PopCult Reviews

Movie Review – The Mummy (1932)

The Mummy (1932)
Written by John L. Balderston
Directed by Karl Freund

Dracula and Frankenstein were massive hits for the former floundering Universal Pictures. Studio head Carl Laemelle Jr. decided to lean into horror as one of the film studio’s major products. That meant coming up with a film for the following year. This time it was three horror movies. Bela Lugosi starred in Murders at the Rue Morgue in February, adapted from the Edgar Allen Poe short story. In October, Boris Karloff played a creep in the horror-comedy The Old Dark House. The year came to a close just three days before Christmas with the release of The Mummy, who would become another iconic monster in the Universal tradition.

Movie Review – Titane

Titane (2021)
Written & Directed by Julia Ducournau

I am going to try to spoil as little of this movie as possible because I went into it having only seen the trailers. Said trailers do an excellent job of conveying the film’s mood without giving away one iota of plot or characters. Inevitably I will give some plot details, though I plan on being as vague as I can, and I will talk about the characters to a certain extent. My goal is to entice those of you who haven’t seen it yet to take the bait and sit down and give Titane a watch (it’s currently up for rent in the iTunes store). If you enjoyed Julia Ducournau’s Raw, then you are going to love this movie.

Movie Review – Dune (2021)

Dune (2021)
Written by Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, and Eric Roth
Directed by Denis Villeneuve

In the early 2000s, SciFi Channel aired the first attempt since David Lynch’s adaptation of the Dune novel. They were reasonably successful in creating a mini-series that encompassed the first three books in Frank Herbert’s series. Once again, though, critics voiced concerns over the drawn exposition of the world as the filmmakers had to lay out a distant future for humanity with a limited amount of time. It would be twenty years later that this newest attempt would happen. With a larger budget to do justice to the strange new world eight thousand years in the future, will this version finally be the satisfying film fans and general audiences will click with?

Movie Review – Dune (1984)

Dune (1984)
Written & Directed by David Lynch

In the early 1980s, David Lynch was a hot commodity. His cult film Eraserhead had gotten the attention of producers in Hollywood. This led to a life-changing opportunity with Mel Brooks to make The Elephant Man. The critical acclaim from that movie made sure to cement Lynch’s name, and he was afforded more significant offers. In the early 1970s, there had already been efforts to make a Dune adaptation, directed by Alejandro Jodorwosky. That famously fell through, but a lot of pre-production work was done that would find its way to this 1984 release. Lynch was chosen to helm what producers thought could be the next Star Wars. George Lucas had just wrapped his monumentally successful film series with 1983’s Return of the Jedi. Dune was all set to take the mantle. And then audiences saw the movie…

Movie Review – Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein (1931)
Written by Garrett Fort, Francis Edward Faragoh, Robert Florey, and John Russell
Directed by James Whale

Universal Pictures exists today because of the monster movies. In 1930, Universal lost $2.2 million in revenues (over $36 million adjusted for inflation). Then, in February 1931, Dracula was released and made $700,000 in sales. It was clear to Universal producer Carl Laemmle Jr. that horror movies were what the public wanted. By November of that same year, Frankenstein was released. Bela Lugosi, who had shot to stardom at the studio following Dracula, assumed he would be playing the Monster. However, makeup tests showed the actor didn’t have the right look. Instead, the studio went with English actor Boris Karloff, and the rest is history.

Movie Review – Dracula (1931)

Dracula (1931)
Written by Garrett Fort
Directed by Tod Browning

This was not the first vampire movie, but it was the first official adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel. F.W. Murnau had made Nosferatu nine years earlier, leading to a copyright infringement lawsuit from Stoker’s widow. The jumpstart of the Universal Monster movies began here and came under the hand of Carl Laemmle Jr. Carl’s father had founded Universal, and at the age of twenty, Junior became the head of production at the studio. How’s that for some nepotism? Carl led Universal at the dawn of the “talkies” and had no qualms throwing piles of money at movies that had no chance of earning it back. He seemed to genuinely love films and wanted them to look fantastic.

Movie Review – Halloween Kills

Halloween Kills (2021)
Written by Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green
Directed by David Gordon Green

Trilogies are tricky things. Often a first film is made and, if it does well financially, then a sequel will be greenlit. There are rare occasions like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings where the movies are shot back to back, but most trilogies happen because the first movie did well. David Gordon Green and his collaborators wanted to do a series of Halloween films but waited to see how their first entry was received before locking everything in for follow-ups. I am a fan of their take of the Halloween universe. As I said in my review of the 2018 picture, there’s some atmosphere lacking, but thematically I am right on board with the sort of story being told here. In some ways, it reminds me of my favorite comic books, where new creators build on old ideas to make new points. I prefer that much more than rebooting things and feeling as if you’re in stasis.

Movie Review – Halloween (2018)

Halloween (2018)
Written by Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green
Directed by David Gordon Green

It began with Rob Zombie stating he would not return to make another Halloween film. Halloween II (2009) was a box office success, and days after its release Halloween 3D was announced. That fell apart, and attention at Dimension went to a potential Hellraiser reboot (they never happened either). There were ideas tossed around like making a direct sequel to Halloween: Resurrection (god why?), doing a found footage film or mockumentary, and even an insane multiverse idea tossed around. John Carpenter returned to act as a producer and chose an unlikely duo to make a trilogy of films: Danny McBride and David Gordon Green.

Movie Review – Halloween II (2009)

Halloween II (2009)
Written & Directed by Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie expressed extreme exhaustion from making his Halloween reboot. I think it was a task he put a lot of weight on his own shoulders because Zombie admired the original film. So, when talk of a sequel came up, Zombie was pretty much out. Instead, French filmmakers Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo were in talks to helm the follow-up. Eventually, the producers wooed Zombie back to write and direct Halloween II. Would he follow the first film by doing a remake of the original sequel? Kind of. There is a small portion of the movie with Laurie in a hospital, but this Halloween II goes in a very different direction. With the whole cast reprising their roles (sans young Michael as that actor had gotten too tall), Halloween II was a go.

Movie Review – Halloween (2007)

Halloween (2007)
Written & Directed by Rob Zombie

For a minute, we almost had a Michael Myers vs. Pinhead (from Hellraiser) movie. With the success of Freddy vs. Jason, Dimension Pictures seriously looked at pitting those movie monsters against each other. I don’t think that would have been a great idea. An idea was pitched to bring back Jamie Lloyd. That didn’t go anywhere. This was around a time when reboots and reimaginings were becoming a hot thing. Texas Chainsaw Massacre had a moderately successful reboot based on its budget, and telling the characters’ backstory was the thing to do (see the Star Wars prequels, Batman Begins). Setting a standard that would be followed by Freddy and Jason a few years later, Rob Zombie was brought on board to flesh out the origin of Michael Myers.