YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... There are plenty of genres that can successfully conjoin with horror to make some entertaining movies. Gritty crime capers can sometimes cleverly bolt onto the supernatural or the extreme, and provide box-office and critical success. One example is the Robert Rodriguez original version “From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996), which starts as a gritty Tarantino-flavoured crime drama, before flicking the switch and becoming a bat-shit crazy vampire blood-f
Sigh. After the promise of the series opener, this week’s instalment was very anti-climactic. Ultimately it is becoming quite tiresome to regularly level complaints about different elements of this once-great series. I don’t like to feel like I am jumping on what is already an over-crowded band wagon but the series really needs to find its mojo again, and quickly. The odd decent episode like last week’s episode cannot pull the series out of the slump it fell into in Season 7. Episode 2 felt like we were back to treading water – only this time, we had guns. Unfortunately, the almost constant action in this episode couldn’t save it from being rather dull overall. That is not to say I didn’t en
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Yeah I know. I haven't seen the original Frankenstein. I'm quite embarrassed by the fact that my experience of the universal classics is so limited, although the 31 days challenge has helped correct that. I've seen The Invisible Man (which I loved) and I've seen The Mummy (which I didn't) and I've seen Dracula and The Wolfman before so I've now got the big guns covered. The age of these films is something that isn't lost on me. And whilst I
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Tonight I watched one of the films that has been on my radar for a number of years but has somehow eluded me – although this is probably partly because it isn't the easiest film to get your hands on nowadays. I am talking about the brilliantly named The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), a film that I have seen bits and pieces of down the year's, usually on those TV shows that have titles like 'the 100 best horror scenes ever' etc. Although, I'm no
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... As my next watch is The Blood on Satan's Claw - I wanted to pick something quite different for tonight's 31 days watch. It took me about fifteen seconds browsing on Netflix to find that movie - The Babysitter. It's a film that I have seen and heard a lot of horror fans talking about. Some seemed to have really liked it whilst others apparently haven't been as enamoured with the irreverent tone and over-the-top gore. However films like that oft
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... I'm relying on the lottery of Lovefilm randomly selecting titles from my rental list (yeah that's right, I've got everything on the same priority level) to help supplement my '31 Days' selection. I'm notoriously bad at making decisions regarding what to watch so the unpredictability of it all suits me well. However when I opened up the envelope the other day to discover Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse and Rings it was a bit underwhelming
Building and Maintaining Psychological Horror (SPOILERS: Get Out – of course!) In the spirit of Halloween, I’m going to do several posts analyzing some of the writing techniques that made the horror movie Get Out (written by Jordan Peele) so successful earlier this year. How successful? It made more than $175 million on a budget of less than $5 million… and that’s just the domestic box office! It also scored a stunning 99% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps more significantly, it became part of the cultural conversation due to its integration of themes of race in America. One thing that I found interesting about Get Out was that for most of the movie, the main character, Chris, was only
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Time for some Gallic grimness… The French are certainly no slouches when it comes to the genre, and have produced many disturbing examples of gory nerve shredders like “High Tension” (aka: “Switchblade Romance”), “Inside”, and “Martyrs”. “In Their Sleep” (original title: “Dans ton sommeil”) is one that passed me by for some reason though. A 2010 horror/thriller that was co-directed and co-written by siblings Caroline du Potet and Éric du Potet
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... In a way, it’s a real shame that we don’t live in an actual world where the vengeful spirits of murdered innocents, are able to wreak supernatural havoc upon those that killed them. It’d probably put a hell of a dent in crime figures, and be a great deterrent for acts of violence. Luckily for fans of poetic justice (and scary movies) it’s not uncommon for it to regularly happen in the world of genre. This brings us to “Cold Moon”, which is bas
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Ok so I've kind of already seen movie. Sort of. Back in 2010 I had the privilege of seeing a rare showing of Tomas Alfredson's Let The Right One In during it's very limited theatrical release. I didn't really know what to expect at the time although the reviews had all been very positive and like most people who have seen it, I really, really liked it. It was an engrossing, touching film – at times darkly funny and at other times morbidly poig
