Displaying items by tag: Dailies

It seems appropriate that I’m sitting here with a VHS copy of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode The Hellcats by my side (and not with the express intention of mentioning it for this article).  Upon the day of the release of the Rifftrax Live show of Sharknado, I felt the urge to throw some of my thoughts and opinions about MST3K and its spin-offs out there just to have a little bit of perspective on the sudden growth in popularity of riffing on movies.  And I already went into a pretty solid amount of detail about the show’s history when I reviewed the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release of the movie of MST3K, so I won’t bother doing any sort of a recap.  Chances are high that if you’re reading this article, you’re a fan of the show. So let’s just dive into it. [Read on here...]

Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep...

A Nightmare on Elm Street was first released in 1984 by New Line Cinema, being written and directed by Wes Craven.  Since its inception, it has spawned seven sequels, a TV series and a remake of the original film.  It has also managed to invoke more fandom and fanaticism than any other horror franchise in history.

As an extremely avid movie geek, I too have been a part of that fandom since I was an eight year old just getting into movies.  I owned all of the films on VHS and bought all of the magazines, posters, comics and soundtracks that I could get my hands on.  Like most people, I also had the obligatory Halloween costume: the hat, sweater and glove combination.  I even went so far as trying to build my own Freddy glove out of soda cans, steak knives and work gloves.  I was later amused to find out that I wasn’t the only one doing these things.  People from all over the world have been constructing Freddy gloves in their basements and garages and selling them over the internet for many years.  There haven’t been too many film franchises that have driven people to this seemingly maniacal and obsessive behavior, and that level of fandom shouldn’t be taken for granted.  [Read on here...]

You have to give it to European filmmakers.  They might not have always made effective horror films, but they usually always tried to inject some style or subtlety into them.  I’m not saying that they weren’t capable filmmakers.  They were, but they just didn’t always quite hit the mark when it came to something that would scare or disgust an audience.  Some managed to pull it off, but others fell by the wayside.  Filmmakers like Jean Rollin and Jess Franco were two of those hit or miss type filmmakers.  Both men were more interested in pushing sexuality in their films while the framework wasn’t given as much attention.  It all goes hand in hand with where you come from and what your passion is as a filmmaker.