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By Any Other Name…
Most respected directors have a reputation for making a certain type of film whether they really only make that certain type or not. John Ford, westerns. Alfred Hitchcock, suspense. Vincente...
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Reimagining a Classic: Werner Herzog’s NOSFERATU
We live in the age of remakes and prequels. Every month Hollywood rolls out an easily recognizable title that’s been repackaged and recast with a plot that’s all too familiar. The horror and science...
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The HorrorDads’ 2011 Dusk-to-Dawn All-Nite/All Fright Halloween Screamboree!
RHS: Let’s pretend the HorrorDads have the run of a disused movie theater and permission to run a Halloween dusk to dawn horrorthon. We will all contribute a movie to the line-up but before we begin,...
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Frankenstein vs. God
We begin with a warning: This vaguely threatening yet ironically tongue-in-cheek admonition would influence generations of horror filmmakers to come. And I don’t just refer to all the times that savvy...
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Ominous Vinyl
Last week the manager, cashier, and projectionist at the film venue I program confronted me about the music I’d selected to play before the shows. I like to mix it up with classical, jazz, soul, but...
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The Sounds of Horror
Yesterday, I joined my friends from the Chicago Film Discussion Group for our monthly brunch at the tragically hip Holiday Club. Each month, we meet to discuss a designated topic, exchange suggestions...
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To Save and Project: The Movie Orgy (1968) and Afraid to Talk (1932)
For nine years running, MoMA’s To Save and Project international festival of film preservation has showcased the latest celluloid surgery jobs by archives the world over. It’s the one place where film...
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It’s the Little Things…
While I have always loved horror and focus on it exclusively during October of every year, I often find myself liking the little things over the big stuff, and by “big stuff” I mean the big set-piece...
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Do You Want to See Something REALLY Scary?
During the month of October I’m often asked what my favorite horror films are. But recommending scary movies can be a tricky business. What frightens me might make you merely shrug your shoulders and...
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The Road to Hell: Women in Fear and Flight
Give me a horror movie in which a woman climbs behind the wheel of a big American car and hits the road to meet her doom and I’m a happy hitcher. Well, perhaps I should clarify. It’s not that I want...
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This Old Dark House
It’s no great surprise that the two movie genres that gripped me so thoroughly when I was a little kid and which continue to dominate my love of cinema to this day (as I careen towards geezerdom) are...
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Scarred by THE HYPNOTIC EYE
Everybody has probably been haunted or permanently disturbed by some movie they saw as a kid that burned images into their brain they couldn’t process or handle. For me it was a sick little B-movie...
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Here’s to the Horror Film: A Measure of Our Times
I have the unenviable task of wrapping up the Morlocks’ week-long blogathon devoted to horror. Actually, most of us jumped the gun and wrote on horror movies or related subjects even before the...
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The Face of Fear — Don Knotts in “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken”
I really wanted to contribute something to this Halloween blogfest, so I offer a little nonsensical coda about a movie I’m sure a lot of us have seen many times and probably enjoy. Funny + spooky has...
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Musketeering
Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers has been adapted countless times for the screen, most of them forgotten. There is a 1911 Edison production, a modernized 1933 Mascot serial that starred John Wayne...
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If Memory Serves…
During the first years of a cinephile, that is to say, from the single digits through the early twenties, the idea is, essentially, to see everything possible. When I first knew I loved movies more...
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Jacqueline Susann’s The Love Machine
After the phenomenal success of VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (Marc Robson; 1967), Hollywood was eager to work with Jacqueline Susann again. Producers and studio executives didn’t have to wait long because the...
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Boxing Halloween
Is it just me or is November 1st about the worst day on the calendar? No more Halloween for a year! With the passing of every All Saints Day I start doing the math. It’s the hardest 364 days of my...
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The Importance of Being Godzilla (Part 1)
The cat is out of the bag–I had been under orders not to tell anyone until now that I provided the Vin Scully style play-by-play for both versions of Godzilla (1954/1956) on Criterion’s new Blu-Ray...
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West Side Story and The Puerto Rican Thing
On November 9th at 7pm, in select theaters nation-wide, both TCM and NCM Fathom will screen a digital restoration of West Side Story to celebrate the film’s 50th Anniversary. This incredibly successful...
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