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Because of the occupational hazards of the job, or because of the Type-A personality required, film directors tend to have famously large egos. Because of this, it’s somewhat surprising that the main creative force behind a film would choose to cast themselves in anything but the title role. Here are examples of directors who cast [...]

According to some knowledgeable people, A History of Violence is the last movie a major studio pressed onto the VHS format. The reason is simple: VHS is a mostly dead format and most people prefer DVDs nowadays. Seeing a demand for them,  many major studios have been pushing out as much of their catalog onto [...]

It seems like every other week nowadays we see a trailer for a new movie that seems so terrible that we can only roll our eyes and wonder how such a film could have gotten funded in the first place. The answer is simple: Hollywood funds films that they believe will make money. As a [...]

As we demonstrated here, the writers of Toptenz appreciate a good movie monster. But we also appreciate a really bad movie monster. Not just a lazily made, overdone monster like the sharks from any number of Jaws ripoffs or some SyFy original movie. These are hilarious creatures that were truly deranged in design or execution [...]

Canada is the northern-most country in North America and is surrounded by three oceans (Pacific to the west, Arctic to the north and Atlantic to the east). With ten provinces and three territories, Canada is the world’s second largest country by total area (Russia is by far the largest). Canada’s border with the United States [...]

Originally popularized by Alfred Hitchcock, the term “MacGuffin” refers to the object in a movie that drives the action. In most cases, what the MacGuffin actually is irrelevant. It exists solely to get the characters moving and drive the plot forward. The only real requirement is that it must be something people are willing to [...]

As quickly as 2010 came and went, here we find ourselves in the middle of another exciting awards season. The Golden Globes have been awarded and the 83rd Oscar ceremony is next. When it comes to Hollywood’s highest honors, the Academy’s omissions often provoke more outcry and buzz than the actual winners. The Academy Awards [...]

Every decade Hollywood produces a new crop of child actors. Some are remembered; most are forgotten. We know the Shirley Temples, the Tatum O’Neals, the Corey Feldmans, the Dakota Fannings and the Abigail Breslins. We remember Linda Blair’s inspired (or possessed) performance in The Exorcist. Other child stars shone just as bright… just not as [...]

Some of the most influential and beloved horror films came from an era before gory special effects, prosthetic limbs designed to be torn off actors, and meager shock scares.  These were the silent horror films.  Even today, while many silent films have disappeared from popular consciousness, silent horror films still maintain a widespread audience.  Whether [...]

Like a cinematic version of Where’s Waldo?, classic movie fans delight in spotting the rotund Alfred Hitchcock in cameo appearances in over half of his films – a body of work spanning half a century. The Master of Suspense tipped his directorial cap to influential filmmakers D.W. Griffith and Charles Chaplin, both of whom stepped [...]