I love Twin Peaks, so there was no way I was going to miss a chance to reflect on the one year anniversary of Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return. Here’s the thing, though: Twin Peaks is really hard to talk about because Twin Peaks is really confusing. The show’s debut in 1990 coincided with the…
Review: Unapologetic Exploitation Film “Revenge” Centers the Genre’s Moral Compass
Despite the parental panic they incited in their 1980s heyday, slasher movies have a clear moral vision. Characters who party or have sex almost always get killed, usually after the actress exposes herself to the camera, while the “final girl”, the woman who survives to defeat the killer, is pointedly chaste. The slasher’s older, nastier…
Think Christian: “O Superhero Death, Where Is Your Sting?”
This might be the piece I’ve had the most fun writing, probably because it’s about something I know well that’s been part of the mainstream conversation: superhero deaths. Comic book readers are well aware that dead superheroes always come back. In fact, one of my earliest comic book memories was reading a letter in a…
Review: The Disappointing Breaking In Keeps Breaking Its Own Rules
A good thriller is like a well designed game. There are players with clear objectives, a field of play holding them together, and well-defined rules that determine how the players will meet those objectives. Some random elements are acceptable, such as a bad dice roll or a fortunate card pull, but most of the game’s…
