Jeremy Urquhart is a writer at Collider who focuses on the Godzilla series, the films of Martin Scorsese, and anything in the action genre.
Osgood Perkins had his start in the world of film as an actor, first appearing as a child in Psycho II, playing the younger version of Norman Bates . The younger Perkins had a few more acting credits over the next handful of decades, but is now more well-recognized for his directorial work.
Since 2015, he’s made a series of movies that could all be categorized as horror, but most belong to other genres, too. And that’s part of what makes his filmography, to date, quite interesting. He takes risks and goes to some weird places tonally speaking, too. Perkins’ distinct style means his work isn’t going to be for everyone. His work has a somewhat consistent vibe, highlighting uncanniness that’s sometimes eerie, and sometimes muddy/off-putting in a distracting way. That’s also to say his body of work isn’t entirely consistent quality-wise, though his stuff to date has been decent at worst, and almost great at best. Even his lesser films still have aspects worth celebrating, and celebrating is what the following ranking intends to do. Every feature film Osgood Perkins has directed to date is ranked below, starting with a slight misfire of a movie and ending with his best work as a filmmaker so far. 5 'I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House' Starring: Ruth Wilson, Paula Prentiss, Bob Balaban The Osgood Perkins movie with the longest title, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, is also perhaps his simplest and most direct work of horror to date. Part of that simplicity comes about because of how stripped back this is, taking place in a confined setting and having very few characters who play a significant role in the story. Oh, and further contributing to that simplicity is the fact that said story is very slight here, following a nurse as she takes care of an elderly writer who’s not far from death’s door, all within her strange home. That makes it all an example of a slow-burn horror movie, but the stuff here probably burns a little too slowly, if it even burns at all. That home seems to be haunted by something, but I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House doesn’t want to let you know what that is until the last moment possible. So, that makes it all an example of a slow-burn horror movie, but the stuff here probably burns a little too slowly, if it even burns at all. It was admirable to attempt to make something this small-scale and deliberately paced, but I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House does end up feeling like a short film stretched to a feature-length runtime in a manner that cannot be described as seamless or even justified. It's atmospheric and occasionally psychologically unsettling, but that's about it. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Like Follow Followed I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House Horror Mystery Release Date October 28, 2016 Runtime 89 Minutes Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse 4 'The Blackcoat's Daughter' Starring: Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton The Blackcoat’s Daughter was Osgood Perkins’ feature directorial debut, and he certainly succeeded here in establishing his voice as a filmmaker, all the while introducing certain ideas and themes he’d explore in later films, arguably more successfully. Like with I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, the plot in The Blackcoat’s Daughter feels secondary to things like atmosphere and a general sense of unease, but there is slightly more going on narratively, if you can make sense of it all. There’s some kind of presence possessing young women at a prep school, and a handful of characters are all impacted by it in different ways, with the film jumping between them sometimes jarringly. Things come together by the end, which does make The Blackcoat’s Daughter ultimately make some sort of twisted sense. Its storytelling isn’t as strong here as it is in Perkins’ best films, but as a work that established his voice, it’s pretty striking stuff. You do feel the coldness of the film’s setting, and it’s a great horror movie to watch during the winter months; pair it with the equally snowy The Great Silence, if, for whatever reason, you want to watch a chilly horror movie and Western back to back and feel absolutely miserable at the end of it all. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Like Follow Followed The Blackcoat's Daughter Release Date September 30, 2016 Runtime 93 minutes Director Osgood Perkins Cast Powered by Expand Collapse 3 'Gretel & Hansel' Starring: Sophia Lillis, Samuel Leakey, Alice Krige As you might have guessed from the title, Gretel & Hansel puts a spin on the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm. It’s perhaps more of a fantasy movie than it is a horror film, but that’s not a problem when it’s so distinct and visually bold. In terms of pure atmosphere, set design, and overall aesthetics, it might well be Osgood Perkins’ strongest film. On a narrative front, it’s not quite as compelling, but it’s well worth checking out simply for the way it looks and sounds, with cinematographer Galo Olivares contributing greatly to the former, and composer ROB being responsible for the latter. You definitely get a folk horror vibe here, too, and Gretel & Hansel is far from the only recent movie to help revitalize that particular strand of horror. It’s not a movie that sustains itself entirely for all 87 minutes of its runtime, which is something of an issue, considering 87 minutes isn’t all that long, but when it works, it really works. You can compare it to things like The Witch and Sleepy Hollow if you want, but Gretel & Hansel does also do its own thing, and is aesthetically great, while being merely okay narratively. