I realize this unpopular stance puts me at odds with fervid fanboys nationwide who all but wet their pants over the film this summer, but that’s OK — it’s hardly the first time. I, too, would have loved this movie at the age of 8 … unfortunately, a few decades have passed. A mere seven […]
download
Posted inArts & Culture
Maniac
That’s not to say this update isn’t gory — oh, boy, is it ever — but it has a style the first film sorely lacked. Admittedly, Lustig had little budget to work with back then, whereas P2 helmer Franck Khalfoun enjoyed a $6 million sandbox, now clumped with blood. Playing aggressively against his nice-guy rep, former […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Horror Stories
Like all good anthologies, a wraparound story takes a stab at clumsy cohesion. Here, Arabian Nights-style, an abducted schoolgirl must tell her captor stories to stay alive. The best comes first with “Don’t Answer the Door,” in which a two young siblings awaiting Mom’s arrival home find their apartment infiltrated by … wait and see. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Static
Marrieds Jonathan and Addie Dade (respectively, Kiss of the Damned‘s Milo Ventimiglia and Bullet to the Head‘s Sarah Shahi) know this, yet answer the door anyway. There stands a young woman in distress (Sara Paxton, The Innkeepers) who says her car broke down and now is being pursued by men in gas masks. It’s a whale […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Snuff
To make a long story short, in 1971, the notorious New York husband-and-wife team of Michael and Roberta Findlay (responsible for such underground cult items as the Touch of Her Flesh trilogy) made a movie titled The Slaughter in Argentina. It was deemed unreleasable until half a decade later, when some enterprising producer made it […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Nightmare Honeymoon
Dack Rambo (TV’s Dallas) and then-newcomer Rebecca Dianna Smith play David and Jill. He’s been home three days after a two-year stint in ‘Nam; she’s such a Southern belle, all she lacks is a hand fan. The film opens at their outdoor wedding reception, which they surreptitiously ditch in order to get down to bedroom […]
Posted inMusic
The Younglings — The Younglings
The album bounds to a start with a drum cascade firmly out of the Queens of the Stone Age bible before making a firm turn with an old-school guitar riff that devolves into sparse verses and fleshed-out choruses. “Take My Hand” follows a similar path, if lighter and prettier, that veers into snotty series of […]
Posted inMusic
Hard and ’toned
There are few modern hard rock bands that come to enjoy the wide appeal and critical acclaim that alt-metal act Deftones has over the course of its 20-plus years as a band, and the five-piece isn’t looking to slow down anytime soon. “I think the fact that people get this band is not so much […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Cultish comedy
The film, about a goofy slacker who starts his own indie television station, should have been just another cultural oddity, but Hollywood completely underestimated the collective power of Yankovic’s fans. Twenty-five years later, UHF is more popular than ever, continuing to make generations of geeky kids and their even geekier parents laugh uncontrollably with its […]
Posted inMusic
Groomed for success
Brooklyn-by-way-of-Oklahoma indie outfit Grooms is just over a month removed from releasing Infinity Caller, its best album to date. It’s a record that almost didn’t happen at all, though. “We weren’t sure if we were going to finish it, really. Once we did finish it, we weren’t really sure whether to try and put it out at […]