Unless you have been living in a cave, you probably know that Peter Jackson’s new mega-opus The Hobbit hits American screens very soon. You probably already know a couple other things about the project: This is the first film of a trilogy, which is odd because the original book is only …
Some time ago, Bill Stiteler urged me to look up this film on Netflix. The pitch: “It’s like a Frankie and Annette beach party movie, but it was made in East Germany!” How could I resist? Bill’s pitch is dead-on, both factually and descriptively. The plot of Hot Summer (aka …
A few nights ago, I saw that The Cremator (1969) had popped up on Hulu Plus’ streaming service, under the Criterion label. I knew little about the film, aside from the fact that it was one of only 6 films on IMDB’s Top 50 Horror Films list that I’d never …
Last week, news channels announced that one of Alfred Hitchcock’s long-lost silent films, The White Shadow, had been found. Only about half of the full print exists, but it is nonetheless the earliest Hitchcock work that currently exists, and you can watch it right here on the web. Alfred Hitchock is …
My Fantastic Fest friend Cole was aghast (AGHAST, I say) when he learned that I had never seen Hellraiser. I was a bit aghast myself. Not only have I been a horror film fan since my childhood, that childhood included all of the 1980s. I was even an avid reader of folks like …
Well, it’s been a couple of months since Fantastic Fest ended, but I notice that I never closed out my film reviews for the festival. So here it is: the final day of Fantastic Fest 2012! COMBAT GIRLS It’s amazing that Combat Girls got made at all. Set and filmed …
By the end of Day 7, fatigue hit hard. I didn’t even have the energy to indulge in the midnight movie slot. It’s possible that the issue, however, was the fact that I saw Hellfjord and Danger 5 back-to-back: both are miniseries, not films, so watching all these TV-paced episodes …
Day 6 of Fantastic Fest was a light one for me. I deliberately skipped out on the first film timeslot of the day so I could get some PowerPoint Karaoke work done, and I split immediately after the final film. However, since the first two things I did see were …
By the end of Day 5, I have seen 21 films. Three more days to go! BLACK OUT High-energy, smoothly funny, and witty, this crime flick from the Netherlands quickly became one of my favorites from the festival. It’s a dark joy from beginning to end, packed with fun characters …
I’ve reached the point in Fantastic Fest when I’m actually a little sad that I get my first pick for the first time slot of the day, because that means I can’t sleep in. However, my body is starting to adjust to eating like a Roman emperor for days on …
