You’re probably expecting another New Year’s post full of excuses and apologies, right?

I think we can take that as read by now.

Instead, I thought we’d try to accentuate the positive: this is – terrifyingly enough – another anniversary year for the B-Masters; and we are currently putting our heads together over the best way to mark the occasion.

In the meantime, we offer the most sincere thanks and gratitude to our visitors for sticking by us. Fingers crossed for a kind and productive year!

Sure, we all love a good werewolf film; but why should wolves have all the fun? Besides, let’s face it, when it comes to the beasts within—it’s a jungle in there…

So join us as we take a look at a few of the other rampaging alter-egos hidden behind the unconvincing façade of Homo sapiens:
 

It’s WERE-WHAT?—all through November (and likely December) at the B-Masters’ Blog.

My website has been silent for a long time, but that’s because I was writing this.

Page after page of rambling on everything from: Sweet Smell of Success, Billie Holiday, and old New York bars; Louis Feuillade’s Fantomas and Les Vampires; AJ Raffles and gentleman thieves  in film and print; the murky origins of the Martini; Kriminal, Kilink, Diabolik, and fumetti cinema; the origins of masked wrestlers and the birth of the El Santo/Blue Demon team-up; amaro and how Lucky Luciano and Ian Fleming won WWII; and the story of Dean Martin’s Matt Helm films, which became a sprawling epic involving the mob, Mia Farrow, the Kennedys, bodies in 55 gallon drums, the CIA, and Ian Fleming’s plan to defeat communism by stealing Fidel Castro’s beard.

It also contains cocktail recipes!

Parts were previously hosted on Teleport City, Mezzanotte, or Alcohol Professor but have been substantially re-researched and rewritten. And then a whole mess o’ stuff is new.

365 pages, black and white but with an attractive color cover. US$15.99 via Amazon. Buy it here of through whatever your country’s Amazon may be (it should be on all of them). It will eventually filter out to other sites, but that’s out of my control.

If you work at or have a connection to a brick & mortar you think would be interested in stocking it, let me know. Gotta hustle.

And finally, if you are foolish enough to buy it and read it, consider giving it a rating and/or review on Amazon and Goodreads.

 
Anthology films – or portmanteau films, or omnibus films, as they are also called – have been with us almost since the dawn of the motion picture industry. This form of film-making can be a tricky beast, requiring a careful juggling of topic and tone to get the right effect; but executed skilfully, such a film can become a great deal more than the sum of its parts.

There are anthology comedies, anthology dramas and anthology romances out there; but, from the very beginning, it was horror that made best and most frequent use of the format: a history now stretching all the way from 1919’s Unheimliche Geschichten to 2017’s XX and A Taste Of Phobia—and with many more, no doubt, to come…

So join us as we take a trip on the omnibus—
 

It’s ROOM FOR ONE MORE…all through August at the B-Masters’ Blog!

So apparently there are people in the world whose idea of a good time is to go out and kill something. Guns, knives, crossbows, spears, hooks, traps—it’s all good, as long as an animal ends up dead.
 
I don’t get it.
 
Mind you…I come closer to getting it when the animal they’re hunting is selfish, greedy, violent, destructive and just plain ANNOYING.
 
So join us as we examine some films that put Homo sapiens in the cross-hairs…
 
 

It’s THE MOST DANGEROUS ROUNDTABLE…all through May at the B-Masters’ Blog!

 
When we think of early horror, it tends to be in terms of its most famous archetypes – Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Wolfman – and a cinematic landscape dominated by Universal Studios.

But this is only the tip of the horror iceberg; and, as with all icebergs, there was a great deal more going on under the surface.

Almost as soon as there were movies at all, there were horror movies. Despite social resistance and critical scorn, film-makers both across America and around the world began to speak to the audience’s fears…and its desire for a shivery good time, too. And though many of these efforts have since slipped through the cracks of time and memory, they all contributed to the development of the genre.

So join us as we lift our lanterns, deploy our picks and shovels, and dig into the crypt of forgotten horror…
 

It’s THE FORGOTTEN DAWN OF HORROR…all through February at the B-Masters’ Blog!

…and immediately signing up for the next race.

2017 was not one of our more productive years, to put put it mildly; a larger than usual serving of mea culpas seems in order.

But as always, a new year brings new hope.

Many thanks to our visitors and commentators We very much appreciate your continued support (and patience).

Best wishes to all for 2018!

In general, the purpose of a movie’s music is to complement the action without getting in the way. Even a soaring John Williams score, with memorable themes representing the major characters, is meant to enhance the impact of what we see on screen, not replace it.

But sometimes you — yes, you, personally — can’t help but notice the music.

Have you ever found yourself absolutely electrified by opening credits, only to be bored to tears by the movie that followed? Has a musical ever inspired you to sing along with it, even though you don’t speak Tamil or Cantonese? Have you ever gone crazy over the music for a movie you couldn’t stand — or vice versa? Has a terrible movie ever made you furious by ruining your favorite song? Love it or hate it, sometimes music follows you out of the theater and refuses to leave you alone. It’s a difficult experience to try to put into words — so that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

This month, we celebrate the movies that — for better or for worse — added something to the soundtrack of our lives. Join us as we consider movies… In the Key of B.

All through November at the B-Masters’ blog!

 
There are films that make you laugh, and films that make you cry.

There are films that make you angry, and others that make you feel good.

There are films that make you think, and others that are mindless entertainment.

And then there are those films to which the only reasonable response is a cry of—  “WTF!?”

So join us as we take a walk on the weird side…
 

All through August at the B-Masters’ blog!