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Category Archives: Reviews
Blood Diner (1987)
I guess when I read the title Blood Diner I imagined a slasher film set in a diner, like the movie Diner…with more blood. Instead what I got was a silly, 80s remix of Herschel Gordon Lewis’ seminal splatter-fest Blood … Continue reading
Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)
The first in a long run of Hellraiser sequels to originate from a completely unrelated spec script. As a result Pinhead and the cenobites begin to take a backseat, basically cropping up in teasing flashes before arriving in the last … Continue reading
Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
Hellraiser: Bloodline essentially acts as a millennia-spanning origin story for the pesky lament configuration box that causes everyone so many problems. It starts on a space station in the future, rewinds into the 18th century before finally arriving at 1996. … Continue reading
The Sect (1991)
A scattershot and scatterbrained Italian shocker that is massively improved by deft direction courtesy of Michele Soavi. A filmmaker of layered images, Soavi constantly throws in details to make his shots pop that little bit louder. In his movies you … Continue reading
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen this but it somehow seemed a lot cheaper and rougher than I remember this time around. Still, it’s a terrific course-correct that gets the series on sure footing after the muddled … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Rewatch
Tagged 1987, Chuck Russell, Craig Wasson, Heather Langenkemp, Patricia Arquette, Robert Englund, Wes Craven
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Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
I’ve grown to love this movie for all the ways it feels like a true successor to Carpenter’s Halloween and for all the ways it doesn’t. I like to imagine a world where this was a success and we got … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Rewatch
Tagged 1982, John Carpenter, Tom Atkins, Tommy Lee Wallace
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Landline (2017)
Edie Falco and John Turturro as Jenny Slate’s parents? The casting director of Landline is NOT fucking around. How perfect. I didn’t love Robespierre and Slate’s previous collab, Obvious Child, as much as I probably should have but this one really … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged 2017, Edie Falco, Gillian Robespierre, Jenny Slate, John Turturro
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Paint It Black (2016)
At the centre of Paint It Black is a symbiotic relationship between two women; Josie, a twenty-something whose boyfriend has just committed suicide, and Meredith, the boyfriend’s mother; a hateful resentful woman who seems determined to both destroy and possess … Continue reading
John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars (2001)
Ghosts of Mars is similar to Prince of Darkness in that it serves up an encore of Carpenter’s favourite storytelling tropes; the Rio Bravo remixing, the siege, the horde of supernatural baddies, the stoic antihero and plenty more. But where … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Rewatch
Tagged 2001, Clea Duvall, ice cube, Jason Statham, John Carpenter, Natasha Henstridge, Pam Grier
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John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998)
While often lumped in with John Carpenter’s late-career slew of misfires, Vampires actually gets a lot of things right. It’s fun to see him finally indulge in the explicit Western iconography and tropes he had flirted with for his entire … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, Rewatch
Tagged 1998, James Woods, John Carpenter, sheryl lee, William Baldwin
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"This Film Should Be Played Loud" 