Issue 25: Special Effects

“This thing doesn’t want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation.”VHS Tracking is a zine of movie recommendations, and Issue 25 holds the theme of Special Effects. A variety of writers examine the glory days of practical effects, from stop-motion skeletons to gloop-covered bodies, dated CGI animation and traumatic freeway crashes, and […]

Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)

I really loved Chinese director Diao Yinan’s neo-noir The Wild Goose Lake. I’ve seen it twice now, and it is definitely style over substance, in that I remember most fondly the images and sequences rather than the story itself. Purple neon hotel lighting engulfing a room where three thieves talk shop. A motorbike at night, […]

Gun Crazy (1950)

Always gratifying to hear about a film for a long time that’s considered a classic, like Gun Crazy (1950) is considered a classic of film noir, and when you finally watch it, it’s so clear and apparent how great the movie is. Yes, this is a classic. Why did it take me so long to […]

Theatre Of Blood (1973)

Vincent Price playing a hammy theatre actor, delivering Shakespeare monologues, right before taking revenge on a critic who’s wronged him, played by a gallery of great British character actors (Harry Andrews, Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins), and the bloody murder has some thematic tie to a Shakespeare play. And then you have Diana Rigg playing Price’s […]

Cass Lynch – Pan’s Labyrinth

VHS Tracking Presents:Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) presented by Cass LynchWednesday 13 November 2024 6:30pmGoolugatup Heathcote Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) The original Spanish title, El laberinto del fauno, does not refer to the Greek deity of Pan, but the fauns of Roman mythology. Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro was inspired by childhood dreams of a faun, and the film’s […]