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Project Torogoz: Extensive Hacking of Media & Civil Society in El Salvador with Pegasus Spyware – Citizen Lab

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3 years ago

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Key Findings

  • The Citizen Lab and Access Now have conducted a joint investigation into Pegasus hacking in El Salvador in collaboration with Frontline Defenders, SocialTIC, and Fundación Acceso.
  • We confirmed 35 cases of journalists and members of civil society whose phones were successfully infected with NSO’s Pegasus spyware between July 2020 and November 2021. We shared a sample of forensic data with Amnesty International’s Security Lab which independently confirms the findings.
  • Targets included journalists at El Faro, GatoEncerrado, La Prensa Gráfica, Revista Digital Disruptiva, Diario El Mundo, El Diario de Hoy, and two independent journalists. Civil society targets included Fundación DTJ, Cristosal, and another NGO.
  • The hacking took place while the organizations were reporting on sensitive issues involving the administration of President Bukele, such as a scandal involving the government’s negotiation of a “pact” with the MS-13 gang for a reduction in violence and electoral support.
  • While evidence linking a particular infection to a particular Pegasus customer is often unavailable, in this case we identified a Pegasus customer operating almost exclusively in El Salvador since at least November 2019 that we call TOROGOZ, and have connected this operator to an infection attempt against El Faro.

1. Introduction

This report describes the results of a collaborative investigation into the abuse of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to target members of the press and civil society in El Salvador. The investigation led to the identification of 35 Pegasus-infected individuals (37 devices) among members of El Salvador’s media and civil society.

Our investigation began in September 2021 when a group of independent journalists contacted Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline after testing their devices using the Amnesty International Security Lab’s Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) tool to detect Pegasus spyware.

The resulting investigation was a collaboration between the Citizen Lab and Access Now, with investigative assistance and case referrals from Frontline Defenders, SocialTIC, and Fundación Acceso. We asked Amnesty International’s Security Lab to conduct an independent review of our analysis for a sample of cases, and they have confirmed our findings.

Repression and Impunity in El Salvador

Like most central American countries, El Salvador has had a troubled history marked by authoritarianism, endemic civil war and numerous coups, official and clandestine foreign intelligence and military assistance (particularly during the Cold War), organized crime, corruption, and drug trafficking.

Between 1970 and 1992, the country was ravaged by the Salvadoran Civil War, fought between a right-wing military junta and a coalition of left-wing guerilla groups under the umbrella of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). The era was characterized by frequent extra-judicial killings, mass disappearances and massacres of civilians, and numerous other human rights abuses, many of which were undertaken by “death squads” (some of whom were reportedly supported and trained by United States military advisors).

This period of violence and authoritarianism left a deep legacy of impunity and a tradition of corruption in El Salvador’s armed forces and political establishment. The period also created opportunities for organized crime and corruption, as well as the growth of poorly regulated and unaccountable private security firms.

The Bukele Administration

El Salvador’s current president is the charismatic 40 year old Nayib Bukele, who has been in office since winning the general election in June 2019. Bukele was formerly mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán (2012-15) and mayor of San Salvador (2015-18). In both cases he represented leftist parties. Although Bukele represents an aesthetic break with the typical Latin American autocrat, and despite his many public denouncements against strongmen, he has shown growing autocratic tendencies.

In February 2020, Bukele entered the legislative assembly accompanied by soldiers and armed guards in an attempt to intimidate lawmakers into approving his platform. In May 2021, Bukele and his supporters in the legislature fired the country’s attorney general and several judges, in a move that Bukele described as “cleaning our house.” Bukele was elected on a platform that included a plan to reduce the extraordinary violence in the country by encouraging cooperation between the country’s armed forces and organized criminal gangs.

Although official murder counts have declined in recent years, a 2021 report by the Foundation of Studies for the Application of Law (Fundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derecho, or FESPAD) found that pacts between gangs and state officials, originally intended to lower homicide rates, have instead increased the recurrence of forced disappearances. FESPAD found several unidentified mass graves in areas with the highest gang presence. While forced disappearances allow gangs to execute with impunity, Bukele’s administration also undertakes brutal crackdowns against imprisoned gang members across the country.

Unlike many past authoritarians, Bukele blends a particular fluency in social media and dexterity in the use of memes, with the use of large popular public events to capitalize on popular disenchantment with traditional political parties. A recent analysis described Bukele as embodying a new type of “millennial authoritarianism,” defined as “a distinctive political strategy that combines traditional populist appeals, classic authoritarian behavior, and a youthful and modern personal brand built primarily via social media.”

The State of Police and Private Security Firms

The policing of gang violence within a context of generalized insecurity in El Salvador warrants special attention. In 2019, President Bukele authorized the intervention of armed forces in police duties, resulting in numerous human rights concerns, as highlighted in a 2020 State Dept. Human Rights report. At present, Salvadorans are concurrently subjected to both gang violence and aggressive, authoritarian policing. The threat of violence has led to unprecedented internal displacement. In 2017 alone, 296,000 Salvadorans were forced to move out of their homes due to the threat of violence.

Approximately 450 private security firms are operating illegally in El Salvador, often due to a failure to obtain or renew proper authorization and paperwork. Salvadoran police claim to be unable to hold these firms accountable. As of 2016, roughly 24,100 private security guards were active in El Salvador, an estimate that dwarfs the number of active police officers.

With private security firms and militia lacking proper oversight, El Salvador’s Private Security Services Law does little to solve the problem, as noted by Freedom House. Article 47 of this law indicates that severe offenses attributed to private security services must be sanctioned with a financial penalty on salaries, but the exact nature of the fine is vague. This gap leaves police forces unable to hold private security firms accountable for their conduct. La Prensa Gráfica has found that not a single private security firm has been held accountable. Instances where police did come close to sanctioning a firm were later dropped in court.

This lack of accountability is troubling in light of accounts that Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang members have infiltrated private security firms to extort Salvadoran citizens. Indeed, extortion has been on the rise since the Salvadoran government struck a deal with gang leaders. Salvadoran police have also had trouble keeping their own personnel in check. For example, a 2017 Insight Crime report shows that while some police officers have been jailed for illegal smuggling of items into jail cells, others, accused of extrajudicial killings, remain free.

Salvadoran Media under Threat

While there is a lively press in El Salvador, with outlets such as El Faro and Revista Factum providing regular critical coverage, journalists face numerous challenges in the country. Reporters Without Borders ranks El Salvador 82nd in its 2021 World Press Freedom Index (an eight-place drop since 2020). Freedom House ranks El Salvador’s freedom and independence of media as “partially free” and highlights rampant corruption, censorship, and interventions such as barring access to journalists at homicide scenes. Both El Faro and Revista Factum have also been frequently barred from accessing government conferences. The Freedom House report also notes verbal attacks directed at the press by Bukele himself. For example, in September 2020, Bukele used two hours of national airtime to denigrate and accuse the media of being his enemies.

