it’s arguable that her acting became a lot more dynamic and versatile outside of the confines of the show. Since her groundbreaking rise to fame, she has had impressive starring roles in a wide variety of films and TV shows. Moreover, she’s also a pretty darn good voice actor, and it’s a wonder why she’s not ventured more on that path. Nonetheless, Aniston has many worthwhile performances under her belt, with the following 10 being standouts in her catalog so far.
10. We’re The Millers
First things first, We’re The Millers isn’t winning any prizes for “best plot,” but boy is it funny. Despite its mixed reviews, it’s actually one of the most well-known movies in Aniston’s filmography. Moreover, it’s just plain hilarious, and that’s what matters to most audiences. Evidently, this was the case for this movie as well, because it made a whopping $270 million against a $37 million budget. Aniston stars as Rose, a stripper who poses for Jason Sudeikis’ character, David, as his wife. If she successfully blends into the “fake family” dynamic, she gets a large cash reward. Sounds easy enough, but working with a criminal has its downsides.
9. Just Go With It
Over the years, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston have maintained a hilarious working relationship. One of their most impressive turns as a couple is the 2011 rom-com, Just Go With It. In the movie, Aniston stars as Katherine Murphy, an assistant to Sandler’s character, Danny Maccabee. In order to keep his romantic fling unaware of his motives, he begs Katherine to pose as his soon-to-be divorced wife. Overall, Just Go With It is hilarious, and the lead couple bring a lot of heart to the film. Brilliant performances from Nicole Kidman and Nick Swardson give the movie an extra oomph.
8. Horrible Bosses
“Villain” might be a stretch, but Aniston was definitely an antagonist in the comedy, Horrible Bosses. As the title suggests, the movie follows the premise of unbearable bosses. The ensemble cast is led by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis, who hatch a plan to murder their respective, abusive bosses. One of these is Aniston’s inappropriate character, Dr. Julia Harris. Unlike her previous roles, she donned a darker brown wig, almost transforming her look. However, her acting remains some of her best work yet, and a complete shift from her other roles.
7. Murder Mystery
Aniston and Sandler’s most recent team-up is the MurderMystery series. The first movie was released in 2019, and although it was met with a lukewarm critical response, audiences warmed up to the movie immediately. Aniston stars as Audrey, a murder mystery enthusiast who is roped into an investigation aboard a billionaire’s yacht.
6. Marley & Me
Marley & Me remains one of Aniston’s most famous roles. The incredibly moving comedy-drama is also a tearjerker, as it follows a couple’s journey with their wonderful Labrador retriever. As with most of the works in her catalog, Marley & Me became a huge commercial success. Additionally, it showed off a more charming side to her acting.
5. Cake
If only Cake was as amazing as Aniston’s acting, perhaps she would have earned an Oscar nod. Unfortunately, the opposite was the case. While the actress was lauded for what is considered her most emotionally stirring performance yet, the movie failed to impress audiences. Nonetheless, she showed off a unique side, delivering a wonderful showcase of a woman struggling with addiction after surviving a car accident that killed her son.
4. The Good Girl
While still starring as Rachel Green, Aniston appeared as Justine Last in the comedy-drama, The Good Girl. Acting alongside John C. Reilly and Jake Gyllenhaal, The Good Girl is one of the most acclaimed works in her film catalog. It follows a bored woman who begins an affair with her co-worker in small-town Texas. Aniston took home a Hollywood Actress Award at the Hollywood Film Awards for her role.
3. The Iron Giant
In the animated sci-fi, The Iron Giant, Aniston brought a delicate warmth and love to her voice acting role. She voiced the character Anne Hughes, the mother of the lead character, Hogarth. Her performance was lauded, as was the entire movie, which has remained one of the most acclaimed animated offerings of all time.
2. Friends
Aha! The iconic show that skyrocketed Aniston’s career. In Friends, the actress starred as Rachel Green, the lovable waitress turned businesswoman. Evidently, this was a star-making, career-defining turn for Aniston, who is still widely viewed as Rachel, even two decades after Friends’ conclusion. Nonetheless, it’s not without reason, as her performance throughout the show was awkward, charming, funny, and absolutely relatable.
1. Dumplin’
Beating out her performance in Friends is the comedy-drama, Dumplin’. In the coming-of-age story, Aniston stars as Rosie Dickson, a former beauty queen who wishes to instill her past success in other young girls. However her daughter, who isn’t considered the ideal image for participating in beauty pageants, decides to enter her mother’s latest show. The comforting movie preaches about body-image acceptance, and an anti-heroic turn from Aniston is just what the movie needed to win hearts.
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“I don’t say blah blah blah!” — Dracula is technically correct when he says this in Hotel Transylvania as the animated character doesn’t naturally have a voice, one is given to him. Did I just blow your mind with some nonsense philosophy?
Back to serious mode, Hotel Transylvania is the perfect vampire comedy gold that’s fun to watch with the whole family. But while many know the over-the-top vampire dad’s amazing performance as the signature creation of the iconic Adam Sandler, the voice-acting credits in the series are a bit more complex than they appear on the surface.
