Here’s what happened between 1956 and 1978: John Kennedy’s assassination, the war in Vietnam, and Watergate. Here’s what happened between 1978 and 1993: Jason Voorhees. At any rate, that was my first thought at the opening of Abel Ferrara’s 1993 Body Snatchers, as it became obvious that our hero for this entry was going to […]

In the 1950s, people were paranoid about the Commies, the bomb, their neighbors, whatever. In the 1970s, they were just paranoid. After Watergate essentially destroyed any chance that a whole generation of Americans would ever trust their government, the decade witnessed a cycle of movies whose entire theme consisted mostly of “they’re trying to get […]

Don Siegel is one of the great American auteurs that nobody ever really thinks about. Partly, I suppose this is because his most famous film is Pauline Kael’s favorite fascist cop movie, Dirty Harry, and nobody really wants to be a Dirty Harry apologist. (Edited to add: Years later, most of those claims are no […]

If you’re the type of person who would enjoy Slither, you likely don’t need me to tell you to see it, because you already know who you are. I don’t mean to absolve my critical responsibilities, but facts are facts, and B-movie fans don’t need to be told, “hey, there’s an awesome new movie about […]