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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM
A black comedy whose effectiveness pivots on an unexpected but quite canny casting choice: Michael Caine, playing a New York businessman using highly unorthodox practices to get ahead
AKIRA
This is the 1988 cyberpunk-themed anime feature that, prior to game-changers like GHOST IN THE SHELL and PERFECT BLUE, irrevocably altered the format
WHALE MUSIC
The late John Candy was a galvanizing force behind this film, which was released in 1994 (the year of Candy’s demise)
GOING BERSERK
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the untimely March 4, 1994 death of the great John Candy, here’s a look back at his first-ever Hollywood starring vehicle
SURVIVING LIFE
A standout effort from the incomparable Jan Svankmajer
HEARTSNATCHER
Boris Vian’s final novel, combining surreal fancy and disturbing child abuse
BEYOND THE THRESHOLD
The most morbid and sensationalistic funeral home expose you’re ever likely to encounter, written by an actual funeral director
THE SECRET SCHOOL
The most outlandish of Whitley Strieber’s “nonfiction” alien contact books
THE DICE MAN
This novel, about a man who makes decisions according to a roll of the dice, is said to have inspired many people around the world to live in just that manner
PHILLY
A “modern tale of the macabre” that worked better in its movie adaptation: the 1981 teen comedy PRIVATE LESSONS
PAPERBACKS FROM HELL: THE TWISTED HISTORY OF ’70s AND ’80s HORROR FICTION
Now here’s a subject I know a bit about: paperback horror novels of the so-called “horror boom” of the 1970s and 80s
A LIT FUSE: THE PROVOCATIVE LIFE OF HARLAN ELLISON
An excellent book about an individual who really should need no introduction
CITY OF THE BROKEN DOLLS
A strange collection of grainy black and white photos, mostly of injured Japanese women
TOBE HOOPER’S SALEM’S LOT: STUDIES IN THE HORROR FILM
Another, and extremely good, entry in Centipede Press’s “Studies in the Horror Film” series
A GUIDE FOR THE UNDEHEMORRHOIDED
It’s an unfortunate fact that some of the most memorable books written by the late Charles Willeford also happen to be among the most elusive
HOUSE OF LEAVES at 20
In the modern horror pantheon there are a handful of books so revered their publications have been touted as Major Events. HOUSE OF LEAVES by Mark Z. Danielewski deserves a place in that pantheon.
R.I.P Joel Schumacher
For those of us who came of age in the 1980s, the name Joel Schumacher, a film director who died on June 22 at age 80, has great meaning
Misspent 1980s-era TV Watching: Six Examples
Looking back on the many misspent hours of 1980s TV watching, I find that a few (only a few) programs have stuck in my mind
RED HEDZ, SZMONHFU and JANE’S GAME
It’s been said of TOMIE that there is “nothing in Western horror literature, cinema and comics quite like it.” Not unless you take into account the 1989 novella RED HEDZ, revised as SZMONHFU and JANE’S GAME
The Films of Richard Stanley
Richard Stanley is one of the most interesting genre filmmakers on the scene, and also one of the least prolific