Well, that wasn’t what I expected. I suppose you could blame the title, or the basic plot synopsis: the whole notion of your typical Soviet Era evil Capitalist going into business reducing the atmosphere to tiny solid balls so he can get rich off of the ensuing ecological disaster sounds so goofy and silly that […]
Read more "Prodavetz vozdukha [The Seller of Air] (1967)"I’ll admit it: I do like the occasional faux-Fifties Sci Fi parody — after all, I still enjoy the work of Christopher J. Mihm. But I’m beginning to get a bit frustrated with the whole subgenre. When you watch the original Fifties films, it is true that the dialogue isn’t exactly perfect. This has led […]
Read more "Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You! (2012)"As I sat down to write this, I found myself thinking about all the best known films out there featuring a severed head kept alive in a lab, like The Head (1959), The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962), The Madmen of Mandoras (1963), and, of course, Reanimator (1985), and realized that Professor Dowell’s Testament isn’t […]
Read more "Zaveshchaniye professora Douelya [Professor Dowell’s Testament] (1984)"(Mild Spoilers ahead!) For no particular reason, I seem to have spent my weekend on a Soviet SF binge, watching this film, The Witches’ Cave and Inhabited Island (made long after the fall of the wall). First off, ignore the title. I know it sounds like the title of some Anime kiddie princess show with […]
Read more "Lunnaya raduga [Moon Rainbow] (1983)"Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something truly strange turns up. Soviet SF has a tendency to be a little dry, more intelligent than similar US efforts, with a fondness for hardware-heavy portrayals of space travel, vague socialist futures where everyone is happy together (and therefore politics don’t matter) and sometimes, a turgid […]
Read more "Amphibian Man [Chelovek-Amfibiya] (1962)"
rivets on the poster 