Naked City: A Killer Christmas (dir. Peter Bogdanovich, 1998) The Naked City (1948) is an essential film noir. Directed by Jules Dassin, the film follows the police investigation of a murder in New York City in quasi-documentary fashion. Cinematographer William H. Daniels and editor Paul Weatherwax both earned an Academy Awards for their work. The … Continue reading Naked City: A Killer Christmas (1998)

Black Christmas (dir. Bob Clark, 1974) It’s Christmas break for a Canadian university. The sisters of sorority house are being harassed by obscene phone calls from an anonymous man. Later than night, one of them is suffocated by a mystery killer, who then hides the body in the attic in the first of a series … Continue reading Black Christmas (1974)

Silent Night, Bloody Night (dir. Theodore Gershuny, 1972) I do not care for Andy Warhol. I find his work vapid, empty, and worst of all boring. Some may counter that that’s the point of something like Empire. Those people can go get fucked for all I care, because I have done my due diligence. I … Continue reading Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972)

Home for the Holidays (dir. John Llewelynn Moxley, 1972) Benjamin Morgan (Walter Brennan) lost his wife to suicide several years prior, leading to a rift between him and his four daughters Frederica (Jessica Walter), Christine (Sally Field), Alex (Eleanor Parker), and Joanna (Jill Haworth). In the interim, Benjamin has remarried to a woman named Elizabeth … Continue reading Home for the Holidays (1972)

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (dir. Curtis Harrington, 1971) I remember reading years ago this idea that the supposed ‘witches’ that were hunted in Early Modern Europe were by-and-large older women, living alone and suffering from dementia. It lacks the grandeur of either their persecutors’ delusions or of the witch-cult hypothesis that framed them as relics … Continue reading Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971)