post

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

This 1971 feature from the American International Pictures fun factory is a work at odds with itself. It wants to be campy, but it is never that funny. It wants to be a horror film, but poor direction dilutes the effectiveness of the chills. And while it succeeds as a Vincent Price vehicle, it fails to bring along the rest of the cast for the ride.
Continue reading

Unnatural (2024)

Now available on VOD

I’m a sucker for a good Western. Low budget, a lack of star-power, none of that really bothers me, so long as it hits high on the ol’ Yeehawometer. Likewise, I’m a sucker for a good vampire pic, pun only slightly intended. Mix the two, though, and you usually wind up with more Cookie’s Camp Mush than a Texas T-bone. There have been some decent genre mashups over the years, though- take 2005’s The Burrowers as a fine example. So I went into 2024’s Unnatural with my breath held, just in case I was wading into undead horse-hockey. 

Continue reading

post

When Jack the Ripper Met Sherlock Holmes

One of the least credible theories regarding the identity of Jack the Ripper insists the serial killer was Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a practicing physician prior to gaining wider fame as the creator of Sherlock Holmes with the publication of “A Study in Scarlet” in 1887. There is no evidence – not even the most frayed wisp of preposterous circumstance – to place Conan Doyle in Whitechapel at the time of the killings, let alone providing him with a motive for the crimes.

Continue reading