極道黒社会 (Gokudô kuroshakai,lit. Yakuza Black Society) [Rainy Dog] (1997)

The first film in Miike’s “Black Society Trilogy”, which I understood to be thematically linked, and I as prepared for (in some way) conceptually by the Dead or Alive trilogy, which reused actors and sort-of reused concepts and themes throughout. Sometimes. In any case, I expected this would not at all be a continuation of […]

Paura nella città dei morti viventi (lit. Fear in the City of the Living Dead) [City of the Living Dead aka The Gates of Hell] (1980)

I bought the Fulci triple feature Blue Underground released a while ago, then picked up this, Scorpion Releasing’s The Gates of Hell (the same film with a different English title) when it was released, as I fully intended to watch the film (of course?!). I’d come into Fulci via Zombi 2, and only later saw […]

Ghost Story (1981)

I believe my parents owned Peter Straub’s novel, and I found it at some point in my youth, but never actually read it (as was often the case with books I’d find, make note of, then fail to address—some of which I’ve come back to in the decades since, as I’ve done with movies). I […]

The Grifters (1990)

I recently started wandering around looking for film noir after watching Laura, deciding maybe it was time to pick up on or check into the classics I hadn’t checked into (like that one!) even if I’ve had years of periodic noir and neo-noir coming across my path pretty regularly. The Grifters showed up in a […]

Gremlins (1984)

I couldn’t quite tell you how many times I’ve seen this one. It’s an inordinate number, though. For whatever reason, despite being born the year it came out, I’m not part of the group that found it utterly terrifying as a child. Sure, the image of that syringe–re-written in my youthful brain as a cross […]

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

For whatever reason, despite my positive opinions of the first Legendary Godzilla flick, I didn’t bother seeing this one in theatres. I appreciated the idea of folding in some of the more “ridiculous” monsters–that is, the kind that couldn’t be reduced to, “Oh, it’s another readily-explainable scientific mutation”, a habit in modern adaptations that irks […]

Godzilla (2014)

1998 was not a positive occurrence in my life as a “G-fan”. I was 14, but still emphatically not a fan of the oversized iguana iteration that sullied screens at the time. Sure, I tried to be: I went and saw it, I acquired some of the merchandising, I went somewhere in the middle, trying […]

The Gate (1987)

I caught only glimpses of this one in past years, and recalled those snippets as indicating a low budget, but creative ideas: stop motion and strange creatures, as well as an absurdly fast pace. It’s taken me a long time to get back here, much like Waxwork. Glen (Stephen Dorff) and his sister Alexandra, aka […]

Ghosts of Mars (2001)

I first saw this one around the time it came out–it was, after all, John Carpenter, it was a horror flick, it showed up in Fangoria, and the designs all seemed interesting. I wasn’t huge on it at the time, but meant to give it another shot. Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) reports to the […]

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000)

One of those movies I couldn’t quite remember if I saw–or maybe I saw only parts when it was airing on television, perhaps? I really don’t know. Even after (re?)watching it, I’m not entirely sure–but I’m pretty sure I did, in fact, watch it quite some years ago. It rang enough bells (and is so notably different […]