Hard on the heels of the successful and comedic game-changer Anchorman, Adam McCay and Will Ferrell once again team up for another half-slapstick, half-surreal niche comedy. Rather than a knuckle-dragging send-up of NASCAR and the American South, Nights instead serves up a racing homage and...
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The Stepfather is a 1987 horror film that spawned two fairly campy sequels and one remake; it was Stepfather II that first introduced me to the franchise. At the time, covertly watching late-night cable at a friend’s house, I was just...
Having just watched The Meg at the drive-in last week, I was discussing he film with a friend last night. In explaining the movie to a third party listening in, my friend simply said, “It is what it is.” I...
On a test run of the world’s first nuclear submarine (USA! USA! USA!), Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) and his jovial Merry Men crew run across a spooky, large sighting via their sonar equipment. The mass overtakes and strikes the...
Southbound (2015) So, horror anthologies. Let’s face it: they’re corny. While I understand their appeal, I’m usually not compelled by the typical fare they consist of: sci-fi “gotcha” vignettes, spoooooky morality twists – or simply, relentless cruelty. This film uses...
Synopsis: five orphans room together while attending Central Florida College; nights they moonlight as the rock band Dragon Sound, and wage battle with drug-dealing motorcycle ninjas operating out of Orlando. Yeah. Yeah, you heard right. Miami Connection is one of...
According to its Wikipedia entry, 1981 Italian film Great White (alternate title: The Last Shark) had only a short theatrical release in the US before it was pulled “after accusations of plagiarism of Jaws“. You don’t say? The film doesn’t only rip-off Jaws – and...
Slaughter Hotel (1971) If you’ve read here long you know I work pretty hard to find something benevolent or at least constructive to say about every film I watch. Some movies, however, are simply irredeemable. 1971’s Slaughter Hotel (alternate title,...
Until I watched The Shallows I guess deep down I didn’t think we had another good shark film in the tank (yuk yuk). I mean we really lucked out with Jaws: a horror-drama rather than true eco-horror, well-paced with perfect humor...
If you know me, you know I can’t resist any kind of barbarian adventure or sword-and-sorcery goofiness. I think I’ve regretted about nine out of ten viking films I’ve ever watched – but that doesn’t and will not stop me...
. This long-anticipated film of 2000 does the community no favors, having inspired sweeping condemnation from critics and audiences alike. Time has not improved the film in eighteen subsequent years.
This week I’ve let you down a bit, as I watched a couple good films for a change! Never fear: I will be back on my bullshite in full force, next week! – K. The Disaster Artist (2017) Equal parts buddy...
Everyone loves a good road trip movie, right? Whether the road is a metaphor for a troubled generational gap or you’re in for some good, hilarious family shenanigans, road trip movies have the ability to make us laugh, think, cry,...
Cora Tannetti (Jessica Biel) is a thirtysomething wife and mother to a young child. She works with her husband Mason (Christopher Abbott) in the family air conditioning business, in upstate New York. She obviously loves her husband and child; the...
The Jurassic Park series is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, and while at this point the series is not likely to grow creatively or offer up any terribly new material, the latest installment doesn’t quite phone...
I’m binge-watching the Netflix Indian Original “Sacred Games” and I have some damn opinions! But in the meantime, here’s a little musical theater gristle to tide thee over! – K. Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) I was stuck watching this overlong...
What kind of week is it when all I’ve managed to watch is a bottom-of-the-barrel Corey film? To be fair, I’ve been working pretty hard at binge-watching “Brooklyn 99” to prepare for the new season, and reading grim British detective...
While (finally) getting around to watching “Brooklynn 99”, and finishing up a few books, I did manage to squeeze in some movies. All three were about SURVIVAL; two of them were pretty good and the third – well. Remember, this...
Lucky me, I am obsessed with nineteenth century seafaring disasters of late. Like a virulent flu, I suspect this obsession will soon run its frantic course. After all: these tales, incredible as they are, have a sameness. They are marked...
I’m a sucker for a good survival film and David Mamet’s The Edge is one of my time tested favorites. The film isn’t nearly as thrilling upon subsequent viewings, but the first time I saw it I was practically in tears....
