Paul Markey

Writer, projectionist and cinephile

Excelsior! Stan Lee and my life in comics

The outpouring of tributes to the late Stan Lee, the creator of the modern superhero era, speaks volumes as to his impact on the many generations who grew up around the comic books he created and co-created through the later part of the twentieth century.

Books • 16 Nov 18

Why John Carpenter is the ultimate Master Of Horror

In 1961, Howard Ralph Carpenter, a Kentuckian music professor, sat his son down with a pair of bongos and taught him a simple 5-4 beat exercise to practice with...

Film • 05 Nov 18

Horrorthon preview - a bloody good time at the IFI

Who's game for five days - count 'em - of hauntings, splatterings, creature-ings, zombifications and home invasions? It's Horrorthon time at the Irish Film Institute...

Film • 26 Oct 18

Night Of The Living Dead at 50 - the film that refuses to die

For everything, there is a season. But there's just no stopping zombies. Unless you shoot them in the head, of course. Everybody knows that. And I mean everybody.

Film • 01 Oct 18

"That rug really tied the room together"- Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski

The Big Lebowski at 20 - The Dude still abides

In 1997, the Coen brothers, indy mavericks for almost a decade, coming off the lacklustre response to their first big budget picture, The Hudsucker Proxy, decided to get back to basics with a 'true' crime tale of kidnapping and murder.

Film • 27 Aug 18

Juiette Binoche in Les Amants du Pont Neuf

The Films That Made Me: Les Amants du Pont Neuf

As a cinephile, we've all got films like this. Films that got under our skin at formative moments in our lives. There's usually at least one in every genre. And as we get older our lists of favourite movies tend to evolve.

Film • 15 Aug 18

Orson Welles & me - touch of genius

The first time I travelled abroad alone was the summer of 1990. It was the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain. I was 19 and in London by myself.

Film • 17 Aug 18

The Dark Knight at 10 - celebrating a superhero game-changer

2008 seems more than a decade ago. And in superhero terms, that's an eternity. Though it wouldn't take some timey-wimey comic book plot to argue that our current era of superhero movies both began and peaked at the same time.

Film • 26 Jul 18

The Muppet Show live - it's time to play the music

My sense of humor matured with Monty Python. But it was born with Sesame Street and blossomed with the subversive anarchy of The Muppet Show.

Culture • 24 Jul 18

John Carpenter's The Thing - the ultimate cult movie classic?

The alien invasion of 1982 came to us on two fronts. The first went almost unnoticed, and was swiftly forgotten. Two weeks later, the second one struck and we never heard the end of it for a long time ever after.

Film • 19 Jul 18