DARK (2017)
This is the closest thing that exists to a director’s cut of Paul Schrader’s DYING OF THE LIGHT (2014)
DESPAIR
This 1978 film was apparently an attempt at “commercial filmmaking” by Germany’s late Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982)
THE STRANGE VOYAGE OF DONALD CROWHURST
Ronald Crowhurst was a deeply obsessive man, so it’s appropriate that this book about his doomed 1969 voyage is an extremely eccentric and obsessive piece of work in its own right
THE NEST OF THE CUCKOO BIRDS
An ultra-low rent Florida lensed horror flick, created by the veteran supporting actor Bert Williams, that was believed lost for decades
CANIBA
You simply will not find a more disturbing documentary than CANIBA, which takes an up-close and very personal look at the infamous Japanese cannibal-murderer Issei Sagawa
2018: The Year in Bedlam
Welcome to the 2018 edition of my annual Year in Bedlam THE BEST movie round-up
PURGATORY
1998 was the year of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, a war movie that allegedly broke new ground in its depiction of the ugliness of combat. Few seem to know about the ’98 Russian movie PURGATORY, which far outdid Spielberg’s film in grit, gore and sheer unpleasantness
LITTLE HEAVEN
Here Nick Cutter, of the well-received horror thrillers THE TROOP and THE DEEP, tries his hand at a genre epic of the type popularized by Stephen King and Robert McCammon, with mixed results
NIGHT SHOW
Rereading the book, I found that its initial hold remains largely intact; NIGHT SHOW is nothing if not a page-turner, with a consistently inventive narrative and some mighty potent nastiness.
NATURAL ENEMIES
This taut and compact first person shocker is simply one of the most disturbing novels to emerge from the 1970s.