Verbal attacks and threats against the press are not limited to Bukele. In September 2021, Javier Argueta, Nayib Bukele’s legal counsel, threatened two journalists at GatoEncerrado for reporting on a meeting he held with four members of the Salvadoran Supreme Electoral Court. In a Twitter diatribe, Argueta threatened legal action if the journalists did not reveal their sources.

In 2021 alone, the Journalists Association of El Salvador (APES) recorded more than 200 cases of aggression against journalists, ranging from denial of access to harassment. Instances of animosity toward the press have involved state ministers and legislators, as well as executives of El Salvador’s Autonomous Executive Port Commission (CEPA), all found to have verbally abused reporters. June and July 2021 press releases from APES denounced abuses by members of the Supreme Court of Justice, Bukele’s Office and the Ministry of Security and Justice. In addition, a 165% increase in aggressions against female journalists, recorded last year, also characterizes El Salvador’s endemic problem of media repression.

The TOROGOZ Pegasus Operator and El Salvador

Through our ongoing Internet scanning and DNS cache probing, we identified a Pegasus operator focusing almost exclusively within El Salvador that we named TOROGOZ. We first observed this operator in early 2020, though the domain names associated with the operator appear to have been registered as early as November 2019.

In a 2020 report Running in Circles, we identified a Salvadoran client of Circles, an NSO Group-affiliated company.  The Circles system, which is an entirely separate product and uses different technology than Pegasus, allows its operator to track locations of phones around the world, and to intercept unencrypted SMS messages and phone calls in some cases.  Unlike Pegasus, use of the Circles system does not involve hacking target devices, and instead involves attacks against the mobile phone signaling system. The forensic artifacts analyzed in this report have no relationship to Circles technology.

While there is no conclusive technical evidence that TOROGOZ represents the Salvadoran government, the strong country-specific focus of the infections suggests that this is very likely. Additionally, in the single case of hacking in this investigation in which we recovered the domain names of the Pegasus servers used, the TOROGOZ operator was implicated.

2. Findings: Salvadoran Pegasus Targeting

Following the Citizen Lab’s research and technical protocols, the Citizen Lab and Access Now obtained forensic artifacts, including logs, from each target’s device. With their consent, we analyzed the logs for forensic signatures associated with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware.

We conclude that at least 35 individuals from media organizations El Faro, GatoEncerrado, La Prensa Gráfica, Revista Digital Disruptiva, Diario El Mundo, El Diario de Hoy, and two independent journalists were hacked with Pegasus. We also identified hacking against civil society organizations in El Salvador, including Fundación DTJ, Cristosal, and another NGO.

The infections described in this report have been identified with high confidence and a sample of the cases have been peer reviewed by Amnesty’s Security Lab. Their peer review supports our finding of Pegasus infections.

Confirmed Targets1

Our forensic analysis focuses on determining whether specific processes or binaries linked to NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware were running on the phone in question during a specified time. The forensic analysis involves both searching records of execution maintained by the phone, as well as searching for other traces associated with the execution or installation of Pegasus. See Appendix A for a full list of dates that exploits were fired at the phones resulting in successful hacking.

Pegasus attempts to delete evidence of its successful exfiltration, so evidence establishing exfiltration may not be available in all cases. This should not be interpreted as suggesting that exfiltration did not take place.

Target Affiliation Forensic Finding
Noah Bullock Cristosal Pegasus infection
(Individual #1) Diario El Mundo Pegasus infection
Ricardo Avelar El Diario de Hoy Pegasus infection
Ana Beatriz Lazo El Faro Pegasus infection
Carlos Dada El Faro Pegasus infection
Carlos Ernesto Martínez D’aubuisson El Faro Pegasus infection
Daniel Lizárraga El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Daniel Reyes El Faro Pegasus infection
Efren Lemus El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Gabriel Labrador El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Gabriela Cáceres El Faro Pegasus infection
José Luis Sanz El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Julia Gavarrete (Phone #1) El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Julia Gavarrete (Phone #2) El Faro Pegasus infection
María Luz Nóchez El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Mauricio Ernesto Sandoval Soriano El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Nelson Rauda El Faro Pegasus infection
Óscar Martínez El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Rebeca Monge El Faro Pegasus infection
Roman Gressier El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Roxana Lazo El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Sergio Arauz El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Valeria Guzmán El Faro Pegasus infection
Víctor Peña El Faro Pegasus infection
(Individual #2) El Faro Pegasus infection
(Individual #3) El Faro Pegasus exfiltration
Jose Marinero Fundación DTJ Pegasus infection
Xenia Hernandez Fundación DTJ Pegasus infection
Beatriz Benitez GatoEncerrado Pegasus exfiltration
Ezequiel Barrera GatoEncerrado Pegasus exfiltration
Xenia Oliva (Phone #1) GatoEncerrado Pegasus exfiltration
Xenia Oliva (Phone #2) GatoEncerrado Pegasus exfiltration
(Individual #4) La Prensa Gráfica Pegasus infection
Oscar Luna Revista Digital Disruptiva Pegasus infection
(Individual #5) (NGO #1) Pegasus infection
Mariana Belloso (Independent Journalist) Pegasus infection
Carmen Tatiana Marroquín (Economist and Columnist for Independent Media) Pegasus infection

Table 1: Confirmed individuals hacked with Pegasus Spyware in El Salvador.

Each positive result in this case represents a phone we identified with high confidence as successfully hacked with Pegasus spyware (denoted as “Pegasus infection” in Table 1). In a subset of the cases, we are able to establish an additional result: successful exfiltration (denoted as “Pegasus exfiltration” in Table 1), indicating high confidence that the spyware successfully uploaded data from the phone to Pegasus infrastructure. In several cases, Pegasus apparently exfiltrated multiple gigabytes of data successfully from target phones using their mobile data connections.

We observed extensive targeting using zero-click exploits, however we also identified specific instances in which targets were sent one-click infection links via SMS message.

Zero-Click Exploits

We assess that at least two zero-click exploits were deployed against the journalists in El Salvador: KISMET and FORCEDENTRY. Thirteen of the phones contained the KISMET FACTOR, which we believe is an artifact left behind by the execution of NSO Group’s zero-click KISMET exploit. We saw this exploit deployed between July and December 2020, and the exploit appears to have been a zero-day against iOS 13.5.1 and 13.7. The KISMET exploit has not yet been publicly captured and analyzed, but appeared to involve the use of JPEG attachments, as well as iMessage’s IMTranscoderAgent process invoking a WebKit instance.

Additionally, we recovered a copy of the FORCEDENTRY exploit from one of the phones. The exploit appears to have been fired at a phone with iOS 14.8.1, which is not vulnerable to FORCEDENTRY. The exploit does not appear to have run on the phone. It is unclear why the exploit was fired at a non-vulnerable iOS version, though it is possible that NSO operators cannot always determine the precise iOS version used by the target before firing an exploit.

