Cyclops 1987

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

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Landlocked 2021 film review

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

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Godzilla Remake Racist

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

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Pierce Berolzheimer Interview

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

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Great Yokai War Guardians Review

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

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Crabs! Film Review

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

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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,

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Pulgasari North Korean Kaiju

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

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