the words and worlds of John Robinson
I have a love/hate relationship with found footage movies. There are very few of them I actually like. The majority of them just seem implausible to me-- when the crap has hit the proverbial fan and the world is being torn asunder by a giant monster, or whatever, the characters have to document the entire …
So, speaking of Andrei Chikatilo in my Child 44 article, the movie this week really had to be Citizen X. In 1982, in the Soviet Union, a farmer makes a grisly discovery during his crop harvest: he unearths a body. The police are called to the scene and a search is initiated. When Viktor Burakov, the …
Son of a gun, it's Christmas Eve. Time flies when you're having fun, and Christmas gets here a lot sooner when you're the one buying all the gifts. I won't keep you long, I know you're busy, but I thought I'd share my holiday viewing this week. It has turned rather frigid here in Tennessee …
Is it just me or has there always been something inherently creepy about Santa Claus? Kris Kringle doesn't just spy on us, he has us under an extensive, constant surveillance our enemies (or our own government) can only dream of. He knows so much about each and everyone of us, he knows when we've been …
Continue reading "Movie of the Week: Black Christmas (1974)"
To think of classic British horror, one automatically goes straight to Hammer. That's reasonable, they put out some stellar genre films (a favorite of mine remains Captain Kronos-- Vampire Hunter). In competition with them was Amicus and their varied slate of films. Their horror was predominantly anthology movies and the best of them, better than …
Continue reading "Movie of the Week: Tales from the Crypt (1972)"
In December 1997, in Nashville, TN (just down the road a ways from me), Opryland USA permanently closed. It was an amusement park which mainly operated in the warmer months, although it did host Christmas shows. The next spring and summer, vehicles full of families began arriving, completely ignorant of the fact the park had …
Maybe its the bleakness November sometimes attains, with its rains, coldness, and, where I live, threat of snow flurries, that puts me in mind of the stark scenes peppered throughout a lot of fantasy genre films: shadowy forests, fog-shrouded mountains, foreboding ruins. Of course I'm going to end the penultimate month of the year with …
Continue reading "Movie of the Week: Conan the Barbarian (1982)"
“Deathstalker? Is that your first name or your last name?” If, by chance, you've been thinking of watching, or re-watching, the Deathstalker series of films, I wish to ask you why? Do you have a fever? Are you afflicted by the plague? If you insist on going through with this ludicrous, nonsensical quest, I suggest you …
Queen Taramis, of Shadizar, longs to resurrect the god Dagoth. Lucky for her, her virgin niece, Princess Jehnna, is the one prophesied to do so. Jehnna must retrieve a mystical jewel from the wizard Thoth-Amon. The jewel, a large diamond, will reveal the location of Dagoth's lost gem-encrusted horn. The horn, once replaced on the …
Realizing this is the 2011 movie with Jason Momoa in the title role, you may have already groaned and rolled your eyes so hard you have fallen out of your chair or nearly passed out. Or maybe you didn't, I don't know. Maybe you are like me, it's plausible, and are of the opinion that …
Continue reading "Movie of the Week: Conan the Barbarian (2011)"
Curio Macabre 