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 […]
Category: Articles
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 […]
ROBOCOP 2: ODE TO THE SATIRIC, BOMBASTIC SEQUEL
Film sequels exist primarily to make money. As much as cinephiles worship The Godfather Part II, it wasn’t a logical progression Francis Ford Coppola envisioned after filming wrapped on The Godfather; it was Paramount, the […]
DO WE REALLY WANT HORROR WINNING OSCARS?
MIKE VANDERBILT SURE DOESN’T. The Academy Awards were born of cynicism and union-busting, but over the past 93 years have become an arbitrary indicator of quality in filmmaking, despite routinely getting it wrong in the […]
HUMBUG: PLEASE LEAVE ME (HOME) ALONE
If you go back and read the reviews from Home Alone’s release in 1990, you’ll find a portion of major critics and publications weren’t too kind to it. Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times said […]
HUMBUG: LOVE ACTUALLY? ACTUALLY…NAH
I don’t like Christmas. Don’t call me Scrooge or a Grinch — I’m not advocating spoiling people’s holiday cheer. Maybe it’s Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), courtesy of shortened winter days, the proliferation of red and […]
WHADDAYA MEAN “THE DARKER WORKS OF ANDY GRIFFITH”?
Here’s what led to me writing this. On Twitter, I saw a post on the page for my favorite television channel, MeTV, with an article titled “Andy Griffith Had His Own Line of Canned Beans […]
HUMBUG: ELF, A SACK OF SUPERFICIAL SPIRIT
The “Christmas movie” is a vital part of the experience of Christmas under modern consumer capitalism, which sustains itself by transforming vital human experience into commodities and selling them back to us. Christmas is red […]
HUMBUG: (NOT SO) RARE EXPORTS
The holiday horror sub-genre has a lot to offer for those who need the macabre to get through the holidays. There’s Silent Night Deadly Night with Robert Brian Wilson portraying the quintessential cinematic beefcake serial killer, Christmas […]