Nightwing (1979)
The seventies saw a minor boom in creature feature films after the box office success of Jaws. Hence, we had movies such as Orca (1977), Tentacles (1977), The Pack (1977) and Piranha (1978). If an animal could eat you or potentially pose any threat to people, someone somewhere would make a movie about it. Usually a bad one. A few of these even dared to stray into other hot topics of the time such as pollution and protecting the environment. Some would even invoke mysticism and folk lore to facilitate their protagonists. Nightwing is one such curious genre hybrid which combines vampire bats, shale oil mining and Native American culture in its clumsy and unsubtle plot. It’s a somewhat odd undertaking, directed by Arthur Hiller. His previous work included Love Story (1970) and Silver Streak (1976), so he was not the first person you’d expect to see associated with such material. The film doesn’t work well as either a horror movie or an exploration of social issues, but like so many movies from this era, it is of interest mainly due to its sheer incongruity.
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
The horror movie genre was changing rapidly in the late sixties and seventies, with films such as the Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary’s Baby moving away from traditional gothic settings and proving to be box office successes. After the success of Count Yorga, Vampire, a movie set in 1970s Los Angeles, Warner Bros commissioned Hammer Films to make two contemporary set Dracula films. The first of these was Dracula A.D. 1972. The film was loosely inspired by the Highgate Vampire case and proved to be moderately successful at the box office. The second being The Satanic Rites of Dracula; a curious hybrid vampire movie that mixes elements of the espionage genre along with traditional Hammer horror content. Sadly, this final outing for both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as Van Helsing and Dracula, was not well received by the public and has subsequently been written off in the annals of Hammer Films. Yet despite it’s flaws it does have a few points of interest to the more rigorous horror fan. The recent Blu-ray release via the Warner Archive Collection presented such an opportunity for reappraisal.
Time Out 100 Best Horror Films - How Many Have You Seen?
I recently revisited the Time Out 100 Best Horror Films. I have a love hate relationship with movie lists of this kind, because of their binary nature and the sort of debates they generate. However, as this list is revised regularly, I thought why not go and have a look and see what has changed. Furthermore, this list is more credible than others because the one hundred titles listed have been selected by a group of contributors associated with the genre. These include Roger Corman, Guillermo del Toro, Simon Pegg, Clive Barker, Alice Cooper and Kim Newman. There is an interesting mix of titles from the traditional to the obscure as well as some interesting new additions such as A Quiet Place and Lake Mungo. I personally have seen 93 of the movies listed. However, there are a few movies that I more than likely will never see, due to my personal taste. Salò and Audition for example.
Bird Box (2018)
The unfolding apocalypse and the unseen forces that bring it about are never fully explained in Bird Box. The movies also eschews overblown, CGI driven set pieces and spectacle. The scenario is simply the MacGuffin which director Susanne Bier uses to facilitate her exploration of the angst of motherhood and societal decay. This is superficially a genre movie but it’s mainly about people, performances and ideas. There have been some comparisons to A Quiet Place, but this movie is actually closer to The Mist. The film is at its best during the first act, when setting up its premise and at the start of “the event”. The second act remains above average mainly due to the strength of the cast, as they weather the ongoing storm. The denouement is somewhat functional and is possibly the weakest aspect of the film. Yet, the strength of what has gone before and as ever the robust nature of Sandra Bullock’s performance keeps things on track.
The Tractate Middoth (2013)
The BBC has a long and illustrious history of commissioning innovative adaptations of the works of M R James. Consider a moment the likes of Jonathan Miller's Whistle and I'll Come to You or The Ash Tree by Lawrence Gordon Clark. If you are unfamiliar with these short television dramas, then I strongly advise you to seek them out. They are the epitome of quality television forays into the world of the supernatural. The Tractate Middoth, written and directed by Mark Gatiss, once again demonstrates how well the finely crafted short stories of Monty James lend themselves to the medium of film. Mr. Gatiss has a clear understanding and passion for the horror genre and proves (as he did with Sherlock) that "adaptation" does not have to mean "bastardisation".
World War Z (2013)
Contrary to a lot of the pre-release doom and gloom regarding re-edits and extensive new footage being shot, World War Z turned out to be far from the disaster that some critics implied. Ultimately there were some good ideas and snatches of interesting dialogue. Some of the characters were unusual and there seems to have been an attempt do something different with the genre. All of these things are laudable. Unfortunately, despite these positive attributes the movie clearly shows the signs of post-production interference and material from the extensive re-shoot is all too apparent. That’s not to say that is bad because that is not the case. It’s because it is noticeably different in style and tone from the rest of the film.