Not only was last night’s episode the Season 8 premier, it was the 100th episode of the show. To honour that, the writers and directors punctuated the episode with a series of nods to the pilot. Drawing parallels between the two was quite comforting but it also highlighted how much the series has changed over seven seasons, and not every aspect has changed for the better. Overall, this season’s opener was an enjoyable episode, with some great moments. It is difficult not to compare last night’s episode with the season seven premier and I definitely enjoyed this season’s premier to that of season seven’s. While I typically do not mind when an episode of the Walking Dead does not follow a line
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Sometimes you have to mix some junk food and trash in with the fine wines of horror. And here’s one of the junkiest and trashiest examples possible. “Mardi Gras Massacre” is a 1978 American horror film written and directed by Jack Weis, who was the notorious B-movie specialist behind “Quadroon” (1971, a “Mandingo” rip-off) and “Crypt of Dark Secrets” (1976, a Bayou Witch/Vietnam zombie grindhouse film). “Massacre” is probably his most widely d
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Hiking holidays aren't for everyone. As beautiful as the scenery tends to be in the Scottish highlands or the Lake District or Switzerland or wherever it is people go on walking holidays now, invariably there are problems to overcome. Tired limbs, bad weather, injuries, exposure, falling out with your fellow hikers. However, if you decide to head off to Northern Sweden, those might be the least of your worries... The Ritual is a British horror
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Ok so this isn't really a horror film. In my defence, The 9th Life of Louis Drax is labelled a supernatural thriller' and is directed by Alexandre Aja, the Director behind Haute Tension and The Hills Have Eyes remake (and Mirrors, but let's pretend that isn't true). Plus, the trailer hinted looked like it might contain some level of spook too. However, as I discovered, it isn't – although it probably contains just about enough supernatural seq
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Unless you're Donald Trump (or another sort of idiot) then you are probably aware that our climate is changing and the effects could be huge – unless we do something about it that is. Even then there are no guarantees the there won't be a significantly negative impact on the planet. Now if the idea of a hotter planet doesn't sound appealing to you, then I've found the perfect antidote – Jeff Renroe's sci-fi horror The Colony. I am not a big fa
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... It’s surprising when you suddenly realise that there are readily available “landmark” films that you’ve never actually seen. Case in point here is “Possession”, the 1981 French/German cult film from the late Polish director/writer Andrzej Zulawski, which remained the only English-language that he ever made. I’ve read a great deal about the film, I’ve seen interviews with the cast and crew, I’ve shook-my-damn-head over its inclusion on the infa
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... I fancied a zombie movie this evening and let me tell you, there are a shit load out there. Since Zak Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead, they've competed with found-footage as the most popular sub-genre of horror out there. You'd think that The Walking Dead would have sated people's taste for apocalyptic shenanigans but it has done little to stem the tide. I think part of the modern fascination with zombie movies is really about the fear of
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... An Englishman’s home is his castle. Except these days it’s more than likely to be an over-priced and cramped one-bedroom apartment in a crowded city space. That’s the setting for this unsettling little UK film that’s been getting some surprisingly good notices on the festival circuit both here and in the US. It played at SXSW (under the original title of “Two Pigeons” … which makes sense if you see the film), and more recently screened at this
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... After watching and enjoying James Whale's The Invisible Man (1932) I thought it might be a good idea to delve back into my awesome Universal Monster Movie box set and dig out another classic. And although I have seen the modern reincarnations of the story, I am one of those rubbish people that still hadn't seen the original 1932 version of The Mummy starring Boris Karloff. The premise is kinda the same as the other more recent versions (altho
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Ok, I'll admit it. I haven't seen the original Fright Night. Yeah, I know, there must be something wrong with me etc. I HAVE seen the remake with Colin Farrell and the late Anton Yelchin and thought that was quite enjoyable and...yeah ok, I know that doesn't count. To be fair, it's one of those films that's been on my 'list' for a few years now but I just haven't got around to seeing it yet. Fright Night is considered to be one of the best hor
