The most famous monsters in Hammer Studios’ repertoire were essentially the same ones Universal had hit paydirt with in the 1930s: Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the mummy. But Hammer had plenty of other things to shock and disturb audiences with – zombies, Satanists, aliens, man-lizards and, at the end of the studio’s […]
Reviews
The Haunting (1963) the impenetrable monochrome terror of black and white horror (Review)
The transformation of the haunted-house subgenre began in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, where the house, rather than just the ghosts within it, demonstrated paranormal abilities. In his essay ‘Supernatural Horror’ H.P. Lovecraft argued that the point of Poe’s story was to show that the house […]
Shaft (1971) The icon behind the legendarily cool music (Review)
There’s Always Vanilla (1971) George Romero’s Lo-Fi & Savage Anti-Advertising Satire (Review)
The Vikings (1958) The closest the Viking genre has to a John Ford movie (Review)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) A visionary homage to a Sci-Fi Classic
The Party (1968) Peter Sellers as the Elephant in the Room (Review)
There are Elephants in the room that are both literal and metaphorical in the Party, the latest release from Eureka. One appears in the final chaotic throes of the titular party and the other is represented by Peter Sellers in brownface adopting an Indian accent. Positioned somewhere between the horrifically […]
The Yakuza (1974) A seminal product of Hollywood’s disillusioned 1970s output (Review)
Sydney Pollack’s 1974 neo-noir The Yakuza is one of those films that leaves you wondering what the hell was wrong with the cinema-going public and film critics of the day. Performing poorly at the box office and receiving (at best) mixed reviews, this east-meets-west thriller failed to cash in on […]