The last major horror releases of the 20th century. The powerhouse production team of Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler (who had produced HBO’s Tales from the Crypt with fellow EC fan-addicts Richard Donner and Walter Hill) named their company after William Castle, the showman who once flew plastic skeletons over audiences during the … Read more
One of the most emblematic movies of the 90s. “So… what are we doing for New Year’s?” It both perfectly summarizes, and effectively flicks-off the light switch on that cinematic decade. Of course mileage varies based on one’s subjective pop radar, but this one checks all my 90s boxes in the best possible way: The … Read more
You never forget your first DVD. Ok, mine was Lost In Space (1998), and my second one was Blade (1998). But my third was The Matrix (1999). The Matrix landed on home video at the tail end of ’99, right when everyone was waiting for their Computers to destroy civilization. It’s apparently still an ongoing … Read more
Gladys Leeman: proof that ambition, motherhood, and explosives don’t mix. Rewatching Drop Dead Gorgeous, I realised Amber Atkins isn’t the sweet, innocent underdog I remembered. She’s something else entirely – a proto-Regina George wrapped in Midwestern charm, quietly but resolutely stepping over corpses on her way to the crown. Amber is literally cast as the … Read more
We are Jack’s wasted potential. They told him he could be anything. Not out loud, perhaps, not directly, but the stories did. The films, the shows, the ads, the action figures, the bedtime stories and the coming-of-age montages. Everything he grew up on told him there would be a moment – his moment – where … Read more
Art Deco, Ghosts and Theatrics “From here on, it gets really scary!” That’s the immortal Geoffrey Rush as Stephen Price, channelling Vincent Price (in spirit and surname), in William Malone’s House on Haunted Hill (1999). This film is one of those rare late-90s horror gems that somehow manages to be campy, grotesque, and genuinely creepy … Read more