Blue Steel (1990) – Kathryn Bigelow

The fantastic Kathryn Bigelow directs Jamie Lee Curtis in this crisp, occasionally brutal thriller. Megan Turner (Curits) is a rookie cop, who on her first day on the job shoots and kills an armed thief (Tom Sizemore) in a supermarket showdown. When the thief’s weapon isn’t found at the scene, Turner finds herself suspended, and…

Son of Dracula (1943) – Robert Siodmak

A mustachioed Lon Chaney Jr. takes over the role of Dracula in Son of Dracula, and while people insist he sounds like a foreigner he doesn’t sound like the Dracula we’ve been introduced to before, but perhaps he’s just another incarnation of the same creature. The Count, under the assumed name of Alucard (come on!)…

The Invisible Man Returns (1940) – Joe May

It’s more time well spent with the Universal Monsters as I dive into the first sequel to 1933’s The Invisible Man. Vincent Price in one of his earliest performances is Geoffrey Radcliffe, a man imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit. His beloved Helen Manson (Nan Grey) is stunned and refuses to believe he’s guilty….

Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968) – Kimyoshi Yasuda

Wow, did I have fun with this one. I had never heard of it, but I do love a lot of J-horror, and this one definitely had an interesting sound to it, a Japanese monster movie with practical effects, costumes and a touch of animation, what’s not to like? The monsters are allowed to show…

Batman: The Killing Joke (2016) – Sam Liu

I remember, not that it was that long ago now when the DC animated movie adaption of the iconic graphic novel The Killing Joke was released. Fans were in an uproar about the addition of a plot frontloaded to the beginning of the film which reveals Batman (wonderfully voiced by Kevin Conroy) had sexual relations…

The Equalizer (1987) – Hand and Glove, and Re-Entry

Scott (William Zabka) is back for the penultimate episode of The Equalizer season two, and after a brief interaction he and his father, Robert McCall (Edward Woodward) have with a con artist, the pair find themselves involved in a case that may be all in the mind of a young, wheelchair-bound woman, or perhaps she’s…

The X-Files (1999) – Field Trip, and Biogenesis

Frank Spotnitz created the story which Vince Gilligan and John Shiban wrote the teleplay for the sixth season’s penultimate episode, Field Trip, which first aired on 9 May, 1999. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) head to Brown Mountain, home of the Brown Mountain Lights, which Mulder believes may be UFO related, to investigate…

Millennium (1999) – Via Dolorosa, and Goodbye To All That

This week, it’s the series finale of Millennium, though Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) would make one more appearance, showing up in the seventh season of The X-Files, for his swan song. Marjorie David and Patrick Harbinson pen the first part of what was simply meant to be a season finale, but when the series wasn’t…

Millennium (1998) – The Time Is Now

Season two of Millennium, and what was to be the series finale, is up this week on the blog, and it raises some questions (not to mention that the retcon that happens at the beginning of the third season to adjust for the series return). Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, the season came…

Captive Wild Woman (1943) – Edward Dmytryk

John Carradine as a detached, and insane scientist, who somehow still gets work, an animal trainer who wants a shot at the big top, and a gorilla suit that becomes a beautiful women with strange powers over the animals of the circus. It’s all here in the next big title in DK Canada’s Monsters in…