Sound On Sight / Sordid Cinema

Friday the 13th is the first and some say the best in a long running horror series that got sillier and more far-fetched the longer it pressed on. The film is in now way groundbreaking coming after cult favorites Black Christmas, Halloween and Bay of Blood, but does it do the trick in a killer-in-thee-woods item that hardly moves outside the realm of cliches. Find out the answer to this question and everything else you wanted to know about the franchise but couldn't bother wasting your time watching.

Funny how movie marketing works. A few years back, when Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride" saw release, it became convenient to associate Burton with 1993's "Nightmare Before Christmas," a movie he only co-produced and did story work on. "Nightmare" was actually directed by a fellow named Henry Selick - a less sellable name, perhaps, but a consistent presence in the realm of animation since the '80s. Now, Selick has a new film in theaters, the Neil Gaiman adaptation Coraline, and marketers are keen to point out that it was in fact Selick who brought Jack Skeliington to the screen. Nevertheless, Simon, Ali and Al willl take a look at both stop-motion kiddie creep-fests on this episode on Episode 93 of Sound on Sight.

Aside from pornography and mid-nineties cyperpunk, film noir is likely the most instantly recognizable cinematic genre. Its dramatic, high-contrast lighting, black and white cinematography, and Expressionist-influenced camera-work defined the look of the

With the 81st Academy Awards a little over a month away, Sound on Sight presents three special reviews of past Best Picture winners, each picked by a different host. Rick had singled out 1934's It Happened One Night, directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable. 1955's Marty was Simon's pick, and 1961's hit musical West Side Story was picked by Ali. How have these supposed classics held up over time? Find out, as we discuss the films and dole out way more Oscar trivia than previously thought possible.

Over the last thirty years, moviegoers have endured countless films that carry the tag "slasher" - nearly all of them being direct descendants of two classic horror films, Bob Clark's "Black Christmas" (1974) and John Carpenter's "Halloween." Since then, they've become an efficient source for studios to make quick cash, as they're inexpensive to make and usually bring swift business year-round. A surefire way to get your slasher seen? Tie it to a holiday, in a move we see major studios trot out nearly every year. To that end, we're going to tick off a few of these often-dubious but usually fun films - "April Fool's Day," "Happy Birthday to Me," "Silent Night, Deadly Night" and the May Day-themed "God Told Me to Kill."

With the Oscars just a month away, we take a look back at two Oscar-nominated films we did not have a chance to review yet. Israel's "Waltz With Bashir" is up for Best Foreign Film, although it might also have contended in the Best Animated Feature and Best Documentary categories, as it features eyewitness accounts of the 1982 Lebanon War from those who fought it. Werner Herzog's Antarctic adventure "Encounters at the End of the World," up for Best Documentary, will be reviewed as well. As a bonus, we'll also take a look at a doc that Oscar overlooked: "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired."

Horror historians can easily trace the origin of the slasher film back to Halloween, Black Christmas, and even Psycho. However, until recently, few but genre enthusiasts would point to the role early ‘copycat’ films had in keeping slashers alive the early 80s, before endless sequels sapped the lifeblood from the genre like a severed artery. Canadian director George Mihalka’s 1981 film My Bloody Valentine was just such a movie; controversial in its time, then nearly forgotten, a 3D remake of the film hits theatres on Friday. Today take a look at the remake, as well as the recently released special edition DVD of the original cult hit.

Mendes made his directorial debut in 1999 with American Beauty, a tense suburban black comedy, starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. The film won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as netting Mendes a number of seperate prizes for his direction. Mendes' second film, in 2002, was Road to Perdition. Critics praised Paul Newman for his performance and the film was nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor, and won one for Best Cinematography. In 2008, Mendes returned, following the lukewarm reception to his war film Jarhead, to the original area of his expertise - suburban strife - with an adaptation of Richard Yates' novel Revolutionary Road, which reunited its stars Kate Winslet (Mendes' wife) and Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time since they starred in Titanic, the highest-grossing film in history. Episode 87 sees us tackling all three films.

"I thought my talent would transcend my outspokenness. I was wrong. I'm willing to give them 100 per cent this time. I just want a second chance at Hollywood." Mickey Rourke Mickey Rourke has had quite a career. He has moved back and forth from boxer to

Daldry made his feature film directorial debut with Billy Elliot, but previously he had been a theatre director. He won awards on Broadway as well as the West End. His next film was The Hours, and it won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for Nicole Kidma

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

Darren Aronofsky - he may look like an accountant, but you couldn't call his career boring. First he unveils his debut picture, Pi, a sci-fi thriller made for sixty grand, and launches his career in auspicious style. He follows it up with one of 2000's mo

A Hollywood standby over the last decade and a half, Bryan Singer first came to the attention of most moviegoers with his third film, the labyrinthine crime thriller The Usual Suspects, in 1994. Since then, he's tried on Stephen King, the X-Men and Superm

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

Simon takes some time off to avoid reviewing the new remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and Ricky and Ali are left to cover the mess. We start our countdown of our top 5 soundtracks of 2008 and Ricky continues his 2009 predictions with naming what he