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House is considered one of the best literary ghost stories published during the 20th century. It was adapted for film in 1963 by Nelson Gidding and directed by Robert Wise under the title The Haunting. Although only doing moderate box office upon release, the movie was moderately well received at the time and over the years has gained a critical reassessment. Contemporary critics consider it one of the finest genre movies of its era. Hence the prospect of a new ten-part television adaptation made exclusively for Netflix, was initially met with a great deal of scepticism. However, writer and director Mike Flanagan has wisely chosen not to retell the original story, but instead taken its themes and concepts and woven them into a compelling and very contemporary tale of a dysfunctional family traumatised by their collective experience at Hill House. Jettisoning the classic trope of a paranormal investigation into a haunted house, he instead presents us with two narratives that run in parallel and regular intersect with startling results.
Halloween (2018)
It is a bold move to write off six sequels and effectively retcon a major horror cinematic milestone after forty years. Yet that is exactly what Director and co-writer David Gordon Green has done, producing a follow up movie to John Carpenter’s 1978 original, that is distinctly more than the sum of its parts. And in the process of doing this, Halloween has attracted a great deal of media attention that has somewhat skewed subsequent reporting. There has been a great deal of hyperbole and marketing hype in the lead up to the film’s release which is concerning, because in an atmosphere of such exuberance and fan excitement, it can be difficult to accurately gauge the public mood. I have only ever experienced the one other deferred sequel that generated such a similar buzz and that was Psycho II back in 1983. Despite a lot of reservations, that proved to be a worthy successor to Hitchcock’s classic.
Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)
I wondered recently whether Unfriended (2014) would kick start an entire subgenre comparable to the “found footage” format. It would appear that it has, and these movies shot on phones, computers and other digital devices have subsequently been labelled “screenlife” films. It’s worth noting that Unfriended: Dark Web is produced by Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov who has already produced two other movies (Profile and Searching) using this technique. So, it won’t be surprising to see further forays into this style of film making. It is cheap, quick to make with a lot of box office potential. So, it’s hardly surprising to see Jason Blum (of Get Out and The Purge fame) attached to the credits as well. As for Unfriended: Dark Web it’s suitably nasty, voyeuristic, fare that is competently made. At this point the novelty of the “screenlife” films has yet run out, but it is still a physically challenging format to endure (as I found with its predecessor).
Evil Dead (2013)
Urugyan writer and director Fede Alvarez obviously has a great deal of passion for the horror genre and certainly understands it a lot better than may other mainstream film makers. Make no mistake, Evil Dead is an extremely hard R rated movie and is certainly not like the usual tame studio output we see so often these days. There is also an emphasis on physical effects rather than CGI. The film also endeavours to re-invent the movies iconic plot to avoid a scene-by-scene retread of Sam Raimi's original. The idea of a groups of friends electing to stay somewhere isolated to help one of the group go "cold turkey", is a clever one. Perhaps the smartest thing the production does is the removal of the character Ash. Replacing someone such as Bruce Campbell is virtually impossible.
The Omen (2006)
Director John Moore is no stranger to remakes, having produced a new version of The Flight of the Phoenix in 2004. Remakes per se are not necessarily a bad thing as long as they bring something new to the table and explores the narrative in a different fashion. This is why Gus Van Sant’s shot-by-shot remake of Hitchcock's Psycho is so universally reviled and deemed to be pointless, because it doesn’t do any of those things. Which brings me to The Omen which is not an exact copy of Richard Donner’s 1976 film, but it does follow the original screenplay. The movie treads a fine line, adding some additional embellishments to the proceeding such as the opening sequence set in the Vatican as the Pontiff considers the impending Biblical prophecy. Yet it still feels a little too familiar to those older viewers who are au fait with the original movie. Furthermore, the 1976 horror classic was a milestone in the horror genre. It was a big budget production, professionally made with a quality cast. Such a critical and commercial success casts a long shadow and remaking such a production is always going to be an uphill struggle.
Unfriended (2014)
Enjoyment of Unfriended depends heavily on the viewers familiarity with social media and its associated youth culture. If you are not “tech savvy”, then you may struggle with the films format, which is presented as an ongoing Skype call, with additional use of Google, You Tube and other sundry apps. I started watching Unfriended in my lounge but struggled to read the onscreen text even on a 40-inch TV screen. I eventually end up viewing the film at my desktop PC, sitting a lot closer to the screen. Watching the movie in the same way as you would consume real online content IE at a computer or via a laptop or tablet, does indeed enhance the viewing experience and give the story a greater sense of immediacy. I’m curious as to how Unfriended came across during its theatrical release and whether big screen digital projection added to the atmosphere or diminished it.
Red Lights (2012)
Rodrigo Cortés proved with Buried, that he was adept at creating a tense and involving drama with a modest budget and strong lead performances. With Red Lights he once again manages to craft a suspenseful story, in spite of the significantly larger production and inclusion of some A list talent. I say this because Red Lights is a bit top heavy with "actors" who seem to be intent on "acting". Robert De Niro presence does for example overwhelm the proceedings particularly in the last act, which becomes somewhat bombastic in tone. The movie is also a curious hybrid because despite being marketed as a supernatural chiller, it has an underlying theme that would be more at home in a political thriller.
