THE DANMAN CAN

The Blob  (1988) has a mean streak that I'm not typically a fan of, where everyone is disposable, and the filmmakers really seem to delight in killing people off in innovative ways, but when the f/x work is as good as it is here, it doesn't bother me too much. The tone is just a bit weird, when characters that you're supposed to care for die horrible, particularly cruel deaths. I do appreciate the killing off of the character that you think is going to be the male lead less than a half hour in (à la  Psycho  (1960)) though. A lot of the f/x appear to be homages to setups from John Carpenter 's The Thing (1982) (my review here ), including a few gags that are straight up rip-offs of Rob Bottin 's work from that most perfect of perfect horror films. There are also some shots that are reminiscent of 1987's  Street Trash   (my review here )  which is enough to melt a grue lover's heart (literally). But it's hard not to love practical f/x and makeup in ...

Phantasm (1979) is one of those films that I've seen many times, where I'm willing to forgive some of the clunkier aspects—the rough acting (and overacting), the dated f/x, the silly (but fun) dialogue, and some truly goofy character moments—because I can't help but marvel at the spirit and enthusiasm that its writer/director Don Coscarelli  and his dedicated cast and crew were able to get up on screen with a micro budget. It's one of those films that inspires because you can tell it's made by people who truly cared and it's got an underdog quality that you can't help but root for. In those ways, it's a lot like Sam Raimi 's The Evil Dead (1981)—in fact there are physical gags in Phantasm  that are similar to the type of humor used in The Evil Dead . Additionally, the chainsaw duel in this film's sequel,  Phantasm II (1988), was likely a tribute to  Tobe Hooper 's  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2  (1986), and the quadruple shotgun to  Evi...

Wild At Heart  (1990) features my favorite on-screen rebel couple, Sailor and Lula, two young lovers who cope with all the shit dealt their way from the wild weird world the only ways they know how—through sex, cigarettes, heavy metal, and their undying and true love for each other.  WAH  is a film about passion, crime, dancing, individuality, freedom, good and bad witches, temptation, menacing baddies, oddball families, and much more, all filtered through the strange and wonderful mind of  David Lynch . You can find my  David Lynch Feature Films Ranked  list  here .

More than just a superb horror film, more than just a gore fest, more than just a dark comedy— An American Werewolf In London (1981) is a true classic that features revolutionary makeup f/x by Rick Baker , affecting performances by David Naughton , Jenny Agutter and Griffin Dunne , endlessly quotable dialogue, and a memorable score by the prolific Elmer Bernstein  (plus clever use of "moon" songs)—all directed to perfection by John Landis . Even though two other high profile werewolf horror films ( The Howling  ( review ) and Wolfen  ( review )) preceded AWIL earlier the same year, and while I like both of those films, they don't hold a candle to AWIL , which rightfully earned a spot on my Top 100 Films  list and my Top 10 Horror Films list. AWIL won the first ever Academy Award for Best Makeup—well deserved for Baker's incredible transformation scene alone. The blood and guts and mayhem (that Piccadilly Circus scene!) in this film are peerless. ...

While it may be a mark against this film for some viewers, there is something entirely satisfying to me that Conquest (1983) feels like it was birthed from the imagination of a 14-year-old boy. There is no denying that Conquest is a low-rent Italian rip-off of  Conan The Barbarian (1982) ( review ) and The Beastmaster (1982) ( review ) that has more in common with Hawk The Slayer  (1980), but that's what makes this movie so enjoyable. It's unfortunate that the photography is not up to par with Lucio Fulci 's other films (the soft focus was applied a bit too liberally), but it's impossible not to enjoy this fantasy freakfest. If you like your sword and sorcery flicks with a mostly-nude, golden-masked, snake-wielding, brain-eating, orgiastic necromancer witch who has an army of wolfmen and the power to control the sun and the moon, look no further! If, in addition to that (as if you needed more), slow motion jumping from great heights, a laser bow, healthy doses of ...

There really is no other film like  2001: A Space Odyssey   (1968). No other film before and no other film since. And there really was no other filmmaker like  Stanley Kubrick  (my favorite director). Before or since. It's a film of impeccable style, grace, and patience, filled with gorgeous visuals, sumptuous and occasionally terrifying sounds, and ponderous and unnerving moments. It's a technical marvel, a masterpiece and the existential sci-fi film to end all existential sci-fi films—one that has sparked many theories. When I made the updated 2019 version of my Top 100 Films , I rightfully included 2001  on the list. It seems to get better with each viewing. In 2018 I had the pleasure of seeing the film in a new 70 mm print. One day short of a year ago I watched the newly remastered Blu-ray, which was just as gorgeous. Since I bought a 4K OLED TV and a 4K Ultra HD player earlier this year, I have had the capability to watch the UHD disc and I finally ...

