Flesh + Blood (1985)

Flesh + Blood (1985) as a title has always felt like the best summary of Paul Verhoeven as a director. This is what marks his greatness, a keen study of “flesh and blood,” all the ways it can be shown and conceptualised. How moments can stick in your mind through the filmmaker’s capacity to make […]

Iron Warrior (1987)

I can’t imagine the Italian filmmakers directing Conan knock-offs in the 1980s really gave a shit about the mythology or the lore in their movies. They weren’t sketching maps of the various realms or had a bible of notes about the kingdoms and tribes living in this fantasy world. Whatever worked in Conan, or any […]

Ator: The Fighting Eagle (1982)

I’ve seen Ator: The Fighting Eagle (1982) before, the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 version from the Netflix revival awhile back, but I decided to watch it without the commentary, inspired by it being on Tubi (naturally) and it being on this excellent Bong Hit/Van Mural list. Ator is a Conan The Barbarian knock-off by Italian […]

The Beastmaster (1982)

One tier of fantasy adventure is the kind that everyone knows across different generations – from Star Wars to Lord Of The Rings – while others on the lower tier are tied to a time and place, and probably known more by the one generation that grew up with them on video tape or cable […]

School In The Crosshairs (1981)

I remember seeing Hausu a long time ago (presented by Kenta McGrath at the UWA Film Society) and my memory of it has always been an all-encompassing, wild, super-visual horror dream. Keen to see further films from Hausu’s director Nobuhiko Obayashi, particularly since a few of them are available in HD on the Rarefilmm website. […]