Why was Adam Sandler replaced as Dracula in Hotel Transylvania?
To make it clear, Adam Sandler did voice Dracula in the first three movies of the series: Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2, and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. But things get confusing as the fourth movie, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania suddenly replaced Sandler with voice actor and YouTuber Brian Hull. While Hull had done voices in previous films, they had been for projects with absolutely terrible reviews like the Pup Star series, so why did he get a role in an iconic franchise over Adam freakin’ Sandler?
The co-director of Transformania, Derek Drymon, in a chat with U.K.’s Radio Times (via Newsweek), gave a reason that basically no one on Earth believed.
“The fact that [Sandler] turns into a human [in the new film] was a good opportunity to do things a little differently. He could be a little different than he was in the movies, and it would be natural. So, it kind of was the perfect movie to have a person come in and fill those shoes.”
Yeah, that sounds like corporate speak for, “I had to make up something plausible because it’s weird we couldn’t secure a hugely famous name to continue voicing a character he basically brought to life.”
Genndy Tartakovsky, the director of the first three films that featured Sandler, gave curious fans a way better answer, even if it wasn’t exactly definitive either. “I think it was purely a scheduling thing,” he told Decider. “Maybe there’s more to it, but as far as I know, he just had other stuff going on. I know he’s got the Netflix deal, that keeps him occupied, and they’re working on expanding their animation too. Who knows, could be he’s focused on that.”
There are plenty of awesome Adam Sandler movies on Netflix to watch thanks to that deal, but it’s sad that he didn’t get to finish the story of Dracula. It’s still hard to deny that Hall did a pretty good job with the voice and likely earned himself a spot on other major projects in the future.
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In 1931, Universal Pictures was teetering on the edge of insolvency, until they accidentally made an unholy amount of money by releasing Dracula. With the equation “Monster plus Movie equals Being Able To Afford Bourbon” dancing in their noggins, the studio heads made a few calls and ordered a buffet platter of horror adaptations.
And that’s how we got Boris Karloff’s performance in Frankenstein just a few months later. Arguably the most iconic acting work in the history of creature features, Karloff’s take on Frankenstein’s monster became the template for almost every other interpretation of the character for nearly a century. Despite his becoming synonymous with the Monster, his unbeatable work, and the studio system’s habit of rolling out as many movies as possible, Karloff actually only donned the scars and neck bolts for three motion pictures.
Frankenstein (1931)
Image via Universal
Boris Karloff began the most successful leg of his career with Frankenstein in 1931. It’s the classic story of a lunatic stitching dead people together, hitting the resulting mass of flesh with lightning until it wakes up, and then eventually getting married while the townsfolk wash monster ash out of their clothes.
The process of becoming the monster was an arduous one. Karloff, still a struggling working actor at this point and probably just grateful for the work, strapped on a pair of four-inch platform boots, weighing around 11 pounds apiece. He’d have high-alcohol liquid plastic painted over his face for between three and six hours every morning. Putty – occasionally reported to be the same kind that morticians use to fill in a cadaver’s problem areas – was attached to his eyelids to create that iconic, just-woke-up-from-being-dead look. Another couple of hours a day were spent carving the makeup off of Karloff’s face. It’s all part of what inspired Karloff to help start the Screen Actors Guild – He knew that 3:30 AM call times were the real monsters, and he didn’t want anyone else to fall prey.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Image via Universal
Given the success of the first movie, as well as Karloff’s rising star in the world of monsters following 1932’s The Mummy, it’s a little bit wild that the sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, took four years to make. The studio commissioned half a dozen different potential scripts for the follow up. Appropriately, the version that wound up committed to film was a stitched-together combination of pieces of all of them.
Karloff reportedly didn’t love the decision to make the monster verbal in Bride of Frankenstein. Still, the money spent the same, and it would have been hard to say “no” to the acclaim. Boris Karloff got top billing this time around, credited simply as “KARLOFF” in big, bold letters across dozens of posters and advertisements. In what was becoming a habit, his monster died in this film’s final moments as well, self-destructing in a laboratory explosion.
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
Image via Universal
By 1939, Universal was in trouble again. A few box office bombs led them to put a moratorium on monster movies until a rerelease of Dracula started making them money again. Time being a flat circle, they decided to make a movie about Frankenstein, and the Universal Movie Monsters were back in business.
By this point, Karloff was just about done wearing electrodes on his neck for a living. “The makeup did all the work,” he would later point out, and despite near-universal acclaim for the threequel, he decided to hang up his Doc Martens.
Piles of loose sequels would follow, with legendary names attached to the role of the monster. Lon Chaney, Jr. took over the part for 1942’s Ghost of Frankenstein. Bela Lugosi glued on the forehead extenders for Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man the following year. The iconography lived on, but the part of Frankenstein’s monster never reclaimed the gravitas that it carried during the Karloff era.
Honorable mentions
Image via Embassy Pictures
While Karloff seemed happy to stop working part-time job hours having makeup applied to and then removed from his face, he never entirely left the monster behind him.
