Review of Michael Laughlin and Bill Condon’s cult favourite Strange Invaders (1983) on Blu from Twilight Time + from the KQEK.com archives other tales of alien invasions and small town paranoia!
Crafting an homage from the recombined DNA of fifties monster movies requires a deft touch, particularly when its set in the genre’s peak period of the late fifties. There’s also those dangerous pitfalls where filmmakers can either get lazy and rely on visual artifice instead of a solid script and characters, or be overly earnest and create a film that’s more naïve than the genre they’re trying to embrace…
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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