Videodrome (1983)

VHS tape might be an antiquated medium but writer-director David Cronenberg’s sick idea to fuse it with flesh ensures Videodrome (1983) has a long shelf-life as a body-horror sci-fi cult classic. Even if the technology featured is dated, from VCRs to cathode tube TVs to cable satellite dishes, the cold eroticism and sick intrigue of […]

A Better Tomorrow (1986)

The iconic image from A Better Tomorrow (1986) is Chow Yun-Fat as the triad gangster Mark wearing dark sunglasses and lighting a cigarette with a flaming bank note, a counterfeit note incidentally. Lesser known is the sight of Yun-Fat wearing a pilly sweater with a pattern of beaded colours in a night club and still […]

Outland (1981)

Peter Hyams wanted to make a western and so he set it in space with Outland (1981). From the title credits to the interiors, the aesthetic is clearly following the path of Ridley Scott’s Alien to the point where it feels like it takes place in the same galaxy and settles into a grimy, lived-in […]

Trancers (1984)

Flipping through video store magazines as a kid, I’d come across the occasional straight-to-video sequel advertised in its pages and wonder, “What is this film? There must be fans if they’ve made four or five of these!” It’s like another universe. Trancers (1984), like many a Full Moon production (an outfit I’m not that knowledgable […]

The New Kids (1985)

The New Kids (1985) is a better poster than a movie. Along with the VHS cover to Class Of 1999, this was a poster that I became obsessed with, the teen gang horror vibes, on the level of an illustrated paperback cover, the heightened drama and off-frame implication. The movie itself, which sets its climax […]