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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
MINNAL MURALI
Here’s conclusive proof that worthwhile superhero cinema isn’t confined to Hollywood: a Malayalam language (or Mollywood) superhero epic from 2021 that pivots on pulpy excess
THRASH
A very silly, very implausible, and kinda fun Netflix backed incorporation of flooding and sharks
HOPE
I’m not entirely sure what director Na Hong-jin was trying to do with this alien invasion-themed action-horror fest, but he doesn’t appear to have succeeded
ROBOCOP
Quite possibly the apotheosis of the 1980s action movie boom, and a major entry in the decade’s cyberpunk triumvirate (begun with BLADE RUNNER and THE TERMINATOR)
TWO OF A KIND
A could-have-been-good attempt at reviving the heavenly comedy mold of old, with John Tavolta and Olivia Newton-John
ZISKA: THE PROBLEM OF A WICKED SOUL
Reincarnation themed horror from the Victorian era
CHTHON
One of the foremost “dangerous visions” of the late 1960s was this once-shocking interplanetary reverie, the first novel by the prolific fantasist Piers Anthony
THE FAR CRY
A worthy, if unexceptional, addition to the late Fredric Brown’s retinue of pulpy suspensers
THE LODGER
A 1913 suspensor whose enjoyment is contingent on the ability to cast one’s mind back and view the text through the eyes of an Edwardian
CROSS COUNTRY
An X-rated thriller whose 1975 copyright date (a time when mainstream fiction was much wilder than it is now) is fully evident
JACKSPLOITATION! THE FILMS OF JACK HILL
An attractively designed anthology devoted to the films of Jack Hill, one of the foremost cinematic exploiteurs of the 1960s and 70s
DARK DREAMS: AN OBSESSIVE LOOK AT ROMANO SCAVOLINI’S NIGHTMARE
A book that is indeed quite obsessive in its probe of this 1981 anti-classic
HORRORS!
A strong, if quirky and outdated, horror media overview from the 1960s
IN DEEP WATER
A most compelling true-life account involving a shipwreck, sharks and near death on the open seas
SURREAL LIVES
A most welcome history of the Surrealists, marked by richly detailed, narratively informed prose
Jeremy Thomas: 1949-2026
There was nobody else quite like producer Jeremy Thomas, and there will assuredly never be another.
Tim Curry: 1946-2026
All about one of modern filmdom’s finest, and most underrated, performers
Clive Barker on Kickstarter: A Good Idea?
Clive Barker’s upcoming anthology, currently being hawked on Kickstarter: legit or not?
Smut, Paris and Ed Wood
Two not-quite-classic Paris-set smut novels, one written by Ed Wood
ANDRIESH vs. ASHIK KERIB
About the first, and last, film made by the late Sergei Parajanov