The Tunnel (2011)
The Tunnel was released direct to Region 3 DVD on 19th May 2011, much the same as any other low budget horror movie. What made the marketing of this minor Aussie "Mockumentary" horror different to other similar products, is that the distributors decided to make a barebones copy of the film available for download, free of charge. The accompanying viral marketing campaign gained quite a lot of traction resulting in The Tunnel being heavily seeded across Bit Torrent sites and exposing the film to an audience of millions globally. Subsequently, when the movie was then showcased in the US and Europe and commercially released in other regions, its profile had been considerably raised. As a result of this novel marketing campaign and the fact that the movie is a better than average example of the found footage genre, The Tunnel won several awards on the festival circuit.
Final Destination 5 (2011)
Having recently re-watched all of the Final Destination franchise, I’ve been toying with the idea of writing about them. However, they are a somewhat formulaic series of movies and I’m not sure if they each warrant a review to substantiate their respective merits or failings. The first movie was satisfactory in establishing the underlying theme of the franchise and came up with some innovative death scenes. The second instalment was a satisfactory sequel, that upped the ante and gave more of the same. Part three was noticeably superior to what had proceeded, with a more accessible group of protagonists and wider exploration of the idea of death seeking to restore its plan. The fourth film jumped on-board the trend for 3D movies, but effectively became a caricature of itself. The characters were two dimensional and the movie just felt like a group of flamboyant set-pieces, clumsily dovetailed into a contrived bridging plot. However, and somewhat unusually, it is the fifth iteration of Final Destination, that tries to do something different and so is the entry in the series that I’d like to explore further.
Cockneys vs Zombies (2012)
Back in the summer of 2012, the red band trailer for Cockneys vs Zombies set a very high benchmark and certainly raised expectations for the final movie. The title itself was also somewhat of a gamble, either raising a wry smile among horror fans or eliciting a roll of the eyes and a deep sigh for a genre in decline. I was unable to attend the premier at Frighfest 2012, but the general feedback at the time was that that that the movie was extremely well received by horror fans. Finally, six years later, I finally caught up with the film on Amazon Prime and I’m happy to report that Cockneys vs Zombies does live up expectations and is a thoroughly entertaining, quirky and very British horror movie. It manages to balance both visceral horror with a healthy dose of black humour, which is no mean feat.
The Awakening (2011)
The Awakening has a strong opening with a scene involving a seance. Set in the post WWI years of the early twenties, the film explores the concept of a nation coming to terms with grief. It is here that we are introduced to Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) a professional hoax exposer and paranormal investigator. Is she solely dedicated to debunking the supernatural or does she have a yearning to encounter something genuinely supernatural? This opening sequence is perhaps the highpoint in The Awakening, as it is clever and thought provoking and could have been developed into a story in itself. Although the narrative moves on and maintains a strong grip on the audience for the next two acts, it never quite recaptures the atmosphere and depth of its opening.
Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut (2012)
I originally saw Nightbreed upon its UK cinema release in 1990 and like so many others, was disappointed by the inconsistencies of the theatrical version. Over the next twenty-two years, the movie evolved its own mythos regarding the infamous studio interference that left Clive Barker's original vision undermined and neutered. However, in early 2012, Russell Cherrington, a senior lecturer in film and video production at the University of Derby, created a composite cut of the film using two workprints of the original movie that were sourced from VHS tapes, as well the DVD of the standard theatrical release. This version offered the most complete version of Barker's film available. It ran for 155 minutes and was been dubbed Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut. It was never intended as the director’s definitive version of the film and was primarily created to “encourage” the rights holders to allow Clive Barker to produce a director’s cut of his magnum opus.
Dream House (2011)
Despite being derivative of several other well-known notable genre films, Dream House has several positive attributes. With its strong cast and capable director, the movies offers a well-made and tense tale with solid production values. But like so many contemporary psychological thrillers and baroque stories with a twist, your overall enjoyment depends on how familiar you are with the genre. The biggest problem I encountered while watching Dream House was my own over familiarity with films of this kind. Hence, I saw the first major plot twist coming a mile off and subsequently accurately predicted the film’s outcome. Because of this it does make it somewhat difficult for me to be as objective as I should about Dream House. However, that is not to say that the movies multi-faceted plot won’t be a source of surprise to the more casual viewer.
The Silent House (2010)
The Silent House takes a very traditional haunted house story and develops it in a distinctly postmodern fashion. This Uruguayan horror film hinges on the concept of the entire film being shot in one take. Hence the tag line of “real fear in real time”. This takes the recent trend of filming with handheld digital cameras one step further, in an attempt to outdo the likes of Paranormal Activity and its subsequent sequel. It certainly creates a minimalist feel to the proceedings, similar to the myriad of supernatural reality shows that are currently popular on TV. By using the medium of digital cameras, smart phones and internet searches, the movies initially manages to sustain an authentic atmosphere. However, as the narrative proceeds the films flaws become more apparent.