1963’s Blood Feast is well-known (and deservedly so) for essentially creating the template for the modern “splatter” film. There is no doubt in my mind that make-up artists like Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead) and Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London) would have chosen other career paths hadContinue Reading
Larry Stanford (Peter Dyneley) is an international reporter assigned to cover the work of Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura,) who has supposedly made progress in the study of evolution. Stanford goes to Suzuki’s lab for an interview. The lab — which is curiously located in a remote, mountainous area outsideContinue Reading
When I was about 8 years old, I remember my parents coming home from seeing a movie and telling me about a scene that would make anyone afraid of going to the dentist again. That movie was Marathon Man and for years that’s all I would think about when IContinue Reading
Despite its name rarely being mentioned outside horror fan circles, Charles B. Pierce’s The Town That Dreaded Sundown is arguably responsible for more 1980s slasher film tropes than Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre combined. In a docu-drama style, the movie tells a fictionalized version of the Texarkana Moonlight MurdersContinue Reading
Larry Donner (Billy Crystal) teaches creative writing at a small college. He’s trying to write a novel but is suffering from a severe case of writer’s block. His ex-wife, Margaret (Kate Mulgrew), stole his first novel and published it as her own, finding instant success. Each time Larry sees herContinue Reading
In the early to mid-1970s, a slew of gangster movies hit theaters and drive-ins, inspired no doubt by the success of 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde and 1972’s The Godfather. Never one to miss the opportunity to cash in on a trend, Roger Corman’s New World Pictures produced and released BigContinue Reading
You Were Never Really Here defies logic by being borderline incoherent yet remaining entirely gripping and immensely watchable. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe, a grizzled veteran of a recent war (I’m assuming Iraq or Afghanistan), who now lives with and cares for his elderly mother (Judith Roberts). He suffers from post-traumaticContinue Reading