ISSN 1717-9559
Keyword Category : Horror and the Fantastic
Alexandre Aja Anthony Wong Asia Argento Augustin Villaronga Barbara Steele Body Horror Brian Yuzna Category 3 Clive Barker Coffin Joe Cult Cinema Dario Argento David Cronenberg Douglas Buck Eurofest Eurohorror Exploitation Fantasia Giallo Gore Gag H P Lovecraft Hideo Nakata Horror J Horror Jillian McWhirter John Carpenter Joon Jo Bong Jorg Buttgereit Jose Mojica Marins Karim Hussain Kiyoshi Kurosawa Larry Fessenden Lost Highway Lucio Fulci M Night Shyamalan Mario Bava Mexican Cinema Mind Fuck Mondo Nacho Cerda Nakagawa Nobuo Pang Brothers Paracinema Peter Jackson Ray Harryhausen Richard Stanley Roshell Bissett Sergio Martino Serial Killer Spanish Horror Survivalist Horror Troma Violence Wes Craven Zombie
1.
An analysis of Freddie Francis' minor masterpiece in psychological and supernatural horror.
2.
An exclusive look at one of the lesser known Hammer films from its peak period, starring Christopher Lee and directed by Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher.
4.
A thematic and formal analysis of the environmental thread across a group of mainly low budget, independent horror films that showed at Fantasia 2007.
5.
An essay on the Soviet Science Fiction films which played at the 2007 Fantasia International Film Festival.
6.
An examination of trends in the recent horror film, focusing on the intimate relationship that exists between viewer/film in the venerable horror genre.
7.
The end of the world is hot on US screens of late, culminating in the intriguing technological experiment, Cloverfield.
8.
An interview with Philippe Spurrell, director of the Canadian supernatural mystery, The Descendant (2007).
9.
An earnest, DIY account of a sighted creature in the New Orleans, Louisiana area.
10.
A textual analysis of the variant versions of Sergio Martino's excellent giallo, All the Colors of the Dark.
11.
A psychoanalytical analysis of the unique Greek cult film??Singapore Sling??, a postmodern melange of classic film noir tropes, melodrama, gothic horror, Expressionism, and exploitation cinema (extreme gore, explicit sex).
12.
An theoretical analysis of what makes the cult film fan tick, from a psychoanalytical standpoint.
13.
A review essay of one of the most intriguing low budget American horror films ever made, taking into account production history and how director Herk Harvey uses the film's technical limitations to its benefit.
14.
A tribute to the Hammer great Freddie Francis, cinematographer par excellence and director of countless horror films, including the film given extensive analysis here, The Creeping Flesh.
15.
In-depth review of the Fantasia International Film Festival's first DVD release, a compilation of outstanding shorts shown at the festival over the past several years.
16.
An in-depth analysis of David Lynch's animated series Dumbland that convincingly argues for its likeness to Dadiast art and Absurdist drama.
17.
A festival report on the 20th installment of the Leeds International Film Festival.
18.
A report on the 2006 edition of the Festival of New Cinema in Montreal, with a preamble on the etiquette of big theatre experience in the era of the multiplex experience.
19.
A broad survey of the trends and patterns of the American horror film since 1991, the year Silence of the Lambs won several Academy Awards.
20.
An interview with director, cast and select production people of the refreshingly original indie horror film, Shallow Ground.
21.
A look at how two recent documentaries on the slasher/stalker film signals a paradigm shift in the horror genre.
22.
An analysis of how the representation of the modern male plays out in visceral dynamics of Alexandre Aja's The Hills Have Eyes, while also comparing it to Wes Craven's original.
23.
An analysis of the representation of the disabled across the broad spectrum of fantastic cinemas.
24.
A report on Fantasia Film Festival 2006, discussing issues related to form-content, style for style's sake, and short films featuring man eating cats.
25.
An interview with the director of Strange Circus and The Suicide Club, Sion Sono.
26.
A report on the 10th Year Anniversary of Fantasia, focusing on films featuring particularly nasty male pyschos.
27.
A review of British documentarian James Marsh's excellent feature film debut The King, a haunting piece of Southern Gothic which has earned comparison to Terrence Malick, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg (A History of Violence.
28.
A review essay of a multi-author reader on one of the greatest of Scottish films, The Wicker Man.
29.
Using the critical status of Stanley Kubrick, David Church analyzes how the films of a revered art film auteur can also be held up examples of cult cinema.
30.
An interview with David Grieco, Italian director of serial killer film Evilenko.
32.
A psychoanalytical defense of Dario Argento against claims of misogyny.
33.
An analysis of how Jane Campion negotiates the conventions of the sex-noir thriller with more auteurist designs exploring female sexual desire and 'art film' aesthetics.
34.
An overview analysis of Spain's enfant terrible, unique auteruist Agustin Villaronga, director of In A Glass Cage, 99.9, and others.
35.
An in-depth review essay of the notorious horror film In a Glass Cage, released on DVD by Cult Epics.
36.
An overview of all the best of Canadian, American, and International cinema screened in Montreal during 2005.
37.
An in-depth interview with co-writer and co-director of the Canadian noirish horror film Eternal.
39.
An in-depth report on the Fantasia International film festival, with a focus on the Thai films, the shorts, and some impressive US films.
