Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project (Blu-ray) by Jesse Skeen Every once in a while a documentary comes along about a person you may never have heard of, but by the end you find them almost as memorable as a fictional movie character. Like many, I heard about Philadelphia resident Marion Stokes only after she had died. The word got out that she had amassed over 70,000 videotapes (though after an actual count it seems to be closer to only 40,000) with over 30 years' worth of TV news recorded on them. Not having had access to a VCR myself until 1985 but being long intrigued by old TV recordings as a way of time travel, this sounded like a gold mine. Having made a few off-air recordings myself mainly of movies in the 80s, the only news I got on tape was the local news updates during the commercial breaks (which I always left in as I knew they'd be valuable later). I've also amassed a good amount of tapes recorded by others and have found some vintage newscasts re...Read the entire review »

Beyond The Door by Ian Jane The Movie: Beyond The Door Directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis (as O. Hellman) and released in 1974, a year after The Exorcist proved to be box office gold, Beyond The Door introduces us to Jessica Barrett (Juliet Mills), her husband Robert (Gabriele Lavia) and their two kids, smart-mouthed Gail (Barbara Fiorini) and pea soup loving Ken (Davd Colin Jr.). They live a good life and seem quite happy together, but when it turns out that Jessica is pregnant, things get a little tense. Regardless, they decide they'll make the best of the situation but after a visit to Dr. George Staton (Nino Segurini), a man who also happens to be their best friend, Jessica realizes that something is odd: she figures she can't be more than a few weeks into her pregnancy, while he insists she has to be at least three months. From there, things start to get strange in the Barrett ho...Read the entire review »