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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
SOLARIS (1972)
The third feature by Andrei Tarkovsky and his first foray into science fiction, SOLARIS is the most famous such film to emerge from Russia
NARCO SATANICO
Mexi-madness containing all the things one might expect from a south-of-the-border trash fest, starting with the Big Three: sex, nudity and gore
POSSIBLY IN MICHIGAN
This profoundly bizarre 12 minute short was made back in 1983, yet has become quite popular online (with good reason!)
VIOLATED ANGELS
A ground-breakingly gruesome example of avant-garde “pinku” (adults only) cinema
MADNESS (1969)
The concept of an insane asylum as a metaphor for modern civilization didn’t originate with this Estonian import, but the film did provide this particular movie model with a quintessentially Eastern European highlight
MANIAC SIREN
From the always-irrepressible Ramble House, here’s a compendium of two early 1960s sleaze novels by the late pulp meister Jim Harmon
DR. BLOODMONEY
One of the late Philip K. Dick’s greatest novels, involving nuclear war, mutants and a disc jockey in space
ASHES, ASHES
An extended Hieronymus Boschian cavalcade of destruction in a futuristic milieu, written back in 1943
ANCIENT OF DAYS
An “Anthropological SF Masterpiece”? Not quite, but a damn good novel nonetheless
JOYRIDE
The word for this splatterific book is fun—dumb fun, yes, but fun, nonetheless
CANNIBAL WORLDS
A knowledgeable and wide-ranging tome that more than delivers on its promise of being the most comprehensive tome on Italian cannibal cinema of the 1970s and 80s
HOLLYWOOD ANIMAL
This 700-plus page memoir by a Hollywood insider was to the aughts what Julia Phillips’ notorious YOU’LL NEVER EAT LUNCH IN THIS TOWN AGAIN (1991) was to the previous decade
WAR IS HELL: MAKING HELLRAISER III HELL ON EARTH
Another book by the irrepressible Danny Stewart, who specializes in boosting underappreciated films
HOW IT HAPPENED HERE
An incredibly entertaining book that offers aspiring filmmakers a potent object lesson in what not to do
THE GREATEST GANGSTER MOVIE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN: ABEL FERRARA’S THE FUNERAL
A passionate exploration of Abel Ferrara’s THE FUNERAL (1996), which is indeed the finest gangster movie you’ve “never seen”
Spider-Man Pondered (and Found Wanting)
All about Spider-Man’s appeal, his latest film outing, Sam Raimi and Roger Corman
THE ODYSSEY…and Everything Else
My feelings about Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY? I say it’s a blast, although I have some reservations…
Jim Goad: 1960 (or ’61?)-2026
All about the recently deceased Jim Goad, who embodied the saying “You get out of life what you put into it”
James Williamson: 1959-2026
This week we bid farewell to one of the most mercurial, enigmatic, and questionable author-publishers in recent history
Obfuscation and Misunderstanding in the Film Adaptations of Philip K. Dick
About the film adaptations of Philip K. Dick, arguably the least understood SF writer of our time