Horror and Sci-Fi Stuff
With the start of Major League Baseball this week, I thought it would be another opportunity to delve into the very obscure genre of baseball-horror. A few years back I reviewed the crazy, Japanese gorefest, Deadball. This time, I’m tackling (apologies for mixing sports metaphors) the little known 1989 “thriller”, Night Game starring Roy Scheider.... Continue Reading →
We at Maniacs and Monsters will always rise to defend the oft-maligned B movie. No matter how you interpret the designation, there is no shame inherent in B movies, and we hope to combat the stigma connected to the label. Given the association with low budgets, independence, and minimal recognition, perhaps B movies are a... Continue Reading →
Brains. Most of us have one. But who among us has ever stopped to consider whether our brains are friends or foes? We don’t question the loyalty of our brains, which is a sign they are hiding the answer from us. Brains issue decrees with divine authority that we are powerless to deny. Your brain... Continue Reading →
95 years. That’s how much time must elapse before a published story or film becomes public domain, allowing it to be shared, adapted or corrupted by anyone who chooses to do so. On January 1st, 2022, the beloved childhood character, Winnie The Pooh, celebrated his 95th birthday, opening the door for one of the most... Continue Reading →
Released in 1983, The Devonsville Terror tells the tale of three women murdered 300 years ago after they were suspected of being witches. The film was directed by Uli Lommel, best known for the early 80s slashic The Boogeyman, and was originally intended as a theatrical release but ended up going straight to video. After... Continue Reading →
Man is a morbid and macabre creature. An awareness of our own mortality has quite naturally developed into a fear of, and a fascination with, death and the final resting of our remains. Thus, it is of little surprise that the work of the body snatcher or resurrectionist, as those in the profession prefer to... Continue Reading →
Having seen many film versions of the the classic Frankenstein story over the years, I can safely say that Roger Corman’s 1990 interpretation, Frankenstein Unbound, is the most…ummm…unique. A science fiction film as much as horror, the story begins in the far distant year of 2031, where a scientist named Buchanan (played by John Hurt)... Continue Reading →
In a long and varied career, there may not be a film style that Roger Corman has left untouched. His is a legacy that defies classification but, if you were to try, Corman is probably most closely associated with his Gothic horrors and low-budget B-movie fare from the 50s and 60s. The Gothic horrors were... Continue Reading →
There is an old Hollywood adage attributed to W. C. Fields (although probably not originating from him) that states, “Never work with children or animals.” When at their best, children and animals command the spotlight and steal scenes from the rest of the cast. When at their worst, they are unpredictable creatures that don’t behave... Continue Reading →
Film franchises are a staple of the horror genre. Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street are just a few modern examples, producing a myriad of sequels attempting to emulate the success of the original film. But if you measure the success of a franchise based on quantity over quality (please don’t do... Continue Reading →
Film historians love to define “Golden Ages”, periods in which certain genres, cultures, locales, and/or studios saw a boom in both the creation and the acceptance of their films. These “ages” provide a useful short form for discussion purposes but, not surprisingly, their boundaries are not clearly defined. The 1960s saw the emergence of a... Continue Reading →
At first glance, Antlers (2021) may appear to be just another standard monster movie but scratch below the surface and you'll find a dark complexity that is rare in modern horror. Set in a small, impoverished town in Oregon (but filmed in British Columbia, Canada), the film begins with a man and his young son being... Continue Reading →
In 1960, MGM British Studios first introduced us to a pack of blond-haired, candescent-eyed children in Village of the Damned (starring Barbara Shelley, a Hammer regular). Four years later, the frightening and murderous youth would return in Children of the Damned. In the interim, Hammer Film Productions would produce and release its own film about... Continue Reading →
Released in 2009, Wake Wood was one of the first films produced by Hammer Films after it was relaunched following a decades long hiatus in 2007. Like the other recent Hammer projects, such as The Resident and The Lodge (which I reviewed last year), it varies considerably in style and subject from the early Hammer... Continue Reading →
From 1935 until 1979, Hammer Film Productions released some 166 feature films. A phrase commonly used when referring to many of these pictures is ‘lesser known’. Even if you restrict yourself to the horror and thriller genres for which Hammer is best remembered, there is still a large number of ‘lesser known’ works. Of course,... Continue Reading →
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