Tough Films For The Rough Crowd

  “I heard you paint houses.” “Yes, I do. I also do my own carpentry.”   A friend of mine once said that Martin Scorsese makes the same movie over and over, and I had to do everything in my power to avoid picking up a nice-looking pen off a…

    In the horror community there has always been a lot discussion over what the best movie is to watch during Halloween. The obvious answer is the original HALLOWEEN (1978) by the master of horror, Mr. John Carpenter. Others prefer more whimsy, and will opt for the family-friendly HOCUS POCUS (1993)….

      There is a multitude of horror TV offerings available today, whether it’s on traditional network TV (Supernatural, Evil) or on cable/streaming (Lovecraft County, American Horror Story, Stranger Things, Castle Rock, House on Haunted Hill, Creepshow etc.). Even genre classics like the original The Twilight Zone, The X-Files,…

    The concept of a “Bill and Ted 3” has been, at the very least, a discussion around Hollywood meeting tables for almost the last twenty years. Considered one of those long-mooted sequels that didn’t seem likely to ever exist, like 2017’s BLADE RUNNER 2049 and next year’s GHOSTBUSTERS:…

  Historically I have despised the term “life-affirming,” particularly as it’s deployed most frequently in film reviews. It’s too frequently used to sell us honky horseshit like GREEN BOOK, stuff you generally know to avoid just by noting who’s calling it “life-affirming.” The idea is that these are movies that…

Director Eric Power’s ATTACK OF THE DEMONS (written by Andres Petersen) is incredibly frustrating to watch. Not because it is bad or derivative or anything—but because it keeps taking one step forward and one step backward.

  In the great scheme of the horror genre, I’ve always found that the movies that scared me the most are ones dealing with possession. Something about it just seems to be more realistic. As serious as most possession-style horror films are, some can be quite comical as well. I…

  One of the first horror movies I ever remember seeing was RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. I instantly fell in love with it. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD is one of those films that either instantly resonates with the viewer or it doesn’t. Was the world ready for this…

  Well, the first thing this SATANICO PANDEMONIUM retrospective needs is some Fun Facts. So, yes, let’s get started: if the film’s title sounds familiar, it’s because this was the name given to Salma Hayek’s character in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. Even more of a fun fact, especially after you…

By the time Stephen King released CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF in 1983, he had already released two other novels that same year, CHRISTINE and PET SEMETARY, which have all but largely overshadowed his experimental werewolf tale. By that point in his career, he had come off of the well-received EC…

  Listen to them, the children of the B-Movie, what sweet garbage they make!   Rising from the grave to bring you the best schlockfest of 2020 comes Anthony Catanese’s GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE BLOOD. Taking place in the mysterious eastern locale of… Trenton, New Jersey, this vampire exploitation flick…

    There are so many important filmmakers in the horror genre, filmmakers who have created works of cinematic genius that have staying power and subtext, and are truly entertaining to watch. These filmmakers are held to a higher standard, have influenced generations of filmmakers, and now hold the prestigious…

  Let’s face it: Halloween is just going to be different in 2020. Yes, it’s a holiday that’s mostly a state of mind, but certain activities will likely be too risky this year, including one of my favorite pastimes: haunts (or “spook trails” as we refer to them in the…

  Many independent filmmakers have been known to turn to the horror genre in their filmmaking, a trend made popular because of the return on investment; profits can be substantial for smaller budgets. It is relatively inexpensive to produce a horror film, and the marketing for horror can make a…

  I blame Mike Flanagan and his brilliant adaptation, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, for how unimpressively 1999’s THE HAUNTING plays in our modern era. Though both are based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel, ironically, it’s the miniseries which strays far from the novel’s surface story that’s the most successful…

  As the calendar lurches through August, summer seeping away with each new day, there’s an instinctual, cultural sensation that the year is winding down, an ending paradoxically heralded by the beginning of a new school year. Even if you’ve long graduated from high school or college, this time of…

  The very first thing I should mention is that DEAD DICKS deals with suicide. If that’s a triggering or sensitive subject, I wouldn’t watch the film or continue reading this review. To the filmmakers’ credit, they’re quite aware of this, and they include a message with the number of…

The Squidling Brothers Circus Sideshow started with a band, and that band started after a tragedy. In 1999, Matthew and Eric Broomfield lost their older brother Jason to suicide. Jason was an artist based in Philadelphia and New York, and the younger two brothers really looked up to him. So…

  Happy October to all our grindhouse ghouls and goblins out there. To mark what is historically a big month for Daily Grindhouse, we’ve got some historically big stuff planned for you. First off: On the Daily Grindhouse Patreon today, we are premiering a full-length novella for you to read,…

    Throughout his career, Alfred Hitchcock directed 55 feature films, along with numerous shorts and documentaries. That’s not a bad haul, nor a bad legacy to leave behind to the world. Having said that, even the most ardent film fan couldn’t possibly name you half of his films in…

  In a sea of Very Important Festival Films, there tends not to be much space for silly genre flicks. Even with the recent push to spotlight “women in film” has mainly lead to painfully serious, deeply complex efforts that are constantly engaging with the question: “What does it mean…

  “I would try to ask [Doris Wishman] questions about cinema history, like who was her favorite director. ‘Do you like Citizen Kane?’ I was just trying to figure out where she was coming from and what her background was. She had no interest at all in the history of cinema. It…

    I was not expecting the pilot of The Critic to be on my mind when watching ALL HAIL THE POPCORN KING, a documentary about renowned crime and horror author Joe R. Lansdale. But, like the unbidden dreams that visited Lansdale to create some of his weirdest works like…

It’s always a tricky proposition to know what to say about Jim Woodring’s work simply because the depth and scope of his creative vision is both deeper and wider than the ability of mere language — even superlative-laden language — to keep up with. Which, yeah, is a roundabout way…