In 1940, Karloff played baseball in his full Frankenstein getup as a publicity stunt for charity. After that, the only other time that he would don the square forehead came some 30 years after the premiere of Frankenstein, on a 1962 episode of the TV series Route 66. There, the performer teamed up with Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney, Jr. in a story where they all played themselves, looking back on their careers as movie monsters and wondering if they could still scare people if they put on the old costumes. It was zany.
In 1967, Karloff made his final Frankenstein-adjacent performance, voicing Baron Boris von Frankenstein in the ugly stepchild of the Rankin/Bass animated catalog, Mad Monster Party? He died not long after that, on February 2, 1969, at age 81, probably just glad that Universal didn’t make him wear the makeup to do it.
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Critics may be surprised over Five Nights at Freddy’s box office success, but those who’ve been obsessing over FNAF lore for years are ignoring the film’s abysmal 28% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, there’s news that the record-breaking movie will be getting a sequel.
Spoiler warning: This article contains some spoilers regarding Easter eggs in the new Five Nights at Freddy’s movie.
FNAF insider claims the sequel is in pre-production
X (formerly Twitter) user @entomsalt is known for sharing Five Nights at Freddy’s spoilers and lore and, as of recently, the inside scoop on the film. Before the movie’s release, their unnamed source offered some interesting behind-the-scenes information, such as a Shadow Freddy Easter egg and that writers first composed an R-rated screenplay.
Exclusive from my Insider: Despite Tammi’s statement, in March of 2022 the FNAF Film had its earliest version of its screenplay in which it was Rated-R; however, in November of 2022, this was eventually cut down because of conflicting vision. The plot was mostly the same. pic.twitter.com/xfC6BkVtWc
Now, the same insider is claiming a Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel is already in pre-production. On October 27, they posted:
“Speaking of which, a bit of an exclusive surprise from the same insider who gave me hints about this film (which ended up being true!): a sequel is reportedly in pre-production.”
Some fans questioned the report, wondering if they meant to say that a prequel was in pre-production, to follow suit with how the FNAF games were released. However, @entomsalt responded, stating that the source confirmed it’s a sequel.
FNAF director shared news of a sequel
While there’s no official word on a Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel, director Emma Tammi shared in an interview with Dexerto that it’s more than just wishful thinking. She also offers a glimpse at what fans can expect in a follow-up movie.
“I’m really hopeful that we’ll be able to make a sequel, and should we be able to, I think we would see our animatronics again. But I also think we would have some new friends to meet as well.”
Viewers who felt the FNaF movie left them wanting more would certainly agree! Tammi also spoke to Variety about the possibility of another Five Nights at Freddy’s movie, saying:
“We’re definitely excited to keep making more movies in this world, should we be lucky enough to do that. This one was tied into the first game, and we would probably focus on tying the second one into the second game, and so on and so forth. But anything could happen. We’ll have to see.”
Considering the movie’s success, there’s a high chance we’ll see a sequel sooner rather than later.
Matthew Lillard signed up for a three-movie deal
If this isn’t enough evidence that Blumhouse is seriously considering making more Five Nights at Freddy’s movies, then this might. Matthew Lillard, who plays the villain William Afton, accidentally let it slip in a WeeklyMTG interview that he signed a three-movie deal with the production company.
So, it looks like the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise will continue to grow!
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The Fourth Kind, a 2009 sci-fi thriller, claims that the horrifyingly supernatural events presented in the film are based on a true story, but the truth might be less strange than fiction.
The Fourth Kind has some genuinely frightening scenes that blur the lines of reality and it does a thorough job of building suspense in a story about missing cases in Nome, Alaska, connecting them to alien abductions. Because of its pseudodocumentary style, The Fourth Kind gives the impression that it’s simply presenting a story rather than telling it, and it’s an effective tool that can open the door to believing a supernatural cause is at play.
What is The Fourth Kind about?
The Fourth Kind is directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi and stars Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil) as “real life” Dr. Abigail Tyler, a psychologist who, through treating her patients and noticing their repeating sightings of a white owl, begins to question if the missing people may involve alien abductions. Abigail’s husband was murdered while they were in bed together and she can’t remember the murders’ face (possibly aliens). Despite her shaky mental state, she doesn’t want to take time off of work and she continues researching the sleep-deprived people in Nome.
Before The Fourth Kind starts, Jovovich addresses the audience, warning them that they’re about to watch a dramatization of real events about missing people in Nome, Alaska in 2000, and that it’s extremely disturbing. Throughout the movie, it does a convincing job of selling the idea that this isn’t just another Hollywood fabrication. There are times when it uses a split-screen technique to juxtapose the “actual archive footage” and it seems legitimate. The production value of the scenes with the actors is higher by comparison, and it’s as if it’s not trying to hide anything. It’s like a magician showing their hand. The truth is, it’s an illusion.
