Slugs (dir. Juan Piquer Simón, 1988) Slugs, based on a novel of the same name by Shaun Hutson and also known in the director’s native Spanish as Slugs, Muerte Viscosa, is about viscous death by slugs, appropriately enough. You might be asking: “How? Are they huge? Venomous? Possessed of unusual cunning?” The answer to those … Continue reading Slugs (1988)

White Noise (dir. Geoffrey Sax, 2005) Geoffrey Sax’s White Noise is an abject failure as an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, deviating wildly from the source material. Michael Keaton plays a widowed architect instead of the Dean of Hitler Studies at a liberal arts college, there’s no visit to the Most Photographed Barn in … Continue reading White Noise (2005)

Creep (dir. Christopher Smith, 2004) A young woman Kate (Frank Potente) leaves one party for another, because supposedly George Clooney is in attendance, and then has a very bad time in the London Underground because it is rude to leave a party like that and to bother the star of One Fine Day. For those … Continue reading Creep (2004)

The Blood on Satan’s Claw (dir. Piers Haggard, 1971) Some critics contend that the politics of the horror genre are largely conservative. The most well known examples of this are found in the slasher subgenre where premarital sex and drug use make you a target for death by the maniacal killer, and the so-called ‘final … Continue reading The Blood on Satan’s Claw

The X-Files (dir. Rob Bowman, 1998) Bartender: So... what do you do? Fox Mulder: What do I do? Bartender: Mm-hmm. Fox Mulder : I'm the key figure in an ongoing government charade, a plot to conceal the truth about the existence of extraterrestrials. It's a global conspiracy, actually, with key players in the highest levels … Continue reading The X-Files (1998)

Little Monsters (dir. Abe Forsythe, 2019) Dave (Alexander England) is a deadbeat and busker, formerly the vocalist and guitarist of the stadium rock/death metal band God’s Sledgehammer, currently living with his sister and her young son Felix in the aftermath of a relationship whose dissolution we see as the opening credits play out. While taking … Continue reading Little Monsters (2019)

The Devil Rides Out (dir. Terrence Fisher, 1968) Christopher Lee made a career out of playing the villain. You can’t have cheekbones and a voice like that and not be the bad guy most of the time. Lee maintained throughout his career his frustration with this typecasting. There are only so many times you can … Continue reading The Devil Rides Out

Eye of the Devil (dir. J. Lee Thompson, 1966) Most people who are aware of Eye of the Devil know it because of Sharon Tate. It’s understandable. It was her first major role after previously appearing in television and minor parts in films, such as The Americanization of Emily. She gives a magnetic performance as … Continue reading Eye of the Devil

Night of the Demon (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1957) Based on an M.R. James short story, Night of the Demon deviates in a few ways from the original, but one of the more interesting ones to me is that it recasts the protagonist as an American. While not an obviously significant difference between story and film, … Continue reading Night of the Demon (1957)

The Seventh Victim (dir. Mark Robson, 1943) 1943’s The Seventh Victim, directed by Mark Robson and the first of four films produced by Val Lewton during his run at RKO in that year alone, concerns a young woman’s search for her missing sister, which leads to a mysterious cosmetics company and a Satanic cult in … Continue reading The Seventh Victim