By Kit Rathenar There can’t be a horror fan alive who doesn’t know the legend of Dracula. The vampire Count with his black cape, his crumbling castle, his numerous brides and his insatiable thirst for the blood of the living may be the single most iconic figure in all of Western horror. Even people who’ve […]
Review by Tristan Bishop When non-horror fans ask me why I am so besotted with my favourite genre, I tend to give them the following reason: I believe that even bad horror films are interesting as they reflect, more so than any other genre, the changing fears and obsessions of different cultures over the years. […]
Review by Ben Bussey When setting out to assess a film which deals with the nature of time, space, psychic phenomena, and the role that drug use might play in our perception of these matters, all from a detached, tongue-in-cheek perspective, it’s immediately apparent how easily a film of this nature might not work. From […]
Review by Comix Berserk can really be described in one word, and maybe a lot of swear words: Fucking-BRUTAL-fuck-shit-up-wow! With the flowing, epic styling of a good dark fantasy series, this comic is a seriously crazy masterpiece sure to leave fans of both horror and comics on the edge of their seats. I’ve been covering […]
By Keri O’Shea Ever wondered where our modern day obsession with celebrity comes from? Or indeed, where it’s going? We live in times where the slightest physical imperfection in even a minor television star is reported and scrutinised ad infinitum, often at the expense of what most sane people would judge to be genuine news. […]
By Keri O’Shea Chris (Vinny Curran) is a happy fuck-up. We’ve all known people like him: he gets the most out of life whilst utterly out of his head, living day to day and squat to squat, and seems pretty happy with his lot – when he’s not in the grip of meth psychosis and […]
By Keri O’Shea I’ve always thought that the basis of a good short film was simplicity. With a limited time scale, it makes little sense to crowd your film with masses of ideas and impressions. And, sometimes, that simple, but beautifully-expressed idea can be incredibly creepy – not packing a punch, keeping the jump scares […]
Report by Kit Rathenar There’s a wonderfully idiosyncratic charm about the Bram Stoker International Film Festival. Hosted in Whitby, the windswept Yorkshire coastal town forever associated with Stoker and Dracula – and this year celebrating the hundredth anniversary of its namesake author’s death – it combines its core film programme with a whole range of […]
Review by Comix “This book has no comics in it!” That is what I immediately said when I first picked up the works of Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith, but I swallowed my disgust at what proved to be one hell of a read. I was instantly assaulted with worlds and places beyond my mere […]
By Keri O’Shea As we sit in our lit, heated homes, awaiting the arrival of Trick or Treaters who invariably arrive with a watchful parent or two these days, it may be hard to recall just what the arrival of Winter may have meant for our ancestors. And yet, we mark the same date they […]
Review by Stephanie Scaife I have to admit that I did not relish the prospect of having to sit through a double-bill of The Human Centipede when the screeners came through my letter box. I’d seen the first film at FrightFest in 2009 and hadn’t been particularly impressed, and when I heard about the sequel […]