There are moments in our country’s history (and likely other countries) where an event is so momentous that it essentially redefines culture on its own. An event so meaningful that history itself seems to split into both “before” and “after”, with the latter being a new, rewritten normal. For older generations these were things like … Continue reading Waffle House Hardball: Say it Ain’t So, Joe (intro)
Poor Neil Jordan. There was a definite time in history when it seemed like his career as an auteur was blossoming. He’d set the world on fire with 1992’s The Crying Game, which was nominated for six Oscars. He won for Best Original Screenplay. Two years later, he would direct Interview with the Vampire, which … Continue reading Greta (2019)
Last July, the Nickelodeon held a seven-picture series celebrating Technicolor. I missed most of it, but I was able to catch one showing of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 masterpiece The Birds. Hitchcock should have shown up in this feature back in 1960 for Psycho, but I found myself so intimidated at the prospect of reviewing a … Continue reading The Birds (1963)
Though I had planned to tackle another 1963 film next, our local art theater The Nickelodeon has been doing a film series called Black Stories: Rural Voices. For the third film in the series, Thaddeus Jones Jr. of Fanatik Productions chose The People Under the Stairs, which marks the introduction of Wes Craven to my … Continue reading The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Hello, gentle readers! The year is almost up, and as you can imagine, I'm working hard on my list of the Best Horror of 2018. As of now, there are still two movies which I am determined to see before I complete that article. I still intend to post Through the Fears entries, though probably … Continue reading Important Site Update!
Last year, one of the most buzzed about television series was Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House. In ten episodes, it followed the seven members of the Crain family as their lives were slowly destroyed by the sinister forces lurking in Hill House. It’s far from perfect, and it often feels like a tighter produced … Continue reading The Haunting (1963 & 1999)
This one just makes me kinda sad. I’ve kind of struggled with Japanese horror so far. With the exception of Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan, most of this era’s non-kaiju work has just left me a little cold. I assume a big part of this is not only the generational but the cultural gap. I have less … Continue reading Matango (1963)
If you go to a lot of movies, you may have noticed that for the most part, January and February do not see the best releases. The technical term is “dump months”. Personally, I prefer RedLetterMedia’s more accurate take on the studios’ faith in these projects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H18RUB1cxfI February is no better, taking place after the … Continue reading The Prodigy (2019)
Seven minutes into Velvet Buzzsaw, I posted “I hate this already”. Seeing Jake Gyllenhaal playing a goofy character in a Netflix movie dredged up unpleasant memories of him trying to ruin Okja. Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Gyllenhaal does not ruin the movie. The bad news is … Continue reading Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
I’m not entirely sure of the exact timeline, but at some point during the filming of Black Sabbath, Boris Karloff sang director Mario Bava’s praises to the younger generation of horror icons. Vincent Price would go on to work with Bava for the 1966 comedy Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. Christopher Lee, however, would … Continue reading The Whip and the Body (1963)
If it hasn’t become painfully clear by now, I absolutely adore Boris Karloff. Of all the icons from the Universal monster movies, he’s the one who picked the most interesting films, and despite dealing with serious health problems for decades, his career took him all the way until the end of the 1960s. I’m not … Continue reading Black Sabbath (1963)
