As with previously reviewed films Giants and Toys (1958) and Irezumi (1966), Arrow Video is restoring and offering up to audiences outside of Japan another Yasuzô Masumura film: Blind Beast. Arrow Video provides an opportunity to expand what viewers may… Read More ›
In the opening moments of Yasuzô Masumura’s Irezumi (1966), we witness a man drug a woman, then design and ink a spider tattoo on her back. As he works on the floor, bent over her, her only reaction is to… Read More ›
With limited resources at hand, the incredible cast and crew of A Ghost Waits truly came through with teamwork and creativity. Making the most of what they had and pooling resources from family and friends, the team shot the movie… Read More ›
The question as to whether or not the future can influence the past has plagued many a writer, and probably a few physicists, too. It’s a notion explored in a variety of films, most recently with Christopher Nolan’s Tenet (2020),… Read More ›
It’s rarely more than coincidence when a piece of art intersects with moments in history neatly. Black Panther (2018) released about a year into the Trump presidency, a film in sharp contrast against an administration dealing with accusations of white… Read More ›
Death Has Blue Eyes (To koritsi vomva) is an easy film to summarize but a difficult one to describe. It’s a science fiction thriller in a sexploitation package. Beyond this, though, is where the film gets tricky due to a… Read More ›
“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heaves, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and… Read More ›
One of the great things about boutique distributors like Criterion, Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, and others is that whether a film is lost or beloved, they find new life via a new release. Even though the major studios are starting to… Read More ›
Adam Stovall’s micro-budget flick, A Ghost Waits, makes a pretty convincing argument that romance and horror can work really well together. Stovall doesn’t simply juxtapose the genres or jump back and forth between sweet and horrific moments. Instead, he takes… Read More ›
By director Ryûhei Kitamura’s own admission, labels are reductive and restrictive. Though they may help audiences to know where to look on the shelf for something or programmers to know where to schedule, labels imply as much the absence of… Read More ›
You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Kodan Armada. These seemingly innocuous words displayed across an arcade cabinet as an unseen voice declares them are, in fact, a glorious call to… Read More ›
As a kid with a profoundly accelerated imagination, there was no way I would ever watch something horror-related even though I frequently wanted to. Scoping out the VHS cover art while waiting in line at Kroger’s or hitting my local… Read More ›
For a population currently living through a viral pandemic that is wreaking havoc on the world, zombie films feel almost a little too on the nose at this point. Take into account how it’s now clear that a good portion… Read More ›
While anyone can insert their influences into their art, it’s something else entirely when the creation stands on its own. Writer/director Kirill Sokolov is open about his fondness for directors Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), Martin… Read More ›