Recent posts tagged horror
2020
New Blood
On reinventing horror tropes for the modern moment.
2018
The Lift
A dopey dud: a mix of satire and horror that doesn't manage to be either funny or scary.
2016
To Cut The Drum Open (And See What Makes It Go Bang) Dept.
There are times when you want to keep the mystery, and there are times when you don't.
2015
Angst
Unseen for decades except by the most stalwart, this startling early-'80s experiment remains contemporary for reasons entirely apart from its groundbreaking visuals
2010
Moju: The Blind Beast (Edogawa Rampo)
I could provide any number of examples of Japanese popular literature whose only real exposure to English-speaking audiences came through adaptations into film. Many of Edogawa Rampo’s mystery / crime / thriller / horror stories fit that category nicely, Blind...
The Edogawa Rampo Reader (Edogawa Rampo)
My theory goes something like this. The more popular an author is in a given country, the greater the odds they will be that much more difficult to bring to audiences in other languages—because their popularity in their original locale...
Bump in the Night Dept.
[Yes, it's been a while, hasn't it? Apologies - things became quite busy. But I live.] I don't normally do holiday-themed posts -- so many other people do a far better job of it, it seems -- but this time...
2009
X-Cross
Now this wasn’t what I signed up for. I went into X-Cross thinking it would be a gory throwaway, and instead got something closer to Sam Raimi’s gleeful everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach. We start off in conventional horror/thriller territory, then roll on...
The Midnight Meat Train
What a surprise. I didn’t expect much from The Midnight Meat Train, and I got what easily ranks as one of the better horror movies of the last few years. That might have something to do with the involvement of...
Kaidan
Kaidan’s an experiment in contrasting forms, shilling for conflicting. Take one of the samurai-horror flicks of the Fifties and Sixties, bring it up to date with modulated acting styles, psychological realism and understated visual style, and then force the conceits...
2003
Videodrome
The number of movies influenced or lending a nod to Videodrome could easily stretch into the dozens: the recent hit The Ring comes to mind, with its television-as-curse mentality, or Fight Club, with its hallucinations of grandeur. But remarkably few...
