Great Horror Sequels
“Insidious: Chapter 2” is surprisingly a really good horror sequel that manages to not only live up to its predecessor, but exceed it. It’s no secret that most horror sequels are just cheap low budget thrills meant to make a…
A Brief History of B’s
Roger Corman is, was, and will always be the King of that too-often-dismissed, taboo genre. Now 87, the legendary director and producer has been toiling in the drive-in trenches for nearly 60 years. During his career he’s overseen 400 movies–and…
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…
Targets
Tight, suspenseful, full of cross-cutting scenes to follow the unfolding of two stories that are about to merge into one, TARGETS is the last major feature film that BORIS KARLOFF made, and it’s one of his best during the latter…
Why Not A B Movie
The weekend has rolled in, and you and your friends are in the mood for a dorm movie night. You pull out a list of movies, or to be more precise, A-list movies. Is it because you prefer familiarity over…
Shock Con Here We Come
Horror, science fiction and fantasy invade Charleston, Sept. 20-22, as the Shocka-Con Horror/Sci-Fi Convention, comes to the Kanawha Players Theatre, 426 Beauregard Street, Charleston, WV. Tickets range from $10 to $100. Guest include Ray Wooley and RJ Haddy (o SyFy…
Insidious: Chapter 2
When we last left the Lamberts, the family whose eldest son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) had been trapped in a comalike state in “Insidious,” the boy had awakened from his supernatural trance thanks to a rescue mission by his intrepid father….
A bit of B-movie heaven
While some may say that Will Smith and Tom Cruise are the biggest movie stars in the world, I’d make a case that Vin Diesel is right on their heels. As proof, I submit his latest action epic Riddick, a…
Gremlins Director Joe Dante Takes on Roger Corman Biopic
Joe Dante (Gremlins, Small Soldiers) will direct The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes, the upcoming biopic about producer and B-movie legend Roger Corman. Presented as a comedy, the film takes place in Hollywood in the late 1960s, reports ScreenDaily. Corman —…
White House Down
Roland Emmrich, the German-born director of Wagnerian excess and operatic spectacle, is far smarter than the average blockbuster nine-to-fiver. His movies, not least the enjoyably absurd Independence Day and the preposterous eco-morality tale The Day After Tomorrow, serve up grand…
Jumping the shark
Ok, so nobody actually needs to know anything about Sharknado. All you need – and probably want – to know is right there in the title: yes, that’s shark and tornado in one word. The ultimate fish-out-of-water B-movie, Sharknado is…
He’s Good With Worms
Hollywood may be glamorous, but getting a start there often isn’t. Even James Cameron, director of blockbusters including The Terminator and Avatar, started out on the bottom floor. In a new book, Cameron says that he was able to get…
Bad Movie Nite at the Lyric
This weekend, Bad Movie Nite, which has taken place at The Lyric since November 2012, will show two 45 minute terrible and cheesy flicks with on-text commentary. The text, rather than jokes dubbed over, is one aspect that sets it…
Love Pyun
Albert Pyun is a legend among low-budget movie-makers. He’s probably directed more movies about cyborgs than anyone else. He’s been making post-apocalyptic movies since the Mad Max era, and he’s still at it. He’s worked with Rutger Hauer, Jean-Claude Van…
B Movie Origins
Much like a beautiful butterfly beings its life as a slimy larva, so must famed actresses kick off their careers with less-than-award worthy fluff that may not be the most eye-catching entry on an IMDb page. With Shark Night 3D…
Jamie Bernadette’s “The 6th Friend”
Jamie Bernadette has been in many B Movies and her newest film “The 6th Friend” is currently in production and due out in 2014. Not only does Jamie star in the film, she also is the writer and producer. “The 6th Friend” will be directed by…
Wynorski’s “CHOPPING MALL” Rises Again
On March 21st, 1986, a film was released by legendary producer Roger Corman that today is still recognized as a genre classic. “CHOPPING MALL”, produced by Julie Corman and helmed by exploitation wunderkind Jim Wynorski, was released during the VHS/home…
Fall Scream And Some Other Stuff
Fall signals the arrival of serious movies competing for year- end awards. Autumn also provides fertile ground for annual cinematic scare fests testing our nerves. This season’s horror/thriller crop includes “risk adverse” remakes (“Carrie,” “Argento’s Dracula”), sequels and rereleases (“Insidious…
Robocop Remake…..El Stinko
Even amid the troubling trend of remaking films that have barely collected a speck of dust, there are still movies that can surprise you. I know quite a few colleagues who were plenty keen on last year’s Dredd, a cohesive…
Diesel shines in B movie Riddick
“Pitch Black” was the low-budget science fiction action film that made Vin Diesel into a movie star. Four years later, the sequel “The Chronicles of Riddick” was so bloated and silly that it nearly destroyed his career. With that history,…