CineNiche

Retro Flashback presents: Hell Comes To Frogtown  Welcome to Retro Flashback. Today we take a trip into a post-apocalyptic future as seen by low-budget filmmakers in the late eighties. Our study will begin with the creator of Frogtown , Donald G. Jackson, and his unique vision of filmmaking. We will also study the career of Frogtown's leading man, the late great Roddy Piper. Hell Comes To Frogtown may not be a particularly good film, but does it still warrant a place in your genre education? Lets dive into the ballad of Commander Toty. In the beginning... Donald G. Jackson was born in Mississippi but grew up in Michigan. He worked at an automotive factory where he met his friend and future co-director Jerry Younkins. The two of them had a plan to make a feature film but could not put together any funds. Fate then stepped in. Jerry got into an accident at work that left him without a few fingers. The insurance check came through and they were in business. With Jerry...

  Welcome back to Retro Flashback. Today we have a special critique, Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2. There are countless sites devoted to the Evil Dead series and rather than rehashing old material, I thought we could try to find ways to view this classic in a new way. We all know Ash to be a hero, but what is he fighting for? Is it possible that he is merely battling for his own sanity? We will also rate Dead By Dawn to see where it falls in your horror education. “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.” Charles Dickens – David Copperfield     "Groovy!” Ashley “Ash” Williams In the beginning... Sam Raimi was born in 1959 in Fra...

ONLY ORIGINAL HORROR PLEASE As we all know, our beloved genre has been overrun by economically safe films. In the past two decades we were bombarded with remakes and sequels. Some were wins, while most were fails. It is up to us to champion the original ideas that fly under the radar and not give in to another Michael Bay / Platnium Dunes era of horror remakes produced for the lowest common denominator. I know I'm in the camp that after years of hating on Friday The 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Nightmare On Elm Street I look back now at them with a fondness that no one should have. Then I kick myself in the ass for developing some sort of nostalgia for these shit remakes. We understand that the studios dole out larger budgets to these “safe” films, while many horror filmmakers are able to scrap funds together and create something brilliant. Today, the 10 million dollar horror extravaganza and the 1 million dollar personal horror film, can each become ...