People On Sunday (1930) is an historically significant film for several reasons. Chief among those reasons is that it was one the first films made by several young German/Austrian filmmakers ( Robert Siodmak , Edgar G. Ulmer , Billy Wilder , Fred Zinnemann , Curt Siodmak , and Eugen Schüfftan ) who would all go on to become important figures in Hollywood in varying capacities. Another reason is the naturalistic, almost documentary-like quality of the film (combined with its cast of "non actors"), which would influence and anticipate the Italian neorealist movement. Additionally, POS  provides an interesting—if maybe not entirely accurate—look at the interwar period in Berlin. Its examination of everyday people enjoying time off is fun to watch and it often features evocative imagery. Outside of everything mentioned above though I'm not sure it's a film that has a lot of rewatchability for this viewer, due to its lack of plot. In short: People On Sunday is a great...

Full disclosure:  M.R. Mackenzie  is a friend of mine. I've  guest hosted  numerous times on the podcast which he co-hosts,  Movie Matters . I also had a hand in proofreading this book, so this was my second read-through. And I like to support my friends in their creative endeavors. Regardless of all that, I still very much objectively enjoyed his sophomore novel  Cruel Summer  (2019). Summer is the sequel novel to In The Silence (2018) (my review for that book here ) and the second installment in the Kelvingrove Park Trilogy . Two of the main characters from  Silence , Zoe Callahan and Anna Scavolini, return in Summer , but the focus this time lies on Zoe rather than Anna. Three years after the horrific events of ITS , which, without spoiling anything, have a deep and personal affect on Zoe, we now find her embroiled in possible political scandal and in bad favor of some unsavory and dangerous people, who threaten her and her loved ones....

In Robert Eggers ' sophomore feature, the  Poe / Lovecraft -inspired   The Lighthouse  (2019), the sanity of two wickies  (portrayed by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson ) is brought to question when their scheduled four-week contract is extended due to a storm, which may have been brought on by an act of violence perpetrated by one of them. While I wouldn't say that The Lighthouse  offers any surprises or twists, I don't think it needs them. Its primal story (Eggers co-wrote the screenplay with his brother  Max ) is chock-full of period prose, imaginative insults, and well-timed farts (yes). Dafoe's salty (former) seafarer, Thomas Wake, is perfection, one of those "born to play" roles, and his sinister Poseidon / Neptune -like quality is a force on screen. Pattinson as Ephraim Winslow is quite good as well, forced to endure the verbal and physical punishment doled out via Wake (when he calls Winslow "pretty as a picture” it feels as if he's speci...

While praise can rightfully be aimed at Karen Black for the range of her performances across all three segments in Trilogy Of Terror  (1975), all of which are different and decent, the television budget and production levels are clearly evident throughout and there's not much of a lasting impression. TOT is good for some laughs, particularly this TV movie's ability to be "sexist, racist, (and) pervy as well as tackle Daddy and  Mommy issues in just over an hour" (thanks to writer Richard Matheson )—to quote my friend Kate .

Charlie Chaplin 's final silent film, The Circus  (1928) (rereleased in 1969 with a new score), was released just a few months after 1927's The Jazz Singer , the first feature-length motion picture with sound. This seems to inform the final shot of The Circus , which ends on a somber but hopeful note. Chaplin's Tramp ends up a part of the titular troupe by accident, as he flees from the police after being mistaken for a pickpocket. The scene where he literally stumbles into the ring is one of the film's highlights (along with the earlier automaton gag, which is one of the best of Chaplin's career). Initially an unwitting comic performer, soon the Tramp finds himself the star of the show. As he interacts with the various players — including falling in love with the show's bareback rider — there are many scenes and gags throughout that cause a smile, a laugh out loud, and tug at the heartstrings in equal measure. Additionally, there are sequences with in-came...

For  John Waters ' first studio (and biggest budgeted) film,  Polyester   (1981), he ditched the overt filth and midnight movie approach to make his version of an R-rated  Douglas Sirk  melodrama, casting  Divine  against type (trading his well-known monstrous persona for a sympathetic character), and scored a real Hollywood star, 50s heartthrob  Tab Hunter . Aided by a scratch-and-sniff gimmick called  Odorama ™ and inspired by  William Castle , Waters aimed his crude satirical sense of humor at suburbia — tackling divorce, abortion, adultery, alcoholism, foot fetishism, and the religious right. While it's tamer than his previous films in regard to gratuitous on-screen content, it benefits from improved production values, refined performances, and there's still plenty of memorable dialogue. His usual cast and crew of  Dreamlanders  are all there, just in minimized roles. Polyester  received good reviews and brou...

