These are films that I saw for the first time in 2020, not necessarily new films.
The Top 10 New (To Me) Horror, Cult, and Exploitation Films of 2020
Visceral and Existential Horrors: The Root of Terror in John Carpenter’s The Thing and David Cronenberg’s Videodrome
Both John Carpenter’s The Thing and David Cronenberg’s Videodrome grapple with the idea of human evolution and our place in the world around us. While both films use quite different methods to communicate their fears, the focus of the horror elements center on the shifting state of nature.
Scenes and Scenery: Versions of The Masque of the Red Death
By Sarah Winkler The process of translating works to different mediums calls for a subjective ‘originality,’ in that elements in a given adaptation are often something reworked, if not added or subtracted when moved from one format to another. In the case of transmuting classic literature to classic film, there is a similar need for... Continue Reading →
THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD SOUNDTRACK
So listen, babies, when I tell you my truth: the Return of the Living Dead Soundtrack changed my life.
DJANGO KILL… IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT!
Ask any two horror fans why they’re fans in the first place expecting similar answers, and I think you’re in for some disappointment. We come to horror for as many different reasons as there are fans in the first place. But if you’ll forgive my armchair psychologizing, I think that all horror fans are, at... Continue Reading →
‘Shin Godzilla’ Stomps Closer to Home After Covid-19
It isn’t that I believe Toho and co. were making a Godzilla film about the coronavirus in 2016, that would require a tin-foil hat and perhaps an antipsychotic prescription.
NINES
FICTION: The dealer has arrived in Carrier, Wyoming just as two wayward travelers break down. As the young men search for help, they find a town deserted.
ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD
The producers of Italian genre cinema are often accused of stealing from successful movie trends from around the world, especially from America. Fulci hopped on the bandwagon started by Romero, Leone did the same thing with John Ford. And then there’s the late career work of Bruno Mattei who was just breathtaking in his thievery. Other films from this period of his career are talked about as (Name of a Film) crossed with (Name of a Different Film) because of the sheer audacity of their weird mish-mashing. Want to see Cannibal Holocaust (Lite) mixed with Predator? In the Land of the Cannibals (2003) is for you. But if you want to see something that stays mostly inside the horror genre for the mixtape it crafts, Island of the Living Dead is the one.
The Hunger
Alma Katsu will be appearing at St. Louis County Library on Monday, March 16 at 7 pm to discuss her newest book, The Deep. 1640 S. Lindberg Blvd, St. Louis MO, 63131
Schlock-O-Rama: The Films of Al Adamson
I’d bought this book years ago and somehow managed to never get around to actually reading it. I had a cursory knowledge of Adamson’s work, having seen Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971) and Satan’s Sadists (1969), but that was really about it. I decided some months back that thanks to their stellar track record of running exactly parallel to my tastes that in general I would give Severin Films the benefit of the doubt on any release that they chose. The fact that company owner David Gregory has decided to not only make a documentary about Adamson, but that Severin also recently announced a mega box set release of 30 Adamson films AND the documentary, I decided that now was the time to pull this slim volume off the shelf and give it a go.
