Review — Let Me In

[Reviewed by: Danny Moltrasi]

“I’m a lot stronger than you think.”

Let Me In, was seen as the perfect example of a remake of a non-English speaking film that was utterly, utterly pointless. And to tell the truth, in many ways that point is still completely right. However, Let Me In and its director Matt Reeves have a film that balances keeping enough of the original theme and tones, while also going a small way to legitimize the film as a stand-alone piece of cinema. It is far from perfectly, and in my opinion not as good as the Swedish original, however it is still, in its own way, a good film, and a good piece of horror.

Criterion Review — 3 Women (1977)

[Reviewed by: Alex Miller]

1977 was a year in which many cinematic classics were released – Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Annie Hall, The Goodbye Girl, & The Spy Who Loved Me just to name a few. Yet when Roger Ebert made his list of the 10 best films from 1977 his top pick was a film most haven’t even heard of, much less seen – 3 Women. I recently saw the Criterion edition DVD sitting in my local library and knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see what all the fuss was about. I wasn’t disappointed.

Article — Guide to October Horror

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[Posted by: Eric Raymer]

October is probably my favorite month because it gives me an excuse to watch a lot of horror films to get in the mood for Halloween. (Not that I need that much of an excuse.) It also means there’s a slew of new horror films ready to be released in theaters. If you’re wondering which will be worth checking out this month and which will just be more of the same cheap scares, keep reading for a breakdown of all the horror coming your way in October.

Top-5 — Unnecessary Remakes

[Posted by: Eric Raymer]

Matt Reeves’ vampire coming-of-age film Let Me In hits theaters October 1st – which means it’ll come out just a little shy of two years after the original Swedish version (Let the Right One In). There’s been somewhat of a backlash from fans of the original since the remake was announced, and accusations of the new film being dumbed-down for a U.S. audience are flying left and right. Reeves has defended his work, saying that the original itself was a remake of a novel, and that his film is just a “variation on a theme.” The marketing for the new film has done a pretty good job of distinguishing it from the Swedish film, but at the end of the day, it’s the same story. It’s not uncommon for major studios to “Americanize” foreign films by remaking them with well-known actors and without subtitles. Sometimes a larger budget can bring a little more flash to source material that couldn’t quite pull it off. Other times… Well, it’s usually best to try and forget about those. Some of the worst remakes occur when a director tries to remake something (foreign or otherwise) that succeeded in the first place. Regardless of Let Me In‘s eventual fate, it’s probably not going to be as bad as the following cinematic catastrophes.

Cult Classics — Darkman

[Reviewed by: Alex Miller]

“Darkman” is a very interesting film for a number of reasons. It’s basically a comic book superhero movie, but it’s not based on a comic book (the comics are based on this movie). It’s also essentially a classic horror film, but it’s not a horror movie. In addition, it borrows very heavily from “The Phantom of the Opera” but there is no singing (and there are no lame 15-yr old band nerd chicks overly-obsessing over it). It is all of these things and none of these things. It takes ideas that are completely unoriginal, sticks them in a blender, and spits out something totally original. Cult classics as a general rule, however, don’t need to be original or well-executed. They just need to be weird. They need to be so weird that most people just don’t get them. That’s what makes the people who DO get them, like them even more than they should.  This one is plenty weird enough to make the cut. If you know anything about cult films at all, then you know about Director Sam Raimi. He has made what most consider to be the epitome of the cult classic in his “Evil Dead” series of movies. He later went mainstream, making the “Spider Man” blockbuster series. Most recently, he has returned to his slapstick cult roots with the very entertaining “Drag Me To Hell”. Today’s film “Darkman” is a must-see for Raimi fans. So let’s take a closer look!