A movie directed by a young Francis (Ford) Coppola and produced by Roger Corman. A genius plot- One night, while out rowing in the middle of a lake, John Haloran, and his young wife Louise, argue about his rich mother's will. Louise is upset that everything is currently designated to go to charity in the …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 15- Dementia 13 (1963)
A comic book type caper in which a posse hunts down vampires for a living. This is at the lower end of John Carpenter's filmography. It feels more intent with slick visuals and trying to come across as 'cool' than being a thought provoking piece of cinema with any kind of substance. We get nods to …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 14- Vampires (1998)
Martin is by filmmaker George A Romero and was his favourite film from his oeuvre. Martin is a young man who we see travelling by train to Braddock in Pittsburgh to live with his elderly cousin, Tata Cuda who seems convinced that Martin is the latest in a long line of vampires ('the family curse'). …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 13- Martin (1978)
Sunday nights in the late 70's/early 80's here in the UK were great for TV. In my household we'd religiously watch That's Life, a weird hotchpotch of hard hitting investigations into very dark subject matters with lighter fare which was designed to make the audience titter and guffaw (they loved vegetables that just happened to …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 10- Tales of the Unexpected (TV series)
This has one of the most crazy plots of any Hammer film I've ever seen. I won't give away everything that happens though. A Cornish village is suffering from some sort of plague that is bumping people off at such a rate that the local doctor asks an expert friend to investigate what is happening. …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 9- Plague of the Zombies (1966)
I knew this would be a great film when I saw it was written by Brian Clemens who wrote, amongst other things, the amazing series called Thriller. I wasn't wrong. This is a cracking movie. Mia Farrow plays Sarah, a girl who is returning home after being in hospital after a fall from a horse …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 8- See No Evil (1971)
I remember so well the 1981 BBC1 adaptation of Day of the Triffids. It may now be dated but, by Christ, it gave me plenty of sleepless nights as a 6 year old boy. Years later I discovered the work of author John Wyndham who is now one of my favourite writers. Day of the …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 5- Day of the Triffids (1963)
A family rent a huge house for the summer from it's brother and sister owners who have one condition for the rental- that their elderly mother stays in the house and they provide her with meals. Things then start to go crazy for the new inhabitants and it's almost as if the house is alive …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 4- Burnt Offerings (1976)
Two goons think they're going to hit paydirt by bringing coffee beans from Ecuador to California. But they also bring with them several deadly tarantulas. I only found out about this TV movie after hearing the song of (almost) the same name by Sleaford Mods. This is a very dull affair. Not even Tom Atkins …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween- Day 1- Tarantulas The Deadly Cargo
Ahh, the 3D craze of the early 80's. Some films were great and used the gimmick really well (take a bow, Friday the 13th 3D) whilst others were films just a flat and mediocre in 3D as they would have been in 2D. This film belongs in the latter category. I only watched this as I …
Meathook Cinema 