Truism of the day: The very fact that you can't get hold of something always makes it attractive, no matter its content, theme or--potentially--execution. That's what we really mean, whenever we call a film "transgressive" (quite possibly the most over-used critical term of the new Millennium, short as it's been thus far). Frankly, I'd been planning to write about another film entirely this month...but then I walked into Toronto's own Suspect Video, and asked--off-hand, appropos of nothing much--"you wouldn't happen to have a copy of Claire Denis' TROUBLE EVERY DAY, would you?"

They did. On video, copied from a PAL original. Slightly pixilated and soft around the edges, as though it had ... (more…)

According to some of the sources I've used to research this article, "Cosia Ruim"--the original title of what's now being called the first successful Portugese horror movie--may mean less BAD BLOOD than BAD THING. But BAD BLOOD is what the guys at Tartan Video have chosen to market it under...and while it may be a bit misleading (much like the DVD cover art, which promises a spookily levitating little girl who never--say to say--actually shows up in the film itself), let me be very clear: BAD BLOOD is a damn good thing to run across under any name, especially if you like your horror subtle, smart and exotic.

Right from the credit sequence on--a parade of vaguely disturbing details ... (more…)

"She was unbinding her turban...

He watched, not breathing, a presentiment of something horrible stirring in his brain, inexplicably... The red folds loosened and--he knew then that he had not dreamed--again a scarlet lock swung down against her cheek... a hair, was it? A lock of hair?... thick as a thick worm it fell, plumply, against that smooth cheek... more scarlet than blood and thick as a crawling worm... and like a worm it crawled."

The preceding moment of breathless, eccentric Golden Age horror comes courtesy of C.L. Moore, one of the first women to be regularly published in Weird Tales magazine, and a true pioneer of interstellar creep. The story I clipped it from, "Shambleau" ... (more…)

According to some of the sources I've used to research this article, "Cosia Ruim"--the original title of what's now being called the first successful Portugese horror movie--may mean less BAD BLOOD than BAD THING. But BAD BLOOD is what the guys at Tartan Video have chosen to market it under...and while it may be a bit misleading (much like the DVD cover art, which promises a spookily levitating little girl who never--say to say--actually shows up in the film itself), let me be very clear: BAD BLOOD is a damn good thing to run across under any name, especially if you like your horror subtle, smart and exotic.

Right from the credit sequence on--a parade of vaguely disturbing details ... (more…)