Being Film #29 for Hooptober 2024 It's still difficult for me to reconcile the beautiful, captivating films made by Powell & Pressburger with the lurid, psychosexual menace of Powell's 1960 solo outing Peeping Tom. On the one hand, I can see the use of color, the imaginative camera movement, the exquisite framing...even the emphasis on... Continue Reading →
Being Film #28 for Hooptober 2024 What a delight. I wasn't aware of just how much I needed a breath of air, some light after mainlining one dour note of horror after another over the course of the month. So thank you 1920 for being borderline unwatchable with no english subtitles on any services (both... Continue Reading →
Being Film #27 for Hooptober 2024 I've been thinking a lot about expectations, and how they impact our viewing of a film. Dark Water, the other Hideo Nakata horror film (Ringu being the first) was a film I knew a lot about, but always held off for one reason or another, thinking there would be... Continue Reading →
Something Like a Filmography takes a (brief) look at the filmography of Akira Kurosawa. Twice a month, Chris and Jon share their impressions of each film, both on its own terms and in terms of Kurosawa's legacy and its intersection in the Cinema Dual hosts' lives. FROM THE BOX: A young executive hunts down his father’s killer... Continue Reading →
Being Film #26 for Hooptober 2024 It's rare, but sometimes the situation just calls for a low budget yet earnest splatterfest involving Lovecraftian cephalopods who get into your body and just...incubate. Then explode your body at the first sign of danger. This was one of those times, and Hell Hole, the latest feature from the... Continue Reading →
Being Film #25 for Hooptober 2024 I can imagine The Hands Of Orlac must have been a potboiler at its time of release in 1920s Germany. Director Robert Wiene adapts Maurice Renard's novel wonderfully, showing a real sense of narrative and the dramatic in his depiction of a by now well-trod story. And for me... Continue Reading →
Being Film #24 for Hooptober 2024 We're getting to the saturation point of reviewing. 24 reviews in 23 days. I'm beat, trying to get this wrapped up so I can take on the other writing stuff I'm putting off. Luckily, the films continue to show bright spots in the genre, perhaps none more so than... Continue Reading →
Being Film #23 for Hooptober 2024 No one made horror like John Carpenter. It wasn't just the man himself (though lord knows he plays a HUGE part); it's the tight-knit group of collaborators. I can't imagine watching something like The Fog without the singular cinematography of Dean Cundey, or the editing of Tommy Lee Wallace,... Continue Reading →
Being Film #22 for Hooptober 2024 Sometimes a film is so generic, so typical of its genre trappings without standing out there's very little to write about. I'm actually kind of curious as what the two critics on the audio commentary for Riccardo Freda's The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire would talk about, because... Continue Reading →
Being Film #21 for Hooptober 2024 Announced in 2019, shot in 2021, originally set for theatrical release in 2022 only to dribble out onto the Max service this past Friday, the long-awaited 'Salem's Lot took a meandering road to reach our eyes. And in the end it was neither a massive misfire not a surefire... Continue Reading →
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