Home — Crooked Marquee

In Praise of Heather Langenkamp, the MVP of the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' Series

Jul 16th, 2020

The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is about Freddy Krueger. With his burn scars, his tattered red and green sweater, his worn brown hat, and his...

VODepths: What to See (and Avoid) On Demand This Month

Jul 13th, 2020

This month’s fringe VOD offerings include an alien invasion, a haunted mansion, and a psychic dominatrix, but none of that quite compares to the...

Review: <i>Force of Nature</i> — Josh Bell

Review: Force of Nature

Jun 30th, 2020

There are so many troubling elements to Force of Nature that it’s tough to know where to begin. Stars Emile Hirsch and Mel Gibson have both...

In Praise of the Long-Unavailable, Slyly Subversive 'Little Darlings'

Jun 23rd, 2020

The summer camp sex comedy is a cornerstone of 1980s cinema, and at first glance 1980’s Little Darlings looks like a minor example of the genre,...

VODepths: What to See (and Avoid) On Demand This Month

Jun 15th, 2020

This month’s fringe VOD offerings feature unauthorized depictions of Elvis Presley and Lynyrd Skynyrd, plus a homicidal pro wrestler, a pair of...

VODepths: What to See (and Avoid) On Demand This Month

May 18th, 2020

Bruce Willis, Scott Adkins, and a killer shark make for a direct-to-video all-star line-up in this month’s look at movies on the margins of the...

Review: <i>Castle in the Ground</i> — Josh Bell

Review: Castle in the Ground

May 14th, 2020

An artsier version of what might have been a network TV movie in the 1980s, writer-director Joey Klein’s addiction drama Castle in the Ground...

Review: The Wretched

Apr 30th, 2020

The Pierce Brothers’ The Wretched opens with a 1980s-set prologue that mimics the structure of a period-accurate slasher movie: a teenage...

VODepths: What to See (and Avoid) On Demand This Month

Apr 13th, 2020

Once again, we’re taking a look at some of the movies on the fringes of the packed VOD and streaming release schedule. This month’s offerings...

Review: <i>Corona Zombies </i> — Josh Bell

Review: Corona Zombies

Apr 10th, 2020

Everyone responds to trauma differently. For some, joking about terrible events is the only way to cope, even if those jokes are morbid. For others,...

VODepths: What to See (and Avoid) On Demand This Month

Mar 23rd, 2020

Every month, there are dozens of movies released to VOD and streaming that barely make a dent in the pop-culture consciousness, but represent an...

Review: <i>Escape from Pretoria</i> — Josh Bell

Review: Escape from Pretoria

Mar 4th, 2020

The inmates who break out of Pretoria Central Prison are imprisoned for their political activities, but the context is mostly irrelevant to Francis...

Review: <i>Carol of the Bells</i> — Josh Bell

Review: Carol of the Bells

Mar 3rd, 2020

Although he’s still best known for being John Travolta’s brother, for a while in the ’90s and ’00s Joey Travolta carved out a surprisingly...

Review: Swift

Feb 18th, 2020

There’s some sort of irony in Willem Dafoe providing the voice of a cartoon seagull just a few months after he so memorably appeared opposite a...

Review: <i>Camp Cold Brook</i> — Josh Bell

Review: Camp Cold Brook

Feb 11th, 2020

For a group of professional ghost hunters, the main characters in Camp Cold Brook are surprisingly unhappy to discover that the abandoned summer...