Cinefantastique Online

Interviews with experts and filmmakers responsible for your favorite horror, fantasy, and science fiction films

Cherish what you’ve got, ‘cuz it’s likely others sure as hell do. In REPLICAS, an upscale family (Selma Blair, Josh Close — who also wrote the screenplay — and Quinn Lord) take a trip to their vacation home in order to recover from a recent tragedy, and receive a visit from a set of excessively [...]

Crossing Generations and Genres in COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE.
For some, it is Valhalla; for others, it is a seething, roiling, chaotic pit of humanity. For many, I suspect, it’s a phenomenon just slightly more indecipherable than Naked Lunch. It is San Diego Comic-Con, and documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, with the help of Stan [...]

I Spy With My Little Eye… Regrets of the Past: Jason Patric tries to exorcise his sins in KEYHOLE.
This gangster is haunted, literally. KEYHOLE begins with an inversion — a group of criminals have to fight their way past a police barricade into a house — and only gets stranger from there. Turns out their [...]

The Evil Next Door: Daniel Henshall (right) breaks Lucas Pittaway into a world of brutality in THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS.
Call it a cultural difference. Here in the U.S, our serial killers are quiet loners who nurse secret agendas and conduct their grim business on their own. In Australia, the most notorious case of serial [...]

Hot Soul: A singer's love and success in the world of Cuban jazz is explored in CHICO & RITA.
Amidst the swashbuckling felines, fast-talking lizards, and kung-fu pandas — plus a cat in Paris — that occupy this year’s Oscar nominees for animated feature, there’s actually a tale featuring human beings, stylized though [...]

With STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE returning to theatres in a new 3-D version, we flashback to May, 1999 for my preview report that appeared in Cinefantastique’s cover story on the film.
A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away…
Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying [...]

Don't Go in the… Never Mind: Sarah Paxton (left) and Pat Healy probe where novice ghost hunters shouldn't probe in THE INNKEEPERS.
There are compelling reasons why, when traveling, one should skip the chain lodgings and stay at one of America’s classic hotels. There’s the friendly and courteous staff, the opportunity to experience a [...]

Not Your Typical Hit: Pro assassins find themselves in over their heads in KILL LIST.
What starts out as common, garden-variety crime thriller turns… bizarre, and then frightening, in director Ben Wheatley’s twisty new film, KILL LIST. The tale of middle class hit-man Jay (Neil Maskell), who with colleague Gal (Michael Smiley) goes [...]

Embrace the Po: Hong Kong action is celebrated in KUNG FU PANDA 2.
So, there, that’s one New Years resolution out of the way for me. A few months after the theatrical release of KUNG FU PANDA 2, I was able to score an interview with its director, Jennifer Yuh Nelson. With the [...]

A Break for Books: Tintin (Jamie Bell) pauses amidst all the action in THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN.
Time to close the year off with some rip-roarin’ adventure, so why not throw in a little, continental flair in the process? Steven Spielberg has decided to take that route, and make his debut in the [...]

Award-winning novelist Julia Leigh makes a hell of a directorial debut with her quiet fantasia, SLEEPING BEAUTY, the story of a young college student (Emily Browning) who becomes immersed in a strange world of desire when she signs on as employee of a service that drugs women and allows men — [...]

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As I mentioned in Random Hunks o’ Con, I’m of two minds when it comes to collectible toys. On the one hand, I cannot quite reconcile myself to the idea of toys created expressly to be looked at, and not played with. (What would Woody say?) On the other, surveying the detail [...]

Connecting the Line Between Point A and… What's Beyond Z?: Dr. Michio Kaku embraces the future in PROPHETS OF SCIENCE FICTION.
When Ridley Scott executive produces a cable series focusing on how the visionaries of science fiction helped pave the way for our actual future, you might expect episodes speculating on a world where chest-bursters and [...]