by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 02.15.10 in Action/Adventure > All Horror Films > Thriller/Suspense

Of all of the beasts and creatures to feature in the durable sub-genre of the revolt of nature horror film the crocodile by far is the most common. This is because the crocodile is not really revolting against mankind, but instead continuing its centuries old struggle against its human oppressor. Therefore these types of films immediately have a resonance and realism that killer insects, spiders, and sundry household pets lack. Despite having …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 02.12.10 in All Horror Films > Monster > Thriller/Suspense

The Evil of Frankenstein is the third instalment in Hammer’s tremendously successful reinterpretation of the Mary Shelley novel. The previous two films The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) delighted audiences and shocked stuffy critics with their baroque settings, violence, colour, and the unnervingly mannered and icy central performance from the brilliant Peter Cushing. These two films were both directed by Terence Fisher and maintained a sense of continuity …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 02.05.10 in All Horror Films > Comedy > Exploitation

Street Trash represents the height of horror absurdity, a film in which almost every taboo is not only explored, but satirised. Few horror films have such a brazen attitude to such subject matter as rape, castration, and out of control vagrancy. The vagrant community the film depicts is a vile cesspool. We feel not an ounce of sympathy for the street trash of the title. They are either homicidal, rapists, or thieves. …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 01.25.10 in All Horror Films > Mystery > Supernatural

This somewhat solemn and humourless paranormal horror film has stood the test of time extremely well. Over three decades on it emerges as one of the most durable and rewarding films of the early 1970’s. It shares a number of obvious similarities with the Robert Wise adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting (1963). But Richard Matheson’s novel Hell House differs greatly from Jackson’s work in its emphasis on deviant sexuality, and plays up to …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 01.23.10 in All Horror Films > Slasher

When John Carpenter and Debra Hill elected to set their Psycho (1960) inspired stalk and slash film around the time of Halloween, there was a certain inevitability about a film like Silent Night, Deadly Night. The only surprise about the film is that it took until 1984 for a major festive themed slasher to emerge. Prior to this, audiences had endured Prom Night (1980/2008), Mother’s Day (1980), New Year’s Evil (1980), Graduation Day (1981), and My Bloody Valentine (1981/2009), before the image of Santa Claus …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 01.18.10 in All Horror Films > Mystery > Psychological Thriller > Supernatural > Thriller/Suspense

Anthony Armstrong’s short tale of a modern day doppelganger started its screen life as a 25 minute episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The great Hitchcock himself took the directorial duties for the episode. A short story translates particularly well to the anthology format, and often suffers when expanded to feature length. The feature long adaptation The Man Who Haunted Himself naturally suffers from padding as a result of this translation, but still …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 01.10.10 in All Horror Films > Mystery > Supernatural

If 1977’s hallucinogenic and hyperbolic shocker Suspiria was as close as Italian director Dario Argento could get to a nightmare on celluloid, then the sequel, 1980’s Inferno is even more difficult to pin down because of its disavowal of any recourse to logic. Although Inferno continues the exploration of the mythical Three Mothers, it manages to have an illogical internal structure all of its own. This is Argento’s most unique production. Inferno takes narrative incoherence …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 01.03.10 in All Horror Films > Giallo

This impressive and efficient giallo was directed by Tonino Valerii who spent much of the 1960’s working on Spaghetti westerns. As well as taking on the role of assistant director for Sergio Leone on A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1964), Valerii also directed three himself before taking a change of direction in the early 1970’s. This would be Valerii’s only crack at the giallo form and …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 12.31.09 in All Horror Films > Zombie

Night of the Living Dead has, with some justification, become an important landmark in the history of the horror genre. It emerged at a very precipitous point, because the genre itself was suffering one of its periodic lulls. In many respects the 1960’s had been dominated by the pseudo-gothic universe of Hammer and the Poe inspired films of Roger Corman, their influence being felt throughout Europe and in some cases in Latin …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 12.27.09 in All Horror Films > Thriller/Suspense > Vampire

The commercial success of The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) established a number of vital ingredients that would go on to form the basis of much of Hammer’s gothic horror. The lurid use of primary colour, the opulent and lavish set decoration and design, the bombastic and strident musical scores, and tongue in cheek black humour. The film firmly set the small British producer down the rutted and overgrown pathways into the sublime …