We have not identified a long-lived forensic artifact associated with FORCEDENTRY that can differentiate that exploit from other techniques used to install Pegasus on a phone, but we believe that NSO iPhone hacking between February and November 2021 was generally conducted with the FORCEDENTRY exploit. FORCEDENTRY appears to be the same exploit that Amnesty’s Security Lab observed traces of in their Pegasus Project analysis, which they refer to as “Megalodon.”

One-Click Links

We fingerprinted Pegasus URL shortener websites and identified 244 domain names registered from 2019 through 2021 that appear to have been used by various NSO Group customers to distribute the Pegasus spyware via links. In the case of a single target at El Faro, we saw one-click SMS messages sent to the target containing links matching our Pegasus fingerprint.

Date Original SMS English Translation
Jul 4, 2020 Fiscalia tras periodistas del faro. https://info-urbano[.]com/SxUqnKe1 District attorney’s office against journalists from El Faro
Jul 4, 2020 Personal de salud denuncia mala administracion del Gobierno https://informados24h[.]com/wNjzhTb Health staff denounces bad administration by the government
Jul 7, 2020 Presidente sale en defensa de su ahijado politico. https://informados24h[.]com/ZKtywtTbM The President comes out in defense of his political protégé
Jul 8, 2020 Nuevas Ideas eclipsa a sus oponentes. https://informados24h[.]com/VNCeEmT Nuevas Ideas [the political party of El Salvador’s President] eclipses their opponents
Sep 7, 20202 Noticia de El Salvador trasciende a nivel mundial https://informados24h[.]com/nRG9mDx News from El Salvador goes worldwide

The messages sent to the target contained links to the following Pegasus domain names:

informados24h[.]cominfo-urbano[.]com

The following four domains that we detected in our Pegasus scanning had similar registration characteristics to the two domains above above and thus may have been used by the same Pegasus customer:

mobile-analytics[.]netweb-cloud-services[.]com

solo-hoy[.]com

deportes24-7[.]com

Apple Notifications to Confirmed Pegasus Victims

On November 23rd, 2021 Apple began sending notifications to some iPhone users who had been targeted with NSO Group’s FORCEDENTRY exploit. Apple also filed a lawsuit against NSO Group on the same day.

Many of the Pegasus targets that we confirm in this investigation also reported receiving “state-sponsored spyware” notifications from Apple, including twelve journalists at El Faro, and two members of Fundación DTJ.

3. Attribution

At this time Citizen Lab is not conclusively attributing the attacks to a particular government customer of NSO Group, however there is a range of circumstantial evidence pointing to a strong El Salvador government nexus.

First, the cases share a troubling nexus with the interests of the Bukele government:

  • Targeting coincides with moments that the organizations were working on issues of great interest to the Bukele government
  • Targets work focuses on domestic issues, and thus would be most relevant to a domestic audience

Secondly, Citizen Lab network scanning-based evidence has revealed TOROGOZ, an operator whose activities are strongly suggestive of a Pegasus customer in El Salvador. Notably, the operator had a near-total focus of infections within El Salvador, which is strongly suggestive of a domestic Pegasus operator.

Thirdly, one of the targets at El Faro (Carlos Martínez) was targeted by TOROGOZ in an unsuccessful attempt with the FORCEDENTRY exploit. The exploit was fired at a non-vulnerable version of iOS (14.8.1).

For years, researchers and civil society have sounded the alarm that the poorly regulated mercenary surveillance market is leading to widespread human rights and other abuses. The El Salvador case presents a textbook example of those concerns.

If indeed Pegasus was sold to El Salvador, it was done despite a panoply of warning signs that abuse would take place:

  • An autocratic leaning President with a fascination with digital technology
  • A long history of harassment of independent media and journalists
  • A climate of insecurity and human rights abuses
  • Poorly regulated police, intelligence, and private security firms
  • A lengthy history of corruption, organized crime, state violence, and authoritarianism

The hacking of Salvadoran civil society organizations with Pegasus mercenary spyware reflects a familiar pattern observed time and again in authoritarian societies: the use of advanced technology to frustrate and interfere with this essential component of a democratic society. In this case, the hacking also fits within a broader trend of abusive targeting and attacks against civil society in El Salvador.

Especially troubling, however, is the pattern of targeting of independent Salvadoran media that this joint investigation has uncovered.

Pegasus and the Media

Media organizations and individual journalists are now a regular target of hacking for NSO Group’s government clients. A free and independent press is a threat to autocratic rule and many of NSO Group’s government clients are illiberal regimes. The voluminous hacking of Salvadoran media organizations and journalists is shocking but should come as no surprise.

Only a little over a year ago, we discovered government operatives used NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to hack 36 personal phones belonging to journalists, producers, anchors, and executives at the news organization Al Jazeera. The Citizen Lab and Amnesty International have also documented numerous other cases where journalists’ phones were hacked with Pegasus, including the New York Times’ Ben Hubbard, Sevinc Vaqifqizi, a freelance journalist for independent media outlet Meydan TV, Siddharth Varadarajan and MK Venu, co-founders of India’s the Wire, Dániel Németh, a photojournalist working out of Budapest, and numerous others. According to investigations undertaken as part of the Pegasus Project, at least 180 journalists were selected as targets for potential Pegasus hacking.

Further highlighting the consistent threat posed by Pegasus to journalists, Daniel Lizárraga—a journalist whose phone we confirmed was hacked with Pegasus in this case—was also targeted in 2016 by the Mexican Pegasus operator while in a previous role at a Mexican NGO. Given the lack of due diligence and proper regulations, it should come as no surprise that individual victims of Pegasus hacking may have been targeted by multiple NSO Group clients over time, as Lizárraga’s case illustrates.

The lesson from this case is obvious: an unregulated spyware marketplace is a grave threat to media worldwide, and to civil society.

Acknowledgements

We thank and acknowledge the many individuals that allowed us to analyze their devices as part of this investigation.

Special thanks to Mohammed Al-Maskati from Frontline Defenders for invaluable assistance.

Special thanks to the staff and incident handlers at the Access Now helpline for their invaluable support to this process and assistance to victims.

Special thanks to all of the organizations participating in this investigative collaboration including SocialTIC and Fundación Acceso.

Thanks to Siena Anstis, Celine Bauwens, Miles Kenyon, Adam Senft, and Mari Zhou for review, copy editing, and publication support.

Special thanks to TNG for invaluable assistance on this project.

Appendix A: Hacking Timeline

The following table of dates of successful hacking excludes dates of attempted but unsuccessful hacking. This table is not intended to be a comprehensive inventory of every date that the spyware was active on a phone. Each entry represents a separate instance where NSO’s exploits were fired at a phone resulting in successful infection.

Several factors can influence the number of times infections happen. For example, if a target is selected for persistent surveillance, the exploit may be fired more often if the user frequently reboots their phone, as modern versions of the Pegasus spyware are believed to feature persistence via re-exploitation. If the target does not reboot their phone, the spyware may run for some time without the exploit being fired again.

