By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 19 seconds ago

What do you think the most important superhero movie ever made was? You might be tempted to throw out films like Avengers: Endgame, which many still consider the peak of tights-and-flights cinema. Alternatively, you might throw out classic films, like the 1978 Superman or 1989 Batman, which proved superheroes had a place on the big screen. Arguably, though, the most important superhero film was Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie. It created the template (a combination of action, humor, and killer set pieces) that almost all 21st century cape content would follow, and it influenced the Marvel Cinematic Universe so much that Toby Maguire’s web-head played a pivotal role in Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

That film also saw the return of Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin, a foe first introduced in Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie. Dafoe was instantly iconic in this role, and his captivatingly crazy performance is a big part of why that film works so well. However, would you believe that Dafoe almost didn’t get the part? Nicolas Cage recently disclosed that he had spoken directly to Raimi about playing the cackling supervillain, and Dafoe only got cast once Cage backed out of the project.

No Cage For This Spider

Nicolas Cage dropped this juicy morsel of gossip in a recent interview with People. Ironically enough, he spoke to the outlet at the recent premiere of Spider-Noir, the live-action solo show dedicated to the character he voiced in the Spider-Verse films. He disclosed that, back in 2002, he spoke to director Sam Raimi and had the option of starring as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man. However, he turned the opportunity down to star in Adaptation instead, a decision he believes was “the right choice.”

While Cage believed this was the right choice for his career, it was also the right choice for the movie. At the time, Cage was arguably a bit too iconic to play the role, having established himself as major Hollywood force in the ‘80s with hit films like Peggy Sue Got Married and Raising Arizona. In the ‘90s, he became an action hero in films like The Rock and Con Air, and he got to play both villain and hero in Face/Off. Throw in his highly-public attempt to star as Superman, and Cage was just too big for the role of Green Goblin compared to Willem Dafoe, who had spent decades playing quirky outsiders.

A Little Too Zany

Now, I love Nicolas Cage, both in his vintage hits and in more recent films, like the sublime Mandy. But when someone casts Cage in a movie, they do so knowing that he only has one setting: intense. Sometimes, you get the over-the-top line deliveries and manic energy that has been lovingly labeled “Cage Rage” by his fans. But even when Cage isn’t actively freaking out onscreen, his intensity smolders so hot that it seems it could boil over at any time. Does this make for captivating movies? Of course! But the intensity makes it that much harder for Cage to play a man with two lives.

That’s part of why he would have been terrible as Green Goblin, a character who is a CEO and father figure by day and a murderous supervillain by night. Cage wouldn’t have been able to pull this off because we would always see the Goblin simmering under the surface of Norman Osborne. But Willem Dafoe is so deft in his performance as the supervillain that he often seems like two completely different characters trapped in one body. The transformation from Jekyll to Hyde is stunning to witness, and it’s no surprise that most of the early Spider-Man memes focused on Dafoe’s character.

Begun, The Noir Wars Have

There are other reasons why Nicolas Cage would have been a terrible Green Goblin, including the fact that he would have overshadowed everyone else in the film. Mostly, though, the movie would have been a waste of his particular talents. Cage always brings a wacky trademark energy to films that would have been out of place in Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man movie. However, that energy made him weirdly perfect to voice Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. That character proved so popular that he’s now getting his own solo show on Prime Video.

Nicolas Cage makes his live-action debut as Spider-Noir on May 27th. The eight-episode series will be in black and white, giving audiences an extensive look at how well Cage can bring this surprise favorite character to life. Will he lend some of his over-the-top energy to this Prime Video show? If so, be sure to close your eyes and really soak up the experience. After all, this might be the closest we’ll ever come to seeing (or not seeing, if you still have your eyes closed like a good boy!) this acclaimed actor play as the Green Goblin.

Max Thieriot broke his silence on how season 5 of Fire Country will differ following a showrunner shakeup, a possible time jump and more.

The season 4 finale, which aired on Friday, May 22, ended on a surprisingly happy note with everyone celebrating at Jake’s (Jordan Calloway) wedding without any last minute deaths or dangerous emergencies in Edgewater.

“When we started off the year, we weren’t certain if we wanted to leave some things really up in the air or have a hopeful and joyful ending,” Thieriot, 37, exclusively told Us Weekly. “We want to leave somewhere that really feels like next season we get to see that new chapter and all these characters’ lives.”

Thieriot called it the “strongest decision.”

Related: Which ‘Fire Country’ Stars Are — And Aren’t — Returning for Season 5?

