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For over fifty years, Francis Ford Coppola has been a towering, and often controversial, figure in American Cinema. His filmography is one of the most legendary of all time and includes some of the greatest movies ever made like The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), and more. It also includes wild swings—One from the Heart (1982), Rumble Fish (1983), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)—which sometimes paid off, but sometimes did not. This year, his forty-year-in-the-making passion project Megalopolis finally hit screens for the general public after a festival run that provoked a mixed critical response to say the least. It is a gigantic movie made on a huge budget with vast, and sometimes impenetrable, ideas. His very first film, however, was a much more modest project, made on a minuscule budget, and…it was a horror movie.

Dementia 13 (1963) is very much a...

Fierce Irish rebels go head-to-head with Brit occupation forces, and James Cagney is first on the barricades. Michael Anderson’s thriller about terror violence in 1921 Dublin has suspense, beautiful cinematography in real Irish locations, and a standout cast: Don Murray, Glynis Johns, Dana Wynter, Michael Redgrave, Cyril Cusack and Sybil Thorndike — plus added-value players Richard Harris, Donal Donnelly and Niall MacGinness. Cagney’s surgeon-turned guerilla doesn’t yell “Top of the World!” but he’s as psychotic as Cody Jarrett: he wants to shoot both the leading ladies. Included is a good interview with Don Murray.

Shake Hands with the Devil

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / Color B&w / 1:66 widescreen/ 111 min. / Street Date January 4, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: James Cagney, Don Murray, Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Michael Redgrave, Sybil Thorndike, Cyril Cusack, Marianne Benet, Robert Brown, John Cairney, Harry H. Corbett, Eileen Crowe, Allan Cuthbertson, Donal Donnelly, Richard Harris,...

If necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, then Roger Corman is the dad of opportunity; swooping in and throwing around minimal coin but expecting maximum return (or at the very least, something in focus). But the King of the B’s has always attracted the hungry and talented, and so it was when a youngster by the name of Francis Ford Coppola was afforded the chance to helm his first (soft core flicks aside) official feature, Dementia 13 (1963). Part Psycho, part semi-Gothic psychodrama, it served as a stepping stone between Hitchcock and Bava, eventually leading to a slasher formula that is still impossible to kill.

Released by American International Pictures in late September on a double bill with Corman’s X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (which I’ve Dusted Off here), Dementia 13 impressed some critics upon release, at least more so than what...

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, a screening of the film will occur at this year's Popcorn Frights Film Festival on Friday, July 8th. Also in today's Horror Highlights: info on the digital restoration of Roger Corman and Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13, and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Torchwood #1 San Diego Comic Con 2016 details.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 30th Anniversary Screening Details: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2: 30th Anniversary Screening.

This Friday Night. July 8th at 11pm. Presented by Popcorn Frights Film Festival.

Giveaways by Scream Factory and Neca.

O Cinema Wynwood: 90 Nw 29th St, Miami, Fl 33127.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 will be preceded by Aj Briones’acclaimed short-film “Smiling Man”.

The Buzz Is Back!!! Over ten years after making the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper returns to his deranged family of reclusive cannibals for another round of chainsaw chases and non-stop screaming.