Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Mom and Dad (USA 2017)

Posted on April 20, 2018 by David

Mom and Dad, the latest film from Brian Taylor, one-half of the pair of madmen behind the miraculous Crank films, is similarly … well, apeshit bananas for lack of a better term. Taylor, working from his own screenplay, posits a … Continue reading →

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Review: The Avenging Eagle AKA: Long xie shi san ying; Cold Blooded Eagles (Hong Kong 1978)

Posted on April 18, 2018 by David

Avenging Eagle is solid old school kung fu from the Shaw Brothers. It’s no pinnacle of the genre – there really isn’t that much to distinguish it from most Shaw martial arts films – but a good cast, baroque weaponry, … Continue reading →

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Review: Justice League (USA 2017)

Posted on April 6, 2018 by David

Why did I even watch this? Masochism? Completism? I truly loathed Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (a movie as turgid as its name), and the execrable Suicide Squad, and had very low expectations for this Frankenstein’s … Continue reading →

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Review: Cold Hell aka Die Hölle (Austria/Germany 2017)

Posted on March 15, 2018 by David

Cold Hell is a nasty little treat. I was expecting a thriller, but not a full-blown modern giallo. Cold Hell revels in the lurid sexualized violence and the neon washes and shadows of the best of Dario Argento and Sergio … Continue reading →

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Review: Face Behind the Mask (Hong Kong 1974)

Posted on February 23, 2018 by David

Chen Chi-hwa’s Face Behind the Mask is a solid piece of wu xia entertainment. It’s not revolutionary, and it really doesn’t do anything that hasn’t been done before. However, all the elements come together nicely to create a quick-paced piece … Continue reading →

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Review: Before We Vanish (Japan 2017)

Posted on February 2, 2018 by David

Before We Vanish is a return to a rarely-seen side of Kiyoshi Kurosawa – a puckish, tongue-in-cheek take on the atmospheric horror that is the master’s stock-in-trade. Though he’s much better known for his deadly serious supernatural horror like Kairo … Continue reading →

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Review: Ten Violent Women (USA 1982)

Posted on January 10, 2018 by David

I happened to watch a while back, and then was surprised to see that notorious grindhouse director Ted V. Mikels had just recently passed away. I wish this could be a better epigraph, but it’s a pretty terrible movie – … Continue reading →

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Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (Spain/Italy 1974)

Posted on November 16, 2017 by David

This Spanish/Italian co-production is surprisingly smart for its era, mingling straight-up Romero-esque zombie action with the anti-authoritarian paranoia and ecological concerns of The Crazies or Grapes of Death.

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Review: Daguerreotype (Japan/France 2017)

Posted on November 7, 2017 by David

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest horror film represents a major change in at least one respect. Filming in French, with a non-Japanese cast, takes Kurosawa out of his comfort zone, but he demonstrates that his touch with mood and actors remains constant … Continue reading →

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Blade of the Immortal (Japan 2017)

Posted on November 2, 2017 by David

Takashi Miike’s Blade of the Immortal is an adaptation of the long-running (30 volumes) and extremely popular supernatural samurai manga about an immortal ronin named Manji. I never made it past the first volume of the series, but it’s easy … Continue reading →

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