Graphic Novel • Lists • Fails • 70’s Cinema • K-Horror • Arthouse • Canadian Horror • Film Noir • Grindhouse • NC-17 •  J-Horror • Exploitation • Sci-Fi • Pulp • Evangelical Horror • Favorites • Cult • Fantastique • Surreal • Animation • So-Bad-It’s-Good

The Bedlam Files Website

Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves

Newsletter Archive Announcement

CECIL B. DEMENTED

Far from John Waters’ best work, but funny and perceptive enough in its corrosive portrayal of guerilla filmmaking to warrant a qualified recommendation

read more

A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM

A black comedy whose effectiveness pivots on an unexpected but quite canny casting choice: Michael Caine, playing a New York businessman using highly unorthodox practices to get ahead

read more

AKIRA

This is the 1988 cyberpunk-themed anime feature that, prior to game-changers like GHOST IN THE SHELL and PERFECT BLUE, irrevocably altered the format

read more

WHALE MUSIC

The late John Candy was a galvanizing force behind this film, which was released in 1994 (the year of Candy’s demise)

read more

GOING BERSERK

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the untimely March 4, 1994 death of the great John Candy, here’s a look back at his first-ever Hollywood starring vehicle

read more

THRILLING MURDER COMICS

An underground comic in which S. Clay Wilson, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch and others turned away from their standard choice of subject matter—sex and drugs—to focus on a new taboo: murder

read more

BITCH

A sexier, druggier variant on THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR

read more

THE BOOK OF A THOUSAND SINS

Fifteen stories: energetic and focused to a fault, and exhibiting an unnerving willingness to gaze unblinkingly into the darkest depths of madness, mutilation and sexual deviance

read more

David J. Skal: 1952-2024

The January 1, 2024 demise of David John Skal, whose car was struck by a drunk driver in Glendale, CA, started off 2024 on a tragic note

read more