Latest Articles
Amelia Dyer And Baby Farming
In the 1880s while citizens in England were fixated on the murders in London’s Whitechapel district, another serial killer was hard at work in the town of Reading (Red-Ing). This killer’s victims were infants and by the time Jack the Ripper was on his third victim, this killer well surpassed him. The killer’s name was Amelia Dyer, occupation, Baby Farmer, a profession related to wet nursing in Victorian England except for the children in a Baby Farmer’s care was sold to them. In the Victorian era in England, there was the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 caused a lot of heartaches, in short, it basically found ways to punish people who were poor. In this law it punished single mothers with illegitimate children by, lawfully, removing the financial responsibility to men who fathered illegitimate children. This added more stress for these mothers since at this time it was taboo for women to be single and have children; this also
Continue reading →
GODZILLA VS. CYNEMA
Cynema or Not Cynema I started this blog not to review movies, but to examine the effects of cynicism on filmmaking. If you go through these posts you’ll find they aren’t reviews but rather how we view our entertainment and often take it for granted while lowering our acceptance standards. SPOILERS AHEAD! GOT IT? SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN BACK! You can read why I qualify the 1998 Matthew Broderick Godzilla in a previous post HERE. Warners and Legendary really hyped the marketing on Godzilla King of the Monsters and I gotta give props to the campaign. From the very first trailer, the strategy was to show this was a major departure from the Gareth Edwards 2014 film. Many will concur that a major shortfall of that film was there just wasn’t enough Godzilla. There wasn’t enough Bryan Cranston and a little too much Kick Ass but not the monster kick ass action we hoped for. What Edwards did achieve was dispelling
Continue reading →
Movie Review: The Haunting Of Sharon Tate
Hilary Duff stars as Sharon Tate in Daniel Farrands’ The Haunting of Sharon Tate. In the film, pregnant Tate waits at home for her husband Roman Polanski’s return from Europe along with three of her friends. Suddenly she becomes plagued by nightmares and terrifying visions of their deaths. The film builds tension with these visions and nightmares along with Tate’s fear and growing paranoia, right up to the last moments of the film. But the thing is, none of it happened in reality. When making a film that poses a “what if” scenario, a filmmaker takes a huge risk, especially when the real event is so well known. Often they aren’t successful, this is one of those times. I’m not sure what exactly they were trying to accomplish by twisting the reality of Tate’s last few days, especially the way the film ends. It left me scratching my head, wondering what the point of the film was. I mean if
Continue reading →
Blu-ray Review: Lords of Chaos (2018)
Ol’ Øystein “Euronymous “Aarseth (Rory Culkin) lives a rather bland existence in late ’80’s Norway doing the typical teen biz; drinking, smoking, starting Mayhem…a legendary Satanic Black Metal band…the usual. The days are filled with fun, gifts of crucified mice from fanatical fans, and endless practice sessions. Enter: new vocalist Pelle ‘Dead’ Ohlin (Jack Kilmer)…a real ray of sunshine that brings with him a heavy cloud of darkness and depression…and a real move forward for the band musically and visually. Of course tragedy soon follows and things begin to really go off the rails once the eager-to-please Kristian ‘Varg’ Vikernes (Emory Cohen) makes the scene along with some radical ideas (read: fucked-up) that soon have him and Euronymous at odds and things falling desperately out of control (to put it mildly). First things first; does Lords of Chaos fuck with the facts surrounding Mayhem? Sure it does…but this is a movie version of reality, not a documentary…and what a movie
Continue reading →
Movie Review: Silhouette (2019)
Jack and Amanda Harms (Tom Zembrod and April Hartman respectively) are dealin’ with that ultimate fright flick family buzzkill; a dead kid…namely their young daughter. As is often the case in films like this, the couple haul ass to the most secluded spot they can find and move into a seemingly nice abode (which of course is anything but). Of course that tyke won’t stay dead and soon begins appearing to our heroes which increases their marital woes roughly a billionity (it’s a real number) percent! What is this kreepy kid’s endgame, and will our protagonists make it long enough with their sanity intact to find out? Writer/Director Mitch McLeod has worked a bit of magic with Silhouette; while the flick is definitely well-stepped in horror biz tropes tried and true; his film is elevated by a stellar cast and a keen visual sense. Tom Zembrod and April Hartman really knock it out of the putrid park as the troubled