Fire Country has experienced cast — and showrunner — departures amid budget cuts, so which cast members are and aren’t returning for season 5? The CBS series, which premiered in 2022, introduced Us to the town of Edgewater after inmate Bode (Max Thieriot) returned home and began volunteering for the California Conservation Camp Program. By […]

“You want to be left with something but also this will give us a chance to really get to see these characters evolve and get to see them take the next steps in their lives. There is real progression for them,” he hinted. “After losing Vince [played by Billy Burke] at the beginning of the year, a wedding is symbolic of new beginnings.”

He continued: “We want to start next season with new stuff and bring in some new characters and really build out new story lines for each character. It’s a fun and fresh way to end and it gives us a really great fresh start for the next season.”

Looking ahead at season 5, Thieriot promised some surprises, saying, “You don’t want to miss too much, so I think we’re going to pick up shortly after. But we get to find these people in that next phase of their life and then it really builds stories for the season that are new chapters for each character.”

Keep scrolling as Thieriot breaks down that name drop, the showrunner change and more:

Will There Be a Time Jump?

Thieriot noted that season 5 wouldn’t be a “direct pickup” but there wouldn’t be too much time lost, adding, “It is new season, new challenges, new faces — not that we’re exiting people but just allowing the show to evolve and find new fresh things.”

How Will a New Showrunner Evolve the Voice of the Show?

Following Tia Napolitano‘s exit from the show, Fire Country is preparing to usher in Eric Guggenheim as the new showrunner for season 5.

“We’ve done so many episodes and I have so much respect for Tia. What she’s done with the show to get us to this point [is so important]. Eric is new to me, and new to a lot of us and he has his own ideas and he’s very collaborative,” Thieriot told Us. “Having new voices is fun, right? Because you get new ideas, new thoughts and new perspective. It allows us to also stand back and hear different perspective on things.”

Thieriot promised “new possibilities” for the show.

“Eric really brings in a lot of experience with all of his previous work and the shows that he’s been involved with. At the same time, he knows what the show is and respects what’s been built,” he continued. “He’s not trying to totally change what this series is. He’s just bringing in a fresh take and fresh look and fresh perspective. It’s helping explore new avenues for the characters.”

How Will the Show Keep Honoring the Characters Who Left?

“Obviously, Vince and Gabs are huge parts of the show and will always be. You don’t want those characters to just disappear,” he said about Billy Burke and Stephanie Arcila’s departures from the show. “They affect and will continue to affect the decisions other characters make going forward.”

Thieriot specifically mentioned Gabriela getting name-dropped in the finale.

“Honestly [keeping their memory alive without them around] was more challenging than everybody expected as we started going into season 4. They’re two very important characters to show and it changes dynamics. It changes how we see certain scenes,” he noted. “It creates its own set of challenges with the writing process. Throughout the season, we started to figure out what that was.”

The actor also pointed out the addition of new faces, adding, “Bringing in some new characters will allow us to have new fresh stories. It’s not just the same people we’re talking about everything with each other. That’s something that I’m looking forward to is getting to see who we’re going to bring in and how they’re going to not only impact our characters but how they’re going to play a part in the series.”

What About Bode’s Love Life?

In addition to Gabriela, Bode said goodbye to girlfriend Audrey (Leven Rambin) in season 4. Now the main character has found love with Chloe (Alona Tal), who will presumably stick around into season 5.

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“Their relationship is a more mature relationship in a lot of ways than he’s had,” Thieriot said. “Her outlook on life and the life that she lived at this point is more mature in a lot of ways. It has been easy for him and has kept him a little more stable.”

Could Gabriela Return?

“We try and leave as many doors open as we always can,” Thieriot explained. “Just because they’re not together anymore doesn’t mean that we’ll never see her again.”

When asked if the new spinoff medical series in the works could be a way to bring Gabriela back, Thieriot teased, “We’re actively fleshing out those stories and the development process. What we’re cooking up is really exciting and feels very, very Edgewater. But it is also unique in the landscape of medical TV shows.”

Sheriff Country came to an epic end with a secret mom twist — but what comes next in season 2?

During the season 1 finale on Friday, May 22, Mickey (Morena Baccarin) took down Alec (Wes Chatham) after discovering her boyfriend and DEA agent was secretly working for Miranda (Kelli O’Hara). She was then tasked by the Deputy Director of the DEA — Eva (Rachel Ticotin) — to work with her dad, Wes (W. Earl Brown), despite their estrangement.

