It’s that time again! In this episode, The Magic Jack O’Lantern 2017, we once again bring you our list of viewing tricks and treats to celebrate the season. We watched one Halloween inspired title every day in October and now pass the list and our impressions on to you in…
Episode 060 – The Thing
“You have to embrace the darkness,” film editor Todd Ramsay told director John Carpenter. “That’s where this movie is. In the darkness.” The Thing (Carpenter, 1982) is bathed in darkness, even though it happens to be set in a landscape of blinding whiteness. Whether it’s the black and blue palate,…
Episode 059 – Horror of Dracula
Terence Fisher and Hammer Films introduced the world to its first truly modern vampire with Horror of Dracula (1958). Known in its native UK as simply Dracula, it was a technicolor explosion of blood, sex, and fury the likes of which the world had not yet seen. It was shocking…
Episode 033 – The Magic Jack O’Lantern 2016
In this episode, The Magic Jack O’Lantern 2016, we bring you our list of viewing tricks and treats to celebrate the season. We watched one Halloween inspired title every day in October and now pass the list and our impressions on to you in hopes that you might find some…
Episode 032 – Halloween
I was eight years old when I saw the first television commercial for John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and it was galvanizing. At that age, my horror cinema experience centered mainly around the cadre of Universal monsters, and I loved them, but this was a shot across my bow that I…
Episode 031 – Black Christmas
I resisted the pull of Black Christmas (Clark, 1974) for a very long time. Too long. I thought it was going to be too scary (it is), or too violent (it’s not), or too gory (not really). When I finally watched it several years ago, I was delighted that it…
Episode 007 – The Uninvited
Why do I enjoy this film so much? In the simplest terms, The Uninvited (1944) features a big house by the sea I really want to live in. Put that together with a great puzzle to solve, and I think this is a corker of a film. A couple of…