Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (dir. Dwight H. Little, 1988) The world was not ready in 1983 for magic masks that caused snakes, insects, and vermin to sprout from their wearer’s head in a ritual to appease ancient pagan gods. It was too “out there” and “stupid” for the squares in the audience, … Continue reading Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

King Kong (dir. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) The 1933 King Kong is a film whose ubiquity, influence, and importance has made is difficult to talk about in any meaningful way. You can’t add anything new to the discourse. You don’t even need to see the film at this point to know … Continue reading King Kong (1933)

Vampyr (dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932) The first years of sound cinema were a period of adjustment for the art and industry. While synchronized sound-and-picture had been technically possible since the turn of the century, it was only by the late 1920s that it became viable as sound-on-disc systems such as Vitaphone came to prominence. … Continue reading Vampyr (1932)

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (dir. Tommy Lee Wallace, 1983) The third film in the Halloween franchise was an attempt to switch gears. Halloween II had concluded the story of Michael Myers, Laurie Strode, and Sam Loomis, and now we could explore something entirely different. John Carpenter and Debra Hill returned as producers with … Continue reading Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983)

Halloween II (dir. Rick Rosenthal, 1981) The first Halloween was a massive success, grossing 70 million dollars on a 300,000 budget when those numbers actually meant something. John Carpenter followed up the film with a television miniseries, Elvis, starring his frequently collaborator Kurt Russell, in 1979, a supernatural horror picture The Fog in 1980, and … Continue reading Halloween II (1981)

Halloween (dir. John Carpenter, 1978) For whatever reason, I’ve only seen four films in the Halloween franchise: the first three and the awkwardly named Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, which I only saw last year. I’ve never seen the sequels between Season of the Witch and H20 nor have I seen Halloween Resurrection. I’ve liked … Continue reading Halloween (1978)

Night of the Living Deb (dir. Kyle Rankin, 2015) Deb (Maria Thayer) hooks up with the uptight and unhappily engaged Ryan (Michael Cassidy) in a one night stand on July 3rd. The next morning as they’re awkwardly trying to get out of each other’s lives, there’s a zombie outbreak, forcing the two of them together … Continue reading Night of the Living Deb (2015)

Return of the Living Dead (dir. Dan O’Bannon, 1985) When Night of the Living Dead was sent to its distributor the Walter Reade Organization, they failed to put a copyright notice on the print. At the time this was all that needed to happen for a film to lapse into the public domain. That film … Continue reading Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Murder Party (dir. Jeremy Saulnier, 2007) The only things I knew about Murder Party before watching it were that it was Jeremy Saulnier’s debut feature, that his frequent collaborator and Joe Lo Truglio lookalike Macon Blair was in it, and that it was about some sap being invited to the titular homicide soiree. Oh, was … Continue reading Murder Party (2007)

Slice (dir. Austin Vesely, 2018) Lame. It’s a horror comedy that fails at both. It’s not frightening at all, and the comedy is low energy and much more droll than this sort of thing needs to be. No idea in the film really gels into anything meaningful. The supernatural openly exists in this world, but … Continue reading Slice (2018)