tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84097829864988452632012-02-13T13:05:53.262ZWes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.comBlogger2371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-69985371236740050122012-02-11T16:15:00.002Z2012-02-11T16:18:01.239Z

You'll rarely find it rubbing shoulders with the likes of Metropolis, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Blade Runner, but Hammer's 1967 film Quatermass and the Pit is quite simply one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. Of the three Quatermass adaptations The Pit had the longest gestation period, first mooted as a Hammer film in 1961, then falling in and out of the production schedule until

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-11030766709584420612012-02-07T08:37:00.002Z2012-02-07T08:43:15.402Z

Hammer's decision to film The Quatermass Experiment had paid off handsomely for the studio, and producer Tony Hinds wasted little time securing the rights to the second teleplay. Now that he was free to work on projects beyond his contract with the BBC, Nigel Kneale came on board for the second film and oversaw a remarkably faithful adaptation of the serial for the big screen. A British answer to

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-16835427773698932862012-02-02T10:50:00.005Z2012-02-07T08:42:19.251Z

Over July and August of 1953, BBC's 6-part television serial The Quatermass Experiment had gripped the nation, with an average 3 million people tuning in each week to discover the fate of Victor Carroon, the doomed astronaut who crash landed back on Earth carrying a deadly organism. Among them was Hammer producer Tony Hinds who immediately saw the serial's potential as a feature length film, and

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-43469793754581033182012-01-30T20:16:00.006Z2012-02-02T10:55:04.810Z

Hammer's trilogy of Quatermass films are so revered in the annals of British Cinema, it's easy to forget that all three pictures were preceded by much longer (and some might say, better) television serials made by the BBC between 1953 and 1959. By the fifties, science fiction was firmly the domain of children's television with the likes of poverty row adventure series Captain Video and His Video

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-36957357165401598732012-01-12T08:20:00.005Z2012-02-07T20:19:11.573Z

In 1967 Terence Fisher made a welcome return to the Frankenstein saga with Frankenstein Created Woman a film that restored the series to good health after the the curious misfire that was The Evil of Frankenstein. But in many respects, this fourth episode is one of the most polarizing films of the series, scaling back the traditional horror elements to something more akin to metaphysical science

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-24878830425850411872012-01-08T13:10:00.006Z2012-01-08T13:21:50.844Z

In September 1967, David Bowie made his acting debut in a 14-min b/w short entitled The Image, written and directed by future Mark of the Devil director Michael Armstrong. In the film an artist is visited by the ghost of a young man appearing in one of the artist's painting. Disturbed by this apparition, the artist kills the young man again and again, before finally destroying the painting and

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-40681340380926587652012-01-05T08:30:00.002Z2012-01-06T09:05:24.695Z

"They always destroy everything" declares the Baron in the opening sequence of 1964's Evil of Frankenstein, enraged when another one of his experiments is ruined by the ignorance of his fellow man. In fact his words could easily apply to Hammer's ill-conceived re-imagining of the Frankenstein series, the break in continuity especially baffling considering Jimmy Sangster had devised a clever

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-26274632465034338212012-01-03T20:22:00.005Z2012-01-05T07:33:29.287Z

1957 had been a huge year for Hammer. The studio's gamble on Curse of Frankenstein had paid off handsomely when Warners picked the film up for distribution and scored an international hit. As 1958 dawned Hammer hit the ground running, the crew at Bray busied themselves with two major productions - an adaptation of Bram Stoker's most famous novel, and the sequel Revenge of Frankenstein. Jimmy

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-65367509436378766262011-12-31T16:05:00.003Z2012-01-03T20:36:24.515Z

This is a loathsome story and I regret that it should come from a British team...the writer of this script seems to think that the X category is a depository for sewageAn unnamed BBFC reader's summation of Jimmy Sangster's screenplay for The Curse of FrankensteinIt's almost a cliché nowadays to talk about it in such terms, but Hammer's 1957 film really did usher in a new age of Gods and Monsters.

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-21973615797571128622011-12-16T12:00:00.004Z2012-02-07T20:11:55.416Z

Despite having directed the hugely successful One Million Years B.C., Don Chaffey's second outing for Hammer The Viking Queen, was a far less extravagant production, a program filler pitched as a sword and sandal spectacle, filmed in Ireland while the studio was channelling its talent and resources into Frankenstein Created Woman. Set in the 1st century, Britain is a divided island under

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-90742459905383445152011-11-21T10:10:00.001Z2011-11-21T10:13:15.599Z

The long running British sci-fi comic 2000AD was a major force in my young life. I started reading the mag in the mid-80's when I was 7 or 8, introducing me to an extraordinary world of fantasy and imagination. 2012 sees the release of Dredd, the second pass at 2000AD's most famous character, the fascist, futuristic Dirty Harry, Judge Dredd. The crusty old cynic in me doesn't hold out much hope

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-8056045754418027022011-11-19T15:07:00.003Z2012-02-07T20:13:00.364Z

Next time you're feeling overburdened by this soulless technological society we live in, spare a thought for the cave people in Hammer's 1966 film One Millions Years B.C, having to deal with Ray Harryhausen's marauding prehistoric creatures and a primordial world going through some violent growing pains. The film became Hammer's most successful film, a huge hit world wide and made Raquel Welsh

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-64961405814527307372011-11-15T08:25:00.006Z2012-02-07T20:13:33.505Z

Grow me a gown with golden down, Cut me a robe from toe to lobe,Give me a skin for dancing inThis 1966 Hammer chiller has slipped into obscurity over the years, elbowed out of the reference books by Nicholas Roeg's popular children's film of the same name, and among European Cult Cinema fans, it's often confused with a 1966 Italian film called The Witch, and a 1967 Italian anthology film called