40.
Writer Randolph Jordan weaves through a thematic pattern of pregnancy/death/rebirth which left its mark on FanTasia 2005.
41.
Montreal's animator/filmmaker Rick Trembles interviews the living legend of fantastic cinema, stop-motion animator extraordinaire, Ray Harryhausen.
42.
An interview with the director of the indie reality-based melodrama (in the good sense) Firecracker.
43.
An interview with director Tomoko Matsunashi on her film The Way of the Director.
44.
A theoretical analysis of the value of Gus Van Sant's Psycho.
45.
Dario Argento lives up to his often noted and inappropriate monicker, The Italian Hitchcock.
46.
An in-depth interview with Brazil's horror master Jose Mojica Marins.
47.
An review of the Jose Mojica Marins DVD box-set.
48.
Interview with makers of the poetic science-fiction parable The City without Windows (La Dernière Voix).
49.
Mondo film, ethnographic film, Mondo Cane, Russ Meyers
50.
Festival report on the 15th edition of the San Sebastian Horror fest.
51.
As I said in my most recent Fantasia International Film festival report, the director of “Bottled Fool”, Hiroki Yamaguchi, is a good bet to become the next big thing out of Japan. After making a prize winning short in 1999 at the age of 21 (“Shinya Zoki”/“Midnight Viscera”) he soon completed his first feature film in the same year, “Hateshinai tameiki” (1999).
52.
On the occasion of Fuon (The Crying Wind, Japan, 2004, 106 mins.) showing in competition at the 2004 Festival des Films du Monde (World Film Festival), in Montreal, the director of the film, Higashi Yoichi, along with principal actor, Uema Muneo, and Yamagami Tetsujiro, the film’s producer were interviewed by Peter Rist for Offscreen.
53.
I was fortunate to catch this low budget chiller at a late night screening at Montreal’s Cinema du Parc theatre on April 23, 2004. It had been a long time since I had seen this film, but for reasons soon apparent, it has remained finely etched in my memory.
55.
Part-two of Fantasia Festival report.
56.
Fantasia is back after a one year hiatus, stonger than ever.
58.
With Gus Van Sant currently on the hard road back to relevance - the gnomic, impressive achievement that was Gerry (2002) having been so closely followed by his Cannes triumph with Elephant (2003) - the time may be ripe to revisit one of his most eccentric and reviled (and very nearly forgotten) projects, his 1998 near-shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
59.
Gus Van Sant's re-appropriation of Hitchcock's classic is given another (close) look.
60.
Cult classic of the 1970s rediscovered and gets a small theatrical and DVD release.
61.
Our man in Italy visits Spain's horror and fantasy festival extravaganza.
63.
Offscreen is pleased to announce the recent publication of a book co-written by author Tommaso La Selva and Offscreen’s man-in-Italy, Roberto Curti: Sex and Violence: journey into the cinema of the extreme. Totaro reviews this important Italian contribution to horror film scholarship.
64.
A thematic-based analysis of Shyamalan's narrative structure, with an emphasis on temporality.
65.
Donato Totaro looks at Shyamalan's visual style in his extensive two-part analysis of Shyamalan's (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs).
66.
Donato Totaro looks at Shyamalan's visual style in his extensive two-part analysis of Shyamalan's 'trilogy' (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs).
67.
Randolph Jordan stretches his writer's arms in his two-part Fantasia 2003 report, using part one to reflect on cult cinema spectatorship.
68.
Jordan uses part two of his report as an extended mediation on Fantasia (and Jordan) favorite Takashi Miike.
70.
The long wait is over. After a one year hiatus for economic and logistical reasons, the FanTasia International Film Festival is back (July 17-August 10, 2003).
71.
Sometimes it is a fine line between homage and imitation. With the plentiful allusions to George Romero’s classic zombie trilogy (Night of the Living Dead, 1968, Dawn of the Dead, 1979, and Day of the Dead, 1985) the line is perilously treaded in Danny Boyle’s latest pseudo zombie, science-fiction action thriller 28 Days Later.
73.
Director Teruo Ishii was a featured director at the 5th Udine Far East Film Festival. Curti analyzes Ishii's ero-guro (erotic-grotesque) cinema.
75.
Political analysis of Alfonso Arau's Like Water for Chocolate.
76.
The home video revolution, especially with the success of the DVD format and the massive availability of alternative cinemas in this format, has, for better or for worse, altered the function of the repertory theatre.
77.
Iran has Samira Makhmalbaf and a famous father named Mohsen. Italy has Asia Argento and a famous father named Dario. The parallels pretty much stop there.
78.
Splashy, wild, sexy, and stylish describes the world of the Italian fumetti ('black' adult comic books). But what happens to the fumetti when translated to the screen? A distant cousin to the giallo ('yellow' serial thrillers), the fumetti neri have been mainstays of Italian pop culture since their inception in the early 1960's. Curti traces their lineage from comic strip to movie screen.
79.
Perhaps not the best giallo ever made, but an interesting entry into the female paranoia film.
80.
Randolph uses Clive Barker's The Forbidden to explore how the Faustian myth of immortality persists in contemporary attempts at reproduction and regeneration through the intersections of art and science, art and nature, and music and film.
