Going back eight years is not much of a throwback in time. Yet writer-director Travis Betz’ “Lo” (2009) is worthy of a Throwback Thursday shout-out anyway. It’s an overlooked and undervalued film that deserves a wider audience. A genre-blending horror comedy musical with romantic drama elements, this indie picture takes a lot of chances and still succeeds.
Tag: throwback thursday
Throwback Thursday: Peter Bogdanovich’s “Targets” (1968)
On one level, Peter Bogdanovich’s first feature film, TARGETS (1968, prod. Roger Corman) is about a shift in horror cinema. In the late 1950s, gothic/supernatural and extraterrestrial monsters started to give way to the monsters of everyday life. TARGETS is a metaphor for this change in the major source of cinematic horror.
Throwback Thursday: “It’s Alive” (1974)
The monstrosity of America in early 1970s? “It’s Alive” in Larry Cohen’s classic 1974 exploitation film!
“Dead Ringers” (1988) & the Duality of David Cronenberg
Almost unbearably bleak, Dead Ringers is an endurance test – just not in the way most Cronenberg faithful will expect.
Sh*t Pinhead Says: The Pervert’s Guide to the HELLRAISER Movies (Part 1)
To start off an intermittent series of Throwback Thursday posts on the Hellraiser movies, I’m going to focus today on the character of Pinhead as portrayed by… Read more “Sh*t Pinhead Says: The Pervert’s Guide to the HELLRAISER Movies (Part 1)”
Throwback Thursday: “Death Wish II” (1982)
Sometimes, lowered expectations win out over loftier ideals.
Throwback Thursday: “Women’s Prison Massacre” (1983)
Perhaps it’s by providence that I loved Women’s Prison Massacre, wherein atrocity, milked for full exploitation value, is inserted into the narrative and thematic DNA like a fast-dissolving cyanide capsule.
Cults in Horror Movies: “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) – by Thomas S. Flowers (Part 2)
And isn’t this what Rosemary’s Baby ultimately teaches us? That even in a city as sprawling as New York, evil is present behind the faces of those we thought we could trust?
Cults in Horror Movies: “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) – by Thomas S. Flowers (Part 1)
There is a strange, perverse, serendipitous feeling watching Rosemary’s Baby. This first of Roman Polanski’s American films opens with a New York City urban landscape outstretched and panned across, as if what we see is some malevolent box metal toy, wound up and played on the tune of some woman humming an intently sweet and ambiguous lullaby. But instead of some creepy jack-in-the-box, we get something much different in the end. Much more sinister. And utterly human, regardless of its supernatural parentage.
Throwback Thursday Classic: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920)
“Caligari” is a work that continues to influence films and filmmakers to the present day. This is particularly true in the horror genre. One of its major achievements is that it helped to lay the groundwork for the horror films of the future.
Loud Green Bird 