Smooth Talk (1985)

Based on a Joyce Carol Oates short story, Smooth Talk (1985) follows a young Laura Dern as a small town teenage girl, rebelling against her stern mother and hanging out with boys at the hamburger stand. This aimless character piece gets very tense in the second half with the dance of dialogue between Dern and […]

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 […]