Next SFF Author: Joseph Fink
Previous SFF Author: Gemma Files

Series: Film / TV


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The Futurological Congress: An endlessly imaginative novel

The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem

Numerous are the stories in science fiction in which populations have been brainwashed to believe an ideal, most often the opposite of what we hold dear. A sub-genre in itself, advertisements have been used (The Space Merchants), narcotics (The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch), propaganda (We), technology (Brave New World), emotions (The Giver),


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The Exorcism of Emily Rose: 3 a.m.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose directed by Scott Derrickson

As I once mentioned in my review of the 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies, there are any number of similarities between that film and 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose. To begin with, both pictures star Laura Linney, one of Hollywood’s preeminent mainstream actresses of the early 21st century, here in a brace of unusual horror outings. Both are products of the Screen Gems/Lakeshore Entertainment production company, and both deal with supernatural events that are purportedly based on real-life incidents.


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Carnival of Souls: One of the eeriest little movies ever made

Carnival of Souls directed by Herk Harvey

George A. Romero was not the first industrial filmmaker to release a landmark B&W horror picture in the 1960s. Romero, after churning out commercials for TV and those industrial films for Pennsylvania-based The Latent Image, came out with the seminal Night of the Living Dead in ’68, but Herk Harvey had beaten him to the punch by a good six years. Harvey, in 1961, was working for Centron Films in Lawrence, Kansas, also cranking out industrial and educational films, before coming out with a film the following year,


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Thriller: One of the scariest TV shows of all time

Thriller

Viewers who tuned into the new Thriller program on NBC, on the night of September 13, 1960, a Tuesday, could have had little idea that the mildly suspenseful program that they saw that evening — one that concerned a male ad exec being stalked by a female admirer — would soon morph into the show that author Stephen King would later call “the best horror series ever put on TV.” The first eight episodes of Thriller came off as hour-long homages to Alfred Hitchcock Presents,


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The Expanse: Can’t wait for Season Two and I want to read the books. That’s a win.

The Expanse Season 1

A couple of weeks ago I watched Syfy’s space-opera adaptation The Expanse all the way through, ten and a half hours. The series left me eager for January 2017, and Season Two; it also inspired me to go buy the first two books. I call that a success.

My comments here are about the television show, not the books. Daniel Abrahamson & Ty Franck, who wrote THE EXPANSE novels under the name James S.A. Corey, have writing credits on all ten episodes,


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Phenomena: Bug-eyed

Phenomena directed by Dario Argento

Not to be confused with the 1996 John Travolta movie Phenomenon, Dario Argento’s Phenomena was released 11 years earlier, in January 1985. The film comes freighted with a mixed reputation — some seem to feel it is the Italian director’s worst, while others opine that it is his last great effort — although Argento himself has declared it to be his favorite film amongst his 19 to date; indeed, he has called Phenomena, his ninth picture as a director, “my most personal film.”


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The Gorgon: Another winner from the House of Hammer

The Gorgon directed by Terence Fisher

Just one of the pictures that Hammer Films turned out in 1964, out of an eventual eight, The Gorgon finds the famed studio dipping into the well of Greek mythology for the first time, to come up with still another solid horror entertainment. The film, besides reuniting Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (the two would ultimately appear in a whopping 22 pictures together!), also showcased the talents of director Terence Fisher, who would helm 27 films for the House of Hammer by the end of his career (including such beloved pictures as Four-Sided Triangle,


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Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: Studio Ghibli at its ambitious best

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind directed by Hayao Miyazaki

After an event alluded to as the Seven Days of Fire, civilization as we know has been destroyed and humanity’s remaining population scattered into isolated communities. Most of the globe is overrun by toxic jungles that produce spores deadly to human beings, and explorers must use gas-masks to protect themselves whenever they venture out into the wilderness.

Added danger comes from the insect life that now dominates the earth, particularly those known as the Ohmu. They look rather like giant pill-bugs with bulbous eyes that change colour depending on their moods,


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The Dune films: The Mt. Everest of SF films remains unconquered

Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013 documentary; actual movie never filmed)

Watch trailer.
It was inevitable that Dune captured the imaginations of film directors, but the scale and complexity of the story made the transition to film extremely difficult. Film rights were acquired in 1971 but little progress was made until 1974, when a French group acquired the rights and Alejandro Jodorowsky, a Chilean avant-garde film maker, writer/poet and spiritual figure most famous for his 1970 bizarro Western El Topo and The Holy Mountain.


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Gotham, Season 1: The backstories of Gotham’s heroes and villains

Gotham, Season 1

This is such a great idea for a TV series. We all know the basic story of the Batman thanks to the venerable comics franchise, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns, and the recent Christopher Nolan DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY of films. It seems like origin stories are very trendy these days, and it’s an obvious direction to go to expand the reach of any popular franchise. But who would have thought to explore the origins of all the notorious villains of Gotham City while centering the story on rookie detective James Gordon and his cynical older partner Harvey Bullock,


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Next SFF Author: Joseph Fink
Previous SFF Author: Gemma Files

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