The Fourth Kind‘s ‘true’ story, explained
Image via Universal Pictures
The Fourth Kind is a work of fiction. It’s done well, but it’s not real. A report from CNN confirmed that there isn’t an actual Dr. Abigail Tyler and the archived footage wasn’t authentic either. Nome, Alaska did have a high number of missing persons, but there’s a valid reason for that as well.
The FBI investigated the nearby area in 2005 and the missing victims were mostly Native men from smaller villages. The causes for their disappearances were mostly related to alcohol and frigid temperatures. The Fourth Kind “conveniently” leaves out the indigenous people in this supposed retelling.
A total of nine bodies were found at that time, but there wasn’t any strong evidence to suggest that otherworldly phenomena were at play. It’s a remote and isolated area and there are numerous warning signs reminding people to take caution in the unforgiving environment. Creepy Catalog confirmed there are high amounts of reported UFO sightings in the area, however, and the actual truth of UFOs shouldn’t be dismissed so easily, even if The Fourth Kind is a farce.
What is UFOlogy, and who started it?
The study of UFOs (UFOlogy) is a serious subject matter with decades of qualified scientists and informed persons studying the high strangeness. From History, professor and astronomer J. Allen Hynek was the first person to use the term “unidentified flying object” while investigating U.S. Air Force’s reports about mysterious objects in the sky beginning in 1947. Because of this, Hynek is known as the father of modern-day UFO theory, authoring books on the subject and creating a strong foundation of research procedures that are still used today.
Hynek classified encounters with UFOs using a scale:
Close Encounters of the First Kind are when a UFO is seen within 500 feet
Close Encounters of the Second Kind is seeing a UFO and experiencing some form of physical effect
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a UFO sighting in which some kind of alien life is witnessed
Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind are when a UFO sighting in which a person is abducted
Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind is direct contact made between aliens and humans
Hynek worked on a number of projects involving UFO cases (Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book), attributing many claims to astronomical phenomena, or misjudged objects, but there were other cases that he couldn’t fully answer.
Official government agencies have studied the subject over the decades. In Aug. 2020, the Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) was announced and has been used to improve the understanding of, and gain insight into, the nature and origins of UAP.
A long list of qualified UFOlogists from various fields are still diligently researching UFO cases new and old, and have made great strides in getting more information to the public and calling for more transparency from the government. As far as The Fourth Kind goes, the case is closed.
The Fourth Kind Is currently available to stream on Tubi. It can also be rented or purchased on DirectTV, RedBox, Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, and other platforms.
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The most important job in the world has long been the subject of fascination for film-makers, and Hollywood has produced more than its fair share of portrayals of POTUSes who became famous for a host of reasons, good and bad. Here are ten of the very best.
10. Bull Murray (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
Hyde Park on Hudson is a 2012 comedy-drama starring Murray as FDR, with Laura Linney as Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, who visits the President during a period of ill health in 1939. Both Murray and Linney acquit themselves well, the former garnering a Golden Globe nomination, but the film is noticeably lightweight, and failed to trouble the critics.
9. Kevin Spacey (Richard Nixon)
The 2016 comedy-drama Elvis & Nixon never quite coheres, but has its moments, as first Nixon’s White House confreres and Presley’s hangers-on each try and work out ways of making the most out of one of the most peculiar meetings in American post-war politics. Spacey brings out the pragmatist in Nixon, while Michael Shannon gives a great performance as an Elvis whose discontent with the counterculture chimes with the President.
8. Bruce Greenwood (John F. Kennedy)
One of Kevin Costner’s lesser-known movies, the 2000 drama Thirteen Days is a fine film, telling the story of the White House’s response to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Costner gives a nuanced performance as a presidential secretary, and Steven Culp captures Bobby Kennedy’s verve and passion excellently, but the buck stops with Bruce Greenwood’s matchless JFK, who has to make the big calls in a political crisis where the stakes were never higher.
7. Josh Brolin (George W. Bush)
Oliver Stone’s 2008 drama was in production even before Bush’s eight-year presidency ended, but Stone was less interested in telling Bush’s story than he was in concentrating on a single aspect of his tenure – the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, which is painted as Bush completing the unfinished business of his father. Josh Brolin impresses with an uncannily accurate portrayal of the famously tongue-tied and bumbling president.
6. Woody Harrelson (Lyndon B. Johnson)
Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency saw great strides made in civil rights enacted by a President who was a seasoned political operator. Rob Reiner’s 2016 biopic LBJ shies away from the more controversial aspects of Johnson’s presidency, but Woody Harrelson does everything asked of him in the title role. Jennifer Jason Leigh provides excellent support as First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson.
5. Nigel Hawthorne (Martin Van Buren)
Steven Spielberg’s 1997 epic about the Amistad Supreme Court case features not one but two Presidents. Anthony Hopkins bagged a deserved Academy Award nomination as ex-President John Quincy Adams who defends the Amistad Africans, but Hawthorne is equally compelling as Martin Van Buren, the sitting President who, in the face of growing disquiet among pro-slavery factions in Congress, finds himself hopelessly out of his depth.
