Scott’s list of five films for Halloween got me thinking about some of the terrific foreign horror movies out there. Here’s my list of five movies from five different countries that make for Halloween chills. 1. Shivers – Canada (aka They Came From Within) David Cronenberg’s first feature film, it’s basically a zombie picture. But since it’s Cronenberg the zombie-ism …
John Jos. Miller’s CREATURE FEATURE
Two-Headed Mutants and Lizard Dinosaurs MANSTER (1959; US release 1962) A US/Japan co-production filmed in Japan. Japanese title: SOTO NO SATSUJINKI (The Split) I first saw MANSTER on Creature Feature back in those halcyon days which I reminisced about in my post earlier in the week. I remembered it as a decent horror movie with a bang-up opening sequence and …
Five for Halloween
For whatever reason, people are always asking me to recommend good movies for Halloween viewing. With the weekend of spooky goodness upon us, I figured I’d put together a short list of some excellent choices, with an eye towards titles you might not be familiar with. These are not in any particular order other than the path they took falling …
Goth (2003)
(Goth just turned up on Netflix Streaming, and since I seem to have some sort of plague and might not get to a new review for the day, I figured I’d post my review of the flick from my book, Unsafe On Any Screen). Are you Goth? That’s the question the title character (played by Phoebe Dollar, who looks like …
Cool Actor of the Week: Henry Silva
Nobody can argue with today’s pick for Cool Actor of the Week — Mr. Henry Silva. Although Silva is instantly recognizable, to many folks he’s another of those “Ohmigod it’s THAT GUY!” character actors. Accepted to the prestigious Actors’ Studio in 1955, Silva had already appeared on television and in an uncredited role in Viva Zapata! (1952). Usually cast as …
John Jos. Miller’s CREATURE FEATURE
SON OF THE BLACK MASS 1: THE CHINESE JADE So, after laying out the approach I’m going to take with this blog in my first post, here, in my second, I’m going to show my wild and anarchistic side and throw most of what I said out the window. I’m going to devote most of this entry to a movie called …
The Shape of Things to Come (1979)
I’m constantly amazed at the way a lot of science fiction movies made in the few years after Star Wars (1977) somehow manage to come off like they were made 20 years earlier. Sure, the special effects were usually a little better than the sci fi flicks of the 50s, but in many cases, the dialogue could’ve been lifted right …
John Jos. Miller’s Creature Feature
Hello, world. Or at least the part of it that’s reading Cheese Magnet. My name is John Miller and I am a writer. I’ve published novels, short fiction, game books, comic book scripts, poems (1), non-fiction mainly concerned with baseball history, and other items that you probably would not be interested in (eg, technical archeology reports and papers). My current …
She (1982)
In the wake of John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian and George Miller’s The Road Warrior (a.k.a. Mad Max II), the 1980s were a rich period for craptastic sword & sorcery and post-apocalyptic movies. Occasionally someone would combine the two genres and we’d get a particularly stunning trash-cinema disaster like Avi Nesher’s She. “Inspired by” the H. Rider Haggard book (but …
Unfulfilled by the Jiggle Queens
I realize this post is basically coming from the mindset of a horny 15-year-old boy, but then again, we here at Cheese Magnet aren’t really known for our intellectualism and sense of decorum. So please, join me on this little journey, won’t you? Yesterday’s review of California Casanova got me and Tanzi to talking about the famous TV “jiggle queens” …
California Casanova (1991)
It’s not often I see a movie that makes me wanna kill myself — well, other than Titanic — but California Casanova had me fondling the noose. This flick is like a four-foot-tall layer cake of crap slathered with a thick frosting of wretchedness and incoherence — which means, of course, this one is a must-see for lovers of trash …
Cool Actor of the Week: John Vernon
“And that foot is me.” That’s probably one of the most quoted lines in movie history, and it was spoken by our Cool Actor of the Week, John Vernon. Vernon, born Adolphus Raymondus Vernon Agopsowicz, appeared in an astonishing 196 movies and TV shows throughout his long career — including, of course, Animal House (1978), where he delivered his unforgettable performance …
Little Cigars (1973)
Little Cigars might be one of the more awful titles I’ve heard (it sounds like what you’d shovel out of the cat box), but the movie itself is pretty entertaining. I went into this one blind, knowing only that it featured blonde babe Angel Tompkins (star of a lot of 60s and 70s TV, not to mention the movies Prime …
Dagmar’s Hot Pants Inc. (1971)
What could be wilder than spending a Saturday afternoon with a Swedish sexploitation movie, right? Well, after watching Dagmar’s Hot Pants Inc. (a.k.a. Dagmar and Co. and Dagmar’s Heta Troser), I’d say mowing the lawn, brushing one’s teeth, or enjoying a nice bowl of oatmeal would place higher on the list. The movie opens with a moving theme song (“You …
Give ‘Em Hell Malone (2009)
I have to admit I’ve never been much of a fan of the films of Russell Mulcahy — the only one I like is Razorback (1984), Mulcahy’s Australian man-eating pig movie starring Gregory Harrison, and I like that one quite a bit. When Give ‘Em Hell Malone turned up on Netflix streaming and I saw it was directed by Mulcahy, …