#77: NIGHT OF THE REAPER (2025) dir. Brandon Christensen
Random Shudder pick that turned out to be a pretty tense, twisty kinda-slasher. Just when I thought I was done with synthy 80s homages, this one drew me back in
#76: THE FALL GUY (2024) dir. David Leitch
According to Letterboxd, I've seen this 12 times and will likely watch it 12 more, at the very least
#75: PROTECTOR (2026) dir. Adrien Grunberg
What if RAMBO: LAST BLOOD but somehow worse in every way? I hate that I used my monthly CineClub ticket for this
#74: PREDATOR: BADLANDS (2025) dir. Dan Trachtenberg
Weird to think that 15 years after PREDATORS I'd still be watching this series get better as it goes. We are, of course, pretending THE PREDATOR was just a bad dream. Just as good the second time around
#73: IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1996) dir. John Carpenter
A masterpiece that stands with HALLOWEEN, THE THING, & PRINCE OF DARKNESS as Carpenter's best work. It's also never looked better than it does on the new Arrow 4K - those black levels? Goddamn. Looking forward to the commentaries on there
#72: EVERLY (2014) dir. Joe Lynch
First time I saw this was after finding the Movie Crypt podcast in 2018. Had to rent a DVD and everything. 8 years later, I know a hell of a lot more about movies and find myself able to appreciate this mean, single-room nailbiter even more. It's also now on Tubi
#71: THE BRIDE! (2026) dir. Maggie Gyllenhaal
Messy as hell and yet it's so fucking alive you can't turn away. If you told me it was saved in editing, I'd believe you. It's difficult to describe how good Jessie Buckley's performance is here. She's transcendent, I'll say that much. Go see it, ASAP
#70: THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA (1990) dir. Jim Wynorski
If you've found your way to watching a Jim Wynorski film, you know what to expect: sleazy watchability. Bizarre to think that one of the leads from this - David McCallum - is the reason we have one of Dr. Dre's best known tracks
1000%. My shows tend to be at the opposite end of the spectrum - depending on the type of episode, we record from 1.5 to 3.5 hours, which I then whittle down to 45m for mail shows and 105m for story shows. If I tried to make people listen to the full thing, they'd run away screaming
Props for not caving. Almost every show I know that has pivoted to video, their audio suffered for it. You just can't fine-tune the edit of a conversation the same way in video and people don't seem to grasp what that means for a show's quality
One of the few things this blighted future has brought us is more shoe options for the wide-footed among us. It is, however, a Faustian bargain since across all brands the colour options are either, "weekends at dad's new apartment" or "my mittens are sewed together so I don't lose them again"
#69: EPIC - ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT (2025) dir. Baz Luhrmann
The closest I'm ever gonna get to seeing Elvis play. You can see it come so easily to him that he can coast and keep the audience enthralled. Then, sometimes he ramps it up and you think, "right, shit, that's how Elvis became Elvis"
#68: PRACTICAL MAGIC (1998) dir. Griffin Dunne
Finally knocked this one off the list. In a just world, we'd have gotten a movie where Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest's kooky aunts got their own series of movies
Is it on YouTube or one of the other streamers?
Oh no way! Is it worth a watch? I'd be curious to know more about how it all came together
#67: BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) dir. Arthur Penn
Another blindspot for me, now filled in on the big screen thanks to the Hyland. Wasn’t at all the movie I expected it to be. Watching scenes where poor people stare brokenhearted at homes seized by the bank was a real "time is a flat circle" moment
#66: CUT THROAT CITY (2020) dir. RZA
Sprawling, ambitious and glacially paced crime flick set in post-Katrina NOLA. Not good, not bad
The thing about hanging out in a record shop drinking coffee with cool people is that eventually you start buying records, even when your turntable is a thousand miles away. Then what? Then you end up buying another turntable
#65: TRUE ROMANCE (1993) dir. Tony Scott
Though it's far from my favorite Tony Scott flick (MAN ON FIRE hive rise up), I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the director's cut restored in beautiful 4K on the Hyland's big ol' screen
#64: TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. (1985) dir. William Friedkin
Probably one of my biggest blindspots. What can you say about something this legendary, except that it lives up to the hype? Whoever restored the version currently up on Prime deserves a pat on the back because goddamn it looks good
#63: PSYCHO KILLER (2026) dir. Gavin Polone
Brutal reviews almost caused me to skip this one, which would have been a huge mistake. Mean, tense, unexpectedly apocalyptic. This should have gotten LONGLEGS press. Biggest issue I had was that it felt like a couple pages of valuable exposition got axed
#62: NEW YORK CHINATOWN (1982) dir. Stanley Siu Wing
Disc one of VinSyn's MADE IN HONG KONG VOL. 2 boxset.
If you can endure the overstuffed first hour you've got yourself a solid slice of 80s NYC gangwar sleaze. The film's high point has to be Don The Dragon Wilson's first on-screen fight
Awful to hear about Robert Carradine. I won't pretend to know much about his personal life, but suicide is a motherfucker, however you cut it. If you want to celebrate his work, and can find it, he really swung for the fences in the old CBS TV movie I SAW WHAT YOU DID opposite David
Not all Spidermen are created equal. From the latest episode of The Ghost Story Guys Podcast
#61: THE GAMBLER (1974) dir. Karel Reisz
Magnetic portrait of an inveterate gambler. Almost an UNCUT GEMS level nailbiter. My first time watching it but its hard to imagine this looking any better than it does on the new Cinematograph 4K
Beautiful words again, Mary
My latest audiobook, @ruthroperwylde.bsky.social's THESE HAUNTED TIMES, VOL. 6, is now available on Amazon! While you're there, make sure to check out my other titles, including Ruth's THESE HAUNTED TIMES, VOL. FIVE and my own A STRANGE LITTLE PLACE
#60: KILLING THEM SOFTLY (2012) dir. Andrew Dominik
"I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business." One of my all-time favorite crime flicks
I'd like to think that even if people in my life hadn't helped me understand my autistm that this morning, listening to Conway Twitty's "The Rose" on repeat for 45 minutes throughout my entire weights routine, I might finally have figured it out
#59: BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS (2026) dir. Yuen Woo-Ping
Much like westerns or sword-and-sandal flicks, films set in dynastic China are hit and miss for me. This fell on the miss side of the mark - vibrant action scenes couldn't make up for glacial pacing and cardboard characters
