The Hellstrom Chronicle
Insects are the worst kind of people. With all the venom-pumping, eye-gouging, and cannibalism, it’s a wonder they get around to maintaining our delicate ecosystem. Dr. Nils Hellstrom, fictional entomologist, is here to tell us that they mean to kill us, or simply wait until we kill ourselves.
The Lair of the White Worm
Item 1 on my list of demands to be met before returning to regular Mass on Sundays is the canonization of Ken Russell.
Angel Dust
Angel Dust (1994) is an energetically bleak film about the terrific ease with which we surrender our minds.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Beware the autumn people. You know who you are. Curled up under a blanket each October rereading Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Protected: Spider Forest
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The Devil (Diabeł)
Andrzej Żuławski will be your guide through hell, giddy as Virgil his first day on the job. He conceived his second theatrical feature, 1972’s The Devil (aka Diabel), as a political allegory for the witch hunts launched by the Polish Communist government in response to the 1968 student uprisings, but it is also a convulsive work of revenge horror, a wintry ride well beyond the limits of sanity.
Planet of the Vampires
Planet of the Vampires is a film you haven’t seen at all if you haven’t seen it in the wee hours, with the lights off, and its hypnotic sound turned way up.
Pontypool
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was: “What?” This syllable, spoken by Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie), shock jock in decline, is in response to an encounter at a traffic light as he’s driving to work in the spiffy opening to Pontypool (2008), directed by Bruce McDonald and adapted by Tony Burgess from his book Pontypool Changes Everything.
Its Secrets, Its Tendrils
A young horror-seeker found his dark pleasures in classic monsters, Salem’s Lot, and the art house—and the search goes on.