HorrorAlthough it’s not showered with the same plaudits as its perfect predecessor, “Poltergeist II: The Other Side” is a far better sequel than its generally given credit for. It honours the events of the first film while expanding the mythology in satisfying and occasionally unexpected ways, It carves out a complementary yet distinct identity for ..
HorrorLoosely based on the John Updike novel of the same name, George Miller’s sly satire of the gender wars brings a dusting of dark magic to the hollow lives of a sleepy New England town of Eastwick. Alexandra (Cher), Jane (Susan Sarandon) and Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer) are close friends who support each other through the ..
HorrorOne Eyed Monster is one horror movie that’s guaranteed to give you the willies. When the cast and crew of a hardcore porn film travel to a remote abandoned army base to make their latest movie, they find themselves under attack from an alien being who has possessed one of the cast members’… erm, member. ..
HorrorLast seen getting all skeletal over his coffin on a roadside knoll, Drac’s back and in rude health, although that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to consult his physician… Count Dracula (Carradine), posing as Baron Latos (a step up, at least, from Count Alucard) arrives in Visaria to visit the castle home of Dr Franz ..
ChristmasChristmas has always been a time for scary stories and while there are the likes of “Gremlins” to choose from at the milder end of the spooky spectrum, there are also more than a few that register much, much higher on the festive fear scale. Chief amongst these is 1975’s “Black Christmas”, a film which ..
HorrorAfter the expertly curated, nerve-shredding trailer, I went into “Hereditary” with a great deal of trepidation (I’m a little bit of a horror wuss) but of all the myriad emotional states I was nervously anticipating, I never expected to be bored. Following the death of her estranged mother, Annie (Toni Collette) is forced to confront ..
HorrorIt may open with a Hammer-esque galloping horse and carriage but this Mel Brooks spoof has the whole Dracula oeuvre in its sights. From Lugosi to Coppola, Brooks and his co-writers leave no coffin unopened in the search for gags. A pity, then, that they found so few. When Renfield (a wildly overacting Peter MacNicol) ..
Horror“The Mummy” is the first of Universal’s monster movies to be based on an original idea instead of being adapted directly from an existing work. What it lacks in pedigree, it makes up for in classy production values, attention to detail and continuing the series’ surprising subtextual depth. Where “Dracula” was all about sex and ..
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HorrorI’ve been wading through a lot of horror dross recently (for reasons which will become clear later in the year) so thankfully the forthcoming Blu Ray release of the digitally remastered “Doctor Terror’s House Of Horrors” gave me a perfect chance to clear my movie palate. From legendary British Horror Studio Amicus (often unfairly overshadowed ..
HorrorCharlie Higson’s excitable take on the Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” has lasted all of ten episodes before being cancelled by ITV. It’s a real shame too because while the show had its flaws, it also had tremendous potential which will now go unrealised thanks to ..
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HorrorPreviously on Dracula… Having thoroughly bested the Count in his own library, Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) takes his leave of Castle Dracula and ten years go past (because we’re ignoring the Dracula-less “Brides Of Dracula”. The locals still cling to their fear of vampires and Father Sandor (the excellent Andrew Keir) prevents them from disposing ..
HorrorWe start out where “Dracula A.D. 1972” ended: with terrible music. This time, though, it actually sort of fits because “The Satanic Rites Of Dracula” actually is a cheesy seventies spy thriller of sorts. When a secret agent barely escapes from a secretive country house where he witnesses a satanic ritual in progress, he uses ..
HorrorI’ve a confession to make: sometimes I can be a bit of a wuss when it comes to horror films. It all stems from a time when I was 12 years old and my cousins decided it would be fun to show me the original “A Nightmare On Elm Street”. I spent that night sleeping ..
HorrorI’ve often used @TheMarckoGuy’s #Month Of Spooks as a chance to catch up on classic horror movie’s I’ve never seen before but this year, I decided to revisit “To The Devil A Daughter”, a film which freaked me all the way out when I first saw it at probably far too young an age. John ..