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-63343599600072442192011-11-03T10:55:00.001Z2011-11-03T10:58:00.567Z

This new documentary screened on BBC4 in September was a welcome look into the notoriously clandestine British Board of Film Classification and the business of film censorship, but I couldn't quite escape the nagging feeling that it was a calculated PR stunt by an ever sensitive BBFC, weary of being seen as overbearing buttoned-down nanny staters after the recent high profile rejections by the

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-66137065556616651682011-10-30T14:00:00.006Z2012-02-07T20:11:16.714Z

A diamond in the rough, The Reptile was afforded even less of a budget than Plague of the Zombies, the film it was shot back to back with in 1966, but over the years the film has become a cult item among Hammer fans, the fine performances, engaging screenplay and a strong visual sensilbiliy mark this as one of Hammer's stronger horrors of the 60's.A newly wed couple arrive in a small town in

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-76417374371360020232011-10-27T11:26:00.001+01:002011-10-27T11:28:34.139+01:00

I haven’t posted in a few days as I was hit with a virus on my PC last week and it has done quite a demolition job on the old girl. The upshot is I can't get online. The blog is still very much alive but until I get a new PC (next week I hope), the ‘Shores will be operating on a low level basis. I'll try to get the next Hammer rolled out in the meantime but it’s not easy using the PC here in work

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-63933846058949763582011-10-18T20:30:00.004+01:002012-02-07T20:15:14.073Z

One of Hammer's late night movie masterpieces, Plague of the Zombies, part of the studio's 1965 program of films, was shot back to back with The Reptile, both films designated as support features - Rasputin the Mad Monk played with The Reptile, while Dracula Prince of Darkness was paired with Plague of the Zombies, which has become the bona-fida classic of the quartet.A village in Cornwall is

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-71684446501703801182011-10-13T08:00:00.004+01:002012-02-07T20:16:19.128Z

1965 was a particularly hectic year for Hammer with no less than 6 films before the cameras. For the players and the production crews the pace was relentless - as soon as photography wrapped on Dracula Prince of Darkness, it was straight into Rasputin The Mad Monk, a bogeyman Hammer plucked straight out of the pages of history.The film opens with Grigori Rasputin (played with great panache by

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-71122232309507676992011-10-11T08:12:00.003+01:002012-02-07T20:17:05.371Z

Despite the success of Dracula in 1958, Hammer's first direct sequel arrived belatedly in 1966. The studio had plans to make the sequel much sooner - Jimmy Sangster's screenplay, The Revenge of Dracula was drafted in 1958 but it proved unsatisfactory and the proposed film was put on hold. Following The Brides of Dracula, Sangster defected to Hammer's thriller division penning screenplays for A

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-43824425001644174852011-10-09T12:44:00.003+01:002011-11-17T14:51:36.235Z

The first Dracula film is just about the best thing I have ever done for Hammer and it still looks like a very successful film. Everything seemed to hang together for once during the shooting...Terence FisherHow times had changed. When Hammer's Dracula arrived in 1958, Todd Browning's 1931 film of Bram Stoker's novel, a seminal moment in Horror Cinema to be sure, creaked and groaned in comparison

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-88315200793468976632011-10-07T12:45:00.004+01:002012-02-07T20:17:44.884Z

One of a handful of macabre films Bette Davis made in the 60's, The Nanny from 1965 is best approached as a suspense thriller in the vein of Shadow of a Doubt, rather than a full-blooded Hammer Horror. In the film, a 10 year old boy returns home from an institution for disturbed children where he was being treated for a breakdown following the death of his younger sister. In the two years that

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-66571819839485732132011-10-06T07:40:00.003+01:002012-02-07T20:18:21.681Z

Hammer's 1965 release, She may not be ranked among the studio's finest efforts, but this romp through the pages of Henry Rider Haggard's famous 19th centrury novel remains a thouroughly enjoyable piece of Saturday afternoon fare. The story begins in Palestine in 1918, where two British officers Professor Holly (Peter Cushing) and Leo Vincey (John Richardson) along with Holly's valet Job (Bernard

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-40186401775200747902011-10-05T07:32:00.003+01:002012-02-08T14:53:19.724Z

Optimum's 21-disc Hammer boxset released in 2006 was a decidedly pricey package for what was on offer - 21 Hammer films which represented the very best and worst of the studio's Elstree years. For the causal fan the box was simply too expensive to pick up, while the hardcore Hammer disciple would have already owned the excellent Anchor Bay US editions. Not surprisingly the box fell in price and

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-90343903567402198472011-10-04T09:45:00.016+01:002011-10-31T10:21:05.388Z

The following list is the bulk of my collection of film books which I've reprinted here for anyone looking to pick up something to read over the winter. The list is a little scatter shot so I've divided it up into different sections to make it easier to navigate through. Film books tend to go out of print quite rapidly so if you've got your eye on a book, my advice would be pick it up sooner

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-10943556071459152812011-09-30T08:50:00.003+01:002011-09-30T08:55:01.407+01:00

Strange, perplexing and utterly extraordinary, Ganja & Hess, from 1973 is one of the great lost artifacts of Black Cinema. Misunderstood on it’s initial run, the film almost immediately sank without a trace only to resurface in a different guise under the title Blood Couple. In the film, Dr. Hess Green, an anthropological professor studying ancient African civilisations hires an assistant George

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-11514420092313498572011-09-26T09:20:00.001+01:002011-09-26T09:20:45.520+01:00

