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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
SOME CALL IT LOVING
The altogether bizarre second feature directed by James B. Harris, Stanley Kubrick’s former producing partner
PRIVATE PROPERTY
A “Terrible and disgusting” (so claimed JFK) 1960 indie? Perhaps, but it’s also a good one.
MACISTE IN HELL
A monument of silent era Italian cinema, and one of the screen’s most indelible depictions of Hell
UNDER PARIS
There are worse ways to waste 104 minutes.
TOKYO BLOOD
A 33-minute four parter by Japan’s Sogo Ishii, returning to form after a nine-year gap.
THE DOLL WHO ATE HIS MOTHER
The first novel by Ramsey Campbell, and a mixed bag
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
BITCH
A sexier, druggier variant on THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR
MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM!
A moldy oldie from the 1960s science fiction market (and the basis for the 1973 film SOYLENT GREEN)
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
LEARN TO LOSE YOUR MIND
A parody of the self-help manuals that asserts “It’s smart to be psychotic”
MONSTER MIDWAY
A nonfiction anthology that explores all aspects of early Twentieth Century carnival lore, as observed by the late William Lindsay Gresham
HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC: THE TANGLED WEB OF DRACULA FROM NOVEL TO STAGE TO SCREEN
An ambitious undertaking: an examination of Bram Stoker’s immortal DRACULA and its bumpy road to pop culture immortality
MASTER OF HORROR: THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF MICK GARRIS
This long-in-coming biography is as thorough a portrait of Mick Garris as anyone could desire
BLOOD, SWEAT AND CHROME–THE WILD AND TRUE STORY OF MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Is it worth reading? If you have any interest whatsoever in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD the answer is a resounding yes.
VIC, BLOOD, AND HARLAN
About the strange yet wondrous tales of Vic, a teenage punk, and his telepathic dog Blood, who subsist in a post-nuclear wasteland.
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” at 56
Examaning science fiction’s darkest story
AU HASARD BALTHAZAR vs. EO
Two donkey-headlined films, one from 1966 and one from 2022, one an enduring classic and the other not quite
On SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG
In the lexicon of “revolutionary” black cinema SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG exists in a category of its own
2022: Bedlam in Print
The standout books of 2022, as chosen by me