From the Archives: Return of the Tripods
I was, in my day, particularly fond of John Christopher’s Tripods trilogy, which combined “boy’s own adventure” with post-apocalyptic science fiction.
Ari Aster Has a Plan for Your Life
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 […]
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Go To Bollywood
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. […]
Fleeing the House of Sinister Love
There was a time when no woman traveled without a diaphanous, preferably white, nightgown and robe in her luggage. In darkling hours, she might rise from her bed entranced to fling open French doors to dangerous passion and doom. She might flee a mansion after discovering her beloved’s […]
Searching for Odin, My Love
Let me start off by saying that I love Odin: Photon Space Sailer Starlight. Absolutely love it. All those people in the world who call it one of the worst animated films of all time? Liars. Let me further preface that admission by freely admitting that I have […]
It Was the Best of Draculas, It Was the Worst of Draculas.
Spoilers! Not just for the BBC’s Dracula, but also any Dracula, and the BBC’s Doctor Who, going all the way back to the Steven Moffat-penned 2008 episode “Silence in the Library,” and weirdly enough, Dune Messiah. If I can say one wholly positive thing about the BBC-Netflix Dracula […]
The Cultural Gutter 