The Lords Of Salem (2012)

I do have a soft spot for Rob Zombie – this is the guy who gave us ‘Dragula’ for crying out loud! As a director of horror films, sure, some of them feel like a pack of rabid drunks in a bar screaming horror movie references into your face, but I appreciated that he tried […]

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (2012)

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (2012) might be a sequel but it’s also a resetting. Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren are the game pieces but the board has changed (even Andrei Arlovski from the previous sequel is another refashioned game piece). After making an impressively gritty, muscular action film out of a DTV franchise […]

Of Unknown Origin (1983)

Peter Weller is such an interesting actor and it’s shame his most iconic role, Robocop, basically had most of his face and body covered up. Watching him act, particularly in the early 1980s, there’s such a loose, wired energy to his physicality, complimented by his sonorous voice. The film, Of Unknown Origin (1983), is marketed […]

Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971)

I do like the exchange between monthly Criterion Channel programming and people I follow on Letterboxd tending to watch the same stuff, like a slowly crawling communal experience. I’d heard the title Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971) but didn’t really have any idea what it was like, assuming it was a tongue in cheek […]

City Of The Living Dead (1980)

I’m familiar with Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci, having seen Zombi 2 and The Beyond (though a long time ago; I mainly remember the eerie ending), but have never seen his complete ‘Gates Of Hell’ trilogy (The Beyond is the middle film). Maybe I was reluctant because I knew how gross and violent these films […]