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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!
Regarding TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!, two names come immediately to mind: Pedro Almodovar, who wrote and directed the film, and Harvey Weinstein, who shepherded its May 1990 US release
THE DELEGATION
One of the most ambitious TV movies of the 1970s, a West German-French-Italian coproduction, filmed in French and English, that explored the then-trendy topic of UFOs
THE THING EXPANDED
A five hour-plus documentary on John Carpenter’s THE THING (1982) that can viewed as the definitive resource on that classic film.
FEELS LIKE HOME
A stunningly crafted Hungarian thriller involving abduction, family bonds and power moves
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Here’s a 1990s blockbuster that without question has not dated well
THE PRESENCE
An ambitious monster-fest with all the trimmings: gore, slime, muted political commentary and Lovecraftian overtones, with the overall emphasis on grade-B fun
FANTASTIC ORGY
An anthology from early 1920s Germany, of note for its title story, about a pre-METROPOLIS robot woman
DARKENING ISLAND
A long out-of-print SF novel that’s attained newfound popularity in the 2020s. Why? Its premise, involving a future England overtaken by foreign refugees, now has a resonance it didn’t possess back in 1972
THE REVENGE OF FANTOMAS
The surrealists hugely revered the Fantomas books, and they must have especially liked this one
PROFESSOR DOWELL’S HEAD
A Soviet sci fi lark from the 1920s, a far simpler time when authors tended to run riot with coincidence and weird science in pursuit of a good story
THE AMAZING STORY BEHIND THE LEGEND OF BILLY JACK
An unabashed puff piece that nonetheless emerges as the definitive resource on all things BILLY JACK
HALLOWEEN 3—”WHERE THE HELL IS MICHAEL MYERS?”
A history of “horror’s most misunderstood film,” written by that film’s own writer-director
THE MONSTER SHOW: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF HORROR
20th Century horror, as covered by the enromously intelligent and always entertaining David J. Skal
GILLIAMESQUE
A “Pre-Posthumous Memoir” by the outspoken London-based cartoonist-turned-director Terry Gilliam, and everything you’d expect
NEUE SLOWENISCHE KUNST
From the underground publishing outfit Amok Books, a sumptuously designed art book about a most unique European art collective
Remembering That Which is Better Forgotten: THE CANNONBALL RUN
One of the great curiosities of late Twentieth Century American cinema was the monster success of THE CANNONBALL RUN in 1981
Harlan Ellison AD 6
On Harlan Ellison and the long-awaited publication of THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS
Paul Morrissey: 1938-2024
Looking back over the career of a true renaissance filmmaker
Kris Kristofferson: 1936-2024
Looking over an eccentric yet highly distinguished acting career
Horror Novels About Making Movies: A Ranking
Ten standout moviemaking-themed horror novels