Films
Eric San Juan
May 20, 2020
This was originally published all the way back in 2005, at DVD in My Pants. The following version does not include all of the photos taken (by me!) for the piece. The formatting may be wonky, too. I’m posting it mostly to keep it alive online. Two days of axes, gore and bloody stumps might sound terrifying, but for fans of the horror genre, it was just what the (mad) doctor ordered on September 24 and 25 in Secaucus, New Jersey. For two days genre fans gnawed at Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors, where hundreds horror fans and a full slate of special guests offered up 48 hours of the mysterious, macabre and meaty. Read on as launches the first in a month-long celebration of all things horror….
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Eric San Juan
May 13, 2019
Avengers: Endgame is getting all the money, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as a whole has turned into a pop culture juggernaut so huge that if you told my 12-year-old self how big it would eventually be, I’d probably have thought you were drunk and delusional. I have no idea how Norse gods and red, white & blue heroes slinging shields ended up being bigger than Star Wars, but I sure as hell ain’t complaining. We can zero in on one way the MCU has come to dominate the box office, though: with excellent casting. It all began back in 2008, when the then fledgling studio took a chance on Robert Downey Jr., a guy who is now a global superstar but who at…
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Eric San Juan
February 19, 2019
I’ve been lax in giving the world the music I’ve been creating over the last year or two, especially since there has been some stuff I’m proud of that exists in silence, so here is a film score composed by yours truly: Soundtracks for Horror Films: Music Inspired by the Wash. Except there is no movie of The Wash. Therefore there can’t be a soundtrack for it. Feel free to consider this collection of music anyway. The Wash is in part what was in my head as I composed it, after all. Just skip to the video and download link below if all you want is the music! Otherwise, some explanation is required. This is soundtrack music inspired in part by a horror novel written…
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Films, Music, Works by Eric
horror, horror films, horror movies, music, music by eric, orchestral, soundtrack, soundtracks, Works By Eric
Eric San Juan
November 30, 2018
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Madadayo (1993) Akira Kurosawa’s final film concerns an older man experiencing the ups and downs of a long life, looking back at a life well led, and saying to himself, “I’m not ready to go yet.” It sure is a mystery why the director would be interested in this kind of subject matter! From the book: At 77 years old, Uchida jokes at his…
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Eric San Juan
November 30, 2018
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Rhapsody in August (1991) In his final years, Akira Kurosawa was tremendously concerned with the idea of legacy: what we leave behind and what our life meant. These ideas first started appearing in Dersu Uzala and Kagemusha, and then were amplified in Ran and Dreams. These are all movies that present the idea that we must confront our past in some fashion. The topic…
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