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The master shot is a lost art.  Back in the ‘50s, when movies were competing with the rise of television, audiences were treated to vast landscapes and artfully composed scenes utilizing every inch of the widescreen frame…while most directors  today  don’t have the patience to sit on one shot for more than three seconds.  So watching  Yokohama BJ Blues  (1981), a noir-styled throwback made up almost exclusively of long takes, long lenses and lengthy exchanges of hardboiled dialogue, is like slowing down your cinematic pulse to a rhythm from another era. BJ himself (Yusaku Matsuda) is a part-time blues singer who moonlights as a private investigator to pay the bills. But when his best friend is murdered, the case becomes a personal vendetta to find the murderer, rekindle an old flame and rescue a client’s son who’s fallen in with the wrong crowd.  In true noir fashion, the good guys and bad guys aren’t so clear cut and BJ must play all th...

Example #242 in movies that sound too crazy to exist:   Men of War , starring Dolph Lundren as “Nick the Swede” who, with his team of misfit soldiers, invades a small island in Thailand to  persuade  the natives to sign away their mineral rights. Add in a cartoonish rival merc villain, alluring native girls plus a canoe full of ammunition and you’ve got a familiar recipe for a forgettable direct-to-video mid-90’s action entry.  Only this  Seven Samurai  rehash happens to be written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Sayles. Haunted by his past but addicted to the excitement, Nick (Lundgren) decides to get back into the game when his old mentor recommends him for a new gig.  After recruiting his team and adding a new member along the way (Catherine Bell of  JAG ), the realization hits that he’s fighting for the wrong side. Outnumbered and outgunned, Nick and the natives make one last stand to protect their island paradise from the ...

In the films of Abel Ferrara, there are hunters and there is prey.  And his best work follows characters in transition between the two. 1995’s  The Addiction  is what some might call an unconventional vampire movie.  Although it adheres to two of the most familiar conventions - an aversion to sunlight and a thirst for human blood – Ferrara’s undead are also beset by philosophical questions of free will and other existential crises. It seems immortality raises the stakes on what makes life worth living in general. Kathy (Lili Taylor) is on the cusp of completing her doctoral thesis in philosophy at NYU when she is bitten on the neck by a seductive stranger (Annabella Sciorra).  Suddenly her scholarly obsession with death becomes a physical reality as she wanders the streets searching for victims  and  some sort of meaning in her new undead existence.  Schooled by a vampire elder (Christopher Walken), Kathy comes to an educationa...

The Last Video Store  (2023) knows its audience.  It’s a film for cinema nerds and nostalgia junkies.  A film for people who know the difference between  Cannibal Holocaust  and  Cannibal Apocalypse .  For people who treasure their Blu-ray slipcovers and movie tie-in fast food glassware. But most of all it’s for people who are self-aware enough to know that their celluloid obsessions aren’t above being made fun of now and again. After returning a bizarre VHS tape to a back-alley video store, Nyla (Yaayaa Adams) and store-owner Kevin (Kevin Martin) are beset by aliens, serial killers and actions stars come to life via an inexplicable NTSC portal.  Kevin’s knowledge of trash cinema comes in handy as the duo must find a way to disconnect this  Videonomicon  before they’re trapped forever in B movie hell!   The concept isn’t exactly unique.  Terror brought forth from our televisions has been a staple since...

Tis the season for box sets.  And for physical media collectors there’s nothing more satisfying than 14 movies in handsome packaging arranged and curated for their cinematic significance.   Shawscope Volume 3  is the next installment in Arrow’s series of Shaw Brothers titles this time veering away from kung-fu towards a more wuxia focused assemblage of films ranging from the ‘60s to the ‘80s.   With a set this size it’s hard to put together a timely review that encompasses   everything , but it kicks off with one of the more significant entries from the beloved studio:   The One-Armed Swordsman   (1967), the only title to receive a 4K restoration while the other thirteen are given the 2K treatment.     Lifting the premise of its handicapped hero from the Japanese   Zatoichi   series, director Cheh Chang weaves a love story in between his action scenes, crafting a beautifully set-bound origin story that spawned two sequels ...

