by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 05.01.10 in Action/Adventure > All Horror Films > Thriller/Suspense

Italian journeyman filmmaker Antonio Margheriti certainly knows how to churn out a decent genre B movie. Like the majority of directors working in popular Italian cinema during the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s Margheriti (who often used the nom de plume Anthony M. Dawson) had a high degree of skill in switching genres. He’s pretty much done it all – from Mario Bava inspired gothic horror like Horror Castle (1963) and Castle of …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 04.06.10 in All Horror Films > Mystery > Supernatural > Thriller/Suspense

The Asphyx is a film that would have seemed quaint and harmless at the time of its release. It is one of a handful of films that represented the last dying stutters of the British cycle of gothic horror. At this point in time Hammer’s gothic milieu was playing second fiddle to nudity and lesbianism, but this subtle and affecting drama is refreshing in its total disavowal of the exploitation elements that …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 04.01.10 in All Horror Films > Mystery > Supernatural > Thriller/Suspense

In the 1960’s Roger Corman in conjunction with American International Pictures was creating his own brand of gothic horror. These films which were largely based on the short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe offered more psychological depth than the rival productions of England’s Hammer. Corman opted for a more delicate and finely balanced visual palette which mirrored the dreamy and hallucinatory nature of his films. Hammer’s merits lay in the …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 03.30.10 in All Horror Films > Zombie

The British zombie film is a relatively recent addition to the myriad of subsets that make up the history of British horror. Prior to the break out examples 28 Days Later (2002) and Shaun of the Dead (2004), one has to travel far back into the mists of time to the heyday of Hammer horror and their sublime Plague of the Zombies (1966). Unfortunately British cinema is not in the privileged position …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 03.25.10 in All Horror Films > Psychological Thriller > Supernatural > Thriller/Suspense > Torture

Clive Barker’s Books of Blood were originally released in six volumes during 1984 and 1985. Published by Sphere they were an impressive calling card and showed that Barker had an appreciation for the traditional aspects of horror fiction as well as an impulse to create something slightly different. The emphasis on perverse sexuality, sado-masochism (explored in more detail in Barker’s debut horror film Hellraiser (1987)) and graphic bodily violence showed him to …

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 …