Troy Howarth in his visual essay, Carpenter’s Craft, talks about how John Carpenter shopped around spec scripts he had written in order to start one of the most beloved of all late 20th century runs. One of those was Arrow Video’s Black Moon Rising. That opening says everything that needs […]
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. Filthy
Scared Stiff: Midnight Madness undone in 60 seconds (Review)
Over the years of covering home video releases, I have discovered some new favourites; equally, I have been subject to some of the worst films I’ve ever seen. One of the latter was Doom Asylum, a film so inept I was speechless. The director of that film was Richard Friedman, […]
The Witch Part 1, The Subversion: …and the Girl who bridged two South Korea’s (Review)
The Witch Part 1: the Subversion is the latest directorial effort from the man behind New World and I saw the Devil writer, Park Hoon-Jung, and it is unlike either of those high profile movies. New World is a prominent gangster epic (of comparable stature to A Dirty Carnival), I […]
Blood Hunger: The Films of José Larraz (Review)
The number of bums on cinema seats may be falling and streaming platform’s as numerous as they are unstoppable, with home video falling somewhere between the two. Even so, there will always be a place for DVD and Blu-ray collectors thanks to labels giving boutique releases to the weird, wonderful […]
Sister Street Fighter (1974): Stealth Feminist Exploitation Icon? (Review)
Shinichi Chiba (Sonny) became a star in the global kung fu fever inspired by Bruce Lee and the international success of his unfortunate swansong, Enter the Dragon. Like many of his Hong Kong peers, Chiba starred in an awful lot of movies and not many of them good – however, […]
Parents (1989) Anti-Cannibal Comedy-Horror via John Waters & David Lynch (Review)
In 2019, Bob Balaban’s known for his roles in Wes Anderson’s films (most prominently as the narrator in Moonrise Kingdom), his acting has also seen him work with the likes of Spielberg, Altman, Ken Russell, and Christopher Guest. He has also carved out a side career as a director, only […]
The Unholy (1988) The Fine Line Between Religious Horror And Satanic Panic (Review)
Many things came to mind when I watched this new Vestron video release, the Unholy. Horror is thought of as a safe place for outsiders. Mostly that is true but if you dig deeper into the subtext you’ll find that isn’t really all that accurate a truism. Slashers, for example, […]
Climax (2018) Gasper Noe: The Dark Lord of Dance (Review)
So, Climax, we finally meet. Since breaking into the arthouse scene in 2002, Gasper Noe and controversy have never been far apart. In 2002 he gave the world a brutal and unsympathetic tale of rape in Irreversible, following that up in 2009 he directed Enter the Void and with that, […]
Iceman: The Time Traveller (2018) Bewildering Blockbusters And The Cost Of Globalisation (Review)
This is not what those fearing Hollywood being usurped by China had in mind. Iceman the time traveller – the new Blockbuster starring Simon Yam & Donnie Yen – is inept on almost every conceivable level, much to the point where it would be all too easy to tear this […]
Once Upon a Time in China Trilogy (1991-93) The Birth of Jet Li’s Super Stardom (Review)
The 1990s was a tumultuous time for Hong Kong Martial Arts cinema. Its favourite son, Jackie Chan, was too big to fail as such he was doing whatever he wanted on Golden Harvest’s payroll, Sammo Hung was closer to a director than the action star that made his name, Yuen […]