Chad Ferrin has made seven feature films over the last two decades, each of them a celebration of the Grotesque. All of these movies shared a certain DIY ingenuity along with an obvious obsession with the limits of sanity. Despite their collective preoccupations, no two of Ferrin’s flicks were alike. The director brazenly leaped from
By Ben Arzate Just a few weeks ago, as of writing this article, the film JT Leroy was released. JT Leroy was allegedly a young transgender woman who came from an abusive household and formerly worked as a prostitute. Leroy released three semi-autobiographical books, but remained reclusive from the 90s, when she first began publishing,
by Bob Freville Trying to get a film off the ground can be a particularly Sisyphean task and, as French philosopher Albert Camus once famously said, “You think I could bum a dollar or a smoke? C’mon, man, I’m good for it.” Making movies isn’t for the weak of resolve, but it may be for
Welcome back to Ben Arzate’s The Unreprinted, a column exploring rare and/or out-of-print books that have left a lasting impression on readers. Today, author Zakary McGaha takes a look at Jeffrey Thomas’s entry in the Black Flame series of Nightmare on Elm Street tie-ins. by Zakary McGaha The Black Flame line of books holds its
Read Part I here. A figure in a giant bunny mask murders the wicked with whatever implement is at hand, sending them to the Lord at the wrong end of a broomstick or the working end of a power drill. When the masked avenger’s not slaughtering the damned, it’s defending a damaged young man
By Bob Freville A stoner med student receives a knock on his dorm room door. When he opens it a lanky woman, butt naked, stands before him, her pert nipples staring at him. This temptress wants to fuck and who’s this pipsqueak to say no? The med student invites her in and they get right
By Bob Freville There’s an inherent problem with the Die Hard series—it hasn’t been good since 1995. Sure, 2007’s Live Free or Die Hard had its dim charms, such as Maggie Q in black leather and the scenery-chewing fan boy Kevin Smith’s cameo as a basement-dwelling hacker. But there was an insufficient amount of awesome
By Bob Freville The following review originally appeared in Kotori Magazine on June 27th, 2010. It is included here as part of our Films That Fell Through the Cracks column due to its relative obscurity. Like many of director Chad Ferrin’s delightfully warped grindhouse features, it has not been given the attention it deserves. Easter Bunny Kill!
The Frightening (2002) Film Review by Zakary McGaha What you need to know going in: there’s a new kid at a weird high school, people start dying, and there are ghosts…sort of. The Frightening, directed by David DeCoteau, is a mixed bag, to put it delicately. Still, it has a swath of charm that makes
By Zakary McGaha This tiny article isn’t really a continuation of my last write-up on mainstream horror, because there won’t be many (if any) new points. It’s more of a response to an article debunking some Vogue piece, in which my article was referenced (in said debunking article; not the Vogue piece). Anyway, it was
