I love digging into horror films from around the world, seeing how different directors and cultures dole out their scares, what is frightening to them, and how some things are scary across the board, seemingly tapping into some primal fear. Thailand delivers Death Whisperer, which according to the film’s intro is based loosely on a…
Tag: 2023
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece (2023) – Tom Hanks
Somehow this one got by me, but I was delighted to dig into it, as I quite enjoyed Hanks short story collection, Uncommon Type. For his first novel, Hanks delivers a tale that takes us behind the scenes of a big superhero movie and walks us through all the steps of its production, exploring the…
Mister Magic (2023) – Kiersten White
Kiersten White’s Mister Magic is an unnerving and spooky tale that definitely has a commentary on religion and those who believe. Mister Magic was a radio program, and later a television show that ran until the 90s when the final episode ended in tragedy. It seems a number of people remember the show, and remember…
American Fiction (2023) – Cord Jefferson
I’m a little upset that I didn’t go to see this one when it screened at TIFF, but I was very happy that this was a film that my partner and I could watch together, and we greatly enjoyed it. But it’s Jeffrey Wright, the man can do anything, and play anything, and he brings…
The Exorcist: Believer (2023) – David Gordon Green
For the first few minutes of The Exorcist: Believer I thought that maybe the reviews were wrong, that they had been too harsh, or maybe didn’t understand what the film was trying to do. It’s opening felt, to me, very much in line with the original film, until the earthquake hit, and from that moment…
Edenville (2023) – Sam Rebelein
I love a good horror novel, and I often find myself cruising best of lists to find something that catches my interest and haven’t heard of. Apparently in October of last year, I missed a stellar horror release by Sam Rebelein. Combining folk, cosmic and body horror, Edenville pulled me in and completely enraptured me…
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) – Andre Ovredal
We just can’t leave the undead alone. It seems every couple of years someone trots out another Dracula update, or a new take on vampires. Some of them are good, some of them are not. The Last Voyage of the Demeter falls into the former. It’s bloody, and it’s fun. Based on a small five-page…
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – The Making of the Classic Film (2023) – John Tenuto and Maria Jose Tenuto
I remember seeing The Wrath of Khan in theatres. It blew me away. Even as a child I loved The Motion Picture, the grandeur, the beauty and the effects, but The Wrath of Khan was a completely different experience and I was left stunned by what I had seen. I remember there were a couple…
Being Henry: The Fonz and Beyond (2023) – Henry Winkler
I was lucky enough to meet Henry Winkler once at one of Toronto’s Fan Expo, and he was as friendly and charming as I would have wanted him to be. And I didn’t get to tell him, but when I was a kid, living in CFB North Bay, I would ride my little yellow banana…
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2023) – Subspace Rhapsody, and Hegemony
Subspace Rhapsody does something that Star Trek has never done before, gives us a musical. With songs by Letters to Cleo’s Kay Hanley and Tom Polce and a script by Dana Horgan and Bill Wolkoff this episode first debuted on 3 August, 2023. Sure, musicals aren’t everyone’s fare, but in a season that took some…
The Mind Reels 