Coastal horror  isn’t really a thing.  I just made it up.  But genre films set on the edge of the ocean have a distinct vibe all their own.  2009’s  The Beach House  or Mike Flanagan’s  Midnight Mass  (2021) are just a couple of recent examples that take advantage of that threatening expanse of open water to isolate its characters with almost existential terror.  And the McManus Brothers’  The Block Island Sound  (2020) is an excellent low-budget companion piece, lifting more than a few ideas from  The X-Files  to craft a clever extraterrestrial-influenced family drama born out of the deep. Siblings Harry and Audry are at odds over what to do with their father, who has been making mysterious nighttime boat trips with no recollection of the event.  After finding him washed up on the beach, Harry’s begins having the same mental blackouts accompanied by powerful visions ordering him to provide “s...

Manga has been spawning film adaptations for decades, so it’s understandable that casual fans can’t always keep abreast of titles never released outside of Japan, often lacking subtitles and prohibitively expensive to check out. Case in point, Junji Ito’s  Tomie , which has nine movies and a TV series based on the original material to date, but is still virtually unknown outside of certain circles of fandom.  The original horror manga follows a supernaturally seductive teen who is able to replicate herself from any part of her dismembered body, spreading her madness like a biological disease.  Director Ataru Oikawa doesn’t quite have the resources to replicate the manga’s success, but this first J-horror installment definitely has something lurking under the surface.   Trying to recover her memories from an “accident” three years prior, Tsukiko (Mami Nakamura) suspects that something evil is circling her carefully rebuilt life.  And in fact, Tomie...

Produced during at the height of the big-budget action renaissance,  Demolition Man  (1993) was another concoction from uber-producer Joel Silver whose  Die Hard  and  Lethal Weapon  franchises had the run of the board in Hollywood.  And his “spend money to make money” mentality is on full display here, with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes sharing above the title billing in a sci-fi concoction with a severe case of creative schizophrenia. In a hackneyed prologue, Det. John Spartan (Stallone) attempts to take down supervillain Simon Phoenix (Snipes) but winds up blowing up a busload of hostages instead.   Both  men are sent into cold storage rehabilitation, then unfrozen 30 years later to continue their dick-swinging contest in future San Angeles, a liberalized city state that has abolished all crime and immorality.  Teaming up with the only officer on the force - Lt. Huxley (Sandra Bullock) - with a taste for 20 th ...

The curse of being a horror director is that if you’re  really  good at your job no one wants you to do anything else.  And while Sam Raimi’s films were never straight-forward horror to begin with – full of Three Stooges comedy gags and a tongue-in-cheek superhero aesthetic – his visual approach was best appreciated by those running in well-established cult cinema circles.  So his decision to work as a director-for-hire on 1998’s  A Simple Plan  is easy to understand as a proving ground to impress more  mature - minded  studio executives.  That he made a pretty good film in the bargain is just icing on the cake.   Hank (Bill Paxton) enjoys the simple pleasures of his life in rural Minnesota.  But after discovering $4 million dollars in a crashed plan, the temptation to keep the cash is simply too much to resist; despite the fact that he has to share the loot – and the  secret  – with his slow-witted bro...

While not a franchise per se, the four films that make up the  Invasion of the Body Snatchers  tetralogy have a pretty stellar track record despite dabbling in B-movie territory.  The 1956 original is an unimpeachable classic, the 1978 version is even better and Abel Ferrara’s 1993 take on the material is better than it has any right to be.  Which brings us to the weakest link, 2007’s  The Invasion , a pre-pandemic sci-fi action thriller that tries to be so many things at once it whiffs on  all  of them.   Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) is a respected psychologist who suspects something is amiss when one of her patients insists her husband is   not   her husband.     Meanwhile, Bennell’s ex, a stuffy CDC administrator is busy cleaning up after the crash of a U.S. space shuttle carrying a mysterious supervirus.     He’s soon clumsily infected and plans on inducting his young son, Oliver, into the same creepy c...

