To the unconverted, Westerns are a predictable genre in which the same archetypal characters, settings and situations recur over and over again. To fans, Westerns are a fabulously varied genre in which the same archetypal characters, settings and situations can be combined in an infinite number of original variations. Think, […]
Movies & Documentaries
Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch (1968) Scooby Doo for Adults! (Review)
New from Arrow, the Blu-Ray release of the amazingly titled Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch is great news for both fans of classic Japanese horror and reviewers with a word count to hit. Jokes aside, the film boasts an impressive pedigree. It’s directed by Noriaki Yuasa, most famous for […]
Paranormal Activity (2007) all these years later, still the best of the bunch (Review)
A full 8 years after the found footage sleeper hit The Blair Witch Project made camcorder footage terrifying, in 2007 director Oren Peli released Paranormal Activity on a (somewhat) unsuspecting cinema audience. Spawning a string of sequels which arguably rivals the Blumhouse MCU of horror, does this Second Sight re-release […]
Gaia (2021) Challenging Ecological South African Body Horror (Review)
While horror cinema has always been away from the gaze of the mainstream, that doesn’t make it less susceptible to trends. Ghosts and zombies are unaffected by the passing trends of the time. Everything else though passes with whatever is the cutting edge discourses of the time. Now, it is […]
Duel to the Death (1983) One of the unsung action movies of the 1980s (Review)
Duel to the Death, 1983, Hong Kong, Dir. Ching Siu-tung (A Chinese Ghost Story) Set up as a modern facing alternative to the then traditionalist Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest is an icon for any fan of martial arts cinema albeit one that Jackie Chan built. It was through Golden Harvest […]
Children of the Corn (1984 -1995) The also-ran horror franchise that keeps on motoring (Review)
Stephen King must be the most adapted author in horror: there are over 60 direct efforts to bring his work to the big screen. The number of movies that those 60 have inspired or the sequels they have spawned, his influence is indisputable. One of the weirder is the Children […]
Corruption (1968) Camp British Proto-Slasher with a surprisingly game Peter Cushing (Review)
Re-released by Indicator, 1968’s Corruption asks a bold question, unheard of during that era of British horror… “What if Peter Cushing did horrible murders in a 60’s style suit rather than a Victorian-era suit?” The plot of this Robert Hartford-Davis directed slasher is the kind of nonsense that you’d expect […]
Walk on the Wild Side (1962) More Like Walk on the Mild Side (Review)
Released to Blu-ray by Arrow Video on the 6th of this month, Walk on the Wild Side is certainly a film with a good pedigree. Based on a novel by Nelson Algren published six years earlier, it is directed by Edward Dmytryk, the Canadian-born American filmmaker who had a very […]
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) Reassessment of Lynch’s ‘pathologically unpleasant’ film is complete (Review)
There was a time when people would have been surprised to see Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me on Criterion, you know. Janet Maslin’s infamous New York Times pan (“brain-dead grotesquerie… pathologically unpleasant”) set the tone for the initial Cannes reception, and things did not get any better once it […]
…And the Fifth Horseman is Fear (1964) A brutal portrait of fear under an occupying regime (Review)
Fear pries at the beautifully illustrated characters within this Zbyněk Brynych feature. …And the Fifth Horseman is Fear contemplates the agony and unilateral terror present in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. There is no respite for the glum halls, the dark and brooding cinematography makes sure of that. This 1960s Brynych piece contemplates the impact […]