Apocalypse Now: deserted cities, sinister machines, survivalist dogs
To mark the publication of our first book, The End: An Electric Sheep Anthology, we explore apocalyptic cinema with an interview with Gregg Araki for his new film Kaboom, a delirious conspiracy comedy, and reviews of new vampire road movie Stake Land, landmark animé Akira and Spanish 70s chiller Who Can Kill a Child? plus a Comic Strip Review of Richard Stanley’s legendary Hardware. We also have articles on Mad Max, Richard Kelly, dogs in survivalist fantasy and the British apocalypse while rocket scientist and SF writer Simon Morden chooses Twelve Monkeys‘ hero James Cole as his end-of-the-world alter ego.
Two masterworks of cinema can be seen on UK screens this month: Carlos Saura’s haunting drama Cría Cuervos and Jan Švankmajer’s wonderfully sinister Alice – read our interview with Švankmajer. New releases include Congolese gangster film Viva Riva!, anarchic French farce Mammuth and the re-release of intriguing Jeff Bridges thriller Cutter’s Way. We also review the standout of this year’s Sci-Fi London, the inventive cerebral puzzle You Are Here.
In the DVDs, we look at Buñuel and Dalí’s surrealist classic L’âge d’or, Sam Peckinpah’s brilliantly bitter Cross of Iron, New Orleans saga Treme and Lucio Fulci’s bad-taste shocker The New York Ripper. In the Blog you can read reports on Cannes and Terracotta.
PODCAST:
Kim Newman on Nightmare Movies: Horror maestro Kim Newman discusses the new, updated edition of his essential book Nightmare Movies: Horror on the Screen since the 1960s with Virginie Sélavy.