John Hillcoat's intense debut film from 1988 sees the director already working out ideas and themes that would preoccupy later films, chiefly individuals struggling to survive in a hostile and dangerous environment. The clean, comfortable, modern prison facility in Ghosts...of the Civil Dead might seem a world apart from the ragged infrastructure of The Road, but it's society in collapse is

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-9538495208813874222011-09-23T19:52:00.003+01:002011-09-23T20:02:21.198+01:00

01 - Absurd - dir. Joe D'Amato, 1981, Italy02 - Anthropophagous - dir. Joe D'Amato, 1980, Italy03 - Axe - dir. Frederick R. Friedel, 1974, US04 - Beast in Heat - dir. Luigi Batzella, 1977, Italy05 - Blood Bath - dir. Mario Bava, 1971, Italy06 - Blood Feast - dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis, 1963, US07 - Blood Rites - dir. Andy Milligan, 1967, US08 - Bloody Moon - dir. Jesus Franco, 1980, West

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-49324191787006350832011-09-23T13:14:00.005+01:002011-09-23T13:30:08.398+01:00

Putting together a complete collection of all 39 Video Nasties is something of a Herculean task. Tracking down the entire list was relatively do-able right up to the early 90's, but nowadays most tapes are in the hands of serious collectors and change hands for serious money - the chances of finding an original edition of GO Video's Cannibal Holocaust at a car booth sale are virtually nil. As

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-66649153075920477942011-09-21T12:20:00.013+01:002011-09-23T16:45:04.277+01:00

Went to the cinema with Franco this evening... We saw Zombie II - science fiction horror film. Ghastly; repulsive trashAndrei Tarkovsky, diary entry 5th September 1979, RomeThe best was saved for last…It may not be as stylish as Tenebrae and lacks the virtuosity of Cannibal Holocaust, but Lucio Fulci’s 1979 film Zombie Flesh Eaters has long been my favourite title on the DPP’s list of outlawed

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-27053431825514886342011-09-18T12:24:00.001+01:002011-09-23T16:44:43.860+01:00

For various reasons, this 1975 Paul Naschy vehicle remains one of the more obscure entries on the Video Nasties list, a film that has been somewhat marginalized over the years, not least of all for the schlocky title the UK Cannon tape was released under (Night of the Howling Beast, the US Super Video title is far more agreeable). Also, the film has not so far secured an English-language DVD

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-51978625437828951432011-09-15T10:00:00.002+01:002011-09-23T16:44:11.105+01:00

Is there anything left to say about Tenebrae ? First and foremost, it's Dario Argento's last great masterpiece - after an extraordinary 13-year run of films starting in 1969 with The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, the diminishing returns began with Phenomena and Opera (two otherwise excellent films I might add) and then took a sharp downward trajectory with later duds like Trauma and Phantom of

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-79047183368260011462011-09-08T08:42:00.001+01:002011-09-23T16:43:42.551+01:00

Very much a case of judging a video by its cover, Go Video's incredible sleeve artwork was largely responsible for the DPP fingering SS Experiment Camp (1976) as a Video Nasty. Interestingly, some Nazi exploiters were completely passed over - Red Nights of the Gestapo and Deported Women of the SS Special Section to name two, were available in stores across the UK, but SS Experiment Camp became

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-19636258305600875692011-09-06T10:04:00.007+01:002011-09-23T16:43:13.847+01:00

A film that needs no introduction among readers of this blog, the saga of Snuff, remains a quintessential piece of Exploitation hucksterism, capturing the zeitgeist of 70's urban anxiety. With the rising tide of underground pornography, some of it sado-masochistic in nature, the idea of murder being filmed for the gratification of the viewer seemed entirely plausible. Masterminded by distributor

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-39758364570450595812011-09-03T17:18:00.002+01:002011-09-23T16:42:41.065+01:00

Despite the below-the-radar VHS sleeve of an ominous full moon, and sharing it's title with a 1957 Jacques Tourneur Horror classic, Night of the Demon from 1980 came to the attention of the DPP, most likely for a scene where an unwitting motorcyclist has his cock ripped off by the titular demon. What begins like another lo-fi American indie à la Don't Go in the Woods and Forest of Fear, gradually

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-30428860328946279092011-09-03T14:40:00.003+01:002011-09-23T16:42:08.908+01:00

You might feel a little short changed by the title of this film, considering it contains only one single ape, and throughout the film he’s referred to as a gorilla. No matter, Night of the Bloody Apes is notable for being the jumping off point for many Exploitation fans into the wild world of Mexican Fantastique. Directed by Réne Cardona in 1968, the film is actually an update on the director's

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-67366869734475025932011-08-31T11:20:00.002+01:002011-09-23T16:41:40.072+01:00

Dark, violent and genuinely unsettling, Nightmares in a Damaged Brain from 1980 became one of the most notorious Video Nasties when David Hamilton-Grant, of World of Video 2000, the film’s British video distributor was handed down a 12 month prison sentence for distributing material likely to deprave or corrupt. A fine would surely have sufficed but this unfortunate episode perfectly illustrates

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-41203122232226475102011-08-29T09:30:00.004+01:002011-09-23T16:41:10.013+01:00

"Un film trouvé à la ferraille" as Jean-Luc Godard might have said...The UK VHS tape of Mardi Gras Massacre sports one of the great sleeves of the Video Nasties - a bikini clad busty blonde menaced by a shadowy, hooded maniac with a switchblade. Sadly, this fabulous piece of Exploitation artwork is the best thing about the film, but if you like wooden acting, a nonsensical storyline, porno-style

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-24318950432083422742011-08-24T10:00:00.002+01:002011-09-23T16:40:42.172+01:00

