A Yearning for Selfhood in Anup Singh’s ‘Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost’
“By grounding ‘Qissa’ in naturalism and avoiding melodramatic tropes, Singh creates a uniquely beguiling viewing experience.”
No Future for You: The Cinematic Image of 70s Britain
“The 70s were a tumultuous and often bleak decade for the British film industry, and this pessimism bled into its output.”
Julia Ducournau’s ‘Titane’: Influence, (Sur)Realism and the Avant-Garde
“Ducournau’s approach to cinematic lineage and influence in ‘Titane’ is a complicated one, as she develops her singular filmmaking style into something even more evasive and intricate than in ‘Raw.'”
Fear God: Kevin Smith’s ‘Red State’ Hits Even Harder at 10
“‘Red State’ boasts a starry cast, but Smith’s story is ruthlessly contained, captured with a grainy texture, and presented like a true no-budget indie horror, with bursts of shocking violence punctuating the tense atmosphere.”
‘The Flesh Eaters’ and Early American Gore Cinema
“Jack Curtis’ 1964 feature ‘The Flesh Eaters’ deserves consideration as a lost figurehead of the gore genre, and one of its more formative efforts.”
Prano Bailey-Bond Visits Britain’s Video Nasty Era in ‘Censor’
“Had ‘Censor’ managed both Enid’s personal nightmare and wrestled more deliberately with some of the moral questions posed by the title, more viewers might have been inclined to initiate conversations about the horror genre’s traditions of transgression.”
You Must Be THIS OLD to Ride in George A. Romero’s ‘The Amusement Park’
“Romero’s movies have a workshop feel to them, which elevates the horror to a startlingly realistic terror as if it was being documented live.”
Rose Glass Makes a Memorable Feature Debut with ‘Saint Maud’
“Sure, ‘Saint Maud’ can be called a horror film, but it is equally a psychological drama that gets a lot of mileage from a tried and true trope: the shifting power dynamics in a superior/subordinate relationship.”
Why Criticism: The Difficulties of Depicting Genocide in ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ and ‘La Llorona’
“Roger Ebert once wrote ‘it’s not what a film is about, it’s how it is about it,’ and it’s this phrase that I usually return to when thinking about cinema that deals with humanity’s worst impulses.”
Tobe Hooper’s ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Offers a Close-Up Look at Cosmic Pessimism
“Under its brutal dissembling of anthropocentrism and customary moral divides, ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ points to the terror of a harsh and uncaring universe.”