The Fanatic aka The Last Horror Movie was a film that I was always intrigued by but was one of those horror films I just hadn’t gotten around to seeing for reasons unknown. That was until yesterday. I found the film on a cheap DVD in a charity shop and so thought 'What the hell' …
The plot outline for this latest instalment in the Rocky franchise comes from the film's novelization- 'Three years have passed since Rocky fought Apollo Creed, years of enjoying easy fights and a happy home life with Adrian. But now a vicious, young fighter named Clubber Lang, jealous of Rocky's success has challenged him to a …
Another film that was ripe for a rewatching since I last watched it on VHS in the 80s was Poltergeist, the horror film directed by Steven Spielberg Tobe Hooper. The first thing I noticed was how gorgeous the film looks in widescreen. How I, or indeed, any of us watched the film in pan and …
Another film I remember seeing on the shelves of video shops in the 80’s that I somehow didn’t watch was Xtro from 1982. I finally got to see it for the first time earlier. Wow. Just wow. Xtro is out there! A man is abducted by aliens. Three years later an alien impregnates a woman …
Another cinematic revisitation- I rewatched 48 Hrs for the first time since seeing it on VHS in the mid-80's. Walter Hill really is a terrific director and the comic book, technicolor touches that he applied to The Warriors he also adapts here and it works magnificently. In fact, I played 'Spot the Warrior' throughout the …
Carla Moran is violently raped by a seemingly invisible force. She tried to tell the people around her about what has happened but finds only resistance as her family and friends don't believe her as she didn't see who assaulted her especially when she says that her house was locked up when it happened and …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 10- The Entity (1982)
I love any film that is so notorious it generates it's own urban legend regarding it's controversial release, whether this account is true or not. One such film is Lucio Fulci's 1982 sleazy slasher gorefest, The New York Ripper. Rumour has it that when the UK distributor submitted it to the British Board of Film …
Continue reading Meathook Cinema Hall of Fame- The New York Ripper (1982)
It was dreadful news when I heard about film maestro composer Ennio Morricone's recent passing. He was one of the greatest film soundtrack composers of all time with his scores lending the sonic landscape for so many cinematic masterpieces. My favourite soundtrack by Morricone is the score he composed for John Carpenter's The Thing in …
There's a video for this list here. 10. A Stranger Is Watching After reading Mary Higgins Clark's book in the late 80s, I was intrigued to learn that it had been made into a film previously. We had a huge video store near us at the time called Barker's, which was cavernous and full of …
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)
Meathook Cinema 