Tough Films For The Rough Crowd

Over twenty years since its release, I think we can all agree that SCREAM is a classic. But for me, its success has always been slightly tainted by the sardonic, “hip” slasher flicks that came out in its wake. Films like I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, URBAN LEGEND, and even the first…

Is softcore on the verge of a popular rediscovery? In the last year, Kino Lorber has released COLOR OF NIGHT on Blu-ray, and they’re set to release the first three in the official EMMANUELLE series on Blu in April. Australia’s Umbrella Entertainment just released a Blu-ray of softcore Ozploitation oddity CENTRESPREAD…

Children are terrifying. At least historically, in cinema, with titles like THE OMEN, THE BAD SEED, THE GOOD SON, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, THE CHILDREN, CATHY’S CURSE, WHO CAN KILL A CHILD?, BLOODY BIRTHDAY, ORPHAN, CHILDREN OF THE CORN, and many more, there is a fount of examples of terrifying…

For me, there is a comfort food feel to watching low to moderately budgeted indie genre movies from the mid-’90s. Sure, many of them do not hold up these twenty odd years later, but they invariably take me back to a time when I would stay up all night, watching…

This review contains spoilers for 10 TO MIDNIGHT.   For an ’80s Charles Bronson flick that includes some slasher movie tropes by featuring an oft-nude killer who stabs women to death, 10 TO MIDNIGHT has a surprisingly good script courtesy of William Roberts. Even better is that director J. Lee…

Given what a huge fan I am of both Brian De Palma and Paul Schrader, OBSESSION has long been a massive blind spot in my appreciation of both filmmakers’ careers. The fear when putting off seeing a long-anticipated film is that it will not live up to the expectations that…

Part mad scientist flick, part Gothic romantic horror, and part muddled message movie metaphor about psychologically abusive relationships, ELIZABETH HARVEST is an absolute mess. But the resulting mess is highly entertaining in a goofy, over-the-top soap opera kind of way.   The movie opens with a shot of a luxury…

Lars Von Trier is an asshole. The director would probably admit as much himself. He’s made a career out of being a contrarian and provocateur, of making movies that are aggressive in their nihilism and despair, of revelling in his appellation as cinema’s leading enfant terrible. He’s been obliquely accused…

Spider-Man has had a real roller coaster ride in the movies since Sam Raimi’s 2002 blockbuster finally introduced the character to the big screen. Within 15 years of that film’s release, Raimi directed two sequels before Sony rebooted the series with Marc Webb at the helm, and then Marvel managed…

If you were to ask horror fans what they thought was the worst Stephen King adaptation, and what they thought was the worst Tobe Hooper film, there would inevitably be a Venn diagram that posits THE MANGLER square in the middle. Hooper’s second King adaptation–nearly twenty years on from his perfunctorily…

The first and only time before last week that I had watched SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2, I said some pretty brutal things in a review on my blog. In fact, I didn’t so much write a review as I did an extended skit where I tried to imagine…

In one of the bonus featurettes on this new Scream Factory Blu-ray of the film, the production designer mentions that writer/director Kim Henkel intended TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION to be a return to the tone, feel, and look of the 1974 original. If that is truly the intent,…

The first CRITTERS hit at arguably the height of PG-13 horror aimed at adolescents who were too old for kids films but not quite ready for bloodier adult horror that was ushered in by GREMLINS. Not surprisingly, CRITTERS borrowed (ahem) quite a bit from Joe Dante’s subversive horror-comedy to give…

Can we just agree, right up front, Edward D. Wood Jr. was not even close to the worst filmmaker of all time? Did he operate on miniscule budgets? Yes, he did. Did he overreach his means in an attempt to make movies with huge ideas? Absolutely. Was he idiosyncratic as…

It seems ridiculous to write any sort of plot explanation or introduction to CREEPSHOW. If you are a reader of this site, you already know it as one of the all-time great horror anthology films and the best of the collaborations between Stephen King and the late, great George A….

It is a rarity when a film at the budget level of NINJA ZOMBIE actually lives up to its inspired title. I have watched so many micro-budget indies with great titles and groovy DVD art/posters that were plodding, dull, and talky that I immediately assume a movie with as tremendous…

Not every adaptation into film needs to be 100% faithful to the source material. There have been tons of successful works that have changed, combined, or left out major narrative elements of stories and characters that audiences love—but the films work just as well. The two main questions one should…

Nicole Kidman looks unrecognizable in DESTROYER, her famously refined features dirtied and sallow with a lifetime of weariness. Her porcelain skin is now grayish and liver-spotted, her eyes heavy with tiredness, the mop of hair on her head limp and streaked with white. You can hardly believe you are seeing…

Drew Goddard’s debut feature THE CABIN IN THE WOODS was a highly memorable way to start a directorial career. This wasn’t just a meta-horror in the SCREAM tradition, it was a call to arms for horror fans and filmmakers to demand something more out the genre than the same exhausted…

SAVAGE had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on Saturday, September 22, 2018.   I appreciate a well-made coming of age film. When everything clicks, the harsh truths of a young person growing up and dealing with a world where they now understand that adults are not always right and…

WEREWOLF recently had its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest 2018.   There are two ways a genre film can make me nervous before watching it. One is to be based upon an actual tragedy. It is hard for me to watch a movie based on true events that result…

There’s a certain breed of film fan that gets roundly mocked on social media for their rather basic tastes: the Dudely Film Bro. We all know the (stereo)type. The man with the SCARFACE and BOONDOCK SAINTS posters on his wall. The one who worships at the altar of Tyler Durden,…

CHAINED FOR LIFE is prefaced by a lengthy quote from Pauline Kael about the necessity of beauty in actors, because it makes the viewing experience more pleasurable for the audience. Make no mistake about it: this is a message movie. It is, as predicted by the quote, a movie about beauty,…

Wes Anderson’s ISLE OF DOGS may be given a run for its money by LAIKA, an utterly charming, whimsical, and funny animated musical about the famous space dog that died in the launching of Sputnik 2. In this alternate reality created by Czech director Aurel Klimt, Laika does not die but…