When it comes to sexy historical epics, Shaw Brothers could swing with the best of them.  In fact, one of the more interesting parts of the boutique video boom is getting to see titles like 1973’s  Facets of Love  which don’t quite fit into any easily exportable genre.  Part softcore, part S & M, part melodrama, part operatic comedy, it’s a film not really meant for anyone outside of Hong Kong to begin with…which makes it so fascinating to watch. What begins as the tragic story of a young woman sold into sexual slavery turns into a breezy anthology film, branching into three separate stories all set in and around the red-light district’s most famous brothel.  Stories one and two revolve around a pair of Ming dynasty emperors who visit incognito to fulfill their desires.  The first emperor is so enamored of the experience he hires two fellow customers to show him the pleasures hidden in every back alley.  But the price to hi...

With a flood of classic film premieres and upgrades on the market, even the most affluent collector is likely wondering which title is a  must-own  and which is a  wait-for-later .  Specifically, a number of obscure Japanese yakuza films have finally seen the light of day outside their home country. And at first glance, 1969’s  Japan Organized Crime Boss  looks like just another in a long line of almost-serialized releases by yakuza specialists Toei studios.  But despite adhering closely to the gangster-film formula, director Kinji Fukasaku leans hard on a stoic performance by Koji Tsuruta to create another essential chapter in the yakuza playbook.   Sorry, there’s no skipping this one!   Fresh out of prison, Tsukamoto (Tsuruta) inherits a clan that has been nearly swallowed up by the ambitious Danno Organization, using its members in a proxy war to take over all of Yokohama.  Swearing a vow to his fallen boss, Tsukamoto p...

Kung fu and training montages go together like Rocky and Apollo Creed.  It’s an almost essential part of the master-student formula that studios like Shaw Brothers perfected.  So, it’s kinda shocking that it took until 1979 for a movie to actually be called  Kung Fu Instructor , dispensing with the deadly venoms and iron fists that usually took title precedence.   Channeling some of that old   Yojimbo   tension, a village rivalry split along clan lines is disrupted by the arrival of a legendary teacher, Wong Yang (Ti Lung).     Initially accepting a position to train the evil Mong clan, Yang soon realizes they’re not worthy of his knowledge.     So he takes a young go-getter from the Chow clan under his wing in an attempt to even the odds.     But in a battle of two against dozens, it’ll take some serious training montages to come out on top.   Produced with the usual Shaw Brothers style and scope camerawork...

Physical media is on a roll, no doubt about it.  With the major studios licensing out niche and cult movie to smaller companies, no title is off-limits for a 4K upgrade.  Exhibit A is  Elvira: Mistress of the Dark  (1988), the "you-had-to-there" big screen debut of Cassandra Peterson's horror host known for her double Ds and double entendres. After inheriting a spooky house, complete with a shape shifting poodle and book of spells, Elvira would like nothing better than to sell it all off and make her Vegas debut.  But a rich warlock relative wants the book of spells for his own evil purposes and the townsfolk (led by  Ferris Bueller's  Edie McClurg) want her burned at the stake.  Meanwhile, every horny teenager in town competes to get a look at what's (barely) hiding under that skin-tight dress.   A pay-cable staple that provided a PG-rated cinematic blow-up doll for pubescent boys,  Elvira: Mistress of the Dark ...

Political films can be challenge to dissect.  Political films from another  country , with nearly five decades in-between, even more so.  But  Slap the Monster on Page One  (1972), despite being steeped in the social chaos of Italy’s “years of lead,” has become in many ways  more  relevant than it was at the time of release, mixing murder, conspiracy and press bias that not only  reports  on elections but proudly influences them. Gian Maria Volonté is cast as the ultimate anti-hero, Bizanti, editor of  Il Giornale  whose conservative readership the nation counts upon for fair and balanced coverage…or in simpler terms:  Fake News.  With several parties up at arms about the next election, Bizanti uses every opportunity to throw support behind his silent political partner (played with slimy zeal by John Steiner).  Even the unconnected rape and murder of a young student is played up for voter appe...

