I remember seeing this on video at a friends house back in the day and being so freaked out that I had to ask his Dad to walk me home. I was 12 years old. Them were the days. After the camp of Part 3 this film gets back on track and is resplendent with really …
Continue reading Day 13- 31 Days of Halloween- Friday the 13th Part 4- The Final Chapter
In the 80s I was obsessed with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Because of the popularity of this film an earlier Wes Craven film was re-released on video in the UK. That film was 1977's The Hills Have Eyes. I first saw the video for this release on a video store's shelves whilst on holiday …
Continue reading Day 12- 31 Days of Halloween- The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
An anomaly from the early 80s, this film is about a flesheating creature hidden under a SoCal beach. Quirky characters, supporting players who you just know are actually inhabitants of the area being depicted and some leads who are well know to fans of cult cinema (John Saxon, Burt Young) help this film immeasurably. This …
Continue reading Day 11- 31 Days of Halloween- Blood Beach (1981)
In the 80s with new horror films like The Evil Dead pushing the boundaries of the genre, television companies thought that older horror films ceased to be scary and so could be shown during the daytime. And so I saw Nosferatu which was made in 1922 one Bank Holiday morning. It couldn’t possibly frighten me, …
Continue reading Day 10- 31 Days of Halloween- Nosferatu (1922)
I first heard of Phantasm when its sequel came out. Barry Norman reviewed it and admitted that he hadn’t even heard of the first film. Neither had I. Fortunately, my sister in law had a friend who had closed down their video business and so gave her a lot of the videos he used to …
Continue reading Day 9- 31 Days of Halloween- Phantasm (1979)
I remember being traumatised by the Poster for The Fog before I actually saw the film. We had driven past The Odeon in York and I briefly glanced at it. As this was just a glance I thought I saw a woman lying in bed with a ghostly hand reaching out to grab her. I …
Continue reading Day 7- 31 Days of Halloween- The Fog (1980)
Small town vigilantes wrongly accuse a mentally challenged man of attacking and killing a little girl. It turns out he didn’t attack her but saved her from a neighbour's vicious dog. The vigilantes find this out just after killing the innocent man who is disguised as a scarecrow. Oops. When the local courts offer no …
Continue reading Day 5- 31 Days of Halloween- Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
One sign that you’ve made a horror classic- your film spawns a slew of imitators. Sometimes one or two of these imitators are witty, knowing and innovative. Thats what happened here. Jaws made such a splash (pun intended) that there were plenty of rip-offs. Piranha was one such film but was great on its own …
Continue reading Day 4- 31 Days of Halloween- Piranha (1978)
I feel like I've grown up with this film. This was one film that I remember seeing on the shelves of video stores when I was a child but didn't get round to seeing before it mysteriously disappeared. Absence made the heart grown fonder and I knew I must see this forbidden fruit. But when …
Continue reading Day 3- 31 Days of Halloween- The Exorcist (1974)
Every day in October I will be reviewing a different horror film. Some of the criteria I've used for the choice of films are - a film from each decade from the 1920s onwards - films from a number of different countries - a Friday the 13th film as within October this year the 13th falls on a Friday!!! …
Meathook Cinema 