Wes was brought in to discuss his role as a confidential informant but that went off the rails when he recognized Eva as Mickey’s mother — who was supposed to be dead.

“We’re told in the pilot of season 1 that Mickey’s mother is dead and it’s quite clear she’s dead. She’s not part of the picture. One of the writers pitched it to me relatively early in season 1 [that she was secretly alive], and I dismissed it,” showrunner Matt Lopez exclusively told Us Weekly. “Over the course of the season, more and more writers started to get on board. I was a fairly late convert because I don’t want to just turn over a card to turn over a card. If it gives us really good story and reveals something about the characters we care about and it’s grounded in real human emotion then I’m interested.”

Lopez is excited to unpack that in season 2.

“It resets our family dynamic that’s at the heart of this show,” he teased. “And it addresses all the interesting character wrinkles that it gave us to play. We’ll see in the early episodes, Wes thinks he and Mickey are on the same page that they were both betrayed by this woman. Mickey isn’t as on board and in some ways you can make the case that Wes’ betrayal was worse. We’ll unpack all of this.”

He continued: “She hasn’t been part of the picture since Mickey was like 5 or 6 years old and who owes Mickey a bigger debt of gratitude? Wes believed she was dead and we will unspool that whole story of what went into that decision to essentially stage her death. It’s really fun and it’s got a lot of delicious turns to it.”

Looking ahead at the show’s future, Lopez said the return will “subvert expectations,” adding, “There is a time jump but then we will fill in like what happened in the scene that we didn’t see. The emotional aftershocks are going to last much more than an episode and we’ve set up this incredible dynamic where Mickey’s essentially barely speaking to her father and now their handler is the woman who Mickey has thought was dead for the last 30 years. It’s got a great sort of engine out the gate.”

There will be some cast additions as Skye (Amanda Arcuri) and Hank (Ian Quinlan) get more screen time. When asked by Us about Baccarin’s husband, Ben McKenzie, pitching himself for a role on Sheriff Country, Lopez mentioned he “recently had lunch” with the actor.

“I had lunch with him on the weekend and I came in on Monday and was like, ‘Let’s start thinking of something for Ben.’ He may pass and I don’t know if we can afford Ben but that would be great,” he teased.

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As for Mickey’s romance with Boone (Matt Lauria)? The actor and Lopez broke down what to expect in a separate interview with Us. Lopez is also working on a pilot for a medical drama set in the Fire Country and Sheriff Country universe.

“I would love to have that headache to figure out how to do a crossover of all three shows. There’s a natural sort of nexus between a hospital, a fire station and a police station. What excites us and the studio and network about a medical show set in this town is the same way that say Mickey does law enforcement differently, how is healing patients different?” he told Us. “How is practicing medicine with our doctors and nurses different in a small town like Edgewater?”

Sheriff Country is currently streaming on Paramount+.

Brooke Hogan is addressing the online backlash she is facing months after the death of her father, wrestling icon Hulk Hogan.

The former reality TV star defended herself against criticism over a bikini photo shared in a post paying tribute to her dad, after she was accused of seeking attention.

Brooke Hogan previously opened up about their strained relationship and her growing regrets over removing herself from Hulk Hogan’s will before his death.

Brooke, daughter of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan, has finally spoken out after facing backlash online for sharing a bikini photo as part of an emotional tribute to her late father.

The 38-year-old recently posted a series of Instagram photos honoring Hogan, who died from a heart attack at age 71 last July.

However, some social media users criticized the first image in the post, which showed Brooke relaxing on a beach in a bikini, with several commenters mocking the photo and questioning her choice to include it in a post about grief.

In response, Brooke returned to Instagram with a strongly worded message defending herself and challenging the criticism.

Sharing unflattering edited beach photos of her body, she questioned whether people would have viewed her grief as more sincere if she looked different, writing: “Would my post have been more sincere if THIS girl were at the beach mourning her dad?”

Brooke Hogan Says She Doesn’t Have To Explain How She Grieves To ‘Ignorant People Who Haven’t Walked’ In Her Shoes

Brooke explained that the beach and ocean hold deep emotional significance because she spent much of her childhood by the water with her father along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

She said the photo she posted was never intended to be provocative and revealed that after taking it, she spent time processing her emotions and looking through old pictures of her dad.

The former reality TV star also opened up about the complicated nature of her relationship with Hogan in his final years.

