Celebrities Killing Sharknado
Last year, a cheesy made-for-TV movie called Sharknado achieved a level of fame far out of proportion to its merits. In this joyously inane motion picture, an unexpected hurricane – the worst kind – churns up the waters off the southern California…
Carnival of Souls
“I don’t belong in the world….something separates me from other people” says Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) in perhaps the most lyrical horror film ever made. It is the unlikely 1962 masterpiece “Carnival of Souls” which philosophically fleshes out the premise…
The Dark
Second only to Straw Dogs type thrillers, giant rat movies are a staple of Canadian horror. This is the latest film in a long line of Canadian movies about oversized rodents, including such revered entries asFood of the Gods II and Deadly Eyes, which…
Billy Jack
om self-important start to self-important finish, this movie runs on all cylinders, managing to tackle every single social ill of the early 1970s that people pretended to care about. Vietnam, women’s rights, Indian rights, environmentalism, alternative education, bigotry, and half-breed…
The Wicked Dreams Of Paul Schultz
EVEN if your idea of a good time is to watch a lot of middle-aged Germans, some of them very fat, all reddening, grimacing, perspiring, and falling over Elke Sommer, I think you ought to skip “The Wicked Dreams of…
Cleopatra Jones
Cleopatra Jones is a well made little movie, which isn’t something you can say for all of its “blaxploitation” brethren. While the genre has its own distinct charms, they often don’t include finely tuned storytelling or high quality filmmaking. This…
The Virgin Queen of St. Francis High
Grab any random stack of teen comedies from the 1980s, and at least half of them will revolve around a band of horny male Screwballs that show off their Hot Moves in hopes of finally Losin It. Obviously geared towards the male rental crowd, most…
Happy Birthday To Me
Happy Birthday to Me is an often neglected and seldom viewed 80’s cinema gem. It is a damn shame that it has not received the cult status it so solidly deserves. The plot involves cliques, prep schools, and a very…
Ghostkeeper
“Ghostkeeper” is an obscure little Canadian horror movie from the early 1980s that I’d read about and wanted to see for quite some time, so I was really happy when I got the chance to. “Ghostkeeper” revolves around a group…
Dogs of Hell
Independent star / producer Earl Owensby 3D fable “Rottweiler: Dogs from Hell” is a trashy, but mildly fun cheap-jack little animals run amok horror enterprise. I saw this one when I was only a kid and certain scenes had stayed…
FearNet Consumed
It’s the end of the road for thriller, suspense and horror-themed FEARnet. Comcast has bought out its partners in the joint venture — Sony Pictures Entertainment and Lionsgate Entertainment — to take 100% ownership. Following the transaction, which closed this…
Busy As A Zombeaver
The Tribeca Film Festival starts this week, and the downtown movie-thon is one of my favorite goings-on in New York City. So, in honor of watching movies instead of watching the stock market, I’m going to play a game that…
Coffy
Pam Grier shines in this hilarious action-packed blaxploitation flick where she first got her name as a ‘black pin-up queen’ during the early 70’s. It is apparent after watching this film that no one remembers this for the bad-acting and…
Seabo/Buckstone County Prison
(There are Spoilers) Earl Owensby is Seabo the mysterious half-breed, his father is a White European and mother a Native American, tracker and bounty hunter who has a talent of appearing and disappearing just at the right time when you,…
Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold
Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone reprise their roles as Alan Quatermain and Jesse Huston in “KING SOLOMON’S MINES”. This time around, the quest is on to seek out a ‘Utopian’ society that has only been talked about, but never seen,…
THE ART OF PORNO MUSIC
At this point in the great American experiment, porn has firmly embedded itself in the culture. James Deen, whose media ubiquity reached a tipping point with his starring role in The Canyons, is this generation’s Ron Jeremy, except he doesn’t…
Empire Of The Apes
Pennsylvania is a huge state. Between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, is the same distance as from Philly to Boston, which crosses five states! And while the urban centers keep PA voting blue nationally, the local governments are a good slice of…
God’s Gun
Now HERE is an odd egg — a Spaghetti Western filmed in Isreal, with actual acting by Lee Van Cleef (who is usually relegated to the traditional Lee Van Cleef role of the aged wizened gunslinger). GOD’S GUN is a…
Weird Western
John Michael McDonagh puts a gun-toting priest at the heart of new film ‘Calvary’, says Alan O’Riordan RELAXING with a drink in Dublin’s Merrion Hotel, film director John Micheal McDonagh says “the film is almost a western, in a way….
Horror in Vancouver
Back in 1997 I went on the set of the Vancouver-shot action-horror flick Deep Rising on assignment for Fangoria magazine. I chatted with director Stephen Sommers and actors Treat Williams and Famke Janssen. The movie wound up sucking but, hey,…