Review| ‘Hacksaw Ridge’, Pacifism, and Mel Gibson’s Surrender
With the mere mention of a new creative endeavor by Mel Gibson, the public memory once again recalls the man’s actions ten years ago as he drunkenly accosted police with anti-Semitic and misogynistic language. It was an ugly scene and…
Oh! The Horror… | Of ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil’ (2016)
The problem with being a genre film fan and critic is at some point the surprises stop happening, the cinematography stops being impressive and each genre film becomes an amalgam of prior films seen already. Horror may be the genre…
Reviewing the Classics| Shivers and the Horror of the Flesh
Shivers is a film about sex and parasitic worm-like creatures…and more sex. The film marks, both, the beginning of David Cronenberg’s feature directorial career and of the subgenre of horror called “body horror.” Body horror is driven by its exploration…
Oh! The Horror… | Of The Highway Stretched Out Before Us
If much in the world were mystery the limits of that world were not, for it was without measure or bound and there were contained within it creatures more horrible yet and men of other colors and beings which no…
Oh! The Horror… | Of Making It Through The Film
Blake gets very introspective in this weeks edition of “Oh! The Horror…” as he examines 2010’s “A Serbian Film”. What is it that might drive a person to watch something gratuitously cruel and nasty? Blake dives in head first and concludes, among other things, that “Good film persuades; it makes us feel its truth and meaning. It does not force feed it down our throats.”
Oh! The Horror… of Broken Bodies & Dreadful Revelations
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. — Matt. 11:12 (KJV) “Martyrs are exceptional people. They survive pain; they survive total deprivation. They bear…
Oh! The Horror… of ‘Blair Witch’ (2016)
Oh! The Horror… | Of Blair Witch (2016) “A third and final transformation to the magic circle has to do with the disappearance of the circle itself, while its powers still remain in effect. During [Lovecraft’s story, “From Beyond”], as…
Oh! The Horror… of ‘The Blair Witch Project’ (1999) & ‘Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2’ (2000)
The Blair Witch Project’s promotional attack in 1999, leading up to its July release, was a marvel on the levels of The Exorcist and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Matter of fact, it may have been the perfect combination of…
Review| Don’t Breathe (2016)
First thing’s first… Spoilers and sensitive subject matter ahead! I can recall the first time I watched the 1967 thriller, Wait Until Dark, where a group of criminals (led by Alan Arkin) break into the apartment of a blind woman…
Oh! The Horror… of ‘The Id’
It’s a fairly rote story of human reason and scientific progress within the Enlightenment. Educated men seeking to understand something about humanity or the natural world and beginning—and soon becoming obsessed—with experiments on others or, often, themselves. These stories end…