World War Z
The first problem you encounter with World War Z, the new action blockbuster starring Brad Pitt, is how to pronounce the damn thing. Should the last letter be said “zee”, to sound like “three”, or “zed”, to sound like “dead”,…
Maniac Redux
Did Elijah Wood come home from New Zealand with the One Ring still safely tucked away in his pocket? That’s one possible explanation for the actor’s ongoing fascination with playing dark, messed-up characters since going on his heroic journey in…
Five Quick Questions with Scott Wheeler – “Avalanche Sharks”
Scott Wheeler has about eighty special effects credits and a half dozen directing credits. He’s worked on countless Asylum films and many other popular B movies, “Sand Sharks,” “Dragon Wasps,” and “Dracano” are just a few examples. Scott also has…
Bug-Eyed B’s
Cicada mania has swept the area this summer, with mature nymphs emerging from their underground dwellings after a 17-year hiatus. Though cicadas do not bite or sting — therefore posing no danger to humans — this got us to thinking:…
Classic B’s In Bridgeport
The monthly “Bedlam at the Bijou” series on Thursday, June 20, is featuring the original 1950s B-movies that inspired three big-budget remakes — “The Thing” and “The Fly.” The “Before They Were Remakes” program at Bridgeport’s Bijou Theatre will start…
The Cult Of Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon has created so much cult entertainment that he has become a cult figure himself. He’s that rare writer/producer/director with movie-star status to the legion of fans of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and “Firefly,” to name a few…
Sharknado
It’s the storm of the century — with teeth. “Sharknado” is a new B-movie, produced for the Syfy channel, that that pits hundreds of man-eating sharks against plastic-surgery victim Tara Reid and the rest of the silicone-flavored populace of Los…
THE B MOVIE ROAD TOUR/NEC DISPLAY COMES ON BOARD
Polyscope Media Group is pleased to announce that NEC Display Solutions, the world leader in digital projection, has joined the B Movie Road Tour as a lead sponsor. “It is obvious that NEC is deeply committed to the theatrical experience,”…
Creature features-‘The Howling’ and ‘Lifeforce’ arriving on Blu-ray
It’s time for the sparkling bloodsuckers and the shirtless lycanthropes of “Twilight” to step aside. A pair of horror cult classics are set to arrive, fangs and all, on Blu-ray on Tuesday, June 18: Joe Dante’s “The Howling” (1981) and…
Vulgar Cinema
There has been lots of talk online in recent weeks about a critical phenomenon called “vulgar auteurism” (V.A.), a term coined—as I just learned from Adam Cook at MUBI—by the critic Andrew Tracy. Though that coinage was skeptical, the term…
B Movies In Advertising
Car insurance brand Bingle has unveiled the fourth of its B-movie themed killer giant beast campaign, this time featuring an attack by a giant spider. Earlier slots portrayed a 50 foot woman rampaging Sydney, a flying saucer attack on Melbourne…
Bruce Dern….
The question had to be asked: what the hell is a dernsie? Veteran actor Bruce Dern dropped the word during a Cannes press conference for Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, proclaiming it the first movie he has ever shot without “dernsies.” Later,…
Joss Whedon The Genre Slayer
In the course of about a month, director Joss Whedon went from spending quality time with Hollywood power players such as Captain America, The Hulk and Iron Man to hanging with that superhero of sonnets, William Shakespeare. Earlier this year,…
Thing From Another World
The Air Force sends a crew up to the North Pole to help American scientists blast out a strange object they’ve found in the ice. But what they find inside it is even stranger: A giant alien, frozen stiff. What…
Gillian On the B TV
There’s a lot of blather these days about The Future of Television, especially as the content that used to arrive via a bulky, stationary object in the living room continues to experiment with an array of new delivery systems. Right…
The Joy of A Forced Perspective: Darby O’Gill
Set in Ireland, the movie has a strong fairytale feel, involving, as you might guess, leprechauns. Drawing on H.T. Kavanagh’s turn of the last century “Darby O’Gill” books, the movie has that classic Walt Disney feel, and reflects Walt’s long…
Norman Tokar
As a child actor, New Jersey-born Norman Tokar was active on stage and in radio in the ’30s and ’40s. He understudied Ezra Stone in the radio role of Henry Aldrich, taking over the part in June of 1942 —…
B-Movie Filmmaker Jack Perez
You might not have heard of Jack Perez, or his many aliases, but you’ve probably heard of his work. Jack directed Wild Things 2 for TriStar and the pilot for the popular cult TV show Xena: Warrior Princess. His film…
A Taste of B-movie Horror
The Austin School of Film has announced a new, free summer screening series scheduled to start this Saturday night. “Pesadillas Calidas: Horror Films from Mexico” is set to feature six films every other Saturday night from June through August. The…
Night Of The Comet
Trapped in a hellish copyright limbo for over a decade, Thom Eberhardt’s “Night Of The Comet” is a film whose reputation is due for a serious rehabilitation. Generally–and wrongly–categorized with typical 80s teen horror films, “Comet” is in fact a…