Oh, Brian De Palma. You are a master craftsman, and you wear your quirks on your sleeves. Raising Cain features aggressive sex, men dressing as women (although this time not nearly as problematic as Dressed to Kill, although who am I to judge?), heightened scores and your signature split diopter shots, fish-eyed lenses and a truly bugnuts performance from John Lithgow. Sure, your plot is almost cartoonishly ridiculous, but you execute it with such a sense of style I really can’t complain.

What more can I possibly want from you?

ChrisOctober 22, 2023Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 10.0 – Satan’s Slaves: Communion (2022)

Being Film #29 for Hooptober 2023

I had to do it. After being enthralled with Joko Anwar’s remake/prequel for Satan’s Slaves, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go the month without checking out his sequel. Good things come to those who wait, but sometimes good things also come to those that don’t wait, because Satan’s Slaves: Communion is a fantastic continuation of the story: upping the ante on the weirdness and frights, taking us to a new location and a grander scope of the horror, but never forgets to put our intrepid heroes Rini, Toni, and Bondi front and center, focusing on their strength as a family as they continue to deal with the fallout of the first film.

ChrisOctober 19, 2023Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 10.0 – Bay of Blood (1971)

Being Film #27 for Hooptober 2023

NOTE: Using this opportunity to revisit a review I wrote for this film fifteen years ago, slightly cleaned up and reflecting my recent re-watch of this classic.

Although now armed with with experience of many of the Master’s films, prior to my first viewing of Bay of Blood, aka the much better titled Twitch of the Death Nerve, most of what I know about Mario Bava came from reading: the grandfather of Italian Horror, a founding father of giallo as a film genre and a prime influence on generations of filmmakers, notably Dario Argento (and now Sergio Martino), who would go on to refine and bring the genre to legions of fans across the globe. But my practical film experience with Bava was limited to Black Sunday, a terrific film with tons of mood, but not indicative of what I would later come to see in his colors films, or in the proto-slasher mayhem he would unleash in this nasty piece of work.

ChrisOctober 15, 2023October 15, 2023Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 10.0 – Crocodile (2000)

Being Film #26 for Hooptober 2023

Make no mistake: Tobe Hooper may be the director of Crocodile, but this is not Eaten Alive. This is a fast buck direct to video movie that normally would be utterly forgettable except that Hooper can’t help but out a few flourishes that almost – and I mean almost – made it worth sitting through the 90 minute runtime interrupted by a dozen 3 minute ad breaks featuring Trantolo & Trantolo law firm on Plex’s free service. You will get nothing from this movie, but you will smile at Hooper’s sympathies.

ChrisOctober 15, 2023Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 10.0 – Candyman (1992)

Being Film #25 for Hooptober 2023

Sometimes context is everything. On its own I’ve always liked and admired Candyman, Bernard Rose’s adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden” but watching it right after The People Under the Stairs I’m even more impressed. Here is a film that looks at the disparity between the haves and the have nots, the extent of white privilege and appropriation but doesn’t hit you over the head with it. Instead it all creeps out in the action and events that pry back the lid of urban legends to reveal a terrifying entity feeding off the cries and whispers and rumors emanating from the very people caught at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.

ChrisOctober 13, 2023Leave a comment

Reviews

Hooptober 10.0 – The People Under the Stairs (1991)

Being Film #24 for Hooptober 2023

Nightmare on Elm Street may have the dream logic and evil supernatural beings; The Serpent and the Rainbow may have actual magic in the shape of its depiction of voodoo, and yet it’s the very real (to a point) horror and journey of its lead that makes Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs the most fantasy-driven of the man’s work. I’m not prepared to make the case it’s Craven’s best film (that still goes to the original Elm Street for me), but underneath some of its dated jokes and mugging is a wicked satire of the 1% and the struggles of the beaten people under their boot. Plus the man still knows how to frame an indelible image: I’ll never look at an ajar cabinet door the same way again.

ChrisOctober 12, 2023October 12, 2023Leave 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

Tag: hooptober

Hooptober 10.0 – Raising Cain (1992)

Hooptober 10.0 – Satan’s Slaves: Communion (2022)

Hooptober 10.0 – Bay of Blood (1971)

Hooptober 10.0 – Crocodile (2000)

Hooptober 10.0 – Candyman (1992)

Hooptober 10.0 – The People Under the Stairs (1991)