Being Film #16 for Hooptober 2025 In the end, there's really no escaping the shadow of what Guillermo del Toro brought to Mike Mignola's Hellboy character in his two films. You can argue they're not truly what Mignola intended with the character, mixed too much with del Toro's sympathy with the monsters, but those two... Continue Reading →
Being Film #15 for Hooptober 2025 The Blackening has a lot to say about black identity, about the tropes and cliches of how black actors are handled not just in horror films, but throughout the visual medium. It also wants to be funny, and it wants to be scary. It also wants to be very... Continue Reading →
Being Film #14 for Hooptober 2025 Tone is such a fickle thing. So hard to maintain, and if you find it too late, it's nearly impossible to get back and adjust the rest to match, either in reshoots or the edit. Together is a case in point: beautifully acted, some truly gnarly effects work, an... Continue Reading →
Being Film #13 for Hooptober 2025 I never thought I'd see a film like Hausu again. That movie, a psychedelic fever dream from Nobuhiko Obayashi, was off the walls and inventive in a way I never expected, and never expected to see again. I am so happy to be proved wrong by Devil Fetus, an... Continue Reading →
Being Film #12 for Hooptober 2025 It's getting harder and harder to reinvigorate the trope of "bunch of young adults headed to a remote cabin where horror ensues". You could even argue the attempts to subvert the trope is itself a trope. And yet, even though I don't really love Dead Snow, writer/director Tommy Wirkola's... Continue Reading →
Being Film #11 for Hooptober 2025 Straddling the line between folktale and vibrant Hammer-style gothic horror, I was shocked and surprised at how much I enjoyed the lean, vibrant Viy. My knowledge of Russian cinema, let alone Russian horror, is pretty limited, but I shouldn't be surprised considering the rich history Russia has from a... Continue Reading →
Being Film #10 for Hooptober 2025 I typically don't hold out a lot of hope for sequels, especially 80s sequels to 80s movies that were themselves comedic reboots of older films. But somehow despite the loss of Dan O'Bannon Return Of The Living Dead Part II not only works as a worthy successor, it leans... Continue Reading →
Being Film #9 for Hooptober 2025 There were a lot of things running through my mind watching La Morte Vivante, aka The Living Dead Girl. I wish I meant that in a good way, but the truth is despite the cult status of Jean Rollins and the notable similarities between his films of the fantastique... Continue Reading →
Being Film #8 for Hooptober 2025 23 years later from 28 Days Later we get 28 Years Later, and while I loved writing that sentence, I didn't love it as much as I loved the film itself. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland return to their 2002 "fast zombie / don't call it a zombie film"... Continue Reading →
Being Film #7 for Hooptober 2025 Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Not so much a dud as a "well, I was definitely expecting more from this" kind of letdown. Maybe I finally hit the age where I just can't relate to the kids of today, because despite coming from a guy who's... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 