Cinefantastique Online

LAWRENCE FRENCH celebrated his 20th anniversary as a contributor to Cinefantastique Magazine with his cover story on the making of THE RETURN OF THE KING. As Cinefantastique’s longtime San Francisco correspondent, he has written numerous stories about Pixar and Lucasfilm, and interviewed such genre stalwarts as Vincent Price, Tim Burton, Ray Harryhausen, John Lasseter, Phil Tippett and Ray Bradbury. He is also the editor of the highly regarded website on Orson Welles, Wellesnet.com. His book as editor of Richard Matheson’s Edgar Allan Poe scripts for THE HOUSE OF USHER and THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM was published by Gauntlet Press in 2007, with a second volume on TALES OF TERROR and THE RAVEN due out in the future. For Cinefantastique Online, he currently writes the regular column Supernal Dreams.

At the age of 83, Roger Corman will finally receive his long overdue reward from Hollywood: A golden Oscar statuette. Here are some of Corman’s thoughts about finally receiving an Oscar, as well as his comments on the many Oscar winning people he first discovered.

Master of Disaster Roland Emmerich outdoes himself with his new special effects extravaganza.

It is safe to assume that most people going to see Roland Emmerich’s spectacular new disaster movie, 2012, won’t be expecting a beautifully crafted script, nor will they be overly upset to find there is no great nuance to the performances from its [...]

Last February, I suggested on this site that Roger Corman was a director and a producer who the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should consider honoring with a special Oscar. Today, the Academy’s Board of Governors (to my great surprise and delight) have decided to heed that [...]

In June 1967, the professional film journals announced that Orson Welles would direct an episode of the omnibus film Histoires Extraordinaires or Spirits of the Dead as it came to be known in America. By September, it was made public that Welles’s episode would be replaced by one directed by Federico Fellini. The final film [...]

THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE is a wildly romantic love story that can easily be seen as an exercise in the old surrealist concept of L’ Amour Fou, the kind of mad love that defies all the conventions of society. In this film, it is made even more surrealistic by the additional twist of two lovers [...]

Criterion’s Blue-ray and DVD edition of Alain Resnais’ LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD is now out, right on the heels of the 87-year old director’s latest film, WILD GRASS , which has received rave reviews at the recent Cannes film festival. Unfortunately, given the sad state of foreign film exhibition in America, it seems probable that like most of Resnais’ last eight films, WILD GRASS will not even be distributed to American cinemas! Luckily, Kino Video has recently put four of the missing Resnais films out on DVD. With that in mind, we offer some notes on selected Resnais films with themes that relate to cinefantastique.

When it comes to putting dinosaurs on the screen, Universal is certainly the studio that knows how, and in LAND OF THE LOST the dinos do not disappoint, thanks to the wonderful creature design work of Crash McCreery (who worked on all three JURASSIC PARK movies) and effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer (THE LION, THE WITCH [...]

Christopher Lee is celebrating his 87th birthday today, and it appears that the icon of screen terror is busier than ever. He has finished roles in several movies that have yet to be released, including a large part opposite Colin Farrell in TRIAGE, directed by Danis Tanovic (an Oscar winner for NO MAN’S LAND). He [...]

I think films (like Terminator Salvation) strive to achieve in two areas: On a very visceral level, bringing you a lot of special effects explosiveness and fun, because that is what you want from a Terminator movie, but also, it will have more resonance if you have interesting themes.
We have a theme about the burden [...]

Not a spoof but a modern re-imagining of ’50s sci-fi movies.
Deep in the forest I whirl
Like I did as a little girl
Let my eyes rise in the sky
Looking for you, oh you know
I would go anywhere at all
Cause no star is too far with you
La… la… la… la…la… Landing
Please, oh won’t you return
Feel, feeling my [...]

I believe in not showing too much. I believe in keeping you on your toes, wondering what you’re going to see next. That is what the power of the screen is all about. It is not what you see, but what you think you see. Suggest, suggest, suggest! Don’t just show, show, show. There is [...]

If you asked me what I thought Ray’s greatest achievement was, I’d say that in my mind it has been his whole life, his entire career. He is the finest animator that ever existed.
—Ray Bradbury

Ray Harryhausen’s latest book, A Century of Stop Motion Animation (Watson–Guptill) arrived in bookstores last November without much fanfare; Harryhausen did [...]

After being abused and shot, Mari (Sarah Paxton) is attended by her parents (Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter).
I’m quite sure the new re-make of Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left will immediately raise questions about whether we really needed to re-visit this violent revenge story. I was certainly never a fan of the [...]