The Rewind

When the wrong people own more and more of the world, what can you do but smile?

Netflix's purchase of Warner Bros. may have set off a bunch of warning bells within the industry, but there was at least an agreement that Netflix is in something resembling the entertainment business. Given that Paramount ownership seems, at best, ambivalent towards the declining viewership numbers for CBS News, it might be more apt to describe the Ellisons as being in the “state-run media game, which can only mean bad things for its dozens and dozens of subsidiaries.

(And that’s even without discussing the sale's impact on theatrical distribution, which is murky at best. Paramount claims to be in the theater business, but trade organization Cinema United released a statement pretty quickly reaffirming their opposition to this deal. Anybody who tells you that Paramount means better things for film distribution is just making shit up, because none of us know, but we all can see how the last decade has gone for theaters even without everything being owned by a single family.)

So what does that mean for us horror fans? Will these newly consolidated studios still take fliers on high-concept horror? Does a film like Sinners still get made in a world where the Warner Bros. banner flies below the Paramount coat of arms? Best case scenario, everything is just a decent amount worse, and the movie industry isn’t exactly sitting on enough breathing room to get a "decent amount worse” again.

If you're someone whose only passing interest in entertainment is corporate mergers, you've chosen a strange movie site to subscribe to. But if you’re someone who does care about keeping entertainment healthy and competitive, now’s a good time to write your representatives. And in the meantime, remember that there are still some choices available to us as to where we get our media. Renew your library card, visit your local video store, and start thinking about which of your favorite movies and television shows might look better as a Blu-ray collection on your shelf.

These actions won’t save Hollywood, but they’ll make you feel a hell of a lot better about how you spend your money.

- Matthew Monagle

If we're being honest with ourselves, Certified Forgotten is probably not known first and foremost for our reviews. But sometimes we have opportunities to publish reviews, and sometimes they’re for the kinds of films people are going to talk about for months to come. Siddhant Adlakha was a huge fan of Emin Alper’s Salvation, a haunted film about ethnic cleansing, and as much as we love having essays about direct-to-streaming nasties on the regular, we’re pretty proud of this one, too.

On a brighter note: the final trailers for Season 3 of Interview With the Vampire are starting to come fast and furious now, and that’s got me in the mood for some rock star bloodsuckers. So I found myself revisiting this excellent piece from film critic Kayleigh Donaldson on everyone’s favorite vampire adaptation. OK so maybe Dracula 2000 isn’t that beloved, but give this piece a change and maybe you’ll come to appreciate it more.

Quick hits from around the world of horror and indie journalism.

Want more? Certified Forgotten also offers a weekly podcast series featuring some of the biggest names in the horror genre. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast platform of choice.