Adam Page on the gut-punch of Quantum Leap’s infamous finale… There are endings, and then there are endings. There are those wrapped neatly with a little bow, a kiss in the sunset, the hero walks away from the frame and everyone is alive, smiling and all properly accounted for. Television, and in particular American network […]
J-Horror and the Western Gaze: When Asian Horror Invaded the 90s
Adam Page on the J-horror popularity explosion of the late 90s and its impact on Hollywood… I know I’m starting this with a generalisation, but there is an odd sort of arrogance that comes with being American. It’s not malicious, it’s more of a quiet, deeply held assumption that the best ideas of the world […]
The TV Shows That Dared To Be Complex Before Complexity Was Allowed
Adam Page on the pioneering TV shows that dared to be complex before complexity was allowed… I want to talk about something that I think a lot of people have either forgotten about the nineties or, if you’re of a younger age, just aren’t aware of. I’m not talking about the glossy, Friends-sofa, Central Perk […]
Peak Paranoia: Why David Cronenberg’s 80s Body Horror Movies Are More Relevant Than Ever
Adam Page on why David Cronenberg’s 80s body horror movies are more relevant than ever… There is a famous scene in Videodrome (1983) where James Woods reaches into his own stomach. Not through it, into it. His torso has opened up, quietly and without drama like a VHS slot, and he slips his hand inside […]
David Cronenberg’s The Fly at 40: A Love Letter to the Rot
Adam Page on David Cronenberg’s sci-fi body horror classic The Fly… There is a moment in The Fly from David Cronenberg, and if you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading, go watch it and come back, I’ll wait. Okay, then? It’s where Jeff Goldblum’s Seth Brundle pulls off his fingernail. Just…lifts it away clean to […]
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Universe: Ambition, Excess, and the Franchise That Could Have Been
Adam Page unlocks the Lament Configuration for a deep dive into the Hellraiser franchise… Shall we talk about something that was once genuinely frightening? Not in the jump-scare way, that cheap sugar-rush of a masked man hiding in a cupboard. No. I’m talking about the sort of horror that makes you feel complicit in your […]
Direct-to-Video Horror: The Unsung Heroes of 90s Genre Cinema
Adam Page on the unsung heroes of horror… Obviously, I’m not going sit here and argue that Puppet Master 4 is Citizen Kane. I would insult both movies, and more importantly, I would miss the point completely. Because the direct-to-video horror boom of the 1990s wasn’t representing high art. It was something perhaps more important: […]
Horror in Suburbia: Why 80s Horror Was Obsessed with Middle-Class Fear
Adam Page on the 80s horror obsession with with suburbia… Horror cinema puts us in some uncomfortable places. It always has. Whether it’s digging up the freshly buried body of your child killed by a speeding tanker, or standing in the shower, soap in your eyes while you reach for a towel and find a […]
Cannibal Holocaust on Trial: When Prosecutors Thought They Found a Snuff Movie
Adam Page explores the controversy surrounding the notorious Cannibal Holocaust and the prosecution of its director Ruggero Deodato… There is a certain species of moviemaker. One who confuses provocation with profundity, who mistakes the gag reflex of the audience for proof of their artistic achievement. And then we have Ruggero Deodato, who made a movie […]
When Horror Got Smart: An Intellectual Turn in the 90s
Adam Page on when horror got smart… I’m not going to sit here and pretend that, before the 1990s, horror was in some kind of intellectual wasteland. That would be bullshit. George A. Romero gave us pointed social commentary nicely wrapped in entrails. David Cronenberg gave us body horror as technological anxiety, and David Lynch […]
