Being Film #9 for Hooptober 2021 Like a lot of people I fell into the world of Asian horror with Hideo Nakata's Ringu. After being thrilled by the imagery and concept I read the trilogy of novels by Koji Suzuki: Ring, Spiral, and Loop. I knew there was a filmed adaptation of the sequel, but... Continue Reading →
Being Film #8 for Hooptober 2021 It can be a blessing or a curse to discover a "lost" work from a treasured artist. Often a work is lost for a reason: maybe it was never meant to see the light of day, or maybe it just didn't work the same way as time went on.... Continue Reading →
Being Film #7 for Hooptober 2021 "THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE!" Even if you haven't seen When a Stranger Calls, chances are you're familiar with that phrase. You're probably even more familiar with Scream, whose entire beginning is an homage to the first 20 minutes of this film. But knowing all that... Continue Reading →
Being Film #6 for Hooptober 2021 Did director Joel Rubin settle the question of "what's the best video game adaptation of all time?" with Werewolves Within? Does it count as an adaptation when producers Ubisoft's only real direction was "make it a good movie?" I have zero familiarity with the video game, although my family... Continue Reading →
Being Film #5 for Hooptober 2021 It feels like after the success of Inside, the debut and arguable pinnacle of the French New Wave of Horror (though I prefer Martyrs) the writing/directing team of Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo have struggled to find another story where their particular sensibilities really pay off. Their latest, Kandisha,... Continue Reading →
Being Film #4 for Hooptober 2021 I've gone on record a few times during Hooptober about my less than ardent love for Lucio Fulci. With the exception of The Beyond, his "Gates of Hell" films felt scattered and gratuitous and his riff on Romero with Zombi was anemic at best. So I'm as shocked as... Continue Reading →
Being Film #3 for Hooptober 2021 Somewhere there's a version of Blood Red Sky where Samuel L. Jackson is screaming "GET THESE MUTHAF-CKIN' VAMPIRES OFF MY MUTHAF-CKIN' PLANE!" and that is a movie I want to see. Instead what we have here is a German action/horror hybrid with a great premise that becomes a slog... Continue Reading →
Being Film #2 for Hooptober 2021 Malignant is many things. It's proof that James Wan lost none of his horror chops having made the leap to massive big budget fare like Aquaman and the Fast and Furious franchise. It's a high camp tribute to giallo, filtered through the lens of a guy whose first movie... Continue Reading →
Being Film #1 for Hooptober 2021 Stan Winston is a legend. This is undisputed. The man was a master of practical effects. The stuff he did for both Aliens and Jurassic Park (two films you can definitely spot shades of here) are some of the most breathtaking works of imagination put to screen. So when... Continue Reading →
A bit of history. I've always been a horror nerd, doing some kind of solitary fright flick marathon as far back as 2007 with the abominable Resident Evil 3: Extinction. On another defunct blog I started calling the annual fest Hail Horror - if you can believe this post from 2009 I was already on... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 