movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Wed Jul 04
Lex Scott Davis protests the Purge, Elle Fanning invents science fiction, Whitney Houston is eulogized in documentary form, and more…
Mary Shelley
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Fri May 25
Elle Fanning invents science fiction; Natalie Dormer overhears a murder; more…
Victor Frankenstein movie review: monster mush
A riff on the Hollywood conventions of a story we know very well already, with little new to say. James McAvoy’s mad scientist is fun to watch, though.
Crimson Peak movie review: humorous gruesome
A deliciously creepy haunted-house story. Oozes eldritch atmosphere yet plays with our genre expectations in ways that make it as funny as it is scary.
Frankenweenie (review)
The Tim Burton-est movie in a long while, not merely because it embodies all those wonderfully weird and humanist Burton attitudes but also because only Burton would think to make a stop-motion film in glorious, creamy, black-and-white.
question of the day: What is the appeal of steampunk?
This is my theory: Steampunk is about looking ahead and seeing magnificent airships plying blue skies, not global warming or nuclear war…
Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, Young Frankenstein, Little Shop of Horrors, and Beetlejuice (review)
Why do slasher movies make us laugh in the instant after we jump and scream? When comedy works, it’s for the same reason that horror does: It surprises us, and laughter and screams emanate from that same primitive lizard part of our brains, one that reacts before we can think.
Frankenstein (1931) (review)
Will the male half of the species ever get over its fear and awe of the reproductive power of the female half? If the enduring popularity of the Frankenstein story and its variants is anything to judge by, the answer is no. And endure it does: From Frankenweenie to Frankenhooker to Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound, this is a story that has inspired almost countless retellings. But the original filmed version, directed by James Whale in 1931, is still the best.
