Being Film #20 for Hooptober 2023 I guess he had one more return to the Scream bucket after this, but I feel like this was the real end for Wes Craven, a last stab at an original story and his assured direction. Alas, My Soul to Take has a really nifty concept, but the screenplay... Continue Reading →
Being Film #12 for Hooptober 2023 You probably know what to expect with a title like The Moleman of Belmont Avenue. This is a low budget horror comedy that strives to be silly but does so at the expense of characters we actually care about. I wish I liked it more: the leads (who also... Continue Reading →
Film can represent the external and internal life of humanity in ways no other art form outside of maybe comic books. Films can attempt to mimic every day life and they can attempt to mimic the imagery of dreams. The two can exist both separate or together on the silver screen. The modern giallo horror... Continue Reading →
For found footage films to really work, you have to be really out there as a filmmaker and make a bold swing. Think of a movie like Cannibal Holocaust, a film so horrific to watch and presented as actual footage that audiences thought they were watching a snuff film. Filmmaker Ruggero Deodato had to prove... Continue Reading →
Being Film #4 for Hooptober 2023 Sometimes you sit down to watch a film and you just can't get into it. Maybe you've had a bad day, maybe the tone of the piece rubs raw against whatever it is you're looking for and you turn away. Sometimes you forget that film altogether. Sometimes, though, a... Continue Reading →
Being Film #2 for Hooptober 2023 Tone is everything. So even if Sea Fever, the debut film from Neasa Hardiman isn't particularly scary, it holds its tone throughout a solid tale that on the surface may be about a parasitic life form that wreaks havoc on a down and out fishing vessel off the coast... Continue Reading →
Demián Rugna’s Terrified begins with a woman, Clara, standing over the sink in her kitchen. She tries to make dinner. Every time she runs the faucet, she hears voices. Much later, her husband Juan comes home smiling. He tells a story about a dog that miraculously getting hit by a car. However, Clara seems hollow.... 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 →
Being Film #29 for Hooptober 2022 Look, there are all sorts of reasons why after speaking about my distaste for found footage films I am here again, squandering my final free-rein Hooptober entries with another found footage film. V/H/S: Viral is the third in the series of anthology films that tries to take the conceit... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 