How do you follow up a movie like "Halloween"? John Carpenter's cheaply made little horror film about a killer stalking teenagers in the suburbs transformed a generation's understanding of fear. A sequel would have been the obvious play, but Carpenter had other fish to fry. First came "Elvis," a made-for-television biopic that brought Carpenter and the actor Kurt Russell together for the first time. Later, Carpenter and his frequent collaborator Debra Hill went on vacation to Stonehenge. According to a SyFy retrospective, Carpenter began staring intently at nearby fog. "What if there's something in that fog?" he said to Hill. "Wouldn't that be scary?" That insight led to "The Fog," Carpenter's theatrical follow-up to "Halloween."
Like "Halloween," "The Fog" would tell the story of buried evil returning to haunt the modern day. But this film would differ in key respects. "Halloween" was a film of short sharp shocks, engineered...
Like "Halloween," "The Fog" would tell the story of buried evil returning to haunt the modern day. But this film would differ in key respects. "Halloween" was a film of short sharp shocks, engineered...
- 10/11/2022
- by Adam Wescott
- Slash Film
Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...
- 6/19/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Andrew V. McLaglen has passed away at his home in the San Juan Islands. He was 94. Wheeler Winston Dixon in Senses of Cinema: "Coming of age when his father, the gifted actor Victor McLaglen, won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in John Ford’s The Informer (1935), young Andrew worked and lived with the cream of Hollywood’s most original and idiosyncratic artists. In addition to John Ford, he knew and/or worked with John Wayne, William Wellman, Budd Boetticher and Cary Grant, and later carved out a career for himself as a director in the Western genre that few can equal." » - David Hudson...
- 9/3/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Andrew V. McLaglen has passed away at his home in the San Juan Islands. He was 94. Wheeler Winston Dixon in Senses of Cinema: "Coming of age when his father, the gifted actor Victor McLaglen, won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in John Ford’s The Informer (1935), young Andrew worked and lived with the cream of Hollywood’s most original and idiosyncratic artists. In addition to John Ford, he knew and/or worked with John Wayne, William Wellman, Budd Boetticher and Cary Grant, and later carved out a career for himself as a director in the Western genre that few can equal." » - David Hudson...
- 9/3/2014
- Keyframe
Wheeler Winston Dixon’s Cinema at the Margins is an enlightening collection of essays and interviews. Wearing his encyclopedic knowledge lightly, Dixon shares his expert insights and research in an eloquent, eminently readable style. I chose to review his new book because its reference to the ‘margins’ held the enticing promise of new discoveries, and a brief survey of its table of contents confirmed that, alongside well-known and much-loved names, there were also unfamiliar ones. The volume covers an early film by Peter Bogdanovich, the horror movies of Lucio Fulci, American 1930s and 40s science fiction serials, the TV series Dragnet, the brief career of Argentine director Fabián Bielinsky and the long one of Hollywood director Sam Newfield, Robert Bresson’s Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945), U.S. 1960s experimental cinema, Dixon’s own meditation on the shift to digital, and interviews with music video director Dale “Rage” Resteghini,...
- 3/17/2014
- by Alison Frank
- The Moving Arts Journal
News that the original cast of the hit film may be reunited has been welcomed, but fears persist among the franchise's passionate audience over its new owner's intentions
To say that the hosts and listeners of Rebel Force Radio are enthusiastic fans of Star Wars is a bit like saying that Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader had a troubled father-son relationship.
The podcast, hosted by Jason Swank and James "Jimmy Mac" McInerney, began earlier this year as a forum for debate and discussion over every aspect of the gigantic futuristic universe created by George Lucas in his classic space opera movies.
Last week the Rebel Force Radio show opened with McInerney urging listeners to write to Bob Iger – the boss of Disney who bought the Star Wars franchise from Lucas last year – and deluge his offices with thousands of outraged letters. But the subject of McInerney's ire was not Disney's...
To say that the hosts and listeners of Rebel Force Radio are enthusiastic fans of Star Wars is a bit like saying that Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader had a troubled father-son relationship.
The podcast, hosted by Jason Swank and James "Jimmy Mac" McInerney, began earlier this year as a forum for debate and discussion over every aspect of the gigantic futuristic universe created by George Lucas in his classic space opera movies.
Last week the Rebel Force Radio show opened with McInerney urging listeners to write to Bob Iger – the boss of Disney who bought the Star Wars franchise from Lucas last year – and deluge his offices with thousands of outraged letters. But the subject of McInerney's ire was not Disney's...
- 3/10/2013
- by Paul Harris
- The Guardian - Film News
This week’s Must Read isn’t about underground film at all, but it’s absolutely fascinating reading. Potrzebie has Tom Conroy’s wonderful memoir about providing movie stills to lurid men’s magazines back in the ’60s and ’70s. If you like a good story about sleaze, drug use, questionable business practices and more, then you gotta check this one out. (P.S. Can you pick out Jack Nicholson on the above cover?)This is great news! A documentary filmmaker actually sued the IRS and won! Filmmaker Magazine recaps the “documentary filmmaking is not a hobby” case fought by Lee Storey.Movie reviewer cartoonist Rick Trembles takes on Ron Mann’s documentary Tales of the Rat Fink in a Motion Picture Purgatory strip that gives a good, concise background on artist Ed Roth in its own right.Swerve Calgary interviews Found Footage Film Festival curator Nick Prueher on the...
