Tony Todd, Vanessa Williams, Kasi Lemmons
To turn his short story “The Forbidden” into an acclaimed Hollywood film, Clive Barker swapped the setting from a UK tenement to a Chicago housing project and brought in some major talent. There’re Tony Todd, Vanessa Williams, Kasi Lemmons, Virginia Madsen – even a score by avant garde composer Phillip Glass. When it was released, Candyman managed that rare feat of wowing both critics and movie-goers. Its success led to two sequels, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh and Candyman 3: Day of the Dead.
Inspired by a series of Japanese novels written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, this was one of the first anime films released outside of Japan. Combining Gothic horror with post-apocalyptic sci-fi in a Western framework, VHD features memorable voice-acting performances in both English and Japanese. Some have argued the movie adaptation is actually a genre-crossing homage to the film Shane.
Director: Guillermo del Toro
A Gothic horror tale in the most orthodox sense, The Devil’s Backbone (El espinazo del diablo) is set in 1939, the final year of the Spanish Civil War. Written by del Toro, Antonio Trashorras and David Muñoz, it was independently produced by Pedro Almodóvar, and filmed in Madrid.
Del Toro considers this to be his most personal work.
Slavery, Cannibalism & Genocide: Controversial Themes in “The Shining”
An essay by British film historian Rob Ager.
You may also want to check out the 2013 documentary Room 237.
A subjective documentary that explores the numerous theories about the hidden meanings within Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining (1980). The film may be over 30 years old, but it continues to inspire debate, speculation, and mystery. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice overs, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments. Together they’ll draw the audience into a new maze, one with endless detours and dead ends — many ways in, but no way out.
Dark Matters 
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