Welcome to another year of Hooptober. Once again the criteria has been announced and the films assembled. Last year, I started my first full Hooptober wondering if I was going to complete 31 films. I ended it having seen 50 films from September 15th to October 31st. I started with a double feature of Pearl... Continue Reading →
Hooptober 10.0 – Night of the Comet (1984)
Being Film #1 for Hooptober 2023 Sometimes suspending your disbelief can be a chore, but sometimes - if the tone is just ridiculous enough - it can be a delight. There was a lot to suspend in Night of the Comet, a sci-fi horror comedy that's more "Valley Girl survives the Apocalypse" than anything else,... Continue Reading →
Hail Horror! It Returns for 2023!
I cannot believe a year has passed, and here we are again. It's the 10th year of the Hooptober Horror Movie Marathon, and for the third time we'll be covering it over here on Cinema Dual. That means for the next 45 days myself and Mr. Dan Morris will be exploding your eyeballs with copious... Continue Reading →
Hooptober 2022 #45: The Spine of Night (2021)
Right now, a modern storytelling tool is tools of the past. What might have been an older technique, or a formerly technical limitation is now an aesthetic. Musical genres like chiptune which utilize 8-bit video game sound processing or video games that seek to emulate the heyday of Nintendo have carved a niche for themselves.... Continue Reading →
Hooptober 2022 #44: Prey for the Devil (2022)
In my review for Saint Maud, I noted that most religious horror isn't actually about religion it portrays. Most religious horror films tend to be about fights with monsters rather than faith. Instead of a test of faith, these films end being battles between good priests and evil demons. Monsters with rules that can be... Continue Reading →
Hooptober 2022 Universal Monster Drive In Extravaganza (#39-43)
Ladies and gentlemen, to close out Hooptober (well, I still have a few movies to write about), my wife and I participated in a movie marathon at our local drive-in. Every year, Silver Moon Drive-In in Lakeland, Florida uses its two screens to host Halloween movie marathons. One screen usually shows older Universal monster movies... Continue Reading →
Hooptober 2022 #38: Nosferatu (1922)
One of the questions all horror fans and studios ask is “What’s the scariest movie ever made?” A question like that kind of serves no purpose. Fear is such a subjective thing. What terrifies or chills one person might be blasé to another. Rarely do films touted as “the scariest film in years” last past... Continue Reading →
Hooptober 2022 #37: Faust (1926)
Midway through watching F.W. Murnau’s silent classic Faust, I asked myself “Is this really a horror movie?” It feels like a stretch to do so. The film is undoubtedly a masterpiece of German Expressionism. Murnau, clearly in command of his craft, fills every frame of the film with astonishing images. There is horror and horror... Continue Reading →
Episode 35 – Horror IV: Hammer
On this episode of Cinema Dual, Jon and Chris recap the annual Hooptober marathon by talking about a pair of Hammer horror movies.
Hooptober 2022 #36: Firestarter (2022)
I am not averse to remakes. I’m also not averse to making new adaptations of books. I think it’s important to revisit texts and re-examine them. “New” is key word here though. Something has to be done that brings something to the table. For better or for worse, we live in a new cycle of... Continue Reading →
