Movies
‘The Conspiracy’ – Must-See Paranoid Thriller Celebrates 10th Anniversary on SCREAMBOX!
There was a time when conspiracy theories were entertaining. No, seriously, I swear it’s true! In fact, tons of films took inspiration from them, including Prometheus, Transformers 3, and even the very first Captain America, just to name a few.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Christopher MacBride‘s paranoid thriller The Conspiracy, a found-footage indie gem in the vein of Eyes Wide Shut, only leaning more into the horror genre.
The film was inspired by actual conspiracy theories, notably those surrounding the Bohemian Club and the Bilderberg Group, both secretive organizations closed to the public and made up of a who’s who of power players in international politics and business.
In the film, “When two young filmmakers (Aaron Poole & Jim Gilbert) select a crazed conspiracy theorist as the subject of their new movie, they have no idea the terrifying peril they will put themselves in. When the man disappears without a trace, the filmmakers begin an obsessive quest to uncover the truth that will lead them to an ancient and dangerous secret society. A meticulously researched thriller based on real conspiracy theories, The Conspiracy blurs the line between fact and fiction, news and propaganda.”
I’m a huge fan of The Conspiracy, an indie shocker that feels all too real. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2012 and was released soon after.
Now, it’s celebrating its 10th anniversary on SCREAMBOX.
It’s more potent and relevant than ever before. Here’s the trailer…
New users can get SCREAMBOX for only 99 cents a month for the first 3 months with the promo code scream99.
Visit screambox.com/offers/scream99 to start screaming.
Movies
Ari Aster Reveals That He Wrote a Prequel to ‘Hereditary’
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!



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