Horror

In addition to Steven King and Jordan Peele, we talk with Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins about how he humanized Hannibal Lecter, the oh-so-sophisticated cannibal of The Silence of the Lambs. And Carrie star Sissy Spacek remembers sneaking into the theaters in New York City to watch audiences jump at the sight of her hand stretching up from the grave at the end of that film. Plus, we hear from actor Mercedes McCambridge, who voiced the devil in The Exorcist; George Romero, who directed Night of the Living Dead; and Kathy Bates, who starred in the 1990 film Misery.

King talks about what terrified him as a child — and what frightens him as an adult. Peele talks about the fears that inspire his filmmaking. Originally broadcast in 1992, 2013 and 2017.

Whether you go to see it now or wait until it begins streaming, A Quiet Place Part II is likely to make you a little jumpy. It doesn't have the same claustrophobic intensity as its predecessor, but it's just as taut, suspenseful and beautifully made.

The HBO series Lovecraft Country takes the real horrors of the Black experience in the 1950s and adds to it the supernatural terrors of the horror genre. Series creator Misha Green says she sees the show — and the novel by Matt Ruff upon which it is based — as a chance to reclaim "the genre space for people of color and for people who had usually been left out of it."

Hooper, who died Saturday, wrote and directed the 1974 cult classic film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which helped inspire a wave of slasher films that followed. Originally broadcast in 1988.

Horror film director George Romero talks about creating his horror classic "Night of the Living Dead."

Christopher Lee died Sunday in London at the age of 93. He had more than 250 TV and film appearances, and was best known for his roles in Dracula and Star Wars. In 1990 he was working on Gremlins 2.

The film is about a teenage girl who sleeps with a boy and is suddenly under a curse. Critic David Edelstein says he didn't enjoy feeling "sick with dread," but the ending is unexpectedly moving.

In the Australian chiller, a bogeyman announces himself in a rhyming, pop-up book on a 7-year-old's shelf. But the real horror is that the boy's mom, a grieving widow, is battling psychic demons.

Pedro Almodovar's ensemble comedy I'm So Excited is set on an airplane with mechanical problems. Neil Jordan's Byzantium centers on a pair of itinerant English vampires. The two films couldn't be more different, but the two filmmakers are very much in command of their craft.

In an age of werewolves, hormonal vampires and endless sequels, horror movies have lost some edge. But Mama, starring Jessica Chastain, is an entertaining step in the right — which is to say backward — direction.

On its 50th anniversary, Robert Aldrich's classic horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? has just been released on Blu-ray. Though it's far from a musical, classical music critic Lloyd Schwartz says its musical elements are crucial to the film.

Rosemary's Baby, Night of the Living Dead and Targets all came out in 1968. Theater critic Jason Zinoman says the three films redefined Hollywood horror in the aftermath of the Vietnam War — and influenced the genre for the next several decades.

The less you know about the unnerving thrillers Source Code and Insidious the better, says critic David Edelstein. But only one of the two films "has so much emotional heft that it never loses that exhilarating jitter."

Vincenzo Natali's sci-fi thriller stars Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley as two scientists who splice genes together to create new animals. But when they add human DNA to the mix, they get a new creature that develops into a deadly chimera. Critic David Edelstein says the film combines a "high-tech Frankenstein" with "a freaky vein of low-tech Gothic psychodrama."

It's a double feature from critic David Edelstein, who says Pixar's sublime new film Up reaches heavenward, while Sam Raimi's deliciously gory Drag Me to Hell crawls in the opposite direction.

In Let the Right One In, Eli and Oskar are both lonely 12-year-olds — but one of them happens to be a vampire. Critic-at-large John Powers calls the Swedish film "the best vampire movie in the last 75 years."

A vampire love story set in high school has Fresh Air's critic feeling like he's 17 again. David Edelstein says "the biochemistry angle" could make Twilight the occasion for mass public swoon-a-thons.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews The Mist, which is based on the Stephen King novel.

The film stars Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Andre Braugher.