Cinefantastique Online

Download your Sense of Wonder! Cinefantastique Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction Podcasts bring you the Round Table (a weekly round-up of horror, fantasy, and science fiction cinema news and capsule comments) and the Spotlight (in-depth reviews of recent horror, fantasy, and science fiction films, with occasional classics thrown into the mix). The Mighty Movie Podcast brings you interviews with filmmakers. Feedback for the Cinefantastique podcast can be sent here: podcast@cinefantastiqueonline.com. You can subscribe to both podcasts here.

The Last Battle?: Jennifer Lawrence struggles for survival in THE HUNGER GAMES.
Hunger will compel people to some extreme acts: lie; kill; volunteer your child to appear on TODDLERS & TIARAS. Who knew it could also lead to one of the best movies of the year? The highly anticipated THE HUNGER GAMES takes the first book [...]

With no new horror, fantasy, or science fiction films opening this weekend, Cinefantastique stalwarts Lawrence French and Steve Biodrowski keep their Sense of Wonder alive by turning the clock back five decades for a retrospective celebration of TALES OF TERROR (1962), producer-director Roger Corman’s fourth film inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe. With [...]

Do you have a lee-zance for zose minkeys?: Taylor Kitsch gets a bonus in simians in JOHN CARTER.
Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, James Kirk, Luke Skywalker. Bleep those guys; as an interplanetary adventurer, John Carter has ‘em all beat by at least ten years. Bringing the star of   Edgar Rice Burroughs’ series of Barsoom novels to [...]

I Speak for the Digital Trees: Danny DeVito (left) and Ed Helms face environmental calamity in THE LORAX.
Everybody needs a Thneed. The question is, does anybody need DR. SEUSS’ THE LORAX, the feature-length, CG animated, 3D, big screen adaptation of the legendary children’s author’s environmental parable? Directed by DESPICABLE ME’s Chris Renaud, the film expands [...]

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 [...]

Free at Last, Free at Last: From left to right: SITA SINGS THE BLUES; LADY FRANKENSTEIN; and THE TERROR
The universe of the genre film is filled with many strange and wonderful things: heroes; demons, attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion (oh, Roy Batty, we miss you). But nothing is so strange or, [...]

Hot Plot: Violante Placido (right) and Nicolas Cage battle the devil in GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE.
In a pair-up as enticing as a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE combines the rich, nutty goodness of Nic Cage with the tasty junkiness of the Neveldien/Taylor directing team. Transporting Marvel’s tortured, soul-sucking biker to [...]

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 [...]

There was no shortage of curiosity when George Lucas announced that he was converting his STAR WARS features to 3D, and no little disappointment when it was revealed that the first film to undergo the process would be the almost universally reviled EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE. Nevertheless here we are at the longest [...]

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 [...]

We Blame Slytherin: Daniel Radcliffe unearths the secret of a hostile spirit in THE WOMAN IN BLACK.
The balmy days of February have triggered an uncommon sense of renewal, nowhere more so than in the cinema, where, after a customarily dismal January (we’re looking at you, THE DEVIL INSIDE), there now come glimmers of hope in [...]

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 [...]

You May Feel a Burning Sensation: Brittania Nicol discovers the secrets of THE WICKER TREE.
A story as relevant as yesterday’s headlines, or too late a tale? Some thirty years ago, Cinefantastique hailed Robin Hardy’s THE WICKER MAN as “the CITIZEN KANE of horror,” lauding the Anthony Shaffer-scripted story of a god-fearing police detective trying  to [...]