Dais Johnston

For a while now, the “Spider-Verse” has been where you go for a more light-hearted take on your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, be that in animated form in Sony’s flagship movies or in the ill-fated tertiary movies like Madame Web or Kraven the Hunter. But earlier this year, the Spider-Verse was given a new hero with Spider-Noir, an original noir story starring Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, a detective with a familiar alter ego.

Some subject matter remains relevant no matter when a story is set, and unfortunately, high school bullying is one of them. The social thunderdome remains the same whether it’s the 1970s or the 2020s; it just looks a little different. There’s no better example than Stephen King’s Carrie, which was published 52 years ago but remains one of the most thrilling revenge stories in horror.

We’re living in the age of the biopic. From historical biopics like Oppenheimer to musical ones like A Complete Unknown to fictional biopics like Marty Supreme, this is the time for character studies of complex heroes, be they real or imagined. But in recent years, a new kind of biopic has become popular: the tech biopic. Stories of innovators changing the world — for better or for worse — with their technological inventions.

Tom Cruise movies are tentpole events by the very nature of having Tom Cruise in them. But in his latest movie, Digger, he’s pushing the limits of what a “Tom Cruise movie” even means. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, of Birdman and The Revenant, Digger is about an oil tycoon who accidentally triggers a massive tsunami and tries to save the world from his own mistake.

We're living in the age of the biopic. From historical biopics like Oppenheimer to musical ones like A Complete Unknown to fictional biopics like

Mike Flanagan loves a repertory cast. You can track the same actors throughout his television and film work, whether it's his wife, Kate Siegel, or actors he’s familiar with, like

'Avatar: Seven Havens' had to be moved up after an unfortunate leak, but fans will still have to wait a bit.

He’s going from a superhero parody to the franchise it was parodying.

American Horror Story started out as a classic anthology series, with Ryan Murphy’s go-to actors — including Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson, and Jessica Lange — playing different characters every season. From Murder House to Asylum to Coven to Cult, the showrunner’s go-to troupe kept fans intrigued (and divided) for 15 years.

Horror movie franchises have a little more leeway when it comes to lore. Freddy Krueger can travel through dreams, Ghostface can be multiple people, and John Kramer somehow swallowed a wax-covered microcassette that was discovered during his autopsy. But that doesn’t mean that the weird parts of horror canon can’t be attempted to be simplified through spinoffs or prequels.