On this day in 1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Silent Night, Deadly Night were released.SNDN would outperform ANOES at the box office before it was picketed and then pulled from theatres.
Shocking Cinema- Day 58- Angst (1983)
A psychopath who had previously shot and killed an old woman (seemingly for no reason) is released from prison. He picks up where he left off and invades the home of a male invalid and his two female relatives. Angst is an Austrian film loosely based on the real-life serial killer Werner Kniesek. It was …
Shocking Cinema- Day 57- Frontier(s) (2007)
Young criminals with a stash of stolen money seek refuge after violent clashes following a controversial election result. They board at a hotel run by a very strange ensemble of people. Yet again, we have a French extreme horror film from the noughties that is another slice of ‘try-hard’ cinema. Disposable, cheap cinematography, the kind …
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When Phantasm Wasn’t Phantasm
Do you know that Phantasm was retitled The Never Dead in Australia? There was already a racy comedy called Fantasm doing the rounds and so Village Roadshow renamed the film when they bought the distribution rights.
Shocking Cinema- Day 56- Raw (2016)
A vegetarian veterinary student arrives at college and is forced to eat raw meat as part of a hazing ritual. Soon after, she develops a taste for something far more extreme. Julia Ducournau’s film was sold as a bold, shocking debut that would leave you shaken. It left me empty. The cannibalism arrives on cue, …
Review- Rocky (50th Anniversary Screening) (1976)
I rewatched Rocky today as there was a 50th anniversary screening. It’s also a great refreshed before next week’s I Play Rocky is released here. It’s such a simple premise but one which clearly struck a chord with audiences. A small-time, part-time boxer who is struggling to survive day to day gets a shot at …
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Review- Primetime (2026)
The head of NBC (Jeff Zucker playing himself) invites host Chris Hansen and his producer to his office to tell them that he hates everything about their ‘child groomer sting’ TV series. But America loves it and it gets great ratings. And so it will be placed against Lost in a primetime slot. And Lost …
Shocking Cinema- Day 55- Titane (2021)
A young woman who has a metal plate in her head after a car accident develops a fixation with automobiles. After a series of violent incidents she goes on the run and assumes the identity of a missing teenage boy, moving in with the boy’s firefighter father. This is Crash meets The Fast and the …
Reading Tealeaves in Lake Tahoe- Why Supergirl (1984) is An Underrated Gem
One of the films I watched the most as a kid in the 80s was Supergirl. This obviously raised a few eyebrows at the time (ahem) but I was obsessed with this fantastic entry into the Superman franchise. It surprised me greatly to find out years later that the film was panned by some critics …
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Shocking Cinema- Day 54- In A Glass Cage (1986)
A former concentration-camp doctor is left paralysed after a failed attempt on his own life. When a nurse is sought to assist in his day-to-day care, a young man steps forward who was one of his victims years earlier. If you need a warning as to how shocking this film is, John Waters calls In …
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