Although she said they loved each other deeply, Brooke explained that she eventually chose to distance herself from him for the sake of her “safety and sanity” after years of trying to repair their relationship.

In a lengthy caption, Brooke criticized people for judging experiences they knew nothing about, saying she was under no obligation to “explain to ignorant people who haven’t walked in my shoes – how I lost my dad – before I lost my dad.”

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Hulk Hogan’s Daughter Says ‘Trolls’ Need To Go Back Under Their ‘Bridge’

Brooke later addressed critics more directly, expressing frustration with online commenters who she said acted as though they fully understood her relationship with her father.

She wrote in the caption of her post, “I understand that not a lot of the world gets that. But this is my home. This is me. This is my one of many days I grieved my dad. Shame on anyone for demonizing it.”

Brooke emphasized that both she and Hulk Hogan were human and that outsiders could never truly know what happened behind closed doors.

“I am a human. My father was human,” she noted. “And you people have the nerve to act like you’re experts on ANY topic or know anything about my experience with him? Even my closest family has no clue what I know and have experienced.”

“And you come at me with your ignorant opinions and nasty comments, hiding behind your screens? Go back under your bridge, trolls,” the angry reality star concluded.

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Brooke Hogan Reflects On Strained Family History And Past Trauma

Brooke, who is married to former NHL player Steven Oleksy, shares twins Oliver and Molly with him.

She previously appeared with her family on a VH1 reality series before becoming estranged from both of her parents following their 2009 divorce and the show’s conclusion.

One of the most painful moments in Brooke’s relationship with her father came after the release of Hogan’s leaked 2015 sex tape, which included racist comments about Brooke and her then-boyfriend, Yannique Barker.

Reflecting on the scandal in an earlier interview with Us Weekly, Brooke said the emotional impact on the family was often overlooked while public sympathy focused largely on Hogan himself.

“My dad got so much, like, ‘Oh my gosh, poor Hulk,’” she told the publication. “He’s going through this. He’s fighting the s-x tape thing.’ I’m like, ‘What about us?’ We were the subject of it.”

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Brooke Hogan Reflects On Painful Fallout From Removing Herself From Hulk Hogan’s Will And Calls Situation A ‘Nightmare’

Brooke has also recently spoken candidly about the fallout from removing herself from her father’s will before his death.

In 2023, while estranged from Hogan, she reportedly asked to be removed from the will in an effort to avoid future family conflict and initially said she had no regrets about the decision.

Now, months after Hogan’s death, Brooke admits the situation has become far more difficult than she anticipated.

Speaking to Page Six, she described feeling powerless when it comes to protecting or helping manage her father’s legacy, calling the aftermath a “nightmare.”

“I can’t do anything to help my dad after his death, or to find out answers,” she said, adding that “the people that I so badly wanted to get away from are now running the show, which is even more of a nightmare.”

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According to reports, Hogan’s son, Nick Hogan, inherited the estate, while Hogan’s third wife, Sky Daily, is listed as a surviving spouse.

Brooke also alleged that when she requested sentimental belongings connected to her father, including a crucifix, she instead received only “a pair of flip-flops and a couple of T-shirts he never wore.” 

Despite the ongoing tension, Brooke insisted her concerns are not about money or inheritance, but about losing any ability to protect her father’s memory and legacy.

Looking back, she admitted there are things she “would definitely be doing differently” if given another chance.

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For decades, no one has perfected the art of horror in a small town quite like Stephen King. The king of horror for a reason, the renowned author explores the brutality beneath the surface of seemingly banal locations. Salem’s Lot was the first to show how even the most innocuous places can have a seedy underbelly — and that’s before the vampires arrive. Stories like It and Pet Sematary also demonstrate how small communities in Maine harbor dark secrets, and now a new 10-part horror Apple TV series has ambitiously taken on that mantle.

Currently in its debut season, Widow’s Bay is a delightful homage to the best parts of King’s work. Also set in a remote community in Maine, the series follows Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), who is intent on making his local island town the next Martha’s Vineyard. Things go awry when the titular town falters under a mysterious curse. During Tom’s mad dash to make his town relevant, he and the rest of the citizens endure spooky happenings that could only come from a King novel.

‘Widow’s Bay’ Perfectly Melds Humor and Horror

Stephen King may have perfected the spooky town with a ragtag but unified group of citizens, but Widow’s Bay makes the concept its own. Every episode, Tom encounters a different aspect of the cursed town while butting heads with local character, Wyck (Stephen Root). The townspeople of Widow’s Bay are a superstitious bunch because of how their town was founded, but there is a thin line between superstition and belief.

