Read the Re-Animator Reanimated DVD Tuesday blogSend your movie questions to FlickChickSee Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this weeks new flicks in Movie TalkOn the occasion of a new DVD of Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon shared some thoughts with Maitland McDonagh about horror humor and severed headsMaitland McDonagh Re-Animator continues to attract new viewers while many of its contemporaries are gathering dust on the shelves WhyStuart Gordon Re-Animator is into its third generation now which I think is partly because it can still take people by surprise Dr Hill [David Gale] is an outrageous character -- I mean hes lusting after that poor girl even when hes a severed head being carried around in a bag But I think its also Dr West [Jeffrey Combs] Hes so myopic so possessed by the vision of what he wants to do to the exclusion of everything else that his mania is funny and horrifying at the same time And when you look past the corpses I think a
read more
John Carpenter's entry, Cigarette Burns, was my second favorite Masters of Horror episode from season 1. (My all-time favorite MoH to date is William Malone's The Fair-Haired Child). Cigarette Burns had everything in it that makes a horror film (even a short one) great: A unique, darkly mystical story; gorgeous photography; a deep feeling of dread; extremely shocking, perfectly-placed gore; an atmospheric musical score; and Udo Kier. If you have not yet rented or purchased Cigarette Burns on DVD, I highly recommend it. The episode itself remains one of the best of the series, and the DVD contains some interesting extras, including commentary by the master himself, John Carpenter.See, I had to begin this entry by praising J.C., because I hate feeling "meh" about any of my favorite directors' work, and I don't like blogging about disappointment. Considering the title alone, Pro-Life evokes a hot-button issue, and I expected to feel at least a bit stirred up, no matter which side of th...
read more
Nip/TuckHow do I start? Hmm. How about this. The show ended and my cell phone rang. It was TVGuide.com's own Daniel Coleridge. I answered because I was dying to hear what he thought of tonight's two-hour season finale. Daniel's a good friend and besides, he's the one who covered Nip/Tuck for Watercooler before I took over this season. "I'm disappointed!" declared Daniel. "Me too!" said I. So at least I wasn't alone. Why oh why did they make Quentin the Carver?!? How terribly predictable. FX even tried throwing us off by releasing that photo of a bloody and carved Quentin. Then they showed Liz being interrogated in last week's coming attractions — another way to throw us off. When that Carver mask came off and it was Quentin's face, I screamed "No!" I so wanted it to be someone we
read more
America's favorite night of schadenfreude is here: makeover day! And big shocker, self-proclaimed sociopath Cassandra's getting her beloved tiara-holding locks chopped off and bleached to look like Mia Farrow's in Rosemary's Baby. Take that, Miss "I have a great natural beauty and I don't think I need to change a thing." Tyra's getting deliciously mean in Janice's absence. It actually looks pretty good — that is, in those few moments when Cassandra isn't all pinchy-faced and crying about it. It's almost as great as Catie's meltdown in Cycle 2. Favorite makeovers: pretty blonde Kyle as a sultry brunette, Sarah's preppy bob and Nik's nest of high-fashion blonde curls. Sorry, Coryn still looks like a man, even sans cartoon eyebrows. I really didn't get Jay's weird personality lessons, and I wish James St. James had been the one to assign them ("You need to be more Ringling Bros. clown and not so Cirque du
read more
Themes from Rosemary's Baby, the 1968 thriller about a woman who's unwittingly carrying the devil's child, keep popping up on TV.
We could practically come up with 666 examples of this diabolical phenomenon, but here's just a few. Why not make like Mia Farrow and mix up a tannis-root milkshake whilst you compare and contrast them on your TiVo?
Fox's Point Pleasant is about Christina (Elizabeth Harnois), a cherubic blond teen who actually is the demon's seed. The baby Claire (Emilie de Ravin) is carrying on ABC's Lost might be the spawn of Satan. And NBC's upcoming drama Revelations features a nun who finds destruction when she investigates a virgin-born child. What gives?
Producers of both Point Pleasant and Lost 'fess up to adoring Roman Polanski's film adaptation o
read more