Anyone familiar with Video Nasty lore will know of stories of over zealous police officers raiding video stores looking for anything vaguely contentious. At one point Sam Fuller's acclaimed WWII film The Big Red One and the Dolly Parton vehicle The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas were swept up in the DPP's Terror. I suspect Madhouse, an American-shot Italian-made slasher from 1981 was a victim of

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-77044422396530152482011-08-21T12:03:00.002+01:002011-09-23T16:40:13.744+01:00

Directed by Lee Frost and produced by exploitation independent Bob Cresse, Love Camp 7 from 1969, has it's origins in a previous Frost/Cresse collaboration Mondo Bizarro, a 1966 mockumentry which included a scene where some Germans get their kicks from a stage show depicting a Jewish woman being beaten and whipped by some Nazi officers. Such was Bob Cresse's fetish for Third Reich regalia and S&M

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-54160998242574689462011-08-19T08:00:00.006+01:002011-09-23T16:39:36.313+01:00

Last House on the Left remains the only Video Nasty to be directed by a major American film maker and it seems an awful long way from Wes Craven’s 1999 Meryl Streep vehicle Music of the Heart. When the film was submitted to the BBFC back in 1972 it was rejected outright. Ten years later the film resurfaced in Britain on VHS - such was the fledgling UK video industry’s lack of regulation that the

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-38642577217896324152011-08-17T09:40:00.004+01:002011-09-23T16:39:05.286+01:00

If the reviews at this blog employed a 5-star rating system, Island of Death would score a solid ????? Behind the bland and generic title, (which also served an as alternative title for Narciso Ibáñez Serrador's Would You Kill A Child ?) Nico Mastorakis's 1976 film is a real oddity. When released on UK VHS in November 1982, the distributor, AVI Video proclaimed the film to be "approved and passed

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-89095393242791432172011-08-15T10:16:00.003+01:002011-09-23T16:38:34.489+01:00

This is a film without a shred of artistic distinction. It lacks even simple craftsmanship. There is no possible motive for exhibiting it, other than the totally cynical hope that it might make money. It is a movie so sick, reprehensible and contemptible that I can hardly believe it's playing in respectable theatersRoger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, July 16, 1980If there's one single film that

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-50512418734316657782011-08-11T09:11:00.004+01:002011-09-23T16:37:56.345+01:00

Ruggero Deodato's home invasion thriller from 1980 never quite lives up to its ferocious reputation but it comes close, with its humiliating psychological abuse and one harrowing sequence of sexualized brutality. Perhaps the true force of House on the Edge of the Park can be measured by the fact that it's been 25 years since the film has been seen uncut in the UK. Back in 2002, VIPCO, trading on

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-70396888895877678432011-08-09T09:25:00.003+01:002011-09-23T16:36:56.829+01:00

A major entry on the Video Nasties list, House by the Cemetery, is one of two Lucio Fulci films to appear on the DPP's roundup of offending titles. Among the campaigners to clean up the British Video Industry, the Italian director was very definitely persona non grata - by the early 80's his reputation as a maker of exceedingly violent films was firmly established. A print of his 1982 film The

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-59470231220885586272011-08-08T11:45:00.002+01:002011-08-08T12:22:56.818+01:00

Just a very quick detour from the Video Nasties series before we return with House by the Cemetery… My good friend and fellow blogger Martin gave me the idea for this post, based on his series of excellent dispatches from Hong Kong at his fantastic blog A Hero Never Dies. At the weekend I rescued my scanner from a mound of boxes, still unopened from our house move back in March (?) and was

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-73787904717382664332011-08-04T10:00:00.003+01:002011-09-23T16:36:13.540+01:00

Gestapo's Last Orgy from 1977 holds the dubious honour of being the best of the Italian Nazi Exploitation films, far superior to fellow DPP detainees, the trashy Beast In Heat and the incredibly dull SS Experiment Camp. Having said that, any pretense that director Cesare Canevari's film is a serious Holocaust drama is quickly dispelled by the sheer amount of sleaze and decadence on show. Arriving

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-69332767009518353362011-08-02T12:33:00.012+01:002011-09-23T16:35:30.081+01:00

Forest of Fear from 1980 is the quintessential example of a terminally obscure horror film damned to fame by the DPP. Considering there's nothing remotely contentious about the film, it remains a mystery why it became one of the 39 outlawed titles, its inclusion on the list is the only reason the film is still spoken about some 31 years later...The plot of the film is strictly routine stuff. In a

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-54841502825642694262011-07-29T15:26:00.002+01:002011-09-23T16:31:45.831+01:00

It's not recorded what Andy Warhol thought of the DPP's decision to ban his 1973 film Flesh For Frankenstein on VHS in Britain, but he was probably pleased with the controversy - "Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches", Warhol once quipped. The film (and its companion piece Blood For Dracula, shot back to back) was a milestone in the history of the

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-33889300477065922622011-07-27T08:15:00.001+01:002011-07-27T08:15:53.139+01:00

FAB Press' long awaited book on Spaghetti Westerns arrived at home yesterday. I grabbed a few quick pics of the book and as you can see it looks like another excellent FAB production, packed with a bewildering amount of rare, international posters, stills and ad mats (where do they get them from?) and beautifully laid out text. I started reading the book last night, getting in only a few pages of

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-33341622295774747602011-07-24T13:30:00.002+01:002011-07-24T13:32:01.016+01:00

Tsui Hark's film from 1980 remains a high water mark of the Hong Kong New Wave, an extraordinary action thriller so unruly and anarchic that Hark was forced by the British Colonial Government to revise the film, diluting some of it's political subtext. For many years this original version was thought lost, but in 2004 the film was remastered for a French DVD release with the censored material

