The Andromeda Strain first published by Little White Lies, as the 82nd entry in my Cinema Psychotronicum column. In H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel The War of the Worlds and the many adaptations that it had inspired, the ferocious alien invaders of earth were eventually undone by microscopic bacteria. The converse is the case in Michael…
Horror Express first publsihed by Little White Lies, as the part 75 of my Cinema Psychotronicum column The novella Who Goes There?, published in 1934 by John W. Campbell Jr. under his pen name Don A. Stewart, has left a considerable mark on cinema. First there was Christian Nyby’s loose adaptation The Thing From Another…
Imitation Girl first published by SciFiNow “Alright, whoa baby! She’s gorgeous! Alright, that looks good, how much is it?” The speaker, in the opening scene of Imitation Girl, is a boy in his young teens (William Wakeland), diminished in static wideshot as he negotiates with two older men who have purchased a girlie magazine on his…
The Thing first published by Little White Lies, as the 44th entry in my Cinema Psychotronicum column John Carpenter’s eighth feature – and his first for a major studio (Universal) – The Thing is an adaptation of John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There?, and a loose remake of Chris Nyby’s adaptation The Thing From…
First published by EyeforFilm According to Hesiod’s Theogony and Works And Days, after the Titan Prometheus steals fire and “the means of life” from Zeus and gifts them to mankind, Zeus vengefully sends to men the first ever woman, Pandora, whose jar is filled with evil, disease and death – while the immortal Prometheus is…
First published by TheHorrorShow The Second Golden Age of Horror was born premature. For though associated with the 1970s, it began in 1968, with the arrival of two films that would forever change the genre landscape: The Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary’s Baby. Redefining the zombie as a braindead vehicle for sociopolitical commentary,…
Contamination first published by Movie Gazette As sure as flies follow shit, cheap Italian rip-offs followed the American blockbusters of the seventies and eighties. The undisputed master of the spaghetti retread was Dario Argento‘s long-time collaborator Luigi Cozzi, who reimagined Star Wars (1977) as Starcrash (1978), Conan the Barbarian (1982) as Hercules (1983), Jaws (1975) as Devil Fish (which Cozzi…
Review first published in S&S Aug 2012 Synopsis: London, present day. A military plane crashes near a Battersea self-storage facility, disrupting the building’s lights and electronic security shutter system. Recently split couple Charlie and Shelley are there to divide their property, accompanied by Charlie’s best friend (and Shelley’s secret lover) Mark and Shelley’s friends Nikki…