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 […]

Dogs In Space (1986)

People have always recommended Dogs In Space (1986) to me and I know for many people it means a lot to them, representing a time and place, the post-punk sub-culture of Melbourne in the late 1970s. It’s also a key cult text in Australian cinema, director Richard Lowenstein bringing one of the biggest rock stars […]

The State Of Things (1982)

I’ve always been curious about The State Of Things (1982; Der Stand der Dinge), a black-and-white movie Wim Wenders directed after his German road movie trilogy. I didn’t realise it was actually something he made while he was on a break having a tough time filming the detective movie Hammett (based on Dashiell Hammett) in […]

The Mechanic (1972)

While funnily enough I’ve seen both of the Jason Statham remakes of The Mechanic (1972), I’ve never seen the original even though I’m a fan of Charles Bronson. Directed by Michael Winner, after they’d made Chato’s Land but before the box office smash success of the first Death Wish movie, this stars the granite faced […]

China Girl (1987)

I knew going in that this was director Abel Ferrara’s version of Romeo and Juliet. But China Girl (1987) feels more like an updated West Side Story. There’s a MTV energy in this night-time, neon-lit, wet-sidewalked vision of New York with young gangs clattering down darkened alleyways, climbing up chain-linked fences. At one point, a […]