Colonel Sun
Kingsley Amis’ Colonel Sun was the first James Bond book written entirely after the death of Ian Fleming. Amis sends Bond to Greece to foil a Chinese mastermind and delights in abusing M.
Read moreTag Archives: Great Britain
Sex and Naps
On the surface, The Wicker Man is the story of one police constable’s attempt to scrooge up a town’s May Day revelries. Delving deeper into its waters, however, is aided by a few key texts that informed the film.
Read moreDiabolique: Everything Gets Boring
Continuing my trip through the BFI Flipside series on Diabolique with Deep End, a meditation on disappointment, obsession, and the uneven bargain between men and women during the Sexual Revolution.
Read moreDiabolique: One Slow Descent into Respectability
I’m on Diabolique once more, continuing to examine British culture through the lens of films in the BFI Flipside series. This time it’s The Pleasure Girls and a scandal that shook the British government.
Read moreDiabolique: Machine Made Dirt
On Diabolique: Beat Girl, Gillian Hills, go-go dancing, hip slang, seedy strip joints, teenage rebellion, and Oliver Reed in a checkered shirt.
Read moreCultural Gutter: These Lonely Haunted Places
Unpacking Penda’s Fen can seem at first overwhelming. There is so much going on that one scarcely knows where to start, though the most common point is wondering how it got made in the first place.
Read moreCultural Gutter: Folk Horror for the Atomic Age
On The Cultural Gutter, I’m writing about Hammer Films’ These Are the Damned and the intersection of science fiction, horror, and folk horror in the atomic era.
Read more