Video Dungeon

Kim Newman’s “Video Dungeon” column in Empire magazine is the place to go for reviews of horror and genre film and the weird, wonderful, and wacky creme-de-la-creme of cinematic dreck. In one of the hundreds of reviews assembled for Video Dungeon, Kim states, “I’d rather watch Plan 9 from Outer Space than the average Academy Award Best Picture winner.”

A true film devotee, Newman doesn’t pull punches, grading Hollywood’s finest on the same scale as SyFy CGI-generated monster schlock, giving each the chance to entertain him. Although most film buffs would struggle to recognize most of the films in this book, it’s still a terrific read, full of charm, insight, and genuine affection for even the sleaziest of cinema.

Covering everything from softcore porn films to low-budget releases, Video Dungeon‘s litany of reviews includes films spanning more than a century, some earning rave reviews and many others withering under Newman’s learned gaze. (At one point, he even has to yada-yada himself through a review of yet another capture-and-torture film ripoff.)

Video Dungeon, like the Roger Ebert worst-movie review collections that precede it, is great fun and a guaranteed way to discover dozens of movies you never knew existed.