Sci-fi and horror films from the late ‘50s were considered disposable trash at the time of the release.  But now, 60 years later…well, they’re  still  trash but with nostalgic appeal and some flashes of ingenuity that make them essential viewing for those with an affinity for the genre.  No matter how bland the actors, how hokey the monster or how illogical the script, there’s always a moment or two that make it all worthwhile.   Night of the Blood Beast  (1958) and  Attack of the Giant Leaches  (1959) are products of the Roger and Gene Corman movie making machine.  And while neither of them rank as full-blown classics, they’re both fast-moving, old-fashioned drive-in fare that give their all for 60 short minutes. Blood Beast  stirs together the plot of  The Thing  and  The Quatermass Experiment  to come up with the story of a returned astronaut who brings back a misshapen moss monster that traps a...

Horror and experimental films share a lot of the same DNA.  But their fans rarely swim in the same circles.  The intentionally obtuse work of filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger isn’t designed for mass consumption, yet their ability to break through cinematic barriers to produce stylistic, transgressive and often disturbing personal visions is  exactly  what horror movies have in mind.  The two genres rarely overlap entirely in a traditional Venn diagram (except maybe in the case of David Lynch), but  Dogra Magra , the 1988 adaptation of an influential early Japanese novel, is a good example of the successes and failures when they do. An amnesiac patient, Ichiro, is bounced between two doctors who both postulate the same theory on his mental state:  genetic memory has triggered him to murder his fiancé on their wedding day in a supernatural attempt to complete an ancient family scroll.  But with no memory of hi...

While other countries tried to duplicate Hollywood’s success by lifting ideas wholesale, Japan’s approach to cinema was similar to their modernization in general, cherry-picking elements that had broad appeal but retaining their distinct cultural identity.  Unlike Italy which relied heavily on exports playing throughout Europe, Japan’s relatively closed market meant that were making films mostly for themselves.  And their attempts at the burgeoning gothic horror genre in the 1960s stand as unique expressions of common folk tales amplified by new cinematic techniques  The Ghost of Yotsuya  (1959) is a curious mix of chanbara – or samurai film – and straight-up monster movie.  First performed as a kabuki play, the film remains a very set-bound, staged production for almost the entire running time as it tells the story of Oiwa, the scorned wife of Tamiya who leaves her to marry into a more successful family.  But after Oiwa’s death, her spi...

The term “instant classic” is obscenely overused in today’s Letterboxd film review culture.  Usually once the short-term enthusiasm for a particular release runs out of steam it settles into a more realistic “average” historical perspective.  But  Trick ‘r Treat  (2007) has, if anything,  improved  its reputation in the horror community since its premiere (on video, no less) 17 years ago.  A dark, gruesome and funny Halloween anthology, writer/director Michael Dougherty captures the essence of the holiday on screen in a way few other films ever have.   Bouncing between five different conjoined stories in the town of Warren Valley, Ohio, there’s an elementary school principal hiding a dark secret, a quartet of party girls looking for fresh meat, an urban legend prank gone wrong and a Scrooge-like Halloween hater who gets his comeuppance.  Meanwhile, the framing device introduces us to Sam, a pint-sized trick or treater who ...

The original wave of J-Horror was a short-lived affair in its home country, growing out of the DTV market and capitalizing on the success of  Ringu  to launch a flurry of phantasmagorical spirits and supernaturally enhanced technology.  By the time Hollywood sent those same tropes boomeranging back to Japan the bottom had essentially dropped out of the genre.  But that time  in between  produced a number of interesting variations collected in Arrow’s limited edition Blu-ray box set  J-Horror Rising , a four-disc affair that gives proper exposure to lesser-known titles produced at the turn of the millennium. Shikoku  (1999) stars  Kill Bill ’s Chiaki Kuriyama as one part of a ghostly love triangle (she’s the ghost) brought back to take physical form and wreak unholy vengeance.   Isola: Multiple Personality Girl  (2000) mixes psychic powers, mental illness and spiritual possession as a woman tries to exorcise the meddli...

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  ...