In 2016, I went with my mom and my aunt to go see The Turtles play. It was a good time– Iowa’s a good state for that sort of thing. We went to see them […]
Category: Articles
A TRILOGY ABOUT THE BLADE TRILOGY, PT. 3
When a film series fills a studio’s coffers and wins approval from critics and fans, its producers are often protective, making sure nothing will upset their lucrative franchise’s profitability. However, despite such safeguards, it’s almost […]
PSYCHOS AND PINA COLADAS: WHY CLUB DREAD DESERVED MORE
Nathan Smith talks to members of comedy troupe Broken Lizard about their fan favorite (but often overlooked by the mainstream) 2004 horror comedy, Club Dread For horror fans, it seems as though no sub-genre was […]
A TRILOGY ABOUT THE BLADE TRILOGY, PT. 2
Last time, I wrote about my introduction to Blade and how it helped me overcome my film snobbery and made me a better human being. I’m still a snob, but one with fewer self-imposed restrictions […]
THE QUIRKY SIDE OF OLIVER STONE
When people think of Oliver Stone and his films, immediately they jump to the conspiracy theorist and bombastic narcissist who loves the sound of his own voice and lets his ego run roughshod over his […]
A TRILOGY ABOUT THE BLADE TRILOGY, PT. 1
In the year 2000, I remember an imposing man, with questionable sanity, forcing me to watch a snowy, pirated copy of Blade. My friend Natalie and I were visiting her sister up the highway in […]
“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 […]
THE STEALTHY SUB-GENRES OF THE PSYCHO SEQUELS
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is long considered one of the horror genre’s grandest achievements, so much that in 1992, it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress. The level of talent […]
STUCK IN THE ’90S: UNSUNG FILM HERO HAL HARTLEY AND THE DIY APPEAL OF AMATEUR
There’s much to love from the the 1990s, pop culture wise (I could write a Masters thesis on the brilliance of low-fi indie rock, like a sad Pavement fan who still wakes up each day […]
LET’S THINK TWICE BEFORE ABOLISHING THE HORROR COMMUNITY: A REBUTTAL
The very question “should we abolish the Horror Community?” asked in our last editorial continues to elicit the best and worst reactions from all of us. In the interest of open dialogue and fair criticism, […]
PRETTY PARTS, UGLY WHOLES: SEX, LONELINESS, AND INCEL PANIC IN MAY
By now you’re assuredly at least somewhat familiar with the term “incel.” An abbreviation of “involuntarily celibate,” the word refers to a group of people – mostly young, mostly male – united by extreme difficulty […]
SHOULD WE ABOLISH THE HORROR COMMUNITY?
Recent antagonism running rampant in the online Horror Community has led some of us to wonder why this group of like-minded individuals has taken to eating itself. Is the only peaceful solution to rid ourselves […]
SIMPLE CONFUSION VS. COMPLEX CONFUSION, OR HOW ALIEN IS A BETTER MOVIE THAN UNDERWATER
Have you ever been in a car accident? It doesn’t have to be anything dramatic; it can just have been a little bump while you were sitting at a red light or someone trying to […]
TFW FRANK SINATRA’S HARD BOILED AFFAIRS SEEPED INTO HIS MOVIE CAREER
A book has recently taken my life over, Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan. In case you didn’t see me mention it first in a “But Have You Heard” article for Grumpire, The Chairman covers Frank Sinatra’s career from the […]
STILL A GALA DAY FOR THE MARX BROTHERS IN DUCK SOUP
In what a Gentile like myself considers an ideal way to celebrate the Festival of Lights, last December (2019) I celebrated Hanukkah by watching a Marx Brothers film every night. It was that or hopping […]