Being Film #6 for Hooptober 2023 It's not fair to classify Amicus as the poor man's Hammer, but watching The House That Dripped Blood - a misleading title as there is nary a drop of blood to be found in this anthology film - but despite some game performances from Hammer regulars Christopher Lee and... Continue Reading →
Being Film #5 for Hooptober 2023 Consider this a public service. I am going to waste as few words as possible on the dreck that is Dracula 3000, a quickie straight to cable cash grab that is exactly what you think it is: Dracula in space. The actual Dracula, he with the goth cape and... Continue Reading →
The Mangler represents a rare meeting of three horror icons; director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist), actor Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street), and Stephen King (the most commercially successful horror writer of all time). It’s the not the first time any of these people connected with... Continue Reading →
Being Film #3 for Hooptober 2023 Man, there is just something about Dario Argento. Excepting The Five Days (only because I haven't seen it) his run of films from 1970's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage up to 1996's The Stendhal Syndrome (I'm giving a soft pass to 93's Trauma because I barely remember it)... Continue Reading →
Being Film #2 for Hooptober 2023 Tone is everything. So even if Sea Fever, the debut film from Neasa Hardiman isn't particularly scary, it holds its tone throughout a solid tale that on the surface may be about a parasitic life form that wreaks havoc on a down and out fishing vessel off the coast... Continue Reading →
Demián Rugna’s Terrified begins with a woman, Clara, standing over the sink in her kitchen. She tries to make dinner. Every time she runs the faucet, she hears voices. Much later, her husband Juan comes home smiling. He tells a story about a dog that miraculously getting hit by a car. However, Clara seems hollow.... Continue Reading →
Being Film #1 for Hooptober 2023 Sometimes suspending your disbelief can be a chore, but sometimes - if the tone is just ridiculous enough - it can be a delight. There was a lot to suspend in Night of the Comet, a sci-fi horror comedy that's more "Valley Girl survives the Apocalypse" than anything else,... Continue Reading →
Imagine you are a filmmaker coming off the most well regarded film of your career. It’s the film that maybe you don’t realize now but will become what you’re best known. Regardless, the question that will be asked of you is “What’s next?” There’s two paths you can take. Do what’s expected of you, or... Continue Reading →
Tanks lie unattended near the foot of a mountain or a hill, with possibly empty oil drums next to them. Nameless people sit crowded in a train going through a desert. Women dance in a club hoping to attract the attention of French Foreign Legion soldiers. Those same soldiers, now caked in sand and dust,... Continue Reading →
Towards the end of Claire Denis’s Stars At Noon, Benny Safdie’s CIA agent describes Central America as a “gambler’s paradise”. He says this with a smile and unconcerned attitude. Margaret Qualley’s journalist Trish looks at him with scorn. These two individuals know enough about this region that if it is a “gambler’s paradise”, then the... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 