Feature Article

Most films strive for linear, coherent storytelling, creating a believable world full of relatable characters. But occasionally you stumble across a film that breaks the shackles of logic and reason to explore a dreamlike realm. Here are ten films that offer a guided tour of a filmmaker’s inner thoughts, fears and desires. You can label them experimental, surreal, oneiric or …

It’s the best month of the year for horror fans (yay!)—and what better way to spend it than binge-watching the best films of the Master of the Macabre, Vincent Price? If you think that classic horror is always hammy and campy, think again. Many of Price’s best films are bonafide classics and easily accessible through disc or streaming services (or …

In a 2012 interview with The News & Observer, Alice Cooper says, “Rob Zombie and I are basically best friends, because he totally gets that horror and comedy are in bed together.” Certainly, the uneasy connection between humour and revulsion informs Rob Zombie’s first two films, House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and its sequel The Devil’s Rejects (2005). However, rather …

During the eighties a new breed of action star arrived on the world’s big screens. Not so much a hero as an invincible superhero straight from the pages of a comic book, this was the walking embodiment of the old adage ‘Might Is Right’. The crux of his argument was a sword or an uzi, his conversation consisted generally of …

In 1928, Carl Laemmle Senior made his son, Carl Laemmle Junior, head of Universal Pictures as a 21st birthday present. Woo hoo! Universal already had a reputation for nepotism – at one point, seventy of Carl Senior’s relatives were supposedly on the payroll. Many of them were nephews, resulting in Carl Senior being known around the studios as Uncle Carl. …

In the current climate of rampant digital effects, ultra-real prosthetics and virtual 3-D cinematography, audiences are being spoiled. Special effects have become commonplace and of such a high standard that jaws are no longer dropping. This wasn’t always so. Special effects have come a long way since the invention of cinema and the path they have walked is fascinating. Arguably, …

Critters The success of 1984s Gremlins, with its unique blend of horror and sardonic humour seemingly inspired a number of other “little monster” films of that decade. Critters is one of the best. Although its makers deny any influence it shares with Gremlins a sense of mischievous glee but also possesses its own brand of charm. This is family-friendly horror …

Scientific knowledge was never one of the requirements needed for a successful Hollywood scriptwriter. At least science fiction authors are usually aware of scientific flaws and try to disguise them with pseudo-science. For instance, they’ve long got around Einstein’s law regarding the impossibility of faster-than-light travel by taking a short-cut through ‘hyper-space’. My old friend H.G. Wells was well aware …

One of the most recognizable movie monsters in horror cinema is the Frankenstein Monster. Beginning with Frankenstein (1910) and, more famously, Frankenstein (1931) from Universal, Mary Shelley’s man-made monster has taken many forms. In 1957, Hammer Films jettisoned the creature into the Technicolor age with Curse of Frankenstein. Throughout the Sixties, Hammer Films would produce a variety of Monsters created …

One of the most talked about films of 2016 has been the critically acclaimed M. Night Shyamalan’ spectacle ‘Split’, a horror/thriller crossover which tells the story of Kevin, a man with 23 personalities who abducts 3 teenage girls and holds them captive in a small room in what appears to be an apartment complex. Gradually throughout the film, we start …

War! What is it good for? An action-packed evening on the couch, that’s what! When I asked Horror News readers and Facebook friends to tell me their favourite war movies, the response was terrific. While I can’t deny the quality of films like Gone With The Wind (1939), Lawrence Of Arabia (1962), Battle Of Britain (1969), Kelly’s Heroes (1970), Tora! …

My old friend Sigmund Freud claimed that most children fantasise about dolls coming to life, and psychologist Ernst Jentsch theorised that uncanny feelings arise when there is an intellectual uncertainty about whether an object is alive or not, and also when an object that one knows to be inanimate resembles a living being enough to generate confusion about its nature. …

For this chapter in Horrifying History we’re focusing on the groundbreaking, but sadly overlooked, 1931 film M and the devil’s brigade of real life monsters that inspired it.  Fritz Lang’s M is a remarkable accomplishment on multiple levels, and, like all those we’ve featured, it’s inspired by grisly real-life events. This time we’re traveling back to Germany’s post World War …

In recent years it appears to have almost become a trend to release purposely bad low-budget horror films that are bordering on the hysterically funny and unwatchable just for the fun of it, but as we all know, there are many films that don’t purposely set out to be bad (here’s to you, unofficial straight-to-DVD horror classic sequels) and the …

It’s Oscar season once again. That special time of year when Hollywood pats itself on the back for producing countless drab and forgettable dramas while offering breadcrumbs to far more interesting fare that doesn’t match up with whatever message they want to communicate. Unique cinema if often overlooked by the academy and no genre has suffered that treatment as much …