Being Film #12 for Hooptober 2025 It's getting harder and harder to reinvigorate the trope of "bunch of young adults headed to a remote cabin where horror ensues". You could even argue the attempts to subvert the trope is itself a trope. And yet, even though I don't really love Dead Snow, writer/director Tommy Wirkola's... Continue Reading →
Being Film #27 for Hooptober 2024 I've been thinking a lot about expectations, and how they impact our viewing of a film. Dark Water, the other Hideo Nakata horror film (Ringu being the first) was a film I knew a lot about, but always held off for one reason or another, thinking there would be... Continue Reading →
Being Film #19 for Hooptober 2024 It's always interesting to see another culture's take on some tried and true storytelling. The haunted house (or apartment in this case) riff has been going on almost as long as film itself, and seeing the variations play out in Japan (The Grudge) and Indonesia (Satan's Slaves 2) have... Continue Reading →
Being Film #16 for Hooptober 2024 Outside of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood... I don't think there's a more personal, more fanboy love letter to movies in Quentin Tarantino's filmography than Death Proof. With overt callouts and structural similarities to the films he loves, much of this is readily obvious. But in making his... Continue Reading →
Being Film #15 for Hooptober 2024 I wish Grindhouse didn't fail as bad as it did at the box office. I remember seeing the entire experience in theaters and it was incredible. For every pale imitation (Hobo With a Shotgun, Rodriguez's own Machete) it spawned, it also remains a singular experience, both taken as a... Continue Reading →
Being Film #26 for Hooptober 2023 Make no mistake: Tobe Hooper may be the director of Crocodile, but this is not Eaten Alive. This is a fast buck direct to video movie that normally would be utterly forgettable except that Hooper can't help but out a few flourishes that almost - and I mean almost... Continue Reading →
Being Film #5 for Hooptober 2023 Consider this a public service. I am going to waste as few words as possible on the dreck that is Dracula 3000, a quickie straight to cable cash grab that is exactly what you think it is: Dracula in space. The actual Dracula, he with the goth cape and... 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 →
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 →
Imagine you are a filmmaker coming off the most well regarded film of your career. It’s the film that maybe you don’t realize now but will become what you’re best known. Regardless, the question that will be asked of you is “What’s next?” There’s two paths you can take. Do what’s expected of you, or... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 