How well can a TV show hold up after fifty years? Surprisingly well, it turns out. No doubt we could pick and choose any number of once-popular shows from the 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s and be overwhelmed by how dated they feel, how old hat the storytelling and dialogue seem, how cheesy and […]
By Ben Bussey And so, one writer’s Troma education continues. Up until only a few months ago, pretty much all I’d seen from the famed trash cinema factory were the original Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke ‘Em High (or at least those are the only ones that come to mind). However, after 88 Films […]
Review by Ben Bussey So- how does one go about making a sequel to a film as knowingly absurd and excessive as Troma’s original Toxic Avenger? With some difficulty, it would seem. As much as Troma’s output is designed to be more or less critic proof – that old ‘so bad it’s good’ thing – […]
Review by Ben Bussey This, for better or worse, is one of those “where it all began” movies. Though Troma had already been in the filmmaking/distribution game for a full decade before The Toxic Avenger came along, this is the film on which their legend is built, and with which their enduring formula was established: […]
Review by Tristan Bishop I have a feeling Robert Rodriguez might be a vampire himself. Let alone how he doesn’t seem to age (he looks a good twenty years younger than 45), he doesn’t even seem to sleep. The last 12 months have seen him direct Machete Kills and the forthcoming Sin City: A Dame […]
By Keri O’Shea Ah, ‘Grindhouse Classics’ from 88 Films – how I love that you are so defiantly, so delightfully neither of those things; but truth be told, I just can’t turn down your screeners for long. Perhaps it’s the fact that I am such a sucker for punishment, or perhaps it’s the fact that […]
By Keri O’Shea Much as I love supernatural horror, it has to be said that I’m one fussy bitch when it comes to the genre. Don’t get me wrong – it doesn’t stop me watching purportedly scary films – only frequently finding faults with what I do see. I guess, deep down, I’m always holding […]
By Keri O’Shea Editor’s note: for another take on this film, be sure to check out Tristan’s FrightFest 2012 review here. Amongst the worst horrors of war are not those things which people find unable to bear, but those which they do. On these occasions, the most harmful, hopeless situations become, somehow, acceptable. Life – […]
Review by Mike Snoonian In the fall of 2009 Zombieland stormed cinemas, posing as the only credible threat to Shaun of the Dead’s claim for the best zombie comedy throne*. Featuring the best use of Bill Murray since Osmosis Jones Kingpin, crackerjack performances from its core cast (including a pre-Social Network Jesse Eisnenberg shedding the […]
Distributor: Odeon Entertainment DVD Release Date: 7th March 2011 Directed by: Robert Hartford-Davis Starring: Patrick Magee, Tony Beckley, Ann Todd, Suzanna Leigh Review by: Ben Bussey A small congregation sits in a crumbling suburban church. All clad in garments drab and dirty enough to have stepped directly out of a Charles Dickens novel, they are […]
Island of Death (1975) (AKA Island of Perversion/Devils In Mykonos) Distributor: Arrow Video DVD Release Date: 21st March 2011 Directed by: Nico Mastorakis Starring: Bob Behling, Jane Ryall, Jessica Dublin, Gerard Gonalons Review by: Keri O’Shea Ah, how to describe Island of Death? It’s fair to say there’s nothing quite like it: a pair of […]