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
INTERROGATION
This politically minded 1982 film has assumed legendary status in its native Poland, but for American viewers its allure is much simpler: it fits quite snugly into the Women in Prison subgenre
GO AND GET IT
No, it wasn’t the “first” man-in-a-monkey suit film, but this 1920 programmer was quite the oddity
THE SUBSTANCE
Body horror and Hollywood: a true match made in Hell.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)
It’s no longer the mind-blower it once was, but Wes Craven’s 1984 classic remains an attention-getter
THE COFFEE TABLE
2024’s major shock-fest, containing all the things that make Spanish horror great
BITCH
A sexier, druggier variant on THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR
MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM!
A moldy oldie from the 1960s science fiction market (and the basis for the 1973 film SOYLENT GREEN)
THE BOOK OF A THOUSAND SINS
Fifteen stories: energetic and focused to a fault, and exhibiting an unnerving willingness to gaze unblinkingly into the darkest depths of madness, mutilation and sexual deviance
IN THE DARK
By 1994 the late Richard Laymon had been a professional writer for over fifteen years, and that accumulated skill illuminates IN THE DARK
9/30/55
A unique movie novelization from one of the top novelizers of the 1970s and 80s
MR. KNOW-IT-ALL: THE TARNISHED WISDOM OF A FILTH ELDER
John Waters is a filmmaker I’ve always found more entertaining than the films he makes
JAN-MICHAEL VINCENT: EDGE OF GREATNESS
This is far from the ideal account of the life of the late Jan-Michael Vincent, but it is (as of 2021) the only one
MY ADVENTURE WITH SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE: THE MAKING OF THE MOVIE SHEENA
This entertaining memoir offers further proof that even the lousiest movies have interesting histories
SHOOTING MIDNIGHT COWBOY
It’s taken 52 years, but we now have a thorough account of MIDNIGHT COWBOY’S making and reception
THE LONG-LOST AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORGES MELIES
Possibly the most important film book of 2020, and one that fills a longtime void in silent film studies
On LES VAMPIRES
The legendary French crime saga from 1915 that’s not actually about vampires.
Ray Liotta and The Slide
The May 26, 2022 demise of actor Ray Liotta has thrown one aspect of his career into extremely sharp relief
On CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (2022) and The Tyranny of Exposition
In June 2022 CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, the first feature in eight years to be directed by David Cronenberg—and the first in 21 years to emerge from an original Cronenberg screenplay—was released
Thoughts on the Cannes Film Festival (From One who’s Never Been There)
The 2022 Cannes Film Festival has just concluded, and based on what I’ve read it seems to have been largely uneventful
Herman Melville, Leos Carax and the Ambiguities
On Herman Melville’s wildest novel and Leos Carax’s equally outre film adaptation