4. Gary Sinise (Harry S. Truman)
Hot on the heels of his impressive work on Apollo 13, Sinise was tapped to play Harry S. Truman in this 1995 television film biopic. While the treatment is by-the-numbers, Sinise portrays the President’s no-nonsense demeanor admirably, and received a Primetime Emmy nomination for the role.
3. Anthony Hopkins (Richard Nixon)
The Welsh actor was far from Oliver Stone’s first choice to play Richard Nixon in the director’s 1995 biopic, but Hopkins’ take on the infamous President is required viewing, veering from light-hearted to sinister in the space of a single scene. The performance garnered Anthony Hopkins his third Academy Award nomination.
2. Frank Langella (Richard Nixon)
Where Hopkins aimed to accentuate Nixon’s misanthropic tendencies, in Ron Howard’s 2008 drama Frost/Nixon, Frank Langella took a different tack, emphasizing Nixon’s avuncular nature in his attempt to turn the famous series of post-presidency interviews with British broadcaster David Frost (played here with verve by Michael Sheen) to his advantage. There are some comic notes here and there, but Langella’s performance is overwhelmingly dominated by the despair of a man who felt he was in the right, but knew otherwise.
1. Daniel Day-Lewis (Abraham Lincoln)
Daniel Day-Lewis won his third Academy Award for his peerless performance in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 epic. With no film footage or audio recording to work off of, Day-Lewis based his portrayal on surviving written accounts of the President’s demeanor, and, as was his habit, remained in character between takes. Every scene is unmissable, but the really impressive scenes are where Lincoln goes toe to toe with political opponents, such as the Confederacy’s vice-president Alexander Stephens (played excellently by Jackie Early Haley). Day-Lewis exudes natural and legal authority as he argues for an end to the war.
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A quintessentially 80s sitcom, Night Court shipped laughs aplenty to audiences from 1984 to 1992, and launched the careers of several of the principals, such as court judge Harry Anderson, and provided early guest spots for a slew of others, including Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Brent Spiner and The Sopranos star Ray Abruzzo.
Among the most loved regulars was Richard Moll, who played Bull, the gentle giant who acted as the court bailiff. So, what happened to him after the series ended?
A veteran character actor
After the series’ cancellation, Moll was rarely out of work, being much in demand in both comedy and genre TV and film. The 1990s brought guest roles in hit science fiction series such as Highlander and Babylon 5, and was equally at home in Western productions, including a recurring role opposite Jane Seymour in CBS’s Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, and the 1998 adaptation of The Ransom of Red Chief.
Moll also found a niche as a voice actor. MCU fans of a certain age will know him as the voice of Two-Face in Batman: The Animated Series (1992-94), and later, he switched franchises with recurring roles in the animated versions of The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man.
Moll’s film work was less notable but equally varied. Most of his roles were bit parts in comedies – including opposite John Goodman and Halle Berry in The Flintstones (1994) and as a ghost in 2001’s Scary Movie 2 – or in low-budget science fiction and horror films, such as 1995 B-movie Galaxis, and 2006’s Nightmare Man.
Moll died on Oct. 26 this year at his home in California. He was 80 years old.
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Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Five Nights at Freddy’s.
After a decade spent marinating in development hell, Five Nights at Freddy’s has finally hit the big screen, taking fans of animatronic atrocities to Freddy Fazbear’s like never before.
Like with any adaptation, there were going to be some changes. Character motivations are nudged in new directions. Horrible deaths are reimagined. But at its core, the movie is still exactly what franchise devotees were hoping for: A chance to watch possessed pizza robots mess some dudes up.
Still, it might have shocked longtime players to realize that the film’s protagonist, Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson), was of no apparent relation to the villainous William Afton (Matthew Lillard). FNaF stans with a few games under their belts will have gone into the movie expecting to learn that, like in the games, Schmidt was secretly the son of Afton, the serial killer and Fazbear Entertainment co-founder. As players learn throughout the series, Schmidt works his way into a position at the company under an assumed name in order to put a stop to his old man’s gruesome actions.
Instead, the movie interprets Mike as a long-suffering guardian to his younger sister, Abby. He takes the security gig as a way to keep the lights on and prevent their scheming aunt from taking custody, but with no hidden, patricidal agenda. There’s a chance that all of this is will change in the franchise’s already-in-development sequels. Lillard has already revealed that he’s on board for two more Five Nights at Freddy’s movies, leaving plenty of time to develop the terrible Afton family tree. For now, at least, the Freddy Fazbear’s security guard can bank just a little more of that $120 paycheck, since he won’t need to buy anyone a Father’s Day card.
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Burning Betrayal, a steamy romantic thriller adapting Sue Hecker’s novel O Lado Bom de Ser Traída, has found its way to many favorites lists on Netflix for its bold narrative. The Brazilian title of the novel translates to “The Good Side of Being Betrayed,” and the movie quite literally depicts it the best it could have.
The film is directed by Diego Freitas, who previously won praise for his 2022 rom-com/drama Beyond the Universe. Exactly a year since the release of his last film, Freitas has returned to hypnotize everyone with this new captivating narrative driven by a bold sexual adventure.
