The definition of what a Western is has radically altered since the days of Edwin S. Porter and John Ford. The mythical archetypes that permeate this most American of genres have been consumed, regurgitated, bastardized, transcended, dissolved and liquefied to the point that almost every conflict-driven picture today can be read as distillation of the old black-hat-vs.-white-hat aesthetic. (Don’t believe us? Just check out our series of articles this issue on the work of John Carpenter…let’s just say that without the strong influence of the oaters of Howard Hawks, said articles most likely would have never ended up in this magazine at all.)

Before we proceed into this month’s cover story on James Wan’s incredibly frightening ghost opus INSIDIOUS, allow us to quote a portion of our own review, published on Fangoria.com shortly after the picture’s world premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival…

Ed. note: With Dario Argento beginning what may be his biggest year ever, embarking on his take on a genre landmark and seeing many of his past classics reissued on disc in the U.S. by Blue Underground and in the UK by Arrow Video, what better time to catch up with the horror maestro? And who better to help us do it than a fellow Italian horror veteran…

What’s your favorite scary movie?” When audiences were first subjected to that not-so-innocuous question in 1996, they were also given a refreshing and trendsetting take on a tired subgenre, and a kickstart for what had been, up until then, a dry decade for good terror.