My phone started ringing off the hook. “Al Adamson is dead!” Say it isn’t so. Not the infamous director of Satan’s Sadists, Blood Of Dracula’s Castle and The Naughty Stewardesses. God couldn’t be that vengeful. “And he was murdered!” You’re…
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This month there are Blu-ray releases of movies I never ever expected to have, or own, and especially in such stellar, digitally remastered condition. I wake up in the middle of the night and shake my head thinking that the…
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Finding that right actor for action film fame is a tricky business. Bruce Willis found popularity with the Die Hard franchise but then there was Hudson Hawk. Keanu Reeves struck gold with Speed but it was years before John Wick…
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Many summers ago I did something I’d always wanted to do. I made a pilgrimage to Gilmanton, New Hampshire, the final resting place of one of my favorite writers- Grace Metalious. The author of Peyton Place. Nowadays, most people barely…
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Remember when having a birthday was fun? When your parents selected a theme for your party and all your rotten little friends wore hats and had noisemakers and cheered as you blew out the candles on your cake? Well, now…
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I’m not sure which I hate more- sports, or movies about them. The formula’s always the same. From Rocky on- there’s the talented but hot-headed rookie; the grizzled but wise coach; the conflict; the come-around; and, finally, the big game.…
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There is an unprecedented number of sequels opening in theaters this summer. Some are just endless extensions of movie comic book franchises. Maybe people get the culture they deserve, and in troubled times moviegoers crave the comfort of familiarity. Who…
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Recently I bought Troy Howarth’s excellent books- So Deadly, So Perverse (Volumes 1 & 2), covering 50 years of the Italian “Giallo” thriller. “Giallos” were the yellow paperbacks that signified a certain type of sexy mystery, and the movies reflected…
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I had the weirdest dream the other night. I was in a movie theater watching a film and suddenly the film broke. The frame jerked to a halt and the image caught fire, melting like a bubbling celluloid rose. Of…
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To me, one of the high points this summer is the Blu-ray releases of two great William Castle films by Scream Factory. The Tingler (Scream Factory) A great 1959 William Castle film starring Vincent Price as a doctor studying “fear”…
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