Most of the citizens don’t believe the town is truly cursed until they start sharing terrifying experiences. What sets Widow’s Bay apart is the humor interspersed with genuine scares. Tom and the rest of the characters are quirky and idiosyncratic, making for laugh-out-loud moments. Just as Severance finds humor in the strange, Widow’s Bay does this too, while sticking to horror tropes.

Wyck fills the role of the colorful local character who insists that everything is real, while Tom is the typical everyman who is dragged through the weirdness, kicking and screaming. Slowly but surely, Tom starts to accept that this town isn’t like the others. He and Wyck finally agree to find out how the town has become cursed, all the while dealing with personal foibles and trauma.

The tongue-in-cheek humor is incredibly self-aware but doesn’t make its characters a joke. As quick as the series is to wink at the audience, it also does a 180 and shows the painful past of the townspeople. Each episode brings characters closer to the truth as they have to acknowledge that something has been strange about this place for a very long time. The episodes fly by, making for an engaging viewing experience.

Widow’s Bay doesn’t try to be anything other than it is, and episodes are as long as they need to be. This means easily digestible arcs in episodes that typically don’t go over 40 minutes. It doesn’t tip its hand too early, as viewers follow Tom as he tries to figure out what’s going on. While the season has yet to conclude, viewers will want to binge all the episodes at once. Widow’s Bay is slated for 10 episodes, with the finale set to debut on June 17. Viewers should make sure to catch this unique take on familiar archetypes before it comes to a close.

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Release Date

April 29, 2026

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Network

Apple TV

Showrunner

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Katie Dippold

Directors

Hiro Murai

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Writers

Katie Dippold, Kelly Galuska

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Thrillers thrill, and so do movies that belong to other genres, admittedly, so you will find a few below that also fit within the horror genre, and at least that’s sort of an action movie, too. If something could be considered either wholly or partially as a thriller, though, and was also a movie that stood out for being quite disturbing in a particularly relentless way, then it qualifies for present purposes.

Basically, if you want a nice and relaxing time while watching something, say after a difficult or kind of stressful day, then these movies aren’t very easy to recommend. But if you know what you’re in for, and you want something that’ll get under your skin, then any of the titles below that you might not be familiar with are well worth tracking down.

10

‘Lost Highway’ (1997)

Image via October Films

Lost Highway is one of many great and also greatly disturbing David Lynch films, with a bit more of an emphasis on being a psychological thriller than the arguably more confronting Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, which is mostly a psychological horror film. Honorable mention to that one, of course, but Lost Highway is here because it moves at a pretty mean pace and feels unpredictable, to the point where it is hard to break down exactly what it’s about.

That it’s about a lot of things is part of what keeps it all engaging and (obviously) intriguing, with surveillance and doppelgängers playing a pretty big role in the narrative, or what there is to find of a narrative, alongside other chaos. Lost Highway all makes a dreamy sort of sense, or maybe it just lacks sense in the right kind of way. Anyway, the result from all of this is a mystery/thriller film that succeeds in being consistently unnerving for its entire 134-minute runtime.

9

‘The Experiment’ (2001)

Image via Senator Film

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A study that involves a simulation of a prison environment is what The Experiment is largely about. There are 20 participants all up, with some being given roles as prison guards, and others made to be prisoners. If that all sounds a bit familiar, it’s because there was a real-life study dubbed the Stanford prison experiment that was conducted in 1971, but The Experiment is inspired by that, and not intended to be a retelling of what actually happened.

The result is a genuinely underrated film, and one that manages to be consistently intense throughout. There’s a lot said here regarding human nature and psychology, and then even if you don’t really want to engage with it thematically, it remains uneasily engaging in terms of how it feels. Calling it entertaining wouldn’t exactly be accurate, nor fair, but The Experiment is certainly gripping.

8

‘I Saw the Devil’ (2010)

Image via Showbox

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When you break down what I Saw the Devil is about, it all sounds very simple, in opposition to something like Lost Highway. It stays interesting because of the new extremes it continually manages to go to, and how far it pushes the straightforward premise that involves one man hunting for a serial killer and then planning to enact a complex vengeance-fueled plan upon him, once found.

So, yes, cat-and-mouse stuff, just with a good deal more bloodshed than you might expect, plus some scenes that go into outright horror territory (though not supernatural horror, even if “Devil” is in the title). As long as you’ve got the stomach to handle some very grisly sights, I Saw the Devil is very much worth devoting nearly two and a half inevitably stress-filled hours to.

