Fool's Views (5/16 - 5/31)

"Butch knows best..."

Back again! And just in time before the madness of Cinepocalypse 2019 begins!

The latter half of May was highlighted by three horror icons – Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee – all of whom share a birthday within a day of one another (PC on May 26, VP and CL on the 27th). With Severin Films releasing the feline-centric anthology The Uncanny on Blu-ray and The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (which I had never seen) as part of their Hemisphere Box of Horrors box set, the time seemed right to celebrate the trio in style. (It also occurred to me that I hadn’t watched Uncle Vincent in Theater of Blood in far too long, and had never given it a proper review. Consider that box checked.)

I also took a deeper dive into director Richard Lester’s filmography, as well as knocking out what may be the last of De Palma’s output for the foreseeable future, shared the mike (and snacks) with Kicking the Seat maestro Ian Simmons for another round of Argento, and then wrapped things up with Shout! Factory’s trio of Pride 2019 releases.

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!

THE UNCANNY (1977) Blu-ray Review

The Uncanny (1977) d. Denis Heroux (Canada/UK) (89 min)

From the producing team of Milton Subotsky (purveyor of those awesome early ’70s Amicus anthologies) and Claude Heroux (the man behind such Canuck-horror efforts as Visiting Hours and Of Unknown Origin, as well as David Cronenberg’s The Brood, Scanners, and Videodrome) comes a tolerable triptych of terror tales… or should we say tails? Frantic scribbler Wilbur (Peter Cushing) appears at the door of publisher Frank Richard (Ray Milland) with his latest literary effort: a treatise on how the world is secretly ruled by – wait for it – cats. Yup, Wilbur is convinced that the felines are running the show, and proceeds to unspool several yarns (or balls thereof) as “evidence,” all of which are entertaining enough but without exception overstay their welcome.

FOOL'S VIEWS (1/21 – 1/27)

Hey kids,

Been a wild and wacky week. In addition to my usual chicanery, after years of waffling on the subject, I decided to start up a separate blog to celebrate those flicks that take up at least half of my viewing time – those of the “Civilian” quarter. The fact of the matter is that I’m lazy and didn’t want to be managing two different blogs, but as the past year has shown, there are many non-horror efforts that could use some championing.

FOOL’S VIEWS with Dr. AC will hopefully serve as a venue where I can extol the virtues of underrated, overlooked civilian gems. And just as hopefully, I hope you, Faithful Reader, will stop by from time to time to see what’s cooking over yonder.

Another format change is that as the horror views have been growing in size and visual content, I will now be providing links to these individual reviews as opposed to re-printing them below. Hopefully that won't prove too annoying, but please leave your feedback below. After all, I'm writing these for you.

On with the show. Wrapped up the Oscar views this week, as well as completing the first Kryptic Army assignment of 2013. Hope you like. As always feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!

THE UNCANNY (1977) movie review

Uncanny, The (1977) (1st viewing) d. Heroux, Denis (Canada/UK)

From the producing team of Milton Subotsky (purveyor of those awesome early 70s Amicus anthologies) and Claude Heroux (the man behind such Canuck-horror efforts as Visiting Hours and Of Unknown Origin, as well as David Cronenberg’s The Brood, Scanners and Videodrome) comes a tolerable triptych of terror tales…or should we say tails? Frantic scribbler Peter Cushing appears at the door of publisher Ray Milland with his latest literary effort: a treatise on how the world is secretly ruled by...wait for it...cats. Yup, Cushing is convinced that the felines are running the show, and proceeds to unspool several yarns (or balls thereof) as “evidence,” all of which are entertaining enough but without exception overstay their welcome.