Halloween: Resurrection is a 2002 American horror film and eighth instalment in the Halloween film series. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who had also directed Halloween II, the film builds upon the continuity of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. It continues with the masked serial killer Michael Myers continuing his murderous rampage in his hometown of Haddonfield, but this time, in his old childhood home, now derelict, which is being used for a live internet horror show.

Although more sequels were planned to follow Resurrection, they were later replaced by Rob Zombie’s remake/re-imagining of the original Halloween in 2007. A sequel to the remake was released in 2009.

Three years after the events that happened in California in Halloween H20, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) had been sent to a psychiatric hospital after it is revealed that she had beheaded a paramedic instead of her brother Michael; the paramedic had located the body of Myers in the dining hall of Laurie’s school, but Myers had attacked the paramedic, crushed his larynx so he wouldn’t cry out and forcefully switched clothing and his mask. Myers then goes into hiding for the next three years.

On October 31, 2001, still in captivity, Laurie, pretending to be heavily medicated, prepares herself for the inevitable confrontation with Michael. When Michael finally appears, Laurie lures him into a trap, but as she attempts to kill Myers, she second guesses herself and goes to remove his mask to make sure that it is really her brother this time. Myers takes advantage, and stabs her in the back before sending her off the roof to her death.

The following year, six college students – Bill Woodlake (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Donna Chang (Daisy McCrackin), Jen Danzig (Katee Sackhoff), Jim Morgan (Luke Kirby), Rudy Grimes (Sean Patrick Thomas), and Sara Moyer (Bianca Kajlich) – win a competition to appear on an Internet reality show directed by Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes) and his assistant, Nora Winston (Tyra Banks), in which they have to spend a night in the childhood home of Michael Myers in order to find out what led him to kill. On Halloween, each equipped with head-cameras as well as the cameras laid throughout the house, they start the show, searching the entire house for something that can provide a clue to Michael’s past…

‘The only thing this tired slasher flick may resurrect is nostalgia for when the genre was still fresh and scary. It’s so devoid of joy and energy it makes even ’Jason X‘ look positively Shakespearian by comparison.’ Lou Lumenick, New York Post

“No, it’s not as single-minded as John Carpenter’s original, but it’s sure a lot smarter and more unnerving than the sequels.” Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News

‘If H20 took the “television star” theory of Scream, this one attempts to be self-referential – and fails, mostly. Sure, a few bits work, like when the Internet audience starts to act like typical fans watching an 80s stalk-and-slash (i.e. “Don’t go in there…he’s right behind you…” etc.). Most of the time, though, the jibes and jests brought on by the Internet webcast gimmick fall on their ass.’ Nate Yapp, Cinema Blend

‘There is not an intelligent line of dialogue muttered in the film and we are forced to listen to the six moronic teens screeching and doing dumb things that inspire spoof flicks like Scary Movie. For example the heroine at one point actually runs back into the house after she has spent half the film trying to get out.’ Guylaine Cadorette, Hollywood.com

‘Unlike the recent Jason X, which made up for its brain-dead script with some hilarious death scenes, Halloween: Resurrection can’t even manage to pull off a decent claret-stained money shot. An audacious nod to classic British serial killer flick Peeping Tom aside, Rosenthal handles the action with all the flair of a contributor to You’ve Been Framed, leaving us to ponder how any self-respecting director can fail to make a huge guy in a white mask carrying a ten-inch blade frightening.’  Total Film

Buy Halloween: Resurrection on Miramax Blu-ray from Amazon.com

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The Phantom Carriage (original title: Körkarlen) is a 1921 Swedish film generally considered to be one of the central works in the history of Swedish cinema. Released on New Year’s Day 1921, it was directed by and starred Victor Sjöström, alongside Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg and Astrid Holm. It is based on the novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (Körkarlen; 1912), by Nobel prize-winning Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf.

The film is notable for its special effects, its advanced (for the time) narrative structure with flashbacks within flashbacks, and for having been a major influence on Ingmar Bergman (Hour of the Wolf). Stanley Kubrick‘s 1980 horror film The Shining features several thematic similarities, as well as the famous sequence where Jack Nicholson uses an axe to break through a wooden door.

The original screenings didn’t have an original soundtrack, instead various pieces by Ture Rangström, Mendelsohn, Saint-Saëns and Max Reger were performed by the orchestras. For a long time several different soundtracks, generally of low quality, were used for television screenings and video releases. However in 1998, on demand from the Swedish Film Institute, a new soundtrack was composed by renowned silent film composer Matti Bye, which was highly praised and has been featured on all following VHS and DVD releases. At the 2007 San Francisco International Film Festival a new soundtrack was composed and performed live by rock icon Jonathan Richman (listen to a clip). Polish prog rock band Signal to Noise Ratio have also provided a soundtrack:

In 2008, Tartan Films released a DVD version of the film, with a new and contemporary score from electronic group KTL. In 2011, the Criterion Collection released a restored version of the film on Blu-ray and DVD.

On New Year’s Eve, the dying Salvation Army girl Edit has one last wish: to speak with David Holm. David, an alcoholic, is sitting in a graveyard with two drinking buddies, talking about his old friend Georges who told him about Death’s carriage—the legend that the last person to die each year has to work under the “strict master” Death and collect the souls of everybody who dies the following year. Georges himself died on New Year’s Eve last year.

Gustafsson, a friend of Edit who is looking for David, finds him and tries to convince him to go and see her, but David refuses. When his friends too try to convince him, a fight breaks out where David is accidentally killed just before the clock strikes twelve. The carriage appears, and the driver is revealed as Georges…

Buy The Phantom Carriage on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.com

“Sjöström’s leitmotiv, a ghostly carriage driven by Death rolling through foggy nights and along the seashore, is so powerful that it goes far beyond the symbolic meaning it is supposed to convey to become a celebration of cinema itself. These images infuse the whole movie with a macabre poetry that far outweighs the banality of the story…” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

“Slower than death itself, but just as spine chilling, this metaphysical morality play feels less like an artefact from a different era than a wintry warning from another world.” Matt Glasby, Film 4

“The double-exposure photography used throughout is a stupefying achievement of its own, an incantation of overlapping worlds and a visualization of the characters’ growing awareness of the connection between body and soul.” Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

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The Transplant (released on VHS as Night of the Bloody Transplant) is an obscure 1970 American horror film produced, directed and co-written by David W. Hanson (who also made crime/psycho drama Judy the same year). It features Dick Grimm, Ann Antell, David Haller, Carl Williams, Elizabeth Rawlings and Cal Seeley. Not to be confused with Mexican gore movie Night of the Bloody Apes.

“Heart transplants are almost routine these days. But when Dr. James Arnold tries to get approval to perform a heart transplanr for his elderly benefactor, the medical society turns him down. However, when his ne’er do well brother accidentally kills a young woman, the doctor takes matters into his own hands. Threatened by a cutoff of fund, his benefactor gets a new heart.

Dr. Arnold has achieved his dream, but because of the young girl’s death can’t tell anyone about his triumph. Meanwhile, his brother goes on a killing rampage and, in the bizarre turn of events that follow, Dr. Arnold also is killed and his heart is transplanted to save a policeman the brother has shot…” United Home Video sleeve synopsis

“A late entry in the H.G. Lewis look-alike sweepstakes, this one from Flint, Michigan … With real heart surgery and some lame strippers.” Brian Albright, Regional Horror Films 1958-1990: A State-by-State Guide with Interviews (McFarlane, 2012)

Buy Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990 from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Buy H.G. Lewis’ The Blood Trilogy on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

IMDb | We are most grateful to Critical Condition for the VHS sleeve image above.

Night of the Comet is a 1984 horror/science fiction film written and directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Beltran, Kelli Maroney (Chopping Mall), Sharon Farrell (It’s Alive!, Sweet 16),  Geoffrey Lewis and Mary Woronov.

A Blu-ray + DVD Collector’s Edition is being released by Shout! Factory on November 19, 2013.

The Earth is passing through the tail of a comet, an event which has not occurred in 65 million years, the last time coinciding with the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs. On the night of the comet’s passage, large crowds gather outside to watch and celebrate.

