Movieline Online

Throughout the 1960s, American International Pictures dug up a public domain goldmine adapting the works of Edgar Allen Poe. Beginning with The Fall of the House of Usher starring Vincent Price, the company cranked out one Poe tale after another, often basing their scripts on nothing but a title associated with the author’s name. Like Stephen King movies in the ‘80s, there was money to be had milking every scrap no matter how cinematically inadequate the material. H.P. Lovecraft just never commanded the same respect. A pulp writer who carried Poe’s gothic torch, but took it into much darker places, his work rarely made it to the screen in anything remotely approaching a faithful version. Likely because Lovecraft’s monsters tended to be on the “indescribable” side; interdimensional Elder Gods whose influence over mankind was far less adaptable to the screen than Poe’s low budget visions of the macabre. But AIP had some success with The Haunted Palace (1963), another Vincent Pric...

One of the most artistically satisfying aspects of the science-fiction genre is its ability to tackle contemporary issues effecting us in the “here and now” through a disguised crystal ball. Think Avatar and its blue-skinned eco-warriors. Or Planet of the Apes reverse take on racism. At its best sci-fi works on both levels: social criticism and plain ‘ol escapist entertainment. Director Neill Blomkamp did just that with District 9 , constructing a brilliant critique of the immigration problem in the form of thousands of alien refugees stranded in a man-made South African slum. The film’s financial success however, was more likely due to the Halo -like weaponry used in the violently exciting finale. Either way, it was clever enough to earn itself a Best Picture nomination; no small feat for a genre that rarely achieves that sort of critical recognition. So anticipation was high for Blomkamp’s sci-fi follow-up starring Matt Damon as an honorable worker-bee living on a pollute...

Even amongst the annals of Italian cult cinema, few movies are as deliriously out-there as Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City (1980). A Dawn of the Dead rip-off that paved the way for sprinting zombies, this is the sort of movie you recommend to someone who claims to have “seen it all.” Until this one is crossed off their list, they most definitely have not! The apocalypse begins with no preamble. A military plane carrying scientists scheduled to discuss a nuclear disaster lands unexpectedly. When the doors open, an army of irradiated madmen overwhelm the military police and proceed to tear their way through the city. Not zombies per se, these radiation-scarred freaks are covered with scabby wounds and drink the blood of their victims, passing along their nuclear disease exponentially. While the script sounds almost traditional now in terms of an apocalyptic horror set-up, Lenzi’s execution is anything but. His zombies (for lack of a better term) run, jump, stab, bite, and fire ...

It’s only within the last few decades that Ray Harryhausen’s work has come to be appreciated as something more than childish fantasy. Perhaps because an entire generation of filmmakers grew up watching his stop-motion masterpieces like Jason and the Argonauts and 7 th Voyage of Sinbad , much the way Harryhausen himself idolized the work of King Kong creator Willis O’Brien. Things have come full circle, only this time on a much grander scale. Yet in the 1970s, Harryhausen saw his work falling out of style. The realism achieved in films like 2001 and Star Wars were the death knell for the stop-motion process, which only had a handful of practitioners anyway; and which made The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) seem somewhat antiquated even when they hit theaters. But 40 years later, those same movies (or at least the effects used to create them) have a personality and vitality lacking in most modern special effects. Today’s blockbusters...

Brand loyalty is pretty tough to come by these days. Whether it’s face soap, breakfast cereal or hemorrhoid cream, customers are more apt to move along to the next great deal or discounted special if the price is right. It’s even more unusual when that company is a DVD distributor, whose traditional role is to release films that will reach as wide (and undiscriminating) an audience as possible. And yet, despite the onset of digital delivery and streaming media, companies like Criterion, Kino and Blue Underground have become like mini film festivals unto themselves, re-introducing neglected niche films on special editions with the sort of pomp and circumstance that major studios often don’t include on even their most prestigious catalog titles. And in 2013, no one has done that better than Shout Factory and its spin-off sub-label, Scream Factory. From the lesser-known work of John Carpenter ( Assault on Precinct 13, Prince of Darkness ) and Sam Raimi ( Crimewave ) to full-blown b...

Although Robert Downey Jr. is now the “face” of Marvel when it comes to motion pictures, the company owes a huge debt of gratitude to Hugh Jackman. The actor’s take on Wolverine was the first fully realized character to emerge unscathed in the comic to screen translation. He was edgy but accessible, aloof but endearing, the ladies loved him and the men wanted to be him. And perhaps most importantly, he (along with original X-Men director Bryan Singer) made the idea of a guy with unbreakable bones and 12-inch claws seem believable …a concept that is vital to Marvel’s current template for success. But after the cover-your-eyes atrocity that was 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine , it looked like everyone’s favorite anti-hero had made his final snikt ! That probably explains the blasé buzz around The Wolverine when it was first announced. No one wanted to see the character dragged through the mud, no matter how much heart (or how many abs) Jackman brought to the role. Yet the movie...

Director Mario Bava’s cinematic universe is full of gothic castles, dramatic lighting and masked killers. But 1963’s The Whip and the Body adds an edgy S & M twist that makes the Roger Corman / Vincent Price Poe films it was designed to compete with seem tame by comparison. Christopher Lee stars as Kurt Menliff, the prodigal son whose return to his ancestral home is greeted with outrage and contempt. Picking up where he left off, Kurt lures his brother’s wife, Nevenkah (Daliah Lavi), into a masochistic affair and threatens to reclaim the inheritance he forfeited so long ago. But his unexpected murder casts suspicion on every member of the household; a mystery made even more urgent when Nevenka claims that her tormentor has risen from the grave seeking revenge. One of Bava’s most difficult films to track down, it’s full of his signature Technicolor lighting scheme; reds, green and blues streaming down cobwebbed corridors and hiding in every corner of the screen. Shot between...