Continue reading →
Gary Dauberman Making Vampires Scary Again With Salem’s Lot
James Wan (The Conjuring franchise) and Gary Dauberman (Annabelle Comes Home) are teaming up for the adaptation of Stephen King‘s Salem’s Lot for New Line. Dauberman, who wrote the script, has stated that he hasn’t seen a “scary vampire movie in a long, long time” and plans to change that with the new adaptation. I did have a unique way into it but again, I think the book in itself is unique. Certainly now, I haven’t seen a scary vampire movie in a long, long time and I’d really love to tackle that. It’s one of my favorite books. It’s one of my favorite Stephen King books. We felt it should have the cinematic treatment that we gave It. It was a miniseries as well. The experience of bringing that to the big screen was such a joy that I was so happy we will have the opportunity to do that for Salem’s Lot.” He continued: Salem’s Lot is the
Continue reading →
Butterfly Kisses Lands On VOD And Digital
The Urban Legend of The Blink Man spreads worldwide in Butterfly Kisses,(review) lands on VOD and is now available on iTunes, Google, Xbox, Amazon, and Vimeo. In the film, “A filmmaker discovers a box of videotapes depicting two students’ disturbing film project featuring a local horror legend, The Peeping Tom. As he sets out to prove this story is real and release it as a work of his own, he loses himself and the film crew following him into his project.” Rachel Armiger, Alexandria Benford, Ashleigh Coffelt, and Alyssa Dalgleish star in Butterfly Kisses, written and directed by Erik Kristopher Myers.
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Blu-ray Review: Earthquake (1974)
Ahh…the classic, star-studded disaster movie; they sure don’t make them like that anymore…well, sure they do make star-studded movies that are disasters, just not specifically about disasters. This seems like a long reach for a chuckle from you lot, so let’s just jump into my revoltin’ review of 1974’s Earthquake! Our story begins with Graff (Charlton fuckin’ Heston baby) getting nagged by his wife Remy (Ava Gardner)…because that’s what the kids dig; hen pecked husbands and their pill-poppin’ wives. Following that we get a “high speed” police chase (complete with Zsa Zsa Gabor’s bush…technically a hedge) and that heart-warming ol’ chestnut; a dead child, a mustachioed Marjoe Gortner giving a lady with a sky-high perm (Dallas‘ Victoria Principle) a big slab of his free meat (it involves store credit), Richard Roundtree sportin’ the slickest motorcycle threads/Black Vulcan costume known to mankind and doing his best Evel Knievel bit, Walter Matthau dressed like a pimp sipping booze…pretty much every rando (and
Continue reading →
James Fuertes Talks ‘The Odds’ And ‘Doom Patrol’ In An Interview
After watching Bob Giordano’s The Odds I got in touch with actor James J. Fuertes. His character in the film was so complex and well played that I wanted to know more about the character and the actor. Fuertes, who has appeared in films like Venom, Anathem, and series like DC’s “Doom Patrol”, “Nashville”, and “The Bachelorette”, and I sat down to talk about The Odds, which left me so very impressed. Fuertes co-stars alongside Abbi Butler in The Odds, a film about a young woman who joins a mysterious underground game of pain and endurance in hopes of winning a $1,000,000 prize. Fuertes plays the role of the “Game Master” a figure meant to keep the player on track and motivated, only after a few rounds his trues colors begin to show, revealing a demented man with his own agenda. Horror Fuel: “How would you describe The Odds?” James Fuertes: “The ODDS is a psychological thriller where a woman
Continue reading →
Episode Review: “Into The Dark’s” Episode “They Come Knocking”
June’s episode of “Into the Dark”, titled “They Come Knocking”, is about a father and his two daughters on a road trip to spread the ashes of their mother. Once they have arrived at the remote spot where the father purposed, the episode takes a frightening turn when the struggling family is stalked by black eyed children. The episode is the most emotionally driven episode to date. As we watch flashbacks and see the family’s tension, the story of the mother’s illness and death comes to light. I’ll be honest, this part of the episode got under my skin. The mother’s passing and the emotional wreckage hit so close to home for me. You see, my father went through something so similar as cancer took him. I could relate a little too well to the family. I may have even shed a tear or two. The blacked eyed children, characters we do not see often enough in film, are creepy