18-year-old Regina “Reggie” Belmont (Catherine Mary Stewart) works at a movie theater in southern California. She is annoyed to find the initials DMK have the sixth highest score on the theater’s arcade game, all the other scores being hers. She stays after the theater closes to become number one again and have sex with her boyfriend, the theater projectionist, in the steel-lined projection booth. Meanwhile, Reggie’s 16-year-old sister Samantha “Sam” (Kelli Maroney) argues with their stepmother (Sharon Farrell), who punches her in the face. The next morning, a reddish haze covers everything, and there are no signs of life, only piles of red dust surrounding heaps of clothing. Unaware that anything strange has happened, Larry (Michael Bowen) goes outside and is killed by a zombie…

“a successful pastiche of numerous science fiction films, executed with an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek flair that compensates for its absence in originality.” Variety

“What really makes Night of the Comet such a joy isn’t the nostalgia rush it provides, but the two central characters. These girls just get on with it, dealing with the apocalypse with resourcefulness, crackerjack wit, and machine guns.” Ian Berriman, SFX

Buy Night of the Comet on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

Blu-ray bonus features:

Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Thom Eberhardt

Audio Commentary with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart

Audio Commentary with Production Designer John Muto

Valley Girls At The End Of The World – Interviews with Stars Kelli Maroney and Catherine Mary Stewart

The Last Man On Earth? – An Interview with Actor Robert Beltran

Curse of the Comet – An Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator David B. Miller

Still Galleries (Behind the Scenes and Official Stills)

Theatrical Trailer

“Thom Eberhardt does a great job at directing with an equal balance of suspense and comic levity and even interjected a lot of horror for a PG-13 movie. The two funniest scenes in the film involve a shopping montage which turns into a new wave zombie shoot’m up at a nearby mall (scored with a boot-leg version of Cyndi Lauper’s hit, Girls Just Want to Have Fun) and the other is when Hector battles a zombie child in his mom’s East LA home. Beyond that, there are plenty of funny lines… ” Strange Kids Club

“moves quickly enough, but is filled with hilariously cheesy lines, non sequiturs, and cardboard characters.  There’s some decent plotting, a nice twist towards the end, and an attempt at a commentary, but the real fun of Night of the Comet comes in a few montage sequences.” dcp film

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Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear is a 2013 American horror anthology film from Chiller cable TV directed by Eric England, Nick Everhart, Emily Hagins, Jesse Holland, Miko Hughes and Andy Mitton. It was released in the US on Blu-ray on October 22nd by Shout Factory.

In Nick Everhart’s “Smell,” a dejected divorcee discovers a new cologne that will give him confidence – but at a high cost; Miko Hughes’ “See” centers on an optometrist who stumbles into a world of horror after discovering the key to capturing his patients’ visions; Emily Hagins’s “Touch” follows a blind 12-year-old boy who must match wits with a ruthless serial killer; Eric England’s ”Taste” centers on an ambitious hacker who goes to work for a nefarious corporation; and Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton’s “Listen” reveals the terrors that unfold when a cursed song comes back into rotation.

“While it’s not the scariest or most reckless recent anthology, Chilling Visions never aims to be, aiming instead for a more subtle sort of brooding fear and disturbing scares rooted in voyeurism. The central gimmick is approached seriously rather than playfully in most cases, and with three solid chapters, one interesting yet disappointing piece and one misfire, Chilling Visions is mostly a fine independent omnibus and should play well to all of your senses.” Ken W. Hanley, Fangoria

“Overall, I really dug Chilling Visions. After the ho-hum V/H/S series and other recent anthology outings, this one has thankfully got some notable spunk and scares.” Jason Coleman, Starpulse.com

“Overall, the anthology’s weakest segments (the first three) really don’t make the entire package worthwhile. Between Smell and See‘s run-of-the-mill predictability and the mess that is Touch, you could literally watch Taste and Listen by themselves and get more out of those than you could watching the entire anthology. It’s a shame, since there’s an overarching theme that was kind of a nice twist when it was revealed.” Pat Torfe, Bloody Disgusting

“Taken as a whole, 5 Senses of Fear is mediocre and not particularly frightening. You could definitely skip the first three and not miss anything. Only the last two make an impression and have a little fun with the concept. ” Paul Doro, Shock Till You Drop

“There’s enough gore here to satisfy most horror fans in search of some cheap thrills but so too are there some excellent examples of legitimate tension and atmosphere. The acting is generally pretty solid and the production values decent as well, particularly when you consider that this was made for cable TV and made very quickly at that. There’s some gloss and polish evident as well as some solid technical skills on display, which means that these wind up being well edited and well shot but at the same time the shorts are able to maintain a solid sense of dread. Some twisted black humor works its way into each of the stories, and there is a connecting thread that runs through all of them, which is a nice touch.” Ian Jane, DVD Talk

Buy Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear on Blu-ray | DVD | Instant Video from Amazon.com

“The press kit in the mail promised ‘five ground-breaking visions’. I don’t think that any ground has been broken here but at least they didn’t trample the grass either. Each short is entertaining enough. There are adequate amounts of gore and blood in each one; enough to appease any horror fan. As things go with anthologies you can usually bet on their being a dud or two in the mix. These five are fairly consistent though.” Andrew Mack, Twitch

Harlequin, known as Dark Forces in the USA, is a 1980 Australian film directed by Simon Wincer (Snapshot) from a screenplay by Everett De Roche (Long Weekend, Roadgames). It stars Robert Powell, Carmen Duncan, David Hemmings and Broderick Crawford. The film is a modern-day version of the Rasputin story; the major characters have the same first names as Rasputin and the Romanov royal family, and their family name ‘Rast’ is simply ‘Tsar’ backwards.

Simon Wincer and Everett De Roche had previously collaborated on Snapshot but were not happy with the film since it was made so hurriedly. They decided to make another film. They did a treatment and Antony I. Ginnane became involved as producer. The script was written with David Bowie (The Man Who Fell to Earth) in mind for the lead role but the filmmakers got “cold feet” at the last minute and cast Robert Powell . The original choice for the role of the senator was Orson Welles but he wanted $80,000 a week for two weeks.

An up-and-coming senator, Nick Rast, has a young son who is terminally ill with leukaemia. A mysterious faith healer, Gregory Wolfe, appears and seems to cure the boy. Rast’s wife Sandy falls in love with Wolfe, but the powerful interests behind Rast’s career, represented by geriatric monster Doc Wheelan are less happy with events…

Buy Harlequin (Dark Forces) on Scorpion Releasing Blu-ray | Synapse DVD from Amazon.com

“Part of the golden era of Australian genre films alongside other offerings like Thirst, Harlequin may be the most surreal of them all, particularly in the climax involving a fantastic disco harlequin outfit and indoor lightning bolts. Also bear in mind that the film’s PG rating was given at a time when you could still get away with some flashes of nudity and blood, which this film manages to slip by where you least expect it. Of course, it’s really Robert Powell‘s show all the way, and the actor … manages to deliver a suitably gripping performance thanks to his piercing eyes and peculiar line delivery.” Mondo Digital

“There’s also an alarming message for viewers in the films climax, I don’t want to give it away but it’s certainly as relevant and frightening now as it was back in 1980. Harlequin is quite the gem, it’s engrossing, well acted, well directed and well photographed, it’s let down by a few ‘signs of the time’ in regards to the not so special effects work, but other than that there is very little to the film that I can see spoiling the viewing experience. Definitely a great film to settle down with on a Sunday evening with a nice cold beer.” Phill Escott, Welcome to the Deuce

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1978 science fiction thriller directed by Philip Kaufman, and starring Donald Sutherland (Don’t Look Now), Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright (Alien) and Leonard Nimoy (Them!). It is a remake of the 1956 film of the same name, which was based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. A box office success, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was very well received by critics, and is considered by some to be among the greatest film remakes.

In deep space, a race of gelatinous creatures abandon their dying world. Pushed through the universe by solar wind, they make their way to Earth and land in San Francisco. Some fall on plant leaves, assimilating them and forming small pods with pink flowers. Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams), an employee at the San Francisco health department, is one of several people who bring flowers home. The next morning, Elizabeth’s partner, Geoffrey Howell (Art Hindle), suddenly becomes distant, and she senses that something is wrong. Her colleague, health inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), suggests that she see his friend, psychiatrist Dr. David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy). Kibner suggests that Elizabeth wants to believe that Geoffrey has changed because she is looking for an excuse to get out of their relationship.

Meanwhile, Matthew’s friend Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum), a struggling writer who owns a mud bath with his wife Nancy (Veronica Cartwright), discovers a deformed body on one of the beds and calls Matthew to investigate. Noticing that the body (which has adult features but lacks distinguishing characteristics) bears a slight resemblance to Jack, Matthew breaks into Elizabeth’s home and finds a nearly complete double of her in the bedroom garden. He is able to get Elizabeth to safety, but the duplicate body has disappeared by the time he returns with the police…

Variety wrote that it “validates the entire concept of remakes. This new version of Don Siegel’s 1956 cult classic not only matches the original in horrific tone and effect, but exceeds it in both conception and execution.” The New York Times‘ Janet Maslin wrote “The creepiness [Kauffman] generates is so crazily ubiquitous it becomes funny.”

‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a masterclass in slowly building paranoia, but also allows itself to have spectacular action scenes, and impressive moments of visceral horror. The semi-formed pod creatures are creepy – a single moment of blood running from the nostril of one a far more potent moment that many a horror set piece – and the scene where the pods give birth to these half-formed creatures while the human version sleeps and begins to rot remain impressively grotesque. The few moments of gore – Sutherland smashing in the head of a semi-formed pod, a character’s face collapsing as their duplicate is completed – are suitably horrible, while Adams gets the most unsettling topless scene in film history. This is a truly great film – evidence that a remake can actually bring something new to a story and a great stand-alone piece. Jack Finney’s original novel is the gift that keeps giving – there have been two more versions of the story since this one – but Kaufman’s movie remains the one to beat.’ David Flint, Strange Things Are Happening

Buy Invasion of the Body Snatchers on Arrow Video Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

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Nosferatu is a 1979 album by the The Stranglers former lead singer Hugh Cornwell and Robert Williams, who was a drummer in Captain Beefheart‘s Magic Band. The album cover features a still from F.W. Murnau‘s 1921 film of the same name. The album is dedicated to the memory of Max Schreck. The inner sleeve features song lyrics on one side and a lifesize Hannya Mask (by K.Kaneko) on the other. One track is named after Japanese monster Mothra.

‘Guest’ musicians on the album include Ian Underwood from Frank Zappa‘s band and David Walldroop. Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh of the band Devo play on the song “Rhythmic Itch”, and “Wrong Way Round” features a cameo from Ian Dury as a fairground barker (listed as “Duncan Poundcake” on the album credits). Members of The Clash sang banking vocals on the track ‘Puppets’

Hugh Cornwell was advised to start a solo career in case of The Stranglers breaking up due to the end of the punk rock scene. A cover version of Cream’s “White Room” was the only single to be released from the album. “Wired” was included on the Stranglers’ “Don’t Bring Harry” EP.

Buy Nosferatu on MP3 or CD from Amazon.co.uk

Buy ‘Definitive fully-restored’ Eureka! Blu-ray | Blu-ray + DVD Steelbook from Amazon.co.uk 

Buy Kino Classics 2-Disc Ultimate Edition Blu-ray | DVD from Amazon.com

Hugh Cornwell and Robert Williams ‘White Room’ (cover of Cream song):

Hugh Cornwell and Robert Williams ‘Nosferatu’:

The Stranglers ‘In the Shadows’:

Frankenstein (also known as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) is a 1994 American horror film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Robert De Niro and Branagh himself. It also stars Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm, John Cleese (Monty Python), Aidan Quinn and Richard Briers. The film was produced on a budget of $45 million and is considered the most faithful film adaptation of Mary Shelley‘s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film opens with a few words by Mary Shelley:

“I busied myself to think of a story which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror; one to make the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.”

The story begins in the year 1794. Captain Walton is leading a daring expedition to reach the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in the ice of the Arctic Sea, Walton and his crew discover a man traveling across the Arctic on his own. In the distance, a loud moaning can be heard. When the man sees how obsessed Walton is with reaching the North Pole, he asks, “Do you share my madness?” The man then reveals that his name is Victor Frankenstein and begins his tale…

“The monster has always been the true subject of the Frankenstein story, and Kenneth Branagh’s new retelling understands that. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” has all of the usual props of the Frankenstein films, brought to a fever pitch: The dark and stormy nights, the lightning bolts, the charnel houses of spare body parts, the laboratory where Victor Frankenstein stirs his steaming cauldron of life. But the center of the film, quieter and more thoughtful, contains the real story…” Roger Ebert, full review here

Buy on Blu-ray | DVD | Instant Video from Amazon.com or DVD from Amazon.co.uk

“…Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a work of lavish dedication and skill, yet as soon as the creature is let loose the film becomes rather listless. Branagh, for all his craftsmanship, hasn’t succeeded in tapping the morbid core of the material, the feeling that Victor Frankenstein’s experiment in creating ”life” is really a mask for his obsession with death (indeed, he can no longer tell the difference). The key problem, I dare say, is the director’s performance. He plays Frankenstein with all the spirit he can muster, yet he’s too conventionally engaging — his Victor is a kind of fervid yuppie workaholic who never seems truly possessed of a dark side…” Owen Gleiberman, here

“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a worthy attempt to give the story a big-budget makeover but ultimately it collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness, and it was further hampered by a lack of frights.” Bruce G Hallenbeck, The Hammer Frankenstein (Hemlock Film Books, 2013)

Buy The Hammer Frankenstein (includes other Frankenstein films) from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster on Horrorpedia: Assignment Terror (Dracula vs. Frankenstein | Aurora Model Kits | Blackenstein | Bride of Frankenstein | Drak Pack | Flesh for Frankenstein | Frankenstein 1970 | Frankenstein’s Army | Frankenstein’s Daughter | Frankenstein’s Monster (Marvel Comics) | Frankie Stein | Howl of the Devil | I Was a Teenage Frankenstein | Jack P. Pierce (makeup artist) | Mad Monster Party? | Mego Mad Monsters | Monster Cereals | Monster Brawl | Shock Theatre Hammer Horror Trading Cards | Peter Tremayne (author) | The Spirit of the Beehive | Young Frankenstein

Wikipedia | IMDb

Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence is a 1993 horror action film, and the second sequel to Maniac Cop, directed by William Lustig and Joel Soisson from a screenplay by Larry Cohen (It’s Alive, Q: The Winged Serpent, The Stuff). It stars Robert Davi, Paul Gleason, Jackie Earle Haley, Robert Z’Dar, Caitlin Dulany and Gretchen Becker. The film was originally rated “NC-17“, and some extreme violent acts were cut to get an “R” rating.

A priest practicing voodoo resurrects Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar), who takes his badge and comes back from the dead to do his bidding. Meanwhile, a pair of cameramen who are hoping to make it big, come across a convenience store robbery, where a police officer named Katie Sullivan (Gretchen Becker) intervenes in a hostage situation, where she manages to wound the suspect, but realizes that the clerk is his girlfriend, and she had let him in purposefully to rob the store. There is a crossfire, and while Kate is severely wounded, she ends up killing the clerk in return. When rushed to the hospital, she is rendered comatose and brain dead, much to the chagrin of investigating officer Sean McKinney (Robert Davi), who had caught the report of Katie using excessive force in a hostage situation, seeming to make the clerk an innocent victim, and in response threatening to free the badly injured Frank Jessup.

Meanwhile, stalking Katie’s progress, Cordell goes to the hospital to watch her. He kills one of her supervising physicians with defibrillator paddles, and the physician set to sign the warrant to cut Kate’s life support, by exposing him to high amounts of X-Ray radiation. The reporters who had framed Kate are then murdered as well…

Buy Unrated Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence Blue Underground Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

“Out of all three Maniac Cop films, Badge of Silence is the most misunderstood and underappreciated. This is understandable, as a poor script and studio interference has resulted in an uneven mess in which Cordell almost seems like an afterthought. The main focus of the story is McKinney’s efforts to clear the name of his friend, whilst the powers-that-be attempt to hang her out to dry as an example against police brutality. But the inclusion of Houngan seems a little ridiculous, as this takes the story in a direction that does not fit with the tone and mythology of the series. In fact, this is yet another example of filmmakers being forced to unnecessarily explain the reasons behind their antagonists, usually because all other ideas have been exhausted.” Christian Sellers, Retro Slashers

“Maniac Cop 2 was a pretty fantastic action-horror hybrid and some of what we get here is outstanding but you can definitely tell which sequences were directed by William Lustig and which were directed by producer Joel Soisson, he just doesn’t have the action-chops of Lustig but he gives it quite a shot with the crazy police cruiser vs. ambulance car chase at the end of the movie, it’s completely fucking nuts…” Ken Kastenhuber, McBastard’s Mausoleum

Wikipedia | IMDb

The World’s End is a 2013 British science fiction comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike and Eddie Marsan. It is the third in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, following Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007). Wright has described the film as “social science fiction” in the tradition of John Wyndham and Samuel Youd.

Gary King, a middle-aged alcoholic, resolves to track down his estranged friends and complete the “Golden Mile”, a pub crawl encompassing 12 pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven. The group attempted the crawl as teenagers over 20 years earlier, but failed to reach the final pub, The World’s End. Gary persuades Peter Page, Oliver “O-Man” Chamberlain, Steven Prince, and Andy Knightley to join him in Newton Haven.

