Hammer Time: The Curse of Frankenstein

It’s time for me to rewatch—actually, in most cases, watch for the first time—the series of Frankenstein movies produced by Hammer Films from the late fifties through the mid-seventies. There are six films starring Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) Frankenstein Created …

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Weird Mofo Cinema, Episode A: Beware! The Blob

[Okay, here’s the deal with the title of this post. I’d like to do Weird Mofo Cinema as a podcast or vlog, but I don’t have the time right now to make that happen, so it’s debuting as an occasional post on my regular blog. On with the show, but be warned: I will spoil …

Theremin, A Fascinating Life Clumsily Told

I recently watched the documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey about the life of Leon Theremin, pioneer of electronic music. If you don’t recognize the name, I guarantee you’d recognize the sound of his most famous invention, the theremin, a musical instrument which is played without touching it. Its unearthly tones have been used in music …

Unnecessary Prequels, Part Two

Last week’s episode of Enemy Lines delved into The Thing (2011), the prolonged deleted scene that is the prequel to The Thing (1982). Now, spoiler alert, I’m going to spoil Prometheus. I mean really spoil it, just get up in its grille and spoil the shit out of it. Before the release of Prometheus, Ridley …

Unnecessary Prequels, Part One

I just got around to watching The Thing (2011) and Prometheus, prequels to the fan-favorite science fiction films The Thing (1982) and Alien. Yes, the prequel to The Thing is called The Thing. More on that later. But first . . . spoiler alert. You know the drill. Presumably one makes a prequel to answer …

Deja Vu(lcan)

Last week I commented on my growing frustration that a number of Trek fans who have enjoyed the new film are dismissing those fans who didn’t enjoy the new film as just suffering from original-series sour grapes. I’ve now realized this is deja vu all over again. While going through notes on possible blog posts, …

Zombies! A Comic Book Review

The 2011 ten-part crossover Infestation from IDW Publishing is basically a zombie story. I loves the zombies, as The Walking Dead knows, but I generally find crossovers to be a forced conceit. Nevertheless, I'm often drawn in by their epic geekiness, and what drew me into this one was my long-standing love of Star Trek. IDW's original series CVO (Covert …