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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
GHOSTWATCH
Purportedly the most controversial telefilm ever broadcast by the BBC, a mock documentary about ghosts that aired on Halloween night, 1992
WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
An 83 minute, Baltimore-lensed 2013 video project made to play like a VHS recording of a fictitious 1987 Halloween TV special
HITCHER IN THE DARK
Gender-swapped Italian rip-offs can be fun, but this HITCHER-inspired Umberto Lenzi thriller isn’t.
PIECES
If limb chopping and head-loppings were enough to make for a quality product then PIECES would be a masterpiece, but they aren’t and it’s not
MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN
A striking but largely unmoving film that premiered around the same time as (and was vastly overshadowed by) Mario Bava’s classic BLACK SUNDAY
DANILOV THE VIOLINIST
A singularly bizarre supernatural fantasy from the Soviet Union
POMEGRANATE AND THE DEVOURING INSECTS
Two previously untranslated stories by Edogawa Ranpo, Japan’s answer to Edgar Allan Poe, make up this 84 page e-text
THE SPIDER MAN
Another late-in-coming translation of the work of Edogawa Ranpo, a novel that’s brainy and grotesque in equal measure, and never less than fully absorbing
ASH WEDNESDAY
A strange and eerie tale set in a sleepy town besieged by the spirits of everyone who ever died there
THE EYES OF THE CAT
When contemplating this horrific graphic novel I find that several terms invariably recur, namely bizarre, dreamlike, enigmatic and surreal
CANNIBAL: THE MOST SICKENING CONSUMER GUIDE EVER!
A fast, user-friendly overview of the Italian cannibal film cycle
THE BYE BYE MAN AND OTHER STRANGE-BUT-TRUE TALES
In which author Robert Damon Schneck proves once again that his ability to dredge up odd and fascinating historical tidbits is unsurpassed
BLADE RUNNERS, DEER HUNTERS, AND BLOWING THE BLOODY DOORS OFF
A likeable and enjoyable memoir by Michael Deeley, a prolific British movie producer whose films have nearly all attained cult status
CHAIN SAW CONFIDENTIAL
This lively account of the making of THE CHAINSAW MASSACRE is certainly worth reading, but for TCM fans there probably won’t be a lot of information you haven’t already heard
THE ART OF S. CLAY WILSON
An absolutely essential acquisition for lovers of Underground Comics, or, I contend, anyone with an interest in the visual arts
Exploring THE NIGHT LAND
A 1912 novel that H.P. Lovecraft praised as “one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written”
Harlan Ellison: 1934-2018
What is there to say about writer/gadfly Harlan Ellison? Frankly, not a whole lot that hasn’t already been said
Chris Hardwick and the Dark Side of Nerd Culture
I don’t much like Chris Hardwick
1997: The Year in Bedlam
Continuing with my time-reversed year-end film listings, we come to 1997
On THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES
There has never been another film quite like THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES