The Plot: Aya Asagiri is bullied and beaten at school and abused at home by her own sociopathic brother. When she stumbles across a mysterious website promising to make her a magical girl, it provides just enough incentive to continue moving forward, especially when she finds a weird heart-shaped gun in her locker the next…
Masters of Horror: Vincent Price
The delightfully devious, deliciously devilish Vincent Price is a consummate horror actor, and while he was featured in many non-genre efforts, particularly earlier in his career, like his excellent roles in film noir melodramas and mysteries like Laura, Dragonwyck and Leave Her To Heaven as well as westerns like The Baron of Arizona, he often…
Confuso e nervoso in una stanza buia: A ’70s Italian Genre Marathon
So I got the notion in my head to watch a genre film every year from 1920 to 2021 this month. While I probably won’t post about all of them, I thought I’d at least publish a couple of decades of my watches for shits ‘n’ giggles. To start it all off, I chose that…
Director Spotlight: Curtis Harrington
Curtis Harrington was an interesting figure, towing the line between the avant garde and schlock cinema, reminiscent of forbearers like tVal Lewton and Jacques Tourneur who made minor masterpieces within the confines of horror and crime genres. After a stint as a film critic, Harrington began producing esoteric, surrealist short films and working with experimental…
October Mega Marathons: An Introduction
Scott has so graciously granted me a platform to blast out this delirium-inducing experiment that I’ve have set off on. Throughout the month of October, I’ve soft-committed to watching 200+ horror movies. Not only that, I’ve been sectioning them off into themed double features and mini-marathons for additional fun. Up until now, I’ve been posting…
Maniac UHD Review
The movie title “Maniac” has been used a few times throughout our cinematic history. Dwain Esper’s 1934 shocker, entitled Maniac, which featured Phyllis Diller, was strong stuff for its time especially when a cat’s eyeball is squeezed out of its head. The 1963 Hammer film starring Kerwin Mathews also titled Maniac was decent but nothing…
Dolly Dearest (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review
In order to make it big in the toy business, Elliot Wade (Sam Bottoms) moves his family down to Mexico after purchasing a factory that specializes in life-like dolls -not that kind! As expected, the factory is next door to the recently excavated site of an ancient death cult. An evil spirit gets unleashed by…
The Amityville Trilogy (Scream Factory) Blu-ray review
The Amityville series has been one of horror cinema’s most persistent and questionably enduring franchises. It all began with the 1977 novel by Jay Anson that was supposedly based on a true story, though it has long been debunked. Nevertheless, the original Amityville Horror has spawned sequels, unofficial spin-offs, pale imitations, countless parodies, and the…
Deadline (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review
Popular horror novelist Steven Lessey (Stephen Young) seems to have it all. A picture-perfect family, a successive series of novels, and now a row of popular horror movie adaptations that he co-wrote. But now the pressure is getting too tight as he finds himself with writer’s block. Daydreaming to find the right idea that will…