Final Women

Ghost Story, a.k.a. Circle of Fear, was a horror anthology television show, produced by William Castle, which ran for two seasons, beginning in 1972. The first season, under the name Ghost Story, was hosted by Sebastian Cabot. For the second season, the name was changed to Circle of Fear, and the wrap around segment featuring Cabot was canned. It's a charming show, if a bit dated. Below I discuss two of my favorite episodes. Touch of Madness (Season 1) Touch of Madness begins with Janet arriving at the house she has just inherited from her mother, who died while staying in a mental institution. There she meets her eccentric aunt and uncle, played by Geraldine Page and an aged-up Rip Torn (!!!) and convinces them to allow her to help fix up the house, which she has been informed, to her surprise, is in danger of being condemned. While Janet is at first completely in the dark, the audience knows early on that something is not quite as it seems with the house and the seemingl...

Demons  and Demons 2 are bat-shit insane Italian monster movies directed by Lamberto Bava (son of Mario) that rank among my all time favorite horror movies. Neither feature very much plot or character development, but they make up for it with outstanding practical effects, gnarly gore, and colorful chaos. Giallo master, Dario Argento is a writer on both, and by many accounts, was also a mentor to the young Bava, as Bava Sr. had been for him. Demons begins when a young woman, Cheryl (Natasha Hovey), receives an invitation to a movie screening and drags her friend, Kathy (Paola Cozza) along. They are joined at the cinema by a motley crew of film goers, including a pimp (the impressive Bobby Rhodes), two prostitutes, a blind man, and two young gentlemen (filling the roles of love interests). Chaos soon breaks out when events in the theatre begin to mirror events in the movie, and people rapidly start turning into seriously gruesome demons (like zombies, they are able to pass alo...

*Spoiler Alert* So I finally watched What Keeps You Alive , which had been sitting toward the top of my list for a while but somehow kept getting looked over. Honestly, it's pretty good, although the last half features some seriously questionable character decisions. Jules and Jackie are a lesbian couple celebrating their one year wedding anniversary at Jackie's family's lake house. Though the couple initially seems happily in love, Jules soon starts to feel as if Jackie is hiding something. The first crack in Jackie's facade appears when a neighbor comes by the house to check on it, having seen the lights on, and refers to Jackie as Meagan. Jackie is able to explain this away, saying that she changed her name in an effort of self-renewal when she realized she was gay. Unfortunately, Jules soon realizes a name change is the least of Jackie's secrets. Brittany Allen and Hannah Emily Anderson both nail their roles as the not-so-happy couple. (The two had previou...

Everyone pour one out for the Gore-Met tonight. The Rue Morgue columnist has passed away. Rue Morgue is something of a bible around these parts, and I was a devotee of the Gore-Met's (real name, Andrew Bailees) column. Although the explicitness of many of the movies he covered kept me from watching them, I often found myself seeing films in a new light after reading his opinions on them. He truly appreciated and loved the genre and will be greatly missed.

I'll start this review by saying that rape/revenge films are not for everyone, and I'm personally pretty squeamish about rape scenes. Often times they come across as exploitative, even if the following revenge sequences are generally cathartic. Frequently, when watching films of this subgenre, I find myself having to fast forward through the sexual assault. Revenge , however, manages to sidestep a lot these problems by virtue of being written and directed by a woman, Coralie Fargeat. For instance, the film specifically side steps the exploitative nature of the rape scene by not making it explicit. Is it uncomfortable to watch? Hell yes. Is it exploitative? No. Because unlike many other films of its ilk, the rape isn't made to titillate; it isn't shot for the male gaze. Does this at all cheapen the revenge aspect? Hell no. Revenge shows viewers that an explicit rape scene is not needed for the revenge to be satisfying. Special credit has to go to French actres...