Author: Dave Franklin
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Staring Debuts #11:Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator (1985)
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Read more: Staring Debuts #11:Jeffrey Combs in Re-Animator (1985)It’s apt that Herbert West (Combs) resembles both Harry Potter and Scottish necrophile Dennis Nilsen. His small stature and precocious schoolboy looks suggest he’s harmless, enabling him to obscure a deep-rooted fascination with corpses while committing murder if necessary. It’s a plum role, all right, and Combs seizes it with such memorable relish that he…
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Fucked-Up Films #1: The Exterminator (1980)
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Read more: Fucked-Up Films #1: The Exterminator (1980)Film Title The Exterminator Synopsis Life is war whether you’re in Nam or the Big Apple Director James Glickenhaus Cast Robert Ginty Christopher George Steve James Samantha Eggar I have a clear recollection of standing in a video shop aged twelve with On Golden Pond on one side and The Exterminator on the other. I…
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Frenzy (1972)
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Read more: Frenzy (1972)Hitch does tits! Well, there’s a bit more to this blackly comic, London-based thriller than bare breasts, but they’re the most obvious sign the legendary director had embraced the early seventies’ newfound freedoms. Frenzy is graphic at times, much more so than other serial killer efforts such as Shadow of a Doubt and Psycho, but…
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Seconds (1966)
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Read more: Seconds (1966)Sinead O’Connor called her fantastic second album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, although she could’ve just said I Want What I’ve Got. But what if you no longer want what you’ve got? What happens if all your responsibilities, connections and habits are nothing but burdens? Given the chance, would you cast them…
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Hard Bastards
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Read more: Hard BastardsDuring the 1980s Mike Tyson was an important part of my adolescence. Not that we used to spar or anything, but I used to love running downstairs on a Sunday morning to catch ITV’s delayed transmission of the previous night’s big title fight in which he’d undoubtedly battered the shit out of some poor fucker…
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Newman, Old Brilliance
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Read more: Newman, Old BrilliancePaul Newman’s glorious cinematic career was brought to an end by a machine gun-toting Tom Hanks. “I’m glad it’s you,” he says to his imminent murderer during the rain-soaked finale of Road to Perdition. Of course, this sort of far-fetched rubbish (patiently waiting to be gunned down before paying a compliment to your assassin) can…
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Hurt, He’s Gone
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Read more: Hurt, He’s Gone“Bring this guy some Pepto-Bismol!” a fellow diner yells as a choking, panic-stricken John Hurt collapses onto the table in the 1987 sci-fi spoof, Spaceballs. Moments later an alien bursts through his midriff. “Oh, no…” Hurt cries while looking down his body at its malevolent, twitching head. “Not again!” His cameo is about the best…
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Blaxploitation #7: Trick Baby (1972)
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Read more: Blaxploitation #7: Trick Baby (1972)What the hell are these cats up to? White Folks (Martin) and Blue Howard (Stewart) are two Philadelphian hustlers. Blue’s black and a lot older, having taught Folks the tricks of the trade. I guess it’s important to know Folks is a trick baby, the product of a brief (and no doubt delightful) union between…
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Never Take Sweets (a.k.a. Candy) from a Stranger (1960)
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Read more: Never Take Sweets (a.k.a. Candy) from a Stranger (1960)Some movies are way ahead of their time. Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom is a good example, a voyeuristic horror pic centering on a serial killer filming his victims’ last moments while stabbing them through the throat. People just weren’t ready for that kind of sicko shit in 1960, the revulsion apparently resulting in the revered…
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She (1965)
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Read more: She (1965)Do you have a favorite little movie that somehow doesn’t get the recognition it deserves? You know, a flick that’s pretty much always met with scorn, lukewarm reviews and general disdain. Year after year you keep expecting the love to materialize, especially as there are so many filmgoers out there gushing over what can only…