Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven's Time
Nicolas Slonimsky and Peter Schickele
Book
A snakeful of critical venom aimed at the composers and the classics of nineteenth- and...
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Hack-O-Lantern (1988) in Movies
Nov 11, 2020
The whole experience is ball achingly 80s, complete with questionable acting, awkward dialogue, passable gore effects, and an absolutely raging music score. All of the music just sounds like Final Fantasy battle music. It's incredible.
Hack-O-Lantern was aired as part of Joe Bob Briggs 2020 Halloween Special, and is worth a watch to gain some insight into why this films is so weird and disjointed, such as director Jag Mundhra speaking very little English accounting for some of the bizarre dialogue, and his Indian background explaining the out of place Bollywood elements sprinkled throughout. It's a pretty fascinating and quirky horror all in all.
If you're looking for a cheap, ridiculous, and absurd 80s horror, then this ticks all the right boxes.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) in Movies
Nov 20, 2020
Unlike earlier films in Hammer's Dracula series, Dracula A.D. 1972 had (at the time of filming) a contemporary setting, in an attempt to update the Dracula story for modern audiences. Dracula is brought back to life in modern London and preys on a group of young partygoers that includes the descendant of his nemesis, Van Helsing.
The plot: Van Helsing despatches Dracula to his grave, only for the dark lord to be reborn in 1972. When the swinging trendies of London decide to experiment with a little devil-worshipping, the Count decides to move to his own bloody groove.
It was followed by the last film in Hammer's Dracula series to star Christopher Lee, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, which similarly utilized a modern setting and featured most of the same central characters.
Dracula A.D. 1972 was marketed with the taglines "Past, present or future, never count out the Count!" and "Welcome back, Drac!"
Its a good film.
Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three
Book
Based on a true story, this edition of Devil's Knot will tie-in to a major motion picture starring...
Realizing the Witch: Science, Cinema, and the Mastery of the Invisible
Todd Meyers and Richard Baxstrom
Book
Benjamin Christensen's Haxan (The Witch, 1922) stands as a singular film within the history of...
Bosch
Book
If Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) remains an enigma today, it is little wonder. Even his...
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire
Book
How did we get here? In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen shows that...
History Politics
Something Nasty in the Woodshed: The Third Charlie Mortdecai Novel
Book
Something Nasty in the Woodshed - the third Charlie Mortdecai novel 'Splendidly enjoyable. The jokes...
Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession
Book
A provocative and original investigation of our cultural fascination with crime, linking four...
Leigh J (71 KP) rated The Chill Factor (1973) in Movies
Nov 9, 2019
Chill Factor is one of those typically terrible 80's Horrors (made in 1989). It's slow burning and not in a good way, it feels more like a cheesy TV drama and the murders are substandard and really nothing at all that us Horror fans haven't seen a million times over. Also, it ends in a ridiculous Snowmobile race between Woman and evil... ludicrous.