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-52867602441515558982011-07-22T09:05:00.003+01:002011-07-22T09:07:06.306+01:00

This excellent documentary made in 1993 by the American Film Institute and the Japan Broadcasting Network is the perfect way to restore your faith in Cinema should you find yourself jaded from too many bad movies (a occupational hazard around here lately). Visions of Light serves a dual purpose – it’s a fine introduction to the often hidden art of cinematography while also providing a nice primer

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-64644656892059480162011-07-20T08:46:00.004+01:002011-11-15T12:59:24.991Z

Picture the scene - A hotel in London, sometime in the late 70's... A drunk and naked Ken Russell finds himself locked out of his room. Carefully making his way to the reception he hisses at the night porter who's busy dealing with some new arrivals. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" the night porter demands. "I've locked myself out of my room" the beleaguered director replies. "You

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-2568188738180443092011-07-18T13:17:00.003+01:002011-09-23T16:31:17.877+01:00

I always thought a great intro to an episode of sci-fi TV series Quantum Leap would be if the time-displaced Sam Becket leaped into the body of a white man alone in the middle of a crowd of black people at a screening of Fight for Your Life, and as the enraged crowd were yelling “Kill that honky cracker’s ass”, a confused and dismayed Sam would utter his signature line “Oh boy!”The film is

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-11622813684528889462011-07-16T16:55:00.002+01:002011-09-23T16:30:47.775+01:00

I must admit revisiting Faces of Death last week for this post, reminded me of my teenage years when as soon as the coast was clear I would pop some anonymous looking porno tape into the VCR – not that Faces of Death provides any erotic thrills, far from it, but I felt I could only watch the film in secret - I mean who would want anyone to know that they were watching this kind of junk ?Faces of

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-65919807634776179232011-07-14T09:00:00.002+01:002011-09-23T16:24:52.835+01:00

On the face of it Exposé from 1976, could pass for a typical British New Wave exploitation film, with its heady mix of sex and violence, but director James Kenelm Clarke has fashioned something quite distinct from the work of contemporary film makers like Pete Walker and Norman J Warren, and despite the infamy of being on the DPP's list, the film remains something of an unsung classic.The Exposé

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-86657267338178998902011-07-12T14:47:00.004+01:002011-09-23T16:24:19.624+01:00

Of the American films on the DPP's list, Evilspeak from 1981 is one of the most accomplished looking, but also one of the more dated, and much of it's appeal will hinge on how nostalgic you feel towards an era when the humble personal computer was considered an all powerful piece of hardware, a myth propagated by the likes of Evilspeak, War Games (1983) and Electric Dreams (1984). The film set in

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-67987923019238968222011-07-10T10:15:00.004+01:002011-09-23T16:23:47.236+01:00

In the hierarchy of the Video Nasties list, The Driller Killer takes one of the top slots. For Britain's moral guardians, that once-in-a-lifetime title and VIPCO's outrageously gruesome VHS sleeve perfectly encapsulated the scourge of Video Horror that was sweeping the nation...The Driller Killer is usually cited as Abel Ferrara's first film, when in fact it was his second outing behind the

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-43371583855003725212011-07-08T09:07:00.001+01:002011-09-23T16:22:34.224+01:00

Had you gone camping in the Great American Outdoors back in the late 70's, early 80's, chances are you would have bumped into a film crew and a gallon of fake blood. You might have even come across James Bryan and a small band of devoted followers making the twelve thousand dollar epic Don't Go In the Woods, an instantly forgettable little stalk and slash horror film from 1980, now immortalized

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-59137058103353647122011-07-06T08:30:00.003+01:002011-09-23T15:47:09.777+01:00

Truly one of the worst of the Video Nasties, The Devil Hunter from 1980 was Jess Franco's second and final foray into the then fashionable Cannibal genre of which Franco had little affinity for, and every inch of this piece of celluloid dreck bears this out.In the film, a beautiful model is kidnapped by some vicious thugs and held for ransom on a remote island. Two Vietnam vets are dispatched to

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-40328388531597099492011-07-04T08:30:00.003+01:002011-09-23T15:44:32.817+01:00

The title of this 1973 Spanish film is troublesome. Given that there's little flesh-eating1 in the film, it's been dismissed by gorehounds as one of the more marginal of the 39 titles. However, there's a delicious double irony to the title as well. Had the the film been released under its original title La Semana del Asesino (or Week of the Killer), in all probability, the film would have escaped

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-38764783473866320972011-07-01T07:40:00.001+01:002011-09-23T15:43:56.778+01:00

Ruggero Deodato's 1977 film Last Cannibal World took the basic framework of Umberto Lenzi's Deep River Savages and delivered an intelligent, atmospheric and well acted jungle adventure, but there was little in that film that would prepare the world for Cannibal Holocaust, with it's radical style and structure. Deodato's film, if you were to think in such terms is the Citizen Kane of the cannibal

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-15626625514885982222011-06-27T20:40:00.004+01:002011-09-23T15:42:25.008+01:00

The name Umberto Lenzi has to figure prominently in any discussion of the Third World Cannibal film - Lenzi virtually invented the genre with his 1972 film Deep River Savages. The director returned to the jungle in 1980 for Eaten Alive, and made a third outing the following year for Cannibal Ferox, a film second only to Cannibal Holocaust as the most notorious of all the cannibal films.In the

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-25978687370302630842011-06-22T09:00:00.002+01:002011-09-23T15:40:51.485+01:00

