// Category Archive for: Movies

Goodnight Mommy Trailer Is A Genuine Creepfest

By Jeffery X Martin

Major American studios have proven they have no desire to make decent horror movies anymore. It’s all superheroes around here, buddy, and if you haven’t jumped on that bandwagon, then it’s Pixels for you.

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The Official Popshifter Podcast, Episode #01: Styx and Stones

Welcome to The Official Popshifter Podcast, Episode #01, “Styx and Stones May Break My Bones, But Save Hannibal”

Featuring Managing Editor Less Lee Moore and Featured Contributor Jeffery X Martin! Enjoy and thanks for listening.

Reviews:

Ted Nugent, Free-For-All (Expanded Edition)

Goblin Rebirth, Goblin Rebirth

Pit Stop Blu-Ray

Veruca Salt at Lee’s Palace, Toronto ON

Links:

Satanic Panic: Pop Cultural Paranoia In the 1980s

The Black Room Manuscripts (all proceeds go to Blue Cross UK)

Movie Memories: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure

By Tyler Hodg

I can vividly remember the first time I saw Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. As a child sitting on my Grandmother’s couch, I could not take my peepers off of the television as the scene where Pee-wee realizes his bicycle has been stolen played out. Morbid curiosity got to me during a shot of a mechanical clown taunting the character’s distress, pushing my coulrophobia to the limits, and my interest to an instant high. I watched the movie in wonder until it concluded, and to this day, it’s one my favorite films of all time. I also still hate that damn clown.

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Blu-Ray Review: Pit Stop

By Less Lee Moore

When Roger Corman approached Jack Hill to make a film about stock car racing, Hill was hesitant; he hated both stock car racing and movies about stock car racing. The fact that Pit Stop is such a marvelous example of 1960s independent art cinema is a huge testament to Jack Hill’s tenacity and talent.

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Kickstarter Campaign: Give Horror Film Ayla All the Money

By Jeffery X Martin

Kickstarter has become the great bazaar for creators, all of them camped out under their virtual canopies, hands open, hoping visitors will stop and just look at their wares. Yet like any bazaar, the buyer should beware. It can be a strange and dangerous marketplace, and one doesn’t want to toss their money about blithely. If you can find an amazing concept, with some great people behind the scenes, odds are you’ve made a fine Kickstarter decision.

Please allow me to make a strong suggestion.

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Exploring Ridley Scott’s The Martian

By Tim Murr

I’m always excited for a new Ridley Scott movie. I saw Alien the same year (1980) I saw Jaws and Jaws 2, which was two years before I saw The Empire Strikes Back (my first Star Wars film). So despite having Star Wars toys for most of my short life, my first sci-fi love came from Scott’s shocking, atmospheric, and dark film. When I was a kid, there weren’t many directors’ names I knew, but I knew George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, and Ridley Scott. Of those three, the only one I still get excited about is Scott.

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Blu-Ray Review: Long Weekend

By Jeffery X Martin

If we Americans have learned anything over the last 20 years, it’s that Australia is hell on earth. Spiders bigger than your face, jellyfish that can kill you from ten miles away, sharks, Yahoo Serious. . . it’s the kind of place we should really nuke from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

At its dark little heart, the 1978 Australian film Long Weekend is about hell, and the different ways that concept can manifest itself into reality.

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Legendary Actor Christopher Lee Passes Away At 93

By Tim Murr

The man who hunted Nazis in WWII and played some of the greatest villains in cinematic history has passed away. Christopher Lee was an intelligent, charming man. He was knighted. He was a descendant of Charlemagne. He recorded two metal albums when he was in his ‘80s and ‘90s. He was an amazing talent to say the absolute least.

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Blu-Ray Review: Spring

By Less Lee Moore

I detest romantic comedies. They are often decidedly unromantic and terribly unfunny. Throw drama into the mix and it’s even worse: concocted conflicts and clichéd characters. Horror comedies are a more palatable but often hit or miss. Combining all four genres seems like a bad idea. Somehow Spring manages to do that and still be terrific. It’s the best romantic comedy/drama horror movie you’ve seen yet.

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Jaws Stalks Theaters Again This Summer

By Tim Murr

I’d guess I have about ten films that are deeply important to me on an emotional level. They’re not necessarily all deep movies, but they are all films that represent very specific times and very specific situations, both good and bad. They are films that I can watch over and over and be transported back to a time and place and vividly relive a certain state of mind and/or heart.

Jaws is one if those films. I was four when I saw Jaws and Jaws 2 on cable. I watched it multiple times before I turned five, which is when my parents divorced. So for me, watching Jaws always takes me back to a time when the world didn’t feel like it was ending everyday. (A feeling that never went away, but evolved from fear to anger to bitterness.)

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