Individual Organization Dates of Successful Hacking
Noah Bullock Cristosal

  1. On or around 2021-09-04

  2. On or around 2021-09-28

  3. On or around 2021-11-12
(Individual #1) Diario El Mundo

  1. On or around 2021-06-03

  2. On or around 2021-06-30
Ricardo Avelar El Diario de Hoy

  1. On or around 2020-08-31

  2. On or around 2020-09-22

  3. On or around 2021-02-21

  4. On or around 2021-03-16

  5. On or around 2021-03-26

  6. On or around 2021-04-27

  7. On or around 2021-06-15

  8. On or around 2021-07-14

  9. On or around 2021-09-04

  10. On or around 2021-09-12
Ana Beatriz Lazo El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-10-04
Carlos Dada El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-07-08 – 2020-07-17

  2. Sometime 2020-07-17 – 2020-07-24

  3. Sometime 2020-07-24 – 2020-07-30

  4. On or around 2020-07-31

  5. Sometime 2020-08-01 – 2020-08-14

  6. Sometime 2020-09-08 – 2020-10-22

  7. Sometime 2021-01-06 – 2021-01-12

  8. Sometime 2021-01-12 – 2021-01-20

  9. Sometime 2021-02-13 – 2021-02-23

  10. Sometime 2021-03-31 – 2021-04-17

  11. Sometime 2021-04-18 – 2021-05-12

  12. Sometime 2021-05-26 – 2021-06-09
Carlos Ernesto Martínez D’aubuisson El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-06-29 – 2020-07-22

  2. Sometime 2020-07-25 – 2020-08-06

  3. Sometime 2020-09-07 – 2020-09-10

  4. Sometime 2020-09-10 – 2020-09-18

  5. Sometime 2020-09-18 – 2020-10-10

  6. Sometime 2020-10-10 – 2020-11-05

  7. Sometime 2020-11-05 – 2020-11-10

  8. Sometime 2020-11-23 – 2020-12-02

  9. Sometime 2020-12-02 – 2020-12-21

  10. Sometime 2020-12-26 – 2021-01-21

  11. Sometime 2021-02-11 – 2021-02-16

  12. Sometime 2021-02-17 – 2021-02-19

  13. Sometime 2021-02-23 – 2021-03-08

  14. Sometime 2021-03-08 – 2021-03-11

  15. Sometime 2021-03-19 – 2021-03-23

  16. Sometime 2021-04-03 – 2021-04-12

  17. Sometime 2021-04-12 – 2021-04-27

  18. Sometime 2021-04-28 – 2021-05-06

  19. Sometime 2021-05-06 – 2021-05-27

  20. Sometime 2021-05-29 – 2021-06-02

  21. Sometime 2021-06-16 – 2021-06-22

  22. Sometime 2021-06-22 – 2021-06-24

  23. Sometime 2021-06-27 – 2021-07-02

  24. On or around 2021-07-08

  25. On or around 2021-08-31

  26. On or around 2021-09-15

  27. On or around 2021-10-07

  28. On or around 2021-10-21
Daniel Lizárraga El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-04-12

  2. On or around 2021-04-15

  3. On or around 2021-04-27

  4. On or around 2021-05-20

  5. On or around 2021-06-04

  6. On or around 2021-06-15

  7. On or around 2021-06-23

  8. On or around 2021-07-08
Daniel Reyes El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-10-01 – 2020-10-10

  2. On or around 2021-11-04
Efren Lemus El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-04-23

  2. On or around 2021-04-26

  3. On or around 2021-04-30

  4. On or around 2021-05-20

  5. On or around 2021-06-01

  6. On or around 2021-06-08

  7. On or around 2021-06-18

  8. On or around 2021-07-10

  9. On or around 2021-09-17

  10. On or around 2021-09-25
Gabriel Labrador El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-08-06 – 2020-09-07

  2. Sometime 2020-09-11 – 2020-10-30

  3. On or around 2021-03-25

  4. On or around 2021-04-01

  5. On or around 2021-04-06

  6. On or around 2021-04-09

  7. On or around 2021-04-12

  8. On or around 2021-04-14

  9. On or around 2021-04-16

  10. On or around 2021-05-05

  11. On or around 2021-05-07

  12. On or around 2021-05-13

  13. On or around 2021-05-17

  14. On or around 2021-06-01

  15. On or around 2021-08-31

  16. On or around 2021-09-12

  17. On or around 2021-10-06

  18. On or around 2021-10-23

  19. On or around 2021-11-04

  20. On or around 2021-11-11
Gabriela Cáceres El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-04-17

  2. On or around 2021-05-11

  3. On or around 2021-05-15

  4. On or around 2021-05-21

  5. On or around 2021-06-06

  6. On or around 2021-06-15

  7. On or around 2021-06-17

  8. On or around 2021-06-21

  9. On or around 2021-07-14

  10. On or around 2021-08-31

  11. On or around 2021-09-08

  12. On or around 2021-09-17

  13. On or around 2021-09-24
José Luis Sanz El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-07-04 – 2020-07-09

  2. Sometime 2020-07-09 – 2020-07-14

  3. On or around 2020-07-16

  4. On or around 2020-09-10

  5. On or around 2020-09-23

  6. On or around 2020-11-14

  7. On or around 2020-11-21

  8. On or around 2020-11-28

  9. On or around 2020-12-03

  10. On or around 2020-12-07

  11. On or around 2020-12-10

  12. On or around 2020-12-16

  13. On or around 2020-12-19
Julia Gavarrete (Phone #1) El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-03-16

  2. On or around 2021-04-08

  3. On or around 2021-04-13

  4. On or around 2021-04-14

  5. On or around 2021-04-16

  6. On or around 2021-04-18

  7. On or around 2021-04-20

  8. On or around 2021-04-23

  9. On or around 2021-04-26

  10. On or around 2021-05-05

  11. On or around 2021-05-20

  12. Sometime 2021-05-30 – 2021-06-06

  13. On or around 2021-06-10

  14. On or around 2021-06-28

  15. On or around 2021-09-08
Julia Gavarrete (Phone #2) El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-02-23

  2. On or around 2021-09-09

  3. On or around 2021-09-27
María Luz Nóchez El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-02-17

  2. On or around 2021-05-21

  3. On or around 2021-06-09
Mauricio Ernesto Sandoval Soriano El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-08-19 – 2020-10-20

