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 →
Hooptober 12.0 – The Possessed (1965)
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 →
Hooptober 12.0 – Dead Of Night (1945)
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 →
Hooptober 12.0 – The Black Phone (2021)
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 →
Hooptober 12.0 – Monster Island (2025)
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 →
Episode 69 – Screen Drafts
On this episode of Cinema Dual, Jon and Chris talk about a couple of movies inspired by their love of the Screen Drafts podcast.
Hail Horror! It Returns for 2025!
Not gonna lie...time caught up with me. With the world in a seemingly irreversible nosedive, the time for horror seems both completely unnecessary, yet at the time time vital for my sanity. And so like a bloodied angel here comes the 12th annual Hooptober Horror Movie Marathon, ready to take me away into darker and... Continue Reading →
Choose The Sword – Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
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 →
Episode 68 – Kenji Misumi
On this episode of Cinema Dual, Jon and Chris cover a couple of movies from Kenji Misumi's Sword Trilogy.
Choose The Sword – Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973)
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 →