The group are briefly joined for a drink by Oliver’s sister Sam, over whose affections Gary and Steven had previously rivaled. In the toilets of the fourth pub, Gary gets into a fight with a surprisingly strong and agile teenager. Gary accidentally knocks the teen’s head off, exposing him as a robot. Gary’s friends join him and fight more robots, after which Andy abandons his teetotal ways and drinks an order of shots. The group decide to continue the pub crawl to avoid suspicion…

“Just as the adults step in to make some belated adult decisions, it turns out that the town has been taken over by robots. And even though that’s pretty much the whole plot of the movie, once things get rolling, a lot of the genuine character-driven plot evaporates. I get it, I guess, that this kind of a spoof on a disaster movie is a way to confront existential problems, addiction, middle-age, conformity, feelings of isolation, but I just couldn’t help but feel that the group dynamic was building toward something. And then the robot thing happens and that’s basically the rest of the movie.” Rob Gunther. Strictly Autobiographical

Buy The World’s End on DVD | Blu-ray + DVD + Ultraviolet | Instant Video from Amazon.com

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“The most inventive, humane comedy in ages, probably the best-directed action film of the summer, and easily the most intelligent science-fiction story in a year lousy with the things.” Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

“There’s a lot to enjoy in The World’s End, and it’s only let down by a sense of familiarity – it might be very different in story, but stylistically it’s very much the same as the previous two films. What once seemed fresh now sometimes feels like Wright is referencing himself, and after three films, we get it – you have a great editing technique. No need to keep pointing it out, we’ll pick up on it anyway. But the story and the characters here feel much more developed than in previous films and this time, Wright and Pegg are willing to make their central character less an everyman and more someone we might struggle to like (it can be argued that Gary is the real villain of the piece for the first half). And the smart screenplay – which has lots of subtle moments in the dialogue that foreshadow later events – is sharp, witty and knowing.” David Flint, Strange Things Are Happening

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Wikipedia | IMDb

Christmas is generally seen as a jolly old time for the whole family – if you are to believe the TV commercials, everyone gets together for huge communal feasts while excited urchins unwrap whatever godawful new toy has been hyped as the must-have gift of the year. It is not, generally speaking, seen as a time of horror.

And yet horror has a long tradition of being part of the festive season. Admittedly, the horror in question was traditionally the ghost story, ideally suited for cold winter nights, where people gather around the fire to hear some spine chilling tale of ghostly terror – a scenario recreated in the BBC’s 2000 series Ghost Stories for Christmas, with Christopher Lee reading M.R. James tales to a room full of public school boys. That series was part of a tradition that included a similar one in 1986 with Robert Powell (Harlequin) and the children’s series Spine Chillers from 1980, as well as the unofficially titled annual series Ghost Stories for Christmas than ran for much of the 1970s and is occasionally revived to this day.

A Christmas Carol

The idea of the traditional Xmas ghost story can be traced back to Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol, where miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three ghosts in an effort to make him change his ways. It’s more a sentimental morality tale than a horror story, though in the original book and one or two adaptations, the ghosts are capable of causing the odd shudder. Sadly, the story has been ill-served by cinematic adaptations – the best version is probably the 1951 adaptation, though by then there had already been several earlier attempts, going back to 1910. A few attempts have been made at straight retellings since then, but all to often the story is bastardised (a musical version in 1970, various cartoons) or modernised – the best known versions are probably Scrooged and The Muppet Christmas Carol, both of which are inexplicably popular. A 1999 TV movie tried to give the story a sense of creepiness once again, but the problem now is that the story is so familiar that it seems cliched even when played straight. The idea of a curmudgeon being made to see the true meaning of Christmas is now an easy go-to for anyone grinding out anonymous TV movies that end up on Christmas-only TV channels or gathering dust on DVD.

A Christmas CAROL (1999)

Outside of A Christmas Carol, horror cinema tended to avoid festive-themed stories for a long time. While fantasies like The Bishop’s Wife, It’s a Wonderful Life and Bell, Book and Candle played with the supernatural, these were light, feel-good dramas and comedies on the whole, designed to warm the heart rather than stop it dead. TV shows like The Twilight Zone would sometimes have a Christmas themed tale, but again these tended to be the more sentimental stories.

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The only film to really hint at Christmas creepiness was 1945 British portmanteau film Dead of Night, though even here, the Christmas themed tale, featuring a ghostly encounter at a children’s party, is more sentimental than terrifying. Meanwhile, the Mexican children’s film Santa Claus vs The Devil (1959) might see Santa in battle with Satan, but it’s all played for wholesome laughs rather than scares.

Santa Claus vs The Devil

It wasn’t until the 1970s that the darker side of Christmas began to be explored, and it was another British portmanteau film that began it all. The Amicus film Tales from the Crypt (1972) opened with a tale in which murderous Joan Collins finds herself terrorised by an escaped psycho on Christmas Eve, unable to call the police because of her recently deceased hubby lying on the carpet. The looney is dressed as Santa, and her young daughter has been eagerly awaiting his arrival, leading to a suitably mean-spirited twist. The story was subsequently retold in a 1989 episode of the Tales from the Crypt TV series.

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This film would lead the way towards decades of Christmas horror. Of course, lots of films had an incidental Christmas connection, taking place in the festive season (or ‘winter’, as it used to be known). Movies like Night Train Murders, Rabid and even the misleadingly named Silent Night Bloody Night have a Christmas connection, but it’s incidental to the story. Those are not the movies we are discussing here. No, to REALLY count as a Christmas film, then the festive celebrations need to be at the heart of events.

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Two distinct types of Christmas horror developed. There was the Mad Santa films, like Tales from the Crypt on the one hand, and the ‘bad things happening at Christmas’ movie on the other. The pioneer of the latter was Bob Clark’s 1974 film Black Christmas, which not only pioneered the Christmas horror movie but also was an early template for the seasonal slasher film. Some critics have argued, with good cause, that this is the movie that laid the foundations for Halloween a few years later – a psycho film (with a possibly supernatural slant) set during a holiday, where young women are terrorised by an unseen force. But while John Carpenter’s film would be a smash hit and effectively reinvent the genre, Black Christmas went more or less unnoticed, its reputation only building years later.

In 2006, Black Christmas was remade by Glen Morgan for Dimension Films as Black X-mas in a gorier but less effective loose retelling of the original story. Interchangeable ‘eye-candy’ victims add nothing to a concept that was creepily effective in the 70s but now seemed like death-by-numbers, albeit with a gruesome back story.

Preceding Black Christmas was TV movie Home for the Holidays, in which four girls are picked off over Christmas by a yellow rain-coated killer who may or may not be their wicked stepmother. A decent if unremarkable psycho killer story, the film was directed by TV movie veteran John Llewellyn Moxey.

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Also made for TV, this time in Britain, The Exorcism was the opening episode of TV series Dead of Night (no connection to the film of that name) broadcast in 1972. One of the few surviving episodes of the series, The Exorcism is a powerful mix of horror and social commentary, as a group of champagne socialists celebrating Christmas in the country cottage that one couple have bought as a holiday home find themselves haunted by the ghosts of the peasants who had starved to death there during a famine. While theatrical in style and poorly shot, the show is nevertheless creepily effective.

1980 saw Christmas Evil (aka You Better Watch Out), a low budget oddity by Lewis Jackson that has since gained cult status. In this film, a put-upon toy factory employee decided to become a vengeful Santa, putting on the red suit and setting out to sort the naughty from the nice. It’s a strange film, mixing pathos, horror and black comedy, yet oddly it works, making it one of the more interesting Christmas horrors out there.

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Also made in 1980, but rather less successful, was To All a Goodnight, the only film directed by Last House on the Left star David Hess and written by The Incredible Melting Man himself, Alex Rebar. This generic slasher, with a house full of horny sorority girls and their boyfriends being picked off by a psycho in a Santa outfit, is too slow and poorly made to be effective.

The most notorious Christmas horror film hit cinemas in 1984. Silent Night Deadly Night  was, in most ways, a fairly generic slasher, with a Santa-suited maniac on the loose taking revenge against the people who have been deemed ‘naughty’. The film itself was nothing special It’s essentially the same premise as Christmas Evil without the intelligence), and might have gone unnoticed if it wasn’t for a provocative advertising campaign that emphasised the Santa-suited psycho and caused such outrage that the film was rapidly pulled from theatres.

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Nevertheless, it had made a small fortune in the couple of weeks it played, and continued to be popular when reissued with a less contentious campaign. The film is almost certainly directly responsible for most ‘psycho Santa’ films since – all hoping to cash in on the publicity that comes with public outrage – and spawned four sequels.

Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 is notorious for the amount of footage from the first film that is reused to pad out the story, and was banned in the UK (where the first film was unreleased until 2009). Part 3 was directed, surprisingly, by Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop, Cockfighter) and adds a psychic element to the story. Part 4, directed by Brian Yuzna, drops the killer Santa story entirely and has no connection to the other films beyond the title, telling a story of witchcraft and cockroaches, while Part 5 – The Toymaker – is also unconnected to the other movies.

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Also made in 1984, but attracting less attention, Don’t Open Till Christmas was that rarest of things, a 1980s British horror film – and one of the sleaziest ever made to boot. Starring and directed by Edmund Purdom from a screenplay by exploitation veterans Derek Ford and Alan Birkinshaw, the film sees a psycho killer, traumatised by a childhood experience at Christmas, who begins offing Santas – or more accurately, anyone he sees dressed as Santa, which in this case includes a porn model, a man at a peepshow and people having sex. With excessive gore, nudity and an overwhelming atmosphere of grubbiness, the film was become a cult favourite for fans of bad taste cinema.

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The third Christmas horror of 1984 was the most wholesome and the most successful. Joe Dante’s Gremlins is all too often overlooked when people talk about festive horror, but from the opening credits, with Darlene Love’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) belting out over the soundtrack, to the carol singing Gremlins and Phoebe Cates’ story of why she hates Christmas, the festive season is at the very heart of the film. Gremlins remains the most fun Christmas movie ever made, a heady mix of EC-comics ghoulishness, sentiment, slapsick and action with some of the best monsters ever put on film.

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Gremlins would spawn many knock offs – Ghoulies, Munchies, Critters and more – but only Elves, made in 1989, had a similar Christmas theme. This oddball effort, which proposes that Hitler’s REAL plan for the Master Race was human/elf hybrids. When the elves are revived in a pagan ritual at Christmas, only an alcoholic ex-cop played by Dan Haggerty can stop them. It’s not as much fun as that makes it sound.

Family horror returned in 1993 stop-motion film A Nightmare Before Christmas, directed by Henry Selick and produced / co-written by Tim Burton. This chirpy musical sees Pumpkin King Jack Skellington, leader of Halloween Town, stumbling upon Christmas Town and deciding to take it over. It’s a charming and visually lush movie that has unsurprisingly become a festive family favourite over the last twenty years and now comes with a 3-D conversion to boot.

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Rather less fun is 1996′s Santa Claws, a typically rotten effort by John Russo (Night of the Living Dead), with Debbie Rochon as a Scream Queen being stalked by a murderous fan in a Santa outfit. This low rent affair is pretty forgettable. It is one of several low/no budget video quickies that aimed to cash in on the Christmas horror market with tales of killer Santas – others include Satan Claus (1996), Christmas Season Massacre (2001) and Psycho Santa (2003).

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1997 saw the release of Jack Frost (not to be confused with the family film from a year later of the same name). Here, a condemned serial killer is involved in a crash with a truck carrying genetic material, which – of course – causes him to mutate into a killer snowman. Inspired by the Child’s Play movie, Jack Frost is pretty silly, but the outlandish concept, knowing sexism and a mix of black comedy and horror made it popular enough to spawn a self-mocking sequel, Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman set on a Tiki-themed holiday Hell tropical island. Less confrontational than the original, the second “cold-blooded killer” outing features Warners Bros-style cartoon violence that includes one victim killed by a frozen snow anvil and possibly the world’s first and only point-of-view shot from an ice cube!

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That might seem as ludicrous as Christmas horror goes, but 1998 saw Feeders 2: Slay Bells, in which the alien invaders of the title are fought off by Santa and his elves. Shot on video with little money, it’s a film you might struggle to get through.

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Rather better was the 1999 The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special, which mixes the regular characters of the series into a series of stories that are even darker than usual. Mixing vampires, family curses and voodoo into a trilogy of stories that are linked, Amicus style, it’s as creepy as it is funny, and it’s perhaps unsurprising that Mark Gatiss would graduate to writing the more recent BBC Christmas ghost stories.

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The League of Gentlemen

Two popular video franchises collided in 2004′s Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys, with the great-nephew of the original Puppet Master battling an evil organisation that wants his formula to help bring killer toys to life on Christmas Eve. Like most of the films in the series, this is cheap but cheerful, throwaway stuff.

2005′s Santa’s Slay (“Violent Night, Gory Night”) sees Santa reinvented as a demon who is forced to be nice and give toys to children. Released from this demand, he reverts to his murderous ways. Given that Santa is played by fearsome looking wrestler Bill Goldberg, you have to wonder how anyone ever trusted him to come down their chimney and NOT kill them.

Santa’s Slay

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Also in 2005 came The Christmas Tale, part of the Spanish Films to Keep You Awake series, in which a group of children find a woman dressed as Santa at the bottom of a well. It turns out that she’s a bank robber and the kids decide to starve her into handing over the stolen cash. But things take a darker turn when she escapes and the kids think she is a zombie. It’s a witty, inventive little tale.

A Christmas Tale

2006 saw Two Front Teeth, where Santa is a vampire assisted by zombie elves in a rather ludicrous effort. Equally silly, Treevenge is a 2008 short film by Jason Eisener, who would go on to shoot Hobo with a Shotgun. It’s the story of sentient Christmas trees who have enough of being cut down and displayed in people’s home and set out to take their revenge.

Treevenge

Recently, the Christmas horror has become more international, with two European films in 2010 offering an insight into different festive traditions. Dick Maas’ Sint (aka Saint) is a lively Dutch comedy horror which features a vengeful Sinterklaas (similar to, but not the same as, Santa Claus) coming back on December 5^th in years when that date coincides with a full moon, to carry out mass slaughter. It’s a fun, fast-paced movie that also offers a rare glimpse into festive traditions that are rather different to anything seen outside the local culture (including the notorious Black Peters).

Finnish film Rare Exports, on the other hand, sees the original (and malevolent) Santa unearthed during an excavation, leading to the discovery of a whole race of Santas, who are then captured and sold around the world. Witty and atmospheric, the film was inspired by Jalmari Helander’s original short film Rare Exports, Inc, a spoof commercial for the company selling the wild Santas.

Rare Exports

But these two high quality, entertaining Christmas horrors were very much the exception to the rule by this stage. The genre was more accurately represented by the likes of 2010′s Yule Die, another Santa suited slasher, or 2011′s Slaughter Claus, a plotless, pretty unwatchable amateur effort from Charles E. Cullen featuring Santa and the Bi-Polar Elf on an unexplained and uninteresting killing spree.

Slaughter Claus

Bloody Christmas (2012) sees a former movie star going crazy as he plays Santa on a TV show. 2009 film Deadly Little Christmas is a ham-fisted retread of slashers like Silent Night Deadly Night and 2002′s One Hell of a Christmas is a Danish Satanic horror comedy. Bikini Bloodbath Christmas (2009) is the third in a series of pointless tits ‘n’ gore satires that fail as horror, soft porn or comedy.

And of course the festive horror movie can’t escape the low budget zombie onslaught – 2009 saw Silent Night, Zombie Night, in 2010 there was Santa Claus Versus the Zombie, 2011 brought us A Cadaver Christmas, in 2012 we had Christmas with the Dead and Silent Night of the Living Dead is currently in pre-production. None of these films are likely to fill you with the spirit of the season.

So although we can hardly say that the Christmas horror film is at full strength, it is at least as prolific as ever. With a remake of Silent Night Deadly Night, now just called Silent Night, playing theatres in 2012, it seems that filmmaker’s fascination with the dark side of the season isn’t going away anytime soon.

Silent Night

Article by David Flint

Nightmare City (aka City of the Walking Dead, Italian title: Incubo Sulla Cittá Contaminata) is a 1980 Italian-Spanish zombie film directed by Umberto Lenzi. The film stars Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Maria Rosaria Omaggio, Francisco Rabal, Sonia Viviani, Eduardo Fajardo and Mel Ferrer. Director Lenzi felt the film was not as much as zombie film but a “radiation sickness movie” with hints of an anti-nuclear and anti-military message.

American TV news reporter Dean Miller (Hugo Stiglitz) waits at an unnamed European airport for the arrival of a scientist that he is about to interview regarding a recent nuclear accident. An unmarked military plane makes an emergency landing. The plane doors open and dozens of zombies burst out and begin stabbing and shooting the military personnel outside. Miller tries to let the people know of this event, but General Murchison of Civil Defense (Mel Ferrer) will not allow it. Miller tries to find his wife Anna who works at a hospital as the zombies begin to overrun the city.

Miller and his wife escape to an abandoned amusement park that is also overrun with zombies. The two climb to the top of a roller coaster and are about to be rescued by a military helicopter. Miller then wakes up revealing the whole situation to be a dream. Miller also learns that today he is about to meet a scientist at the airport. When he arrives a military plane makes an emergency landing.

