Latest Columns & Features

BUFFALO SCREAMS HORROR FILM FESTIVAL 2011

I left for Buffalo the day before a freak blizzard hit the tri-state area. The trees still had leaves on them and couldn’t support the additional weight of the snow. A thousand fell in Central Park alone. And a Jet Blue plane sat on the runway for eight hours, running out of water, functional toilet facilities, and first aid for two sick passengers. It would have served them right if Gerard Depardieu had been on board.

CAMP DAVID MARCH 2012: THE TENNESSEE STUD

The other evening I sat down to examine the 2003 remake of Tennessee Williams’ THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE. The first version starred Vivien Leigh and Warren Beatty under the direction of the gifted Jose Quintero. This would be the only film he would ever direct and it remains the definitive version. The reboot [...]

CAMP DAVID FEB 2012: THE FANTASTIC DISAPPEARING MAN

Francis Lederer may not have been a household name, yet countless fans of the Dracula myths on stage and screen knew him as “Bellac,” an old world vampire masquerading as a mortal in Paul Landres’ RETURN OF DRACULA (1958). He invited me to meet him at his acting academy in Studio City where he was engaged in the most unlikely task for a former Count Dracula: that of coaching moppets in a dance routine…

BEST OF 2011 CHOICES FROM FIR’S WRITERS

The writers of Films In Review choose their favorite films, DVD’s, and BluRays of 2011. With selections by Roy Frumkes, Mark Gross, Glenn Andreiev, Bryan Layne, Ben Peeples, David Guglielmo, and Oren Shai.

CAMP DAVID NOVEMBER 2011: REFLECTIONS ON DEMILLE BY JOHN CARRADINE

In the late 80′s the archivist and author John Kobal began in earnest to create a large coffee table book to honor the films of Cecil B De Mille. He chose to call it DEMILLE AND HIS ARTISTS. John had the full cooperation of the DeMille estate and the surviving heirs of De Mille himself. [...]

INTERVIEW: SID HAIG

The sixties ushered peace, love, and war into American society and as this volatility raged and stung at the hearts of the populace, couch potatoes in American living rooms were unwittingly transmitted a new face of a hood, a terrorist, an all-around bad guy. Embodying psychos and mad doctors and zombies and those that go bump in the night, like a seal of approval, today Sid Haig is the face of horror.

INDIE CORNER NOV 2011

I’ve been watching a lot of films submitted to me by talented film-makers, who usually make genre films (horror or science fiction) on zero budgets. I make films with budgets lower than a pregnant ant, so I can relate. What bothers me is that most of these film-makers make films that are imitating Hollywood successes…