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 →
Calling producer/writer/director Larry Cohen an original seems like selling the man short. Larry Cohen is the kind of filmmaker that you introduce to friends. Cohen’s body of work is just so singular. Few directors understood the power of genre for social commentary like Cohen did. Even fewer embraced the absurd in genre filmmaking like Larry... Continue Reading →
With a title like Creature From Black Lake, that this might be a riff on The Creature From The Black Lagoon. That the monster might be some kind of aquatic horror. That thinking would be a mistake. Creature From Black Lake might be the most of it’s time film I’ve watched for Hooptober. Creature From... Continue Reading →
After watching The Brood, I knew I had to watch David Cronenberg’s Shivers. It’s the only one of his horror films I hadn’t seen. Part of the fun with Hooptober is in watching films you haven’t seen. So why not knock off a Cronenberg on my to watch list? Shivers occupies a unique space in... Continue Reading →
A question a couple of months ago on Twitter asked “Who is our greatest living horror director?” This is always a fun question to ask but also gauge where a person might stand with you. People have their reasons for their favorites. They directed a favorite from when they first got into horror, there’s a... Continue Reading →
Being Film #17 for Hooptober 2022 I'm not going to lie to you: The Beast Must Die is not a great movie. In fact, it's a pretty bad movie, despite featuring all-around badass Peter Cushing as Guy Who Explains Everything About Werewolves and Michael Gambon as Young Swinging Dumbledore. But I'd argue it's a fun... Continue Reading →
In 2014, director Steven Soderbergh released two experiments in editing on his website. One of them was a 108 minute “Butcher’s Cut” of Michael Cimino’s four hour epic Western Heaven’s Gate. The other experiment turned Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark into a black and white silent film with the score from The Social... Continue Reading →
Supposedly as Hammer’s Dracula films progressed, Christopher Lee began to detest them more and more. The scripts, as he claimed, never stood up to Bram Stoker’s novel. You get then why the idea of being in Jess Franco’s Count Dracula would appeal to him. Here, a filmmaker wanted to faithfully and finally adapt Stoker’s text... Continue Reading →
Being Film #13 for Hooptober 2022 Another reason to adhere to rules as much as possible when participating in Hooptober: I don't think I ever would have seen the (or even been aware of) some of the regional low budget horror that was prevalent throughout the 70s. Is that a blessing or a curse when... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 