Previous SFF Author: Gemma Files
The Frozen Dead directed by Herbert J. Leder
The film career of Mississippi-born Dana Andrews seemed to undergo some kind of metamorphosis as the actor entered his third decade before the cameras. During the 1940s, the characters that Andrews brought to life were in the main sympathetic and likeable, whether they were such all-American Joes as in The Ox-Bow Incident, State Fair and The Best Years of Our Lives, or troubled cops as in Laura and Where the Sidewalk Ends.
October 3rd, 2019. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Head directed by Victor Trivas
No, this isn’t the psychedelic Monkees movie from 1968; that one’s just called Head. Rather, The Head is a West German horror production from 1959 – and a very good one, as it turns out – that tells a freaky story of a wholly different kind. As The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film so astutely reminds us, the film was released in the same year as the similarly themed American film The Brain That Wouldn’t Die,
October 2nd, 2019. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Death Curse of Tartu directed by William Grefe
I see it every time I fly down to Ft. Lauderdale to visit my family: the dividing line between civilization and the primeval. As the plane banks west from over the Atlantic, one can view below the sprawling metropolis of the city and its suburbs … until one’s eye hits that dividing line. The line is drawn straight as a rule for as far as the eye can see, the line separating the habitations of Man from the greenish-gray expanse that is the Everglades. The demarcation never fails to impress,
October 1st, 2019. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Daniel O’Malley’s amnesiac, paranoiac, chess-themed super-powered-human novel got lots of good buzz when it was published in 2012. Tadiana reviewed it here. STARZ has taken the story and given it a polished adaptation that reminds me a bit of both the film production of The Children of Men, and STARZ’s own too-soon-cancelled SF/alternate world/spy drama Counterpart. And, yes, there’s a little bit of Total Recall in there. Here are my thoughts on the first two episodes.
Myfwanwy Thomas wakens in the rain on London’s Millennium Bridge,
July 10th, 2019. Marion Deeds | Daniel O'Malley | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Roswell, New Mexico, the CW.I watched the first season of the CW’s Roswell, New Mexico, and I have Thoughts. I’m a sucker for “aliens among us” stories, so this reboot of the tale was a natural for me. Am I embarrassed to admit that I sometimes watch the CW? I’m not. I’m not their demo, but I know a few people in my age group who watch it too. It’s like we’re aliens hiding in plain sight among their viewership.
In 1999, the CW tried a show called Roswell, based on the YA series ROSWELL HIGH by Melinda Metz.
May 1st, 2019. Marion Deeds | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Syfy adapted Lev Grossman’s trilogy THE MAGICIANS into a series in 2015. The books got a lot of buzz as they followed a group of students at a college for magic and later into a magical land called Fillory. If the upstate New York college, Brakebills, was the anti-Hogwarts, Fillory was the anti-Narnia, and Grossman used the books to comment on the hero myth, entitlement, colonialism and the uses of power.
The show, which airs Wednesdays at 9:00 pm on Syfy, used the original stories as its starting point but has gone in a different direction… several different directions.
April 23rd, 2019. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere | Lev Grossman | Film / TV | Giveaway!, SFF Reviews | 11 comments |
The Red Turtle by Michael Dudok De Wit
Have you ever felt completely hypnotised by a movie? That was how I felt watching The Red Turtle, a story of — quite simply — survival and love. From the moment it started from until the second the credits rolled, I was fixated on the images unfolding in front of me: a man that washes up on a deserted island, his explorations of the beach and interior, his miraculous meeting with a mysterious woman, and the life they lead together, utterly cut off from all civilization (if you’re wondering where a red turtle fits into all this,
April 17th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Happy Death Day by Christopher Landon
Since Groundhog Day came out in 1993, the premise of a single person being forced to live the same day over and over again has been adapted for the science fiction (Edge of Tomorrow), thriller (Run Lola Run), and psychological horror (Salvage) genres, with even television episodes from Charmed, The X-Files and Xena: Warrior Princess getting in on the act.
Happy Death Day passes the idea over the slasher genre,
April 1st, 2019. Rebecca Fisher | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Coco by Lee Unkrich & Adrian Molina
When you settle down to watch a Pixar movie, you know you’re in for a treat. But as it happens, I finished Coco with rather mixed feelings. It ticked all the boxes of what we’ve come to expect from Pixar: a fascinating and inventive original premise, loveable characters, plenty of humour, at least one surprising plot-twist, and visuals that seem to glow with colour (especially in this film!) And yet Coco treads a lot of familiar ground when it’s compared not only to other the rest of the Pixar repertoire,
March 28th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Star Wars Rebels: Season 1 by Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg & Greg Weisman
This show has been on my radar for a while, and I’m glad I finally found the time to settle down and binge the first fifteen episodes of the first season. As a follow-up to The Clone Wars (2008 – 2014) and a bridge between the prequel and original trilogies, Star Wars Rebels also holds the distinction of being the first STAR WARS project to be released after Disney’s procurement of the franchise.
Would it match the maturity and relative darkness of the preceding animated series?
March 27th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: Gemma Files
this sounds like a fun one
These weird westerns are always interesting and have been popping up more in recent times (it seemed like there was…
Looking forward to reading the review.
Always my pleasure, Marion! I'm almost finished with Book #3 now, and hope to be reporting on it very shortly....
After reading your review, I'm quite sure I never read this one, or Book Three for that matter. I loved…