Get two sentences into any retrospective of Star Trek, and you’ll run smack into a glowing pronouncement of difference between Gene Roddenberry’s vision and spaceship jockey opuses that preceded it: the optimism. Star Trek promised a future where there was no war, at least among humans, no racism, […]
Mummies have been popping up everywhere in my life lately. Not literally, like turning around to find them shambling down the street behind me or accidentally disturbing their peaceful slumber in a dark corner of the closet, but in many fictional formats. I’ve discovered mummies in board games […]
This essay has some plot details and some swears in it. Proceed accordingly, my friends. ~~~ “I don’t know what I should have done. I never had to save the world before.” ~ Rita Farr Somewhere in west central Ohio, Black drag diva Maura Lee Karupt (Alan Mingo, […]
I was, in my day, particularly fond of John Christopher’s Tripods trilogy, which combined “boy’s own adventure” with post-apocalyptic science fiction.
In his first two films, Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019), insidious cults with insidious plots are to Ari Aster as disease is to David Cronenberg and differently horny monsters are to Clive Barker: a mechanic to pry under conventional assumptions and morality to prepare the way for something […]
In the world of underappreciated Indian films, Youtube spelunking often leads to treasures. Years ago, while looking for cabaret songs by one of my favorite 1970s and 80s stars (Rekha, seen frequently on The Gutter), I happened across a number from Chehre Pe Chehra, an adaptation of…. Dr. […]
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The Cultural Gutter 