Tag: monsters

Cannibals All!

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Warsaw Film Festival Highlights (plus a few stray thoughts) 1) We Are What We Are – dir. Jorge Michel Grau, Mexico The set-up could come out of an old neorealist drama: a family with three kids in a decaying house on the outskirts of Mexico City.  Dad, a watch repairman, has just fallen dead in [...]

Frazetta and the Mothman

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Another masterpiece by the late Frank Frazetta (1928-2010), and a classic example of how Hollywood studio thinking  – a misguided attempt to reach the widest demographic possible — destroyed the potential of a great property.  Frazetta’s cover painting illustrates and was inspired by John A. Keel’s 1975 non-fiction book, The Mothman Prophecies, about a cluster of paranormal [...]

Have a Blaisdell Halloween!

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Paul Blaisdell (July 21, 1927 – July 10, 1983) was a science fiction illustrator (The Ant Men, above), a special effects artisan, and an inspired designer of imaginative costumes and props for a series of low-budget horror, monster, and sci-fi films released by American International Pictures and Allied Artists in the 1950s. He was the [...]

Dieu Bless Cahiers

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Although the film was completely ignored by the Academy, the Golden Globes, and most U.S. American year-end lists, I am delighted to see that Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield was selected by the venerable French film magazine, Cahiers du Cinema, as one of the 10 Best Films of 2008. For the record, the Academy’s nominations for the [...]

Bye Bye Forry (Forrest J Ackerman, 1916-2008)

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I just learned by way of CINEBEATS that Forrest J Ackerman, a man who inspired so many of us – as film fan and friend to film fans, as a writer, as the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, as a literary agent, and one of the world’s leading collectors of all things science fiction [...]

Halloween Special – 31 Essential Horror Films

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Boris Karloff in “The Wurdalak” episode of Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963) This is my ranked list of 31 Essential Horror Films culled from Ed Hardy, Jr.’s 183 Official Nominees for the 31 Flicks That Give You the Willies List. In keeping with the parameters of Ed’s poll, my primary criterion for inclusion and ranking [...]

2 or 3 Aspects of the Ackermonster

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On November 24, 2006, we wish a Happy and Hearty 90th Birthday to Forrest J Ackerman, writer, collector, literary agent, former editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, and ultimate fan of horror and sci-fi movies. (He coined the term “sci-fi,” for Cthulhu’s sake!) I plan to be out of town for the Thanksgiving weekend, so [...]