As a young man whose primary cinematic adventures were facilitated by the local video store in the late 1980’and early 90’s, I juxtaposed a diet of horror and unsuitable comedies with as many blood and vengeance filled action movies as I could lay my paws on. My friends at the time were a lot more [...]
The Devil’s Double is a big shiny, sexy, explosive movie which has nasty bits and explosions and boobs in it. It is allegedly based on the accounts of Latif Yahia, an ex-soldier who was employed as the body double of Uday Hussein (played here by Freddie Mercury). Latif is forcibly recruited when it occurs to [...]
People love a good underdog story, they also love an all-American kick ass hero. Warrior went the whole hog and gives us both. Wait! People also love a story about damaged relationships being slowly repaired after a tumultuous series of events. Best add that too then. It’s also a good idea to have a venerable [...]
One of the most significant cultural shifts of the last fifteen to twenty years has been the evolution of the epic ‘high concept’ television series. What was once an area reserved for meandering science fiction shows such as Star Trek and The X Files was altered forever in the late 1990’s when HBO opened up [...]
There have been some fine horror and sleaze documentaries of late, Machete Maidens Unleashed explored the seedier side of Pilipino Exploitation cinema, whilst American Grindhouse examined its transatlantic counterpart. Whilst the movies in question span from around the globe, Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape is a thoroughly British affair. An interesting perspective from [...]
Even if you haven’t seen ‘The Bad Seed’ yet, its influence has definitely touched you. It was the prototype for a subsequent 50 years of ‘evil child’ movies and belied the apparent innocence and puritanical nature of the era. This piety and sense of over emphasised propriety is something that is tackled in the movie, [...]
I am not someone who has ever enjoyed the antics or the existence of clowns. I have never found them entertaining in the slightest. Nor did I ever prescribe to the strange cultural occurrence which suddenly proclaimed clowns as ‘scary’ and an almost fashionable thing to publicly display an aversion to. They never had any [...]
Sid Haig is one of the most underused and marvellous actors in cinema history. He is a towering and inimitable force onscreen and has appeared in some of the best (and worst) exploitation and horror features of the last 50 years. If all you know of Haig is his performance as Captain Spalding in House [...]
Considering it is the birthday of one of my all time favourite directors (of any genre), I wanted to take the opportunity to run through a few of my favourite creations from the genius that is Dario Argento. Argento movies first came to my attention in my mid teens when I was still a fledgling [...]
We are inundated with remakes of 1970’s films and have been for several years now. I know that it was only released last year but it was very recently that I watched the remake of I Spit on Your Grave (AKA: Day of the Woman) and felt that it was lacking something. This led me [...]