Listed as a “romantic horror film”, Birdemic features very little of either element. The now-notorious ripoff of The Birds is probably the worst eco-horror film I’ve yet viewed – and I’ve seen Frogs (1972). There is almost nothing to recommend...
I am embarrassed to admit I have let my readers down for the roundup, watching only two measly films for the week. In my defense, I’ve been reading some really solid fiction and nonfiction and listening to a couple excellent...
Spies, slashers, space battles, and spooks! This week’s roster was a well-balanced aperitif, if it led to a bit of gastroenteritis. – K. The Amazing Mr. X (1948) Gaslight (1940) meets The Uninvited (1944), this film is weirdly good. That is...
A new feature: Friday’s weekly roundup! These spoiler-free summations give the reader a glimpse into my week, but also a context for what they might want to try out – or may want to miss. And yes, this week’s roster...
A few weeks ago, I went to see A Quiet Place. That movie was a’ight, but you know what it reminded me of? Another movie in which a hapless family is tormented by (allegorical?) aliens with a completely weaksauce weakness....
Welcome back to Credits Subject to Change here on B-Movie BFFs. As we speed towards the Main Event tonight (with an exhausting 5 PM EST start time), join me for a little pregame in the Piper’s Pit as I do...
We’re gearing up for Wrestlemania in New Orleans this year (aren’t we?) so I figured what better time to introduce the last and least obvious aspect of my personality: I like wrestling quite a bit and I’m not against writing...
The Outsider is exactly what even a perfunctory glance at the byline would predict: a white-savior film set in gangsterland, in this case post-WW II’s Japanese yakuza. The film is pretty though. I mean, I always complimenting what I can,...
I adore a dark, brooding supernatural television show, and perhaps even more than that I crave one where you just can’t tell if we’re in the realm of science-fiction or the paranormal (hello “Fortitude”!). The above image represents 100% of what...
Ah, Leprechaun, early-nineties fairy tale horror and the first feature to hit the big screen in January of 1993. The film is a quarter century old and has inspired many knockoffs and parodies – and spawned six sequels. Despite the...
Remember when Christopher Walken played a villainous angel that needed a come to Jesus moment of his own? No, it wasn’t Dogma, it was… The Prophecy! And I’m here to guide you through each movie of the franchise step by...
"Is this movie really about a poisonous demonic cat that lives inside a regular but radioactive cat?" Yes. Yes it is.
It seems the beloved British sleuths of yesteryore are providing us, one at a time, with lucrative opportunities for a revisit. We'll soon be seeing a youthful Poirot, Foyle, and Barnaby soon - mark my words!
I figured the best way to introduce myself would be two hallmarks of my personality: a weird obsession with Billy Zane, and disillusionment.
Known in retrospect as one of the earliest sci-fi space epics to feature attempts at realistic science as well as a plotline based more in human nature than improbable alien encounters, Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a delightful adventure that stands...
There is so much I enjoy about slasher films, but it is a genre I rarely dip into due to often intolerable quantities of misogyny, transmisogyny, homophobia, and ugly racist tropes. Every now and then a slasher is tame enough on...
An oddly effective and underrated werewolf film, it is strange to me that Silver Bullet doesn’t get more notice during Halloween season as we look for cheesy horror to cram in our eyeholes. The film’s highlights: well first, a freakin’ bat-wielding WEREWOLF! –...
A tidy little horror thriller helmed by Howard Hawks’ production company (rumors maintain he directed most of the film, uncredited), The Thing from Another World is generally known in sci-fi circles as the original movie that inspired John Carpenter’s The Thing...
Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price) is an accomplished if a bit goofy wax figure sculptor in turn of the century New York, looking for investment partners. After a betrayal and assault at the hands of business associate Burke (Roy Roberts), his lab and figures are...
It's not so much that I knew an awful lot of miscellany on the life of leading lady and Whitesnake-divorcee Tawny Kitaen, it's that I assumed everyone else in our movie group would know it too.
A rude, driven stage director (is there any other kind in horror films?) locks his production indoors to push them for a better performance. Mind, this is after one of the troupe was murdered five feet outside the doors of...
