What I Learned from HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS

Dimly lit B-movies from the early 1980s look way crappier now than I remember them looking in the early 1980s. This could be because I’ve been spoiled by things like Blu-ray, HD, and 4K or because I was a child in the early 1980s I wasn’t paying attention to things like lighting in films. Using […]

What I Learned from THE CITY OF THE DEAD

Movies should have one title. The City of the Dead is also known as Horror Hotel. Do we really need multiple titles for films? It just makes things confusing. However, I do like the tagline for the U.S. release, “Just ring for doom service!” The right music is important. Just like hands, music is important. […]

What I Learned from WITCHING AND BITCHING

Witching and Bitching is (sort of) a misleading title. There is plenty of witching and bitching in this film, however, that title did not prepare me for what was about to happen in the next 112 minutes of my life. All movies should be comedies. Comedy, when done right, breathes fresh air into otherwise stale […]

What I Learned from MOTEL HELL

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the film Motel Hell. Never trust a farmer who is known for the best meat around, especially if his pork doesn’t taste like any pork I’ve ever tried. As soon as I saw that Farmer Vincent had the best meat around, I knew where he was getting it. However, […]

The Legend of Hell House

“The house tried to kill me, it almost succeeded.” Movies come into my life in many ways: recommendations from friends, critic’s reviews, studio marketing, or just plain dumb luck. The Legend of Hell House (1973) came to my attention in the form of audio samples on Skinny Puppy’s 1985 album, Bites. Their music often deals […]

Kids and the Cinema

I don’t always agree with the ratings assigned to films by the MPAA, but as a parent I question the sanity and judgement of someone who takes their 8-year-old to an R-rated film. I know, I know, we all snuck into an R-rated film or two as youngsters. I remember telling my parents I was […]

Medium Appeal: Why Some of Us Prefer Analog in a Digital World

I’ve heard the arguments before: “Vinyl is better than CD!” “Film is better than digital!” “VHS is better than DVD!” but are these claims based on fact, fiction, or just personal preference? One of the biggest debates in the movie community is film versus digital. Like it or not, movies are going digital. The convenience […]

Hollywood vs. Video Games

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved movies. My first movie memory is watching The Intruder Within with my parents when I was four years old. It’s an obscure made-for-TV horror film from 1981 about drillers on an oil rig off the coast of Antarctica who dig up more than they bargained for. […]

The Early History of United Artists

“So, the lunatics have taken control of the asylum.” This famous quote from Richard A. Rowland (head of Metro Pictures Corporation), about the formation of United Artists (UA), may seem more than a little dismissive, but it held a certain amount of truth. Getting four people to agree on something is difficult, but when those […]

Predictions from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY That Became A Reality

Many of the world’s greatest creations have been foretold by science fiction. Everything from submarines to space travel has been predicted by these prophets of sci-fi, but few writers have reached has as many accurate predictions as Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Loosely based on two of Clarke’s short […]