Body Count: Volume 10 . I’m not sure how the heavy metal and horror movie connection started but it’s a match made in hell. The two go together like chocolate and peanut butter. It’s a natural pairing. Alice Cooper had been combining Grand Guignol stage theatrics with live music since the 70’s. Blue Oyster Cult …
Cult Cinema:- Article #11 Cult of the Week: Volume 11 Art imitates life. Until art gets so thoroughly processed by focus groups and marketing departments that it wins an MTV Movie Award. Then, art turns into product, which is imitated by the single-brain-celled form of life that spends a small fortune of its parents’ money …
Drag Me to Hell Directed by Sam Raimi Where other horror pioneers’ attempts to return to the cinematic styles that earned them their reputations have generally ranged from middling (George Romero’s Land and Diary of the Dead) to embarrassing (Dario Argento’s Mother of Tears), Sam Raimi effortlessly slips back into “spook-a-blast” mode with the outrageously …
Body Count: Volume 9 I have this story that I like to tell after I’ve been drinking about the night that I was alone in our house and thought someone had broken in. I was scared shitless. There was very clearly someone wandering around the first floor of my house, turning lights on and making …
Auteur Theory: Volume 3 Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng has managed to create one of the most unique and thrilling visual styles of the last decade. His career began in directing ads, and since then he has been the mastermind behind three films, echoing a love for cinema and an incredible spin on how to piece …
Terminator Salvation Directed by McG This review contains Terminator series spoilers. With Charlie’s Angels helmer McG becoming the third director to tackle the once-venerable sci-fi-action series concocted by James Cameron, we can at least be thankful that he’s found an original way to screw up a franchise. Where most series end up with an entry …
Cult Cinema: Volume 10 Horror fans are a mysterious, cultish bunch. Or at least, they like to think they are, imagining themselves the vanguard of the underground; Morlocks feeding off pampered, mainstream Eloi dandies with D&G sunglasses and designer perfume. But go to any horror film screening, and see if you’re not surrounded by Blackberry-toting …
Body Count: Volume 8 One of the many disadvantages of living in a place like New Hamsphire is that you have to live on the edge vicariously through the lives of people who live closer to the action through correspondence so it was a while before I got into the depths of crazy horror movies. …
Angels and Demons Directed by Ron Howard There’s a nebulous threat looming on the horizon in director Ron Howard’s latest Dan Brown adaptation, and it’s not the antimatter that powers the film’s obnoxiously rigid ticking-clock device. Rather, it’s the needless exposition and mannered overplotting (much of it courtesy of frequently awful screenwriter Akiva Goldsman) that …
Auteur Theory: Volume 2 Austria breeds weird filmmakers. They are a country lacking a large film industry, but one that encourages experimental filmmaking; they even put it on TV. If that happened in America, just flipping on the television to find some out of control flashing colors with droning voices on hand-processed super 8, I …
– Body Count: Volume 7 I did a report on H.P. Lovecraft back in the seventh grade and my teacher thought I was fucking insane. Up to this point, I hadn’t really read much by the guy but my mother turned me on to his writing via The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward and an …
Congo: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death. 2003. An International co-production between Belgium, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, and the UK. 92 min. Written and directed by Peter Bate. “The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than …
Cult Cinema: Volume 9 It’s common geek knowledge that Star Trek is a smarter version of Star Wars. However, this should not be the badge of honour that so many Trekkies wear with pride, since Star Wars is essentially what idiot kids dream about when they’ve eaten cotton candy instead of their Ritalin. Here’s the thing: musing …
Star Trek Directed by J.J. Abrams The greatest challenge of taking on any known cultural property in the world of film is that of fulfilling the “fan-service” requirements held by the stalwart fans of said property. Take too many liberties in pursuit of making a more interesting film, and you’ll attract ire (Ang Lee’s Hulk); …
Body Count: Volume 6 I bought a region free DVD player nearly ten years ago when I decided that I had had enough reading about particularly sweet editions of movies being released in foreign markets. These days it seems like just about everything released everywhere finds its way to Region 1 DVD but it wasn’t …
Auteur Theory: Volume 1 New York horror filmmaker Frank Henenlotter has managed to remain in relative obscurity thus far in his career, despite the notoriety his films have achieved. But for those who know his work, it feels as if his filmography is far more massive than just six films. His films are definitively schlock …
Billed as a horror film, The Hunger is anything but. What it is, however, is a credible first effort by Tony Scott (Déjà vu, Domino, Man on fire), Ridley’s younger brother. Immediately after watching I came to the conclusion that this film is one of either two things: an incredibly good 80s vampire movie or …
28 Days Later… 2002, UK Directed by Danny Boyle Written by Alex Garland Starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley, Christopher Eccleston, Brendan Gleeson The more times I see this film, the better it gets. This may, however, be because it’s made up of three better movies, The Omega Man, Dawn of the Dead, and …
Body Count: Volume 5 . There are certain directors whose represent absolutely pivotal moments in filmmaking. People like Griffith, Welles, Coppola and Scorcese have contributed to film in a way that has shaped the entire medium and changed the game. But there are also directors who represent pivotal moments of genre evolution: George Lucas and …
Sugar Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck Miguel “Sugar” Santos (Algenis Perez Soto), aspiring Dominican baseball star, is the focus of the sophomore effort from Half Nelson writer-director team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, a film long on empathy but short on revelation. Santos is eventually picked to play for a minor-league team in …
Cult Cinema: Volume 8 At their best, horror films hold society up to a funhouse mirror, providing a grotesque yet revealing reflection of cultural concerns, values, and above all, fears. And then there’s torture porn, in which the only insights are gained from peering deep into the vivisected ruins of a woman’s genitals. The term …
Although he was born in Berchem-Sainte Agathe, Belgium, with the name of Jean-Claude Van Varenbeerg, Van Damme once called himself “Frank Cujo” when he first moved to Hollywood in 1981. When he couldn’t find work as an actor the former European Professional Karate Association’s middleweight champion decided to take English classes while working as a …
Body Count: Volume 4 . If two things go together like chocolate and peanut butter, it’s Satan and horror movies. Satan, by himself, is the ultimate adversary and boogeyman so it just makes sense that the genre falls back on the devil from time to time. Seemed like in the 70’s you couldn’t throw a …