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The Criterion Channel’s July lineup is an across-the-board display of strengths, ranging as it does from very specific programming cues to actor retrospectives and hardly ignoring the strength of Criterion Editions. Surely much fun’s to be had with “In the Ring,” a decade-spanning, 16-film curation of boxing pictures—Raging Bull and Fat City, of course, with some you forget are boxing movies (Rocco and His Brothers) and others you’ve likely never seen at all (count me excited for King Vidor’s The Champ). “Noir in Color” brilliantly upends common conception of a drama (and gives you excuse to see Nicholas Ray’s Party Girl); Setsuko Hara films are gathered into a handy collection; and Blake Edwards gets six.

On the Criterion Editions front they’ve gone all out: the Before trilogy, Alex Cox’s Walker, Leave Her to Heaven, Shaft, Destry Rides Again, Raging Bull, Hedwig and the Angry Inch,...

Over the weekend, a bizarre roadside standoff on a major highway in Massachusetts stymied holiday traffic for nearly nine hours before ending in 11 arrests of people from a militia group called Rise of the Moors, who law enforcement said described themselves as adhering to “Moorish sovereign ideology.”

A little before 2 a.m. on Saturday, a Massachusetts State Trooper noticed two cars stopped on Interstate 95 with their hazard lights on, and people outside the cars attempting to fill up their gas tanks, so he pulled over. Police said the officer encountered...

Roy Rogers, Singing Cowboy of 1940s and 1950s Hollywood. Known for his affable characterizations and, both on and off screen, “traditional values” stance, the King of the Cowboys – step aside, John Wayne & Gene Autry – toplined the “subversive” 1938 musical Western Under Western Stars. Sound bites: Remembering Roy Rogers & 'subversive' singing cowboy movie 'Under Western Stars' It is a typically hot day in Palm Springs on May 5, 2001, as I sit outside the Palm Springs Museum at the invitation of Roy Rogers' oldest daughter, Cheryl, while a star in his remembrance is placed on the sidewalk in front of the building. I am seated next to Ruth Terry, a lady with whom I am totally unfamiliar, but who, it transpires, was a leading lady to both Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. As we talk, it is obvious that she is also a very sensible and charming lady. I express my vote for Roy Rogers over Gene Autry, and...

Submit your vote for Reviewer of the Year!

Every year, the Classic Horror Film Board recognizes the best in the horror/sci-fi/fantasy realm with the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. Fans of the genre can vote for their favorites in over thirty categories, and this year, Cinelinx would like to ask you to vote for one of our own, staff writer Victor Medina, as Reviewer of the Year (Category 29)! We've even included the ballot below so you can vote!

Votes must be submitted by copying and pasting the ballot into your personal email, making your choices, including your name, and sending it in. Votes for Reviewer of the Year are write-in only, so you must be sure to include Vic's name yourself under Category 29 when you vote. Pre-filled ballots are not allowed, so we can't do it for you! Remember, you must write in "Victor Medina, Cinelinx.com" yourself.

One of countless books I've bought in the last 12 months that I'm finally making my way through; I buy at least one book a week, often 3 or 4 at a time. But I may not get to any of them for months, because I'm reading others that I bought in previous months. It gets a bit nutty at times around my apartment, with books scattered about. But anyway... with Halloween looming, I'm finally reading Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever, by Joe Kane. It was published in 2010. I bought it last year, when I first heard about it. We've written about the landmark film several times in the last 3 1/2 years, and while...

Finally, after a summer from hell (for most of the Us anyway), there is a chill in the air, the leaves are changing colors and Halloween, our favorite holiday, is almost here. So, in the spirit of the season, here are some new Halloween titles (as well as a couple of classics) you might want to pick up at your local bookstore.

How to Be a Zombie: The Essential Guide for Anyone Who Craves Brains by Serena Valentino. From the author of the Nightmares & Dreamscapes series of graphic novels, including 1140 Rue Royale, comes this hilarious and colorful book on how to become a zombie. With chapters ranging from "What Is Your Zombie Archetype?" and "Living with Humans" to "Zombie Fashion" and "Essential Zombie Films", this little (144 pages) book would make an excellent prize at your Halloween party. Or an unexpected stocking stuffer at Christmas.

4 out of 5

Horror! 333 Films to Scare...

From my inbox… an excerpt taken from the new book titled Night of the Living Dead: Behind the Scenes of the Most Terrifying Zombie Movie Ever, by Joe Kane. Of course, it’s about the making of George Romero’s 1968 classic zombie movie, Night Of The Living Dead, which starred Duane Jones.

And if after reading this excerpt, you decide that you want to read more… Click Here to buy the recently published (September 1 is the publisher’s date) 272-page paperback via Amazon, for just about $12.

Here’s the excerpt:

… As originally written, Ben was a resourceful but rough and crude-talking trucker, a role initially envisioned for Rudy Ricci. Those plans changed when a 31-year-old African-American actor named Duane Jones competed for the part.

“A mutual friend of George’s and mine was a woman by the name of Betty Ellen Haughey,” producer Russ Streiner relates. “She grew up in Pittsburgh,...

• Anna Kendrick (pictured), the young actress who plays Jessica in the new-to-dvd Twilight (see our review here) also toplines a pair of genre features hitting disc in the coming months. She’s in the survival shocker Fear The Forest, which will be released by Next Wave Distribution April 14, and the psychological thriller Elsewhere, out from E1 Entertainment June 2.

Fear The Forest, written, produced and directed by Matthew Bora, stars Kendrick, Bora, Jared Michalski, Elana Safar and Steven Sherman as a group of college students who head into the woods on a camping trip. Unfortunately for them, the area is the haunt of a legendary Native American creature that begins tracking and killing them. The disc’s special features include:

• Audio commentary by Bora

• Behind-the-scenes material

• Deleted scenes

• Interview with Bora

• Creature making-of featurette

• Two music videos

• Theatrical trailer

• Bora biography

Retail price is $19.95; you can see Fear The Forest’s...