Graphic Novel • Lists • Fails • 70’s Cinema • K-Horror • Arthouse • Canadian Horror • Film Noir • Grindhouse • NC-17 • J-Horror • Exploitation • Sci-Fi • Pulp • Evangelical Horror • Favorites • Cult • Fantastique • Surreal • Animation • So-Bad-It’s-Good
Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
XTRO
A rare example of a film that justifies the oft-abused Ed Wood comparison
HUMAN ANIMALS
A little-known Spanish made post-apocalyptic drama, of primary interest due to its complete lack of dialogue
TEOREMA
A very strange Marxist parable from Italy’s Pier Paolo Pasolini, starring the late Terence Stamp
PERFORMANCE
Perhaps the ultimate example of a “60’s film” (although it was released in 1970)
WARNING SIGN
A bio-thriller that could, and should, have been lots better
A DOG’S HEAD
A sui generis example of big-hearted fantasy spiced with unsentimental magic realism
COYOTE
COYOTE may be an extended hallucination or an eccentric first-person crime saga; either way, it’s a deeply chilly and upsetting book
SICK
A promising but not entirely successful horror novel that debuted at the wrong time
GHOSTS IN THE SWAMP
A long-forgotten German horror-science fiction-fantasy epic, translated by indefatigable Joe E. Bandel
CHOICE CUTS
Initially published back in 1965, CHOICE CUTS is, despite some affecting passages, strictly a product of its time
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
LAID BARE
In which true crime author John Gilmore lays bare his early years as an actor, and his dealings with the soon-to-be-famous
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
2022: A Look Back in Bedlam
The latest installment of my annual Look Back in Bedlam year end overview
Ruggero Deodato: 1939-2022
My thoughts on the recently deceased director of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST
On HOME ALONE
One of the more inexplicable cultural touchstones of our era is 1990’s HOME ALONE