The movie is set in São Paulo and follows Babi, a successful accountant, who discovers her fiancé Caio is being unfaithful right before their wedding by way of a gift from an unknown sender containing photos of Caio’s indiscretions. Heartbroken, devastated, and furious, Babi becomes dead-set on revenge and is suddenly swept into a torrid affair with the “hot judge” Marco, presiding over Caio’s court hearing in connection with an alleged money-laundering scheme.
Whether you’re impressed with the plot or not, the cast of Burning Betrayal can surely sweep you off your feet. As it is with any other steamy thriller like 365 Days or Fifty Shades of Grey, the film is also carried on the back by a stunning cast that keeps your eyes glued to the screen. Ready to meet them? Here’s the who’s who of this wild erotic ride.
At the center of the narrative is Babi, a successful woman who’s about to marry her boyfriend of five years right before discovering the truth about his infidelity. She then turns the tables and changes herself to take revenge on him. The woman behind this captivating personality is Giovanna Lancellotti, a 30-year-old Brazilian actress from Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo.
Giovanna is known for her work across the Brazilian television industry. If you feel awe-struck, you can catch more of her in the films Irrational Heart (2011), Gabriela (2012),A Second Chance (2018), Rick in Love (2020), and in the Netflix series Summer Heat (2022).
Micael — Caio
Image via Netflix
Babi’s cheating fiancé Caio is one of the three main characters in the story. Though committed to Babi for five years, he has been cheating on her with a mistress for the last two. Babi finds the perfect opportunity to exact revenge against him, as Caio’s business is one of her accounting firm’s biggest clients, and she had just attended a court hearing during which Caio was questioned about his connection to an alleged money-laundering scheme.
Caio is portrayed by Micael, a 34-year-old Brazilian actor from Rio de Janeiro. He is known for his roles in City of God (2002), and Irmãos de Fé (2004). On Netflix, you can catch him in the movie Carnaval (2021) and the 6-episode series Only For Love (2022).
Leandro Lima — Marco
Image via Netflix
Marco, the third point in the film’s love triangle, is the story’s subjective male protagonist. The money-laundering case in which Caio is a suspect is being overseen by this enigmatic and alluring judge. After initially meeting him at a hearing, Babi runs into him again at his office. After that, she joins his motorbike club, speeds around picturesque coastal roads, and spends a night with him that rivals one of her dreams.
The dashing “hot judge” is portrayed by the 41-year-old Brazilian model and actor Leandro Lima Lemos. The 6’1 actor was also a vocalist in the axé band Ala Ursa before moving to Europe to pursue a career as a model. He has paraded for major labels such as Versace, Calvin Klein, and Christian Dior S.A., and did advertising campaigns in Milan, Paris, London, and Madrid. He has made various brief appearances on television shows, including in Netflix’s Girls from Ipanema (2020).
Every girl needs a girl best friend, and Paty is Babi’s ride-or-die in this thrilling tale. She’s the complete opposite of Babi, introduced while hanging out at the fitting and scanning through dating apps. Compared to the promiscuous, open-minded Paty, Babi hasn’t been around the block quite as much. She provides comic relief in this wild story and is the ideal counterpoint to Babi.
Camilla de Lucas is originally a Brazilian social media star, who gained popularity through her Instagram. She is a famous blogger, YouTuber, and model, and was a contestant in the twenty-first edition of Big Brother Brazil in 2021, ending up placing second.
Bruno Montaleone — Thiago
Image via Netflix
Babi’s best friend and sweet, bespectacled work partner, Thiago is portrayed by Bruno Montaleone. He, along with Paty helps Babi pull herself together after her fiancé’s betrayal. Bruno provides Babi with constant support throughout the movie, serving as the sweet counterbalance to our fearless lead.
Bruno Montaleone has previously appeared in the 2021 rom-com The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student, which is available to watch on Netflix. He is also known for his roles in the Brazilian television series The Other Side of Paradise (2017) and Verdades Secretas (2021).
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Fan love for Matthew Lillard is only ever as far away as the actor’s next project. With the big screen adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s reminding the public just how much the 53-year-old actor rules, we’re taking a look at some of his best work across the years.
Scream
On the off chance that you haven’t seen Scream, we’re not going to talk too much about it here except to request [re: order] you to watch it ASAP. It’s a must-watch if you like scary movies, if you like Lillard (of course you do!), and if you want to revisit his character in FNAF but without rewatching the film.
SLC Punk!
If you — like everyone — have been to Salt Lake City and immediately wanted to punch somebody, check out SLC Punk!, a crash course in youthful rebellion, anger, and the importance of knowing what vitamins do and don’t look like.
The Descendants
In 2011, one of the best things that a movie could be, from a business perspective, was a giant bummer. We’re talking Midnight in Paris, The Help, Green Lantern. All flew to dizzying heights of success, thanks to their brave willingness to be kind of a drag.