HorrorBENNY LOVES YOU opens with an almost literal slap to the face as the main feature is preceded by a short which covers the same ideas but with a very different spin on them. It’s a little bit jarring, though, when you figure out that what you’ve just seen isn’t even remotely connected to the ..
HorrorThere are few of Stephen King’s books I’ve read more often than “Salem’s Lot”. There’s something so perfect about the mix of the gothic sexual horror of vampire lore and the petty intrigues of small-town American life and King balances both aspects perfectly through a blend of tight plotting and great characterisation. He even manages ..
HorrorHaving duly resurrected and delivered the cinematic curate’s egg that was ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE, all eyes eagerly turned west to Nevada to see what Snyder would do nest because he sure as shit wasn’t going to go to Disneyland. Instead, he accepted a suitcase of money from Netflix in exchange for launching a new ..
HorrorIt’s another leadenly ‘topical’ opening for this Simpsons Halloween Special as Homer attempts to vote in a hilariously rigged satirical version of the 2008 Presidential Election. Ah, nothing like looking back at complacent comedy from the vantage point of 12 years later. Untitled Robot Parody “Now that we are not fighting each other, we can ..
HorrorThey don’t make movie stars like Vincent Price anymore – and even when they did, they didn’t make many of them. As well as his prodigious output as an actor, Price was also a well-travelled, learned man with a particular penchant for art and art history and gourmet cookery. A consummate renaissance man, he’s one ..
HorrorAtmospheric, sinister and devilishly surreal by turns, “In Fabric” feels like the kind of creepy, abstract menace which used to call for irregularities to be handled by the forces controlling each dimension, albeit one where transuranic heavy elements may not be used. Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a recently divorced bank teller visits department store Dentley and ..
HorrorBustin’ never made you feel as good as this again. Nearly every Friday night, Mertmas and I settle down for ‘Movie Night’, one of the highlights of the week. Usually, we’ll watch something I loved when I was his age or work our way through a recent franchise to get him up to speed for ..
HorrorA lot of people have been going back to rewatch (or maybe watch for the first time) the 1990 TV movie adaptation of Stephen King’s “It” in anticipation of the forthcoming feature film remake. And why not? Dated as it is, there’s a lot to like but it’s almost solely renowned for one central performance: ..
ChristmasPsyche! If you were expecting a review of the ‘heart-warming’ Michael Keaton snowman comedy, you’re barking up the wrong yule log. However, if you’re finding all the holiday sweetness a bit much and the gathering family are getting on your nerves a bit leaving you pining for a bit of sharp holly amongst all the ..
HorrorThere’s a real shock right at the start of Universal’s “The Invisible Man” as it proudly proclaims its membership of the NRA. Thankfully, it’s a reference to President Franklin D Roosevelt’s National Recovery Administration of 1933 and not the hyper-politicised mass murder apologists of today. Good job too, because “The Invisible Man” needs no help ..
HorrorA family-friendly horror movie seems like an oxymoron, but it’s exactly what 2006’s “Monster House” is. It has all the hallmarks and ingredients you’d expect from a really good haunted house movie, it’s structured exactly the way a ‘real’ horror movie would be, except you can watch it with your kids. When DJ, his best ..
HorrorApproaching this, I expected an uncomfortable relic, a tastless punchline to a joke that’s long since worn out its welcome, so it came as a pleasant surprise that, despite its Blaxploitation anachronisms, it’s actually a pretty solid vampire flick in its own right. In 1780, a massively racist Dracula welcomes an African prince and his ..
HorrorUnheralded at the time, The Unholy deserves a rekindling of faith. There’s not much that’s particularly cinematically original in THE UNHOLY, the directorial debut of veteran screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos (directing from his own screenplay adaptation from James Herbert’s novel THE SHRINE), but what I find remarkable about it is how closely it captures the ambiance ..
HorrorBreathing new life into the rotting husk of the zombie genre, “The Girl With All The Gifts” bites off far more than the usual undead apocalypse. It’s a horror movie with more than just a culinary focus on braaaaains. In the near future, British society has collapsed following an outbreak of a fungal infection which ..