Cannibals in the streets as one alternative title for this much loved Italian film warned. Antonio Margheriti's 1980 film fixed upon the simple but great idea of taking the cannibal out of the wilds of New Guinea and letting him run loose in the urban jungle of big city America.In the film some Vietnam vets go on the rampage in Atlanta carrying an infectious strain of rabies which causes it's

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-73630630759671713462011-06-20T12:16:00.003+01:002011-09-23T15:35:00.610+01:00

Unique among the 39 Video Nasties for having an Oscar winning actress among the cast, The Burning from 1981 is also notable for being the first film produced by the fledgling Miramax, a little known independent studio working out of New York.The story concerns a summer camp janitor nicknamed Cropsy who's accidentally set on fire by some kids after a prank goes badly wrong. Some five years later

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-34753065243109543112011-06-18T16:15:00.004+01:002011-09-23T15:33:36.601+01:00

Given the roster of European Cult film makers on the Nasties list, something would be amiss if Jess Franco was not included in the DPP's line-up. In fact, two Franco titles secured a place on the list - The Devil Hunter, and this German production from 1981.The first time I saw Bloody Moon - my first Jess Franco film, I wondered where were all the zooms - such was Franco's reputation for his

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-86769878893085036922011-06-16T13:45:00.006+01:002011-09-23T15:32:43.448+01:00

Question: Can you link Blood Rites director Andy Milligan with Akira Kurasawa within six degrees of seperation ?Everybody should see at least one Andy Milligan atrocity in their life and Blood Rites, Milligan’s film from 1967 is a good place as any to descend into the netherworld of the Staten Island auteur. The story concerns three estranged sisters who are requested to spend a few days at their

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-24861310880175495022011-06-15T08:27:00.004+01:002011-09-23T15:32:11.837+01:00

"I've often referred to Blood Feast as a Walt Whitman poem. It's no good, but it was the first of its type" So said director Herschell Gordon Lewis about his most famous film. One wonders what the great American poet would have made of Blood Feast had he seen the film in 1963 - most likely he would high tailed it back to his New Jersey tomb.Whitman's great collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass,

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-73947366833960469332011-06-12T13:23:00.007+01:002011-09-23T15:31:34.063+01:00

Far too stylish and intelligent to be rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mardi Gras Massacre and Don't Go In the Woods, Mario Bava's 1971 film, known under a bewildering array of alternative titles 1 is a genre-defining moment in European Cult Cinema and for better or for worse was a major influence on the next stage in the evolution of the Horror Film. In the film a bunch of characters murder

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-64764855893729581412011-06-09T08:08:00.003+01:002011-09-23T15:30:47.064+01:00

Journeyman director Luigi Batzella (here credited as Ivan Kathansky) may not be a household name among fans of Italian Horror, but his 1977 film The Beast In Heat is a classic in the annals of Scum Cinema, splicing a routine WW2 action film with the kind of outrageous sadism seen in Ilsa She Wolf of the SS. In the film, a remote Italian town mounts a spirited defense against the encroaching Nazis

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-29218605797425795692011-06-08T08:05:00.003+01:002011-09-23T15:30:09.013+01:00

Axe, the first American film appearing on the DPP's list sets the tone and style for many of the films from the US appearing throughout the index of prohibited titles - low budget, designed and packaged for the exploitation market, and directed by regional film makers otherwise forever doomed to obscurity.Directed by Frederick Friedel, probably sometime around the mid-70's (the film is officially

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-40684447620059491522011-06-06T14:21:00.006+01:002011-09-23T13:59:24.213+01:00

What did you do during the great Italian Exploitation era, Mr Montefiori ?- I ate a human foetus. What did you do ?Joe D'Amato's 1980 horror opus Anthropophagous, has earned itself a certain notoriety that extends far beyond anything contained in the film - there's some splatter for sure, and of course this is the film where George Eastman (screenwriter and star Luigi Montefiore) grabs a bite to

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-27807660264593081292011-06-05T08:49:00.001+01:002011-09-23T13:58:17.432+01:00

The international title of this 1981 Joe D'Amato film is both meaningless and instructive at the same time. It applies little to the actual film - seemingly plucked from a stray line at the beginning when a doctor comments on the regenerative powers of George Eastman's fatally wounded lunatic - "It's absurd, completely absurd!". On the other hand the title appropriately enough, the first on the

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-4016158720215983862011-06-02T20:45:00.021+01:002011-09-22T15:27:58.745+01:00

Does the world need another series on the Video Nasty phenomena ? Probably not, but I wanted to set myself a challenge - to review the DPP 39 list of Video Nasties, (see full list below) from Absurd to Zombie Flesh Eaters and hopefully make it interesting for you the reader. I don't expect to offer a new slant on any of the films - there's at least 2 or 3 definitive studies of the Nasties out

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-17833130685547780822011-05-30T14:45:00.002+01:002011-05-30T16:39:46.081+01:00

There's a scene in Natural Born Killers, where Robert Downey Jr's TV producer admits to Woody Harrelson that the Charles Manson episode of American Maniacs trumped the Mickey & Mallory Knox episode in the ratings, to which Woody Harrelson shrugs his shoulders and sighs "Well, it's pretty hard to beat the king". Such is the lofty position that Manson has long held in American pop culture. Screened

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-66367539455709360392011-05-26T20:55:00.001+01:002011-05-27T13:45:57.873+01:00

James Glickenhaus' 1980 film, The Exterminator, a bastard son of Taxi Driver and Death Wish, has over the years carved out quite a following among fans of gritty urban exploitation, with a solid mix of action, gore, sleaze and some righteous kills. In the film, John Eastland, a Vietnam vet wages war on the criminal scum of New York after his friend is attacked by a street gang and left paralysed

