Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
Without James Whale or a solid literary source, it seems like Carl Laemmle really didn't know how to put together a winning monster movie. Using bits and pieces from previous, more successful, efforts Laemmle had produced, he brought in a small host of writers and director Stuart Walker to develop a lot of werewolf lore… Continue reading Werewolf of London
*note: The Return of Frank James is a sequel to this film by Henry King, so I decided to watch it ahead of Fritz Lang's film. I didn't imagine that I would miss anything important story-wise, but I thought it would mostly be interesting to compare and contrast.* Let's just imagine that this film is… Continue reading Jesse James
#38 in my ranking of Fritz Lang's filmography. The first Spiders movie was a relatively small and focused adventure. The second is bigger and far less focused, moving from one to location to the next in an amorphous mystery that doesn't so much escalate with increasing stakes but just kind of lurches from one thing… Continue reading The Spiders Episode 2: The Diamond Ship
#7 in my ranking of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The two horror titans fight! And...then there's a bunch of boring teenagers trying to figure out if they're in a Nightmare on Elm Street movie or a Friday the 13th movie. I'm somewhat a fan of the Freddy franchise, enjoying the imagination that tends… Continue reading Freddy vs. Jason
#14 in my ranking of Wes Craven's filmography. Wes Craven was no good at directing comedy, and the combination of simply capturing some of the earliest excesses of Eddie Murphy's comedic stylings along with the super-generic vampire terror end up clashing anyway in Vampire in Brooklyn to the point where even if you find the… Continue reading Vampire in Brooklyn
David Vining, Author 