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)
Is this- a) A beautifully acted, nuanced and sensitive portrayal of the horror of the Nazis and those unlucky enough to have crossed paths with them? or b) A badly acted slice of exploitation resplendent with terrible dubbing and almost no budget? I'll give you a clue- look at the film's name! This is also …
Continue reading Day 2- 31 Days of Halloween- The Horrifying Experiments of the SS Last Days (1977)
Due to all of the controversy regarding this film I had to wait until I was living in Australia for a year to see this opus fully uncut. This film still remains cut here in the UK. At the time of the film's release the BBFC cut over 3 minutes from the film (chief censor …
Three schoolteachers stop at a garage on their way to a baseball game at Dodgers Stadium. Their car isn't running properly and so they need to look at it and maybe try to fix it. But thats not their biggest obstacle- they come face to face with Charlie Tibbs and his girlfriend- a couple of …
Continue reading Day 27- 31 Days of Halloween- The Sadist (1963)
A gorgeous slice of Ozploitation that is extremely well made, acted and written. A young man named Patrick is in a coma after killing his parents three years earlier. A new nurse named Kathie has been assigned to tend to him and they strike up a relationship through a typewriter that Patrick can telekinetically control …
Continue reading Day 21- 31 Days of Halloween- Patrick (1978)
Vincent Price’s Dr Phibes avenges the death of his wife by bumping off the culprits with each murder having a biblical connection. Very camp, very funny and very unsettling- this is one of Price’s best just like Witchfinder General and the Poe films he also made with Roger Corman. Check out Phibes’ clockwork band- one …
Continue reading Day 6- 31 Days of Halloween- The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971)
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 became a fan of Herschell Gordon Lewis after reading about his work in the RE:Search book Incredibly Strange Films book (if you don't own this tome then buy it NOW!!! Its been a major influence and point of reference in my cult film adoration). Around this time there was an episode of Jonathan Ross' excellent …
I first saw this classic when I was a late teen and studying for my A-levels in college in 1994. My friend taped this for me on the same tape as Last House on the Left. With it being copied from a copy the picture and audio were crappy but somehow this added to the …
Continue reading The Texas Chain Saw Massacre- 31 Days of Halloween- Day 1
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