Cultural Pulse

Why Mary Shelley’s 200-year-old horror story is so misunderstood

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

It’s perhaps a double-edged sword that the monstrous success of Hollywood’s incarnations (notably James Whale’s 1931 film starring Boris Karloff as the creature) in many ways secured the story’s longevity but somewhat obscured Shelley’s version of it. “Frankenstein [the film] created the definitive movie image of the mad scientist, and in the process launched a […]

The forgotten 1960s show that was the original Black Mirror

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

Out of the Unknown was the idea of pioneering producer, Irene Shubik. Initially working as story editor at the now defunct UK broadcaster ABC television on the show Armchair Theatre, her enthusiasm for sci-fi eventually led to the production of 13 episodes of the series Out of This World (1962) for UK broadcaster ITV. Later, […]

Fans ‘missed the point’ of D’Angelo’s infamously steamy video

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

As MTV takes its last gasp, shuttering its final music channels in the UK, it feels strangely nostalgic to look back to the days when multiple television channels streamed music videos for hours each day, but it gave rise to the pop-as-product 2000s and the influencer era we find ourselves in now. Artists are meant […]

How a ‘revolutionary’ CCTV film captures a shocking US killing

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

Our mantra as a film team was really ‘show and not tell’. You don’t have to beat audiences over the head with advocacy – Geeta Gandbhir Director Geeta Gandbhir’s reconstruction of events has no narration, and doesn’t rely on witness interviews, but instead on a doorbell camera, which captures the sound of a shot being […]

The reason art heists exploded in the 1970s

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

Like the guard injured during the Worcester Art Museum robbery, security employees rarely carried arms – and, as portrayed mockingly in The Mastermind, they could often be dozy “retirees” or “acid heads”, as Reichardt says, with limited training. She adds: “Museums used to have these cool circular drives out front, which made the getaway pretty […]

Why Little Richard’s hit song Tutti Frutti was so risqué

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

Getty ImagesWhen Little Richard played at The London Rock and Roll Show in 1972, he was considered a golden oldie (Credit: Getty Images) Early recording sessions in New Orleans failed to capture the magic. Producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell said he didn’t appreciate Richard until he saw him play at the city’s famous Dew Drop Inn. […]

Why this year’s most acclaimed film flopped

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

You can’t risk that kind of long-term strategy unless your other films are profitable, of course, but luckily for Warner, some of 2025’s biggest money-spinners have been on the company’s slate: as well as Sinners, these include A Minecraft Movie, Final Destination: Bloodlines, F1, Superman, Weapons, and Conjuring: The Last Rites. If One Battle After […]

How cult horror Re-Animator pushed the limits of gore

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

That theatrical bravado, somehow transplanted onto the screen, means that as Re-Animator rockets to a bloody climax, it becomes “not just a gore film which delivers splattery mayhem [but] also a wildly effective dark comedy”, says Duffy. According to Combs, however, Gordon genuinely believed he was making a serious film, and the decision to play […]

A forgotten chapter in the history of the Nuremberg trials

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

“They weren’t buddies,” author El-Hai tells the BBC. “But they formed a connection, and Kelley recognised that they shared certain personality traits.” As well as acknowledging Göring’s charm and intelligence, the doctor noted his drive, his defiance, his enormous ego, and his intense loyalty to family and country. AlamyThe book inspired the upcoming film Nuremberg, […]

Why there’s more to Man Ray’s iconic nude Le Violon d’Ingres than it seems

ZumpaOctober 24, 2025

In Ingres’s La Grande Odalisque, 1814, a lounging woman’s absurdly elongated lumbar was lampooned by critics for its anatomical illogic. So severely has the artist taffy tugged his subject’s backbone, medical scholars have since estimated that she has been given at least five additional vertebrae – a malformation that would, in reality, result in profound […]