Pretty Packaging: Criterion's THE KOKER TRILOGY Is An Iranian Russian Doll
If we look at the Blu-ray distributing landscape, I think nobody will contest that Criterion is the most prestigious company in existence there. From 1984 onward the company has focused on quality, and, quoting Wikipedia: "Criterion is noted for helping...
Shivers 2019 Review: THE MORTUARY COLLECTION
Ryan Spindell's horror anthology is a visual feast, and Clancy Brown is fantastic in it.
SHIVERS 2019 Features Another Goosebump-inducing Line-up
For the past few years I've written an alert of sorts about Germany's genre film festival Shivers, in the city of Konstanz. each time, the reason has been that the fest's line-up was unusually strong. In 2018 the festival allowed...
Camera Japan 2019 Review: RISE OF THE MACHINE GIRLS Doesn't Elevate Its Niche
Back in 2007, our site got one of its highest traffic spikes when we hosted the outrageous trailer for Iguchi Noboru's The Machine Girl. For many people, it was their first exposure to Japan's bloody splattergore genre. And when the...
Review: MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN Bursts Open Mythology
(That's Dan O'Bannon peeping around the corner...) Over the past decade, writer-director Alexandre O. Philippe has made a name for himself as a documentary maker, picking all sorts of interesting subjects like Paul the Psychic Octopus, or Star Wars fandom...
The Dutch Camera Japan Festival 2019 Is Upon Us
As the end of September nears, so does one of the most fun yearly Dutch film events: the Camera Japan Film Festival! Dedicated entirely to Japanese films, food and (other) culture, this festival visits Rotterdam from the 25th till the...
KILLMODE Gets A Teaser And A Poster
Back in 2015, Dutch directors Colinda Bongers and Thijs Meuwese won a pitching contest at the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam, and were allowed to advertise their film idea at Fantasia in Canada later that year. Their vision of a...
Crowdfund This: Dennis Hopper's OUT OF THE BLUE Restored In 4K
Now here's a nice project being crowdfunded: Dennis Hopper's 1980 gritty family drama Out of the Blue will be restored in 4K. Yes, "will be", because the initial goal of 35,000 USD has already been achieved. Backers can either bask...
Rest In Peace, Rutger Hauer
It is with sadness that we hear the news that last Friday, actor Rutger Hauer died after a brief illness, at the untimely age of 75. His breakthrough as an actor in the Netherlands was in Paul Verhoeven's television series...
Fantasia 2019 Shorts Review: LILI Provides A Quick Punch
Reviewing a short can be a difficult endeavour, especially one which is only nine minutes long. At that length, it's hard to tell people what a film is about without spoiling it almost entirely. So rest assured I will keep...
ScreenAnarchy's Top Movies Of The First Half Of 2019
With 2020 only half a year away, let's do the mid-2019 Top-Ten thing. We asked our staff of writers and editors what, in their opinion, were the best films this year so far. And because that's too easy, as writer...
Imagine 2019: What The Audiences Liked Best
It's been two months since Amsterdam hosted its Imagine Film Festival, one of the finest Dutch genre events of the year. And I notice that while I always mention the audiences' reception of films in my reviews, I never wrote...
Imagine 2019 Review: MONSTRUM Presents Silly, Gory Entertainment
Last year saw several entries added to the sub-sub-genre of Korean history-slash-horror films (and there's even a Korean historical zombie series on Netflix). Last month, the Imagine Film Festival showed one of these: Korean director Huh Jong-ho's historical action thriller...
Check Out Dutch Horror Short SANDWITCH In Full, Online And Free!
Every year at the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam, there is a collection of Dutch short genre films shown. Last year, one of the best and funniest of those was Sandwitch (not a typo), a horror comedy directed by Jasper...
Pretty Packaging: PERFECT BLUE Gets A Sweet New Ultimate Edition
Back in early 2014, then-fledgling distributor Anime Limited scored quite a scoop by being the first to release an English-friendly Blu-ray of Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue. Our J. Hurtado reviewed it and as the release wasn't ugly, I put up...
Review: Zhang Yimou's SHADOW, A Feast of Sound and Vision
Being a trained cinematographer, Chinese director Zhang Yimou cannot be accused of making ugly films. Be it a small drama or an epic fantasy flick, the man knows how to shoot pretty pictures, so it will be no surprise that...
Crowdfund This: A Documentary About Dutch Genre Director Dick Maas
(And it's going to be called... Dick Maas: The Documentary) In my home country of the Netherlands, there are plenty of people and filmmakers who are interested in creating genre entertainment, but the industry is generally loath to support them....
Imagine 2019 Review: MEMORY Reminds Us Why We Love ALIEN
(That's Dan O'Bannon peeping around the corner...) Over the past decade, writer-director Alexandre O. Philippe has made a name for himself as a documentary maker, picking all sorts of interesting subjects like Paul the Psychic Octopus, or Star Wars fandom...
Imagine 2019: Heads-Ups And Recommendations
Yesterday saw the start of my favorite Dutch Film event: the Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam. As festivals go it sure isn't the largest, but their line-up never fails to bring a smile to my face, and each year it...
Pretty Packaging: John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS
(OK, seeing as how the releases are so similar, I'm cribbing the first bit of this article from my previous one about Escape From New York...) Back in November, UK distributor StudioCanal released two of their John Carpenter titles with...
