I've always been fascinated by the writing of, and indeed, the legend of playwright Joe Orton. It was so refreshing to discover someone who was, shock horror, a confident homosexual in the 60s rather than some simpering, guilt-ridden closet case. I remember when I arrived in London to study film, a friend told me about …
Continue reading Meathook Cinema Hall of Fame- Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
I was brought up in Yorkshire and still live here (I just got lucky, I guess...) but even I have a problem with the Barnsley accents in Ken Loach's masterpiece, Kes. Thank God for subtitles and online Yorkshire dialect translators. Billy Caspar is a 15-year-old youth who is due to leave school soon. He is …
So I reinvestigated The Running Man last night. The last time I had watched it was in the 80’s on VHS. I remember it as not being one of Arnie’s best efforts. On watching it now I found some of the worst acting I’ve ever seen from Arnie (which is REALLY saying something), hamfisted attempts …
One of the best things about Yorkshire Television, when I was growing up, was the eclectic fare that made up their schedules. At night they showed the most wonderful and unexpected films you could ever imagine. They also showed films you had never heard of before that were either unavailable on video because of some …
Continue reading Meathook Cinema Hall of Fame- Slithis (1978)
Ahh, the giddy days of home video. In the early days of this new and very exciting medium, there were loads of videos that featured the gaudiest and lurid cover artwork. One film that had such artwork that I will always remember was The Exterminator. The box depicted a muscled man wearing what looked like …
Continue reading Meathook Cinema Hall of Fame- The Exterminator (1980)
I've wanted to see 1981's The Fan for the longest time and finally, it was shown on TV here in the UK (the channel Talking Pictures is amazing and never disappoints!) Sally Ross (Lauren Bacall) is an actress who is heading a Broadway musical. She is also the target of super-fan and super-stalker Douglas Breen …
I had heard so much about the original of Black Christmas from 1974 by the time I finally got to see it. Its reputation as being the main film that inspired the slasher movie sub-genre pre-Halloween was well established, with horror fans salivating over it and singing its praises to the heavens. 'Let's see how …
Continue reading The Gift That Keeps On Giving- What Makes Black Christmas So Darn Scary?
My early teenage years were when I discovered my three favourite living film directors- John Waters, William Friedkin and Martin Scorsese. It was whilst I was frantically hunting down all of the movies made by Scorsese after first watching Taxi Driver when I was 14 that I read of a documentary made in 1977 called …
John Carpenter's Halloween had been a huge hit at the box office through the word of mouth of people who had seen it and were knocked out by the experience. In fact, the film was so successful that it became the most profitable independent film of all time, a title it held until it was …
Continue reading Halloween 2 (1981)- A Sequel That Is Better Than It Has Any Right To Be
Gail Osborne is a 16 year old who starts dating Steve Pastorinis who goes to the same school as her. It's also around this time that she starts to receive abusive notes stuck in the grills of her school locker and also abusive telephone calls. For a film, let alone a TV movie to deal …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 31- Are You In The House Alone? (1978)
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