Tag Archive: film

My new book comes out soon…

July 15, 2013 0 Comments

Hitchcock's Villains

… so that’s kind of cool. The follow-up to A Year of Hitchcock is due out in, damn, just a few weeks! Called Hitchcock’s Villains: Murders, Maniacs and Mother Issues, this collaboration with Jim McDevitt is a full exploration of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest villains, what makes them tick, the themes that drive the darkness in his movies, and of Hitchcock’s own psyche. I think it’s pretty great. This will be my fifth book, collaborative or otherwise, with a sixth hopefully coming out next year in ebook form via the Philadelphia Weekly. (That project is still up in the air.) The project has actually been in gestation for some time now, practically since A Year of Hitchcock was finished. Basking in the glow of finishing such…
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Alfred Hitchcock, Films, Works by Eric, Writing

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A midnight visit from the Vampyr

November 1, 2010 0 Comments

Surprise! It’s midnight on Halloween. You thought my week o’ public domain horror films was over with Night of the Living Dead. You were wrong. Director Carl Dreyer directed one of the great films of all time, The Passion of Joan of Arc, which I once called “a blessing to the world of cinema.” Four years later he would direct Vampyr, a ghostly, ostentatious, bold, experimental film. It’s dark and slow and brooding and moody and forgoes an engrossing story in exchange for an engrossing atmosphere. Twilight this ain’t. Happy midnight. Enjoy the film. (I’ve changed the embedded video to links so this page loads faster): Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Read more about…
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Films, Videos

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Night of the Living Dead!

October 31, 2010 2 Comments

For Halloween, I thought I’d go with the big daddy. One of the kings of them all. Grandfather of one of the most popular subgenres of horror today. I’m talking, of course, about George Romero’s classic, Night of the Living Dead. Now THIS is a legendary film. When it comes to modern zombies, it’s the one that started it all. And it’s still fantastic. It also happens to be in the public domain (see below), so for this Halloween take a gander back at a flick you probably haven’t seen in a while: Some things to note: * When I spoke to Russell Streiner (Billy) several years ago for a feature on the 2005 Fangoria convention, he told me the movie doesn’t hold up just…
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Films, Geek Stuff, Videos

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The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962)

October 30, 2010 0 Comments

We’ll cap off this Halloween season foray into public domain horror films tomorrow with the biggest classic of the classics, but for now let’s just have fun with the schlocky B-movie fun of The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, a 1962 flick about a doctor who keeps his girlfriend’s decapitated head alive and goes in search of a body to attach it to. Two of the characters in this movie are billed as “Blonde Stripper” and “Brunet Stripper,” so you know this is good cinema. Oh yeah. It’s in the public domain, so check it out: The movie is freely and legally available for download here, though I can’t vouch for the quality.

Films, Videos

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Three, three, three! classic silents

October 29, 2010 0 Comments

It’s the Friday of Halloween weekend. Maybe you’re bored. Maybe you’re looking for something to occupy your time. That’s why I’m packing three, three, three horror classics of the silent era into one blog post. The Phantom of the Opera (1925) Forget about song and dance and Broadway, the real Phantom of the Opera was a creepy classic that was ahead of its time. The story has been remade five times, but it’s tough to beat a silent classic with Lon Chaney. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1920) Jekyll and Hyde don’t rate very highly in modern horror, but way back when it was a pretty creepy story about man’s dual nature. This 1920 adaptation is considered by many to be among the best silent…
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Films, Videos

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