“Nightmare City might be the very first “running zombie” film, long before 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead made this the new standard. The film is extremely violent, has quite a bit of gore, and some unintended humor. In other words it’s a cheesy “B” grade horror film, that horror collector’s should have in their collections.’” Eddie Scarito, This is Infamous

” … a wild and bloody exercise in excess. The movie has its fans as well as its fair share of detractors. I think it’s an odd amalgamation of themes and ideas given a much larger scope than normally afforded these movies. It’s neither Lenzi’s best and far from his worst. It’s a favorite of mine and sports a great deal of ultra violent entertainment value for shock seekers and gore mongers alike.” Cool Ass Cinema

“Nightmare City also accomplishes what it set out to do with respect to nudity and gore. The zombies have a amusingly shameless compulsion to rip open the shirts of women before they kill them as well as a weird breast-stabbing (and on one occasion, breast-lopping off) fetish.” John Shelton, Bloody Good Horror

“It’s probably fair to say that Nightmare City will always be known for its particular tics (its militaristic, running weapon-wielding zombies), but Lenzi fully exploits them. His movie might be dumb, but it’s rarely boring, and there’s something to be said for any movie that can transcend its tone-deafness as well as this one. It’s probably the only film that considers the plight of aerobic dancers during a zombie apocalypse.” Oh, the Horror!

“You’ll probably forget the entire movie within a month of watching it, but it’s fun and you’ll get a lot of laughs out of it: terrible acting; zombies standing directly in front of the camera posing; a random dog literally playing with the zombies; the stupidity of the two main characters; the horrible makeup; multiple times people standing still then suddenly jumping into action; woman’s head exploding then in the next shot she’s dead with just a little bloody spot on her forehead; the TV that for no reason explodes into a huge fireball; the completely random harpoon gun and much more.” Dymon Enlow, Happyotter

Raro Video Blu-ray Special Features:

An interview with Umberto Lenzi

Original English trailer

Original Italian trailer

A fully illustrated booklet on the genesis and production of the film

New HD Transfer – Digitally restored

New and improved English subtitle translation

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Wikipedia | IMDb | We are grateful to Cool Ass Cinema for a couple of the images above.

WH

The Apparition is a 2012 American horror film written and directed by Todd Lincoln and starring Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton, Julianna Guill and Luke Pasqualino.

On May 21, 1973, six people conduct The Charles Experiment, a parapsychological exercise, in which they stare at a drawing of a deceased man, Charles Reamer, hoping to summon his spirit. Years later, four college students, Patrick (Tom Felton), Lydia (Julianna Guill), Greg (Luke Pasqualino), and Ben (Sebastian Stan) attempt to recreate the Charles Experiment on a larger scale by using modern technology. During the experiment, something attacks the students and pulls Lydia into the wall. Some time later, Ben and his girlfriend Kelly (Ashley Greene) are living together. After countless strange occurrences around their home, Ben gets 36 “urgent” emails from Patrick that first inform him of a new attempt at the Charles Experiment, followed by a warning that “containment failed” and finally “you are in danger”…

“Yeah, it’s pretty unsurprising – but on the other hand, the characters aren’t written as laughable cardboard cutouts who can’t hope to pull off a believable person. The characters here are likeable and genuine, and even though the ending wasn’t what I was looking for, the rest of the movie to a lesser degree was sort of what I wanted to see. It doesn’t rely on cheap scares or gore to pretend to frighten us – it relies on PG-13, if not cliched, images and suspense tactics that are decent, if not “seen before”.” Metacritic.com

“The Apparition’s something-crossing-over-into-our-world plot might not break new ground, but it’s far from the worst idea for a movie I’ve ever heard. In fact, there are quite a few details about the film that really work. The camera angles are frequently interesting. The visual effects are clean and well put-together, especially for the smaller budget. There’s a great usage of mold, easily the creepiest of all household annoyances, and the setting, a starter community filled with mostly empty houses, is clever, topical and the right level of creepy. Unfortunately, none of this matters at all because the main characters are completely unlikable, and the momentum is consistently ruined by poor decision-making. The film waits too long to give viewers the backstory, adding confusion instead of suspense. It lets its male protagonist loudly swear while his girlfriend is on the phone with her parents, making him seem more oblivious and douchey than endearing and funny. It seemingly throws us in the middle of the action but then allows it to drag on for a few days, sacrificing both real time excitement and longterm character changes. And perhaps worst of all, it chooses to vaguely explain itself.’ Mack Rawden, CinemaBlend.com

“Clocking in at 74 minutes (not including end credits), the only thing scary about The Apparition is that any studio would think to charge you to watch it. This supposed supernatural thriller is a hollowed out shell of creaky noises, shadows and utter nonsense. There is little doubt as to why this film sat on a shelf for over a year, waiting for an empty weekend to con unsuspecting moviegoers out of their money, but if you end up paying to see this don’t be ashamed to ask for your money back. I get the feeling writer/director Todd Lincoln was going for something ambiguous, believing what we don’t understand is scarier, and in most cases that’s true, but when all you give the audience are shadows, a few crazy visions and killer bed sheets you haven’t done anything to scare anyone. The highest praise goes to the Warner Bros. marketing department who somehow came up with the tagline “Once you believe, you die.” Even this makes no sense, unless I missed a seriously important piece of the plot, considering dying in this case has nothing to do with believing, unless you believe every shitty movie brings cinema one step closer to dying… In that case, the marketing is true.” Brad Brevet, RopeofSilicon.com

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Posted by Anushka

We Are What We Are is a 2013 American horror film co-wriiten (with Nick Damici) and directed by Jim Mickle (Mulberry Street, Stake Land). It was screened at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. It is a remake of the 2010 Mexican film of the same name. The film stars Bill Sage, Julia Garner, Ambyr Childers, Kelly McGillis, Odeya Rush, Michael Parks, Wyatt Russell and Nick Damici.

A seemingly wholesome and benevolent family, the Parkers have always kept to themselves, and for good reason. Behind closed doors, patriarch Frank rules his family with a rigorous fervor, determined to keep his ancestral customs intact at any cost. As a torrential rainstorm moves into the area, tragedy strikes and his daughters Iris and Rose are forced to assume responsibilities that extend beyond those of a typical family. As the unrelenting downpour continues to flood their small town, the local authorities begin to uncover clues that bring them closer to the secret that the Parkers have held closely for so many years. While the town’s doctor who’s daughter was eaten by Frank watches, the daughters both decide to consume their overbearing father, by eating his flesh while still alive…

‘What’s particularly impressive about We Are What We Are is what it changes (which is a lot) and what it chooses to keep; the central core of both films is very similar and yet fascinating for different reasons. The film also boasts strong essentials in the cinematography and score departments, while Mr. Mickle acts as his own editor, and the result is two disparate subplots that slowly converge in clever and intense fashion. This is a sober and serious horror tale, but it does remember to include some jolts, scares, and seriously bloody bits, too. It’s just a tight little package, all told.’ Scott Weinberg, FEARnet

‘The best element of the picture is how Mickle slowly, painstakingly builds both suspense and grotesque horror. Mickle is a natural born filmmaker and there is seldom a frame or beat that’s out of step. In fact there’s something very peculiar at work here in just how rich his approach is since there’s a genuine attempt to humanize its characters in a way where we often empathize with their situation even when they’re engaging in utterly horrendous actions. This is in stark contrast to the original Mexican version where its characters are pretty reprehensible as human beings…’ Glen Klymkiw, Film Corner

‘The movie saves most of its modest number of jolts for its last quarter or so, which makes them all the more intense. They stick in your craw – and be warned, they’re not for the squeamish… Mickle’s version has all the American Gothic trappings, maybe even pouring it on a bit thick at times. Despite the generally somber tone, there are a few moments when he seems to be tweaking genre buffs’ memories of movies by the likes of Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper.’ Walter Addiego, San Francisco Gate

‘Mickle takes a slightly different tack altogether, using the Grau screenplay as a jumping point to set more of a mood piece, using the gore to accent the feeling of anachronism he sets up with the central family. The violence of Mickle’s We Are What We Are, builds slowly toward a shocking and gruesome finale worthy of any horror fan’s attention.’ Brandon A. DuHamel, Blu-rayDefinition.com

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Wikipedia | IMDb

W.H.

Storage 24 is a 2012 British sci-fi/horror film, directed by Johannes Roberts (Hellbreeder, Forest of the Damned, F, Roadkill) from a screenplay by himself, Davie Fairbanks, Marc Small, and Noel Clarke (Doctor Who). It stars Clarke, plus Colin O’Donoghue, Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Laura Haddock.

