Being Film #6 for Hooptober 2025 We continue a run of beautifully shot films that pack in a load of subtext under a veneer of horror. Although in the case of The Untamed, that horror comes from the action of its primary characters as they wrestle with their sexual appetites and the violence the repression... Continue Reading →
Being Film #5 for Hooptober 2025 The full weight of history lies just under the surface of Demon, the stunning final film from Marcin Wrona, who tragically took his own life during the film's run at the festival circuit. With no jump scares and little in the way of violence or gore, the film manages... Continue Reading →
Being Film #4 for Hooptober 2025 Films like The Possessed, or La Donna del Lago in its original Italian, are the reason I constantly try to seek out new films whenever Hooptober comes around. A proto-giallo that also functions as an Italian noir evoking the dream-like narratives David Lynch would forge just over a decade... Continue Reading →
Being Film #3 for Hooptober 2025 Anthology films are hard to nail down. You not only have to have a strong selection of stories that work, but the framing device often can make or break the film. So there was already a stacked deck against Ealing Studios, the English film studio known more for comedies... Continue Reading →
Being Film #2 for Hooptober 2025 I had the bar set low for The Black Phone, the latest horror collaboration between the writing/directing team of Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill. On one hand, I wasn't the biggest fan of either the Sinister films or Deliver Us From Evil, save for the gnarly exorcism. On... Continue Reading →
Being Film #1 for Hooptober 2025 There's a lot that goes into choosing the first movie in this marathon: do you get the requirements out of the way first? Look at runtimes? Or is it something more ephemeral? I wanted to start with the simple things that made me a fan of the genre as... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: In the final Lone Wolf and Cub film, star Tomisaburo Wakayama decided to make the... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: Balancing physical action with Buddhist musings on life and death, the most spiritual... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: In this distinctly lowbrow entry in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Itto Ogami is... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword takes a (brief) look at the film series Lone Wolf and Cub. Twice a month, Jon and Chris share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: Unfolding in an idyllic countryside that contrasts sharply with the violence that occurs... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 