Writer/director Benjamin Christensen described his 1922 film Häxan as a “cultural history lecture in moving pictures." His silent film explores witchcraft in the Middle Ages and compares it to modern treatment (at the time) of mental illness, combining historical descriptions via intertitles with on-screen reenactments. In the process, he created something the likes of which had never been seen before—a pseudo documentary/pseudo horror film—that serves all at once as a somber reminder of what superstition can cause people to do, a delightfully demonic romp, and a virtual handbook for goths everywhere. Christensen himself plays Satan, lasciviously flicking his tongue at and luring women in various states of (un)dress throughout the film. All the iconic imagery you could want on this topic is here—black magic, a bubbling cauldron, a full moon, creepy forests, infant sacrifice, blasphemy, torture. If I'm being honest, those are the parts of the film that entertain me the ...

I'll watch anything Steven Soderbergh does because he never repeats himself and I love that he balances blockbusters with passion projects, making both popcorn escapism and serious political dramas—sometimes within the same year. He made another film in 2019, High Flying Bird   (my review here ), also released by Netflix, and I enjoyed it, despite not being a sports fan in the slightest. I didn't like The Laundromat as much though and a lot of that has to do with the slapdash tone (Is it a breezy satire? Is it a scathing diatribe? Is it a documentary?), the lack of character development, and the irony of a "message" film like this being delivered by millionaires. You can find my  Steven Soderbergh Feature Films Ranked  list  here . You can find my  Top 20 Directors  list  here .

It's so interesting to see how one views a film at different points in their life or even depending on the mood they're in when they watch it. The last time I watched Scarface (1983) (my review here ), I wrote how it didn't feel much like a Brian De Palma film. Now that it's been just shy of eight years since my previous viewing, I couldn't feel more different. Between the camerawork, the editing, the melodrama and the way De Palma takes the gangster picture to almost cartoonish proportions, it very  much feels like his work. Oliver Stone 's script takes the very basic idea of Howard Hawk 's fantastic original 1932 Scarface , transports the action from Chicago to Miami, switches the ethnicity of the characters from Italian to Cuban immigrants, and changes the means of power from illegal alcohol to cocaine. Stone's dialogue is part of the lexicon of cinema, like it or not.  Al Pacino 's performance is one of over the top bombast, an approach he...

I'm not sure that I needed to find out what happened to Jesse Pinkman after the conclusion of Breaking Bad (2008–2013). And honestly, there is nothing particularly revelatory about El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie  (2019). It feels more like two long episodes of the TV series than a film on its own right. But there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing felt out of place since series creator Vince Gilligan wrote and directed the movie himself. The production values are really high, as with the series. Revisiting these characters was like slipping on a glove—no surprises, just a comfortable feeling. Aaron Paul is certainly excellent. And the film will always carry a certain level of noteworthiness due to it being the last performance by Robert Forster released during his lifetime (I found out about his passing as I was writing this review—R.I.P.). While I can't say that El Camino  is necessary , neither does it feel like any kind of a betrayal or a letdown. It's just d...

While not the classic that Predator  (1987) turned out to be, Predator 2 (1990) is a worthy follow-up and a thoroughly enjoyable action/sci-fi flick. Danny Glover  was a bit of an odd choice to square off against the "silent, invisible, invincible, ultimate hunter" but somehow he makes it work in a cast filled with intense /over the top male actors— Gary Busey , Bill Paxton , Robert Davi , and Morton Downey Jr . among them. There's definitely an additional level of comedy added that wasn't present in the first film, but it's also a gorier affair, at times dipping deeper into horror movie territory than its predecessor (or Predacessor? Sorry.) did. Stan Winston 's alien creation gets some nice updates in costume and upgrades in weaponry that are put to great use. Stephen Hopkins was a solid choice to direct Predator 2 . While A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child  ( review ), which he directed the previous year, is when that series starred to decl...

Don’t Look Now (1973) has always felt like more of a thriller and a moving drama to me than a horror film—at least until the last 15 minutes. In that way it’s much like Daphne du Maurier ’s (whose 1971 short story serves as the basis of this film) Rebecca (1938), which was also famously adapted to film by Alfred Hitchcock . Of course since DLN  was directed by Nicolas Roeg , it's a whole different type of experience. Concerning a married couple in Venice following the death of their young daughter, DLN  is a film that focuses on the aftermath of the death, the grief that pervades the couple, and two sisters (one clairvoyant) that persist in their lives.  Roeg's film is noteworthy for many reasons. Among them are its actors' willingness to fully commit to their roles, its unconventional editing style and manipulation of time, combined with a fractured (and at times intentionally glacially paced) narrative, its frank depictions of nudity, including a sex scene bet...

