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
FAREWELL
A key film of Russia’s Elem Klimov, and an interesting failure
MISERY
A highly skilled, if somewhat bland, Stephen King adaptation
EYES OF LAURA MARS
One of the foremost examples of American made giallo, but not without its faults
VAMPIRA: ABOUT SEX, DEATH AND TAXES
A now-obscure Finnish made documentary from 1995 about the one and only Maila Nurmi, a.k.a. Vampira
DARR: A VIOLENT LOVE STORY
Stalking and harrassment, Bollywood style.
BEAR
A highly literary “Canadian classic” about a woman schtupping a bear.
SPICY LADY
The term “product of its time” could have been coined to describe this novel
THE DIAMOND BOGO
Impossible to adequately categorize, this “African Idyll” tells the story of a hunt for a buffalo with a priceless diamond stuck to its head
DEMONS BY DAYLIGHT
This collection was the fabled second book by the great Ramsey Campbell and is widely considered a landmark in scare fiction
THE END OF ALICE
The fascination with deviance that suffused 1990s fiction gave us first person studies of serial killing (AMERICAN PSYCHO), homicidal foot fetishism (FOOTSUCKER) and, with THE END OF ALICE, pedophilia.
DEATH MAKES A HOLIDAY: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN
The second of David J. Skal’s “Cultural Histories.” The first was 1993’s THE MONSTER SHOW, which took a rambling yet thoroughly enjoyable look at horror media
TRUE INDIE
TRUE INDIE is filmmaker Don Coscarelli’s long-in-coming autobiography, and it’s a good one
STAGE MANAGING CHAOS
An irresistible read for theater buffs, Fernando Arrabal fans and just about everyone else
LOW-BUDGET HELL: MAKING UNDERGROUND MOVIES WITH JOHN WATERS
An interesting and, I think, vital take on John Waters and the underground film scene in which he thrived during the 1970s and early 80s
WILLEFORD
This, unfortunately, is the closest thing that exists to a biography of the late Charles Willeford
The Halloween Issue
Here we’re going to explore the phenomenon of the Halloween issue
Funnybook Flashback: FLINCH
It’s impossible not to be struck by the range of artwork and subject matter of this Vertigo horror comics anthology
THE CELL at 20
On THE CELL (2000) and the effects, pro and con, of controversy
TV Flashback: ARABELA
Of the imposing achievements of Czech fantasy television, the 1979 miniseries ARABELA is at the forefront
Exotic Dancers and the Devil in the Swinging Sixties
Exotic Dancers and the devil: a curiously appropriate pairing, especially in Europe