The Wondrous Zina Lahr
Zina Lahr was found dead outside of Ouray, Colorado, in November. The mayor was the last person to see Zina Nicole Lahr alive. Sometime in the early afternoon of Wednesday, November 20, Bob Risch, a 73-year-old native of Ouray, Colorado,…
Prom Night
A drive-in smash, Prom Night would go on to become Canada’s highest grossing horror film in the summer of 1980. I stress its release date, because Prom Night truly is a film in and of its time. Today the slasher…
Foreign Correspondent
Alfred Hitchcock was always pushing the envelope, and 1940’s “Foreign Correspondent” is no different. With America still in the midst of trading with both sides of the European war, Hitchcock made a spy thriller that quite clearly cast the Germans…
The Timeless Bettie Page
We live in an age when pop culture is our history and history is our flea market. Kitsch never dies; it lacks the gravity to die; it just circles back, with a new price tag and a hopeful air. It…
Fantastic Voyage
This 1966 epic is still fun even though much has dated. It’s almost like one of those cliff- hanging serials of the 30’s where our heroes face one death-dealing menace after another, except here the crew gets injected into the…
Is There A Better Title Than Zombeaver?
Zombeavers follows in the tradition of Snakes on a Plane, Big Ass Spider! and Sharktopus in a having a laudably silly title. But could you come up with a better one? If so, we want to hear it Snakes on…
20 Remakes in the Works, Blech
Did you notice that three of this week’s major releases — “RoboCop,” “Endless Love,” and “About Last Night” — are remakes of ’80s movies? The Hollywood remake machine shows no signs of slowing down, with the ’80s emerging as the…
The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man 1933 Who made it: Directed by James Whale. With Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, Henry Travers. Once upon a time: On a snowy night, a mysterious man wrapped in bandages comes to stay at a tiny inn, carrying…
The Scrap Metal That Is Robocop
Like it or not, “RoboCop” is here… again. Offering far more humanity than I had expected, this 2014 “RoboCop” is nowhere near the colossal clunker I had feared. Having said that, I couldn’t find anything distinguishable about the remake that…
The First Sex Symbol
Theda Bara (July 29, 1885 – April 7, 1955) was an American silent film and stage actress. Bara was one of the most popular actresses of the silent era, and one of cinema’s earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles…
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter may not have been as high on other festival-goers’ radar, but it was one of my must-sees. The movie by Austin, Texas-filmmaking brothers David and Nathan Zellner (Goliath, Kid-Thing), filmed Japan and Minnesota, did not disappoint….
The Killers
When it comes to 60s crime films, Don Siegel’s reimagining of The Killers is by no means a disappointment. From the get-go, the film never seems to be concerned with living up to the standards of the 1940s Film Noir…
Kelly Osbourne In Sharknado
Kelly Osbourne has landed a role in the forthcoming film Sharknado 2: The Second One, she has excitedly confirmed. Kelly, who currently co-hosts US TV show Fashion Police, will play the part of a flight attendant in the tongue-in-cheek B…
Cannibalism in The Movies
Even fictional people have to eat. Sometimes food reveals what we should know about a character, sometimes it’s a pleasant pause in the action, sometimes it’s crucial staging platform for exposition, and sometimes it’s just a scoop of Ray Liotta’s…
Invasion of the Sci-fi Allegory
Since Georges Méliès sent audiences on A Trip to the Moon in 1902, the sci-fi genre has always been one of escapism and speculation. But beneath the surface of intergalactic wars and men in monster suits, filmmakers often use the…
Hercules: The Legend Begins
The priestess’ gaze is steely, imperious; the fate of worlds hangs in the balance. “Would you bear the son of Zeus?” she asks. The queen thinks about it, as if she’s being asked to take on some afternoon work tutoring…
Sid Caesar Dead at 91
One of TV’s very first stars is dead, reports Variety. Sid Caesar hosted the groundbreaking variety program Your Show of Shows beginning in 1950 and, later, Caesar’s Hour. Among the writers who got their start with him were Neil Simon,…
The Mad Mad World Of Charles Band
There’s definitely a buzz around B movies these days, with the genre seemingly, er, healthier than ever. Take Sharknado, which aired on SyFy and became a Twitter sensation. I think the only thing I managed to tweet last year was…
5 Zombie Flicks To Keep You Up At Night
It seems that zombies can be found almost everywhere lately. From films and television to video games and flash mobs, they have staggered their way into every nook and cranny of our culture. Over the past few years, AMC has…
Embrace The Trashiness: Nurse 3D
In this month’s Playboy, model-actress Paz de la Huerta can be seen posing tastefully nude, but in the dreary slasher film Nurse, she’s not just nude, she’s naked (in a Hustler way), and all the less compelling for it. She’s…