Rest in Paradise, Eddie

I think you had to grow up in wood-paneled dens, get rides in your friend's big brother's Trans Am, sneak-watch slasher movies when you were too young, and hang out at family parties where the adults let you take sips from their cans of Miller High Life. I think you had to live through all … Continue reading Rest in Paradise, Eddie →

The Ethereal Amy Irving

Sissy Spacek deserves all the praise she gets for Carrie (1976), but it’s always bothered me how few people (beyond my fellow Carrie obsessives) seem to appreciate how beautiful and heartbreaking Amy Irving is as Sue Snell. As a kid I felt I was supposed to dislike Sue—she was popular! Boo! And was she trying … Continue reading The Ethereal Amy Irving →

Bombshells and Sunshine

Earlier this week, a friend on social media posted a set of four photos of Michelle Pfeiffer, taken from various early career projects, and asked if anyone could name the films and television series. As you might imagine, I moved faster than the speed of light to answer. My fingers started tapping so fast and … Continue reading Bombshells and Sunshine →

40 Years of Dark Phoenix

The culmination of several years' worth of serialized storytelling, Marvel's Uncanny X-Men #137 hit newsstands and comic book shops forty years ago this summer. I didn’t read it until 1984, when it was collected in this then-newfangled thing called a graphic novel, which I begged my mother to buy for me from the local bookstore, … Continue reading 40 Years of Dark Phoenix →

High Priestess of Horror

“I think it's very amazing that I do horror films when I had this awful childhood. But maybe that's why I'm good at it.” Ingrid Pitt grew up in Nazi occupied Poland. She survived the concentration camps. A few years later she was a young mother who started a career in film at a time … Continue reading High Priestess of Horror →

Vampire Lovers

“Just to let him get the full inventory I eased out of my very mini-skirt and tight—but tight—sweater. Get the picture? Jimmy did. ‘I’ve got three parts for you’ he said.” That’s actress and Hammer horror legend Ingrid Pitt, in her extremely entertaining book Ingrid Pitt’s Bedside Companion for Vampire Lovers. In that passage she’s … Continue reading Vampire Lovers →

On My Mind

“And why not? It could be your brother too, or your sister, or your children. I want justice for all of them. And I want justice for all the people whose lives are bought and sold, so that a few big shots can climb up on their backs, and laugh at the law, and laugh … Continue reading On My Mind →