Nathan Holic

Category: Movies – Holic on Horror

  • “Pandorum”: The Latest in the Space Horror Genre

    “Pandorum” certainly wants to be the sort of sci-fi/ horror film that will be remembered for decades to come by a cult following of horror nerds. Even at its most gruesome, it really wants to be liked, paying careful attention to plot and style and offering strange twists to keep the viewer from ever tuning…

  • Paranormal Activity

    Paranormal Activity proved a point that I always try to make in my creative writing classes: form must have function, form is not the same thing as story, and (finally) form should be used in service of story and not the other way around. Here’s what I mean by that. Paranormal Activity is an extremely…

  • Mirrors, Internal Logic, and the Desires of Ghosts

    There are two types of horror films currently being produced in Hollywood. The first is the gritty and violent “torture flick,” a sort of pornography that asks viewers to squirm and cover their eyes as it devises increasingly painful and creative methods of maiming, injuring, and killing the on-screen victims. This type of film is…

  • The Strangers, Tension, and Dead Protagonists

    The Strangers is an absolutely terrifying film for about an hour, but it also created an almost unbearable experience in the theater: people laughing during quiet and frightening scenes, audience members shouting comments. It was annoying and rude, sure, but regardless of what any of these idiots would tell you about why they were laughing…