On January 10, 2014, The Guardian newspaper reported that the film was the lowest gross of every film released in the USA in 2013, taking the equivalent of just £44. This was somewhat misleading as Storage 24 was only released in one cinema, for one day, as part of a contractual obligation.

An unspecified disaster occurs on board a military plane, which causes the aircraft crash into Greater London, releasing its highly classified contents across the city. Completely unaware that the city is in total lockdown, four people find themselves trapped inside a giant storage unit center called Storage 24. As they try to escape, they discover they are being stalked by something not of this Earth…

‘This is a knows-its-place B picture which manages decent suspense and horror. It has to get past needless relationship chat at the start, but the monster-dodging is compelling, the creature design is good and there are a couple of in-your-face jumps.’ Kim Newman, Empire

‘what’s ultimately chilling about Storage 24 isn’t the horror of the alien’s close-quarters assault, but the rank misogyny that more than offensively underscores the Melrose Place-grade human drama that plays out as Charlie and his posse try to wrestle their way toward freedom. Throughout, the action is mostly staged as a means for Charlie, who learns that Mark was boinking Shelley for some time, to prove that he’s no chump. And around him, Dennehy’s government-conspiracy nut compares his “feeding me fucking dry” wife to the alien, while one of Shelley’s friends not only has an intimate exchange with a female mannequin, but even calls a candy machine that refuses to drop its bounty a “pussy hole.”‘ Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

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‘An impressive if unoriginal monster is upstaged by – spoiler alert! – a cuddly toy dog with fireworks attached. The whole thing proves unexpectedly entertaining.’ Jeremy Clarke, The Guardian

‘ … aching to be a gripping monster movie, but it’ll have to settle with being a merely serviceable one. The picture benefits from invested filmmaking, with the production working diligently to pull off a haunted house atmosphere populated with rounded characters, while unleashing a creature with a horrifying interest in the innards of its human prey. Certainly enjoyable with a few interesting stalking sequences, “Storage 24” isn’t remarkable, falling into a few low-budget traps along the way. It burns through a somewhat predictable routine of survival instincts, nutty outsiders, and betrayals…’ Brian Orndorf, Blu-ray.com

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‘While sluggishly starting in a fashion horror/sci-fi fans are all too familiar with, Storage 24 takes an unexpected turn for the awesome with bouts of ooey-gooey creature horror – but still leaves us wanting a tad more. It’s hard to completely fall in love with Roberts’ monster mash because of useless relationship issues and downright despicable character work at times, but those bright red flashes of brilliance are enough to sporadically entrance eyes.’ Matt Donato, We Got This Covered

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Body Beneath (1969) is a British-shot horror film written and directed by American auteur Andy Milligan. It stars Gavin Reed, Jackie Skarvellis, Berwick Kaler, Richmond Ross, Emma Jones, and Colin Gordon.

The Reverend Alexander Algernon Ford, a vampire residing at Carfax Abbey in London, wishes to revive his ailing bloodline, which has deteriorated due to inbreeding. With the help of his mute wife, Alicia, his hunchback servant, Spool, and a gang of female vampires, he sets about contacting the last few members of the Ford family not already converted. After abducting a distant relative, Susan Ford, whose role is to sire a new army of vampire babies, the Reverend convenes a vampire feast where the future of the Ford clan will be decided…

A tale of incestuous vampires cruising the outermost branches of their family tree for new blood, this was the second of five films made in London by Andy Milligan in the late 1960s (the first, Nightbirds, was shot immediately before it, in late Autumn 1968). Milligan generally preferred period-settings for his horror films (the late 1800s in The Ghastly Ones; medieval England in Torture Dungeon), although his ultra-low budgets and nonchalant approach to mise-en-scène resulted in numerous visual anachronisms. The Body Beneath is the reverse angle: a modern-day drama one could almost mistake for ‘period’. The primary location is a Neo-Tudor house with carefully preserved Victorian furnishings, the women wear flouncy dresses of uncertain vintage, and two of the main characters, an evil vicar and a hunchbacked simpleton, could have stepped out of a Gothic Victorian fantasy. However, the glimpses of formica surfaces and Kays Catalogue knitwear are intentional this time; we’re definitely in the 1960s.

Villainous bloodsucker the Reverend Ford, marvellously played by Gavin Reed, is The Body Beneath’s most compelling creation. Reed (who died in 1990 at the age of just 59) knew precisely how to handle Milligan’s dauntingly overwritten material. With a lofty, supercilious attitude and immaculate diction he would have made an excellent mischief-maker in shows like The Avengers or Department S. “I was reading the papers – The Times of course – when I came across your name in the arrivals,” he sniffs to Canadian relative Graham Ford. (Note how actor Colin Gordon starts to improve his own enunciation in response, as if cowed by the Reverend’s impeccable English.) Milligan gives Reed most of the best lines: when hammering six-inch nails through the hands of his hunchbacked servant Spool as punishment for disloyalty, he muses, “It’s strange… I have no soul, yet I feel compassion. It doesn’t make sense, does it?” The Body Beneath appears to have been Reed’s only major role; he had a couple of parts in obscure TV shows in the 1960s, plus a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance as a camp windowdresser in Carry on Loving (1970), but that’s about all. At some point in the 1970s he moved to the USA, but there’s an eleven year gap between Carry on Loving and his appearance in the oddball Bruce Dern vehicle Tattoo (1981). He turned up again as a snide theatre director bullying Dustin Hoffman in the early scenes of Tootsie (1982) but seems to have done little else on the big screen. Perhaps the theatre was his natural home?

A well shot sex scene introduces second-billed Jackie Skarvellis, and again, Milligan is well served; Skarvellis is a vivid, energetic performer who takes a relatively uninteresting character and makes her watchable. It’s rather a pity she wasn’t given a villainous role, because Milligan writes for his monsters far better than his heroines, and Skarvellis is the sort of performer who would gleefully sink her teeth into such an opportunity. Chiefly a theatre actor, she was one of the uninhibited London cast of the nudist stage show “Oh! Calcutta!” and went on to a busy career as actor, writer and stage director which continues to this day.

Berwick Kaler, who plays Spool, can barely recall making The Body Beneath, but says that his role took no more than two or three days to shoot. The main thing he remembers about ‘playing hunchback’ is that Milligan wanted him to stoop too much. Milligan may have been over-egging things, but since Spool comes across more like a child’s distant memory of The Hunchback of Notre Dame than a plausible depiction of disability perhaps it was simply a case of the director failing to convey the required tone to the performers. Either that, or he liked to see Kaler bent over…

Milligan’s stories often involve the travails of families riven by hatred, and The Body Beneath is no exception. The Fords’ vampire bloodline has been weakened by incest, requiring new donors, hence the Reverend’s attempt to track down and exsanguinate distant kinfolk. With smarmy relatives popping round for tea, and stilted conversation before murder, the film is like one of Mike Leigh’s suburban comedies crossed with an episode of the supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows.

Buy Gutter Auteur: The Films of Andy Milligan from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

“Set in the graveyards of England!” boasts the US one-sheet for The Body Beneath, and indeed, the film begins with an atmospheric scene in Highgate Cemetery. Chiefly, however, The Body Beneath takes place in a brooding Neo-Tudor mansion called  was shot in West Hampstead’s Sarum Chase, built in 1932 on the edge of London’s Hampstead Heath. The owner, Frances Owen Salisbury, died in 1962 and left the house to the British Council of Churches, after which it was available for film and photo shoots (see the gatefold inner sleeve of The Rolling Stones’ “Beggars Banquet” album and the nudie short Miss Frankenstein R.I.P.). Milligan gathered some wonderfully creepy shots at Sarum Chase, staged a crude ‘crucifixion’ in the mansion’s ornate gardens (one wonders how the British Council of Churches would have reacted), and returned a few months later to shoot a werewolf movie Curse of the Full Moon - later released in the States as The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!.

In 1968, vampires and Gothic horror in general were still very popular in the UK, therefore Milligan’s decision to venture into the supernatural made sound commercial sense. Yet for reasons that remain unclear he eschewed the classic image-pool from which he could have drawn. The vampires in The Body Beneath have no fangs, they can move around in the daylight (albeit with special injections to counteract the sun), and they spend more time bickering with their victims than gnashing at their throats. Given that their leader lives in the liturgical splendour of ‘Carfax Abbey’ and wears priestly garb, one supposes too that this clan of peculiar bloodsuckers are immune to the effects of crucifixes and clerical paraphernalia, although this is never explicitly put to the test. Only in the semi-comedic and thoroughly wonderful Blood (1974) did Milligan at last give us a fanged vampire allergic to the cross.

