Being Film #1 for Hooptober 2022 "How long will I live?" asks Alan, gazing up at the Miraculous Cesare, somnambulist star of a sideshow attraction. His eyes stare dead ahead, his lithe body poised at the foot of the stage in front of the gathered crowd. "Until the break of dawn," the sleepwalker intones. That's... Continue Reading →
Wait...it's September 15th already?! Time files when the world's a dumpster fire and you’re wearing 10 masks and drinking Lysol to prevent the mutant hybrid of COVID, Monkey Pox and…Christ on Toast it pains me to even write it...POLIO. How to suppress the horror of real life? With cinematic horror, of course! That’s why we’re... Continue Reading →
Watching Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth I was brought back to those weekends with my dad. He passed down to me my love for Cary Grant, watching films like Father Goose and Mr. Lucky and North By Northwest. We had nothing else in common, so I clung to those stars and movies and absorbed them... Continue Reading →
When I was deciding what film was going to kick this off, I wanted something that was familiar. Sure, I could have gone with the challenge of something like A Brighter Summer Day but in the week of recharging the batteries in the midst of work and health/life stress I needed some comfort, something that... Continue Reading →
If you're a cinephile (or movie addict - use whatever nomenclature you feel comfortable with; we're not snobs here) tell me if this rings a bell: A new release gets announced, you rush to pick it up...maybe while you're there you have some extra cash to spend so you get that reissues you've been meaning... Continue Reading →
Being Bonus Film #3 for Hooptober 2021 For the final review of Hooptober 8.0 we have a wicked little piece courtesy of Cartoon Network. On the night of Halloween 1999 the channel ran a Scooby Doo marathon, and interspersed between the episodes was The Scooby-Doo Project, a parody of The Blair Witch Project that takes... Continue Reading →
Being Bonus Film #2 for Hooptober 2021 The second bonus film for Hooptober 8.0 is an early Amicus picture called The Skull. Amicus is kind of the lower rent little brother of Hammer, which isn't to say they were bad: their speciality was really more the anthology film. The Skull feels a lot like them... Continue Reading →
Being Bonus Film #1 for Hooptober 2021 We've hit the bonus rounds for Hooptober 2021! These will be a little more brief - just general impression of the three "extra credit" films assigned for those who can get through the marathon. First up is J.D.'s Revenge, a blaxploitation horror film that is better than you... Continue Reading →
Being Film #31 for Hooptober 2021 The anthology is a tried and true format for horror, allowing filmmakers to explore a theme or feeling without the burden of having to carry it out to feature length. The short allows for a broader range of styles, and in The Field Guide to Evil you can see... Continue Reading →
Being Film #30 for Hooptober 2021 As we start to wind down the marathon, I decided to call another audible on my list. I had been on a kick with Hammer's films, so why hit that particular well again? Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell was Peter Cushing's last go-round as Victor Frankenstein, and Terence... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 