  2. On or around 2021-07-02

  3. On or around 2021-07-06

  4. On or around 2021-10-01
Nelson Rauda El Faro

  1. Sometime 2021-04-30 – 2021-05-01

  2. On or around 2021-05-18

  3. On or around 2021-06-16

  4. Sometime 2021-06-18 – 2021-08-11

  5. On or around 2021-08-31

  6. On or around 2021-09-10
Óscar Martínez El Faro

  1. On or around 2020-07-15

  2. On or around 2020-07-21 – 2020-07-28

  3. On or around 2020-08-12

  4. On or around 2020-08-17

  5. On or around 2020-08-19

  6. On or around 2020-09-12

  7. On or around 2020-09-29

  8. On or around 2020-10-01

  9. On or around 2020-10-03

  10. On or around 2020-10-29

  11. On or around 2020-11-12

  12. On or around 2020-11-16

  13. On or around 2020-11-18

  14. On or around 2020-12-07

  15. On or around 2020-12-10

  16. On or around 2020-12-18

  17. On or around 2020-12-20

  18. On or around 2020-12-22

  19. On or around 2021-01-08

  20. On or around 2021-01-10

  21. On or around 2021-01-13

  22. On or around 2021-01-26

  23. On or around 2021-01-27

  24. On or around 2021-02-21

  25. On or around 2021-03-08

  26. On or around 2021-03-15

  27. On or around 2021-03-18

  28. On or around 2021-03-25

  29. On or around 2021-04-01

  30. On or around 2021-05-03

  31. On or around 2021-05-21

  32. On or around 2021-06-02

  33. On or around 2021-06-16

  34. On or around 2021-06-22

  35. On or around 2021-06-23

  36. On or around 2021-07-07

  37. On or around 2021-08-30

  38. On or around 2021-09-08

  39. On or around 2021-09-27

  40. On or around 2021-10-08

  41. On or around 2021-10-25

  42. On or around 2021-10-30
Rebeca Monge El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-10-07
Roman Gressier El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-05-17

  2. On or around 2021-05-21

  3. On or around 2021-06-21

  4. On or around 2021-06-23
Roxana Lazo El Faro

  1. On or around 2021-04-19

  2. On or around 2021-04-27

  3. On or around 2021-06-02

  4. On or around 2021-06-07

  5. On or around 2021-06-23

  6. On or around 2021-06-24

  7. On or around 2021-07-06

  8. On or around 2021-09-10

  9. On or around 2021-09-24

  10. On or around 2021-10-02

  11. On or around 2021-10-21

  12. On or around 2021-11-02
Sergio Arauz El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-08-12 – 2020-08-19

  2. Sometime 2020-09-10 – 2020-09-11

  3. Sometime 2020-09-13 – 2020-09-14

  4. Sometime 2020-09-18 – 2020-09-22

  5. On or around 2021-05-07

  6. On or around 2021-06-02

  7. Sometime 2021-06-09 – 2021-06-10

  8. On or around 2021-06-11

  9. On or around 2021-06-17

  10. On or around 2021-06-24

  11. On or around 2021-06-25

  12. On or around 2021-07-02

  13. On or around 2021-07-09

  14. On or around 2021-10-21
Valeria Guzmán El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-07-04 – 2020-07-14

  2. On or around 2021-09-03

  3. On or around 2021-09-29

  4. On or around 2021-10-12

  5. On or around 2021-10-25

  6. On or around 2021-11-04

  7. On or around 2021-11-11

  8. On or around 2021-11-19
Víctor Peña El Faro

  1. Sometime 2021-11-22 – 2021-11-23
(Individual #2) El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-09-09 – 2020-09-16

  2. On or around 2021-09-30

  3. Sometime 2020-11-16 – 2020-11-26
(Individual #3) El Faro

  1. Sometime 2020-09-07 – 2020-10-17

  2. Sometime 2020-11-30 – 2021-01-16

  3. On or around 2021-05-21
Jose Marinero Fundación DTJ

  1. On or around 2021-04-08

  2. On or around 2021-09-12
Xenia Hernandez Fundación DTJ

  1. On or around 2021-02-23

  2. On or around 2021-03-17

  3. On or around 2021-04-29

  4. On or around 2021-05-01

  5. On or around 2021-05-04

  6. Sometime 2021-05-04 – 2021-05-07

  7. On or around 2021-05-07

  8. On or around 2021-05-11

  9. On or around 2021-05-17

  10. On or around 2021-05-21

  11. On or around 2021-06-02

  12. On or around 2021-06-13

  13. On or around 2021-06-15

  14. On or around 2021-06-28

  15. On or around 2021-06-30

  16. On or around 2021-11-09

  17. On or around 2021-11-16
Beatriz Benitez GatoEncerrado

  1. On or around 2021-07-01
Ezequiel Barrera GatoEncerrado

  1. Sometime 2020-09-10 – 2020-09-11

  2. Sometime 2021-04-06 – 2021-04-11

  3. Sometime 2021-04-13 – 2021-04-16

  4. Sometime 2021-04-23 – 2021-04-25

  5. On or around 2021-06-07

  6. On or around 2021-06-21

  7. On or around 2021-06-30

  8. On or around 2021-07-08

  9. On or around 2021-09-19
Xenia Oliva (Phone #1) GatoEncerrado

  1. Sometime 2020-11-12 – 2020-11-25

  2. Sometime 2021-02-17 – 2021-02-26

  3. Sometime 2021-02-28 – 2021-03-09

  4. On or around 2021-04-08

  5. On or around 2021-05-21
Xenia Oliva (Phone #2) GatoEncerrado

  1. On or around 2021-10-26

  2. On or around 2021-11-04
(Individual #4) La Prensa Gráfica

  1. On or around 2021-09-27
Oscar Luna Revista Digital Disruptiva

  1. On or around 2021-04-18

  2. On or around 2021-09-29
(Individual #5) (NGO #1)

  1. On or around 2021-05-21
Mariana Belloso (Independent Journalist)

  1. On or around 2021-09-29

  2. On or around 2021-10-09
Carmen Tatiana Marroquín (Economist and Columnist for Independent Media)

  1. On or around 2021-09-05
  1. Whereas a number of targets preferred to remain anonymous, the other targets consented to be identified.↩
  2. Note that the original SMS contains a double-space between the words “Salvador” and “trasciende”↩

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Bayo Onanuga battles yet another media – Punch Newspapers

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2 weeks ago

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October 31, 2024

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Bayo Onanuga battles yet another media  Punch Newspapers

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Blood In The Snow Film Festival Celebrates 13 Years!

Published

3 weeks ago

 on

October 22, 2024

By

Blood in the Snow FILM FESTIVAL

Celebrates

13 YEARS

“Be Afraid.  Be Very Afraid”

Toronto, on – Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS), a unique and imaginative showcase of contemporary Canadian genre films are pleased to announce the popular Festival is back for its 13th exciting year.  The highly anticipated Horror Film festival presented by Super Channel runs November 18th– 23rd at Toronto’s Isabel Bader Theatre.   The successful, long running festival takes on many different faces this year that include Scary, Action Horror, Horror Comedy, Sci-Fi and Thrillers.  Festival goers will be kept on the edge of their seats with this year’s powerful line-up.

