31 Days of Halloween 2020- Day 31- Onibaba (1964)

A mother and daughter in law (named in the credits as 'older woman' and 'younger woman' respectively) are waiting for their son/husband to return from the war he's fighting in. A soldier named Hachi who fought alongside him comes back to tell them that in fact he saw him killed. He then starts having a …

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31 Days of Halloween 2020- Day 28- Dr Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)

As soon as I saw that this 1965 Amicus film was directed by Freddie Francis I knew that the direction and photography would be beautiful. And I was right! I was also excited as I knew that this was a horror anthology film and starred two heavyweights of the genre, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. …

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31 Days of Halloween 2020- Day 19- Dawn of the Dead (2004)

A remake of the much loved and revered masterpiece Dawn of the Dead was always going to be sneered at by fans and film scholars alike when the project was announced. I actually saw the film on it's release when I was visiting Glasgow and was expecting to roll my eyes constantly whilst saying 'Psst!' …

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Book/Publication of the Week- Fangoria Magazine

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 …

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10 To Midnight (1983)- J. Lee Thompson’s Vigilante Slasher Sleazefest

I remember one of the first films my family rented when we first got a video recorder (VCR to my American buddies) in 1983 was the Charles Bronson sleaze-fest 10 To Midnight. OK, I know it sounds weird that such a lurid piece of exploitation was hired for a cosy night of family movie watching, …

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31 Days of Halloween- Day 15- Dementia 13 (1963)

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 …

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Review- ‘The Meg’ (2018)

Theres 'good bad' and theres 'bad bad'. This is definitely 'bad bad'. The Megalodon was a huge shark thought to be extinct. A research expedition into deeper levels of the ocean finds that ol' Meg is still alive. Megsy then decides to move away from these deeper ocean depths and invade the shallower depths of the …

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Day 10- 31 Days of Halloween- Nosferatu (1922)

In the 80s with new horror films like The Evil Dead pushing the boundaries of the genre, television companies thought that older horror films ceased to be scary and so could be shown during the daytime. And so I saw Nosferatu which was made in 1922 one Bank Holiday morning. It couldn’t possibly frighten me, …

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Day 1- 31 Days of Halloween- The Nanny (1965)

What a cracking film to start my 31 Days of Halloween with. This is a British film which stars Bette Davis as a nanny for a family living in London in which a young boy has been sent away for supposedly killing his sister. The boy is due to be released after two years and …

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