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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
ONE MAGIC CHRISTMAS
Quite simply: it’s not very magical
CHRISTMAS ON MARS
A self-proclaimed “Fantastic Film Freakout Featuring The Flaming Lips.”
THE WOLF MAN
This 1941 classic is not merely the most famous werewolf movie ever made, but also the source for much modern-day werewolf lore
ZACHARIAH
This, the world’s “First Electric Western,” hails from 1971
THE GOLDEN KEY
With all the newfound interest in PINOCCHIO, I say it’s a good time to revisit one of its most unique variants: the 1939 Soviet children’s fantasy THE GOLDEN KEY
BLASTED
This 1995 play will be probably be viewed as beyond the pale nowadays, but the skill with which it was put together is undeniable
THE BLUE PERIL
It took a century for this 1910 French classic to be translated into English, and the wait was nearly worth it
THE NEO-DECADENT COOKBOOK
As the back cover inquires, “Have you ever sautéed geometrical sex or eaten fate from the breasts of Minerva?”
BLACK BUTTERFLIES
Restraint is something you won’t find much of in a John Shirley story, and that’s particularly true here
THE COMING SELF-DESTRUCTION OF THE U.S.A.
Of the many black uprising fantasies that appeared in the late 1960s and early 70s this is the most expansive and outrageous of the lot
A KIM JONG-IL PRODUCTION
Here’s a real-life account that is in fact stranger than fiction: the 1978 kidnapping of the veteran South Korean film director Shin Sang-Ok and his actress ex-wife Choi Eun-Hee by Kim Jong-Il
KILLER INSTINCT
In the category of books about moviemaking this one for me ranks among the top of the heap
THE JAWS 2 LOG
This lively report about the making of JAWS 2 is far from the best book of its type, but it is a fascinating and instructive read
THE JAWS LOG
THE JAWS LOG is not, as the back cover wrongfully claims, the “only book” about the making of JAWS, but it is the best
JACK HILL: THE EXPLOITATION AND BLAXPLOITATION MASTER, FILM BY FILM
The first and thus far only book about Jack Hill, arguably the greatest exploitation movie director of the grindhouse era
2018: Bedlam in Print
The books of 2018? There’s really not much to say, outside my usual observation that the really good stuff often lurks outside the mainstream
2018: A Look Back in Bedlam
Here it is, my latest Look Back in Bedlam overview of the previous year’s happenings that are of particular interest to this site
A Grab-Bag of Holiday Badness!
My Christmas posts are among the most consistently popular on this site, so here’s another
1994: The Year in Bedlam
1994 was the year of PULP FICTION and HOOP DREAMS; here I’ll be concentrating here on thirty lesser-known films, which provide a plethora of genre-spanning quality cinema!
Nicolas Roeg: 1928-2018
On November 23, 2018 we lost one of the world’s greatest filmmakers