This was an interesting one. I’ve seen comments from people online who were deeply unsettled by it, calling it “nightmare inducing.” My reaction was more like, “huh…” Is that because these people are sensitive crybabies whereas I am an emotional mute whose empathy has been destroyed by watching years of horror films?  Possibly. The story…

Here’s an interesting biographical detail about me: as a kid, I lived in Iran for around six months. This was in the seventies, right before the Shah fell in the cultural revolution there. As such, I have a bit more familiarity with the country’s history than some. And I’m well aware of the country’s war…

This is a strange little horror film from 1935. I was first drawn to it because of a famous still in which Peter Lorre looks like some kind of techno-mutant out of a Mad Max film (albeit stylishly dressed in a snappy overcoat.) When I finally saw “Mad Love,” I was a little underwhelmed and…

It’s probably no surprise why I would give “Copycat,” a serial killer movie from 1995, a review. Netflix has been putting it on blast and it’s in their top ten. I saw the movie when it came out, and recall enjoying it. So how does it hold up thirty years hence? Not bad. The plot…

Ever finished a movie and have no idea what you just watched? That’s Kiyoshi Kurasawa’s Japanese 1997 film “Cure” in a nutshell. Here’s the shape of the plot. A police detective is assigned to investigate a series of murders. The catch is, the killers have been caught, but they have no good explanation for their…

Despite being a great director, Alfred Hitchcock has never gotten the biographical film he deserves. I was about 20 minutes into 2012’s “Hitchcock” when I realized I’d already seen it. But so little of the film had imprinted itself on my neurons that it felt like I was watching something new. The film is centered…

I’m a bit hit or miss with the films Clint Eastwood has directed. I liked “Unforgiven,” his 1992 Oscar winner. But he’s made a string of movies that I find too obvious in their themes and messages. And I found the final ending to ”Million Dollar Baby” rather unbelievable. For the most part, I would…

I’ve mentioned that a fertile ground for the kind of tension and conflict that permeates horror and thrillers is a setting where several women are forced to interact with each other. Hence, the various “women in prison” movies that were thing at one point. It’s not the confines of prison, but rather an all girls…

At some point in the recent past, I caught wind that the science fiction author Robert Heinlein had written a short story called “All You Zombies.” The story, I was told, featured one of the greatest plot twists ever devised. Intrigued, I read it, and generally agree with that assessment. More recently, I sat down…

Certain films just don’t quite know what to do with themselves. 1970’s “Joe,” starring Peter Boyle (the monster in “Young Frankenstein” and dad character in the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”) as a hippy hating working stiff, is one example. The plot in brief: white collar father Bill discovers his daughter (played by Susan Sarandon in…

Dario Argento is a well-known Italian filmmaker who did a string of terrific slasher films from the 70s into the 2000s. (He’s also known as the father of the actress/director, Asia Argento.) I went through a phase of watching his movies about 15 years ago, but somehow I missed “The Bird with the Crystal Plumage,”…

This is an interesting one that prompted a variety of thoughts that are still settling in my brain. There’s certainly nothing horrifying or terrifying about it. It leans into the comedy, but for the first half hour, it’s a kind of Disney channel comedy. That lasts until people start getting killed, including by having their…

It just sounds like the title to a great film noir movie, right? It’s weighed down with secrets and betrayals, gunshots, and curls of cigarette smoke. Well, the film lives up to its title. The 1947 Robert Mitchum thriller has got it all: femme fatales, sneering mobsters (the main one deliciously played by Kirk Douglas)…