Blood in the Snow Festival begins with the return of alumni (Wolf Cop) Lowell Dean’s action horror feature Dark Match featuring wrestling veteran Chris Jericho followed by the mysterious Hunting Mathew Nichols. The unexpected thrills continue with Blood in the Snow World Premiere of Pins and Needles and the Fantasia Best First Feature Award winner, Self Driver.  The festival ends this year on a fun note with the Toronto Premiere of Scared Sh*tless (featuring Kids in the Hall’s Mark McKinney).  Other titles include the horror anthology series Creepy Bits and Zoom call shock of Invited by Blood in the Snow alumni Navin Ramaswaran (Poor Agnes). The festival will also include five feature length short film programs including the festivals comedy horror program Funny Frights and Unusual Sights and the highly anticipated Dark Visions program, part of opening night festivities.  Blood in the Snow Film Festival Director and Founder, Kelly Michael Stewart anticipates this year’s festival to be its strongest.  “This was the first time in our 13 year history, all our programmers agreed on the exact same eight feature programs we have selected.”

Below is this year’s horror fest’s exciting lineup of features and shorts scheduled to screen, in-person at the Isabel Bader theatre. 

**All festival features will be preceded by a short film and followed by a Q&A with filmmakers.

Tickets for the Isabel Bader Theatre lineup on sale now and can be purchased  https://www.bloodinthesnow.ca

Super Channel is pleased to once again assume the role of Presenting Sponsor for the Blood in the Snow Film Festival. We extend our sincere appreciation to the entire BITS team for their unwavering commitment to amplifying the voices of diverse filmmakers and providing a platform for the celebration of Canadian genre content. – Don McDonald, the CEO of Super Channel

Blood in the Snow Festival 2024 Full screening schedule:

Monday November 18th
7pm – Dark Visions

Shiva (13:29) dir. Josh Saltzman

Shiva is an unnerving tale about a recently widowed woman who breaks with a long-held Jewish mourning ritual in hopes of connecting with her deceased husband.

How to Stay Awake (5:30) dir. Vanessa Magic

A woman fights to stay awake, to avoid battling the terrifying realm of sleep paralysis, but as she risks everything to break free, will she be released from the grip of her nocturnal tormentor?

Pocket Princess (9:45) dir. Olivia Loccisano

A young girl must take part in a dangerous task in order to complete her doll collection in this miniature fairytale.

For Rent (10:33) dir. Michèle Kaye

In her new home, Donna unravels a sinister truth—her landlord is a demon with a dark appetite. As her family mysteriously vanishes, Donna confronts the demonic landlord, only to plunge into a shadowy game where the house hungers for more than just occupants. An ominous cycle begins, shrouded in mystery.

Lucy’s Birthday (9:29) dir. Peter Sreckovic

A father struggles to enjoy his young daughter’s birthday despite a series of strange and disturbing disruptions.

Parasitic (10:00) dir. Ryan M Andrews

Last call at a dive bar, a writer struggling to find his voice gets more than he bargains for.

 Naualli (6:00) dir. Adrian Gonzalez de la Pena

A grieving man seeks revenge, unwittingly awakening a mystical creature known as the Nagual.

The Saint and The Bear (6:34) dir. Dallas R Soonias

Two strangers cross paths on an ominous park bench.

The Sorrow (13:00) dir. Thomas Affolter

A retired army general and his live-in nurse find they are not alone in a house filled with dark secrets.

Cadabra (6:00) dir. Tiffany Wice

An amateur magician receives more than he anticipated when he purchases a cursed hat from the estate of his deceased hero.

9:30 – Dark Match dir. Lowell Dean Horror / Action

A small time WRESTLING COMPANY accepts a well-paying but too good to be true gig.

 

Tuesday November 19th
7pm – Mournful Mediums

Night Lab (15:00) dir. Andrew Ellinas

When a mysterious package arrives from one of the lab’s field research stations, a promising young researcher uncovers a conspiracy against her masterminded by her jealous boss. She soon finds herself having to grapple with her conscience before making a life-or-death decision.

Dirty Bad Wrong (14:40) dir. Erica Orofino

Desperate to keep her promise to host the best superhero party for her 6-year-old, young mother Sid, a sex worker, takes extreme measures and books a last-minute client with a dark fetish.

Midnight at the lonely river (17:00) dir. Abraham Cote

When the lights go out at a seedy little motel bar, at the crossroads of a seedy little town, nefarious happenings are taking place, and three predators are enacting their evil deeds. Enter Vicky, a drifter who quickly realizes what’s happening right under everyone’s nose. After midnight, In the shadows of this dim establishment, evil begets evil, and the predator becomes the prey.

Mean Ends (14:58) dir. Émile Lavoie

A buried body, a missing sister and an inquisitive neighbour makes for a hell of an evening. And the sun isn’t close to settling on Eric’s sh*tty day.

Stuffy (18:26) dir. Dan Nicholls

A young couple sets off in the middle of the night to bury their kid’s stuffed bunny, as one of them is convinced that the stuffy might be cursed.

Dungeon of Death (18:33) dir. Brian P. Rowe

Torturer Raullin loves a work challenge, especially if that challenge involves hurting people to extract information from them.

9:30 – Hunting Matthew Nichols (96 mins) dir. Markian Tarasiuk

Twenty-three years after her brother mysteriously disappeared, a documentary filmmaker sets out to solve his missing person’s case. But when a disturbing piece of evidence is revealed, she comes to believe that her brother might still be alive.

w/ short: Josephine (6:15) dir. John Francis Bregar

A man haunted by his past seeks forgiveness from his deceased wife, but a session with two spirit mediums leads to an unsettling encounter.

Wednesday November 20th
7pm – BITS and BYTES

Ezra (10:57) dirs. Luke Hutchie, Mike Mildon, Marianna Phung

After fleeing the dark and demonic chains of his shadowy old home, Ezra, a killer gay vampire, takes a leap of faith and enters the modern world.

Head Shop (18:14 episode 1-3) dir. Namaï Kham Po

In a post-apocalyptic world, Anna’s life and work are dominated by her father Sylvestre, a short-tempered mechanic with a terrible reputation for tearing the head off anyone who dares cross him. He decides that she’s old enough to follow in his footsteps, much to her dismay. To prove herself, she must now decapitate her first victim. Can she find a way to defy fate?

D dot H (18 :15 episodes 1-2) dirs. Meegwun Fairbrother, Mary Galloway

Struggling artist Doug is visited by the beautiful and enigmatic H, who claims he holds the power to visiting “inconceivable places.” Still half-asleep, Doug is shocked when H vanishes suddenly and her doppelganger, Hannah, strides past.

Creepy Bits: “Last Sonata” (21:08) dir.

Adrian Bobb, Ashlea Wessel, David J. Fernandes, Sid Zanforlin and Kelly Paoli.

Set among forests, lakes, and small towns, Creepy Bits is a horror anthology series helmed by five innovative filmmakers exploring themes of human vs. nature, the invasion and destruction of the natural world by outsiders, and isolation within a vast, eerie landscape that is not afraid to fight back.

Tales from the Void: “Whistle in the Woods” (24:36) dir. Francesco Loschiavo

Horror anthology TV series based on stories from r/NoSleep. Each tale blends genre thrills & social commentary exploring the dark side of the human psyche.

