While the 1980s was a fairly lacklustre era for Japanese genre cinema on the major studio front, it was quite an exciting time on the independent scene. A whole new generation of filmmakers — emboldened by available 16mm cameras (the novel home video distribution format) and a robust economy — burst onto the scene, pushing
Tag: Kaiju
I was fortunate to experience the 5th Unnamed Footage Festival Virtual edition, hosted shortly after their 5th in-theater festival which showcased some of the best new Found Footage horror films alongside a selection of classic gems. As a new festgoer to the UFF experience, I was uncertain what to experience from the night of curated
Godzilla’s incarnation in America is racist, and Gojira has been awfully abused as a profound symbol of Japan’s national heritage; a powerful metaphor culturally distorted from the original purpose for cheap theatre tickets as a cardinal sin of capitalistic vice. Imperial Japan’s aggressor in World War 2 – justified or not – has committed another
Writer/Director Pierce Berolzheimer made a show-stopping debut at this year’s Arrow Video FrightFest with the world premiere of his first feature: Crabs!. The film is a wonderfully crafted love letter to classic monster movies that exceed the trappings of other low-budget creature features with some excellent pacing and well-developed characters. You can read our full
There’s a funny kind of serendipity when you’re a fan commentator on popular entertainment, where you can sometimes just barely miss a critical piece of information that hits a smidge after you’ve published your piece. For example, in July of 2020, Kyle Byrd and I gave a presentation titled “Great Yokai War or GREATEST Yokai
By all rights Crabs! seems like it ought to be the sort of film that is a complete joke. Nominally it is about a horde of murderous mutated horseshoe crabs that invade and terrorize a coastal town. It feels like it ought to be the sort of low effort, low budget SyFy picture original awash
There is something incredibly endearing about anthology films, especially those in the horror genre. In fact, I would wager to say that this format of filmmaking works best with horror, seeing as how there are so many different subgenres to include and a diverse audience to satisfy. You can’t please everyone, as the saying goes,
Since the division of Korea into two separate countries in 1948, North Korea have used its cinema to spread propaganda for their “Juche” or self-reliant ideology to the masses in the guise of entertainment, some of which are more controversial than others. Today we are looking at the lesser-known Kaiju film, Pulgasari, released in North