When it comes to compiling "Best _ of All Time" lists, I generally find the process more interesting than the final lists themselves. For me personally, I obsess for hours over the internal debates and criteria which only make sense to me. Once those decisions are made, all that is left to do is record... Continue Reading →
Coming up with a Sight and Sound ballot, even one that didn’t get submitted to the actual magazine, presents unique challenges. The only criteria put forth by the venerable magazine is to vote for the greatest films of all time, leaving voters free to interpret that. It opens things up to a wide set of... Continue Reading →
What's in a list, anyway? It's something I've struggled with throughout my time as an online writer. But when you're considering a set list of, as the BFI so brazenly puts it, the greatest films of all time, it becomes apparent that a list - any list - must encompass both a sense of inflexibility... Continue Reading →
The scariest thing in William Grefé’s Death Curse of Tartu is anytime a person gets in the water. Shot on location in Florida swamp land, there’s a palpable sense of danger when cast members get in the water. Who knows what they’ll encounter in there? Unfortunately this is about the only danger in the film.... Continue Reading →
Being Film #22 for Hooptober 2022 It would be a huge mistake to look at the filmography of Noriaki Yuasa and dismiss The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch. Because yes, while his entire filmography as a director is almost exclusively limited to Gamera films I would argue that 1) the Gamera films are pretty... Continue Reading →
My first exposure to the world of Nigel Kneale’s science fiction hero Bernard Quatermass came via John Carpenter. Carpenter, a huge fan of Neale’s work, credited himself under the pseudonym Martin Quatermass for Prince of Darkness. Kneale supposedly hated the tribute for various reasons but it’s an appropriate nod. Carpenter’s remake of The Thing owes... Continue Reading →
Being Film #8 for Hooptober 2022 A quick rundown of The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, Hammer's take on the Robert Louis Stevenson tale. As enjoyable as it may be, there are distracting elements that kept me from the velvety praise I typically heap on a Hammer production. One, it features Oliver Reed in a... Continue Reading →
Being Film #6 for Hooptober 2022 In my time doing this marathon over the course of nine years I have learned a lot about how horror is constructed: what works, what doesn't, how fears transcend (or not) across cultures. But I've also learned more that a few things about myself as well. And one of... Continue Reading →
Being Bonus Film #2 for Hooptober 2021 The second bonus film for Hooptober 8.0 is an early Amicus picture called The Skull. Amicus is kind of the lower rent little brother of Hammer, which isn't to say they were bad: their speciality was really more the anthology film. The Skull feels a lot like them... Continue Reading →
Being Film #28 for Hooptober 2021 A real quick summary/review of the classic (I guess?) Indonesian horror film Queen of Black Magic goes something like this: Evil Dead and Hausu vibes mark this horror revenge flick as a young woman seeks revenge after being left for dead at the hands of her ex-lover and the... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 