Continue reading →More latest articles
Amelia Dyer And Baby Farming
In the 1880s while citizens in England were fixated on the murders in London’s Whitechapel district, another serial killer was hard at work in the town of Reading (Red-Ing). This killer’s victims were infants and by the time Jack the Ripper was on his third victim, this killer well surpassed him. The killer’s name was Amelia Dyer, occupation, Baby Farmer, a profession related to wet nursing in Victorian England except for the children in a Baby Farmer’s care was sold to them. In the Victorian era in England, there was the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 caused a lot of heartaches, in short, it basically found ways to punish people who were poor. In this law it punished single mothers with illegitimate children by, lawfully, removing the financial responsibility to men who fathered illegitimate children. This added more stress for these mothers since at this time it was taboo for women to be single and have children; this also
Continue reading →
GODZILLA VS. CYNEMA
Cynema or Not Cynema I started this blog not to review movies, but to examine the effects of cynicism on filmmaking. If you go through these posts you’ll find they aren’t reviews but rather how we view our entertainment and often take it for granted while lowering our acceptance standards. SPOILERS AHEAD! GOT IT? SPOILERS AHEAD! TURN BACK! You can read why I qualify the 1998 Matthew Broderick Godzilla in a previous post HERE. Warners and Legendary really hyped the marketing on Godzilla King of the Monsters and I gotta give props to the campaign. From the very first trailer, the strategy was to show this was a major departure from the Gareth Edwards 2014 film. Many will concur that a major shortfall of that film was there just wasn’t enough Godzilla. There wasn’t enough Bryan Cranston and a little too much Kick Ass but not the monster kick ass action we hoped for. What Edwards did achieve was dispelling
Continue reading →
Movie Review: The Haunting Of Sharon Tate
Hilary Duff stars as Sharon Tate in Daniel Farrands’ The Haunting of Sharon Tate. In the film, pregnant Tate waits at home for her husband Roman Polanski’s return from Europe along with three of her friends. Suddenly she becomes plagued by nightmares and terrifying visions of their deaths. The film builds tension with these visions and nightmares along with Tate’s fear and growing paranoia, right up to the last moments of the film. But the thing is, none of it happened in reality. When making a film that poses a “what if” scenario, a filmmaker takes a huge risk, especially when the real event is so well known. Often they aren’t successful, this is one of those times. I’m not sure what exactly they were trying to accomplish by twisting the reality of Tate’s last few days, especially the way the film ends. It left me scratching my head, wondering what the point of the film was. I mean if
Continue reading →
Blu-ray Review: Lords of Chaos (2018)
Ol’ Øystein “Euronymous “Aarseth (Rory Culkin) lives a rather bland existence in late ’80’s Norway doing the typical teen biz; drinking, smoking, starting Mayhem…a legendary Satanic Black Metal band…the usual. The days are filled with fun, gifts of crucified mice from fanatical fans, and endless practice sessions. Enter: new vocalist Pelle ‘Dead’ Ohlin (Jack Kilmer)…a real ray of sunshine that brings with him a heavy cloud of darkness and depression…and a real move forward for the band musically and visually. Of course tragedy soon follows and things begin to really go off the rails once the eager-to-please Kristian ‘Varg’ Vikernes (Emory Cohen) makes the scene along with some radical ideas (read: fucked-up) that soon have him and Euronymous at odds and things falling desperately out of control (to put it mildly). First things first; does Lords of Chaos fuck with the facts surrounding Mayhem? Sure it does…but this is a movie version of reality, not a documentary…and what a movie
Continue reading →
Movie Review: Silhouette (2019)
Jack and Amanda Harms (Tom Zembrod and April Hartman respectively) are dealin’ with that ultimate fright flick family buzzkill; a dead kid…namely their young daughter. As is often the case in films like this, the couple haul ass to the most secluded spot they can find and move into a seemingly nice abode (which of course is anything but). Of course that tyke won’t stay dead and soon begins appearing to our heroes which increases their marital woes roughly a billionity (it’s a real number) percent! What is this kreepy kid’s endgame, and will our protagonists make it long enough with their sanity intact to find out? Writer/Director Mitch McLeod has worked a bit of magic with Silhouette; while the flick is definitely well-stepped in horror biz tropes tried and true; his film is elevated by a stellar cast and a keen visual sense. Tom Zembrod and April Hartman really knock it out of the putrid park as the troubled
