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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
MERRY CHRISTMAS
A Bollywood Christmas movie with everything you’d expect
STAND BY ME
In remembering the recently deceased Rob Reiner, I’ll be taking the good with the bad. Here’s the good…
NORTH
…and here’s the (very) bad.
REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND
A lesser film by Belgium’s Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet, who specialize in uniquely tripped-out takes on European genre cinema from years past
THE SHROUDS
Cronenberg’s latest, a so-so excercise in brooding despair
THE RED VIRGIN
A surreal take on the story of Hildegart Rodriguez, a young woman who in early Twentieth Century Spain was raised to become a genius by her domineering mother
TICK TOWN
If lines like “The decisive blast slammed into the monster’s face, which at near point-blank range exploded in a grisly splatter of tick goo” resonate with you (as they do me) then TICK TOWN is the book to read
THE HAPPY MAN
One of the great modern horror novels, a compelling and profoundly unsettling piece of work that explores untold depths of depravity in 166 well-packed pages
PHANTOM
A vivid and pronounced scare-show, but with an elusive, poetic air
EVIL ANGELS
A pitiless investigation into the farthest reaches of uncontained passion, adapted for the screen in 1992 by Roman Polanski
CORMAN/POE
This book, in which the veteran writer/editor Chris Alexander explores Corman’s 1960-64 cycle of Edgar Allan Poe inspired films, is long overdue
SOLDIER: FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN
I’ve admittedly never been too enthusiastic about the 1998 Kurt Russell science fiction vehicle SOLDIER, but thoroughly enjoyed this passionate account of its making
JIM
A “Self-Centered Memoir” of the recently deceased Jim Brown by the disgraced James Toback
VHS VIDEO COVER ART
The British-centric follow-up to 2011’s All-American VHS cover art compilation PORTABLE GRINDHOUSE
PORTABLE GRINDHOUSE: THE LOST ART OF THE VHS BOX
A gorgeously designed trade paperback that comes complete with a slipcover mimicking the VHS boxes of old
Ray Garton: 1962-2024
All about the recently deceased horror scribe Ray Garton, a guy who knew what he was doing
Vampires, Geona and Amba
90s era Russian sci fi: GEONA’S VAMPIRES, MASTERS OF GEONA, AMBA—FIRST MOVIE and AMBA—SECOND MOVIE
Ukrainian Horror Essentials
Compiling a list of Ukrainian horror movies, much less essential Ukrainian horror movies, is no easy task…
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST at 20
Does anyone remember THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST? It’s not discussed much these days, but the film was quite the hot potato back in ’04
Welcome Home to the Faustian Penitentiary, Away from Emma Mae and the Street Wars
About the late blaxploitaiton auteur Jamaa Fanaka, who combined urban grit and sheer weirdness