Magazine Review: The Dark Side – Issue 160

The Dark Side
Issue 160
Editor: Allan Bryce
Ghoulish Publishing

Retro thrills (but not many current chills) abound once again in the latest issue of The Dark Side, which continues to offer a wealth of old and new behind a gorgeously painted cover.

This issue contains a Quatermass special feature as its central offering, and as per usual the feature is a beautifully written and exhaustively researched look into the films and TV versions of the classic British science fiction/horror story. For a generation of genre fans, the Quatermass stories are some of the most beloved and important that were ever released, and while not to the taste of every reader, it’s still a fantastically worthwhile feature.

A personal highlight this issue has to be the interview with Lisa Wilcox, aka Alice from A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 and 5. I’ve always wondered what a third outing for Alice would have been like, possibly just because Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare was such a godawful piece of crap (even with the solid cameo from Alice Cooper).

A brilliant piece of genre film journalism comes in the form of a superb interview with Francesco Simeoni of Arrow Video, a distributor which genuinely understands its fans and what they want from each release. The work that company has done to bring some amazing titles back onto retail shelves is just astounding. An interview with writer Alan Frank is very, well, frank. Apparently the interview with the author of numerous horror movie books had to be cut somewhat for legal reasons! I’d love a look at the uncut version.

Then there’s a look at the joint launch night for the collected book of Sheer Filth zines and also the hotly-anticipated second Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide documentary, Draconian Days, which took place at the cinema I held my stag party at – how the hell did I miss going to this awesome event?! It certainly sounds like a great night, and both releases need to be checked out as soon as possible. The DVD reviews section is honest and lengthy as ever, while this issue’s Great Years In Horror feature shows us the delights that came out in 1979.

The material on new horror movies and stars is essentially nonexistent in this issue, which is a shame as aside from the reviews, this particular issue dives headfirst into retro-only content. That aside, it remains head and shoulders over what little competition still exists on the racks.