Book signing alert: yours truly (plus other excellent writers) will be signing copies of the new U of T book “The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul” this Sat. Oct. 24 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox + imminent podcast details.
This weekend marks the official launch of The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul, a new book edited by André Loiselle and Gina Freitag, and featuring lightly-theoretical essays by several genre and media writers, including myself (making this page more than a bit of shameful self-promotion). The book’s theme is Canadian horror, a topic that […]
Edited by André Loiselle and Gina Freitag, The Canadian Horror Film: Terror of the Soul features essays by several genre and media writers. I’m delighted my contribution, an essay on the seminal forest slasher Rituals (1977), is in great company, nestled alongside fellow Rue Morgue scribes like James Burrell, Andrea Subissati, and Paul Corupe – […]
Follow-up profile of pioneering filmmaker Julian Roffman includes a book review of Dear Guelda, reviews of selected short films, and the features Sarumba (1950), The Bloody Brood (1959), and Spy in Your Eye (1965).
Comparative review / essay on the 5 attempts to dramatize George Orwell’s dystopian sci-fi classic 1984: the 1953 radio play, 1953 Studio One teleplay, 1954 BBC teleplay, 1956 film version, and the 1984 film version recently released on Blu by Twilight Time. Hey, it’s only 8,000 words…
Tales of Giant Bugs on VHS, a Podcast Interview, and Tape Swapping
In addition to a review of the 3D short film ROACH (2022) on VHS, I’ve an interview with its maker, SCHNUDLBUG, and links to an essay I wrote for the latest issue of BRANDON LIM’s zine, FILM FVCKERS, titled “THE GREAT TAPE SWAP”
Now Where Were We? Right. Let’s go back to LAST NIGHT (1998)
Don McKellar’s LAST NIGHT (1998) is the first review after a long pause in activities at KQEK.com
Gothic Steele: An Angel for Satan (1966)
Review of AN ANGEL FOR SATAN / UN ANGELO PER SATANA (1966), Barbara Steele’s last Italian Gothic, on Blu-ray from Severin Films
Tales of Giant Bugs on VHS, a Podcast Interview, and Tape Swapping
In addition to a review of the 3D short film ROACH (2022) on VHS, I’ve an interview with its maker, SCHNUDLBUG, and links to an essay I wrote for the latest issue of BRANDON LIM’s zine, FILM FVCKERS, titled “THE GREAT TAPE SWAP”
ArtScopeTO 10: Interview with Abstract Painter Donna Wise
For my occasional podcast series ArtScope TO, Abstract Painter Donna Wise discusses her unique techniques, and working during the 2020-2021 pandemic.
Podcast: Jason Pichonsky on Restoring Julian Roffman’s THE BLOODY BROOD (1959) + PHOBIA (1980)
Alongside a podcast with CanCon film historian Jason Pichonsky are revised reviews of Julian Roffman’s THE BLOODY BROOD (1959) + John Huston’s PHOBIA (1980), both from KINO Lorber / Unobstructed View.
The core story involves a pilot who runs into an available, functional spacecraft, and boots up into the planet’s now-toxic atmosphere, relying on the craft’s occasionally bristling AI navigation system to find a strata safe from dense clouds, and a roving giant bug determined to make a meal of the tiny craft and its pilot.
Assorted characters collide and interact in the lead-up to Earth’s demise at precisely midnight.
BR: Angel for Satan, An / Un angelo per Satana (1966)
Had Barbara Steele remained in Europe – especially Italy – during the early 1970s, she may well have appeared in giallo thrillers…
BR: Cannibal Man / La semana del asesino / Apartment on the 13th Floor, The (1972)
Cannibal Man has a palpable crime-drama feel – the events unfold after daily title cards – and one can sense Hitchcockian sensibilities…
BR: No One Heard the Scream / Nadie oyó gritar (1973)
After the grisly thriller Cannibal Man (1972), Spanish auteur Eloy de la Iglesia opted for a far less graphic thriller which is part giallo…
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