Back in 1977, East Anglia TV ran a strange and sinister little documentary, detailing their investigation into the disappearance of a number of important scientists. Their search led them deeper and deeper into what looked like a sinister government conspiracy, complete with similar disappearances around the world, hints of connections to NASA, the moonflights, and […]
Read more "Alternative 3 (1977)"Ummm… Okay… And then this happened. Look, I need to say this: I’m really impressed with Matthew Cooper’s films. Particularly At the Mountains of Madness, which is near perfect. Admittedly, Markham is a first effort and it shows, but his second film has a clever story, great editing, and some pretty decent CGI monsters. And […]
Read more "When the Earth Gives Up the Dead (2022)"Honorable Mention “There are some things man was not meant to adapt to musical theatre…” The finest H.P. Lovecraft adaptation ever made was the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s silent black and white version of The Call of Cthulhu. No questions asked. It took an enormously complex story line, with a series of flashbacks nested one […]
Read more "A Shoggoth on the Roof (2000)"Honorable Mention Over the weekend, I watched two films based on H.P. Lovecraft’s tale, “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” It is, of course, not only one of his best-known tales but also one of his most highly regarded. But of all his stories, it is also quite probably the one which has been adapted most often. […]
Read more "Markham (2020)"I’m really not sure what I think of this film. Although it is surprisingly effective. Alexander Kluge is one of lesser known members of the German New Wave of the Seventies, a movement which also included such well known directors as Werner Herzog, Wim Wender, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He is perhaps most famous — […]
Read more "Der Tag ist nah (1997)"(aka Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat; Demons 6: De Profundis) Honorable Mention It is hard to convey just how bizarre this film is. Although, if you’ve seen Luigi Cozzi’s next film, Blood on Melies’ Moon (which he didn’t get around to until 2016) then you’ve got some idea of what to expect. What we’re […]
Read more "The Black Cat [Il gatto nero] (1989)"Honorable Mention I have to warn you, I love this film. Yeah, I know that most of the critics out there haven’t been too kind towards Bunraku. And, in a way, I get it. Bunraku is pretty extreme. It is a triumph of style over substance. It has a simple and very familiar storyline. And […]
Read more "Bunraku (2010)"Not long ago, I reviewed Specimens (1982), one of the best of the films made by Irish amateur filmmaker, Roy Spence, who works out of the cinema he owns in Comer, County Down. He’s made over forty films over his fifty year career, and you can find all of them in The Irish Film Archive. You […]
Read more "The Attack of the Saucer People (1981)"I am really beginning to wonder what in the world motivates some of Quentin Tarantino’s movie recommendations. Some of them seem to be sincere. He’s pointed out a few oddball little seen films which deserved a bit more attention than they’d ever got, but some of them… Well, I’m open to the idea that they […]
Read more "The Jet Benny Show (1986)"(aka, Giantess Attacks) I thought I would love this film more than I do. After all, I love Kaiju Eiga films — and treasure Kaiju Eiga parodies nearly as much. Okay, I’ll admit it, Giantess Attack is technically not in either category, as it is focused more on the sorts of people-blown-up-to-giant-size films made by […]
Read more "Giantess Attack (2017)"
rivets on the poster 