@marioscido.bsky.social
Humanities instructor, independent filmmaker, MUFF supporter, Monstrum conjurer, hysterical cinephile, and golem scholar.
The book I wrote: https://anthempress.com/grand-guignol-cinema-and-the-horror-genre-hb
https://www.monstrum-society.ca/
The book I wrote: https://anthempress.com/grand-guignol-cinema-and-the-horror-genre-hb
https://www.monstrum-society.ca/
RIP the great Udo Kier!
November 24, 2025 at 2:58 AM
RIP the great Udo Kier!
I watched ENNIO (2021) and was quite moved by the film. The maestro used a pseudonym at the beginning of his career facing the double taboo of genre hatred and being a second class film composer within the music industry. I encountered him when I saw THE THING (1982). My sacred is called Morricone.
November 22, 2025 at 3:05 PM
I watched ENNIO (2021) and was quite moved by the film. The maestro used a pseudonym at the beginning of his career facing the double taboo of genre hatred and being a second class film composer within the music industry. I encountered him when I saw THE THING (1982). My sacred is called Morricone.
Gaspar Noé giving the pope the brilliant VORTEX at the Vatican suggesting that a more serious view of cinema is offered than the constant refrain by my left liberal friends who want escape from the world. Is not the pope sounding like David Cronenberg: cinema should "not console, but challenge?"
November 21, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Gaspar Noé giving the pope the brilliant VORTEX at the Vatican suggesting that a more serious view of cinema is offered than the constant refrain by my left liberal friends who want escape from the world. Is not the pope sounding like David Cronenberg: cinema should "not console, but challenge?"
Jess Franco's DRACULA (1970) with Lee, Kinski, Miranda, Lom, and Rohm is actually quite brilliant. I think it is not liked because for Franco, who worked in France a lot, the reference is actually surrealism over the Gothic. The tone of the film is Stoker filtered trough Cocteau rather than Hammer.
November 14, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Jess Franco's DRACULA (1970) with Lee, Kinski, Miranda, Lom, and Rohm is actually quite brilliant. I think it is not liked because for Franco, who worked in France a lot, the reference is actually surrealism over the Gothic. The tone of the film is Stoker filtered trough Cocteau rather than Hammer.
WOW! LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (Richard Brooks, 1977) blew me away. Diane Keaton's performance is so powerful as a woman seeking sexual liberation from Catholic conservatism within the feminist movements of the 70s. Grand-Guignol cinema in every way. Still on my skin!
November 9, 2025 at 2:46 PM
WOW! LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (Richard Brooks, 1977) blew me away. Diane Keaton's performance is so powerful as a woman seeking sexual liberation from Catholic conservatism within the feminist movements of the 70s. Grand-Guignol cinema in every way. Still on my skin!
Never. Saw. This. Tonight.
November 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Never. Saw. This. Tonight.
I am always pleasantly surprised when I re-watch Jess Franco's films, here BLOODY MOON (1981), his slasher film set in Alicante (Spain) giving it a lovely weirdness accompanied by a bizarre score, really good FX work, and a sun-drenched vistas that clash with the slasher sensibility. Good one!
November 8, 2025 at 4:24 PM
I am always pleasantly surprised when I re-watch Jess Franco's films, here BLOODY MOON (1981), his slasher film set in Alicante (Spain) giving it a lovely weirdness accompanied by a bizarre score, really good FX work, and a sun-drenched vistas that clash with the slasher sensibility. Good one!
Movie blood.
November 2, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Movie blood.
Happy Halloween/All Souls Day.
November 2, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Happy Halloween/All Souls Day.
The new FRANKENSTEIN by Del Toro is beautiful but lacks monstrous trauma. The creature is only tragic like Quasimodo in Disney and kills defensively. A good transgressive version is by the queer James Whale from 1931 , because like in the novel the creature kills a child and shocked audiences.
October 29, 2025 at 3:02 PM
The new FRANKENSTEIN by Del Toro is beautiful but lacks monstrous trauma. The creature is only tragic like Quasimodo in Disney and kills defensively. A good transgressive version is by the queer James Whale from 1931 , because like in the novel the creature kills a child and shocked audiences.
