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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
BANNED FROM BROADCAST: SAIKO! THE LARGE FAMILY
What this altogether fascinating found footage horror movie from Japan proves is that the land of the rising sun was and is the epicenter of the format
BELLFLOWER
Easily one of the strongest “horror” movies of 2011
THE SECRET LIFE OF SARAH SHELDON
An attention-getting, if not necessarily “good,” no-budgeter containing sex, eugenics and a penis monster
PURPLE NOON
The closest the screen has come to properly dramatizing THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY by Patricia Highsmith
JERKBEAST
“The most insane 83 minutes ever put to film”?
THE END OF ALICE
The fascination with deviance that suffused 1990s fiction gave us first person studies of serial killing (AMERICAN PSYCHO), homicidal foot fetishism (FOOTSUCKER) and, with THE END OF ALICE, pedophilia.
RAW MEAT
An ambitious exercise in science fiction themed smut fiction, and, I’m afraid, not a very successful one
UGLY MUG 5
An eye-popping volume that marks the return (after three decades) of UGLY MUG, an anthology series put out by the London based House of Harley
THE LONG TOMORROW AND OTHER SCIENCE FICTION STORIES
Overall this book ranks far from the top in the Moebius hierarchy, yet contains one absolutely indispensable portion: the Dan O’Bannon scripted title story
BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS
The vision on display in this graphic novel is a dark and unsettling one marked by blood, slime and decay
DREAM SPECTRES: EXTREME UKIYO-E
A lively, user-friendly study of ukiyo-e (“images from the floating world”) woodblock printed art from 18th and 19th Century Japan
THE DOYLE DIARY
Here’s a truly amazing artifact for the ages, a sumptuous reproduction of a sketchbook kept by Charles Altamont Doyle, father of Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle
DONALD CAMMELL: A LIFE ON THE WILD SIDE
The first and likely only biography we’ll ever see of the late Donald Cammell
DISPATCHES FROM ARMAGEDDON: MAKING THE MOVIE MEGIDDO
A “Devilish Diary” by the British actor Michael York about his experience playing the Devil in the Christian feature MEGIDDO: THE OMEGA CODE 2
THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
This eminently readable slice of history alternates the accounts of Daniel Burnham, the director of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and Herman Mudgett, a.k.a. H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who haunted the event
What’s in My Halloween Bag…
What follows is a more-or-less random selection of Halloween-themed ephemera
Robert Forster: 1941-2019
2019 is shaping up as, among other things, a year in which quite a few vital character actors breathed their last breath
1988: The Year in Bedlam
I really hate to keep repeating myself in my year-end summations, but I just have to say it: 1988 was an abysmal year for movies
Sid Haig: 1939-2019
Oftentimes it can be difficult to grasp just how much a skilled supporting player adds to the movies s/he graces—until, that is, the player in question is no longer with us
TV Flashback: AN AMERICAN FAMILY
AN AMERICAN FAMILY, a 12 episode docu-series that aired on PBS in 1973, is very likely the most famous yet least seen TV program in history