A Tribute to Fred Adelman of Critical Condition
by Mario Dominick
It was reported Sunday on Facebook that horror and exploitation reviewer Fred Adelman, of the Critical Condition online magazine, passed away in January after a battle with leukemia. The news came from one of Fred’s close friends.
Fred started Critical Condition in the 1980s as a print publication. He covered and reviewed many horror and exploitation films and gave folks information relating to purchasing movies on video. It wasn’t until the late 1990s/early 2000s when Fred started the Critical Condition website www.critcononline.com With CritConOnline, he continued the business of reviewing horror, exploitation and B-movies and providing readers and fans of the genre with extensive info on various obscure and bizarre movies, cult movie icons, video distributors, and much more. It wasn’t until 2004 when I inquired to Fred about some shot-on-video horror flicks I wanted to know if he’d review that he gave me the opportunity to do something I had often dreamed about. Since he was never a fan of SOV films, he gave me the duty to review these movies myself and give a totally new perspective on them. That was when I got my very first online writing gig and the “Films on the Fringe” column of Critical Condition was born (www.critcononline.com/films_on_the_fringe.htm). In many ways, I owe Fred a lot of gratitude for helping to jumpstart my career as a horror reviewer and journalist. FOTF gave me a chance to cover the movies I liked. Fred and I became good internet friends. I helped him with putting together his video distributor page where he did visual profiles on all the old VHS companies from the ’80s by providing cover scans and scans of old video ads. Critical Condition quickly became a site often frequented by horror fans, cult movie directors (like Fred Olen Ray, Steve Latshaw, Jay Woelfel, etc.), and video collectors in the last decade.
While Fred and I had our disagreements, we always respected each other’s views, and I consider him one of my close mentors. Sometimes when I’d do a review for FOTF, he’d attach editor’s notes to the end with his personal thoughts on a particular movie, sometimes highlighting our differing views or providing a bit of trivia on the movie that was previously unknown to me. He definitely maintained a good sense of humor and remained professional at all times.
Fred built up an extensive VHS collection and collection of ad mats over the years. It was until a couple years ago when he was diagnosed with his illness which he kept quiet about and had to start selling things from his collection on Wensy.com to help pay his doctor’s bills. While I don’t know what Fred’s plans were for the site in the event of his passing, it is my hope that all the fans, cult movie icons and collectors he developed a friendship with this past decade will keep the spirit of Critical Condition alive and keep reading his old reviews and articles not just for nostalgia’s sake but also as reference material on cheesy horror films, video distributors, and to see rare cover, poster and promotional art that maintains much value in today’s collecting circuit for cult movie fans.
Rest in peace Fred. Thank you for all you have done and we’ll be sure to keep the CritCon spirit alive.
He is not dead.
Looks like you are right. After a few minutes of searching, he is not dead. Looks like many said he was. Still not sure what that was about. Thanks for letting us know. Ill make the changes today.