All posts by Dejan Ognjanovic »
Book Review: Zombies! An Illustrated History of the Undead
Zombies are in! After decades of mindless shambling in the confines of pulp magazines and B-movies, the living dead have finally reached the mainstream with the box-office success of 28 Days Later (2002) and...
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Book Review: Dark Stars Rising by Shade Rupe
Though unrelated to Lovecraft, in spite of the allusive title, Dark Stars Rising is a true Necronomicon, a Black Bible of transgression and transcendence, of the Other and the Beyond. Big words, I know,...
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Fantasia 2010: Still Subversive Sell-Outs
Upon seeing this year’s Fantasia program, my immediate thought was: “Are they selling-out?” After all, the fest once known for weird and eccentric films from around the world was opened by THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE,...
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Book Review: Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms – Essays on Gender, Race, and Culture
Not yet another book on vampires! You may be excused for reacting like this upon seeing this title: vampires have been done to death – in movies, in comics, in fiction, in non-fiction, in...
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Interview: Ruggero Deodato
The main guest at this year’s Grossmann Film and Wine Festival (Ljutomer, Slovenia) was the great Italian director Ruggero Deodato. Last year Roger Corman and Brian Yuzna were there and interviews with them can...
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Parasomnia (2008) Movie Review
PARASOMNIA is one of this year’s most exciting horror films. It’s directed by William Malone, whose previous credits have not fully prepared us for this fine and original little horror. His THE CREATURE (aka...
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Book Review: Bad Taste by Jim Barratt
The guys of the ‘Cultographies’ series are back at it again, with some new titles! We’ve already presented their first three books on this site: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, DONNIE DARKO and THIS...
Read More »Book Review: German Expressionist Cinema – The World of Light and Shadow
Before there were genres, before there was Hollywood in its full glory, the cinema as art (but also as entertainment) flourished in Europe. The results were nowhere more astounding, groundbreaking nor more influential than...
Read More »Interview: Brian Yuzna
Brian Yuzna was a special guest at this year’s Grossmann Festival of Film and Wine in Ljutomer, Slovenia, where he was given the newly established ReanimaCat award for special achievements in Horror/Fantasy cinema. He...
Read More »Interview: Roger Corman
Roger Corman was a special guest at this year’s Grossmann Festival of Film and Wine in Ljutomer, Slovenia, where he was given the Vicious Cat award for life achievement. Still vital at 82 and...
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Let the Right One In (2008) Movie Review
There are special effects that no Hollywood blockbuster can create, and magic that no money can buy. It is the magic of humanity that no CGI can recreate or substitute – the magic of...
Read More »Film Genre: From Iconography to Ideology (2007) Book Review
This book is another one in the long and precious series ‘Short Cuts’ by Wallflower, made up of short guides to various aspects of cinema. The series includes titles like CRIME FILM: Investigating The...
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The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror (2004) Book Review
John Carpenter has been variously labelled a “maverick”, a “horror director”, an “auteur”, even “the last genre filmmaker in America.” Unlike some of his more talkative and self-reflective colleagues like David Cronenberg or George...
Read More »Book Review: Donnie Darko (by Geoff King)
I guess I was subconsciously expecting this book to be a letdown. The first two in the Cultographies series were excellent and very much to the point: so, at least one had to be...
Read More »TCM International Film Guide 2008 Book Review
Ever since 1963, when it was first published, the International Film Guide has enjoyed the unrivalled reputation as the most authoritative and trusted source of information on world cinema. For a good while Variety...
Read More »Book Review: This is Spinal Tap (by Ethan de Seife)
Here’s another volume in the Wallflower’s Cultographies series of books devoted to cult movies. Of course, the book market is clogged by all kinds of picturebooks and ‘guides’ through the highs and lows of...
Read More »Book Review: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (by Jeffrey Weinstock)
‘Cultographies’ is a new series of books, devoted (as you might guess) to ”the weird and wonderful world of cult cinema”. In format and approach they are very much reminiscent of the acclaimed British...
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Craig (2007) Movie Review
Craig is a pathethic schlob whom we first encounter in a police station, questioned about the unconvincing digital ‘fire’ effects which we saw during the opening credits. Turns out the fire in his house...
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