Joel Schumacher’s ’80s classic vampire comedy-horror gets the premium 4K/Blu treatment — For the last 34 years, the National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) selects 25 films for preservation in the National Film Registry, each one to their historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions to American cinema. Totaling 850 separate films, the registry has yet to include the 1987…

A little-known African story gets the big-budget, feature-film treatment — Last week, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and other commonwealth realms, holder of the longest recorded reign in European history, breathed her last after enjoying free room and board at taxpayer expense for the better part of a century. As much of the English-speaking world mourned the end…

Gender-flipped Norman Bates wreaks havoc in an imaginative, gory thriller — With the Queen of England dead four years shy of 100, but not yet buried, the declaration of a seemingly indulgent 10-day mourning period for her subjects came into effect. With that 10-day mourning period came what some have called, somewhat ominously, the “Queue,” the never-ending, always expanding line of…

A taut, tense, well-mounted disaster-in-the-sky epic — Half a century ago, cinema goers could buy a ticket, grab some popcorn and a soft drink of their choice on their way into a sticky-floored movie theater, and sit down to immerse themselves in the first star-packed disaster film, Airport, of the decade. With a central plot involving a…

Italian space opera Battle of the Worlds arrives on Blu-ray for the first time — Italian science fiction, specifically Italian science fiction of the 1960s, holds a curious, often overlooked place in the genre. For English speakers, language — or more often, poorly dubbed dialogue — has been a barrier to…

Gen Z Satire scores on gore, laughs, and more — Nothing ruins a weekend getaway with longtime friends at an isolated, if fully stocked, mansion like a body hitting the floor. It gets even worse when a second and then a third body join the…

Dan Trachtenberg directs, Amber Midthunder stars in a worthy prequel to the original — An undisputed masterpiece of late ’80s action filmmaking, the John McTiernan-directed Predator, a box-office hit for both 20th Century Fox and future governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, spawned a seemingly endless series of sequels, beginning with Predator 2 in…

Filmmaker Jordan Peele elevates a lackluster summer season with his best feature-length film — “I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle.” — Nahum 3:6 Several years after the Roswell, New Mexico incident, an excitable representative of the Fourth Estate warned American moviegoers to “Watch the skies … everywhere … keep looking, keep watching the skies!” in…

Co-writer/director Jenna Cato Bass’s South African horror tale succeeds on every level — Even though their respective meanings have become blurred over time, a distinct difference remains between a “house” and a “home.” That difference comes immediately into play in co-writer and director Jenna Cato Bass’s (Neighbors, Flatland, High Fantasy) latest film, Good Madam (“Mlungu Wam”). The psychological horror film doubles as political…