Retro Reviews

It was on this day, June 27th of 1966, that audiences watched a train hurtling through the cold, moonlit night along a rocky coastline. Aboard this train was a young woman in her twenties, Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke). Her destination: the small fishing village of Collinsport, Maine. She has been …

The homemade aesthetic of no budget indie horror flicks has long had an appeal to me. They have a different flavor from their more polished and conventionally made brethren. I also love seeing my longtime home of Columbus, Ohio, onscreen since it doesn’t happen very often. I’m sure most American …

First released in the United States on June 25, 1976, Richard Donner’s The Omen is still a compelling film 45 years later for many horror fans. Every film has its detractors, however, and this one is no exception. For example, a review from The New York Times called The Omen …

Thirty five years ago on June 27, 1986, a Jim Henson film was released that, to this day, I watch on a weekly basis. Not because it is scary or full of gore and horror but because of the mere beauty and beguiling mystery it has. For years, I have …

As a child of the early 1980’s, few films sparked my imagination the way Clash of the Titans (1981) did. Even though it followed visual FX extravaganzas like Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Superman, Ray Harryhausen’s painstaking stop motion work was still more than capable of inciting wonder …

I first saw The Monster Club on the crazy local UHF channel we had back in the day. I then re-visited it some 30 plus years later when it hit Prime. At that moment it dawned on me that The Monster Club was a perfect confluence of two equally great …

It isn’t every day that you come across movies that make you grin with the strange particularity that filmmakers like Dario Argento can bring. Although Demons didn’t get much attention at the time, looking back at the film now, we can’t help but see the genius behind the motion picture. …

When Friday The 13th was released in 1980, most people (including its cast and crew) believed it would be a standalone horror film. Enter Friday The 13th Part 2 the following year. Once the studios realized that these slasher films would be cheap to produce and easy to turn a profit, we …

When it comes to ’80s Canadian slashers, Happy Birthday to Me is often overlooked by Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974) and My Bloody Valentine (1981). While Happy Birthday to Me isn’t as flawless, the film is a classic and deserves to be on the same level as those other Canadian gems. …

The Craft may not be what one envisions when we hear the words “classic film,” but in my heart and in many others, this movie is definitely deserving of the title. I remember watching it in the theatre when it released on May 3, 1996, and in fact, I saw …