After watching The Brood, I knew I had to watch David Cronenberg’s Shivers. It’s the only one of his horror films I hadn’t seen. Part of the fun with Hooptober is in watching films you haven’t seen. So why not knock off a Cronenberg on my to watch list? Shivers occupies a unique space in... Continue Reading →
A question a couple of months ago on Twitter asked “Who is our greatest living horror director?” This is always a fun question to ask but also gauge where a person might stand with you. People have their reasons for their favorites. They directed a favorite from when they first got into horror, there’s a... Continue Reading →
Being Film #18 for Hooptober 2022 Although it's impossible to separate Achoura, the second full length from Franco-Moroccan filmmaker Talal Selhami (and reportedly the first ever monster movie shot in Morocco) from another very popular horror movie about a bunch of kids who face a nightmarish demon only to have to come together again 25... Continue Reading →
Audiences only see any genuine joy on the face of Maika Monroe’s Julia at the beginning of Chloe Okuno’s Watcher. She rides in a taxi, taking in the sights of Bucharest, Romania. Only in this one moment, this new city offers her possibilities and adventures. Then the driver talks in Romanian to her husband. They... Continue Reading →
Being Film #17 for Hooptober 2022 I'm not going to lie to you: The Beast Must Die is not a great movie. In fact, it's a pretty bad movie, despite featuring all-around badass Peter Cushing as Guy Who Explains Everything About Werewolves and Michael Gambon as Young Swinging Dumbledore. But I'd argue it's a fun... Continue Reading →
Being Film #16 for Hooptober 2022 Sometimes true horror doesn't have to come from the situation; it's just as able to cast its baleful eye on you purely from the execution. David Lynch knows this, which is why he's able to evoke so much dread in a diner scene in Mulholland Drive. Rose Glass seems... Continue Reading →
Being Film #15 for Hooptober 2022 Winner winner, chicken dinner. Throw out the term "elevated horror" because usually it embodies theme over scares. I'm all for my horror having something important to talk about, but if you're using the genre as a platform for your theme, then make sure sure you're using the genre. In... Continue Reading →
My first exposure to the world of Nigel Kneale’s science fiction hero Bernard Quatermass came via John Carpenter. Carpenter, a huge fan of Neale’s work, credited himself under the pseudonym Martin Quatermass for Prince of Darkness. Kneale supposedly hated the tribute for various reasons but it’s an appropriate nod. Carpenter’s remake of The Thing owes... Continue Reading →
In 2014, director Steven Soderbergh released two experiments in editing on his website. One of them was a 108 minute “Butcher’s Cut” of Michael Cimino’s four hour epic Western Heaven’s Gate. The other experiment turned Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark into a black and white silent film with the score from The Social... Continue Reading →
Supposedly as Hammer’s Dracula films progressed, Christopher Lee began to detest them more and more. The scripts, as he claimed, never stood up to Bram Stoker’s novel. You get then why the idea of being in Jess Franco’s Count Dracula would appeal to him. Here, a filmmaker wanted to faithfully and finally adapt Stoker’s text... Continue Reading →
Cinema Dual 