Pop-art satire, screwball romance, and a bra that doubles as a firearm, The 10th Victim is the kind of science fiction only the swinging ’60s could produce. A film that takes a gleefully cynical look at a future where legalized man-hunting is the ultimate sport and the ultimate advertising opportunity. What follows is a stylish,…
The Seventh Victim (1943) – Review
Val Lewton’s The Seventh Victim is one of those films that has all the ingredients for greatness, an eerie premise, shadow-drenched cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, and a mystery steeped in paranoia, yet somehow manages to feel oddly inert. At just 71 minutes, it should move like a sharp little shocker, but instead it wanders, circling…
Maximum Overdrive (1986) – Review
Stephen King on cocaine, a Hollywood budget, and the unshakable belief that everything is scarier when it explodes, that’s Maximum Overdrive in a nutshell. Based on his own short story, this is less a faithful adaptation and more a caffeinated fever dream on wheels, where trucks, vending machines, and even homicidal hair-dryer cords decide humanity’s…
Duel (1971) – Review
Before Jaws, before Jurassic Park, before Spielberg was the patron saint of summer blockbusters, he made a film that proved you don’t need a giant shark or prehistoric monsters to terrify an audience, all you need is a faceless truck, a stretch of desert highway, and the nerve to keep the camera rolling as it…
Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988) – Review
In 1988, we were treated to a gloriously absurd slice of B-movie brilliance called Hell Comes to Frogtown. This is a film that takes the post-apocalyptic action genre, sprinkles in some dystopian satire, and then throws in Rowdy Roddy Piper and an army of frog people, because why the heck not?