Mexico’s B Movie Master
Mexico’s half-forgotten B-movie master, “involuntary surrealist” Juan Orol (1897-1988) , receives a pitch-perfect tribute which is a love letter to a self-made man of showbiz, whose career spanned nearly sixty films (1935-1968) . In a black and white flashback mingling…
Escape Plan
When Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to make a comeback to the big screen earlier this year with The Last Stand, he failed miserably. It wasn’t because he has turned into a dull husk, it was because the film just didn’t have…
Creature
I thought for a while about the choice for my first Netflix review. There seemed to be an infinite amount of choices, I was like a kid at a candy store. Except, all the candy was either rotten or tasted…
Syfy follows Sharknado with Stonados
Sharknado, which aired in July this year, became an internet sensation as a result of its implausible plot and its terrible special effects. And now the Syfy channel is looking for a repeat performance with a film about deadly rocks…
Will Riff No More
Joel Hodgson seems like a humble American, like a white guy who works for a Philadelphia-based aerospace company (which he in fact does). But he’s also a cultural icon, a legend in the minds of millenials who grew up watching…
THE IMPROVISED B-MOVIE
The Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) house team Asteroid! will once again stage The B-Movie, an improvised show that celebrates the fun of the low-budget sci-fi/horror films of the 50’s and 60’s, starting tonight, October 17, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. and…
Carrie 2013: Hell has no fury like a woman scorned
This weekend actress Chloë Grace Moretz will recreate one of the most famous sequences from 1970s cinema. Years after the release of the 1976 Brian De Palma-directed Carrie, the movie’s impact was summed up by Esquire, who wrote, “Like any…
Some Big Ass Spider Love
Is there a better name for a film about a big ass spider than Big Ass Spider!? We think not! But director Mike Mendez (The Gravedancers) says his self-explanatory creature feature, which hits select cinemas on Oct. 18 and will…
When A Stranger Calls (the good one)
The movie “When a stranger calls” starts off with young Jill Johnson, Carol Kane, coming over one evening to the Mandrakis residents to baby-sit for their two small children. As soon as the Mandrakis’ leave Jill starts getting phone calls…
Ticks
I am of the opinion that eighties monster movies were the best monster movies. I know the fifties is typically the popular choice, but the eighties had THE THING, THE OUTING, FRIGHT NIGHT, BRAIN DAMAGE, and more than I can…
Machete Does Not Kill At The Box Office
The Mexican master of disaster may have met his match, as ‘Machete Kills’ has been well and truly left for dead at the US box office. Despite a $20 million marketing campaign and a star-studded cast, the sequel to the…
Return to Nukem High
Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Volume 1 & 2″, directed by Lloyd Kaufman, is a hilarious, thoughtful sci-fi Event Film with themes ripped straight from today’s headlines: the contamination and degradation of the world’s food supply, rampant bullying and LGBTQ…
Dr.Black Mr. Hyde
One of Blaxploitation’s downbeat takes on horror, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (its fun title and poster art aside) is a decidedly somber look at conflicting allegiances, class disparities and race relations. In the lead as award-winning Dr. Pride (no one…
Curse Of The B Movie Actress
Llloyd Kaufman’s Troma movies are difficult to categorise. You wouldn’t call them edifying – they have titles like A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell, Throw Stephanie in the Incinerator and Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town. Then again, you wouldn’t call…
Rocketship X-M
To call “Rocketship X-M” a science fiction classic is due more to its release date (1950), its savvy ability to capitalize on the publicity for “Destination Moon”, and the appearance of actors who would later star in television as Sea…
2000 Maniacs
The strains of the knee-slappin’ “The South Is Gonna Rise Again” open Herschell Gordon Lewis’s campy 1964 gorefest “Two Thousand Maniacs!” as two cars full of northerners take a fateful detour into the Southern hamlet of Pleasant Valley. Little do…
For The Love Of Ed Wood
A Poughkeepsie native and film director responsible for “the worst movie ever made” will be celebrated at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House tonight. The Bardavon — an anchor of downtown Poughkeepsie — will host the launch of a fundraising campaign…
Low Budget….Wichita?
recently came across an interesting link on the popular social news site Reddit about a B-movie that was filmed in Wichita. Having been a fan of low-budget gems since childhood, I was instantly intrigued. The film is titled The Beast…
Five B’s From Robert Rodriguez
The San Antonio-born director, 45, is an acolyte of exploitation-style film (and Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic blood brother), taking B-movies mainstream with a trademark kineticism and bracing lack of shame. He’s back in theaters this week with “Machete Kills,” the unlikely…
New This Week On DVD
“THE PURGE,” Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey. A very promising B-movie premise becomes something of an afterthought in this gripping but somewhat underdeveloped thriller from writer-director James DeMonaco (“Little New York”), which presents an America that devotes one day a year…