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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
UNDER PARIS
There are worse ways to waste 104 minutes.
TOKYO BLOOD
A 33-minute four parter by Japan’s Sogo Ishii, returning to form after a nine-year gap.
THE ‘BURBS
I know many of you love this film. I don’t!
FEAR AND DESIRE
Yes, this was the first feature film made by 22-year-old Stanley Kubrick, and not exactly a monumental debut
THE ERL-KING
Goethe’s classic poem, adapted for film in 1931–painfully minimalistic, but worth a watch
PORK PIE HAT
A novella that united two of the late Peter Straub’s major passions: jazz and horror, contained in an engaging Halloween tale
THE WELL
A literate and intelligent haunted house novel that I didn’t much like
GRIMM MEMORIALS
If there’s one thing to be said in this 1990 splat fest’s favor, it’s that it definitely won’t leave you wanting more.
THE LUNAR TRILOGY
Another example of a publication that should have received far more attention than it did: the premiere English version of Jerzy Zulawski’s LUNAR TRILOGY (1901-11)
THE TWILIGHT WORLD
The first novel by filmmaker Werner Herzog (need I say more?)
IT DOESN’T SUCK: SHOWGIRLS
Here we have a wholehearted defense of SHOWGIRLS, director Paul Verhoeven’s notorious 1995 hymn to stripper life
OVER MY DEAD BODY
This heavily illustrated overview of “The Sensational Age of The American Paperback” is hardly the definitive book on the subject
DIRECTOR’S CUT
This isn’t the greatest movie director memoir I’ve ever read, but it is a vital one
MUDDLED MIND: THE COMPLETE WORKS OF EDWARD D. WOOD, JR.
A most welcome volume, due to the fact that MUDDLED MIND was the first book devoted to the writings of the inimitable Edward D. Wood, Jr.
CINEMA ALCHEMIST
This is a vital acquisition for all true film buffs, a memoir by a legendary set decorator about his work on STAR WARS and ALIEN
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
E-Books, Astrologers, Ocean Parks, Buried Treasure and SURVIVOR
The decline of print media is a subject that in the post-Coronavirus era has taken on a new relevance
1985: The Year in Bedlam
It makes sense that, in what is universally acknowledged as the worst-ever decade for film, the midpoint of that decade marks its low point