The Hit (1984)

The Hit (1984) is an existential road movie directed by Stephen Frears and set in Spain. Starring John Hurt and a young Tim Roth as a pair of hitmen tasked with taking back a “grasser” played by the benevolent Terence Stamp. This is beautifully shot and continually tense yet imbued with a thoughtful tone. Recommended.

Caged Heat (1974)

Caged Heat (1974) was written and directed by a young Jonathan Demme for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. Working within the lurid ‘women in prison’ genre with all that entails, the movie is a cut above due to its singular characters (such as Barbara Steele’s imposing yet strange warden), surreal dream sequences, broad jokes, and […]

Q – The Winged Serpent (1982)

Larry Cohen’s Q – The Winged Serpent (1982) is an entertaining mix of creature feature horror and gritty New York crime drama. A winged serpent – who does not look as realistic as it does on the poster – terrorises New York rooftop bathers, construction workers and window cleaners. Good cast of B-movie regulars like […]

House On Haunted Hill (1959)

I received a 9-Movie boxset of Vincent Price movies one Christmas and slowly intend to work through them all. First, William Castle’s low budget hit House On Haunted Hill (1959) where a millionaire bets five strangers to stay the night in a haunted house for $10,000 each. This was a lot of fun. Even when […]

Raising Cain (1993)

John Lithgow running the acting olympics in Raising Cain (1993), doing the most by playing the most characters, both real and/or imagined. Director Brian De Palma’s underrated early ‘90s return to the thriller genre, riffing on Hitchcock and Psycho once again in a story about baby stealing, infidelity and multiple personalities. I’d seen this before […]