Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades.
Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear.
Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade.
An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren.
Dig past the new arrivals, and P+ has loads of way better options, including a terrifying staple about a therapist who keeps seeing the same sinister upside-down frown everywhere, a future-set sci-fi classic that might be the best of a franchise, and my top pick, an interstellar grudge match against a famous starship captain.
Some of the best thrillers and horrors are the ones that take everyday simplicities—you know, like children's dolls and teddy bears—and turn them into sinister demons from hell. Welp, you can thank writer/director Parker Finn for ruining the warmth and innocence of a simple smile. Yes, 2022's Smile smirked its way to the year's biggest original horror release, to the tune of $217 million.
Based on Finn's own SXSW short film, Laura Hasn't Slept, Smile follows Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon, daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick), a psychiatrist treating a patient named Laura (Caitlin Stasey) who says she's being haunted by a malevolent entity. Rose then watches Laura kill herself while wearing a horrific frozen grin. Days later, Rose starts seeing the same smile on people everywhere, including her fiancé Trevor (Jessie T. Usher), and soon learns that the entity has jumped to her. The only way to rid herself of it? It must be passed on to a new witness to a death, whether her own or someone else's.
Smile won solid reviews (79% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes), as did its sequel, Smile 2 (also streaming on P+), which fared even better at 86%. There's reportedly a third installment in development, but it's unclear if Finn will be involved.
Paramount+ may not have James Cameron's original genre-defining 1984 masterpiece, The Terminator, currently streaming on its service, but that's fine because it does have the franchise's golden child, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which is universally considered the perfect sequel and better than the original.
From Skynet to Judgment Day — see how much you really know about the
Terminator movies.
What is the name of the human resistance leader that Skynet sends the Terminator
back in time to kill in the original 1984 film?
Which iconic line does the T-800 say upon arriving in the original 1984 Terminator
film?
What model number is the liquid-metal Terminator that serves as the main villain in
Terminator 2: Judgment Day?
In the original Terminator, who sent Kyle Reese back in time to protect Sarah
Connor?
Which actress plays Sarah Connor in the original 1984 Terminator and Terminator 2:
Judgment Day?
What is the subtitle of the third Terminator film, released in 2003?
What is the name of the artificial intelligence that becomes self-aware and launches
a nuclear war against humanity in the Terminator franchise?
In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, what does the reprogrammed T-800 promise John Connor
he will never do, leading to one of the film's most emotional moments?
