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Horror has always been ahead of the curve.     Its adaptability and profitability make it an ideal proving ground for fresh voices and new ideas.     And despite the historical lack of female representation, the genre seems to be making up for lost time with a surprising number of women getting behind the camera (enough for an entire   category   on the streaming service Shudder at least).     Adapted from her own 2016 short, Jill Gevargizian’s   The Stylist   (2020) pulls its inspiration from character-driven subgenres (most obviously Bill Lustig’s   Maniac   and the more mainstream   Single White Female ) that don’t rely on hashtags or social movements to prove its unapologetically gory point. Claire (Najarra Townsend) is a talented hair stylist with a loyal client base.  But it’s the drop-ins who’re in real danger.  Their anonymous confessions inspire Claire to punish them for their transgressions, s...

Cinematic evolution is rarely a slow, methodical process. Its history is dotted with mutant outliers whose success inspired copycat productions that multiplied like celluloid viruses, changing the business in fits and starts rather than planned genetic engineering.     In the case of the Western, it took 1964’s   A Fistful of Dollars   to kickstart a new approach to the genre.     But what if Leone’s film never made it the screen?     Who would have filled in the evolutionary gap?     The smart money is probably on Sam Peckinpah, whose   Ride the High Country   (1962) already served as a nostalgic send-off   and  fitfully revolutionary rebirth.     But it was 1965’s   Major Dundee   that put his real potential – and self-destructive habits – on display. Hollywood stalwart Charlton Heston stars as Major Amos Dundee, an arrogant disciplinarian with a chip on his shoulder who takes it upon himself to ...

Ever since the decline of traditional studio home video departments, niche companies like Blue Underground have cultivated their   own   fanbases built around consumers’ tastes.     It’s a symbiotic relationship based upon the idea that these films are in the hands of people who actually   love   the films they’re releasing.     And in BU’s case, there’s probably no better example of that than   The Final Countdown   (1980) which (if memory serves) was the company’s flagship release on the Blu-ray format and now comes early in their UHD upgrade agenda. Kirk Douglas gets top billing as the skipper of the USS Nimitz, a tricked out Naval aircraft carrier that gets sucked into a time warp and whisked back to April 6 th , 1941…”A day that will live in infamy.”  So now the million-dollar-question is, does the crew take advantage of their superior firepower to wipe out the Japanese attack force and save Pearl Harbor…or should history ...