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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
NIGHT OF THE COMET
“Valley girls at the end of the world” was the pitch by writer-director Thom Eberhardt for this low budgeter from 1984
THE POLAR EXPRESS
This 2004 movie has problems, but it’s still the most interesting entry in director Robert Zemeckis’ post-2000 filmography
A BILTMORE CHRISTMAS
A shocker: a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie that’s actually good (and not so-bad-it’s-good)
INTERROGATION
This politically minded 1982 film has assumed legendary status in its native Poland, but for American viewers its allure is much simpler: it fits quite snugly into the Women in Prison subgenre
GO AND GET IT
No, it wasn’t the “first” man-in-a-monkey suit film, but this 1920 programmer was quite the oddity
A DOG’S HEAD
A sui generis example of big-hearted fantasy spiced with unsentimental magic realism
COYOTE
COYOTE may be an extended hallucination or an eccentric first-person crime saga; either way, it’s a deeply chilly and upsetting book
SICK
A promising but not entirely successful horror novel that debuted at the wrong time
GHOSTS IN THE SWAMP
A long-forgotten German horror-science fiction-fantasy epic, translated by indefatigable Joe E. Bandel
CHOICE CUTS
Initially published back in 1965, CHOICE CUTS is, despite some affecting passages, strictly a product of its time
THE MONSTER SHOW: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF HORROR
20th Century horror, as covered by the enromously intelligent and always entertaining David J. Skal
GILLIAMESQUE
A “Pre-Posthumous Memoir” by the outspoken London-based cartoonist-turned-director Terry Gilliam, and everything you’d expect
NEUE SLOWENISCHE KUNST
From the underground publishing outfit Amok Books, a sumptuously designed art book about a most unique European art collective
THE EXOTIC ONES: THAT FABULOUS FILMMAKING FAMILY FROM MUSIC CITY, USA–THE ORMONDS
It’s hard to believe this large format hardcover is the first book devoted to the Ormonds, but I’m glad it’s finally here, and that it delivers on its promise
AESTHETIC DEVIATIONS: A CRITICAL VIEW OF AMERICAN SHOT-ON-VIDEO HORROR, 1984-1994
The first in-depth critical study of SOV horror, written by an author who really appreciates this stuff
Ray Garton: 1962-2024
All about the recently deceased horror scribe Ray Garton, a guy who knew what he was doing
Vampires, Geona and Amba
90s era Russian sci fi: GEONA’S VAMPIRES, MASTERS OF GEONA, AMBA—FIRST MOVIE and AMBA—SECOND MOVIE
Ukrainian Horror Essentials
Compiling a list of Ukrainian horror movies, much less essential Ukrainian horror movies, is no easy task…
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST at 20
Does anyone remember THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST? It’s not discussed much these days, but the film was quite the hot potato back in ’04
Welcome Home to the Faustian Penitentiary, Away from Emma Mae and the Street Wars
About the late blaxploitaiton auteur Jamaa Fanaka, who combined urban grit and sheer weirdness