Continue reading →
Gary Dauberman Making Vampires Scary Again With Salem’s Lot
James Wan (The Conjuring franchise) and Gary Dauberman (Annabelle Comes Home) are teaming up for the adaptation of Stephen King‘s Salem’s Lot for New Line. Dauberman, who wrote the script, has stated that he hasn’t seen a “scary vampire movie in a long, long time” and plans to change that with the new adaptation. I did have a unique way into it but again, I think the book in itself is unique. Certainly now, I haven’t seen a scary vampire movie in a long, long time and I’d really love to tackle that. It’s one of my favorite books. It’s one of my favorite Stephen King books. We felt it should have the cinematic treatment that we gave It. It was a miniseries as well. The experience of bringing that to the big screen was such a joy that I was so happy we will have the opportunity to do that for Salem’s Lot.” He continued: Salem’s Lot is the
Continue reading →
Butterfly Kisses Lands On VOD And Digital
The Urban Legend of The Blink Man spreads worldwide in Butterfly Kisses,(review) lands on VOD and is now available on iTunes, Google, Xbox, Amazon, and Vimeo. In the film, “A filmmaker discovers a box of videotapes depicting two students’ disturbing film project featuring a local horror legend, The Peeping Tom. As he sets out to prove this story is real and release it as a work of his own, he loses himself and the film crew following him into his project.” Rachel Armiger, Alexandria Benford, Ashleigh Coffelt, and Alyssa Dalgleish star in Butterfly Kisses, written and directed by Erik Kristopher Myers.
Continue reading →
Blu-ray Review: Earthquake (1974)
Ahh…the classic, star-studded disaster movie; they sure don’t make them like that anymore…well, sure they do make star-studded movies that are disasters, just not specifically about disasters. This seems like a long reach for a chuckle from you lot, so let’s just jump into my revoltin’ review of 1974’s Earthquake! Our story begins with Graff (Charlton fuckin’ Heston baby) getting nagged by his wife Remy (Ava Gardner)…because that’s what the kids dig; hen pecked husbands and their pill-poppin’ wives. Following that we get a “high speed” police chase (complete with Zsa Zsa Gabor’s bush…technically a hedge) and that heart-warming ol’ chestnut; a dead child, a mustachioed Marjoe Gortner giving a lady with a sky-high perm (Dallas‘ Victoria Principle) a big slab of his free meat (it involves store credit), Richard Roundtree sportin’ the slickest motorcycle threads/Black Vulcan costume known to mankind and doing his best Evel Knievel bit, Walter Matthau dressed like a pimp sipping booze…pretty much every rando (and
Continue reading →
James Fuertes Talks ‘The Odds’ And ‘Doom Patrol’ In An Interview
After watching Bob Giordano’s The Odds I got in touch with actor James J. Fuertes. His character in the film was so complex and well played that I wanted to know more about the character and the actor. Fuertes, who has appeared in films like Venom, Anathem, and series like DC’s “Doom Patrol”, “Nashville”, and “The Bachelorette”, and I sat down to talk about The Odds, which left me so very impressed. Fuertes co-stars alongside Abbi Butler in The Odds, a film about a young woman who joins a mysterious underground game of pain and endurance in hopes of winning a $1,000,000 prize. Fuertes plays the role of the “Game Master” a figure meant to keep the player on track and motivated, only after a few rounds his trues colors begin to show, revealing a demented man with his own agenda. Horror Fuel: “How would you describe The Odds?” James Fuertes: “The ODDS is a psychological thriller where a woman
Continue reading →
Episode Review: “Into The Dark’s” Episode “They Come Knocking”
June’s episode of “Into the Dark”, titled “They Come Knocking”, is about a father and his two daughters on a road trip to spread the ashes of their mother. Once they have arrived at the remote spot where the father purposed, the episode takes a frightening turn when the struggling family is stalked by black eyed children. The episode is the most emotionally driven episode to date. As we watch flashbacks and see the family’s tension, the story of the mother’s illness and death comes to light. I’ll be honest, this part of the episode got under my skin. The mother’s passing and the emotional wreckage hit so close to home for me. You see, my father went through something so similar as cancer took him. I could relate a little too well to the family. I may have even shed a tear or two. The blacked eyed children, characters we do not see often enough in film, are creepy
Continue reading →