The Gauntlet
Usually when someone throws down a gauntlet, there’s an epic tussle for power that runs people ragged. A fantastical showing of dynamic feats. A gauntlet is something we should fear, something that’s challenging, and most importantly, something really freakin’ entertaining….
Shark Storm or Sharknado
“When the Asylum first asked me to write a film called “Shark Storm” I said no,” said Thunder Levin when Hollywood Today asked him if there was any script ideas he’d turned down. Apparently, Sharknado was much more inspiring. How…
Primitive Hits The Market Courtesy Lionsgate
After punching the director on the set of his latest horror picture, special effects makeup artist, Martin Blaine, is compelled to seek anger management therapy. A visit with a hypnotist seems to help, but soon after his session, Martin receives…
Red Clover
You have to be careful with fantastical creatures, especially when you want to mess with their meaning. For example, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard can get away with crafting a killer unicorn for their brilliant horror deconstruction The Cabin in…
Jack Hill On Becoming A Blaxploitation Cult Hero
Few names are as closely linked to blaxploitation as Jack Hill. With low-budget 70s action films like “The Big Doll House” and “Foxy Brown,” Hill helped raise that oft-mocked genre to the level of mainstream, making actresses like Pam Grier…
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…
Streets Of Fire
A mercenary goes after his ex-girlfriend, a singer who has been kidnapped by a gang. Blu-ray Review – Streets of Fire (1984) By prefacing the film with the words “another time, another place…” Walter Hill allows himself the freedom to…
The Godparents of Fandom, Ron and Cathy Mackay
There is a high probability that if you attend fan conventions you have encountered Ron Mackay and Cathy Mackay. Ron is the convention manager for Troma, and most weekends he and his genial bride Cathy jumps into this car and…
For The Love Of Lloyd
Kaufman was born Stanley Lloyd Kaufman, Jr. in New York City, New York, the son of Ruth (née Fried) and Stanley Lloyd Kaufman, Sr. a lawyer. Kaufman graduated from Yale University with the class of 1968, where he majored in…
For The Love Of A Clubhouse: A Reflection On The State Of B Cinema
Why do I like B Movies? Why do I reject the cynical approach to B Cinema offered by Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and Rifftrax? Why do I see worth and value in most forms of this much maligned genre of…
Damnation Alley
The beginning of this film really shakes you up. The careful, measured tones coming from the missile base loudspeaker announcing the progress of “the war” belie the fact that at that moment scores of millions of people are being atomized…
Stung
Horror comedies work best when they take their concepts to extremes, never allowing the expected tropes to become a handicap. And it doesn’t take much beyond a giant mutated wasp attack to apply for the “high concept” title. XYZ Films…
Car Wash
“Car Wash” is an exhilarating journey driven by J.B, the deejay of the fictional radio station KGYS providing the musical background, the soul of the film. No pun intended since the soundtrack includes disco, funk and R&B ballads, the unique…
Don Siegel
Don Siegel’s forty-nine year career has produced some of the most memorable films of the American cinema. The seminal prison movie Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), the much imitated sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), the uncompromising…
Blue Ruin
Occasionally, the national news will carry stories about a horrific local murder that took place in some part of the country where we don’t live. And because it happened somewhere else, possibly far away from any major cities, maybe we…
Full Moon
Starting in the seventies, Band formed Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributors’ handling of his films, Band created Empire Pictures in the early eighties. Through Empire, he could produce and distribute his films ensuring proper distribution and return on profits….
Simply Wild About Carrie
In a particularly jarring 2004 episode of the Canadian high school drama Degrassi, a bullied student is publicly humiliated when his assailants dump paint and feathers on him onstage in front of his entire school. In response, he goes home…
‘Clown Fatale’ a B-movie homage
These women do not clown around. With colorful coifs, revealing attire and, in one instance, a whole heap of crazy, four female circus performers are mistaken for contract killers and then decide on a change of career paths in Clown…
Chopping Mall Will Have A Theatrical Re-Release
Yep, you have read that headline correctly. The Eighties classic Chopping Mall could very well be dismantling the flesh of teenagers at a theatre near you soon, and we have your first details. From the Press Release On March 21st,…
Comedy Club In Long Island Goes B
The Long Island City comedy club is offering classic B movies and comedy cult classics during weekend brunch and special Wednesday screenings in addition to its regular schedule of live standup comedy performances. The new offering is part of an…