Friday, October 14 2011

The Thing (2011): Bringing Quiet Tones and Space Vaginas Back from the ‘80s

By Kit MacFarlane

Matthijs van Heinjningen Jr.'s prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing summons the chilly vibe and the cinema-sexual psychoanalytic undertone of the best of '80s genre cinema. It's only the generic modern "female empowerment" story that seems dated.

Friday, August 5 2011

‘Shock Value’: What Men (and Boys) Really Fear

By David Banash

Jason Zinoman argues that the fantastic, Gothic monsters of the first half of the 20th century were replaced by a New Horror -- the monster right in front of your face.

Tuesday, December 14 2010

‘They Live’: A Polemic Ripe with Ambiguities

By Timothy Gabriele

John Carpenter’s They Live is “probably the stupidest film ever to take ideology as its explicit subject”, at least according to author Jonathan Lethem. He’s probably right, but that doesn’t meant that the film’s coded messages are as black and white as…well, the film’s diegetic coded messages

Sunday, July 11 2010

How Does One Beat the Heat? Try Descending Into Icy Madness

By Aaron Sagers

To cope with the heat wave, advisories suggest visiting 'cooling centers' or public pools. To achieve a truly chilled-out state of mind, however, why not open the door to your mind and let the iceman cometh inside?

Monday, October 13 2008

Cinema Qua Non - Indispensable DVDs: Part 1

By PopMatters Staff

Day One - A trip back to the classic days of studio system Hollywood, complete with great musicals, amazing adventure yarns, and a couple of post-modern freak outs, just to keep things controversial and lively.

Wednesday, October 1 2008

Bloodsucking Cinema

By Marc Calderaro

Surely there has to be more interesting things to say about vampires than that they're "cool" and "scary"?

Monday, April 7 2003

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

By David Sanjek

Carpenter refuses to reduce the violence to a sideshow of blood squibs or special effects pyrotechnics.

Sunday, January 1 1995

Ghosts of Mars (2001)

By Cynthia Fuchs

In 'Ghosts of Mars', Desolation is a perfect candidate to ensure the human-humans' survival: not only is he the resilient and brilliant Ice Cube, but he is also the consummate delinquent champion.

Big Trouble in Little China (1986/2001)

By David Sanjek

Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) is the anti-hunk, the inverse of the pectorally endowed fighting machines typified by Stallone and Schwarzenegger.