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  Scream 2022

  Watched by Bill Ackerman 15 Jan 2022 1

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  The final moments of Wes Craven's original THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and THE HILLS HAVE EYES are framed as tragic in that the "good" families are desperately reduced to the same level of savagery as the villains. The most interesting thing about the new SCREAM, the first one not directed by Craven (but dedicated to his memory), is how it reaches that same conclusion as a cathartic, feel-good ending.

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  Premonition 1972

  Rewatched by Bill Ackerman 07 Nov 2021

  Writer/director Alan Rudolph helmed a pair of since-disowned horror movies in the early 1970s before a professional association with Robert Altman allowed him to permanently break away from genre filmmaking with his third film, WELCOME TO L.A. His more widely known sophomore effort, TERROR CIRCUS (also known as NIGHTMARE CIRCUS and the wonderfully lurid BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD), with its deranged killer and young women in peril, stays safely within horror movie conventions. But PREMONTION, Rudolph's idiosyncratic debut, while…

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  Alice, Sweet Alice 1976

  Added by Bill Ackerman 10

  I was recently invited to appear on Patrick Ripoll's terrific podcast Track Of The Damned. We provide an audio commentary for Alfred Sole's ALICE, SWEET ALICE (aka COMMUNION and HOLY TERROR). This episode also includes a 21 minute phone interview I conducted with director/co-writer Sole, where we talk about various Paterson, NJ locations, the current rights situation with the film, and (too briefly, I know) Sole's lost second feature, AMERICAN SOAP. Note: our audio commentary syncs up with the 106 minute U.S. DVD version, but not the 88 Films UK release, or any of the versions streaming on Youtube or Amazon Prime.
  www.nowplayingnetwork.net/tracksofthedamned/s2e7

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  The Hateful Eight 2015

  Watched by Bill Ackerman 25 Dec 2015

  Still gathering my thoughts on THE HATEFUL EIGHT from last night. I found it to be a mean, difficult film, which I don't think it necessarily a bad thing...but, as with every post-JACKIE BROWN Tarantino movie, I understand where many of the mixed/negative reactions are coming from. I found the protracted unpleasantness an interesting choice, but I didn't wake up any of the audience members around me for their take on whether any of it was offensive.

  For me, there…