When I think about Banshee Chapter, I keep finding myself saying “almost” or “nearly” or “not quite” over and over. It is an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s From Beyond. Well, almost. The original version of the script started life as a first draft of Uwe Boll’s Alone in the Dark, but obviously that didn’t quite […]
Read more "Banshee Chapter (2013)"It has been the greatest challenge for Indie filmmakers: How do we get our film out there for the public to watch? A company named Distribber tried to fill that role, and set up an online platform for aspiring filmmakers: for a one time fee, they would distribute your film to a variety of different […]
Read more "Headsome (2013)"There are times when we are reminded once again what it is about our favorite creators — whether writers, directors, actors or whatever — which we hold in such high regard. Consider, for a moment, Wine of India: This was originally a TV movie or perhaps it might best be described as a play for […]
Read more "Nigel Kneale’s Wine of India [Wine of India] (2013)"Some days you have to get adventurous. It’s not that there aren’t plenty of reasonably good movies out there — nor that there is a shortage of interesting films on my personal watch list. But the truth is that all the odd and unnoticed films, minor exploitation efforts or SOV epics made for a few […]
Read more "Perfect: Android Rising (2013)"I’m really not sure what to make of this one. Certainly the blurb on the posters isn’t any help. Whatever else we’re talking about here, it isn’t “A Science Fiction Road Picture.” Admittedly, that term “road picture” has strayed a bit from its origins with the endless series of “Road To…” movies Bing Crosby and […]
Read more "The Rising Light (2013)"(aka, Young Gentlemen Explorers) I like this one. I’ll warn you, though: it is decidedly minimal. After all, it was made by a backyard DIY filmmaker with more imagination than money. And, yes, I will be making allowances for that. Now I will point out that its minimal nature means that it feels a bit […]
Read more "Gentlemen Explorers (2013)"I stumbled on this one by accident. It was a video on Archive.org, one that was poorly labeled, and was obviously from somewhere in the middle of a much longer story. But, as soon as I saw it, it had me hooked. Aidan 5 doesn’t look like anything you’ve seen before, even if it isn’t […]
Read more "Aidan 5 (2009–2018)"I’ll admit it. I’m definitely in the minority on this one. But, yes, I liked Cool Air. Although it definitely isn’t going to please everyone. It is, however, a strange and dreamlike adaptation of a relatively short and minor tale by H.P. Lovecraft, which is almost play-like in its distillation to something perhaps slightly less than […]
Read more "Cool Air (2006)"Look, I can’t help it. I know, I know. I usually would be the first to tell you that we should judge an adaptation by the film itself and not by how well it adapted our favorite book, or comic, or TV show, or whatever. But sometimes, the very places where an adaptation fails are […]
Read more "Ender’s Game (2013)"A man (Sharlto Copley) wakes up in a pit full of dead bodies. He has no memory of who he is or how he got there. When he climbs out and finds a handful of others in a nearby house, he discovers that none of them remember who they are, either. The house is well […]
Read more "Open Grave (2013)"
rivets on the poster 