Blog
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Cape Fear (1991)
That it was my third viewing of Martin Scorsese’s remake of the film noir classic that prompted this review tells you everything you need to know. I don’t watch crappy films three times. But even…
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Mini-review: “Brain Dead” (1990)
I was recently drawn to watch “Brain Dead”, a 1990 offering that includes both Bills e.g. Pullman and Paxton. (Together at last!) It was billed as a thriller, but I could tell from the promo…
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Mini-Review: “Nightfall” (1956)
I recently reviewed “Nightwish.” Now I turn to another movie with a nocturnally themed title, this one a film noir feature from the 50s. “Nightfall” is quite entertaining. Aldo Ray, an actor I was unfamiliar…
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Mini-Review: Nightwish (1989)
The two big questions I had while watching 1989’s Nightwish were “where is the night” (it’s one of those rare horror films that mostly takes place during the day) and “where is the wish”. The…
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Mini-Review: “Humanoids of the Deep”
When you watch schlocko-horror cinema, it’s a bit like playing the slots in Vegas. You take a chance with every viewing, hoping you might get a big payoff. With “Humanoids of the Deep” we hit…
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Mini-review of “Necromancer “(1989)
I’ve always been a sucker for revenge stories: tales where a character is wronged and then given a chance to even the odds. This is doubtless driven by my inner desire to seek revenge on…
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“Fall for Horror” 99 cent book sale (including my novel) runs until Sept 13th.
As autumn approaches, a collection of horror authors, including myself, have gathered to offer their novels and collections at the bare price of 99 cents! This is a good opportunity to stock up on affordable…
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Mini-review of “Mortuary” (1982)
What does one do with a movie like 1982’s “Mortuary”? It’s kind of like an NBC Movie of the Week from the same era albeit with more violence and nudity. (There’s actually a bordering-on-pornographic love…
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Mini-review of “The Hitcher”
I first saw “The Hitcher” when it came out in the 80s. As a teenager, it stuck in my brain as a curious film: grim, gritty, nihilistic (though I probably didn’t know the meaning of…
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Mini-Review of “Loneliness is a Monster” (book)
I went into this book relatively cold, not having read any of the predecessors in the series. It certainly delivered in the way you’d expect: ghastly scenes of violence and maggoty grossness, a satisfying story…
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Mini-review of “The Prowler”
There’s an age old truism in reviewing horror movies: an exploding head will always improve a movie by one grade level. So a C becomes a B, a B+ become and A+ and so on.…
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New Review for “What Waits in the Shadows”
Here’s a fairly positive review of “What Waits in the Shadows” from the Monster Librarian blog, though they ding me for a 100% legitimate complaint about a formatting issue I should have caught. That said,…
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Mini-review of “House on Haunted Hill”
So I neglected to mention that a couple weeks ago I saw “House on Haunted Hill.” This should not be confused with the Mike Flanagan directed Netflix mini series called “The Haunting of Hill House”…
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Things to Observe while Reading Fiction (for Writers, or Similar Unfortunates)
So I don’t write here much about writing. Perhaps that’s ironic. I don’t know; I’ve never been clear what irony is. However, I was looking through some notes and came across this handy list I…
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The Hideous Monstrosity of the Blobfish, “the World’s Ugliest Animal”
Part of the fun of horror writing is getting to discover the real life monsters that populate nature. Many posts ago I mentioned the giant insects of the Carboniferous Period. Today I discovered the blobfish,…