Joe Dante
Primal Scream: An Oral History of The Howling
“What if this is a movie where the characters have actually seen a horror movie?” –John Sayles By the dawn of the 1980s, there hadn’t been a genuinely successful werewolf film in years. And in the wake of films like The Last House on the Left and Halloween, which brought horror to the cities and suburbs where most Americans lived, torch-wielding villagers and mythical monsters lurking around the European countryside seemed quant. Even when the cinematic werewolf mythology was occasionally modernized in the 1970s, with films like Werewolves on Wheels and The Werewolf of Washington, the results were lackluster. But just as the sub-genre appeared to lose its bite, The Howling burst onto screens and changed everything. The first in a series of three werewolf-centric films released in 1981 — Wo...
Fright Night and The ‘Burbs Explore Suburban Paranoia
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | RSS “I hate cul-de-sacs. There’s only one way out, and the people are kind of weird.” Something strange is happening in suburbia. There’s an inexplicably creepy house on our street and our new neighbors seem a little weird. One is a devastatingly handsome vampire with the world’s sexiest sweaters, and the others might be … European!!!! Join Jenn, Lara, and Mike as we discuss the inherent alienation of the suburbs and how it feeds paranoia. What roles do we play in our communities and what happens when we allow ourselves to step out of them? We definitely talk about that amazing disco sweater, but we’ll add a bathrobe into the mix as well worn by America’s Dad, Tom Hanks. So grab your...
The 100 Greatest Summer Blockbuster Movies of All Time
“Cool.” “Riveting.” “Gripping.” “High-Octane Thrill Ride!” All cliches of film criticism and yet all feelings we’ve experienced while watching a crackerjack summer blockbuster. Oops, there we go again. All things considered, any moviegoer can speak to the divine feeling of sitting in a cool, packed theater in the heat of the summer and being united by narrative. Not just united, but hypnotized, mentally convinced that the fate of the world is before your eyes, and there is nothing more important in that very moment. It’s escapism. It’s popcorn. It’s Chinatown. But also, it’s the power of spectacle. Over the years, Hollywood has certainly run that concept through the ringer, having turned what used to be a summer blockbuster season into, well, an entire calendar year. Now, all those aforeme...
An Oral History of Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Feature artwork by Cody Schibi (Purchase Prints + More). Few movies are written with a sequel in mind. That is, of course, if you have a franchise planned, in which case you’re being both ambitious and presumptuous. Even rarer is a movie that demands a sequel. Sure, there are a few rare gems that manage to further the storyline, or at least retain some of the magical elements that made their predecessor work so well. But, more often than not, sequels just feel like a retread and another sign that Hollywood is running out of ideas. Gremlins 2: The New Batch is an exception to that rule. In 1989, director Joe Dante was given complete creative control by Warner Bros. to followup 1984’s Gremlins — and he milked that control for everything it was worth. There’s breaking the fourth wall in an on...
