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Hellraiser: Quartet of Torment

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Let’s be honest, it’s starting to feel like one of the Cenobites most ingenious torture techniques is seeing how many times they can convince fans to buy a new copy of the same movie.  Few horror franchises have had more releases in the boutique video era than  Hellraiser  and its disparate sequels…outside of the  Evil Dead  (Anchor Bay took up a whole shelf with that one) or maybe  Texas Chainsaw  (there’s probably a new 4K in the works as we speak).  But it just goes to show the longevity of Clive Barker’s creation and its unique standing in the overstuffed horror community.  Even 27 years later, there’s still nothing else quite like it. Once hailed as “the future of horror” by none other than Stephen King, few would have predicted Clive Barker’s debut as a director, not to mention his transgressive approach to horror itself, would have such broad appeal.  (Meanwhile, King is  still  apologizing for  Maximum Overdrive ).   Hellraiser  still impresses as a uniquely twisted gothic horr
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Hollywood 90028

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While everyone praises a film that is timeless, those that are  of their time  an inevitably more interesting. And  Hollywood 90028  (1974) occupies a singular moment of L.A. cinematic history written by the early generation of UCLA film school grads; an urban desert of sleazy peep shows and dashed artistic aspirations populated by Midwest transplants looking to make it big.  Director Christina Hornisher’s obscure addition to this tragic catalog was sold as a sexed-up piece of violent exploitation (and retitled  The Hollywood Hillside Strangler  and  Twisted Throats ) but this low-budget effort is really anything but.   Mark (Christopher Augustine) is a frustrated filmmaker shooting dirty movies to pay the bills, unable to put together a highlight reel that will get him out of the celluloid gutter.  Michele (Jeannette Dilger) is on the other side of the camera, ashamed of her “performances” but lured by the easy money.  Their connection is surprisingly sweet and a delicate courtship fo
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Killers / The Convent

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For those old enough to have lived through the hair-metal to grunge changeover, there was a lot of griping about how the new generation just didn’t know how to have fun anymore.  Flannel, feedback and self-pity were a poor substitute for the live-for-today, gratuitous charm of the previous good time rock n’ rollers.  It’s a valid argument and one that can also be applied to cinema at the time: glossy ‘80s action heroes shooting their way through music video warehouses finally gave way to self-referential hitmen whose banter was the only thing on their highlight reel. But director Mike Mendez seems to want to have it both ways.  In  Killers , a late-to-the-game riff on Tarantino’s post-modern serial killer craze, he reimagines the Menendez Brothers (here they’re the James Boys) as gun-toting celebrities who choose the wrong house to break into.  That’s because the Ryan family, despite their  Leave it to Beaver  wholesome appearance, are  themselves  a gang of bloodthirsty psychos with a
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Creature with the Blue Hand

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Now that terms like  kaiju  and  giallo  have become common in film culture, it’s about time we add  krimi  to the ever-expanding foreign film dictionary.  Shorthand for the German mystery-thrillers mostly based on the work of Edgar Wallace in the ‘60s, it’s a sub-genre that combines the complex plots of Agatha Christie with a liberal amount of eyebrow-raising sex and violence.  And 1967’s  Creature with the Blue Hand  is a doozy of a place to start, with identical twins, a mysterious asylum, family secrets and a vicious piece of medieval weaponry (the titular “blue hand”) that gets its fair share of use before the credits roll.   Klaus Kinski plays the dual role of Richard and Dave Emerson, the latter of whom has been institutionalized for the murder of the family gardener.  But Dave has always pleaded his innocence, and upon escaping from the asylum he promptly assumes the role of Richard to gather information on his accusers.  It all comes down to a challenged inheritance, but will 
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The Project A Collection

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In the U.S., we tend to take our kung-fu seriously.  Just look at the psycho-spiritual metaphors in  The Matrix  or the catalog of ridiculously intense films from Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme.  There ain’t no fooling around.  But Jackie Chan made an entire  career  out of doing just the opposite, even after Hollywood tried to dull him down.   Project A  (1983) was the first time he really got to do things  his way , shifting the focus from martial arts to simply “action” and mixing in his playful personality to create a film that crossed all boundaries.   Set in the 19 th  century with Hong Kong under British rule, Dragon (Chan) is a proud member of the Coast Guard, an organization reeling from constant pirate attacks.  After a budget cut, Dragon and crew are forced to become regular Hong Kong cops under the Inspector Tun-tzu (Yeun Biao) who uncovers a weapon smuggling operation led by Fei (Sammo Hung), an old buddy of Dragon.  The trio eventually join forces and take on the
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Bad Company

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The  western  has proven to be a particularly durable genre, waxing and waning in popularity, shifting from the big screen to the small screen and back again, but always cleverly absorbing the issues and concerns of the era in which each film was made.  Counter culture and the political aftereffects of the Vietnam War - coinciding with the rise of auteur filmmaking in the ‘70s – produced number of interesting permutations.  So after the anti-establishment success of  Bonnie and Clyde , co-writers Robert Benton and David Newman teamed up again for  Bad Company  (1972) with Benton elevated into the director’s chair for the first time.   Draft dodger Drew Dixon (Barry Brown) is on the run from the civil war, headed west with a boot full of his parent’s money and a holier-than-thou attitude.  His first rude awakening comes at the hands of Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges), a deserter headed west himself with a cadre of young companions, who robs him right on the street. But the two find a grudgin
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Friday the 13th

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At the turn of the millennium, horror fans were confronted with remakes of pretty much every franchise, from the expected (Rob Zombie’s  Halloween ) to the out-of-left-field ( Last House on the Left ).  2009’s reboot of  Friday the 13 th  was neither the best nor worst of the bunch, remaining faithful to its slasher simplicity but not adding much to the eccentric Jason mythology.  It did what it was  supposed  to do – nothing more, nothing less.  But 15 years down the line that’s actually kind of refreshing.   After his sister goes missing, Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) focuses his search on her last known location:  the now defunct Camp Crystal Lake.  Which just so happens to be the vacation destination for some rowdy college kids staying at daddy’s luxury cabin.  The two parties eventually come together when Jason begins his body count, offing these annoying expendables in his singularly gruesome fashion.   There’s not much more to it than that.  And many fans are probably happy that
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