Mario Bava’s directorial debut shows why he’s a legend in giallo circles — This review was originally posted to Twitter on July 19, 2019. Initial release: August 11, 1960 Director: Mario Bava Mario Bava was a god damn genius and the world is a little worse for his modern-day obscurity. While he’s made a hell of a lot of movies over his 40-year career in film, none are so important as…

Castlevania spiritual successor a big success — This review was originally posted to Twitter on July 18, 2019 Initial release: June 18, 2019 Platform: PlayStation 4, XBox One, PC, Switch Developer: ArtPlay It’s here! Four years in the making, Koji Igarashi’s spiritual sequel to the freewheeling Metroid-style Castlevania games he directed is finally out after multiple delays and Kickstarter drama — was it worth the wait?

Like Macbeth, but in Japan — This review was originally posted to Twitter on July 14, 2019. Initial release: January 15, 1957 Director: Akira Kurosawa The 1950s and 60s were a ripe time for Japanese historical cinema (known collectively as jidai-geki.) Set in japan’s distant past, these films are a genre unto themselves. But only one is based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Akira Kurosawa’s Spiderweb…

I hope you like rats… or maybe not — This review was originally posted to Twitter on July 13, 2019. Initial release: May 14, 2019 Platforms: PlayStation 4, XBox One, PC Developer: Asobo Studio There seems to be a recent trend of quasi-horrorish games set in the distant past. There’s a lot to explore in history, and Asobo Studio’s A Plague Tale: Innocence brings the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death to…

The first gothic novel sets the stage for the modern horror genre — This review was originally posted to Twitter on July 10, 2019. Initial release: 1764 Author: Horace Walpole Everything has to start somewhere. Gothic fiction, and indeed horror as a literary genre, very likely owes its existence to an Enlightenment-era Englishman, Horace Walpole, and his tale of a short-tempered fuckboy and a family curse.

A reasonably faithful adaptation of the Shakespeare classic — too bad it’s by Roman Polanski — This review was originally posted to Twitter on July 10, 2019. Initial release: October 13, 1971 Director: Roman Polanski Roman Polanski is a child rapist. He also made what’s among the most faithful adaptation of Macbeth, Shakespeare’s classic tale of murder and madness, and though Shakespeare can be difficult to translate to film, he nailed it. Both of…

A gritty tale of 1860s immigrant life? Or just an incoherent mess? — Initial release: December 20, 2002 Director: Martin Scorsese “America was born in the streets,” reads the tagline on the poster for Martin Scorsese’s gritty immigrant drama-cum-gang movie, Gangs of New York. Combined with the title, the intended meaning is clear: everything that makes America, America, is rooted in violence and struggles for territory — be it the petty…

Murder and madness in this samurai noir — Initial release: February 25, 1966 Director: Kihachi Okamoto Samurai film sits in a weird historical position in popular culture. Despite being a fundamentally Japanese form of art, it enjoyed immense popularity in the United States. But it’s also a very mid-century phenomenon; while samurai movies (and anime) are still being made, the genre’s heyday was absolutely in the…

A grim adaptation of the classic Civil War psychological drama that succeeds despite studio interference — Initial release: September 27, 1951 Director: John Huston America loves heroes. Dead or alive — though preferably dead — America venerates those it sees as embodying what it means to be American, the definition of which has long been mercurial. Audie Murphy is one such hero: a highly decorated World War II vet, having earned every medal for…