Every Christmas film is an autobiography of the Spirit of Christmas. Well, essentially at least. The vast majority of Christmas movies, which most likely at this point bear the Hallmark or Lifetime insignia on them, […]
Author: Brian Miller
Brian is the founder of the Deathbomb Arc record label and writes film essays at various sites under the guise Neon Zen.
HALLOWEEN EVERY DAY (EXCEPT NOV 1 THROUGH SEPT 30)
Luck, wisdom, and desperation all play an important part in forcing the hand of cinema in new directions. A little over a decade ago, a small handful of streaming platforms were pushing for viability in […]
FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT: XTREME!
Nothing makes parents happier than teaching their children to love Horror. Just visit any Horror convention and you’ll see toddlers dressed as Freddy Krueger holding hands with their father and his Art The Clown forearm […]
MIXTAPE: FRIDAY THE 13TH 2022
Friday The 13th, of all the pseudo-holidays, continues to hold a strong grip on our cultural imagination. It doesn’t hurt that the beloved horror franchise by the same name has such an iconic killer to […]
ON AROUSAL AND USELESSNESS IN ‘THE SCARY OF SIXTY-FIRST’
ENOUGH SENSE TO GET OUT OF THE RAIN & INTO THE BLUE-STRIPED TEMPLE “Don’t you feel like you can take on the world?You ain’t worried ’bout nobody sneak dissin”‘ – Rae Sremmurd “We’ll make Heaven […]
GODS WITH NO PROPHETS: ON ‘THE TIMEKEEPERS OF ETERNITY’ AND OUTLAW MYTHOLOGY
“If God wanted that movie to be good, He would have willed it so from the beginning.” This sort of Greater Plan attitude is the subconscious spiritual implication of a capitalist art industry. While the […]
WHY 2010 IS COMMONLY CONSIDERED THE GREATEST ERA OF HORROR
The frontiers of media provide lawless opportunities for artists. Before the corporate-appointed sheriff rolls into town, utopias of artistic expression are possible. What those utopic dreams are and how long they last is an entirely […]
‘MALIGNANT’: THE ANTI-CHOICE MAN OF YOUR DREAMS
Dream logic is a powerful narrative engine, driving both the most anxiety-inducing of horror and the wackiest of screwball comedy. It only makes sense that a franchise like Nightmare on Elm Street quickly changed course […]
BATTLE GOTH AND THE TROJAN WHORES: ‘DJANGO’ AND ‘THE CROW’
The heart of Texas holds a bright shining star, but what if it is really a black hole? When considering the grim side of Western films, this seems perfectly reasonable. Anti-heroes readily populate our cultural […]
SIDESTROKE BUDDIES: On sexual naivete in Mario Bava’s ‘Hercules in the Haunted World’
“With the boys forget the girls / Boys with boys, girls get with the girls and / The boys with the boys / It’s only right and natural” — The Frogs It is amusing that […]
NEW IN ACTION: APRIL 2021
Action is alive and thriving. Here are just four of the many recent Action genre releases and reissues to bless our lives with pure destruction. Jiu Jitsu (2020) [added to Netflix] The trailer for this […]
ACTION: THE UNSPOKEN GENRE
For years, action movies have been dismissed by serious cinephiles as “big and dumb.” But what if they weren’t just that? In our new column Into Action, we aim to remind movie fans of the […]
IF YOU’RE CLOSE ENOUGH TO READ THIS HEADLINE, YOU OWN THE RIGHTS TO BATMAN. ALSO, YOU’RE A RELIGIOUS NUT.
Brian Miller holds a degree in Religious Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Be sure to click over to his personal movie review blog to see his “favorite filmic things” of 2020. If you […]
DIE, OR GET LAID TRYING (ON THE ROLE OF HORROR SHAPING ’90S SOFT-CORE)
Do successful horror films grow into franchises, or are they genetically bound to the insatiable libido of culture, forcing them to evolve into soft-core porn? While longevity among any horror brand has both its inevitable […]
“Me: Don’t call this ‘The Zen Art of Franchise 3rd Entries’; Grumpire: ‘Okay, we won’t’.”
The auteur casts a long and heavy shadow over genre franchises. Those inaugural, boundary-breaking, breathtaking works of art set things in motion for entire new worlds, while simultaneously doing everything they can to pump the […]