Gabe Powers

The 1970s were a golden age of made-for-TV horror in America, fronted by Steven Spielberg’s Duel (1971), Robert Day’s Initiation of Sarah (1978), and the wider oeuvre of Dan Curtis, including the soap opera Dark Shadows (1968-’69), The Night Strangler (1973), and Trilogy of Terror (1975). These films established new formulas that flourished, despite the limitations presented by FCC standards & practices. During the 1990s, Stephen King adaptations grew beyond theaters and made a splash on...

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of Belgian martial artist turned international superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme’s already unusual career was the number of times he played dual roles. He appeared as twins separated at birth in Ringo Lam’s Maximum Risk (1996), he played clones in Lam’s Replicant, and time travel helped him to play different versions of the same guy in Peter Hyams’ Timecop (1994). This all originated with Sheldon Lettich’s Double Impact, a moderate hit that Van Damme co-wrote...

Ching Siu-tung’s A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) was, in some ways, the creative peak of the Hong Kong New Wave era’s xianxia movement, as initiated by producer (and some say co-director) Tsui Hark’s Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain in 1983. The genre was already steeped in imitation and homage, so it came as no surprise that Ching’s film led to three official sequels, an animated film, a 2011 reboot, and an array of movies that liberally ‘borrowed’ the imagery and other elements that made...