ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 19, 1993 By Steve Newton I’ll never forget the time I saw Friday the 13th: Part 2 at the grand old Paramount Theatre in Chilliwack back in ’81. It was the first low-budget slasher flick I’d seen on the big screen, and, mindless and exploitative as it was, it scared the … Continue reading Jason Goes to Hell and takes the audience with him in what surely isn’t The Final Friday
Month: January 2014
Horror review: Army of Darkness
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, FEB. 25, 1993 By Steve Newton Sam Raimi, the imaginative director who turned the horror world on its ear with 1983’s shocking cult hit Evil Dead—and then did it again by remaking that film on a bigger budget and calling it Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn—has achieved one … Continue reading Horror review: Army of Darkness
Children of the Corn II is so despicable it makes the lowly original look good
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 10, 1993 By Steve Newton The previous movie “based on a short story by Stephen King”, 1992’s The Lawnmower Man, bears so little resemblance to anything King wrote that the horror master belatedly sued to get his name separated from the film. The latest flick spawned by one of King’s short … Continue reading Children of the Corn II is so despicable it makes the lowly original look good
Horror review: Hellraiser III–Hell on Earth
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 12, 1992 By Steve Newton In 1987, the mind of multi-talented British horror icon Clive Barker graced the screen with the formidable presence of Pinhead, the refined leader of a gang of sado-masochistic demons from hell. As played by veteran stage actor Doug Bradley, Pinhead was evil personified, … Continue reading Horror review: Hellraiser III–Hell on Earth
Horror review: Dr. Giggles
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 29, 1992 By Steve Newton Out of Africa and Driving Miss Daisy are fine films, I’m sure, but every once in a while that old dark side of the mind requires a dose of the truly sick and twisted to make one appreciate the finer things in life. And the new … Continue reading Horror review: Dr. Giggles
Horror review: Candyman
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 22, 1992 By Steve Newton On paper, Candyman looked like it had the makings of a fright fan’s wet dream. It was based on a short story from Clive Barker’s Books of Blood, the collection of gut-wrenching, in-your-face horror tales he churned out before getting all artsy and overblown … Continue reading Horror review: Candyman
Horror review: Innocent Blood
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 1, 1992 By Steve Newton 1992 hasn’t been a banner year for horror movies. There hasn’t been anything near as fine as last year’s The Silence of the Lambs in the glut of Stephen King-related/-ripped off losers like The Lawnmower Man and Pet Sematary Two. But things are … Continue reading Horror review: Innocent Blood
Horror review: Pet Sematary Two
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 3, 1992 By Steve Newton In a recent edition of top horror magazine Fangoria, Pet Sematary author Stephen King explained how he felt about Pet Sematary Two, the sequel to the 1989 horror hit that grossed $84 million worldwide. “I don’t approve of the movie and I didn’t … Continue reading Horror review: Pet Sematary Two
Review: Universal Soldier
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 16, 1992 Totally Recalled Terminatin’ Commando would have been a more apt name for Universal Soldier, considering how many Arnold Schwarzenegger movies are ripped off in the course of this slam-bang action-fest. But the real Terminator doesn’t have much to worry about, since muscle-bound martial arts experts Jean-Claude … Continue reading Review: Universal Soldier
Horror review: Sleepwalkers
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 16, 1992 By Steve Newton There are some people out there who refuse to believe that this year’s big Oscar winner, The Silence of the Lambs, is a horror movie—even though it concerns a face-ripping cannibal with a taste for human liver who helps capture a sicko who … Continue reading Horror review: Sleepwalkers
Horror review: The Lawnmower Man
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MARCH 12, 1992 By Steve Newton Boy, they sure did scrape the bottom of the Stephen King barrel for this movie, which takes its name—and little else—from a nine-page story that first appeared in the girlie mag Cavalier back in 1975. It was also included in the Night Shift … Continue reading Horror review: The Lawnmower Man
Horror review: The People Under the Stairs
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 7, 1991 By Steve Newton Since blasting onto the horror scene in 1972 with the crude and shocking Last House on the Left, Wes Craven has had a few hits (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes), a few misses (Deadly Friend, The Hills Have Eyes … Continue reading Horror review: The People Under the Stairs
Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton isn’t just “some spook from South Central who plays guitar”
You can't believe everything you read on Wikipedia, that’s for sure. While preparing for an interview with acoustic bluesman Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, I read that he was “the son of one of the cousins of famed blues guitarist Robert Johnson”. That got me thinking that a fun question might be whether he had any … Continue reading Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton isn’t just “some spook from South Central who plays guitar”