I can still remember the first time I saw the poster for Maniac. The killer's legs and crotch, his hand holding a severed head, his other holding a knife with the tagline of 'I WARNED YOU NOT TO GO OUT TONIGHT' in the deranged scrawl of a psychopath. What was not to like for a …
William Friedkin tells a great story in his autobiography about Warner Bros' marketing department and how they wanted to market The Exorcist on it's completion. The idea they came up with was a drawing of Regan's bloodied hand holding a crucifix (referencing the infamous masturbation scene) with the tagline 'For God's sake, somebody help her!' …
There is so much to love about Beyond The Door, the 1974 Exorcist rip-off made in Italy. Yes, it had a budget that was a tiny fraction of that of the William Friedkin classic but thats part of it's charm. It also copies similar scenes from it's parent movie with varying degrees of success. The …
Continue reading Soundtrack of the Week- Chi Sei aka Beyond The Door (1974)
This week's Soundtrack of the Week is for the 1979 haunted house (hoax!) The Amityville Horror. This soundtrack is amazing as theres so much going on and so much detail and nuance that might not be noticed on first listening/viewing. If there was music that would be perfect for such fare it would be sinister …
Continue reading Soundtrack of the Week- The Amityville Horror (1979)
It was in 1986 when I discovered Fangoria Magazine. A comic book store in a beat up shopping arcade in York in the UK had started stocking it on import from the US. I instantly began buying it and fell in love with the publication. There was a brief time after that that Fangoria couldn't …
Continue reading Book/Publication of the Week- Fangoria Magazine
An iconic soundtrack for an iconic movie, Krzysztof Komeda's score for the 1968 classic Rosemary's Baby broke so many rules just like the film itself did. Firstly, the lead track 'Lullaby' had the audacity to take a piece of music traditionally used to soothe a child to fall asleep, completely subvert it and imbue it with …
Continue reading Soundtrack of the Week- Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
New feature! Every week I'll be presenting one of my favourite film posters. I actually think of film art as art in it's own right. I'm sure visitors to this website feel the same way. This first poster is the iconic UK poster for Brian De Palma's classic horror movie Carrie from 1976. The …
Every week I'll be recommending one of my favourite soundtracks and why I like them. Hopefully this will inspire you to investigate more, buy the album or dig it out of your collection if you already have it so that you bask in it's glory again. This week is the turn of the Paul Zaza/Carl …
I have a long history with this film as I seem to remember it being shown on daytime TV here in the UK in the early 80's. The thinking probably went along the lines of 'We have such extreme horror movies now and so it will be safe to show this old 1950's horror film …
There's a video for this list here. 10. Monkey Shines When an athlete (Allan) is hit by a truck and left a quadriplegic, a scientist friend recruits a monkey that has been trained to help assist disabled people to fully carry out their lives. Ella, the monkey, starts to bond well with Allan, but soon, …
Meathook Cinema 