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
WHEN YOU COMIN’ BACK, RED RYDER?
Very likely the acting highlight of the recently deceased Marjoe Gortner, who’s deeply menacing and devilishly charismatic as a crazed hippie terrorizing a desert diner
MINNAL MURALI
Here’s conclusive proof that worthwhile superhero cinema isn’t confined to Hollywood: a Malayalam language (or Mollywood) superhero epic from 2021 that pivots on pulpy excess
THRASH
A very silly, very implausible, and kinda fun Netflix backed incorporation of flooding and sharks
HOPE
I’m not entirely sure what director Na Hong-jin was trying to do with this alien invasion-themed action-horror fest, but he doesn’t appear to have succeeded
ROBOCOP
Quite possibly the apotheosis of the 1980s action movie boom, and a major entry in the decade’s cyberpunk triumvirate (begun with BLADE RUNNER and THE TERMINATOR)
THE FAR CRY
A worthy, if unexceptional, addition to the late Fredric Brown’s retinue of pulpy suspensers
THE LODGER
A 1913 suspensor whose enjoyment is contingent on the ability to cast one’s mind back and view the text through the eyes of an Edwardian
CROSS COUNTRY
An X-rated thriller whose 1975 copyright date (a time when mainstream fiction was much wilder than it is now) is fully evident
PETER SCHLEMIEL: THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SHADOW
An admirably succinct fantasy classic that recalls Franz Kafka and the magic realists
BETTY BLUE
A sprightly account of a tragic love affair that was made into an enormously popular 1986 film. The book’s better.
THE GREATEST GANGSTER MOVIE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN: ABEL FERRARA’S THE FUNERAL
A passionate exploration of Abel Ferrara’s THE FUNERAL (1996), which is indeed the finest gangster movie you’ve “never seen”
PERFORMANCE—THE MAKING OF A CLASSIC
In which the UK’s Jay Glennie once again works his magic in a gorgeously designed movie making-of book
GREAT BALLS OF FIRE! AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF SEX IN SCIENCE FICTION
Supposedly a history of sex in science fiction, but actually a history of sex in science fiction art
THE MAKING OF QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
A deep dive into the creation of Quentin Tarantino’s most recent film
INSOMNIA
In which The Band’s late Robbie Robertson dishes on his drug taking days with Martin Scorsese
Jim Goad: 1960 (or ’61?)-2026
All about the recently deceased Jim Goad, who embodied the saying “You get out of life what you put into it”
James Williamson: 1959-2026
This week we bid farewell to one of the most mercurial, enigmatic, and questionable author-publishers in recent history
Obfuscation and Misunderstanding in the Film Adaptations of Philip K. Dick
About the film adaptations of Philip K. Dick, arguably the least understood SF writer of our time
The Disconcertingly Familiar Horrors of PENPAL
All about what is arguably the most impacting work of fiction to emerge from Reddit.com
Harlan Ellison: The Redemption Arc
About how, in defiance of my expectations, the late Harlan Ellison is becoming a posthumous success story