Cinefantastique Online

DAN CZIRAKY’s interest in science-fiction and horror began at an early age. He remembers seeing 1931’s DRACULA on TV when he was only three years old! He fondly remembers watching original, first-run episodes of STAR TREK, DARK SHADOWS, and KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER. Cziraky has amassed a vast collection of science-fiction, horror, fantasy, and mystery books and videos. He has turned this knowledge into a career as a horror/sci-fi movie expert, writing reviews and articles for Cinefantastique, Imagi-Movies, Toxic Horror, The Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope, HORROR: The Newsmagazine of the Horror & Dark Fantasy Fields, Anime-Fantastique, Castle Rock: The Official Stephen King Newsletter, Femme Fatales, Visions, Draculina, Dark Muse, SPFX, Horror Biz, and Scream Queens Illustrated. He was a member of the Joe Bob Briggs Board of Drive-In Experts: Horror Committee, from 1995-97. He was a columnist and critic for both Fandom.com and Cinescape Online. He also writes STAR WARS action figure reviews for swCollector.com and "The Grumpy Old Toy Collector" column for BanthaSkull.com. Today, Cziraky makes his home in North Carolina.

There are some movies so tragically stupid, I firmly believe watching them will make you dumber. There aren’t many of them, but SyFy Original Pictures’ Saturday night time-killer, SHARKTOPUS, certainly qualifies. My plan had been to write and post this review immediately following the film’s 9PM premiere on September 25, but it took me three [...]

Once Paramount Pictures and Hasbro joined forces on the live-action TRANSFORMERS (2007), was there ever any doubt that the G.I. Joe toy line would be far behind? The project went through several years of “development hell” following the 9/11 attacks and international backlash against the U.S./Iraq War. A balance needed to be reached that would [...]

Just in time for the pre-Halloween gift-giving crush comes this breezily entertaining yet critically informative tome on the evolution, production, and aftermath of 1968’s seminal horror film, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Joe Kane, a.k.a. The Phantom of the Movies, has been covering the exploitation and B-movie scene for thirty-plus years. As editor of the tabloid [...]

Exploitation original gets new DVD makeover

Although a lot of fans and critics find A NGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE (1985) one of the weaker entries in the series, what I’ve always admired about it was the progression of Freddy’s character in it. The burn make-up is more vivid. Freddy sheds his glove for genuine finger-knives, embedded in his [...]

Comedy Central’s first foray into classic sword & sorcery spoofery, KROD MANDOON AND THE FLAMING SWORD OF FIRE, pretty much sums up its own level of humor right there in the title. See, it could be “… and the Flaming Sword” or “… and the Sword of Fire,” but making it “… and the Flaming [...]

The ‘bots are on the move again! After being relaunched as animated characters for the new MST3K.com in November 2007, now Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and Gypsy make the move from longtime home video distributor Rhino to Shout! Factory, it was announced by Shout! Factory President Garson Foos.

Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Shout! Factory [...]

Variety reports that the National Board of Review has named Tim Burton ”Best Director” for his film adaptation of the gothic musical SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. The NBR, comprised of film educators and other industry professionals not part of the studio system, puts out its annual Top Ten list each December. While the Western NO COUNTRY [...]

Sci-Fi’s “re-imagining” of L. Frank Baum’s THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ concludes as DG (Zooey Deschanel), Glitch (Alan Cumming), Cain (Neal McDonough), and Raw (Raoul Trujillo) learn that the sorceress Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson)–DG’s older sister–is actually possessed by a terrifying Witch (Karen Konoval). Now, having arrived at the once-peaceful Finaqua, DG must dig deep within [...]

The Sci-Fi Channel’s “re-imagining” of L. Frank Baum’s THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ continues along the Old Road as DG (Zooey Deschanel), Glitch (Alan Cumming), Cain (Neal McDonough), and Raw (Raoul Trujillo) are confronted by sorceress Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson) in the frozen palace of the North. DG awakens to find herself back in her room [...]

The Sci-Fi Channel’s three-part “re-imagining” of L. Frank Baum’s THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ gets off to a sleepy, tedious start as we meet DG (Zooey Deschanel), a troubled youth stuck in a dead-end waitress job while living on her parents’ farm in rural Kansas. She keeps having dreams of a faraway land, and of [...]

Novelist and playwright Ira Levin, 78, passed away from a heart attack on Monday, November 12, in New York City. Levin’s books ROSEMARY’S BABY and THE STEPFORD WIVES were adapted into films noted for their subtle, creepy horror. (The 2004 remake of STEPFORD was an ill-conceived black comedy.) LOOK WHAT’S HAPPENED TO ROSEMARY’S BABY was [...]

Who knew HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET’s Det. Frank Pembleton was such a genre-film guy! With a plum role in Frank Darrabont’s THE MIST and previous parts in such genre offerings as TNT’s SALEM’S LOT mini-series, and the comic book actioner FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER, Braugher will next tackle alien microbes in [...]