The Black Cat (dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934) Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short story “The Black Cat” features many of the same themes of criminal guilt as the more famous “The Tell-Tale Heart,” but with many more instances of animal torture and an autobiographical undercurrent of alcoholism. While Poe achieved modest critical success, it would … Continue reading The Black Cat (1934)

As Above, So Below (dir. John Erick Dowdle, 2014) I should like a movie in which Ginsberg from Mad Men has alchemical misadventures in the Paris Catacombs much more than this. What went wrong here? The improbably named Perdita Weeks stars as the improbably named Scarlett Marlowe, the standard young, beautiful, and athletic academic that … Continue reading As Above, So Below

Apollo 18 (dir. Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, 2011) The conspiracy theories revolving around the moon landings exist because people are unsatisfied with the explanations for why we never went back. The Apollo program was very expensive, robots and probes don’t need to worry about oxygen or cosmic rays, and the space race was always a proxy battle … Continue reading Apollo 18

Body at Brighton Rock (dir. Roxanne Benjamin, 2019) Brighton Rock, published in 1938, isn’t one of my favorite novels by Graham Greene, though it is very representative of his work, at once a crime thriller and a literary exploration of guilt and Catholicism. It’s a story about a gangster, a waitress, and the weight of … Continue reading Body at Brighton Rock

Top of the Food Chain (dir. John Paizs, 1999) An aggressively horny pastiche of a bygone genre full of stylized performances, filmed in the Academy ratio, and deeply Canadian in content? Who made this, Guy Maddin? No, Top of the Food Chain is directed by Winnipeg’s other hometown surrealist, John Paizs. Paisz is best known … Continue reading Top of the Food Chain

Dr. Giggles (dir. Manny Coto, 1992) Dr. Giggles is the sort of movie that you have to admire a little because it waited 76 minutes before our titular unlicensed medical practitioner so much as picks up a pair of defibrillator paddles to kill someone with. Before then, we get see a whole host of medical … Continue reading Dr. Giggles

Fallen (dir. Gregory Hoblit, 1998) I strongly suspect that screenwriter Nicholas Kazan at some point in the early to mid-nineties saw Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Moreover, I believe that when he saw the ninth entry in the venerable Friday the 13th franchise, he felt the same disappointment and frustration that much of … Continue reading Fallen (1998)

Dracula A.D. 1972 (dir. Alan Gibson, 1972) Hammer Film Productions made a killing putting out horror movies based on public domain characters: Frankenstein, Dracula, the vague and uncopyrightable concept of a resurrected Mummy. Hammer made icons out of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, whose turns as Dracula and Van Helsing in that series of films … Continue reading Dracula A.D. 1972

Ghoulies (dir. Luca Bercovici, 1985) I’m going to save you some heartbreak. At no point in the film does one of the so-called ‘ghoulies’ ever burst out of a toilet like on the poster. I know, I know. Everyone feels that same disappointment after they watch all eighty-something minutes and find virtually no bathroom related … Continue reading Ghoulies

Pumpkinhead (dir. Stan Winston, 1988) Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (dir. Jeff Burr, 1993) You know Stan Winton. His special effects makeup work earned him four Academy Awards. He collaborated with the likes of James Cameron on Terminator and Aliens and Steven Spielberg on the Jurassic Park series and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Among his other indelible … Continue reading Pumpkinhead and Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings