Tag Archives: MVD Visual

Movies Till Dawn: Beyond Belief

“The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974, Dark Sky Films) Tobe Hooper’s landmark horror film has been imitated, duplicated, and sequelized multiple times, all of which (even Hooper’s own 1986 revisit) haven’t come close to the anarchic, nightmarish terror of the … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: Cinematic Journeys

“5-25-77” (2022, MVD Visual) Bittersweet, if overly long tribute to the pros and cons of the creative in the form of a nostalgic valentine to backyard moviemaking and teenage nerd-dom. Writer/director Patrick Read Johnson – a former special effects creator … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: The Saturday Morning Strange Goes Straight to Hell

“Surf Nazis Must Die” (1987, Troma Films) A future California falls into lawlessness following a cataclysmic earthquake, and from the rubble rises a new Nazi regime (which includes LA Beat alumnus Michael Sonye) which aims to rule the beaches (and … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: Mid-July Global Mayhem

“The Daimajin Trilogy” (1966, Arrow Video) Enjoyable blend of Japanese giant monster movie and historical action/drama, all issued in the same year by Daiei (the home of Gamera) and hinged on a similar plot: a massive statue of a warrior … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: More Biographies, Real and Imagined

“Jazz on a Summer’s Day” (1959, Kino Lorber) I wrote about this exceptional concert film of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival when Kino Lorber Repertory reissued it virtually to theaters in 2020 (which only feels like a million years ago); … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: More Biographies, Real and Imagined (Cartoons and Music Edition)

“Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren and Stimpy Story” (2020, Kino Lorber) Detailed discussion and ultimately, deflation of the wildly popular animated television series “The Ren and Stimpy Show” and its once-vaunted, now-scandal-tainted creator, John Kricfalusi. His bizarro vision – … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: The World is a Monster (Halloween 2020 – The Final Chapter)

“She Should’a Said No!”/”The Devil’s Sleep” (1949, Kino Lorber/Something Weird Video) The horrors of marijuana and diet pill addiction, as revealed by America’s fearless exploitation showmen. The top of the bill stars Lila Leeds, a minor actress who rose to … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: Siren Calls

“The Letter” (1940, Warner Archives Collection) That Bette Davis, the wife of a rubber plantation owner in British Malaya, was justified in shooting the man who attempted to assault her, is accepted without question by the area’s white/wealthy community, and … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: Revenge of (Mostly) New Movies

“Tyrel” (2018, Magnolia Home Entertainment) Tyler (Jason Mitchell, “Straight Outta Compton”) is the only African-American guest invited to a birthday celebration that grows more chaotic as the weekend wears on. Comparisons to “Get Out” are obvious, but don’t quite fit … Continue reading

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Movies Till Dawn: New Year (Mostly) New Movies Part 3

“The Girl in the Spider’s Web” (2018, Sony Home Entertainment) Hard-boiled hacker Lisbeth Salander – here played by “The Crown’s” Claire Foy – is tasked with destroying software that can access to the world’s nuclear arsenal; when the sinister Spider … Continue reading

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