It's difficult for me to fathom that Shaun Of The Dead (2004) is already fifteen years old. All the jokes and references still land, the dialogue is incredibly quotable and relatable (and the callbacks clever), the editing and story beats still impress, you care in one way or another for all the characters, and the film is ridiculously fun for the entirety of its runtime.  SOTD is basically a perfect film, and, along with Re-Animato r  ( review )  and The Return Of The Living Dead ( review ) (both 1985), is one of the Top 3 zombie comedies ever. You can find my  Edgar Wright Feature Films Ranked  list  here .

I wrote on my second viewing of  The Shape Of Water  (2017)   that it is a film that will stand the test of time with its simple yet complex beauty. After a third time, I still hold that sentiment. TSOW  is a beautiful, at times brutal, adult fairy tale   and a good old fashioned romance (with nudity), all directed masterfully and impeccably by that modern movie wizard  Guillermo del Toro . Water  most closely resembles the films of  Jean-Pierre Jeunet   in design, tone, and even parts of the score by Alexandre Desplat , but there's definitely a bit of a  Steven Spielberg / Tim Burton  vibe too. All the leads are on point— Sally Hawkins   as the daydreaming, headstrong mute, Michael Shannon  as the imposing, violent force,  Richard Jenkins   as the vulnerable, relatable loner,  Octavia Spencer as the loyal, thankless friend, and  Doug Jones   as the literal fish o...

There's a sizable subset of fans that prefer 1993's  Addams Family Values  to its predecessor  (my review here ). As sequels go, it's quite good, but I still prefer the first film overall, even if I settled on awarding the same star rating to both. I'm not actually certain that I had ever seen this sequel in its entirety before. In any event, if I had, as with the first film, I hadn't seen it since the '90s, so it was fun to revisit. Barry Sonnenfeld  returned to direct and did basically as good a job as he did with 1991's  The Addams Family  (1991). I don't think Paul Rudnick 's screenplay is as good as the first film, relying a bit too much on silly humor that goes for a big laugh rather than a sly smirk (which is more my speed). The cast is excellent once again, given a chance to sink their teeth even further into the characters ( Christina Ricci  in particular is a delight), though I much prefer  Judith Malina  as Granny in the fi...

After Tim Burton passed on directing The Addams Family (1991), Barry Sonnenfeld  took the assignment as his directorial debut. Previously Sonnenfeld had served as cinematographer on a number of great films (including the first three  Coen Brothers  features). Ironically, TAF had three cinematographers (including, finally, Sonnenfeld himself), due to Owen Roizman quitting and Gale Tattersall being hospitalized. I hadn't revisited TAF since the 90s. I seem to recall that I saw it in its original theatrical run, but I'm not 100% sure (you start to forget things that happened almost 30 years ago when you get older). I've seen some of creator Charles Addams ' original cartoons and I've seen episodes of the The Addams Family   (1964–1966) TV series, but I am no aficionado, by any means. However, as a film based on these characters, standing on its own merits, I find it really enjoyable—full of light-hearted, gruesome fun. The cast is pitch perfect— Anjelica Hu...

For 1974's The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires , legendary production company Hammer  (best known for its Gothic horror output) joined forces with the legendary  Shaw Brothers  studio (best know for its kung fu output) to release an action-packed horror/martial arts mashup. It was the ninth and final film in Hammer's Dracula  series, and the only one in that series where an actor other than Christopher Lee played the Count (apparently he declined the role after reading the script)—here played by John Forbes-Robertson . Peter Cushing stars as Van Helsing (his fifth and final appearance in the role for Hammer), who, along with his dandy son Leyland (played by Robin Stewart ) and a wealthy widow ( Julie Ege )—an emancipated, sexually empowered woman (though she's useless in battle)—embark on a journey lead by one of his students ( David Chiang ) and his many brothers and sister (all masters of one weapon or another) to kick some serious vampire/zombie butt. The f...

Chromatics fans were expecting their next album to be the much anticipated (and delayed)  Dear Tommy , but instead the band has surprised everyone by dropping an entirely different album, Closer To Grey  (2019)—their first in 7 years. The Roman numeral on the cover states that CTG is their 7th LP, and the band's label lists  Dear Tommy  as their 6th , even though it's yet to be released. Regardless, Chromatics' first full-length studio album since 2012's Kill For Love is love at first listen. In a similar move to KFL 's opening  Neil Young  cover song ( "Into The Black" ), CTG  opens with a cover of Simon & Garfunkel 's "The Sound Of Silence" . Much like that Neil Young track, it's not a song I would have pictured Chromatics covering but when you hear it makes perfect sense. Chromatics are a band that can translate their stripped down sound to almost any cover and make it work. There's also another cover, of The Jesus And Mar...