7

‘Zodiac’ (2007)

As you can usually expect with David Fincher, there’s a real commitment to recreating the historical setting of Zodiac throughout (San Francisco in the late 1960s and onward, over a number of years), and that makes so much of what’s already an intense story feel all the more engrossing and nerve-wracking. As you might expect from the title, this is a movie about the Zodiac Killer, and a sufficiently long one to explore what happened when he was at large, and then also spend time on how he continued to haunt and affect certain people even after the killings were over.

Zodiac commits to being a mortifying movie about a serial killer for roughly its first half, and then proves somehow even more disturbing as a story about obsession and the eeriness of a mystery that keeps refusing to be definitively solved. It is also, it must be said, one of the clearest examples of a great movie being made from a disappointing book (as a work of non-fiction, Robert Graysmith’s 1986 book is poorly structured and sometimes even amateurishly written).

6

‘Memories of Murder’ (2003)

Image via CJ Entertainment

Okay, to keep the serial killer thing going for a bit, right after mentioning both I Saw the Devil and Zodiac, here’s Memories of Murder, which is another South Korean movie, like I Saw the Devil. Various detectives are trying to catch a particularly elusive serial killer, and the sense of desperation and obsession becomes heightened in the second half, sort of mirroring Zodiac (which came later in the decade) in that regard.

Also, like Zodiac, Memories of Murder was inspired by a then-unsolved case, of which there were some developments in (or at least genuine proof relating to it) that came to light years after the film was released. Even with more answers than there may have been back when the film was being made, Memories of Murder does still manage to feel tremendously unsettling, and it’s up there as one of the greatest thrillers of its decade for sure.

5

‘964 Pinocchio’ (1991)

Image via Honekoubou

Calling 964 Pinocchio a thriller might not be entirely accurate, since it’s primarily a horror film, but Letterboxd was used as a source to help with selecting the movies that are appearing in this ranking, and this film’s listed as a sci-fi/horror/thriller movie on that site. It’s also oddly thrilling, but in an admittedly horrific way, as it’s a movie that admirably – and exhaustingly – never lets up, and never stops pushing things well beyond the bounds of “just” going to 11.

The sci-fi elements come in because there’s a cyborg sex slave on the run, the thriller elements come about because people are trying to track down said cyborg, and then the whole thing’s ultimately a work of horror because of how it’s presented, being stylistically chaotic and honestly quite nauseating. 964 Pinocchio is hard to watch, yet potentially also a cult classic because of such difficulty.

4

‘Dead Ringers’ (1988)

Image via 20th Century Studios

Dead Ringers is a David Cronenberg movie about a pair of twins who are both womanizers and more than a little manipulative, and is eventually focused on things falling apart when one of the twins is himself deceived. Like a good many psychological thrillers, there’s plenty more to Dead Ringers beyond the premise, and the fun (or dread) that comes from a movie like this is, obviously, seeing where it could conceivably go.

Jeremy Irons plays both twins, and it’s one of the all-time great “twin roles done by one actor” performances, and Dead Ringers does a surprisingly good job at making you forget it’s really only one person interacting with himself for so much of the film. This is also a dark horse candidate for the crown of best David Cronenberg film, or should at least be considered alongside slightly more famous films of his from the same decade, like Videodrome and The Fly.

3

‘Revenge’ (2017)

Image via Rezo Films

Eventually, Revenge does become an action movie about obtaining the titular thing, but much of it’s also a thriller, and it takes until the second half before things get action-packed. Though “action-packed” in a fairly small-scale way, because while the film does look quite epic at times, and certain set pieces do go on for a while, it’s ultimately just one woman getting revenge, and she only has three targets to track down and eliminate.

“Can this really sustain a movie for 108 minutes?,” you might ask yourself, looking at an overview of the film before watching it, and then if you do watch it, 108 minutes later, you’ll probably say, “Yep, I guess it can.” You might realize that before all 108 minutes are up, honestly. This is a real rush of a film and also one of the most brutal action/thriller movies in recent memory, albeit some scenes of violence (mostly in the second half, and after the inciting incident, obviously, which is horrific), do contain immense catharsis, too.