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-24104780214016779742011-05-23T08:00:00.004+01:002011-05-23T08:49:22.177+01:00

At the end of Gaspar Noé's Irreversible, there's a glimpse of the poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey, which had the famous tagline The Ultimate Trip. In Enter the Void, one of the characters declares death to be the ultimate trip, and that idea is essentially the essence of Noé's 3 year in-the-making psychedelic wonderland. The story concerns Oscar, a young American living in Tokyo, who sells drugs

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-20784327734740366312011-05-17T19:03:00.002+01:002011-05-17T19:06:03.500+01:00

In 1966 Shaw Brothers director King Hu left Hong Kong for Taiwan, after falling out with his former employers during the production of Come Drink With Me. In Taiwan Hu went to work for Union Film Company, a distribution outfit eager to get into production. After the success of their first collaboration, Dragon Gate Inn, Union gave Hu a free hand to produce his next film, A Touch of Zen which

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-35436731638934957962011-05-14T17:12:00.002+01:002011-05-15T19:32:26.232+01:00

The opening shot of this 1994 Hungarian film - an unbroken black & white 8-minute take of cattle wandering through a farm, should act as a sufficient disclaimer for anyone who might be expecting some thrills and bellyaches for their buck. Sátántangó, Béla Tarr's magnum opus runs just a little over 7 hours and is said to contain something in the region of just 150 shots. The plot, which is slowly

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-11814266929316292862011-05-11T12:20:00.003+01:002011-05-11T12:27:05.439+01:00

Such were the strange fortunes of Alejandro Jodorowsky in the 70's that he went from the mind bending Holy Mountain to the abandoned multi-million dollar production of Dune to directing Tusk, his 1980 film adapted from a children's book about a girl and an elephant born on the same day on a plantation in British controlled India. In the film, the elephant, known as Tusk grows up to be a powerful

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-58348852576959397992011-05-10T19:33:00.001+01:002011-05-10T19:38:52.596+01:00

.to forward looking entirely not I'm something ,thru it see finally and Irréversible tackle should I like feel I so Void the Enter of Blu-Ray the have I'll so or week next the in ,However .within sealed darkness the keep to tight shut keepcase the ,shelf DVD my on sits film The .it about think to not try and length arms at Irréversible keep I mostly But .strangers with cinema a in this seeing

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-53528418430646824502011-05-08T17:39:00.000+01:002011-05-08T17:41:13.671+01:00

This Italian quickie from 1979 was dashed off by its writer Luigi Montefiori (aka George Eastman) when a train carriage set became available at a film studio. The result was La Ragazza del Vagone Letto, or under its more succulent English export tile, Terror Express. In the film a sleeper train bound for Switzerland is boarded by 3 thugs looking for some cheap thrills. At first, their behavior is

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-9559570376512870932011-05-06T08:20:00.004+01:002011-05-06T08:34:55.146+01:00

You want to know who Freddy Krueger was ? He was a filthy child murderer who killed at least 20 kids in the neighbourhood, kids we all knew...but somebody forgot to sign the search warrant in the right place and Krueger was free, just like that... A bunch of us parents tracked him down after they let him out. We found him in an old abandoned boiler room where he used to take his kids. We took

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-8243290741174757512011-05-03T10:02:00.003+01:002011-05-03T10:12:00.444+01:00

The saga of Heaven's Gate is well documented so I'll skip over its unhappy history and instead concentrate on the many virtues of this much maligned and misunderstood masterpiece. The film began production in 1979 but Michael Cimino's script for the film, then called The Johnson County War had been around since the early 70's and was shown little interest. After seeing an advance print of The

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-67419581509059110602011-04-27T11:25:00.006+01:002011-04-27T12:07:50.809+01:00

Shot in October 1971, Pink Floyd's 3-day residency among the ruins of Pompeii is one of the more idiosyncratic rock performance films of the era. Director Adrian Maben's idea was to discard the look of contemporary concert films - the band on stage intercut with the standard shots of adoring crowds (a la Woodstock or Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture), and instead capture the Floyd amid the

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-54556790195456510102011-04-23T13:35:00.005+01:002011-04-23T13:55:50.936+01:00

I was moving a huge pile of movie magazines this morning when I came across the October 2002 issue of Total Film (#69), the highly distinguished October 2002 issue I might add, as the Letters page included an angry missive from your humble narrator about the magazine labelling Dario Argento as an Italian schlock director...Since then, The Card Player, The Mother of Tears, and Giallo all came and

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-55737875863679041342011-04-16T16:29:00.001+01:002011-04-16T16:30:46.221+01:00

Steve Yeager's 1998 portrait of John Waters is required viewing for fans of Baltimore's most famous bad boy. The film spans Water's early life, his interest in putting on puppet shows for the kids of the neighbourhood, his love of Cinema which included Blood Feast and Bergman, his early film experiments inspired by Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger 1, his first features, Mondo Trasho and Multiple

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-31909858862956595312011-03-25T08:05:00.015Z2011-03-25T11:38:18.911Z

Last year I posted some news about a new Russian Region-free Blu-ray of Tarkovsky's great masterpiece Andrei Rublev. Finally I got round to picking up the disc and I must say I'm delighted I did. The transfer based on an immaculate 2004 restoration at Mosfilm is absolutely beautiful with a staggering level of detail, far superior to the now ancient Criterion DVD. Detail is especially rewarding in

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-47479161837077350412011-02-15T19:06:00.003Z2011-02-15T19:39:31.951Z

