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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
STIGMA
A shockingly low-key grindhouse feature, starring a debuting Philip Michael Thomas
CANADIAN BACON
The last film appearance by the late John Candy and the first (and only) fictional film directed by Michael Moore. It plays exactly as you’d expect it to.
SELF DRIVER
A nifty Canadian low budgeter from 2024 that functions as both a cunning psychological thriller and an eccentric horror fest
MYSTERIOUS PLANET
One of the absolute cheapest sci fi films of 1982, a very free adaptation of Jules Verne’s MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
PARASITE (1982)
3-D monster movie silliness from Charles Band
THE WITCH OF SANLÚCAR
Another 2024 translation of an early twentieth century European text by Joe E. Bandel, and one of the best
CRIMSON KISSES
An unfairly ignored, and later revised, DRACULA pastiche that deserves to be rediscovered
THE UNIVERSE AS PERFORMANCE ART
Weird fiction is alive and well in the twenty first century, and THE UNIVERSE AS PERFORMANCE ART is a standout example
BEWARE US FLOWERS OF THE ANNIHILATOR
The latest and most comprehensive collection of stories by Canada’s master of elegantly drafted bizarrie Alexander Zelenyj
SWEETHEART, SWEETHEART
Not a bad novel by any means, but SWEETHEART, SWEETHEART is overlong and not entirely satisfying
THE UNSEEN FORCE: THE FILMS OF SAM RAIMI
The first book devoted entirely to the life and films of Sam Raimi
DEAN KOONTZ: A WRITER’S BIOGRAPHY
Katherine Ramsland, who’s best known for authoring several nonfiction books about Anne Rice, here turns her sights on another bestselling genre novelist: Dean Koontz
CINEMA SPECULATION
Passionate and entertaining writing on cinema by the one and only Quentin Tarantino
LIVING IN FEAR: A HISTORY OF HORROR IN THE MASS MEDIA
Just what the title says
PSYCHEDELIC SEX
What a great idea: a profusely illustrated guide to pornography of the psychedelic era, put out by the prestige outfit Taschen!
H.P. Lovecraft and Colin Wilson: A Match Made in Kadath
About the Lovecraft inspired fiction of the late Colin Wilson
TV Flashback: YOGI AT THE MOVIES
Yogi Berra, film critic?
John Carpenter, Halloween Maestro
The aesthetic qualities of John Carpenter’s films are certainly worth enumerating. My interest here is in how those films and their maker transformed Hollywood
BUBBA HO-TEP at 20
Here’s a film that hasn’t been getting too many retrospectives, but I say it’s deserving of at least one
Documenting Terry Gilliam
Two books and four docs about the one and only Terry Gilliam