When I saw the trailer for 2026’s Hokum, I assumed I was going to see it and, hopefully, in the theatre. Something just felt right about what I had seen in brief glimpses, things that made me suspect this was more Film4 than A24. I was glad I took the leap, because this is rare […]
We are currently in one of those periods where belief in science is ebbing among the general public, while widespread acceptance of some rather fringe aspects of Christianity are in ascendance. Speaking of ascendance, it was once again predicted Jesus would bring his faithful to Heaven in the event called the Rapture. This time, some […]
“Hypernormalization”—that is the single word I think would best describe 2025. To the best I understand, it is how nobodies like me continue to function in a world where there is a seismic change, especially when there atrocities happening around you, yet to continue to do your job, buy food, etc. It is the kind […]
1975’s Night of the Seagulls is a zombie movie, which is a bit like if Hitchcock’s The Birds had been about zombies. This is the final movie in a quadrilogy by Spanish director Amando de Ossorio where undead Knights Templar ritually sacrifice young women. Normal zombie at least have some sort of base motivation for […]
My wife was an anthropology major in college, with a specific interest in forensics. She worked a couple of digs where human remains were being excavated as part of murder investigations. One of these was on a creekside, where she tripped over the top of a bone. I then pulled it out of the mud […]
I loved Rocky & Bullwinkle, and I have a fondness for a great many of the minor characters, such as Gidney and Cloyd. These were two short, green moonmen who would freeze anybody into place using their “scrooch” guns. Though equally vertically challenged, the moonmen in 1964’s First Men in the Moon are nowhere near […]
On the set of Time Bandits, Sean Connery was reportedly reluctant to be shown mounting a horse, as he had an experience on an earlier film in which he felt a director had him do this in some way that left him humiliated. And yet, he seems perfectly confident running around in 1974’s Zardoz wearing […]
We have a bulletin board hanging in our kitchen with various pins on it that are important to us for various reasons. Some were from Zox sets, some are those Niaski pins which put feline spins on famous artists. We have three pins made by Severin of some horror icons we like: Christopher Lee, Peter […]
Alan Ladd always looks annoyed in movies. 1955’s Hell on Frisco Bay is no exception. At the beginning, the ex-cop is just now being released from San Quentin after doing time for manslaughter. I guess I would also be cranky if I was convicted for a crime I didn’t commit. But I like to think […]
I am familiar with the output of UK’s Amicus studio, which cranked out a number of portmanteau films in the late 60s and early 70s—y’know, those movies which are a compendium of shorter stories. Apparently, they also made some more traditional feature films, one of which is 1973’s And Now the Screaming Starts. It is […]
On our only trip to Iceland so far, we took a couple of Superjeep tours. One of those was to the top of a glacier which, on the way there, appeared to be solid wall of white blocking out part of the sky. The journey up and back down again was on roads which had […]
Time and motion studies were all the rage in the 1950’s, and fear rippled through various industries at the thought of every motion being analyzed for optimization. The Battle of the Sexes is 1960 British comedy which addresses that concern, though in an unusual, and sometimes deeply unpleasant, manner. For one thing, there’s that title, […]
This will be a more straight-forward review than usual, as befits a movie that is, at the risk of sounding ungenerous, economical. 1946’s Smooth as Silk is a lean, noirish suspense film that scans like a mystery though, much like the series Columbo, you already know who committed the murder. Admittedly, it takes a while […]
As I write this in October of 2025, it seems everybody is fearing AI will take their jobs. It bring to my mind the massive downscaling of the employee base in the automotive industry of the 80s after automation reared its ugly robotic head. More recently, you have people in creative industries deeply concerned. I […]
I’m not a fan of spiders, but there is something a bit endearing about some of the tarantulas in 1977’s Kingdom of the Spiders. One in particular is just trying to through a doorway and then the person who just exited slams the door shut. The spider is knocked back on its feet, only to […]