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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
TREMORS
One of the stand-out horror fests of the nineties
MS. 45
Quite simply, one of the greatest films to emerge from the Grindhouse era.
CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER
A change of pace for the UK’s Hammer Films that still feels quite archaic
THE COLLECTOR
Two recently deceased talents, Terence Stamp and Samatha Eggar, has their breakthrough roles in this film
ORGY OF THE DEAD (Film)
From Ed Wood, a charmingly archaic sexploitation outrage that was apparently conceived as a loose sequel to PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
UGLY MUG No. 8
The latest entry in House of Harley’s “Industrial Strength Comics Compendium” that, in the words of underground comics legend Ed Pinsent, is “laced with heavy doses of insanity, wonder, and escapades inside the dream house”
COMBAT SHOCK (Novelization)
A unique entry in Severin’s grindhouse novelization line: a 40-years-after-the-fact novelization of Buddy Giovinazzo’s notorious 1984 no-budgeter COMBAT SHOCK, written by the filmmaker himself
THE BOY WHO KICKED PIGS
A self-proclaimed “grotesque masterpiece” about just what the title promises
FACE
A literary shocker from 1985 that still shocks
BEHIND THE SHADOWS
A hugely enjoyable collection that offers up a full blast of media infused gen-X oriented horror
THE TRAVELING YEARS: A MEMOIR OF PUPPETS, PORNO AND PENURY
A household name Leo Eaton may not be, but he’s led an interesting life without question
CONFESSIONS OF A PUPPETMASTER
A memoir that’s more outrageous and exciting than most of Charles Band’s movies
FACES OF FEAR
This is perhaps the key nonfiction text of the Horror Boom of the 1970s and 80s
HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN
This “Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis” is one of the closest things that exists to a bestseller in the category of horror film texts
GLAMOUR GHOUL: THE PASSIONS AND PAIN OF THE REAL VAMPIRA, MAILA NURMI
This isn’t the first book about Maila Nurmi, a.k.a. Vampira, but it is very likely the best
“I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” at 56
Examining 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
2022: The Year in Bedlam
The latest installment of my annual Year in Bedlam overview