Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula has always proven a particularly rich seam for filmmakers hoping to develop their own interpretation of his story. Thus, Dracula has been a rat-like creature, a suave nobleman, an aged warlord, and all manner of subtle variants of same. By no means is every interpretation going to please all of […]
For the first part of Keri’s article, please click here. ‘Keep Filming…’ It would be borderline impossible to write about the horror of the first two decades of this century without mentioning a phenomenon which, like ‘torture porn’ cinema, has been rather divisive. I’m talking about the found footage craze – and I think ‘craze’ […]
It’s hard to believe that two decades of the new millennium have already passed. It seems like only yesterday that we were complaining about ticket prices for Millennium Eve, whilst simultaneously fearing a computer glitch which would potentially mean the end of the world as we know it. Well, it didn’t quite happen that way […]
It’s easy to overlook the American contribution to the good old days of British horror. Take Amicus Productions: much as we think of them as a British institution, they were in fact run by a duo of American producers, Milton Subotsky and Max J. Rosenberg. On top of which, several of the most esteemed Amicus […]
Please note: this is a discussion of the recent BBC version of The War of the Worlds and as such contains spoilers. Like many other H G Wells fans, I was suitably excited by the promise of a new, televised version of War of the Worlds: taking the action back far closer to the time […]
It’s sometimes said that, at heart, all filmmakers are basically trying to make the same film every time, but I doubt I’m alone in appreciating it when they appear to go in wildly diverging directions from film to film – even if, deep down, they may be addressing some of the same essential ideas. Jessie’s […]
Whilst the whole ‘terrified babysitter’ shtick is nothing new in horror cinema, its use and development in Fright (not far off fifty years ago now) is just one facet of the way in which the film works quite differently to a lot of its contemporaries, as well as the films which have followed in its […]
Once I managed to get over my bitter horror fan disappointment at the knowledge that, despite the title, this Polish production isn’t actually about a man turning into a wolf Lon Chaney Jr style, I found much to appreciate in director Adrian Panek’s film. It’s obvious from the (alas, non-lycanthropic) synopsis that we’re not in […]
Art as either a conduit for evil, or a form inspired by evil has been used in many horror films down through the years, and Art of the Dead makes no bones about taking a little of both of these ideas as its central thread. The resulting film is a crowd of ideas, which translates […]
When Mike Flanagan and his creative partners stepped into horror cinema’s big time with the announcement of their adaptation of Doctor Sleep, they were assuming responsibility for one of the most eagerly anticipated sequels in modern cinema. Widely (if not necessarily universally) heralded as a classic, Kubrick’s The Shining is an established treasure trove of […]
Never before released in the UK on any format (at least not legally), by all accounts the only press this sleazy slasher got on release was down to director Ivan Nagy’s role in the Heidi Fleiss scandal. Not long thereafter it sank without a trace, and for the best part of 20 years it was […]