Film of the Day – The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978)
Not so long ago we had a bit of a chat about the retroactively established 70s British subgenre folk-horror, didn’t we; listing the likes of The Wicker Man, Witchfinder General, Blood on Satan’s Claw and Tam-Lin as some of the more notable efforts that potentially make up this somewhat loosely defined category… [...]
Film of the Day – The Pornographers (Shohei Imamura, 1966)
Now before we begin, I don’t want to hear any giggling from the back, and I certainly won’t entertain any demands to investigate my download history… But, in all serious, it does continue to surprise me that more films haven’t been made about the subject of pornography. As an industry it’s always struck [...]
Spooky Film of the Day – Theatre of Blood (Douglas Hickox, 1973)
Vincent Price is without doubt my absolute favourite of all the great horror actors. Lee, Cushing, even the earlier Lugosi and Karloff, none of the others can hold a spooky candle to him in my eyes. It is now generally accepted, and quite rightfully, that Price gave his best ever dramatic performance [...]
Spooky Film of the Day – Spirits of the Dead (Roger Vadim/Louis Malle/Federico Fellini, 1968)
Why, what do we have here; a horror anthology film directed by three of the most famous continental film directors of the 50s and 60s? Well, yes… And as you might well expect, Spirits of the Dead is a rather classy affair. Released as Histoires extraordinaires (or “Extraordinary Stories”) in France and [...]
Spooky Film of the Day – The Flesh Eaters (Jack Curtis, 1964)
Did you ever hear about that American Film Institute poll where they voted the Nazis the best movie villains in the history of film? Well, as ever-so-slightly dubious as that is, they’ve sort of got a point… I wonder how many of you will feel a little burst of excitement when I [...]
Spooky Film of the Day – Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (Bob Clark, 1972)
Not just a great title (not to mention sound advice), but a great film too! And one that deserves to be held in similar affection by zombie-lovers as anything by Romero and Fulci. In fact, I would put Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things at number three with a bullet (to [...]
Spooky Film of the Day – Halloween III: Season of the Witch (Tommy Lee Wallace, 1982)
Happy Halloween Week everybody! I thought it might be jolly apt to kick things off with a film that was actually set on old Hallows eve itself… Strangely enough however, once you’ve overlooked the bleedin’ obvious, there are surprisingly very few half-decent horror films that take place around Halloween… The bleedin’ obvious being [...]
Film of the Day – Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich,1955)
Film Noir, eh? It almost literally means “dark films”, doesn’t it? And they don’t come much darker than Kiss Me Deadly, that’s for sure… The ultimate in nihilistic Noir, Kiss Me Deadly is lifted from the pages of a novel by legendary pulp scribe Mickey Spillane, and as if the source material wasn’t [...]
Film of the Day – Footprints on the Moon (Luigi Bazzoni, 1975)
Q: When is a giallo not quite a giallo? A: When it’s as strange and beguiling as Footprints on the Moon! It’s not that there aren’t many other giallos that are strange and beguiling, it’s just that today’s Film of the Day is the most atypical and off-the-wall of the lot. Owing less to [...]
Film of the Day – Cobra Verde (Werner Herzog, 1987)
I was watching Doctor Zhivago on telly with my mother one Christmas, the very time of year that innumerable family units across the country settle down to watch that grandoise, historical romance for the umpteenth time. Despite the fact that she had seen it many (many, many) times before, my mum had been previously [...]