Batman Forever landed on Home Video today in 1995, after a June 16th theatrical drive thru. After the exquisitely bleak ‘92 yuletidey sequel, it was decided that Tim Burton would hand over the bat-reins to seasoned filmmaker Joel Schumacher to lighten things up and bring some of that Happy Meal money back. He moved the … Read more
You know that feeling when you watch a horror movie and the character ignores the warning signs? It’s probably my biggest frustration with the horror genre. Why would you create a plot that relies on one (or all) of the main characters doing something really stupid? Like, I don’t know, reading strange words aloud from … Read more
There aren’t many remakes that can hold a candle, or a flamethrower, to their originals, but The Blob (1988) is one of those glorious exceptions. Like The Thing (1982) and The Fly (1986) before it, this reimagining doesn’t just honour the 1958 classic, it absorbs it, digests it, and extrudes the original narrative into something … Read more
Just shy of 100,000 followers. That’s a proper video store shelf’s worth of weirdos. When we started this thing 13 years ago, Facebook was still where you poked high school crushes and posted stuff you didn’t want your parents to know about. We’ve watched it transform into… Whatever this is now. Through every algorithm change, … Read more
The box art did much of the heavy lifting. The Crawlers (1991) is an arbor-horror film about evil radioactive tree roots directed by Fabrizio Laurenti with legend Joe D’Amato filling in some gaps. Another Epic release. The Crawlers (aka Contamination .7) eventually went straight-to-video in 1993 where it remained a bottom-shelf staple for years. Was … Read more
Shock the Monkey: Jonathan Kaplan’s tale of a chimpanzee test pilot starring Matthew Broderick, William Sadler and Helen Hunt could have easily been a prequel to a new Planet of the Apes series. Well, at least my 14-year-old self thought so at the time. But alas, like many under-performing top-tier titles in the late 80s, … Read more
“Are you eating it, or is it eating you?” Writer/director Larry Cohen created a product so insidious, so convincingly sinister that you can half-expect to find it in the frozen food aisle. That’s the real genius behind The Stuff. It’s not just another B-movie about killer slime, which is already a great pitch – it’s … Read more
In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham told Congress that EC Comics were creating juvenile delinquents. That horror comics like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror were warping young minds with their gleeful violence and moral ambiguity. The Comics Code Authority formed, EC folded, and an entire generation grew up being told those comics had … Read more
If you grew up haunting video stores in the ‘80s, this awkwardly cut-down 112 minute movie length version of Salem’s Lot was all you could dig up. A far cry from the 3 hour Tobe Hooper adaptation that aired in ’79. Whole subplots vanished. Character beats were snuffed. But for many of us who missed … Read more
Sure, Spanking the Monkey looks like it belongs on the “indie” shelf next to Clerks, Glory Daze or Kicking and Screaming. It gives off those flannel-covered low-budget slacker vibes with a touch of post-collegiate angst. Maybe it’s a little darker, and maybe it’s a little more risqué given the title… This looked like my kinda … Read more