Category: Reviews – Visual
Almost as good as live, Hellbound tells you which DVDs, Blu-rays, etc. are worth laying out cash for and which ones to leave on the shelf. We also review the occasional film.
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The Limehouse Golem
The Limehouse Golem is the best new film I’ve seen thus far this year. I will give no spoilers, save to say that this is a superb horror-thriller set in Victorian London, with Police Inspector John Kildare (Bill Nighy) trying to catch the titular Limehouse Golem (a Ripper-esque killer… or is it?). No, rather than revealing…
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Jane’s Addiction – Ritual De Lo Habitual Alive at 25 CD/DVD
I love live concerts. But I find something about just focussing on a single album – a band playing that and only that at a show – a little hard to take. In that situation, what one is witnessing ceases to feel like a show or a concert and sort of feels like a clumsy…
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Film Review – Kong: Skull Island
Orson Welles once memorably commented that films should be made with innocence (something we rarely see now, sadly – we live in a time when films are made by marketing committees!) and Kong: Skull Island is a fine example of a film made for the right reasons. It has been described as a reboot of…
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Horror movie review: The Conjuring 2
The Conjuring was a pleasant surprise when it was released, shining like a diamond amongst endless remakes and found-footage films (how long before someone remakes The Blair Witch Project? No, please don’t, that would be truly horrible in all the worse ways!). For The Conjuring was a well-written, well-directed, well-acted film, with good production values,…
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Blekkmetal Film – screening July 3 in Montreal
Blekkmetal is a compelling video document – worth watching simply for the live performances the film captures, but even more so for its unique entry into and perspective on the Norwegian black metal scene. This documentary / concert film isn’t and won’t be widely available, so if you have the chance to catch its Canadian premiere in…
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Slash – Raised On The Sunset Strip Blu-Ray
Historians and critics may curse Raised On The Sunset Strip for presenting a documentary which features some pretty plainly revisionist history of the L.A. rock scene of the 1980s in general and Guns N’ Roses in specific, but there’s no way to deny that the film tells a really interesting story – at least at…
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Terminator Genisys (film review)
I really wanted to like this film. I had a lot of good will towards it. The previous Terminator films are all at least decent, and in two cases, stone-cold classics. Terminator: Salvation was very enjoyable and opened up the franchise in a new and feasible direction while still being faithful to its own mythology.…
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Life After Death From Above 1979
Up until pretty recently, the question “What the hell happened to Death From Above 1979” was a perfectly valid one. At one point, the band was huge; between 2001 and 2006, they played over five hundred shows around the world. Critics lined up to sing the band’s praises, appearances on shows like Late Night with Conan…
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Rob Zombie – The Zombie Horror Picture Show DVD
The problem with most rock concert DVDs is that, while they capture and present the music and the show well enough (usually), they fail to really present the experience of the event. Most normally, they’re too narrow of view; those watching get some of the pomp and power of the presentation – usually from the…
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Hammerfall – Gates of Dalhalla
By Lauren Leuschner Sweden’s own Hammerfall have taken a well deserved break in 2013, but before they go on to the next chapter the band has chosen to commemorate 15 years together with a very special live performance. Released on a DVD/2 CD pack titled Gates of Dalhalla, the 2-hour 15 minute live show takes place…