One of my first academic publications was an anti-colonial reading of I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (Lewton/Tourneur, 1943). No recent films have come close to depicting Vodou as anti-colonial as this film does, btw. The new Criterion release has "finally" arrived and the transfer is stunning! See it!
October 27, 2025 at 2:53 PM
One of my first academic publications was an anti-colonial reading of I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (Lewton/Tourneur, 1943). No recent films have come close to depicting Vodou as anti-colonial as this film does, btw. The new Criterion release has "finally" arrived and the transfer is stunning! See it!
From the year of DIAMOND DOGS (1974) in this otherwise scathing review: "The stage was built at weird angles like in 1920 German Expressionist silents with a cityscape as the backdrop." This monster kid would have died and gone straight to hell.
October 26, 2025 at 2:22 PM
From the year of DIAMOND DOGS (1974) in this otherwise scathing review: "The stage was built at weird angles like in 1920 German Expressionist silents with a cityscape as the backdrop." This monster kid would have died and gone straight to hell.
In the brilliant noir FALLEN ANGEL (1945), the later blonde-black design of David Lynch is already in evidence with June (Alice Faye) and Stella (Linda Darnell) dealing with a vile huckster (Dana Andrews). The film begins with Stella arriving in a bar, removing her shoes, and everything falls apart.
October 22, 2025 at 1:46 PM
In the brilliant noir FALLEN ANGEL (1945), the later blonde-black design of David Lynch is already in evidence with June (Alice Faye) and Stella (Linda Darnell) dealing with a vile huckster (Dana Andrews). The film begins with Stella arriving in a bar, removing her shoes, and everything falls apart.
Before Dr. Frank-N-Furter's singing "I'm just a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual in Transylvania" in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975), there is Hammer queering DR. JECKYLL AND SISTER HYDE, by Roy Ward Baker, released on October 17, 1971.
October 20, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Before Dr. Frank-N-Furter's singing "I'm just a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual in Transylvania" in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975), there is Hammer queering DR. JECKYLL AND SISTER HYDE, by Roy Ward Baker, released on October 17, 1971.
Il y a 50 ans, au petit matin du 16 octobre 1970, ces trois «dangereux révolutionnaires» étaient kidnappés par la police, comme plus de 490 autres personnes.
Gérald Godin, Pauline Julien, Gaston Miron et toutes les autres victimes de cette rafle politique, nous nous souvenons.
Gérald Godin, Pauline Julien, Gaston Miron et toutes les autres victimes de cette rafle politique, nous nous souvenons.
October 18, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Il y a 50 ans, au petit matin du 16 octobre 1970, ces trois «dangereux révolutionnaires» étaient kidnappés par la police, comme plus de 490 autres personnes.
Gérald Godin, Pauline Julien, Gaston Miron et toutes les autres victimes de cette rafle politique, nous nous souvenons.
Gérald Godin, Pauline Julien, Gaston Miron et toutes les autres victimes de cette rafle politique, nous nous souvenons.
THE EVIL DEAD (1980).
October 7, 2025 at 12:35 PM
THE EVIL DEAD (1980).
I expected a silly erotic comedy, but instead I got a heartfelt trans drama about first encounters and re-unions, an ensemble cast, which is weird for Jess Franco, and life among sex-workers in the tourism town of Benidorm, Spain in the 80s: LAS CHICAS DEL TANGA. Thank you Severin!
October 5, 2025 at 6:21 PM
I expected a silly erotic comedy, but instead I got a heartfelt trans drama about first encounters and re-unions, an ensemble cast, which is weird for Jess Franco, and life among sex-workers in the tourism town of Benidorm, Spain in the 80s: LAS CHICAS DEL TANGA. Thank you Severin!
Sergio Salvati, RIP!
September 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Sergio Salvati, RIP!
Different decade. Same black t-shirts!
September 13, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Different decade. Same black t-shirts!
45 years ago today, David Bowie released his fourteenth studio album, "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)."
September 12, 2025 at 12:19 PM
45 years ago today, David Bowie released his fourteenth studio album, "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)."
