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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
THE ERL-KING
Goethe’s classic poem, adapted for film in 1931–painfully minimalistic, but worth a watch
THE EMBALMER
A tricky film, this: a cunning and perverse thriller that takes the guise of, and works best as, a dark character study
GIRLS ON THE ROAD
A 1972 no-budgeter that is, first and foremost, very much of its time
THE BEEKEEPER
A Jason Statham movie with most everything that portends, meaning THE BEEKEEPER (2024) won’t ever be mistaken for CITIZEN KANE
A CHINESE GHOST STORY (1987)
An enormously iconic Hong Kong fantasy, although I’ve never been all that impressed by it.
THE VANISHING
The first and only English translation of Tim Krabbe’s 1984 Dutch language masterwork THE GOLDEN EGG, a.k.a. THE VANISHING
LUDA
The first novel by comics legend Grant Morrison, LUDA is everything I was hoping for: a challenging and phantasmagoric piece of work that follows no set perimeters of any sort
TIGER IN THE KITCHEN AND OTHER STRANGE STORIES
A collection that contains one rarely reprinted masterpiece, “Child’s Play,” that by itself nearly renders the book a must-buy
CAGE OF NIGHT
A stellar release from the late White Wolf Publishing, who could always be counted on to turn out invigorating genre fare
THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES
About Roger Corman, his 1967 film THE TRIP, and the real-life acid trip he allegedly took
KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT
This is one of the most famous anthropological accounts in existence, and also one of the most misunderstood.
IF I DID IT and “The Killer”
Here we have the end product of one of the most bizarre sagas in publishing history
ANARCHY AND ALCHEMY: THE FILMS OF ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY
A long-overdue volume, and in my view an essential one, a thorough study of the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, arguably the premiere wild man of the cinema.
THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE: ESSAYS ON THE HORROR FILM
Here was have what may be the most widely discussed yet least read genre study of all time.
AMERICAN GOTHIC
The utterly distinctive photographic artwork of Carlos Batts, as presented in this book, falls somewhere between the harsh naturalism of Weegee and the horrific surrealism of J.K. Potter. Over the past 15 or so years Batts has provided illustrations for numerous album covers, magazines and comics…
On TIGER KING and Lucky Documentarians
A bonafide phenomenon, TIGER KING enjoyed a 25 day ranking as Netflix’s number one show, and the reasons for its popularity aren’t difficult to figure out
Brian De Palma’s Films, Ranked
Here we pay homage to one of screen’s pre-eminent visual stylists and most irrepressible troublemakers
Disease Movies: An Informal History
With the advent of 2020 the disease movie has taken on an entirely new resonance
Stuart Gordon: 1947-2020
You may not know the name Stuart Gordon, but the chances are good that if you’re a fan of post-1980 horror cinema then you’re a Stuart Gordon fan
TV Flashback: AMERICAN CHRONICLES
A half hour documentary program produced by Lynch/Frost Productions, it was one of three failed TV series that followed in the wake of TWIN PEAKS