- 4/22/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Robert Bresson: The Over-Plenty of Life is a series we've been running in conjunction with the complete retrospective of Bresson's work that'll be touring North America through May. I thought I'd supplement Ignatiy Vishnevetsky's essays, Daniel Kasman's observations and Adrian Curry's collection of posters with a roundup of pointers to pieces on Bresson that have appeared over the past month or two. One of the occasions of the series, as I mentioned in the entry on the initial announcement (with its basic schedule of cities and dates) is the publication of an expanded and illustrated edition of series curator James Quandt's collection, Robert Bresson (Revised), so let's open this go round with notes on another book, Tony Pipolo's Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film. Jonathan Rosenbaum's posted his review for the Summer 2010 issue of Cineaste, in which he calls it…
one of the most careful and...
one of the most careful and...
- 2/7/2012
- MUBI
Back in October of 2009 Oren Peli, hot off the success of his Paranormal Activity, took to the Nellis Air Force Base in the Nevada desert to uncover the secrets of Area 51. Starring Reid Warner, Darrin Bragg and Ben Rovner, the film employs the "found footage" narrative structure that Peli used in Pa to tell the story of three teens whose curiosity leads them to the notorious Area 51 portion of aforementioned Nellis Air Force Base. While we still await information on the film's release, a truly bizarre video was posted on YouTube featuring the first ever footage from the film. Bd reader 'DownNola1995' tipped us off to said video that depicts University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor of Film Studies Wheeler Winston Dixon as he talks about the recent trend of super-low budget movies. Shockingly enough, he somehow landed footage from Peli's Area 51, which can be viewed at the 1:30 mark.
- 12/7/2011
- bloody-disgusting.com
By Jill Serjeant
Los Angeles (Reuters) - It was a disastrous attack that played out live on television 10 years ago, riveting a horrified nation for days.
But the thought-provoking films and TV shows that followed, depicting the fiery attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath, have mostly been shunned by American audiences who favored escapist movies and almost-reality TV while wars raged in Iraq and Afghanistan in the decade that followed.
Culture watchers and media pundits say audiences are not yet ready to relive a memory that remains painful, and some experts note that this particular chapter of American history is still unfinished.
"Films about 9/11 run the risk of being exploitational because they deal with such an epic tragedy and they don't have a resolution. One of the things Hollywood wants is a happy ending, and you are not going to get it," said Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of "Film and...
Los Angeles (Reuters) - It was a disastrous attack that played out live on television 10 years ago, riveting a horrified nation for days.
But the thought-provoking films and TV shows that followed, depicting the fiery attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath, have mostly been shunned by American audiences who favored escapist movies and almost-reality TV while wars raged in Iraq and Afghanistan in the decade that followed.
Culture watchers and media pundits say audiences are not yet ready to relive a memory that remains painful, and some experts note that this particular chapter of American history is still unfinished.
"Films about 9/11 run the risk of being exploitational because they deal with such an epic tragedy and they don't have a resolution. One of the things Hollywood wants is a happy ending, and you are not going to get it," said Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of "Film and...
- 9/7/2011
- by Reuters
- Huffington Post
By Jill Serjeant
Los Angeles (Reuters) - It was a disastrous attack that played out live on television 10 years ago, riveting a horrified nation for days.
But the thought-provoking films and TV shows that followed, depicting the fiery attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath, have mostly been shunned by American audiences who favored escapist movies and almost-reality TV while wars raged in Iraq and Afghanistan in the decade that followed.
Culture watchers and media pundits say U.S. audiences are not yet ready to relive a memory that remains painful, and some experts note that this particular chapter of American history is still unfinished.
"Films about 9/11 run the risk of being exploitational because they deal with such an epic tragedy and they don't have a resolution. One of the things Hollywood wants is a happy ending, and you are not going to get it," said Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of...
Los Angeles (Reuters) - It was a disastrous attack that played out live on television 10 years ago, riveting a horrified nation for days.
But the thought-provoking films and TV shows that followed, depicting the fiery attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath, have mostly been shunned by American audiences who favored escapist movies and almost-reality TV while wars raged in Iraq and Afghanistan in the decade that followed.
Culture watchers and media pundits say U.S. audiences are not yet ready to relive a memory that remains painful, and some experts note that this particular chapter of American history is still unfinished.
"Films about 9/11 run the risk of being exploitational because they deal with such an epic tragedy and they don't have a resolution. One of the things Hollywood wants is a happy ending, and you are not going to get it," said Wheeler Winston Dixon, author of...
- 9/7/2011
- by Reuters
- Huffington Post
Kind of a short list this week. Not sure why that is, but what I can say is that there are some really great articles linked to below.
Underground figures invaded mainstream newspapers this week. First, the Alexandria Gazette Packet has a very lovely profile of the legendary Mink Stole.Then, the Vancouver son profiled bad boy pornographer and avant-garde troublemaker Bruce Labruce.Now you can download the amazing soundtrack to Jaimz Asmundson’s trippy short film The Magus.Mark Savage has tons of great photos from his latest naughty production, the awesomely titled Pond Scum, which looks very classic transgression-ish just from the pictures of star Renae Boult.I always really enjoy reading Bill Plympton’s reviews of classic animated films. They’re usually very brief, but direct and insightful. Most recently, he checked out and loathed The Great Mouse Detective.Jack Sargeant has a nice, short write-up of...
Underground figures invaded mainstream newspapers this week. First, the Alexandria Gazette Packet has a very lovely profile of the legendary Mink Stole.Then, the Vancouver son profiled bad boy pornographer and avant-garde troublemaker Bruce Labruce.Now you can download the amazing soundtrack to Jaimz Asmundson’s trippy short film The Magus.Mark Savage has tons of great photos from his latest naughty production, the awesomely titled Pond Scum, which looks very classic transgression-ish just from the pictures of star Renae Boult.I always really enjoy reading Bill Plympton’s reviews of classic animated films. They’re usually very brief, but direct and insightful. Most recently, he checked out and loathed The Great Mouse Detective.Jack Sargeant has a nice, short write-up of...
- 7/24/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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