In 1930, Universal Pictures faced an emerging problem. “Talkies” had just surpassed silent cinema as the industry standard, and though sound promised previously unrealized potential for movies, it also promised to shrink audiences. Silent movies were universal in a way films spoken in one language couldn’t be, and dubbing a film into different languages was nigh-impossible…
Creating child-friendly horror is difficult. That’s not to say children aren’t easily scared –quite the opposite, really– but it’s not always easy for horror tv and movies aimed at a family audience to hit the mark. Perennial children’s Halloween favorites such as Hocus Pocus aims for humor more frequently than scares, whereas there are episodes of Rugrats that…
Soviet film is not typically known for horror movies. Horrors of a capitalist society, sure, but not really a whole lot of ghosts, werewolves, or any of the other beasties that make for good Halloween viewing. For that very reason, Viy, released in 1967, is a bit of an oddity. Adapted from a Nikolai Gogol story…
There are precious few moments in 20th century pop culture that have been explored as widely and deeply in books, magazines, and films as the ten years during which The Beatles were performing and making music together. The basic arc of their story, from ragtag Liverpudlian club band to pop music innovators, has been told,…
Though it wasn’t the first 3D platform game, Super Mario 64 tends to get talked about as though it was, and with good reason. While other platform games preceded Mario’s foray into the third dimension (90s Kid icon and forsaken Sony mascot Crash Bandicoot beat Mario to release in America by two weeks), none are as fondly remembered, are as…
When you get right down to it, the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is nothing short of improbable. Created by a duo of New England indie comic creators in the early 80s, an offbeat style parody of Frank Miller comics with an initial print run of 3,000 issues went from underground sensation to…
It appears some apologies are in order. My relationship to DC Comics in the last few years has been a bit fraught. There have been some shows I like a lot, some I like a lot less, and a certain movie I’d rather like to not mention for a while. The editorial decisions in the…
Rooster Illusion 