Just before he began cutting trailers for Roger Corman, Joe Dante was a critic for Film Bulletin. With the help of Video Watchdog (the essential film journal), we’re going to be reprinting a selection of them right here at TFH every Tuesday. So by way of introduction, here’s Joe himself with the straight skinny on…
John Gilling’s The Flesh and the Fiends is the story of Burke and Hare, graverobbers who find that murder is a more expedient route to the cadavers they need for their trade. William Burke’s grisly claim to fame is his own entry in the dictionary; to “Burke” is to “… stifle or to execute someone…
All throughout Adam Rifkin’s fundraising campaign with Penn Jillette, he’s been sending updates from the front in the form of off the cuff sketches celebrating each milestone. The campaign, already successful (and then some!) ends in just one day. To mark that date we’re presenting all of Adam’s sensational sketches in one place. But wait,…
With a title like “Champagne Murders” it should come as no surprise to find that the movie is a French murder mystery. The lead character is a Champagne dealer who sustains a blow to the head and can’t take care of his business anymore. Some would argue that people enter the wine business after a…
Putting the blood in Blood Of The Vines, we’ll take a look at Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. That’s not red wine swirling down the shower drain. This movie made so many people afraid to take a shower that stocks probably soared for underarm deodorant. Brutal murders are nothing in movies these days, but the graphic nature…
It’s Roger Corman‘s world, we just live in it. This weekend the legendary director was given the George Eastman House award for distinguished contribution to the art of film (click on the pic to the left to get a better view of the happy recipient). He also found time to give this concise but nevertheless revealing…
On Friday, November 1st, Trailers From Hell attended the opening reception for Hero Complex Gallery’s newest exhibition, presented by PangeaSeed and artist Craig Drake, a tribute to JAWS: “Smile, You Son of a Bitch!” Needless to say, as a lifelong JAWS fanatic, I was curious as to how these artists of all shapes and stripes could rival the already…
The internet is nothing if not list-crazy but New York Magazine critics David Edelstein and Bilge Ebiri have put together an insightful “best of” list that’s genuinely provocative and worthy of discussion. With The 25 Best Horror Movies Since The Shining they use Kubrick’s controversial classic as a demarcation point for modern horror films and, in doing so, have cast…
Sunday we premiered Penn Jillette’s commentary on Adam Rifkin’s Look. Ever the raconteur, Penn riffed extemporaneously for nearly twelve-and-a-half minutes on Adam’s movie and only a fraction of that would fit into our normal format. So today we’re happy to present that epic version. You’ll find nearly 8 additional minutes of Penn’s insights with only…
About a year ago Adam Rifkin’s phone rang… on the other end was Penn Jillette. He’d written a script called Director’s Cut and wanted Adam to turn it into a movie. What compelled Penn to make that late night call? Adam’s 2007 film, Look, happens to be Penn’s favorite movie. Filmed entirely by hidden devices,…
If Trailers From Hell has a literary soul-mate, it must surely be the long-running film magazine, Video Watchdog. Launched in June of 1990 by Tim and Donna Lucas, the “perfectionist’s guide to fantastic video” has gradually broadened its scope over the length of its 23 year run to focus not just on fantastic film but…
On Thursday October 24, Turner Classic Movies is devoting over ten hours of their broadcast day (and night) to one of Trailers From Hell’s favorite actors, Vincent Price. Starting at 5:00 PM PST/8:00 EST with Price’s 3-D classic House of Wax, they dive head-first into seven of the more or less essential horror films of…
This was originally published on our Facebook page on September 25th, 2013: Hero Complex Art Gallery is nestled away in a corner of the busy South Robertson Blvd in Los Angeles, easily overlooked if not for the monolithic green numbers standing beside the sidewalk reading, simply, two-thousand-twenty. The building itself looks modern, nice, though hidden…
This was originally published on our Facebook page on August 22nd, 2013: When Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost walked into the small rectangular room, it was as if The Beatles had just landed at JFK. The crowd was immediately, magnetically drawn to them, seeking photos, autographs, or just the chance to talk for…
Good and evil are depicted to some degree in almost every movie. I tend to view any character drinking wine as “good,” which leads to some confusion when screening “Rosemary’s Baby.” In “The Nutty Professor,” Jerry Lewis portrays both good and evil in his dual role as the goofy chemistry prof and his suave, slick…