Buy The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Andy Milligan from Amazon.co.uk| Amazon.com

When he does go for a touch of supernatural menace, Milligan handles it well. For instance, when Graham’s wife allows the vampires to enter the conjugal bedroom, their arrival is so creepy that we don’t think to ask how all four of them squeezed through one tiny window. The fate of a maid, eyes popped by knitting needles, is satisfyingly grisly, though inflicted on one of the few likeable characters, played by Elizabeth Sentance with a quirky charm not unlike British thesp’ Brenda Blethyn. The aforementioned prologue in the cemetery is a Gothic delight, with three female vampires, trailing coloured lace like some sinister Kate Bush cult, attacking a mourner in a graveyard. (The scene is further distinguished by Milligan’s wonky sound recording, which gives an unearthly warble to the vampires’ insinuating “Hello!”). Then there’s the vampire party in which, unusually, Milligan chooses eerie electronic music for accompaniment. It’s the sustained highlight of the film, and one of the best sequences he ever shot. With artfully blurred lensing and some accomplished low level lighting he creates a ritual haze of near-abstraction, redolent of underground/experimental films such as Kenneth Anger’s Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. Less successful is Graham Ford’s off-camera demise, nibbled to death by vampire harpies while unconscious. It’s something of a let-down that we don’t see this stolid, handsome, but oh-so-boring hunk struggling for his life in a welter of gore. The pacing, too, is virtually non-existent. For instance, after the prologue we’re thrust into three consecutive dialogue scenes; long rambling discourses between Graham Ford and the Reverend, Susan Ford and her fiancé, and Candace Ford and her maid. This prolixity, however, is par for the course with Milligan. If you can’t dig the ceaseless prattle of his sniping, carping, endlessly debating characters, you’re never going to ‘get’ his films!

The Compton Cinema, Soho, owned and run by Milligan producer Leslie Elliot in the late 1960s.

Elizabeth: “Go to America? Never! What is America? What is it made of? Pimps, prostitutes, religious fanatics? Thrown out of England but a few short centuries ago. They’re the scum of the Earth.”

This scabrous attack on the USA comes during a ‘vampire summit meeting’ held by the Reverend Ford, in which he suggests that the assembled bloodsuckers should emigrate West. It is apparently word-for-word what Curtis Elliot, the bullying father of The Body Beneath’s producer Leslie Elliot, said during a row which brought to a violent end Milligan’s association with Elliot’s Cinemedia company. (How did the argument begin? Rumour has it that Elliot Snr. thought an offhand remark of Milligan’s was anti-Semitic; Leslie Elliot, however, believes his father deliberately took umbrage at an innocent comment.) Afterwards Milligan managed to eke out his finances for another three films shot in London (Bloodthirsty Butchers; The Man With Two Heads; Curse of the Full Moon) before returning to New York. The Body Beneath was never released in the UK, but it went on to play various 42nd Street dives throughout the 1970s, on a double bill with Milligan’s first film shot in 35mm, Guru the Mad Monk (1970).

Sadly, life didn’t get any easier for Andy back in New York. Despite or maybe because of his abrasive, combative manner he found himself regularly screwed over by producers and distributors. In many ways his sojourn in England was a highpoint of his career; he found himself wanted, in the homeland of the Gothic horror tale, making movies for a producer who admired him. Had he not so catastrophically fallen out with the man holding the purse-strings, who knows where his English adventure might have taken him?

Buy Nightbirds + The Body Beneath on BFI Blu-ray + DVD from Amazon.co.uk

The Body Beneath enjoyed one of the more startling renaissances in recent years when it was included as an extra on the BFI’s Blu-Ray release of Milligan’s Nightbirds.

Stephen Thrower, Horrorpedia

Related: The Ghastly Ones | The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!

Dead Sea is a 2014 American horror film written and directed by Brandon Slagle (who also stars). It also features Britt Griffith (Syfy’s Ghosthunters, Ghosthunters International), James Jw Wiseman, Devanny Pinn (The Black Dahlia Haunting, Truth or Dare), James Duval (Donnie Darko), Alexis Iacono (The Penny Dreadful Picture Show), Tawny Amber Young, Chanel Ryan, Candace Kita, K.J. McCormick (Syfy’s Ghosthunters) and Frederic Doss.

The film is set to release on DVD/Blu-ray late Spring 2014.

Synopsis:

‘This globe-spanning story follows a marine biologist who is thrust into the violent paranoia surrounding a town preparing for the return of an impending sacrifice to a legendary serpentine creature, in this case being a giant lamprey, said to have surfaced from Hell during an earthquake.’

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Flavia the Heretic (Italian: Flavia, la monaca musulmana, also released Flavia, Priestess of Violence! in the USA and in the UK as The Rebel Nun in the UK) is a 1974 French co-produced Italian nunsploitation horror film directed by Gianfranco Mingozzi. It stars Florinda Bolkan, Anthony Higgins and Claudio Cassinelli. It is set in Apulia during the Ottoman invasion of Otranto, 

Italy 1600: A convent of nuns is invaded by the Tarantula Sect on their annual pilgrimage. The cultists defile the place of worship, holding orgies in the chapel and desecrating the altar. One nun decides she can’t take the religious oppression any longer and attempts to flee the convent ….

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“Arguably the most notorious entry in Italy’s nunsploitation cycle of the 1970s, Flavia the Heretic is a charged combination of arthouse politics and grindhouse sleaze, the exact combination that makes current distributors run screaming. Often released on video in watered-down editions, this nasty concoction is best experienced full strength and gains much of its strength by developing dynamic, interesting characters whose grisly fates pack more of a punch than a dozen slashers.” Mondo Digital

“Flavia The Heretic  is a hard disc to recommend. I personally loved the film, with sweeping visuals, starring personal favorite Florinda Bolkan, and genuinely surprising plot developments that kept me interested throughout the running time. Fans of the film should obviously grab the disc up right away, but any curious newcomers must get rid of any preconceptions and settle in for a history lesson with added blood and guts.” DVD Drive-In

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Wikipedia | IMDb | We are grateful to Temple of Schlock for the US one sheet poster image

WH

Frankenstein (also known as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) is a 1994 American horror film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Robert De Niro and Branagh himself. It also stars Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm, John Cleese (Monty Python), Aidan Quinn and Richard Briers. The film was produced on a budget of $45 million and is considered the most faithful film adaptation of Mary Shelley‘s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film opens with a few words by Mary Shelley:

“I busied myself to think of a story which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror; one to make the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.”

The story begins in the year 1794. Captain Walton is leading a daring expedition to reach the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in the ice of the Arctic Sea, Walton and his crew discover a man traveling across the Arctic on his own. In the distance, a loud moaning can be heard. When the man sees how obsessed Walton is with reaching the North Pole, he asks, “Do you share my madness?” The man then reveals that his name is Victor Frankenstein and begins his tale…

“The monster has always been the true subject of the Frankenstein story, and Kenneth Branagh’s new retelling understands that. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” has all of the usual props of the Frankenstein films, brought to a fever pitch: The dark and stormy nights, the lightning bolts, the charnel houses of spare body parts, the laboratory where Victor Frankenstein stirs his steaming cauldron of life. But the center of the film, quieter and more thoughtful, contains the real story…” Roger Ebert, full review here

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“…Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a work of lavish dedication and skill, yet as soon as the creature is let loose the film becomes rather listless. Branagh, for all his craftsmanship, hasn’t succeeded in tapping the morbid core of the material, the feeling that Victor Frankenstein’s experiment in creating ”life” is really a mask for his obsession with death (indeed, he can no longer tell the difference). The key problem, I dare say, is the director’s performance. He plays Frankenstein with all the spirit he can muster, yet he’s too conventionally engaging — his Victor is a kind of fervid yuppie workaholic who never seems truly possessed of a dark side…” Owen Gleiberman, here

“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a worthy attempt to give the story a big-budget makeover but ultimately it collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness, and it was further hampered by a lack of frights.” Bruce G Hallenbeck, The Hammer Frankenstein (Hemlock Film Books, 2013)

Buy The Hammer Frankenstein (includes other Frankenstein films) from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster on Horrorpedia: Assignment Terror (Dracula vs. Frankenstein | Aurora Model Kits | Blackenstein | Bride of Frankenstein | Drak Pack | Flesh for Frankenstein | Frankenstein 1970 | Frankenstein’s Army | Frankenstein’s Daughter | Frankenstein’s Monster (Marvel Comics) | Frankie Stein | Howl of the Devil | I Was a Teenage Frankenstein | Jack P. Pierce (makeup artist) | Mad Monster Party? | Mego Mad Monsters | Monster Cereals | Monster Brawl | Shock Theatre Hammer Horror Trading Cards | Peter Tremayne (author) | The Spirit of the Beehive | Young Frankenstein

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