The House of Seven Corpses is a zombie drama that’s not that dramatic, co-written and directed by television writer and producer Paul Harrison. Ostensibly about a doomed movie production filming on haunted grounds, it is plainly obvious Harrison was much less...
1932’s third film in what is commonly thought of as the Universal classic monster films (the talking pictures, anyway), 1932’s The Mummy is the more lush and sophisticated when compared to 1931’s Dracula and 1931’s Frankenstein. The film also employs actors from the...
After the box office success of Conan The Barbarian (1982), a number of American and oversea film enterprises quickly worked to make cheap fantasy sword-and-sorcery copies of the film. One of the fastest to hit the presses was Ator, The...
Produced, written, directed and starring Robert Townsend as mild-mannered-citizen-turned-superhero, this lost-in-the-90s comedy is an extremely well-intentioned effort that likely should have been more successful than it was. Townsend plays Jefferson Reed, a milquetoast science teacher trying to evade adult responsibilities, including...
A rather unpleasant thriller, Venom combines the bleakness of a kidnapping drama with a bit of eco-horror in this film, which at times reads like a made-for-television effort. Apparently besieged with creative and personnel difficulties – director Tobe Hooper quit or was fired from...
A surprisingly effective supernatural drama by prolific B-movie director Burt I. Gordon, Tormented starts off with a bang and keeps a nice little pace for its 75-minute runtime. In the first moments of the film, jazz musician Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson)...
Following up on the successful The Horror of Dracula (1958), this Hammer horror film elects to pursue Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) while Christopher Lee sits this one out. Therefore we have no “Count” per se, but rather a mysterious and aristocratic family,...
It’s almost impossible to review Shin Godzilla (2016) – roughly translated as “True Godzilla” and also released as Godzilla Resurgence – without weighing its merits according to the three general audiences who may view the film. First, Godzilla as both a...
“Worst. Heroes. Ever.” reads that tagline for DC “dark action epic” Suicide Squad. Except: really, the film is like any other “underdog hero” film – of which we’ve seen precisely eleven thousand – and there is nothing really new here...
Despite incredibly promising poster art, Deadly Prey is a rather lukewarm effort that combines “The Most Dangerous Game” (the 1924 short story by Richard Connell) and a knockoff of 1982’s First Blood (the original John Rambo film) – and hopes those two...
I suspect I watch “gritty” Westerns for different reasons than many others do. What can I say? I am just a dismal sonofabitch. I like bleak, plodding, bare-ass noir featuring a ragged heroism laid bare in a brief, tiny glory (my Netflix queue occasionally offers...
What starts out as a fishing trip for Angelino family Harry, Ann, Rick and Karen Baldwin (Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, and Mary Mitchell) quickly becomes a fight for survival. A few hours into their trip, they discover via radio broadcast that they...
One of the funniest, most warm-hearted, joyful comedies I’ve experienced, Tangerine is the best surprise I’ve had this year. Somewhat incredible praise considering the film is rife with “adult” language and situations, all kinds of IRL-nudity, and a host of rather...
In this underrated crime thriller Ray Milland plays George Stroud, a hardworking magazine editor who after seven hard years laboring under media mogul Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) is starting to feel a bit resentful. The night before his vacation with his long-suffering...
In mankind’s first mission to the moon, five astronauts (Sonny Tufts, Victor Jory, “Queen of the ‘B’s” Marie Windsor, Douglas Fowley, and William Phipps) wake out of their space-sleep to run into some technical problems. One chemical fire later, and after some awkward astronaut-on-astronaut amorous confessions,...
As a teenage girl, I saw 1992’s Sleepwalkers at the drive-in theater in Aberdeen, Washington. It was a great drive-in film because it has some juicy bits of gore and horror, a splash of sex (“sensuality” according to the rating),...
In 1872, Count Dracula (Christopher Lee) and his bedraggled archenemy Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) do deadly battle on a stagecoach – in Hyde Park (I know… I don’t get it, either). After a brief struggle they both showily perish from their wounds. At...
