Travis Knight, president and chief executive of the studio Laika and director of the film “Wildwood” at the studio’s offices in Los Angeles, Oct. 16, 2026. “It was exciting and terrifying because I had absolutely no idea how to make it,” Knight said about “Wildwood.” (Alex Welsh/The New York Times) By CARLOS AGUILAR “Articles of faith” are what Travis Knight calls the stop-motion animated films that the studio Laika produces one meticulous frame at a time. Knight, the preside

“Event Horizon” (1997) (Paramount Pictures) By MAYA SALAM What’s a “good-bad” movie? It’s the kind of flick that might have you cackling, hollering or groaning, one that is not necessarily great cinema but is great fun. It’s highly watchable even though — or maybe because — it’s memorably ridiculous. And it always has at least one element that pushes it into absurd territory. James Cameron’s “Titanic” didn’t wait until December 1997 to sink a ship; months before its premiere,

“Undertone” By ERIK PIEPENBURG In these picks: sinister sounds, a troubled teenager and musical maniacs. ‘Undertone’ Do yourself a favor and use headphones turned high to watch this unsettling and ear-spooking supernatural thriller from Canadian writer-director Ian Tuason. The film takes place inside a suburban home where Evy (Nina Kiri) cares for her dying, bedridden mother and hosts a podcast “about all things creepy” with Justin (an unseen and excellent Adam DiMarco), a f

“Disclosure Day” (2026) (Universal Pictures) By ELISABETH VINCENTELLI In this month’s picks, alien encounters, sinister deepfakes, fantastical time loops and postapocalyptic woe. ‘Disclosure Day’ Steven Spielberg has said that “Disclosure Day” is part of an unofficial trilogy that began with his first-contact films “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982). The timing and nature of that contact are key to the new movie’s plot, and Sp

By JEREMY EGNER As pop culture pilgrimages go, you could do worse than a jaunt to rural Maine to visit Stephen King. The author, as synonymous with the state as lobster or whoopie pies, lives with his wife, Tabitha, in Lovell, a pretty town near the New Hampshire border. A building nearby, on a hill overlooking rolling foothills and a glacial lake, holds both his writing office and a kind of King museum. Drive down dipping, pine-lined lanes, make a left past the sign warning

Nancy Fabiola Herrera in the title role of Carmen at Masada in June 2012 (Wikipedia/Yossi Zwecker) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR Born in Caracas, Venezuela, mezzo soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera grew up in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, where she began her music training at eight. After high school she moved to Madrid to finish her piano studies and prepare for a career in tourism. But her vocal brilliance emerged, and she progressed to the prestigious Juilliard School of

Samson and Delilah, by Gustav Dore, ca. 1860 (Wikipedia) By PEGGY ANN BLISS Special to The STAR The invincible strongman with the fabled strength-imparting hair will be back in Puerto Rico on Saturday, for one day. But island tenor Rafael Dávila did not have to preserve his auburn locks to be the strongest interpreter of Camille Saint-Saëns’ heroic Hebrew warrior. The French-language semi-staged production of “Samson et Dalila” by Opera de Puerto Rico has also brought one of

“Inland Empire” (2006) By BRANDON YU Fear lives in the moment before the terrible thing arrives, not after. In anticipation of Halloween, this month’s selections center on the blackened pit of dread in your stomach. The sense that things are not right stalks these films. It’s a difficult atmosphere to effectively cultivate and sustain, so it’s no surprise that these films are overseen by master directors like David Lynch and Lee Chang-dong. More frighteningly, the feelings sp

“Wasteman” By DEVIKA GIRISH This month’s picks include a British prison thriller, a Brazilian drama, an animated film from Japan and more. ‘Wasteman’ Cal McMau’s harrowing thriller unfolds entirely inside a men’s prison in London, where gangs rule, drugs abound and tempers run high. Taylor (David Jonsson) is a fairly meek prisoner who cuts hair in exchange for pills and spends most of his time high to survive the brutality of life on the inside. One day, he’s told that he ha

“Midnight Fantastic Four No. 1” (Wikipedia) By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES This month brings an assortment of ghoulish comic books and graphic novels, some of them starring familiar heroic characters in creepy situations. The legend of Dracula is explored and, nine decades after her film debut, the Bride of Frankenstein gets an in-depth origin story. Marvel Entertainment is introducing a new line of horror comics: Midnight Marvel. The first three titles are debuting at midnight on W