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Ask most cinephiles about the spaghetti western and Sergio Leone’s name will most likely be invoked. As for those who’ve delved a little deeper into the genre, chances are that they’ll name-drop one or both of the other Sergios: Sergio Corbucci (Django) and Sergio Sollima (The Big Gundown).

Back in 2021, Arrow Video’s Vengeance Trails box set aimed to broaden viewers’ horizons of the spaghetti western by spotlighting works by directors like Lucio Fulci, Massimo Dallamano, and Antonio Margheriti, whose names are more often associated with other genres. Now along comes Blood Money, which unveils several lesser-known yet excellent examples of the genre. The thematic through line this time out concerns the value placed on human life. As the grizzled protagonist of Find a Place to Die puts it: “Madness and greed were in men’s hearts a long time before you came along.”

Romolo Guerrieri’s...

Review by Roger Carpenter

During the first half of the 60’s Mario Bava created several genuine horror classics that remain high-water marks in the genre over a half century later. Films such as Black Sunday (1960), Black Sabbath (1963), The Whip and the Body (1963), and Blood and Black Lace (1964) either pushed the boundaries of horror or helped to establish cinematic tropes still used in modern horror. Always saddled with shoestring budgets and bad deals, Bava nevertheless remained optimistic in the face of his cinematic struggles. A case in point is the troubled production of Kill, Baby…Kill! which ran out of money midway through the shoot. The cast and crew were so loyal to Bava they worked for free to finish the film—a film, by the way, which only had a 30-page script with no dialogue when filming commenced. Bava had the actors make up their own lines, preferring to resolve...

Horror films are built on our voyeuristic impulses. Our desire to witness or experience the obscene, the taboo, and the grotesque draws us into films about crazed killers or unseen forces. We don’t just want to be shocked, we want to be vulnerable. The stalking scene is a staple of the genre because it involves us in the filmmaking process by providing us a point of view: usually third person from a victim or first person from a killer. Unlike a chase scene, where both parties are aware of the game, the stalking often involves an oblivious participant. These are the slowest and most methodical scenes. There’s no rush to where we’re going because there is no destination to get to. Once the participant becomes aware, there’s only four options: run, hide, fight, or die.

****

The Birds (1963) – Bird’s eye view

Although not as shocking as Psycho,...

You love the horror, suspense thriller, action and science fiction films that make up the world of Canadian cult cinema affectionately known as Canuxploitation.

You’ve watched the entire David Cronenberg genre filmography (if not, please do so now as The Brood, Scanners and The Fly are three of the greatest horror films ever made).

You’ve seen Black Christmas and The Changeling and watched a slasher-ific marathon of Prom Night, Terror Train, Happy Birthday to Me and My Bloody Valentine.

You caught up with Cube, the Ginger Snaps series, Splice, Hobo with a Shotgun and WolfCop all while keeping close tabs on the works of Astron-6.

Yet your hunger for Canadian genre film productions and co-productions cannot be satiated.

To aid you in your deeper exploration of the field, following is a chronological look at a number of Canadian genre films that simply don’t get enough attention.

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The Groundstar Conspiracy...

‘A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway To Heaven)’

Written & Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Starring David Niven, Kim Hunter, and Roger Livesey

UK, 104 min – 1946.

“A weak mind isn’t strong enough to hurt itself. Stupidity has saved many a man from going mad.”

When A Matter of Life and Death begins, there is seemingly no hope for Raf pilot, Peter Carter (David Niven). His plane has been shot at, while returning from a bombing run in May 1945. His crew safely bails out, but he remains. Peter gets on the radio and speaks to American operator, June (Kim Hunter) revealing that these are his last moments. He talks to her of love and loss and of his readiness to die and then jumps out of his burning plane, sans parachute. This is supposed to be his time of death, but unfortunately Peter’s heavenly Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) misses him in the English fog.

