For those of you who have followed us over from our previous site, Brutal as Hell, then you may already see how and why we’ve chosen the new site name. Truth be told, it was co-founder and co-editor Ben Bussey who came up with it very early on in the process of finding a new name which we felt encapsulated what we already do (and what we’re planning to do here). On several occasions, over the many years that our team has now been writing together, we’ve jokingly said that Brutal as Hell should rightly be re-named ‘Contrary as Fuck’ – because it’s often felt as if we’re at odds with so many consensus opinions on genre film: not through deliberately being bloody-minded, but because first and foremost we’ve always approached our writing from our point of view as fans, not in anyone’s pay or employ, not trying to shower directors with hyperbole to get their attention and certainly not being motivated by the (for some) tantalising prospect of cover quotes or bogus thumbs-ups for diluted or downright dishonest opinions. Our perspective has always been very much our own; once Ben had come up with the now-current title, we felt it was a good fit. But there’s more to it than that…
As much as we had an absolute blast at Brutal as Hell, the technical issues which the site had developed notwithstanding, we also started to feel somewhat that we had gone beyond the original ‘Horror Without Mercy’ byline and were covering such a variety of films, literature, art and TV which felt like an odd fit beneath that site name. This didn’t stop us covering everything from popular telly to Symbolist art, mind you, but as time went on, we felt more and more that we wanted a broader general ethos, one which would give us free rein to indulge our broader interests. Horror will, of course, always form the bedrock of what we cover because it’s something that we absolutely love; however, we will be covering a wide array of genre film from here on in, with scope to bring in other material we feel is of interest too, be this film festivals, cult re-releases, lost gems, world cinema, vintage TV, new TV, art exhibitions, fiction writing – the possibilities are wide open, and we hope that you will see the site grow and grow over the coming months and years. This is always going to be a work in progress, and we are always open to ideas for good quality content.
Whether you’ve been reading our work for years or whether this is your first encounter with us – thank you for your interest and support. Please check out and link in with us via the usual social media channels, and watch this space for regular updates, exclusives, interviews, editorials and of course honest reviews. They’re on their way. Roll on 2017!