A gorgeous Gothic supernatural horror romance, Crimson Peak is best viewed by those who aren’t picky about a narrative – or by initiates to director Guillermo del Toro’s work. Otherwise, you’re sure to find the plot flabbergasting – and recognize themes the director...
Aristocratic Londoner (David Niven) is called back to his ancestral home in France, as the estate’s vineyards are failing. He asks his wife (Deborah Kerr) and young children to stay behind; but the wife loves him dearly and the trio soon...
You either love John Carpenter or you might not know much about him at all. But if you’re at all a cinephile, you’re probably in the former category – especially if you appreciate horror. 1980’s The Fog is a much-beloved installment...
Hotshot nuclear submarine Seaview, pet project of Admiral Nelson (Walter Pidgeon), is being heralded for its technology. It’s also inexplicably huge! My son kept making jokes about this: “…and on the left, we have our museum complete with life-size dinosaur fossils…” Captain Lee Crane...
1961’s The Mask opens as older horror films sometimes do: with a authoritarian-looking white man in a study, telling us what we’re about to see is REALLY scary, and totes based in fact. We’re also treated to a bit of William Castle-esque carnival...
In 1960’s Circus of Horrors, a disgraced plastic surgeon (German character actor Anton Diffring) escapes England for the Continent, with his two assistants. There he almost immediately happens upon a young girl, daughter of a circus owner, who has a facial disfigurement....
In the opening moments of sci-fi horror/drama Solaris, psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) spends a last day on earth with a retired and shattered colleague, as well as his own aunt and father. Kelvin is about to embark to a hobbled...
Pray for Death is an above-average martial arts film. If you like martial arts films, you should watch this one. Keep in mind when I say it is “above average” – there are a lot of really, really terrible ones...
The dangers of tanning! Or – is it dipsomania? In fact, the allegory to alcoholism is none-too-subtle in The Hideous Sun-Demon (1959), the story of a scientist exposed to radiation and transformed into a kind of reverse-lycanthropic state. It’s hard to know...
A lifetime of B-movie experience has led me to believe there is an inverse correlative between a film title’s exciting hyperbole, and the action therein. Sadly, in 1957’s The Astounding She-Monster, this ends up being the case. In this not-quite-astounding story, a trio of kidnappers...
The Prowler is a psychological drama with noir and stage influences, set in just a handful of rooms over the period of a few months. The opening third of the work feels almost Hitchcockian; the viewer vaguely senses things are not all...
El Charro de las Calaveras appears to be a cobbled-together serial attempting feature film status, and is the first movie helmed by Abel Salazar’s brother Alfredo. The effect is a rather clumsy and dusty horror film unfolding in what appear to be fallow turnip...
I can’t imagine how special Manhunter must have been to first-time filmgoers back when it came out. It is a creepy, tense, sparse crime drama that relies on our imaginations, rather than explicit gore scenes. I first saw the film about fifteen years later,...
Dr. Terror’s House of Horror, helmed by the directing talents of Freddie Francis and the writing of Milton Subotsky, is a rather silly and unscary horror anthology film. If you’ve seen horror anthologies you either adore them or find them corny and/or repellant....
I remember reading on the now-defunct website for the excellent action comedy Black Dynamite (2009) that there are something like six hundred films categorized as Blaxploitation. The genre – notable for its violence (particularly against and between black men), soft core sexuality, and revolutionary soundtracks...
Tony Scott’s first major film breakthrough, 1983’s The Hunger, has so much going for it that it’s difficult to identify precisely why it isn’t a favorite of mine. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert opened his film review with the following:...
An incredibly understated, border-town noir film that is surprisingly compelling despite serious drawbacks. In its favor: breathtaking cinematography, a perfectly spare score, beautiful production design, genuinely creepy crime – and a fabulous actress. Those merits alone are enough to recommend...
My favorite Michael Mann film – so far. James Caan stars as Frank – a brisk, extremely cloistered high-end jewel thief who rather suddenly stumbles on an idea for a better life. Only in his thirties – but with almost a third...
