Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, we all know the “D” is silent. But if his is the only Django you know … well, friend, you don’t know Django. For one thing, he’s not African-American, but Italian. He’s not a slave, but a Civil War vet. He’s now 47 years old and drags a coffin behind him […]
Rod Lott
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Prince of Darkness / Halloween: 35th Anniversary Edition
Well, in so many words. The important part is that the prof thinks that’s a swell idea. For the job, he selects Jameson Parker (TV’s Simon & Simon), Lisa Blount (An Officer and a Gentleman), Dennis Dun (also from Little China) and a host of random, more expendable character actors to monitor the evil force. […]
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Psycho II / Psycho III / Bates Motel
However, that doesn’t mean one can’t make a satisfying picture that continues to tell the tale. While they’re sacrilege to some, the Psycho sequels get a bad rap, yet they’re actually pretty good, considering the awfully intimidating shadow in which they exist. The first two, 1983’s Psycho II and 1986’s Psycho III, have made their […]
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V/H/S/2
With one fewer segment than the original, this stack of mo’ lo-fi tales of taped terror opens with no credits — just the wraparound story of two private investigators searching for a college student missing for a week. Their gig takes them to his house, where in front of a bank of TVs, littered VHS […]
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Lady in a Cage
After her son (William Swan, The Parallax View) leaves for the weekend — wouldn’t ya know it? — the electricity goes out while Cornelia’s between floors! Ringing the alarm bell attracts only a hobo (Jeff Corey, True Grit) who screams “Repent!” and harbors a thirst for the bottles of wine he spots in Cornelia’s kitchen, […]
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Scenic Route
The indie dramatic thriller casts Duhamel as Mitchell, a finance exec/family man on a road trip with Carter (Dan Fogler, Take Me Home Tonight), an old friend from whom he’s grown apart of late, due to the vastly different directions their lives have taken. Carter lacks everything that Mitchell has: a wife, a kid, a […]
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Bloody Homecoming
Three years ago, the Winston Wildcats were looking forward to the homecoming dance. Putting a damper on their fun was the young man who died after being trapped in a room on fire. Now that the school is set to revive the shindig — the dance, not the death — for the first time since that tragedy, […]
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An American Hippie in Israel
The title refers to Mike (Asher Tzarfati, Double Team), a Vietnam vet who has spent the last two years traveling across Europe while barefoot, chased from country to country by two mute goons with snappy suits and silver-painted faces, because why not? “I think they want my life,” explains Mike, as if that explains anything. […]
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Wish You Were Here
Jeremy’s girlfriend, Steph (Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies), is the younger sister of Alice (Felicity Price), who also went on the trip with her husband, Dave (Joel Edgerton, Zero Dark Thirty). One of those three knows more than he/she lets on; furthermore, two of the three hold an additional secret from the other. Price co-wrote the […]
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Targets
Fearing he’s an anachronism, aging horror star Byron Orlok (the legendary Boris Karloff in one of his final roles) announces his retirement, effective immediately. He doesn’t even want to make the next night’s scheduled promo appearance at the local drive-in theater. After all, “no one’s afraid of a painted monster” when the headlines scream of […]