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Like Follow Followed Gretel & Hansel PG-13 Horror Release Date January 30, 2020 Runtime 87 minutes Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse 2 'The Monkey' Starring: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say Stephen King adaptations have been on the rise popularity-wise lately, since the author’s works have been popular ones to adapt right from the very start . But The Monkey is one of a handful released in 2025, and a pretty damn good one at that. Osgood Perkins takes the short story of the same name and expands it where necessary, while also playing up the comedy to a greater extent. In fact, The Monkey is best approached as a dark comedy more than a horror movie, with it being about a wind-up “toy” monkey that, when activated, causes a mysterious and grisly death to happen somewhere in its vicinity. Twin brothers come across it when they're kids, then they bury it, but a quarter of a century later, weird deaths start happening again, creating the distinct possibility that the titular monkey is back. Anyway, it’s very silly stuff that’s also heavy on gross-out moments, but the kills are so consistently over-the-top that they're generally funnier than they are horrifying. If you want to be truly scared, you might well be let down by the tone The Monkey ultimately goes for, but if you're after a horror-comedy hybrid, this is one of the best of the 2020s so far. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Like Follow Followed The Monkey R Horror Comedy 7 10 10 7.9/10 Release Date February 19, 2025 Runtime 98 Minutes Cast Powered by Expand Collapse 1 'Longlegs' Starring: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood Close Longlegs might well have been the movie that put Osgood Perkins on the map as a horror director, finding a wider audience than his previous three movies had. And it deserved that larger audience, because it was bolder and arguably better than the Perkins-directed films that came before it. At its core, Longlegs is about the hunt for a very strange serial killer, though it also unpacks trauma and gets heavier on the horror elements as it goes along. What begins as an unnerving crime/thriller film eventually becomes… well, something else. Kind of. But to say more would be doing the film a disservice. It's worth sticking with, and you kind of have to just go with the wild turns the film takes as they come. When you’ve got a bizarre Nicolas Cage performance, that certainly helps, though, and Maika Monroe in the central role here is also very good. The atmosphere Longlegs conjures up is also hard to resist, if you have a thing for uncanny and persistently eerie horror, and the genres it chooses to blend are generally in some sort of strange harmony here. Longlegs might not quite be flawless, but it is striking and succeeds in lingering in one’s mind once it’s over, in turn being representative of Osgood Perkins at his best as a filmmaker. Your Rating close 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Rate Now 0/10 Your comment has not been saved Like Follow Followed Longlegs R Horror Thriller 7 10 7.8/10 Release Date July 12, 2024 Runtime 101 Minutes Cast See All
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins to Leave Dungeons & Dragons' Design Teamchris perkins and jeremy crawford
Read more »
Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins Exiting Dungeons & Dragons TeamThe Dungeons & Dragons team at Wizards of the Coast is about to look quite a bit different than fans have been used to.
Read more »
PERKINS: I'm not daydreaming; I'm trimming my quillChina has raised tariffs on US goods to 125% from 84%, escalating tensions amid an ongoing trade war. The Customs Tariff Commission stated that higher US tariffs “no longer make economic sense” and would become a “joke in the history of world economy”.
Read more »
Tubi free movies: 20 movies you can watch for free in May 2025Tubi has plenty of great movies you can stream for free in May, including Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Goonies.
Read more »
State leaders react to execution of Alabama Inmate James OsgoodJames Osgood, an Alabama man convicted of capital murder for the 2010 killing of Tracy Lynn Brown in Chilton County, was executed Thursday by lethal injection.
Read more »
James Osgood Final Words Before Alabama ExecutionJames Osgood was convicted in 2014 for the murder and sexual assault of Tracy Lynn Brown.
Read more »