The Spine of Night is an animated fantasy film that uses rotoscope, which is sadly a rare technique these days, with just Richard Linklater flying the flag in more recent times. Philip Gelatt and Morgan Galen King co-directed: King's background is in animation, whilst Gelatt's is in live-action filmmaking. This film owes a great deal to … Continue reading The Spine of Night – Blu-Ray Review →

Maniacal Mayhem is a set of Boris Karloff films from the vault of Universal Pictures, with three features made between 1936 and 1951. It certainly isn’t a collection of his best work, but The Invisible Ray finds Karloff together with Bela Lugosi, as does Black Friday. The third film is The Strange Door. The Invisible … Continue reading Karloff in Maniacal Mayhem – Blu-Ray Review →

This is GWAR is a documentary about the band/art collective known as GWAR. It’s a pretty straightforward history of the group, which formed in Richmond, Virginia in 1984 as essentially a joke. Dave Brockie (“Oderous Urungus”) of hardcore punk band Death Piggy was the instigator, along with Hunter Jackson (“Techno Destructo”). The whole thing was … Continue reading This is Gwar – Blu-Ray Review →

Lon Chaney’s 1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dame is considered one of the two “classic” versions, along with Charles Loughton’s 1939 film. Based on the 1831 Victor Hugo novel, which may or may not be based on the figure of a real hunchback who worked at the famous cathedral, The Hunchback of Notre Dame was … Continue reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) – Blu-Ray Review →

Take Out was Sean Baker's second feature as a director. It was co-directed with Shih-Ching Tsou, who has gone on to act as a producer on Baker’s subsequent features. I presume partly why she co-directed the film is that the great majority of it is in Mandarin, and Baker doesn't speak the language but she … Continue reading Take Out – Blu-Ray Review →