The Gate
When The Gate was released in Canada, it turned out to be a big moneymaker. There’s good reason for that: the special effects are quite notable for a Canadian film, and the direction succeeds in creating an appropriately nightmarish tone….
Abraxas
If straight-to-video films represent a poor gamble for anyone looking for quality, you can imagine what the odds are against a straight-to-video science fiction film. Add a Canadian production pedigree into the mix, and you would probably have more success…
Issues With SYFY
It will not come as a surprise to anyone that the Syfy channel’s programming has never been highly regarded. This is of no great importance-no network with a lineup consisting of sci-fi show after sci-fi show was ever going to…
Frosty
Like most holiday tales begin, Frosty is seated at the bar of his favorite establishment, cocktail in “hand,” regaling the regulars with a story of intergalactic consequence. At least that’s how Bobby Ray Akers Jr and Dennis Willman’s “FROSTY: ‘Twas…
The Best Year In Cinema,1984
Something special started in America in late 1983 and carried through all of 1984. You couldn’t quite put your finger on it at the time, but you could feel it. I’m not sure why it happened, but it did. Perhaps…
Love Bite
Two things we know about werewolves: they’re just like ordinary people until they change with the phase of the moon; and if they wound you and you survive, you eventually change into one. “Love Bite” (released in 2012, but only…
Roger Corman Talks ‘Ski Troop Attack’
B-movie legend Roger Corman introducing “Ski Troop Attack.” He describes the details of shooting this indie war picture for his non-union production company The Filmgroup on location in snowbound Deadwood, South Dakota. Shot back-to-back with The Beast from Haunted Cave,…
Five Quick Questions with Tony Jopia
“Cute Little Buggers” is Tony Jopia’s latest project due out next year. “When hostile aliens crash land on local farmland the villagers at the summer ball get suspicious when young women start going missing. The villagers soon band together around…
Tremors
Tremors is actually two movies in one. On its own terms, it’s an enjoyable modern sci-fi horror-thriller, with good pacing and a sense of humor; but it’s also a loving tribute to such 1950s low-budget desert-based sci-fi-horror films like Them!,…
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…