Graphic Novel • Lists • Fails • 70’s Cinema • K-Horror • Arthouse • Canadian Horror • Film Noir • Grindhouse • NC-17 • J-Horror • Exploitation • Sci-Fi • Pulp • Evangelical Horror • Favorites • Cult • Fantastique • Surreal • Animation • So-Bad-It’s-Good
Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
AKIRA
This is the 1988 cyberpunk-themed anime feature that, prior to game-changers like GHOST IN THE SHELL and PERFECT BLUE, irrevocably altered the format
WHALE MUSIC
The late John Candy was a galvanizing force behind this film, which was released in 1994 (the year of Candy’s demise)
GOING BERSERK
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the untimely March 4, 1994 death of the great John Candy, here’s a look back at his first-ever Hollywood starring vehicle
SURVIVING LIFE
A standout effort from the incomparable Jan Svankmajer
GANJA & HESS
Arthouse vampire thrills from the late Bill Gunn
RED GRASS
A novel as puzzling and bizarre as nearly any I’ve read, filled with enigmas I’m told will come clear on subsequent readings
MEN, WOMEN AND RATTLESNAKES
The “Most Evil Book Ever Written”…? So claims the cover of this long forgotten 1933 shocker
THE SHADOW
A veritable master class in psycho-horror that holds up beautifully
SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN
Sometimes accidental brilliance is the most irresistible sort.
OUR LADY OF THE TURKS
This is a big deal: the premiere English translation of the only novel by Italy’s late Carmelo Bene
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
THE FRIEDKIN CONNECTION
This isn’t the greatest memoir by a film director I’ve ever read, but it is essential
FREAK BABYLON
A heavily illustrated book in the mold of Fredrick Drimmer’s VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE and Daniel P. Mannix’s FREAKS: WE WHO ARE NOT AS OTHERS, though not as satisfying as either
NICE GUYS DON’T WORK IN HOLLYWOOD
This posthumously published memoir is a frank and fast moving book about which my only real complaint is that, at just 197 pages, it’s far too short
VISIONS FROM WITHIN THE MECHANISM: THE INDUSTRIAL SURREALISM OF JEFFREY SCOTT
Another weird art book, and another mind-tugging triumph
1992: The Year in Bedlam
For me the cinema of 1992 will always be shadowed by one all-encompassing real-life event: the rioting that took place on April 29 to May 4 in Los Angeles
Larry Cohen: 1936-2019
My take on the late screenwriter, producer and director Larry Cohen is a complicated one
Funnybook Flashback: SKULL COMICS
Looking back at the underground comix of the early 1970s, one finds that horror, unsurprisingly, was a popular topic
1993: The Year in Bedlam
Looking back over 1993, I’ve found it was quite an auspicious year for movies
Ed Wood at the Carnival
Carnival life and Edward D. Wood, Jr. are two things that go together quite well