We have some exciting news! Those of you who’ve been around a while have probably noticed over the last couple of years that I’ve been writing a lot less than in my glory days, as I presently drown in the swampy waters of Finishing The Dissertation Bog. And since escaping those waters just means falling into Academic Job Market Creek and washing into Tenure Track Mire (or, God forbid, Adjuncting Flooded-Basement-Full-Of-Rattlesnakes), it’s probably fair to assume that the glory days aren’t coming back any time soon. But Rob & Carrie & I don’t want to do that to you, our unrelentingly patient audience. And that’s part of why we’ve decided it’s well past time to add some members to our little family!
First, I’m happy to announce that Brennan Klein, our dogged reporter on VOD horror and direct-to-Netflix holiday movies, romcoms, & holiday romcoms, will be getting a promotion to helping me edit everything you read on this site. Those of you who’ve been listening to our Bride of AE podcast series – free and open to the public as of 2022, so if you like horror, give it a listen! – know that he’s quickly become an indispensable member of the crew. I’m thrilled that he’s agreed to help us keep the site running and make sure posts keep coming out at a steady pace.
This is especially important, since we have five new writers who’ll be joining us, meaning that you should expect to see a lot more posts going forward. They’ll be writing a mixture of things: reviews, essays, interviews, the occasional list. And they’re bringing in a wide range of interests and experiences that will make this site so much richer and deeper than just “angry, aging grad student hates things that aren’t art cinema”. I’d like to let them all introduce themselves in their own words!
Mandy Albert teaches high school English and watches movies – mostly bad, occasionally good – in the psychedelic swamplands of South Florida. She is especially fond of 1970s horror and high-sincerity, low-talent vanity projects. You can listen to her and her husband talk about Star Trek: Enterprise on their podcast At Least There’s a Dog!
Parker Brennon is a queer filmmaker, with an affinity for horror stories. He’s been making movies since he was 15, and now, he’s writing about them too. You can learn more about his work at his website.
Rex Dayley is a lover of horror, comedy, and being perpetually horny-on-main. He’s not afraid to dive into the nitty-gritty of any film, and perhaps not afraid enough to share his grotesque and carnal joy at watching Willem Dafoe on a leash in The Lighthouse. Follow her on Twitter and Letterboxd for a front row seat at the debauchery.
Rioghnach Robinson lives in Chicago, where she spends 70% of her waking hours dissecting the mindsets of fictional characters; the remaining 30% go toward rubbing her palms together in doomed attempts to generate heat. She writes books under the pen name Riley Redgate, most recently Alone Out Here (Disney Hyperion/2022), and she has also written for The Onion, America’s finest news source. You can find her on Instagram, Tumblr, Letterboxd, or her website.
Chris Trengove has a BFA in acting, an MA from the University of Denver in international relations, and during the day, he works for the economic development agency of Northern Ireland. While he’s lived in Denver, Washington D.C., and Beijing, he calls Chicago home and has for most of his life. He lives with his wife (Laura) and two young boys (Aiden and Callum), and within a 20-minute walk of the Music Box Theater. Follow Chris on Letterboxd and Twitter.
You can start looking for the first post by our new contributors this afternoon, when Chris will have a review of the recent indie release The Pink Cloud for all of you to enjoy. Everybody else will be making their debut next week, along with a new TV retrospective review series next week from Brennan! And of course, I’ll still be here, chipping away at all the movies I missed in 2021 – and the agonizingly slow drip of new releases in 2022 – as best I can. Be sure to come by and check it all out!