It’s rare, but sometimes the situation just calls for a low budget yet earnest splatterfest involving Lovecraftian cephalopods who get into your body and just…incubate. Then explode your body at the first sign of danger. This was one of those times, and Hell Hole, the latest feature from the filmmaking family of John Adams and Toby Poser, who brought the similarly cook Hellbender to audiences a few years ago, was the film. The TL;DR is this is fun, rocking with a nice metal soundtrack, and has LOTS of people splattering. It also weirdly has things to say about environmental concerns, body rights, and whether French people can be shot indiscriminately. I’m not so sure about that last point, but the rest is definitely there for interpretation.

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – The Hands Of Orlac (1924)

Being Film #25 for Hooptober 2024

I can imagine The Hands Of Orlac must have been a potboiler at its time of release in 1920s Germany. Director Robert Wiene adapts Maurice Renard’s novel wonderfully, showing a real sense of narrative and the dramatic in his depiction of a by now well-trod story. And for me that’s the main problem with The Hands Of Orlac – I’m familiar with the beats and main narrative thrust owing to my unwavering love for Karl Freund’s Mad Love, which twists the story to a more horrific and almost Lynchian tone, while Wiene’s more direct version of the tale highlights the drama rather that the horror. Still, it’s a solid, even remarkable silent film worth your time just for the film education on display.

ChrisOctober 8, 2024Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – Oddity (2024)

Being Film #24 for Hooptober 2024

We’re getting to the saturation point of reviewing. 24 reviews in 23 days. I’m beat, trying to get this wrapped up so I can take on the other writing stuff I’m putting off. Luckily, the films continue to show bright spots in the genre, perhaps none more so than Damien McCarthy’s sophomore feature Oddity, which was crafted at the same time as his great debut Caveat we covered in a past marathon. It takes the “Monkey’s Paw” approach with a wicked tale of deceit and murder, and just enough supernatural terror to be the legit first film to make me jump and scream in this marathon. I’ll take it.

ChrisOctober 8, 2024October 8, 2024Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – The Fog (1980)

Being Film #23 for Hooptober 2024

No one made horror like John Carpenter. It wasn’t just the man himself (though lord knows he plays a HUGE part); it’s the tight-knit group of collaborators. I can’t imagine watching something like The Fog without the singular cinematography of Dean Cundey, or the editing of Tommy Lee Wallace, or his game cast regular or soon to be regulars like Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau. You put all that together with the man’s signature keyboard score and yeah – he can make something as innocuous as fog seem terrifying.

Of course it helps to also have ghost pirates with leprosy…you know, to add to the fog’s terror.

ChrisOctober 7, 2024Leave a comment

the iguana with the tongue of fire header

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire (1971)

Being Film #22 for Hooptober 2024

Sometimes a film is so generic, so typical of its genre trappings without standing out there’s very little to write about. I’m actually kind of curious as what the two critics on the audio commentary for Riccardo Freda’s The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire would talk about, because as a giallo perhaps its only standout components is 1) it primarily takes place in Ireland, and 2) the plot is so nonsensical it reaches the point of distraction. Is that a selling point for you? It wasn’t for me, so I’m left to do little here other than summarize and post some random thoughts.

ChrisOctober 6, 2024Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – ‘Salem’s Lot (2024)

Being Film #21 for Hooptober 2024

Announced in 2019, shot in 2021, originally set for theatrical release in 2022 only to dribble out onto the Max service this past Friday, the long-awaited ‘Salem’s Lot took a meandering road to reach our eyes. And in the end it was neither a massive misfire not a surefire hit. It was slick, mean, thin in characterization but visually sharp and sumptuous and with enough good sequences that I came away having had a lot of fun with the film. Does it hold a candle to the original 1979 series shot by our marathon’s namesake? No, but I didn’t need it to be, either.

ChrisOctober 5, 2024Leave a comment

Cinema Dual (TEST SITE)

Examining a life through the media we consume. In other words, I’m reviewing all of my physical music media in alphabetical order, one day at at a time. Except when I don’t, as has been the case for the past few years. Still, we march onwards…Coffee essential, but not mandatory

Category: Reviews

Hooptober 11.0 – Hell Hole (2024)

Hooptober 11.0 – The Hands Of Orlac (1924)

Hooptober 11.0 – Oddity (2024)

Hooptober 11.0 – The Fog (1980)

Hooptober 11.0 – The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire (1971)

Hooptober 11.0 – ‘Salem’s Lot (2024)