2

‘Angst’ (1983)

Image via Les Films Jacques Leitienne

One more film that simultaneously works as a thriller and a horror movie, here’s Angst, which is another one here that’s about a serial killer, but not really about the hunt for one. Like, the killer here is the protagonist (not to be mixed up with a hero, because a protagonist and a hero are not necessarily the same thing), and the movie is about him breaking into a home and terrorizing the family that lives there.

Just how visceral Angst ends up being does have to be seen to be believed, and properly felt, but it’s also intense enough that you might not necessarily want to see and/or feel it. The presentation here does so much to make an already grim narrative (or lack thereof) feel extra queasy, and there’s a no-nonsense approach to depicting what happens that makes it feel particularly real.

1

‘Straw Dogs’ (1971)

Image via 20th Century Studios

The most iconic Sam Peckinpah movie is understandably The Wild Bunch, which was about as heavy-going as Westerns got, at the time it was released, and it still packs quite the punch to this day. There are various other heavy-going movies Peckinpah made, including others broadly classifiable as Westerns, plus Straw Dogs, which certainly wasn’t a Western, and ultimately felt (arguably) more confronting than even The Wild Bunch, for its time.

This one’s a thriller about a married couple who begin living what they think will be a peaceful countryside lifestyle, only to have various people in the area begin tormenting them, first in casual and slight ways, before things gradually start to get progressively violent. Straw Dogs is very much a bad time, albeit a very well-made and well-executed bad time that pushed boundaries enough, by 1971 standards, to still feel quite shocking when watched today, some five and a half decades later.

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Straw Dogs

Release Date

December 22, 1971

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Runtime

116 Minutes

Director

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Sam Peckinpah

Writers

Sam Peckinpah, Gordon Williams, David Zelag Goodman

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  T. P. McKenna

  Maj. John Scott

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General Hospital has Drew Cain (Cameron Mathison) still locked in thanks to his awful wife Willow Tait Cain (Katelyn MacMullen). But on a recent podcast, actor Cameron Mathison revealed some exciting new information about when Drew is going to recover, when he’s going to be back on his feet, and how much the actor really dislikes filming in that wheelchair, along with some spicy personal stuff.

We’ve got info on what Cameron Mathison confirmed about Drew’s recovering, including when we’ll see him up and about and what Cameron found humiliating about this storyline.

Drew Has Been Locked In For Four Months on General Hospital

All right. So, as you know, four months ago, on January 21st of this year, right after Willow was acquitted in her criminal trial and found not guilty of shooting Drew, we saw Wicked Willow did another bad thing. They had barely been home a minute when Willow attacked Drew and stabbed him with a syringe. So, that was Willow giving Drew the initial dose that mimicked a stroke.

And since then, Sidwell’s been providing Willow with that serum that keeps Drew locked in, unable to move or speak or do anything for himself. Basically, Willow’s hubby can only blink. And of course, Drew’s been blinking his butt off to anybody that gets close. He tried it with Alexis Davis (Nancy Lee Grahn). It was about a month into Drew’s confinement trying to blink a distress signal. Alexis told Willow, Drew was trying to communicate. And after Alexis told her Willow got hostile with her husband and then gave him another injection.

Michael Suspicious on GH

So, then at the beginning of April, Drew was increasingly desperate and when his nemesis Michael Corinthos (Rory Gibson) stopped by, Drew was blinking at him too. Now Michael noticed, but unfortunately he mentioned it to Nina Reeves (Cynthia Watros) who played it off as something Drew just did randomly.

So, Michael left without raising an alarm, although he did think that things were kind of off and found it a little strange. But Drew’s best chance so far was with Elizabeth Webber. About a month ago, she was at the house to see Drew and he managed to blink SOS and Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) got excited and told Nina, who alerted Willow to shut it down. So, when she talked to Liz, she refused to let Drew have any communication tools. And of course, Liz thought that was strange. But Willow insisted that he was frustrated and she doesn’t want to make Drew feel hopeless. It was bizarre, but it worked and Liz dropped it. But that was the closest that Drew has ever gotten to getting some help.

Things Take a Turn on General Hospital

And now things are shifting because Nina accidentally injected his drug into Jack Brennan (Chris McKenna). And of course that meant that Drew missed a dose and his finger started twitching. He got a hold of the phone. He was trying to call 911, but Willow walked in and caught him.

She shut it down and drugged him yet again. But the Jack incident is what should open the door to getting Drew back on his feet because Carly Spencer (Laura Wright) already questioning how two seemingly healthy men both happen to have strokes in Willow’s living room. Also, this past week, Nina injected the drug into Brennan’s IV to keep him locked in so she and Willow have more time to plot exactly how to get them out of this mess.

