So You Want to Be a Movie Critic, Heh?
I am constantly getting asked the question, “How do you get to be a movie critic?” which, in a majority of the cases, is actually the thinly veiled plea, “Please tell me how I can be a movie critic too.” Obviously, if you clicked on the hyperlink that brought you...
Fearful Meditations: An Annotated Bibliography of Studies in Horror Cinema
Overviews, Introductory Studies, and Guides Hardy, Phil. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Horror Collection of plot summaries and their subsequent analyses, though not without omissions (i.e.--Creature from the Black Lagoon). 496 pgs. Hutchings, Peter. The Horror Film...
Jack the Black Cat Haunts Universal Studios
www.halloweenhorrornights.com For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not --and very surely...
The Eve of 8 Films to Die For!
On a chilly November evening, sixteen days passed since Halloween and no one would have thought the wiser. Horror filmmakers from AfterDark’s 8 Films to Die For converged on an intimate gathering of the minds and talent. The place was Dark Delicacies www.darkdel.com,...
I Can’t Discuss Glen Morgan’s New Film, [Censored] [Censored], Because Liberty Counsel Says It’s Rude: Race, Religious Tolerance, Ethics, and Aesthetics and the 21st Century Holiday Horror Film
On December 15, 2006, I was skimming through the cinema-related headlines and to my naïve surprise, found the heading “Christmas Horror Movie Offends Religious Groups” on CNN.com. I say “naïve surprise” because, upon researching Charles E. Sellier Jr.’s Silent Night,...
Parental Guidance Suggested: Deconstructing the MPAA Film Rating System
After Dark Films has caused quite a stir in the past week with their billboard campaign for academy award nominee Roland Joffe’s foray into the psychological thriller genre. Captivity is the new film being released by After Dark in association with Lionsgate....
Roger Ebert’s Bloody Ax: An Examination of the Film Critic’s Elitist Dismissal of the Horror Film by Michael “Egregious” Gurnow
On June 29th, the illustrious Roger Ebert inserted his foot squarely into his mouth. Of course this is not the first occasion in which we find the esteemed critic mumbling as he picks bits of shoelace from between his teeth. However, the audacious arrogance and...
DOOMSDAY IN LEICESTER SQUARE… A Neil Marshall Marathon
Saturday May the 3rd was a good day to be a horror fan for anyone living in reasonable travelling distance of London. The only problem was deciding which cool genre-related event to opt for. Over at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, genre legend Roger Corman was...
Defending the King: An Examination of Academia’s Reaction to Stephen King Being Awarded the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
“Meaningless pulp.” “Puerile escapism.” “Utter trash.” These are not the labels one would ordinarily associate with an award-winning writer’s work. However, the sound of academia’s jaw hitting the floor continues to resonate years after Stephen King was awarded the...
A ROUGH GUIDE TO FRIGHTFEST 2008 Leicester Square, London August 21st-25th 2008
Leicester Square, London August 21st-25th 2008 (Note : Full reviews of many of the movies mentioned below will be appearing on The Horror Review over the next week or so). By Steven West www.frightfest.co.uk</a> DAY ONE : When Hoodies Attack The ninth annual...
Zarathustra . . . Cthulhu . Meursault: Existential Futility in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu”
It is frequently stated that there is a want of American existential thinkers and writers. Of the few which the country can claim as its own, they are largely fiction scribes while nary a non-fiction philosopher can be mentioned without a subsequent discussion...
FRIGHTFEST 2009
Leicester Square, London August 27th-31st 2009 (Note : Full reviews of many of the movies mentioned below will be appearing on The Horror Review over the next week or so). Festival Report By: Steven West Photos By: Ewa Madrzynska www.frightfest.co.uk PROLOGUE : TEN...
The Eye (DVD) (Jian gui) – Movie Review
"The Eye" DVD does not have much in special feature on it, Of course it's got the movie, and it had a documentary on the making of the film and includes the two U.S. trailers to help promote the film. The movie is not dubbed with American voices, however there are...
The Eye
In a year of far, far too many Hollywood remakes of spooky Asian movies for the post-RING/GRUDGE PG-13 audience, here’s a disappointingly mundane reworking of the well-received 2002 Pang Brothers movie. It’s all the more disappointing for representing a compromised...
Eye of the Beast
Just when you thought RHI Entertainments and Genius Products ran out of ideas for killer animal movies, they spring upon us Eye of the Beast, the fifth film in the Maneater series. And in case you were wondering, yes this film is yet another Sci-fi channel original...
