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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
BURNING PARADISE
For me, this “gothic hell prison movie” will always be the most satisfying film directed by Hong Kong’s late Ringo Lam (1955-2018)
POKOL INFERNO
Dante’s Inferno, adapted as a much weirder-than-average Hungarian TV movie from the 70s
TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL
The debut feature of Canada’s Guy Maddin, and a potent signifier of what was to come
COBB
A failed, but quite interesting, biopic on the late baseball star, and trigger-happy nut, Ty Cobb
JOHNNY
The first Canadian film lensed according to the dictates of the Lars von Trier-Thomas Winterberg created Dogma 95 manifesto
THE EXOPOTAMIA MANUSCRIPT
A novella that is, frankly, a mess. It is, however, a mighty fascinating mess packed with literary allusions, autobiographical shading and a highly picturesque scope
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
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
YOURS CRUELLY, ELVIRA: MEMOIRS OF THE MISTRESS OF THE DARK
Everyone loves Elvira, whose life story is told quite well in these pages
NOT BAD FOR A HUMAN
The life story of the one and only Lance Henriksen
BIG BAD JOHN: THE JOHN MILIUS INTERVIEWS
A book of interviews with the famous screenwriter/director John Milius
THE DIRECTOR SHOULD’VE SHOT YOU
A book about movie novelizations–I can’t see how it could possibly NOT be a must-read
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
TV Flashback: KINGDOM HOSPITAL
Stephen King adapts THE KINGDOM, and not very well
Albert Pyun: 1953-2022
There was simply no one else like the Hawaiian-bred Albert Pyun, one of the most irrepressible directors working in any genre