Cameron Mathison Revealed When Drew Gets Out of the Wheelchair on GH

All right, that’s where we are right now as of Friday. So Cameron Mathison just spilled some tea on when this long, long paralysis story is finally going to end. He was on a podcast recently and he has some funny things to say and some spoilery things to say about Drew’s predicament and recovery and the way this all filmed.

So, the first thing that I thought was funny was Cameron mentioned he was filming one of the wheelchair scenes and he’d been off the set for a week and he came back to shoot Drew scenes, but he was really tan. Now, bear in mind his character is in a wheelchair and stuck inside the house. So, how did he get tan? Right.

And Cameron said he suggested that the writers could mention that somebody left Drew on the back porch and just forgot him out in the sun for a while. And Cameron did say the makeup artists were trying to tone it down a little bit, but he was still super tan.

General Hospital: Cameron Mathison is So Over the Wheelchair

He also talked about being annoyed at Drew being stuck in the wheelchair for so long. So, Cameron had said he had been wanting a meeting with the producers to find out what was going to go on with Drew, when this was going to be done. And Cameron said it’s been five months of him just sitting and blinking as we have all seen. He also griped about the wheelchair they have for Drew.

He said it’s like something from the 1940s. And Cameron Mathison said it’s so bad. He wanted to buy the show a new wheelchair because the one they have Drew in is tiny. And he said that it feels like he is just busting out of it every time they have him there. Maybe that’s why he looks so uncomfortable.

So Cameron said that a few weeks of filming the Drew scenes where he was just sitting doing nothing. He said he was thinking, “Okay, you know, this is pretty easy for work.” And then six weeks later, Cameron said by then he was just kind of over it. And after five months of Drew just sitting and sitting, he said that at that point he was just starting to feel a little humiliated.

Cameron Gets Answers from General Hospital Producers

And Cameron also said that fans ask him all the time, “When will Drew be out of the chair?” Cameron also said he got that meeting he wanted with producers and got the answers he wanted and he revealed they are about to shoot scenes where Drew finally gets out of the wheelchair. Cameron Mathison said those scenes will tape very soon and they’ll be airing in about a month to six weeks.

So, it sounds like he’s about to be taping the Drew recovery ASAP. And that’s good because Cameron’s tired of sitting and blinking. I think fans are tired of seeing Drew do that, too. And Cameron mentioned that, you know, he knew that he was probably on the back burner as Drew so that General Hospital could emphasize other storylines. He was nice about it.

Cameron Mathison Explained Why He’s So Tan

And also of interest, Cameron explained the reason he’s so tan. He takes this peptide injection called Melanotan 2. Apparently, it also helps build muscle, which we know Drew’s got lots of. And Cameron also talked about how it increases your sexual desire, but Cameron said he doesn’t take it all the time, and when he does, he takes a very small dose. And the Drew actor also shared that he has always had a high sex drive. So, kind of a little bit of TMI on that.

So, when we see Drew looking really tan, I guess we know Cameron’s also feeling pretty lusty, which is kind of weird information to have. There are, you know, all sorts of injectables these days for all sorts of things. Who knew you could take a shot and get tan? Also, the friend of Cameron Mathison’s who was hosting the podcast said that the actor has a stalker and then the Drew actor said he really can’t talk about it because he had to take a police report out and everything. He said he has a PI working on it and a lawyer. So, it’s a big deal.

General Hospital: Cameron Mathison Struggles with the Dating Scene

So, when Cameron talked in another interview I saw recently about just it’s rough dating after divorce, he mentioned that he’d gotten rid of all his dating apps. But on this other podcast, now we find out what may be the real reason that he got rid of those apps because it looks like that he met this chick who’s allegedly stalking him on a dating app. So, this was a really interesting podcast.

Drew Should be Mobile by July Sweeps on GH

In the end, Drew should be out of that chair sounds like for July sweeps. That kicks off on Thursday, June 25th, which is about five weeks from now. And Cameron Mathison said Drew’s recovery should air in like four to six weeks. So, that’s definitely hitting in July sweeps.

The question is, who is going to help him? I’m thinking that Jack’s locked in syndrome is what leads somebody to do some poking around and figure out that Drew needs help. Our leaker said Carly may be the one to figure out what’s wrong and helps him. That would certainly be an interesting choice, but Cameron didn’t give any info on how Drew gets out of the chair or who helps him, just the timing of when it happens.