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 [...]
Frightenin’ 45s: Charles Bernstein – Run, Nancy!
I was tempted to post DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s Nightmare On MY Street today and then I thought, nah, let’s listen to the final track of Charles Bernstein’s underrated score to Wes Craven’s 1984 film Nightmare On Elm Street instead! Bernstein’s brooding use of creepy electronics perfectly [...]
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 [...]
Halloween Week Begins!!
“Vampires, werewolves, ghouls, ghosts. Mummies that come back to life after three thousand years. Can such things be? Well, I’ve spent a lifetime doing my best to persuade you at least for an hour or two in a darkened theatre that there are things that go bump in the night…”* [...]
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 [...]
What’s “Surreal”, Man?
Surreal. Surreal. It’s one of those words, isn’t it? It seems to me that often people aren’t 100% sure of what it actually really means exactly, but it still gets used an awful lot. A bit like “ironic”. However, a quick glance in the dictionary tells us that surreal means: 1. Having qualities attributed to [...]
Ghoulish Delight #11: Ghostwatch
When I talk to people who haven’t seen Ghostwatch (either because they were too young, or they were watching something else at the time), I sometimes feel like the deranged stereotype of a Vietnam veteran; “YOU WOULDN’T KNOW, MAN! YOU WEREN’T THERE, MAN!” I holler upon recalling the horror (and yes… the horror) of [...]
Ghoulish Delight #10: Creepshow (George A. Romero, 1982)
Films based on comic books. There’s a few too many of ‘em about these days. And what’s worse is that they all seem determined to sap everything that’s remotely fun out of comic books in their transition from page to screen. Take that new Batman franchise, for example. It’s all so [...]
Ghoulish Delight #4: Trog (Freddie Francis, 1970)
Halloween, eh? It’s all about the silly masks. And they don’t come much sillier than the frankly abysmal mask the poor actor (one Joe Cornelius) playing the title creature of this 1970s Britsploitation “classic” was lumbered with. Trog is of course short for Troglodyte, a prehistoric man, and that’s exactly what scientist [...]
Censors’ Working Overtime
What’s your favourite trilogy? Is it Star Wars? The Godfather? Or Days Are Numbers three part investigation into the history of film censorship in Britain, Banned for Glory (parts one, two and three)? My favourite is most definitely the latter. Only joking, of course! (Or am I?) But overwhelmed as I [...]