I often think about my love of cinema, where it began and the influences on it, both film-based and what was going on around me. I was born in February 1975. My arrival into the world coincides with the day on which Stephen Murphy, the BBFC's secretary, first saw a new independent film called The …
I first discovered the documentary Who Took Johnny from Artforum magazine when John Waters named it as one of his Films of the Year for 2014. I found the trailer for it on YouTube and it REALLY freaked me out. Johnny Gosch was a 14 year old boy who went missing whilst delivering newspapers in …
I remember the Video Nasties furore like it was yesterday. With my father being an avid Daily Mail reader and staunch Thatcherite I felt like I had a front row seat with the then Tory government seeking to ban the very films I loved when they were released on video in the early 80's. I …
Continue reading Great Video Nasties Moral Panic Documentary
The project of Psycho 2 was a poison chalice. On one hand, it provided a director with the opportunity to prove themselves by making a sequel to a bona fide horror classic by a master auteur. It also made available the possibility of continuing a story of one of cinema's greatest and most complex characters, …
Another one of my favourite VHS rentals as a kid was Terror in the Aisles. Essentially a compilation of clips from horror movies, this is That's Entertainment for weirdos. And it works beautifully. A major reason why this works is the sheer breadth of the films that are used from the old to the new, …
Continue reading Day 27- 31 Days of Halloween- Terror in the Aisles (1984)
Disney Pictures once made a horror film. Really! In the early 80's, they decided to capitalise on the horror boom and make a scary film for young adults. The Watcher in the Woods was made in 1980. It holds the honour of being possibly the most rented VHS tape of yours truly when he was …
Continue reading When Disney Dipped It’s Toe Into The Horror Genre- The Watcher In The Woods (1980)
Adapted from Stephen King's best-selling novel, Cujo tells the story of a rabid St Bernard dog terrorising and besieging a mother and her son in their broken down car. This is a wonderful film, not just because of the car/dog storyline but also because of the rich characterisation (a trademark of King's) which builds up …
A madman escapes from an asylum. A group of female friends have a slumber party. Join the dots. Mary Holden Jones brings to the screen a screenplay by Rita Mae Brown. This was supposed to be a 'feminist' slasher movie in what is considered to be a deeply misogynistic genre. Hence we have young women …
Continue reading Day 20- 31 Days of Halloween- Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
Two couples decide to go camping in the woods. Arriving separately (darn that wonky radiator!), they soon realise that the woods aren't as peaceful and reinvigorating as they first thought. It is in fact a killing ground for a father who mudered his philandering wife, went mad and took his two young children to live …
Continue reading Day 18- 31 Days of Halloween- The Forest (1982)
Duane books into the sleazy flophouse Hotel Broslin with a large basket. It's contents consist of his deformed twin brother who he used to be conjoined with. Both Duane and his twin are hellbent on enacting revenge on the surgeons who separated them against their wishes. Basket Case will always occupy a special place in …
Continue reading Day 17- 31 Days of Halloween- Basket Case (1982)
