William Lustig's Maniac Cop was released on May 13th in 1988 and features a trio of genre heavyweights in Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, and Richard Roundtree. A funky meld of action and horror, it manages to craft a sort of subversive response to the vigilante cop subgenre. In honor of its thirty-third anniversary, let’s take a look back.
Read MoreHere Are the Young Men (2020)
Boys will be boys in Here are the Young men, where the dark side of early adulthood is explored in millennial Ireland. Cool girl Anya Taylor-Joy overshadows a trio of troubled friends in this coming of age tale that hints at some truly dark and disturbing possibilities but comes up frustratingly short. Three Irish lads leave school without much of a plan for the future, except for engaging in one last hedonistic summer of fun.
Read MoreLapsis (2020)
Low-budget science fiction can be very tricky to pull off successfully. How do you believably world-build with the financial and time constraints common to indie productions? Lapsis embraces these limitations, a quirky social commentary that still serves up and explores some very big ideas.
Read MoreDonny's Bar Mitzvah (2021)
Absurd, bizarre, and decidedly politically incorrect, Donny’s Bar Mitzvah is ostensibly a found footage comedy that is supposed to be a VHS recording of a bar mitzvah in a small town in Michigan from 1998. However, the film isn’t concerned with strictly maintaining that conceit and uses the VHS look and ‘90s videography editing flourishes more for visual aesthetic. In any case, I found the movie to be unrelentingly funny, even though the rapid-fire gross-out silliness sometimes gave way to some dark and uncomfortable humor.
Read MoreMother Noose Presents Once Upon a Nightmare (2021)
There’s a point during the opening credit sequence of Mother Noose Presents: Once Upon a Nightmare where a sexy Red Riding Hood type character is riding her bike through the woods when she is suddenly attacked by a werewolf. The werewolf slashes her across the chest, conveniently ripping her shirt to expose her breast, which in turn leads to a close-up of the werewolf getting an erection and ejaculating. It was also at about here where I started questioning every life decision that had lead me to this moment.
Read MoreThe Funeral Home (2020)
We all love a good haunted house story. A home is a place where we all feel secure and safe, protected from the terrors of the outside world, but what if the terror lurks inside your own home?
Read MoreHappy Face (2018)
In 1932, after the phenomenal success of Universal's Dracula, director Tod Browning used his clout to ensure the release of his pet project Freaks. His insistence in casting real circus sideshow entertainers led to problems at MGM, where the performers were banned from the studio cafeteria and relegated to a mess tent outside, as horrified employees objected to their presence. Surely, we are more enlightened today?
Read MoreBlack Sheep (1996) #RetroReview
Retro review time! While it features a paper-thin and clichéd plot, Penelope Spheeris’ Black Sheep from 1996 works because of the efforts of the force of nature that was Chris Farley. A master physical comedian who was also underrated for his ability to portray earnest, heart on their sleeves types, Farley commands the screen as he pratfalls from one outrageous scenario to the next.
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