Scanners II: The New Order (1991)

A new acting category in the Oscars should be the Best Scanners Acting Award, actors undertaking the challenge to either be the one who is scanning (using their mind to express psychic power) or who is being scanned (getting your mind overpowered by an invisible force). Both offer the chance for an actor to give […]

eXistenZ (1999)

Continuing the cyber-punk run I’m on by firing up a rewatch of David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999), which is up there with Dark City with cult movies overshadowed by The Matrix’s box office success. Pre-millennium video-game inspired noirish narratives about the nature of reality and its confusion with fiction; the type with strong fans who will […]

Rituals (1977)

Pure Cinema Podcast talked about Rituals (1977) aka The Creeper so many times across different episodes that I just had to finally watch it. It’s basically a Deliverance knock-off shot in Ontario, Canada with the late, great Hal Holbrook in the lead; apparently he was paid one sixth of the movie’s budget and he’s worth […]

Sudden Fury (1975)

Sudden Fury (1975) – aka Moustache Wars as I like to call it – is an entertaining low-budget Canadian Hitchcockian thriller that I only knew about thanks to a Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray release. A seemingly straight arrow type (Dominic Hogan who resembles Peter Serafinowicz) in a plaid sports jacket takes his wealthy wife (Gay Rowan) […]

Exotica (1994)

Atom Egoyan’s early work was a regular fixture on SBS Saturday Cult Movie night and him, alongside Hal Hartley, defined a certain indie cinema aesthetic pre-Tarantino. I remember Egoyan’s break-out arthouse hit Exotica (1994) being advertised as an erotic thriller, posters and video boxes using the imagery of Mia Kirshner’s character dancing in a school […]