The Mangler represents a rare meeting of three horror icons; director Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist), actor Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street), and Stephen King (the most commercially successful horror writer of all time). It’s the not the first time any of these people connected with... Continue Reading →
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 →
Tanks lie unattended near the foot of a mountain or a hill, with possibly empty oil drums next to them. Nameless people sit crowded in a train going through a desert. Women dance in a club hoping to attract the attention of French Foreign Legion soldiers. Those same soldiers, now caked in sand and dust,... Continue Reading →
It's been a cool 10 months since I last did a Criterion Catch-up. It's not that I haven't been watching my collection, it's just that...well, I was doing other things, like May's Vinyl Challenge over at Consuming the Tangible and of course the recent Hooptober marathon right here at Cinema Dual. And in that time... Continue Reading →
Over the course of Hooptober, I’ve watched several Dracula and Dracula adjacent films. I can’t explain why I find myself drawn to interpretations of Bram Stoker’s novel. I say interpretation because very few films have attempted to adapt the novel. F.W. Murnau needed to change things for Nosferatu so it didn’t incur the Stoker estate’s... Continue Reading →
Being Film #26 for Hooptober 2022 I don't know if Troll 2 is the absolutely worst horror sequel from the 90s per the Hooptober guidelines, not do I know if the documentary about the film is correct in labeling it the "Best Worst Movie". What I do know is the film has gained enough notoriety... Continue Reading →
Being Film #25 for Hooptober 2022 In the annals of studio meddling few stories break my nerd heart more than reading about how much grief and outright bullying Miramax and the Weinsteins laid down upon Guillermo del Toro and Mimic, his first foray into the Hollywood system. 14 years after the film's release some semblance... Continue Reading →
Folks, let me start this review with the statement I am a Halloween franchise apologist. I admit after Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, it’s the less glamorous 80s slasher franchise. Those other two series have the more iconic monsters and kills. If you were a kid in the 80s, you liked... Continue Reading →
Being Bonus Film #3 for Hooptober 2021 For the final review of Hooptober 8.0 we have a wicked little piece courtesy of Cartoon Network. On the night of Halloween 1999 the channel ran a Scooby Doo marathon, and interspersed between the episodes was The Scooby-Doo Project, a parody of The Blair Witch Project that takes... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 