As Florida residents and lovers of spooky things, going to Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights is an annual tradition for my spouse and I. For anyone who has never gone or is unaware, Halloween Horror Nights is an after hours event in September and October at Universal Studios. Generally, they’ll have multiple “haunted houses” based... Continue Reading →
Being Film #4 for Hooptober 2022 I've always given writer/director Ti West credit for trying with his films. Whether it was the 80s VHS clamshell horror of debut The House of the Devil or the found footage cult madness of The Sacrament, there's always solid filmmaking not content to merely emulate, but to live and... Continue Reading →
Being Film #3 for Hooptober 2022 Mako: The Jaws of Death is the prefect example of why something like Hooptober is great, and why adhering to the rules is so necessary. There's no other way I would have watched this crazy riff on Jaws where, far from the shark being the terror, it's the man... Continue Reading →
Being Film #2 for Hooptober 2022 The PG-13 horror film is a tough nut to crack. There's an unspoken rule in films where "scary" equals lots of blood and gore, and too often what I'll lamely call YA Horror is rendered toothless. So kudos to Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark for having some... Continue Reading →
This film from 1977 starts out with a declaration that just recently it was discovered fluorocarbons created a hole in the ozone layer. This film proposes that what follows is a potential consequence of this. What is that consequence you ask? Folks, the higher exposure to ultraviolet rays will cause animals to attack mankind en... Continue Reading →
A brief confession; when I initially put together my Hooptober list, I put The Innkeepers as my choice for a Ti West film. I’d already seen X and felt no need for a revisit. I wanted to see if I was harsh in my initial viewing of that film. Then a theater near me offered... Continue Reading →
In the fall of 2019 and inspired by Chris, I decided I was finally going to do Hooptober. I picked my movies out. I was set. I was gonna start on 10/1 and write full essays! Then I didn’t finish. Word to the wise: watching a movie a day and writing a huge piece on... Continue Reading →
Being Film #1 for Hooptober 2022 "How long will I live?" asks Alan, gazing up at the Miraculous Cesare, somnambulist star of a sideshow attraction. His eyes stare dead ahead, his lithe body poised at the foot of the stage in front of the gathered crowd. "Until the break of dawn," the sleepwalker intones. That's... Continue Reading →
Wait...it's September 15th already?! Time files when the world's a dumpster fire and you’re wearing 10 masks and drinking Lysol to prevent the mutant hybrid of COVID, Monkey Pox and…Christ on Toast it pains me to even write it...POLIO. How to suppress the horror of real life? With cinematic horror, of course! That’s why we’re... Continue Reading →
A few disclaimers before I get into this. First, I am 8 days older than Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. Second, my first memories of seeing a movie are my dad taking me to see this probably during the 85 rerelease. Third, I am of the generation whose parents, when they needed 2 hours to themselves, would plop us in front of the tv and put this in the VCR. This is a a film that I have very vivid memories of seeing. This is a film whose scenes and beats that I know intimately. It’s a film that I feel a connection to on some level.
Cinema Dual 