The Doll
I am slowly going through my bucket list of films I have always wanted to see, for one reason or another. And one high on the list was The Doll (1962), a Swedish film I saw ads in the newspaper…
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Movie Reviews by Dennis Dermody
Cuckoo
Cuckoo is writer/director Tilman Singer’s appropriately titled, defiantly bizarre, enjoyably unhinged horror film. An unhappy teenage girl- 17-year-old Gretchen (scrappy, sensational Hunter Schafer), is begrudgingly uprooted from America and forced to move with her architect father (Marton Csokas) to a…
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Batshit Blu-rays of the Month- 15 for August
What a month of crackpot Blu-ray treats! A deluxe box set of Reptilicus; the first feature-length 3-D movie; two deliriously deranged Hong Kong Category III films; a new action film from John Woo; a sensational vampire movie from the directors…
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Sebastian
A smart, sexy and soulful portrait of Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a good-looking young writer working for a magazine and living in London. He also secretly sidelines as a sex worker, chronicling each sordid encounter as chapters in a proposed novel. …
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Terror Aboard- Pre-Code Body Count Film
Once in a while you stumble on a movie that cries out for re-discovery. Recently I was flabbergasted by a 1933 Paramount B thriller called Terror Aboard. It’s also an early body count movie like Friday the 13th; really quite bizarre and…
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Longlegs
This subversively disturbing chiller by Oz Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter) is about Lee Harker, a haunted, rookie FBI agent (sensational Maika Monroe), with possible psychic abilities, on the hunt for a frightening serial killer who calls himself “Longlegs.” The fiend…
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Batshit Blu-rays of the Month- 15 for July
Summer is sweeter with these diverse and fascinating new Blu-rays this month. From 4k restorations of the sublime (Le Samourai) and the stupid (Can’t Stop the Music). To a fabulously restored suspense tale (The Chase). To filmed versions of William…
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Criminally Insane & Satan’s Black Wedding
“250 Pounds of Maniacal Fury” screamed the ad for director Nick Millard’s Criminally Insane, about a woman released from an asylum who turns to homicide when anyone keeps her from her favorite cookies. “A Blood Marriage of Ghouls,” was the…
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Gay Subtext in Horror Films
If you’re gay, and love horror movies, there are many times when you find yourself exploring some of the gay subtext in certain fright films. Some are more obvious than others. Some are a bit of a stretch. Some are…
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Ozon’s Transgressive Triple
Francois Ozon has always been a favorite director of mine. I remember being at a screening for a short film of his- See the Sea (1997), and was spellbound by the macabre premise and the meticulous, scalpel-sharp storytelling. His films…
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