And that went double for the year’s Academy Award winner for Best Adapted Screenplay, The Descendants, starring George Clooney as a man forced to come to terms with his wife’s imperfect humanity after she lapses into a coma. The film features an absolute gut punch of a performance by Lillard in a role that we won’t spoil here. Suffice it to say, it’s a downer.
Hackers
Is it the best movie ever made? That’s debatable. Some of us would say yes, but it’s not something we need to fight about. The thing is, I put The Descendants on this list despite it being a huge bummer with Beau Bridges in it. That’s there for you guys. In return, I get Hackers.
Hackers is the story of some teenagers with construction-grade hair gel using computer magic to befuddle Penn Jillette. It stars Angelina Jolie back before she finished pupating. In the world of Hackers, everybody has rollerblades, the operating systems strive to match the opening titles from The Matrix, Windows 95 reigns supreme, and Matthew Lillard has pigtails. It’s like someone made a Redbox knockoff of Cyberpunk 2077 25 years before it came out. Hack the planet, baby.
Critical Role
In a career marked by more beloved, iconic roles than most actors could hope to bump up against, none of Matthew Lillard’s projects have had the same fan appreciation as Critical Role. One of a few thousand tabletop roleplaying series from the last few years, it is perhaps the most beloved entry in a desperately crowded genre.
Lillard, a longtime self-professed nerd with his own brand of luxury, RPG-themed whiskey, only popped up on Critical Role twice. Both times, he unofficially reprised his character from 1995’s Hackers. That’s right, this is still about Hackers. Hack the planet, baby.
A panopticon of Scooby-Doo! projects
Most of the time, attaching your face to an iconic horror villain will do a number on your viability as a family-friendly draw. Robert Englund never made the transition from Freddy Krueger to Sesame Street. Anthony Perkins died without ever having convinced anyone that the Bates Motel was a great family destination.
Then, out of nowhere, Matthew Lillard pulled off the seemingly impossible transition, seamlessly jumping from a role as a generation’s most notorious slasher to the most huggable stoner in Scooby-Doo! The 2002 live-action deconstruction of the Hanna-Barbera classic saw Lillard donning the chin beard and bellbottoms of Shaggy Rogers, children’s television’s beloved legalization advocate. What’s more, he never quite seemed to let go.
While Lillard’s co-stars would all join him for the film’s sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, none of them would hold onto their characters with quite the same fervor as Lillard. Since his first appearance as Shaggy over 20 years ago, he’s gone on to reprise the role in over 50 separate projects, ranging from Lego animated movies to Batman cartoon cameos. You can even relax to the ASMR-adjacent sound of Shaggy getting punched repeatedly in the stomach, thanks to Lillard’s voice work in the multiplayer fighting game MultiVersus.
Five Nights at Freddy’s
The critics didn’t love Five Nights at Freddy’s, the film adaptation of the video game phenomenon that boldly asks “What if The Rock-afire Explosion tried to eat your soul?” Critics don’t like lots of great stuff. Denny’s never get glowing reviews from food critics. People are snobs.
The fact of the matter is, if you love the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, you’ll probably have a good time watching Matthew Lillard chewing pizza grease-stained scenery as — giant air quotes — “career guidance counselor Steve Raglan.”
From The Head
This is a weird one. The directorial debut and, to date, the only film made by George Griffith, From The Head is a tough sell on paper. The whole movie takes place in the bathroom of a strip club, with characters entering the orbit of the bathroom attendant. It’s a unique indie project that didn’t get a ton of attention when it came out in 2011. It got great reviews, and it’s generally accepted as the best movie set in a bathroom currently available for purchase on Amazon.
Without a Paddle
Without a Paddle may not be a great movie, or even — to hear critics describe it — a very good one. The comedy was puerile when it came out 20 years ago, and it hasn’t aged gracefully. It’s a Harold and Kumar, Dude, Where’s My Car?, Mallrats-style stoner comedy with more than its share of dumbness and, judging by the way the combination of music and happy couples at its climax, an apparently fundamental misunderstanding of the lyrics of “Ooh La La” by Faces.
But by God, if you were about 15 years old when you first saw it, that movie was revolutionary, with its body hair jokes and its execution of the old “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you” bit. It even taught a generation of kids about D.B. Cooper. It’s basically educational.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Say what you will about the Brenaissance. But Brendan Fraser won’t be getting the credit he deserves until Looney Tunes: Back in Action gets some long-overdue reconsideration. Matthew Lillard plays himself, in a tense meeting with Shaggy and Scooby where they express their unhappiness with his performance in Scooby-Doo! Yes, it only lasts a few seconds. So what? Some of cinema’s most iconic performances are brief. Alec Baldwin was only in Glengarry Glen Ross for one scene. Are we comparing Looney Tunes: Back in Action to Glengarry Glen Ross? Yes.
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One of the many conspiracies to have swirled around the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the Multiverse Saga ushered in a clear and obvious downturn in quality is that Kevin Feige’s apparent obsession with Rick and Morty is to blame, and it’s not one that’s entirely without merit.
