Week of Review - The Dark Half (1993)

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Let’s talk for a minute about George Romero.  Romero is one of the all-time giants of the horror genre, a skilled and storied director most famed for introducing the world to the streamlined vision of zombies that was the “of the Dead” film series.  However, as excellent as that series is (the first four films and the Romero directed remake anyway) the man did a lot of other high-quality work that’s gone unfairly under-appreciated by the public at large such as Monkey Shines or Knight Riders.  

In 1993, Romero decided to dip his toes into the Stephen King pond and turned in one of the best King adaptations of the decade: The Dark Half.  Starring Timothy Hutton and Michael Rooker, The Dark Half is quintessential King viewing, hitting on a number of his favorite tropes and ideas while still realizing them in their best way.  The film also marks the first entry in this retrospective to tie into the Stephen King shared universe of stories, connecting as it does to the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine.  So, continuity, quality, and a number of name actors and creators who’ve become beloved in their own right- let’s talk about The Dark Half.

Week of Review - The Mangler (1995)

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On to day two of my look back at the forgotten Stephen King adaptations of the ‘90s, today we’ll be taking a look at the Tobe Hooper film The Mangler.  This was one of the last King films of the Golden Age of adaptations, released in 1995 right before the well of adaptive works dried up almost overnight.  It’s actually somewhat staggering the level of King adaptations that cropped up between 1990 and 1995.  Including TV mini-series like IT and The Stand the first half of the ‘90s saw a staggering 12 King adaptations, the same as the entirety of the ‘80s and double the number that was made in the 2000s.  

That’s also part of why these mid-decade adaptations like The Mangler or Thinner started getting into the stranger corners of King’s canon, most of the more cinematic or standard pulp options like Christie, Misery, and The Shining had already been done so they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with stuff about Romani weight loss curses or an evil industrial ironing machine from hell.  However, don’t let the goofier subject matter fool you because The Mangler is easily one of the best King adaptations this decade produced. 

Cover Story - Top 12 John Constantine Covers

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This is actually an article I was planning to do last October but that turned out to be a busy month.  That’s sort of the thing about Legends of Tomorrow, it’s a delight of a show with a ton of deep cut geeky heroes but it can be hard to keep up with how often they feature characters that could demand a whole number of articles, reviews, and lists.  Today we gather to celebrate John Constantine, everyone’s favorite blonde cockney street wizard and trench coat wearer.  

I joke but John is among a handful of mystical and urban fantasy characters at DC, and their adjacent imprint Vertigo Comics, who call themselves The Trench Coat Brigade, so just know that’s where we’re starting from with this dive into the top 12 Constantine comic covers.  I’ll be drawing from John’s first solo comic entitled Hellblazer, which began life as part of DC’s mature readers imprint Vertigo Comics and ended after 300 issues when they decided to import John to the main DC universe.  That’s a lot of titles to get through so let’s get down to it and get the cover story on the top 12 John Constantine comic covers.

Week of Review - Thinner (1996)

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A week from today will mark the premiere of a new remake of the Stephen King classic Pet Sematary.  So far the new film has a lot of positive buzz, which makes sense given we’ve entered into a new Golden Age of Stephen King adaptations.  Seriously between The Mist, Gerald’s Game, Mr. Mercedes, IT, 1922, Dark Tower, 11/22/63, Under the Dome, and Castle Rock Stephen King is undergoing a shocking renaissance of TV and movie adaptations in the 2010s with even more films yet to come.  As such, I’ve decided to look to the past, specifically the ‘90s, as that was the last time Stephen King became the go-to thing to adapt in the horror genre.

However, I’m not planning to look at the big names of King adaptations that have always stuck in people’s memories like Shawshank Redemption, no I’m interested in the weird B and C list adaptations the past has to offer.  After all, there’s really not much left to say about a movie we’ve all agreed is good and should be remember but off-beat oddities that pop culture has collectively turned its back on can be so much more weirdly rewarding and it doesn’t get much more weirdly rewarding than 1996’s Thinner.

Filmland - History of Doppelganger Horror

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By now you’ve probably at least seen an advertisement for Jordan Peele’s sophomore feature Us, though based on the box office a lot of us have seen the film itself as well.  If you haven’t seen it yet don’t worry, no spoilers here, but the film’s focus on evil doppelgangers has definitely got me thinking.  Killer duplicates of oneself is a pretty great horror concept but one rarely explored in the medium as often as ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and various other forms of more widely accepted monsters.  As such, I’ve narrowed down the history of evil doubles in horror movies and TV in order to look back at the premise that’s given us one of the most memorable horror films of the year. 

Panel Vision - 11 Possibilities for Captain Marvel 2

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By this point, the success and sequalization of Marvel films feels almost like a given.  Marvel has gotten so good at making quality movies that manage to thrill us without skimping on characterization that the fact we’ll be seeing these heroes again in new installments is the norm and not the exception.  As such, and combined with its record-breaking success so far, it doesn’t seem too earlier to start speculating about what we can expect from the next entry in the blossoming Captain Marvel franchise.  

The first film has been a major success for Marvel, planting their flag firmly alongside Wonder Woman and Black Panther in the realm of relatively more diverse superhero blockbusters and promising a whole world of potential for the next installment in this new and exciting franchise.  Combined with the extensive collection of comic book history that Carol Danvers and the Captain Mar-Vell brands have been wrapped up in and the recent changes in ownership at Marvel and Disney and there’s plenty of places to take this series next: here are 11 possibilities.

Cover Story - Top 12 Lex Luthor Covers

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Lex Luthor.  It’s a name that wrings loudly through the halls of supervillain infamy alongside such titans as Dr. Doom, the Joker, Loki, and Thanos.  Created in 1940, Lex Luthor is one of the oldest and most well known super villains of all time.  He’s appeared in almost every Superman-centric piece of media we’ve had, played by countless actors and enjoyed numerous solo comic appearances as a protagonist in his own right.  

His obsessive dedication to destroying the man of steel has shaped up to be one of pop culture’s greatest David vs. Goliath stories running across decades and multiple iterations of the character: he’s been a rogue scientist, a business guru, President, and a superhero in his own right.  This Sunday will mark Luthor’s first live-action appearance on the CW show Supergirl, played by Jon Cryer, and while that’s not quite as momentous as it might’ve been given we live in the Superhero Age I’ve still decided to mark the occasion with a deep dive into the top 12 Lex Luthor comic covers.