Alongside an Editor’s Blog, Part 3 of Video Tales offers up reviews of Jake West’s superlative documentary Video Nasties: Draconian Days (Severin / Nucleus Films) + Grindhouse Trailer Classics.
Jake West’s follow-up to Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (2010) is another superb chapter in the history of Britain’s Video Nasties era, in which the lack of any ratings system by a government agency was in large part responsible for a glut of unrated films in rental shops…
Part 2 of Video Tales includes a review of Jake West’s excellent 2010 doc Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape (Severin / Nucleus) + scans of another 1980s video store catalogue!
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Britain’s infamous Video Records Act (VRA) in which 72 horror films (dubbed ‘video nasties’ by sleazebag media outlets such as the Daily Mail) were banned by the BBFC due to ‘depraved content,’ Severin Films have picked up the North American video rights to Jake West’s superb documentary…
Synapse Films released a swanky new Blu-ray / DVD combo edition of Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter’s slasher classic The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982) which, like Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead (1981), was branded by Britain’s paranoid censor board as a Video Nasty…
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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