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 →
The 2020 Russian film Sputnik starts off in a manner familiar to anyone who has watched a movie in a post-Alien world. Two cosmonauts in 1984 sit in a capsule ready to return home to the Soviet Union. They talk about what they’re going to do once they land. As they begin their descent, the... Continue Reading →
Being Film #6 for Hooptober 2023 It's not fair to classify Amicus as the poor man's Hammer, but watching The House That Dripped Blood - a misleading title as there is nary a drop of blood to be found in this anthology film - but despite some game performances from Hammer regulars Christopher Lee and... 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 →
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 →
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 →
Being Film #3 for Hooptober 2023 Man, there is just something about Dario Argento. Excepting The Five Days (only because I haven't seen it) his run of films from 1970's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage up to 1996's The Stendhal Syndrome (I'm giving a soft pass to 93's Trauma because I barely remember it)... 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 →
Cinema Dual 