A somewhat self-involved bit of noir drama, this film a principle charm that surprised me: John Heard. The “That Guy” actor nails it – absolutely NAILS it – in the eponymous role of Alex Cutter, a troubled-but-brilliant alcoholic Vietnam War...
Look. I never said this was a perfectly fair-and-balanced series of reviews. I have a super soft spot for this film. It is a perfect action drama of its time, and holds up well today. Think Lethal Weapon, but less...
Most male critics of cinema will never fully understand that for women, stalking is a very real issue. Every woman has found herself the recipient of unwanted, aggressive male attention. And far too many have experienced attentions that escalate to...
Despite a solid premise, an epic movie poster, and enough 80s action-dude power to stun a small donkey, 1987’s Extreme Prejudice did not achieve its hoped-for commercial success as an homage to Western action. The film has not aged well and, despite...
I don’t know why this film isn’t more roundly praised. It is, for the genre it embodies, note-perfect. I kicked off my week with this one as part of a self-imposed “80s action noir” bender – and I couldn’t help observing how...
A recent conversation with a girlfriend revealed that life can get kinda messed up. Too many feels, not enough sleep, not enough belly-laughter. To that end, I’ve brought out some classics – and a couple recent films – you might...
Kodi Smit-McPhee apparently has the kind of face that attracts filmmakers who make “You Don’t Deserve A Childhood!” kind of movies. To that end, Slow West out-bleaks every bleak Western ever in the first twenty minutes of runtime – slaughtering Native...
Peter Cushing and Forrest Tucker join forces in this early Hammer horror film based on one of Nigel Kneale’s television dramas, “BBC Sunday-Night Theatre: The Creature” from 1955. The result is a well-paced, eery little horror adventure with surprisingly sophisticated...
OK, OK. I am a sucker for the Western genre, as little as I’ve (so far) written about it on my fledgling site, here. The formula is just too good. Take a hardened man out in the lawless West, kick up...
The first colorized version of a Sherlock Holmes story, The Hound of the Baskervilles from 1959 could only loosely be described as “Hammer horror” due to their trademark bits of scare, gore, and other unpleasantness (including a planned gang-rape in...
In 1996 I had high hopes for this film. I enjoy three of the actors featured – Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, and Fairuza Balk. I am a sucker for a sci-fi/fantasy action-drama – gross-out or not (and this one’s kinda...
Colossus: The Forbin Project is a tight little AI-drama starring some television royalty (including Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, and Gordon Pinsent in an ensemble cast) that will probably please those who love those sorts of films. The very premise of...
One might be tempted to think a cinematic version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula put forth by the man who developed “Dark Shadows” – and starring Jack Palance as the titular monster – might be a bit hammy and over the top....
The first colorized version of the Frankenstein story (well… something based off the Frankenstein story anyway), Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein from 1957 helped get the studio on an impressive footing for horror films. Few viewers then or now don’t know the...
Is it just me, or are kick-ass Viking films hard to come by? Which SHOULDN’T BE THE CASE, but it kind of is. I’ve even got a little rule of thumb: if a Hollywood film features a character named “Hrothgar”,...
An early Hammer horror effort, and the first of four in their “Mummy Cycle”, this one leaves me weak in the knees. The color is fabulous. The spooky-factor, perfect (although hardly “nerve-shattering shock!” as advertised on the poster). The ensemble...
Inspired by 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Strange World of Planet X (also released as Cosmic Monsters) is a fun little black-and-white sci-fi/horror, produced in England alongside The Trollenberg Terror (also released as The Crawling Eye). Starring Forrest...
I am going to be completely honest here and say I adore old black and white drive-in science fiction and horror. As long as the picture quality is good, I’ll probably enjoy the hell out of it. Look – I...
Shlock, camp, horror, karaoke, claymation, zombies, and a family-bands-together-in-adversity storyline produce a strange film from a prolific Japanese director. Yeah… you’re gonna get some of that. The film has enough novelty to be a lot of fun – and many...
An above-average black and white “witch revenge” horror film, especially considering the two male leads are about as exciting as nonfat milk. A young college student (an early role for Venetia Stevenson) provides a modicum of sexy-virginal titillation, before falling prey to...