9:30 – Self Driver dir. Michael Pierro Thriller

Facing mounting expenses and the unrelenting pressure of modern living, a down-on-his-luck cab driver is lured on to a mysterious new app that promises fast, easy money. As his first night on the job unfolds, he is pulled ever deeper into the dark underbelly of society, embarking on a journey that will test his moral code and shake his understanding of what it means to have freewill. The question becomes not how much money he can make, but what he’ll be compelled to do to make it.
 

w/ short: Northern Escape (10:38) dirs. Lucy Sanci, Alexis Korotash

A couple on a cottage getaway tries to work on their relationship but ends up getting more than they bargained for when they discover something sinister lurking beneath the surface.

Thursday November 21st
7pm – Funny Frights

Midnight Snack (1:41) dir. Sandra Foisy

Hunger always strikes in the dead of night.

Hell is a Teenage Girl (15:00) dir. Stephen Sawchuk

Every Halloween, the small town of Springboro is terrorized by its resident SLASHER – a masked serial killer who targets sinful teenagers that break ‘The Rules of Horror’ – don’t drink, don’t do drugs, and don’t have sex!

Gaslit (10:36) dir. Anna MacLean

A woman goes to dangerous lengths to prove she wasn’t responsible for a fart.

Bath Bomb (9:55) dir. Colin G Cooper

A possessive doctor prepares an ostensibly romantic bath for his narcissistic boyfriend, but after an accusation of infidelity, things take a deeply disturbing turn.

Any Last Words (14:22) dir. Isaac Rathé

A crook trying to flee town is paid an untimely visit by some of his former colleagues. What would you say to save your life if you were staring down the barrel of a gun?

Papier mâché (4:30) dir. Simon Madore

A whimsical depiction of the hard and tumultuous life of a piñata.

The Living Room (9:59) dir. Joslyn Rogers

After an unexpected call from Lady Luck, Ms. Valentine must choose between her sanity and her winnings – all before the jungle consumes her.

A Divine Comedy: What the Hell (8:55) dir. Valerie Lee Barnhart
 Dante’s classic Hell is falling into oblivion. Charlotte,

sharp-witted Harpy, navigates the chaos and sets out despite the odds for a new life and destiny.

Mr Fuzz (2:30) dir. Christopher Walsh

A long-limbed, fuzzy-haired creature will do whatever it takes to keep you watching his show.

Out of the Hands of the Wicked (5:00) dirs. Luke Sargent, Benjamin Hackman

After a harrowing journey home from hell, old Pa boasts of his triumph over evil, and how he came to lock the devil in his heart.

The Shitty Ride (9:13) dir. Cole Doran

Hoping to impress the girl of his dreams, Cole buys a used car but gets more than he bargained for with his shitty ride.

9:30 – Invited dir. Navin Ramaswaran Horror

When a reluctant mother attends her daughter’s Zoom elopement, she and the rest of the family in attendance quickly realize the groom is part of a Russian cult with deadly intentions.

w/ shorts: Defile dir. Brian Sepanzyk

A couple’s secluded getaway is suddenly interrupted by a strange family who exposes them to the horrors that lie beyond the tree line.

 + A Mother’s Love dir. Lisa Ovies

A young girl deals with the consequences of trusting someone online.

Friday November 22nd
7:00 pm – Creepy Bits (anthology horror series)

Creepy Bits is a short horror anthology series that explores pandemic age themes of isolation, paranoia and distrust of authority, serving them up in bite-sized chunks. Directed by Adrian Bobb, Ashlea Wessel, David J. Fernandes, Sid Zanforlin and Kelly Paoli.

9:30 – Pins and Needles (81 min) dir. James Villeneuve Horror / Thriller

Follows Max, a diabetic, biology grad student who is entrapped in a devilish new-age wellness experiment and must escape a lethal game of cat and mouse to avoid becoming the next test subject to extend the lives of the rich and privileged.

w/ short: Adjoining (11:42) dirs. Harrison Houde, Dakota Daulby

A couple’s motel stay takes a chilling turn when they discover they’re being observed, leading to unexpected consequences.

Saturday November 23rd
4pm – Emerging Screams (94 mins)

Apnea (14:58) dir. David Matheson

A single, working mother finds her career and her offbeat son’s safety in jeopardy when she discovers that her late mother is possessing her in her sleep.

Nereid (7:48) dir. Lori Zozzolotto

A mysterious woman escapes from an abusive relationship with earth shattering results.

BedLamer (15:00) dir. Alexa Jane Jerrett

On the shores of a small fishing village lives a lonely settlement of men – capturing and domesticating otherworldly creatures that were never meant to be tamed.

Blocked (6:30) dir. Aisha Alfa

A new mom is literally consumed with the futility of cleaning up after her kid.

Dance of the Faery (10:23) dir. Kaela Brianna Egert

A young woman cleans up her estranged, great aunt’s home after her death. Upon inspection, she soon realizes that her eccentric obsession with fairies was not born out of love, but of fear.

Deep End (7:36) dir. Juan Pablo Saenz

A gay couple’s heated argument during a hike spiral into a nightmare when one of them vanishes, leading the other to a mysterious cave that could reveal the chilling truth.

Ojichaag – Spirit Within (11:21) dir. Rachel Beaulieu

An emotionally devastated woman seeks comfort in her choice to end her life. As she faces death in the form of a spirit, she must decide to let herself go to fight to stay alive.

Lure (9.56) dir. Jacob Phair

A tormented father awaits the return of the man who saved his son’s life.

Let Me In (10:00) dirs. Joel Buxton, Charles Smith

A reluctant man interviews an unusual immigration candidate: himself from a doomed dimension

7:00 pm –The Silent Planet (95 mins) dir. Jeffrey St. Jules Sci-fi

An aging convict serving out a life sentence alone on a distant planet is forced to confront his past when a new prisoner shows up and pushes him to remember his life on earth

w/ short: Ascension (3:57) dir. Kenzie Yango

Deep in a remote forest, two friends, Mia and Riley, embark on a leisurely hike. As tensions run high between the two, a strange humming noise appears that seems to be coming from somewhere in the woods.

9:30 – Scared Shitless (73 mins) dir. Vivieno Caldinelli Horror / Comedy

A plumber and his germophobic son are forced to get their hands dirty to save the residents of an apartment building, when a genetically engineered, blood-thirsty creature escapes into the plumbing system.
 

w/ short: Oh…Canada (6:20) dir. Vincenzo Nappi

Oh, Canada. Such a wonderful place to live – WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. A musical look into the artifice surrounding Canadian identity.

 

Tickets for the Isabel Bader Theatre lineup on sale now and can be purchased https://www.bloodinthesnow.ca/#festival

 

Follow “Blood In The Snow” Film Festival:

https://www.instagram.com/bitsfilmfest/

 

Media Inquiries:

Sasha Stoltz Publicity:

Sasha Stoltz | Sasha@sashastoltzpublicity.com | 416.579.4804
https://www.sashastoltzpublicity.com
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It’s time for a Halloween movie marathon. 10 iconic horror films

Published

4 weeks ago

 on

October 19, 2024

By

 

Sometimes, you just have to return to the classics.