Ok, so we’ve had another – albeit much lower key – royal wedding this weekend, as the Queens granddaughter Zara Phillips wed her Rugby captain boyfriend Mike Tindall…so I’m feeling all patriotic again and want to let you know what I believe are the 10 Greatest British films of all time!

Us Brits produce a diverse range of films these days, covering anything from psychological horror to mushy romantic comedies via gripping wartime thrillers and tense emotional dramas. And by George, we do it blooming well at times! So in honour of celebrating all that is spiffing about this glorious nation of ours, here’s what I consider to be the 10 greatest British films of all time…

10. The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Combining hilarious madcap comedy with thrills and suspense aplenty, this Ealing film is exactly what comedy is about. One of the films that helped give the studio a name for itself,...

Many unsuspecting cinema-goers who clearly hadn’t read the reviews got quite a shock when they went into Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan expecting a nice movie about ballet. Black Swan is a fully-fledged (pun intended) horror movie full of fantastical elements – or is it? Horror it certainly is – fantasy, it may not be, as it is entirely possible that every uncanny event in the film exists only in the protagonist’s disturbed mind. Black Swan is far from the first film to play with the line between fantasy and reality, and it won’t be the last. What follows is a subjective list of some of my favourite reality-bending fantastical films.*

A Matter of Life and Death (dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946, known as Stairway to Heaven in the Us)

A Matter of Life and Death uses exactly the same method as Black Swan to bend reality, but to the exact opposite effect.

Here’s a new $14,000 bronze bust of Sean Connery erected in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. Why? Because it’s about f***ing time they built a bronze Sean Connery statue in Estonia: Just…too many softballed Sean Connery jokes to make about this. “Your mother likes it rough Trebek I’m a statue!” That cover it? Good. Britain’s ambassador to Estonia Peter Carter said at the unveiling that Connery is “without a doubt, an icon… He is variously known as James Bond or the sexiest man of the century.” You’re doing a bang up job, Britain’s ambassador to Estonia. How long before people forget that it’s actually Sean Connery and start thinking it’s some vaguely important late 19th century military figure but no one has the guts to ask which one, they just assume it’s someone from history they should know? Three years.

A bronze sculpture in honor of Oscar-winning actor Sir Sean Connery has been unveiled in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. The screen legend was honored on Thursday, January 27 when a bust baring his likeness was unveiled outside whiskey sampling society The Scottish Club, where members honor "Scots who have made a difference".

The $14,000 sculpture by Estonian artist Tiiu Kirsipuu was financed through private donations. British Ambassador Peter Carter attended the unveiling ceremony, telling guests "Sir Sean Connery is, without a doubt, an icon. He is variously known as James Bond or the sexiest man of the century. He's a great British actor, a great Scot actor and a great symbol for Scotland."

Connery follows in the footsteps of 18th century poet Robert Burns with The Scottish Club honor.

So, Sean Connery has been immortalized in bronze by a Scottish club in Estonia. Peter Carter, the British ambassador to the tiny Baltic nation unveiled the bust today, saying, “Sir Sean Connery is, without a doubt, an icon … He is variously known as James Bond or the sexiest man of the century. He’s a great British actor, a great Scot actor and a great symbol for Scotland.”

He’s right. Connery is Bond and he was one of the sexiest movie stars of his or any time. So I have to ask two questions: You’re really going to...

A bronze sculpture in honour of Oscar-winning actor Sir Sean Connery has been unveiled in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

The screen legend was honoured on Thursday when a bust baring his likeness was unveiled outside whiskey sampling society The Scottish Club, where members honour "Scots who have made a difference".

The $14,000 (£9,330) sculpture by Estonian artist Tiiu Kirsipuu was financed through private donations.

British Ambassador Peter Carter attended the unveiling ceremony, telling guests: "Sir Sean Connery is, without a doubt, an icon. He is variously known as James Bond or the sexiest man of the century. He's a great British actor, a great Scot actor and a great symbol for Scotland."

Connery follows in the footsteps of 18th century poet Robert Burns with The Scottish Club honour.