Mommie Dearest has the wrong kind of reputation. It was conceived as a movie version of Joan Crawford's adopted daughter Christina's tell-all book regarding her upbringing and the years of abuse she endured at the hands of her mother. Instead, it's now synonymous with being 'campy', 'so bad it's good' and as being one of …
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 …
Once upon a time (the early 80's to be precise) when my family rented our first video recorder from Granada Home Video, you could rent tapes of trailers from the same shop. One tape had all of the trailers for Warner Bros video releases on it and included such gems as The Exorcist, The Shining …
It was great timng when I started to get completely obsessed with the work of Martin Scorsese in the late 80's because it wasn't long before a pretty much indispensable text was published that lifted the lid on his oeuvre to a frighteningly thorough degree. There was already the excellent Scorsese on Scorsese that was …
Continue reading Book of the Week- Martin Scorsese: A Journey by Mary Pat Kelly
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 Book of the Week is Rebel Without A Crew by Robert Rodriguez. I first read this when I started living in Sydney, Australia for a year and it blew me away (Sydney and the book). It details Rodriguez taking part in a clinical trial to earn the money to make his micro-budget masterpiece …
Continue reading Book of the Week- ‘Rebel Without A Crew’ by Robert Rodriguez
This week's Poster of the Week is for the double bill of Enter The Dragon and Death Race 2000. Double bills were very popular at cinemas in the UK in the 70's and 80's and seemingly the more lurid films the better with horror, kung-fu and cult films being selected for these billings which were …
Continue reading Poster of the Week- Enter The Dragon/Death Race 2000
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
Meathook Cinema 