COOP COOPER is an independently syndicated film critic with a split personality. His “Southern Side” prints mainstream reviews that appear in various print publications across the mid-south. His “Dark Side” from Los Angeles befouls the site with reviews of horror and grindhouse flicks. Welcome to the site where COOP’s two halves (and his contributors) review and debate the latest film/DVD releases…

I met Tupelo native Mike McCarthy at Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi a little over two weeks ago and I found myself surprised to realize I’d heard of the guy. I caught his ultra low-budget film “Superstarlet A.D.”years back which was released by shlockmeister/producer Lloyd Kaufman, famous for his “Troma” brand of low budget exploitation flicks. I wasn’t a fan of the film, but I got a clear grasp for McCarthy’s style and obsessions. McCarthy spends his time in Memphis soaking up the hip Midtown scene and planning feature film projects. He fetishizes pin-up girls, rockabilly music and indie film… precisely all the ingredients that make up his latest opus, “Cigarette Girl.”…

Color me shocked. What looked like a loud, obnoxious, superficial action flick in the previews actually succeeded in making a meaningful (yet disturbing) social statement. Harkening back to the exploitative B-movie action films of the late 80’s and 90’s, “Gamer” begins as a sleazy, violent bloodbath with seemingly no redeeming cinematic value. Just as I started to turn my brain off, the story surprised me with some plot devices and story concepts way ahead of its time…

Count yourself lucky if you’ve ever seen this movie prior to today. It’s a rare find on DVD and appears sporadically on the Independent Film Channel. It Came Without Warning aka Without Warning aka Alien Warning aka The Warning aka Alien Encounter aka Alien Shock scared the heck out of me in 1980 with its shocking televised promo spots. The normally tame programming would interrupt to show humans being attacked by frisbee monsters thrown by a giant alien with an over-sized noggin. At 4 (or possibly 5) years old, I was horrified at seeing those images.

Years later, I had completely forgotten the name of the…

Possibly the first “smutty” movie I ever saw, Reform School Girls (1986) is not a movie to be taken seriously. At all. I didn’t understand that when I first saw it. I thought all R-rated movies were serious and therefore this was serious. I figured reform schools were evil places filled with bad, naked women… something that scared yet intrigued me. Kinda made me feel like “bad girls” new secrets and things that normal people weren’t supposed to know about. Mystery and danger.

Thus started my obsession of…

Just when I think my home state was finally getting some decent movies portraying the state in a positive light (like The Blind Side which releases on Thanksgiving), the goons who thought it was a good idea to remake Straw Dogs decided it should take place in Mississippi instead of England this time.

Cue the inbred, violent, Southern redneck stereotypes…

Tarantino’s lost his mind. Actually… did he ever really have it? I tell you what he does have. Guts. “Inglourious Basterds” looks so wild and zany I can easily imagine it being a disaster.

But I know Quentin better than that. While always self indulgent it looks like he’s gotten the foot-fetishism porn film that was “Death Proof” out of his system and is now back to the same mixture of cheese and coolness that spawned “Kill Bill.” The first trailer for “Basterds” did nothing for me because it didn’t give me enough flavor for the tone of the film. In this new one, I see…

Everyone has at least seen one zombie film, and, if you haven’t, I don’t think we can be friends until you do. So get on it! I’m not waiting around! You have to be prepared for when a zombie outbreak occurs in your own small town. The zombies have to be nipped in the bud (or head) before it takes over the whole world and it is up to you to do it. Prepare yourselves! It’s inevitable…

Jake West, director of the comedic almost goodgore film “Evil Aliens” has a new horror film releasing June 12 (supposedly only the in UK) called “Doghouse.” The synopsis: Six friends, all going through various stages of female problems, get together for a booze-filled weekend retreat. They pick the wrong town to look for a party. Instead of willing women, they get a town full of…

Here lies Sam Raimi’s worst horror movie ever. Now that I’ve said that, would you believe I recommend this one to both horror fans and mainstream audiences alike? The master of kinetic filmmaking raised the bar pretty high with his “Evil Dead” trilogy (which includes “Army of Darkness” in case you didn’t know). While I’m pleased as Halloween-party punch Raimi has decided to go back to horror after a long stint with the “Spider-Man” movies, I would’ve preferred…

Here are the movie titles that – when you see them – completely grab your attention. Whether they are the best piece of cinema of all time or a complete piece of crap, one thing cannot be denied… You gotta love that title. Here are the 10 best movie titles of all time in descending order all the way down to #1…

In 1999, civilization teetered on the brink of annihilation as the oracles of doom lined up for a spot on the talk show circuit to pronounce the end of the world as we knew it. According to the naysayers, the Y2K bug was poised to wreck havoc on computer systems across the entire digital spectrum from finance to air traffic control to eBay. In short, it was claimed that this viral Boolean mutation would infect the operating systems of every computer on the planet and thereby destroy our global infrastructure; plunging mankind back into the Dark Ages. NBC, in a deplorable yet completely predictable vulturistic fit of negative opportunism, pounced…

These are the heroes that just won’t go down no matter what you thow at them. The best of the best. The Greatest. Here’s the criteria I used while making the list… a. The heroes must survive to the end of their film/franchise. b. No superheroes with superpowers. c. Pick heroes who represent cult phenom films. These are my results:

I recently discovered an entertaining horror website run by the witty “Final Girl” who challenged her readers to watch “Grindhouse” and write something about it. “Grindhouse” is old news but her challenge got me thinking about it. It’s an anomaly that almost (along with the continued support of Quentin Tarantino ) single-handedly resurrected the grindhouse [...]

Here’s a hilariously fun and gory slasher flick.
It starts off a lot like “Halloween.” A little boy assembles a naughty jigsaw puzzle in the comfort of his bedroom. His mom catches him in the act, then verbally and physically beats him. How does he retaliate? He takes an axe to her head, saws her body [...]

FOUND!!!: One of the films I only saw parts of as a kid, yet the images I saw haunted me far into adulthood. I’ve been looking for this film for a long time, yet didn’t know the title. Every time I’d find a film with a similar premise, I’d get my hopes up, thinking I [...]