The Camp Host Puts a Post-Pandemic Spin on the Wilderness Horror Genre

The wilderness—dark forests, rural backroads—is a go-to setting for the horror genre for obvious reasons. What better place to see city slickers flail than deep within nature, miles from the nearest cell-phone tower, surrounded by unfamiliar and inevitably hostile forces? Rainn Wilson’s First Fandoms: Star Trek And D&D The Camp Host, an indie hitting free … Read more

Where Do Humans Fit in the Universe? This Physicist Wants to Change Your Perspective

Pondering the scale of the cosmos can feel as if you’re peering over the edge of the brink; it can be daunting enough to make you want to flee to the comforts of working, commuting, and other quotidian endeavors. But in Waves in an Impossible Sea: How Everyday Life Emerges From the Cosmic Ocean, theoretical … Read more

How Netflix’s Nimona Defied the Odds to Become an Academy Award-Nominated Film

Cinema’s annual awards race comes to a close this weekend during the Academy Awards, and there’s no other story like Nimona’s journey to becoming a nominee in the Best Animated Feature category. IMDb Changes Rating System After Little Mermaid Review-Bombed | Future Tech Producers Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary sat down with io9 to tell … Read more

Justice for Lisa Frankenstein

The lifespan of a movie these days can be very unpredictable. Take for instance Sydney Sweeney’s surprise hit Anyone But You (not Madame Web) and Pixar’s Elemental—two films which ended up getting legs after a few weeks of release. Here’s hoping that’s the case with Lisa Frankenstein, that it chops off some legs and runs. … Read more

Madame Web Is Not the Worst Comic Book Movie of All Time, but It Ain’t Good

Madame Web is a two-hour trailer for the movie you think you’re watching, but actually aren’t. If that’s confusing, welcome to the world of Madame Web, where everyone—the characters, the actors, the audience, and everyone in between—is confused about basically everything, all of the time. It’s a film that sets specific expectations in terms of … Read more

Kristen Stewart’s Love Me Is Like Wall-E in Real Life

The new movie Love Me takes place over 10 billion years and stars only two actors who don’t play humans. It’s part nature film, part animation, part stage drama, and incredibly ambitious and dense both in scope and theme. Written and directed by Sam and Andy Zuchero, it’s a film that attempts to capture the … Read more

Twitter Was 2023’s Best Movie Theater

Whatever else you can say about X, previously known as Twitter, it’s never really boring. The 17-year-old social media site that we’ve stuck around with always has something going on; in the best cases, it can be either funny or so odd that you can’t help but laugh. Even Twitter Can’t Kill Twitter | Letter … Read more

All the Fictional Characters Who Helped Us Survive 2023

Image: Peacock If we’re being honest, put Natasha Lyonne in anything and she’s likely to win us over. Her dry humor, raspy voice, and impeccable confidence almost always create a memorable character. But in the hands of murder mystery guru Rian Johnson on Poker Face, Charlie becomes something more. She’s on the run, so she’s … Read more

Horror Director Darren Lynn Bousman Interview for The Cello

Darren Lynn Bousman has directed four Saw movies—parts 2-4, and the Chris Rock-starring Spiral—and while his latest, The Cello, has some gruesome elements, it’s a big departure for the filmmaker in many ways. Ahead of the film’s release December 8, io9 got a chance to ask him more. “Even AI Rappers are Harassed by Police” … Read more

Barbie, Baldur’s Gate, and More We’re Thankful for in 2023

Image: Warner Bros. Obviously, we could be thankful for Barbie just because it’s Barbie and it’s great. But the real reason Barbie is on this list is because it probably shouldn’t have been great. For a moment, take Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and all those people away. The simple statement “Warner Bros. is … Read more