Home invasion stories are not my jam. I’ve never cared for it, and I’ve yet to be entertained by one. But going through Mike Flanagan’s filmography, his third film plants itself firmly into a territory that usually doesn’t do much for me. Co-witten with his partner, Kate Siegel, who also stars, the film follows Maddie…
The Color Purple (1985) – Steven Spielberg
Was Steven Spielberg the right person to shoot the film adaptation of Alice Walker’s powerful novel? He was an interesting choice for the project, and it definitely wasn’t the dramatic material that he was associated with in the 80s, having delivered a number of blockbusters at that point. And while there were a number of…
Hill Street Blues (1981) – Choice Cut, and Up in Arms
Seven episodes in writer Lee David Zlotoff brings us full circle with Choice Cut. First airing on 14 February, 1981, the episode sees Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) dealing with a hostage situation in a supermarket, not entirely dissimilar from what happened in the first episode. In fact, it’s the same hostage takers! They went…
The Replacement Killers (1998) – Antoine Fuqua
Antonine Fuqua’s 1998 actioner The Replacement Killers has quite the pedigree, it not only has Fuqua in the director’s chair, an executive producer credit for John Woo, but also stars Hong Kong cinema icon Chow Yun-Fat, the fantastic Mira Sorvino, Michael Rooker, Jurgen Prochnow, Danny Trejo, Til Schweiger, and Clifton Collins Jr. John Lee (Chow…
Fringe (2011) – Reciprocity, and Concentrate and Ask Again
It seems Massive Dynamic has assembled the Device from the parts left behind by the First People (an ancient race who were technologically advanced) and against Walter’s (John Noble) wishes, Peter (Joshua Jackson) agrees to let the company run some tests on him, and his interaction with the machine. Reciprocity was written by Josh Singer…
Mission: Impossible (1972) – Ultimatum, and Kidnap
Murray Hamilton (the beaches will be open!) guest stars in Ultimatum. Written by Harold Livington from a story by Shirl Hendryx and Livingston, the episode all guests Donnelly Rhodes! First airing on 18 November, 1972, the episode sees the IMF on familiar ground. Phelps (Peter Graves) and his team are after a nuclear physicist, Cooper…
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy (2022) – Megan Bannen
I’ll be honest, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, available now from Orbit Books hit me like a sucker punch. I didn’t know what I expected from this whimsical, playful tale, but what I did not expect was a genre mash-up that at its heart (or Hart) riffed on the classic tale told in Shop…
Fringe (2010/2011) – Marionette, and The Firefly
While Olivia (Anna Torv) deals with the fallout in her life from Fauxlivia’s presence in their universe, the team gets called in on a case that sees victims with vital organs removed and a slower than average decomposition rate. It seems someone is killing these people for a horrifying reason. Marionette was written by Monica…
Absentia (2011) – Mike Flanagan
So digging into Mike Flanagan’s work, I found his first horror feature film, which you can source on YouTube. Sure, it’s shot on a digital camera, and looks a little less sleek than some of his later works, but damn if a lot of recognizable elements aren’t there from the off; the use of family…
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – Steven Spielberg
Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Doom was one of three movies that came along when I was a youngster that really started to cement my interest in the way films were made. And they were all thanks to movie magazines that came along at just the right time. In 1982 there was one…
The Mind Reels 