This blog has been on something of a hiatus for the last few weeks as we began preparing to move house. We put up the house for sale back in June 2010 and come this Thursday the process will be complete. I should be painting the town red with happiness now we're finally getting out of a neighbourhood that has been quickly going downhill these past few years - think of the neighbours as a cross

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-76567938013201952562011-01-30T14:14:00.002Z2011-01-31T09:10:58.371Z

"Did you ever think life would turn out like this?" asks one of the characters in Michael Cimino's 1978 signature film The Deer Hunter. It's a key line in the story of three Pennsylvanian steelworkers whose lives are drastically changed by their experiences in the Vietnam war...Cimino's masterstroke was to make The Deer Hunter a long form work, and the film greatly benefits from the time and

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-23252180084518276122011-01-26T15:32:00.008Z2011-01-26T15:45:35.481Z

It seems we're still a while away from seeing James Cameron's 1989 film The Abyss surface on Blu-Ray. Rumour has it that the film will get a HD release in December 2011. Until then Fox's DVD should suffice, if only for the inclusion of Under Pressure - Making the Abyss, a superb hour long chronicle of the making of Cameron's epic sci-fi.When it comes to special effects films I normally shy away

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-86841380649191783822011-01-06T10:50:00.001Z2011-01-06T10:53:00.530Z

My final post for the Christmas holiday (which officially ends today!) and we go out with a classic. Bob Clark's 1974 film Black Christmas never quite gets a shout out in the roll call of Essential 70's Horror movies, despite its sheer brilliance, and its importance in the evolution of the genre, but more of that in a moment... It's Christmastime at a women's sorority house and celebrations are

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-31415232579955755982011-01-05T19:07:00.003Z2011-01-06T08:29:30.428Z

Back in print again and for the first time in digital, Peter Cushing's reading of his second autobiography, Past Forgetting, subtitled A Memoir of the Hammer Years. Cushing was compelled to write a second book on his life, after fans petitioned him, wanting to hear more about his work as an actor, his first book, simply called An Autobiography, concentrated on his life with his beloved wife Helen

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-57673345696899670722011-01-04T11:58:00.002Z2011-01-04T12:24:32.723Z

If you're one of those people who get a frisson from the sequence in The Wicker Man where the islanders don animal masks for the May Day sacrifice, then this book is for you. Haunted Air - A Collection of Anonymous Halloween Photographs America c. 1875 - 1955, is a wonderful compendium of found photographs of people dressing up to celebrate Halloween. That the photographs are from a bygone era of

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-14894808625035749762011-01-03T11:15:00.002Z2011-01-03T11:25:17.688Z

It always seemed an absurd notion to me that the Vietnamese government would maintain POW camps holding American soldiers after the war had ended, but who am I to argue with such an idea considering it gave us Rambo: First Blood Part II and 1984's Missing In Action, starring Chuck Norris and directed by Joseph Zito. In the film, Norris plays Braddock, a Vietnam vet who travels with a diplomatic

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-36785927154711576292011-01-01T18:47:00.006Z2011-01-01T19:46:20.889Z

I was searching for a piece of Aphex Twin music on youtube yesterday, when I stumbled upon this 38min film about Radiohead's 4th LP. Reflections on Kid A (not sure if this is the original title of the film) features Thom Yorke discussing the origin of the record, the songs and how they were shaped, and the influence of Talking Head's Remain in Light LP and the avant-electronica of Autechre, Aphex

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-42998669805483073562010-12-25T12:52:00.003Z2011-01-02T13:19:36.015Z

Happy Christmas, or if you're deeply offended by such a vulgar gesture, Happy Holidays. I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of Christmas - I find it kinda stressful, trying to rush out and get presents that loved ones will actually like, rather than pretend to like; being unable to stop myself gorging on big meals and endless junk food; and having little time to do anything else because my job is

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-86064090571922942192010-12-12T19:20:00.008Z2010-12-12T19:43:59.153Z

Now that we are in dying weeks of 2010, I can safely say my favourite DVD release of 2010 has been the French label Capricci's 2-disc release of Robert Kramer's 1969 film Ice and his 1975 masterpiece Milestones. Ice focuses on an underground revolutionary group plotting and staging guerrilla style attacks on an American government locked in a war with Mexico. Kramer examines the workings of the

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-66376288110845695142010-12-01T19:24:00.009Z2010-12-01T20:27:11.250Z

Hammer fans and movie poster lovers would do well to check out Titan's latest Hammer effort, The Art of Hammer - Posters from the Archive of Hammer Films, a large 192 page hardback coffee table book collecting almost 300 Hammer movie posters from down thru the years - British quads, US one-sheets, foreign and International posters of Hammers famous, not so famous and down right obscure (The

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-65882818097994025252010-11-25T21:06:00.000Z2010-11-26T08:36:14.551Z

I'm still stunned and confused by the sudden death yesterday of Peter Christopherson aka Sleazy, one-quarter of Throbbing Gristle and one-half of Coil. I've been listening to TG and Coil for 18 years now so Peter has always been a large presence in my life. Hardly a few days would go by without me putting on one of their albums. Peter was also one of the designers at Hipgnosis (and worked on

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8409782986498845263.post-49583557771064498972010-11-24T12:28:00.004Z2010-11-24T19:38:34.933Z

Admittedly, issue #2 of Creepshow is nobody's favourite film. Made in 1987 and directed by long-time Romero cameraman Michael Gornick1, it's a distinctly low-key2 affair compared to the original film, paring down Creepshow's five-story framework to three3. In the first story, Old Chief Wood'n Head, a wooden Indian statue comes to life to seek revenge after a kindly shop owner and his wife are

Wes Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10502948357255970132noreply@blogger.com4