That’s especially true as Halloween approaches. While you queue up your spooky movie marathon, here are 10 iconic horror movies from the past 70 years for inspiration, and what AP writers had to say about them when they were first released.

We resurrected excerpts from these reviews, edited for clarity, from the dead — did they stand the test of time?

“Rear Window” (1954)

“Rear Window” is a wonderful trick pulled off by Alfred Hitchcock. He breaks his hero’s leg, sets him up at an apartment window where he can observe, among other things, a murder across the court. The panorama of other people’s lives is laid out before you, as seen through the eyes of a Peeping Tom.

James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter and others make it good fun.

— Bob Thomas

“Halloween” (1978)

At 19, Jamie Lee Curtis is starring in a creepy little thriller film called “Halloween.”

Until now, Jamie’s main achievement has been as a regular on the “Operation Petticoat” TV series. Jamie is much prouder of “Halloween,” though it is obviously an exploitation picture aimed at the thrill market.

The idea for “Halloween” sprang from independent producer-distributor Irwin Yablans, who wanted a terror-tale involving a babysitter. John Carpenter and Debra Hill fashioned a script about a madman who kills his sister, escapes from an asylum and returns to his hometown intending to murder his sister’s friends.

— Bob Thomas

“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)

“The Silence of the Lambs” moves from one nail-biting sequence to another. Jonathan Demme spares the audience nothing, including closeups of skinned corpses. The squeamish had best stay home and watch “The Cosby Show.”

Ted Tally adapted the Thomas Harris novel with great skill, and Demme twists the suspense almost to the breaking point. The climactic confrontation between Clarice Starling and Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) is carried a tad too far, though it is undeniably exciting with well-edited sequences.

Such a tale as “The Silence of the Lambs” requires accomplished actors to pull it off. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins are highly qualified. She provides steely intelligence, with enough vulnerability to sustain the suspense. He delivers a classic portrayal of pure, brilliant evil.

— Bob Thomas

“Scream” (1996)

In this smart, witty homage to the genre, students at a suburban California high school are being killed in the same gruesome fashion as the victims in the slasher films they know by heart.

If it sounds like the script of every other horror movie to come and go at the local movie theater, it’s not.

By turns terrifying and funny, “Scream” — written by newcomer David Williamson — is as taut as a thriller, intelligent without being self-congratulatory, and generous in its references to Wes Craven’s competitors in gore.

— Ned Kilkelly

“The Blair Witch Project” (1999)

Imaginative, intense and stunning are a few words that come to mind with “The Blair Witch Project.”

“Blair Witch” is the supposed footage found after three student filmmakers disappear in the woods of western Maryland while shooting a documentary about a legendary witch.

The filmmakers want us to believe the footage is real, the story is real, that three young people died and we are witnessing the final days of their lives. It isn’t. It’s all fiction.

But Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick, who co-wrote and co-directed the film, take us to the edge of belief, squirming in our seats the whole way. It’s an ambitious and well-executed concept.

— Christy Lemire

“Saw” (2004)

The fright flick “Saw” is consistent, if nothing else.

This serial-killer tale is inanely plotted, badly written, poorly acted, coarsely directed, hideously photographed and clumsily edited, all these ingredients leading to a yawner of a surprise ending. To top it off, the music’s bad, too.

You could forgive all (well, not all, or even, fractionally, much) of the movie’s flaws if there were any chills or scares to this sordid little horror affair.

But “Saw” director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, who developed the story together, have come up with nothing more than an exercise in unpleasantry and ugliness.

— David Germain

Germain gave “Saw” one star out of four.

“Paranormal Activity” (2009)

The no-budget ghost story “Paranormal Activity” arrives 10 years after “The Blair Witch Project,” and the two horror movies share more than a clever construct and shaky, handheld camerawork.

The entire film takes place at the couple’s cookie-cutter dwelling, its layout and furnishings indistinguishable from just about any other readymade home constructed in the past 20 years. Its ordinariness makes the eerie, nocturnal activities all the more terrifying, as does the anonymity of the actors adequately playing the leads.

The thinness of the premise is laid bare toward the end, but not enough to erase the horror of those silent, nighttime images seen through Micah’s bedroom camera. “Paranormal Activity” owns a raw, primal potency, proving again that, to the mind, suggestion has as much power as a sledgehammer to the skull.

— Glenn Whipp

Whipp gave “Paranormal Activity” three stars out of four.

“The Conjuring” (2013)

As sympathetic, methodical ghostbusters Lorraine and Ed Warren, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson make the old-fashioned haunted-house horror film “The Conjuring” something more than your average fright fest.

“The Conjuring,” which boasts incredulously of being their most fearsome, previously unknown case, is built very in the ’70s-style mold of “Amityville” and, if one is kind, “The Exorcist.” The film opens with a majestic, foreboding title card that announces its aspirations to such a lineage.

But as effectively crafted as “The Conjuring” is, it’s lacking the raw, haunting power of the models it falls shy of. “The Exorcist” is a high standard, though; “The Conjuring” is an unusually sturdy piece of haunted-house genre filmmaking.

— Jake Coyle

Coyle gave “The Conjuring” two and half stars out of four.

Read the full review here.

“Get Out” (2017)

Fifty years after Sidney Poitier upended the latent racial prejudices of his white date’s liberal family in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” writer-director Jordan Peele has crafted a similar confrontation with altogether more combustible results in “Get Out.”

In Peele’s directorial debut, the former “Key and Peele” star has — as he often did on that satirical sketch series — turned inside out even supposedly progressive assumptions about race. But Peele has largely left comedy behind in a more chilling portrait of the racism that lurks beneath smiling white faces and defensive, paper-thin protestations like, “But I voted for Obama!” and “Isn’t Tiger Woods amazing?”

It’s long been a lamentable joke that in horror films — never the most inclusive of genres — the Black dude is always the first to go. In this way, “Get Out” is radical and refreshing in its perspective.

— Jake Coyle

Coyle gave “Get Out” three stars out of four.

Read the full review here.

“Hereditary” (2018)

In Ari Aster’s intensely nightmarish feature-film debut “Hereditary,” when Annie (Toni Collette), an artist and mother of two teenagers, sneaks out to a grief-support group following the death of her mother, she lies to her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) that she’s “going to the movies.”

A night out with “Hereditary” is many things, but you won’t confuse it for an evening of healing and therapy. It’s more like the opposite.

Aster’s film, relentlessly unsettling and pitilessly gripping, has carried with it an ominous air of danger and dread: a movie so horrifying and good that you have to see it, even if you shouldn’t want to, even if you might never sleep peacefully again.

The hype is mostly justified.

— Jake Coyle

Coyle gave “Hereditary” three stars out of four.

Read the full review here. ___

Researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed from New York.

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