Is horror, as a conglomerate of sub-genres, scary? Even as a fully signed up fan, I’d have to say no. Monster, both scientific and supernatural, have a distance to them, they don’t dig deep into the part of the subconscious where it becomes impossible to turn off as you can […]
Rob Simpson
Chief Editor
Host of the Uncut Network. With a love of movies kicked off by Hong Kong Action and Claymation Monsters, Rob has forever been cradled in the bosom of Cinema. Rob has his hands in many a pie, including no budget film making.
Melancholic (2018) Darkly Hilarious Romantic Dramedy with added Yakuza violence
Before launching into Third Window Films latest release in Seiji Tanaka’s Melancholic – allow me the indulgence of explaining what made me fall in love with East Asian cinema. Japanese, Chinese and Korean cinema take scant regard for tone or even genre, its much more common in that part of […]
Three Edgar Allan Poe Adaptations Starring Bela Lugosi: Classic Horror Nirvana (Review)
Two of the most famous names in horror don’t come from the modern era, nor the 1980s which entire swathes of the online community cling to far too tightly, no, they come from the early sound era. Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. History has forever painted as Karloff as Frankenstein […]
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) Satire and Chaos in Feudal Japan (Review)
For many, the samurai movie is the domain of Akira Kurosawa, with both the legendary director and chanbara (sword fighting movies) tied at the hip. Naturally, that isn’t true. That said, perception is reality by anything beyond Kurosawa being difficult to find; it’s getting better, but still – it’s not […]
Kwaidan: The King of the J-Horror (Review)
Before Hideo Nakata changed all the rules for what it means for an Asian Horror movie to court worldwide notoriety, Kwaidan was the Japanese ghost story that put the country on the map. I still think there’s an argument to be made that this is still is the case as […]
The Man With The X-Ray Eyes: Hard Sci-fi in a Goofy Shell (Review)
Roger Corman will surely go down as one of the best movie producers of all time. Through his 250+ credits, he was at the forefront of developing the B-Movie and gave breaks to a whos-who of actors and directors, Jack Nicholson and Avatar & Aliens director, James Cameron counting among […]
Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain: Surrender to the Phantasmagorical Wonder (Review)
In the West, Tsui Hark’s Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain is best known for being a key influence on John Carpenter’s cult favourite Big Trouble in Little China. In the East – China & Hong Kong, specifically – it is part of an ancient story tradition dating back centuries […]
Battling Butler: A Different Kind of Buster Keaton Movie (Review)
For the past three years, Eureka has been doing mighty good work dipping into Buster Keaton’s filmography, from one of the best short film collections I have ever experienced to his most famous trio of features of the General, Sherlock Jr and Steamboat Bill Jr. Eureka has provided me with […]
Raining in the Mountain (1979) King Hu’s Spiritual Heist (Review)
When you hear stories of directors using the same sets, locations and actors for two movies on the bounce, the sort of names that would fit the bill belong in the same conversation as Roger Corman and his peers. This is not what you expect to hear about King Hu. […]
Secret Friends (1991): Dennis Potter’s maelstrom of fantasy and memory
I’m too young to know Dennis Potter, a name that is synonymous with British television thanks to his critically acclaimed and very strange reputation born from his series The Singing Detective. He was prominent in the 1980s, I grew up in the 1990s, as such he was always a name […]