Michael Waldron did win praise for the first season of Loki, but that didn’t extend to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, leaving fans plenty concerned that the latter two Rick and Morty veterans have been tasked to whip Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars into shape. However, what hasn’t been mentioned as much is that Eric Martin – lead writer of the Asgardian trickster’s second season – knows Waldron from grad school and also played a part on multiple episodes of the animated favorite.
And yet, after he revealed that Multiverse of Madness took up so much of Waldron’s time that he was left to essentially bring Loki‘s first run of episodes across the finish line, he’s ironically become the first Rick and Morty veteran to win widespread praise for their MCU efforts.
Quantumania and Multiverse of Madness haters: Take the Rick and Morty writers off of Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars!#LokiSeason2 Fans: bring the Rick and Morty writer on for Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars! https://t.co/oiGWCuVS5E
We’re not saying the sentiment is 100 percent accurate and entirely on the money, but it’s easy to see how those dots have been connected. Rick and Morty is polarizing enough on its own thanks to its recent controversies, and that seems to have extended through to the MCU.
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For countless Friends fans, Matthew Perry has always been so much more than just an actor.
To many of us, he’s been Chandler Bing ⏤ the lovable, relatable, hilarious everyman who can still make us laugh out loud decades after the hit sitcom aired its final episode. He may have lived a tortured life behind the scenes ⏤ as detailed in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing ⏤ but on camera, you’d never know that Perry was anything more than a truly gifted comedian.
This is why it came as such a shock when it was reported that Perry had passed away at the age of 54 at his Los Angeles home on Oct. 28, 2023. Within minutes, Perry was trending on X (formerly known as Twitter) as die-hard fans expressed their heartbreak and paid their respects to a man who felt more like a friend than a stranger. While Chandler Bing will inevitably be the role that he is forever remembered for, Perry appeared in many other movies and TV shows over the course of his dynamic career. Here, in no particular order, are some of the highlights.
Fools Rush In
This romantic comedy starring Perry and Salma Hayek shows what can happen when a night of passion has unexpected consequences. Perry plays Alex, a construction supervisor who learns a few months after a one-night stand with Hayek’s Isabel that she is pregnant with their child. Alex does the sensible thing and immediately proposes to Isabel, but as the two soon find, their varying cultures and customs give “for better or worse” a whole new meaning. The movie doubled its $20 million budget at the box office and while some critics didn’t love it, audiences gave it a respectable 64% score. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert called it a “sweet, entertaining retread of an ancient formula.”
Numb
This lesser-known indie film made the rounds of the festival circuit and showed off Perry’s range. He’s not bumbling around or screaming, but rather plays a nuanced character going through a difficult ordeal. That ordeal is a personality disorder that makes him feel like he’s in a constant dream state and can’t feel anything. Perry’s screenwriter is desperate to fix his condition so he can marry the girl of his dreams, and while the movie never got a proper theatrical release, it won an audience award at the Gen Art Film Festival.
Go On
Perry received a lot of television opportunity following the success of Friends, and one of those chances was on the show Go On. The comedy sees him play a sports talk show host who has to learn how to move on following the death of his wife ⏤ hence the title ⏤ and features a more mature side of him and a different kind of comedic performance than Friends fans are used to. The ensemble is rounded out by No Hard Feelings‘ Laura Benanti, Star Trek’s John Cho, and Abbott Elementary’s Tyler James Williams.
The Odd Couple
This funny remake ran for three seasons, with the exceptional Thomas Lennon playing Felix as the obsessive-compulsive neat freak to Perry’s slob. The original will always be a classic, but Perry’s version has a breezy, lighthearted feel that makes it perfect for contemporary viewers. Perry executive produced the series and has solid chemistry with Lennon, which makes sense given that they’d previously worked together in 17 Again.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
This one boasts a cavalcade of stars and one of the all-time great television writers in Aaron Sorkin. A biting social commentary of the world of late-night comedy, Sunset features Perry as a writer who takes over for a Saturday Night Live-style show. Unfortunately, this one came out as the same time as 30 Rock, a different show about the same sort of subject. While it beat out 30 Rock in the ratings, it was pretty expensive to produce, so NBC ultimately axed it. It also lost some steam toward the end of the season, but Perry is great in it and it’s maybe his best role outside of Friends.
Friends
Chandler Bing is, and always will be, Perry’s best role. This is the show that made him a bona fide superstar. His “could I be any more (insert thing here)” line was endlessly quotable. His chemistry with Joey is legendary. His romance with Monica is sweet and fun. It’s no surprise why the show ran for 10 seasons, and while he got a little fuzzy in some of the episodes due to what we now know was a severe drug addiction, Perry managed to pull out unforgettable performances regardless. If you didn’t have the great fortune of living through the ’90s, when new episodes dropped on Thursday nights, it’s hard to describe just how popular and pervasive this show was. It’s arguably the best sitcom of all time, with a pitch-perfect cast that Perry was instrumental in rounding out. There’s a reason we still watch and love the episodes all these years later, and now that Perry has been taken from us way too soon, we’re more thankful than ever to have his catalogue of performances to remember him by.
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