Being Film #28 for Hooptober 2021 A real quick summary/review of the classic (I guess?) Indonesian horror film Queen of Black Magic goes something like this: Evil Dead and Hausu vibes mark this horror revenge flick as a young woman seeks revenge after being left for dead at the hands of her ex-lover and the... Continue Reading →
Being Film #27 for Hooptober 2021 Featuring Christopher Lee in a rare (if slightly excitable) heroic role, The Devil Rides Out is a great slice of near-cosmic horror. It may get more than a little heavy-handed with its pro-Christian themes trouncing the evil satanic cult (a touchstone of many of director terence Fisher's films) but... Continue Reading →
Being Film #26 for Hooptober 2021 This week I'm diving into some older fare, starting with a 1-2 punch of Hammer Horror. Though there is little in the way of horror and the mystery of Captain Clegg, or Night Creatures as it was released in the US is cleared up for audiences pretty quickly, I... Continue Reading →
le this series has focused on the films of Agnès Varda, it's reductive to describe her only as a filmmaker. Her career in photography predates her filmmaking career, and helps to inform her earliest film work, from the shots of the couple in La Pointe Courte to the contrasting images of a pregnant woman next to a pumpkin being hacked open in L’opéra-Mouffe.
Being Film #25 for Hooptober 2021 For some people, there is nothing I can say that will keep them from watching Halloween Kills, the second in a planned trilogy that serves as a slate cleaning sequel to the immortal 1978 classic film. If you're simply looking for a dozen or so brutal, borderline creative kills... Continue Reading →
Being Film #24 for Hooptober 2021 There really is nothing like a Sion Sono film. It's too easy to slip the "gonzo" tag onto any artist whose work straddles the line of garrish cartoons and meta commentary, over the top gore covering everything like...well, gore. The fact that Suicide Club still hasn't been upgraded to... Continue Reading →
Being Film #23 for Hooptober 2021 Is there anything left to be said about The Evil Dead? Sam Raimi's 1981 debut horror has been hailed as one of the greatest horror films of all time, "ferociously original" by none other than the Master of Horror himself, Stephen King. It ushered in the reign of his... Continue Reading →
Being Film #22 for Hooptober 2021 I called a last minute audible for my horror watch when I saw the trailer for Black as Night, the sixth film in the Blumhouse/Amazon partnership under the Welcome to the Blumhouse series. Although it's a bit reductive to look at this as a "what if Buffy The Vampire... Continue Reading →
Being Film #21 for Hooptober 2021 By the time the "Master of Italian Horror" got around to 1973's Lisa and the Devil there was really nothing left to prove. Since 1960's Black Sunday Mario Bava had crafted numerous classics that would grow to influence not just to the Italian horror genre (particularly giallo) but to... Continue Reading →
Being Film #20 for Hooptober 2021 It's interesting watching something like Evilspeak now, 40 years after its release and in a completely different world where "nerd is the new cool" holds sway and the kind of ruthless bullying we see on display feels even more startling than it must have when it first came out.... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 