On episode 46 of Captive Eye, David Kleiler, Jean-Paul Ouellette and Steve Head consider the enduring qualities of James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and bring to light some rarely talked about stories from its making and original rele

Woman in the Dunes (1964)

Oct 16th, 2016 41m 53s

Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1964 film Woman in the Dunes, adapted from the novel by Kobo Abe, is fascinating and disturbing.The film’s protagonist is a man trapped by villagers, in a dilapidated house at the bottom of a sand pit; the sole occupant o

Peeping Tom (1960)

Sep 13th, 2016 39m 44s

When Martin Scorsese brought Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom back from its longtime purgatory, the word on the street was that it was a piece of transgressive cinema from an acclaimed director, *before* Psycho, which caught a lot of hell it didn’t

The Terminator (1984)

Jul 10th, 2016 1h 19m

Someday someone will make the definitive documentary about the making of The Terminator (1984). Until then we’ll have the periodic cast and crew interviews. Until then we’ll have their stories.On this special episode of the Diabolique Webcast,

Village of the Damned (1960)

May 18th, 2016 45m 19s

Earlier this year, when Shout Factory announced their Blu-ray release of John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned, I can’t say I was enthusiastic about the news. It mostly served to remind me how much I wanted to like the film and that I found it

Roman Polanski’s The Tenant (1976)

Mar 21st, 2016 45m 52s

The Tenant isn’t the first film I think of when the name Roman Polanski is mentioned. The director’s 1976 film strikes me more as a curiosity. Does its central character, Trelkovsky, out of all the characters in Polanski’s films, most represent

David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001)

Feb 26th, 2016 41m 3s

Mulholland Drive is perhaps a unique sort of puzzle—one that’s different upon every deconstruction. Conversationally you can take the film apart and put it back together and maybe you’ll come up with an entirely different theory as to what’s tr

David Cronenberg’s The Brood (1979)

Sep 5th, 2015 40m 1s

The Brood entertains the notion that psychotherapy can be dangerous. It doesn’t merely result in a changing of one’s mind, it can also result in a changing of one’s body—disturbingly so. And woe be the therapist who messes around with this powe

Dressed to Kill (1980)

Aug 14th, 2015 40m 25s

From a technical strand-point, Brian de Palma’s 1980 psychological thriller Dressed to Kill is top notch. His fascination with the techniques of filmmaking makes the film a treasure trove for cinephiles. The film has its detractors, of course,

Escape from New York (1981)

Jul 29th, 2015 38m 48s

Time has been good to Escape from New York. From the cinema netherworld of the early 80s, John Carpenter’s dystopian adventure prospered on home-video, spawned a sequel, and has been emblemized by cinephiles as an avatar of eighties cool.Being

Quentin Tarantino’s DEATH PROOF (2007)

Apr 12th, 2015 32m 37s

Much has been written about Quentin Tarantino’s influences – the Spaghetti Westerns of Leone and Corbucci; the French New wave, particularly Goddard’s Band of Outsiders and Breathless; and, more significantly McBride’s 1983 remake of Breathless

Nicolas Roeg’s DON’T LOOK NOW (1973)

Feb 10th, 2015 34m 24s

Steve Head and David Kleiler discuss Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973), a haunting supernatural thriller, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. The film is renowned for its innovative editing and striking cinematography, as well as

The Orson Welles Roundtable – OTHELLO and F FOR FAKE

Dec 17th, 2014 46m 20s

Peter Keough joins David and Steve for a round-table discussion on Orson Welles, one of cinema’s original independent filmmakers. Two of the films they focus on are Othello (1952) and F for Fake (1973), both of which have recently been released

George Sluizer’s The Vanishing

Nov 1st, 2014 28m

What would you do if you and your significant other stopped at a gas station while traveling, and your significant other suddenly vanished without trace? That is the premise for George Sluizer’s haunting and very disturbing 1988 film, The Vanis

David Cronenberg’s Scanners

Sep 6th, 2014 33m 43s

On this episode of the Diabolique Webcast, David Klieler and Steve Head consider the career of director David Cronenberg; with particular emphasis on his 1981 film Scanners, which has recently been released on Blu-ray by The Criterion Collectio

Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive

Aug 17th, 2014 28m 49s

Join Steve Head and David Kleiler for a discussion on Jim Jarmusch’s ultra-cool vampire film, Only Lovers Left Alive, starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston. The film is available on blu-ray, August 19 2014, from Sony Pictures Home Entertain

Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Blood Mania

Aug 6th, 2014 42m

On the eve of beginning production on his new film, Blood Mania, the Godfather of Gore Herschell Gordon Lewis talks with us about his career, the state of the film industry and his relationship with his audience. Known for his films Blood Feast

Thirty-Five Years of Nosferatu the Vampyre

Jun 29th, 2014 33m 56s

Thirty-five years after it’s initial release, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Werner Herzog’s haunting tone poem of death and loneliness is as potent today as it was in 1979. To celebrate the film’s recent arrival on blu-ray for the first time in both t

Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves

May 27th, 2014 34m 40s

The dark 1996 film, Breaking the Waves distills the artistry of its creator, Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier, more than any other of his films. This progressively warped and partially improvised drama, bound within remarkably cogent chapter bre

The Val Lewton Legacy

Mar 22nd, 2014 54m 6s

He believed in peace in darkness, friendship in solitude, and for some of his characters, freedom in death; even admitting to an RKO executive that the message of The Seventh Victim (1943) was, in fact, “Death is good.” His films abound in sly

Saving The Wicker Man (1973)

Jan 29th, 2014 31m 17s

Giving credit where it’s due, cinephiles must thank Liz Coffey, an archivist at the Harvard Film Archive, for saving the only known-to-exist 35mm print of the “middle version” of The Wicker Man. Its discovery—following an inquiry by a represent

Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood (1957)

Jan 16th, 2014 32m 6s

On this episode of the Diabolique Webcast, film professor David Kleiler and film critic Brett Michel join Steve to discuss Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 rethinking of Shakespeare’s Macbeth; Throne of Blood, which has recently been released on Blu-ray f

F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922)

Nov 8th, 2013 46m 50s

Steve Head and David Kleiler welcome special guest, Bret Wood, Vice President and Executive Producer at Kino Lorber, to discuss Kino’s new blu-ray release of F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922), the film that Werner Herzog called the most important

Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Oct 2nd, 2013 52m 2s

With Criterion about to release Franju’s enigmatic masterpiece of macabre poetry on blu-ray for the first time, Steve Head, David Kleiler and Dan Kimmel get together to discuss the film’s unique place in the history of French cinema and the inf

The End of Film as We Know It…Again?

Jul 22nd, 2013 45m 48s

Ever since the arrival of sound, people have been predicting the end of film as we know it. The latest to sound the alarm are Steven Spielberg and George Lucas who, last month, predicted the meltdown of the movie industry in the not too distant