Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Hellraiser: Inferno 2000

  ★★ Rewatched 05 Mar 2025

  The last time I saw this was a quarter century ago and all I remembered was disliking some of the color grading. Decided on a rewatch because I'm stoned and didn't want to think real hard.

  I think credit is due to the production designers and cinematographer for elevating this movie from abysmal to watchable. The writing is god awful, and it's not because of the hastily grafted script; it's because Derrickson is a legitimately bad writer. Credit to Scheffer though, who is absolutely taking his role seriously despite the material.

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  The Crawling Eye 1958

  ★★★ Watched 25 Feb 2025

  Comparable but nowhere as good as the Quatermass films, Eye still has plenty of charm up its, uh, Visine bottle. The miniature effects are a bit crap but that's made up for by the incredible titular eye creatures. Honestly, I don't know how they did that. They look like puppets made of dissected cow parts fused together. I still don't think I've seen the longer British cut (the more appropriate but less sensational Trollenburg Terror) but I'd be curious to see how that one plays.

Popular reviews

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  The People Under the Stairs 1991

  ★★★★ Rewatched 04 Sep 2021

  Thirty years after its release you'd think a film would be less relevant, not more. That's unfortunately not the case with The People Under the Stairs, which feels like it was pulled out of headlines today. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

  Wendy Robie absolutely slays in this (pun not intended). Everett McGill skews a little too slapstick, but Robie's performance is complex and terrifying. And of course Brandon Adams delights as the film's young star.…

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  High Tension 2003

  ★★½ Rewatched 27 May 2023

  I initially saw this in the theater on a crummy date. I remembered being underwhelmed and put off by the twist at the time. Tonight I thought I'd give it another go, having seen and loved a great number of films from the New French Extremity since.
  While I loved the gore, High Tension remains mid at best and fucking offensive at worst. I honestly can't understand why this is so well regarded.