Gerry Anderson’s, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-1968) holds two distinctions. Firstly, it contains some of the most dazzling miniatures and special effects created for television. But it’s also one of the most violent shows to be broadcast before cable loosened the reins of censorship. Oh, did I mention Captain Scarlet was a puppet show for children? It’s a genuinely …
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The Most Overplayed Game! A Century of Hunting Humans on Film
This is the saga of a brilliant short story, that became a great film, before being diluted into dozens of lesser films, only to be reincarnated as one of the first, great internet hoaxes. Today we’re throwing a bone to The Hounds of Zaroff—better known as The Most Dangerous Game. Every now and then a writer stumbles onto a concept …
Read More »It’s Not You Kong, It’s The Script: The 1976 King Kong’s Dialogue Dilemma
The 1976 King King remake often receives harsh criticism, some deserved. Undeniably, the creative team succeeded in delivering an often revisited cult film. Producer Dino De Laurentiis, director John Guillermin, and screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. delivered a fine reimagining of the 1933 classic, a film that captivated audiences as the holiday movie release of the bicentennial year. The Me Decade’s …
Read More »Director Ingmar Bergman – A Retrospective of His Works
Horror News is mostly devoted to horror as a definable separate genre, that is, to films that draw upon (and occasionally expand) an existing tradition. Most of the directors and writers who work in this field are very conscious of belonging to a generic tradition. But fantasies and nightmares can be created by anybody, and it sometimes happens that directors …
Read More »Pleasure and Revenge in the Theatre of Blood (1973)
“And where the offense is, let the great axe fall.” –William Shakespeare, Hamlet. Art takes many forms, including performance. If there is no such thing as bad art, as some profess, is there such a thing as a bad theatrical performance? Yes. And the affirmation comes without subjective discourse. When a performance undermines the audience’s suspension of disbelief, it’s not …
Read More »Horror Remakes: The Ones That Worked!
By following the most successful horror films in history, Hollywood remakes ultimately have a thankless task. Some manage to re-enact the spirit of the original with new special effects and creative plot twists, while others fall alarmingly short, providing tiresome makeovers without any real thought. Here are three that worked, just in time for Halloween: Dawn of the Dead Remaking …
Read More »Checking Into the Overlook Hotel
There is a wonderful website dedicated to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980). It is owned and run by film director Lee Unkrich who is best known for Toy Story 3 (2010). The site has a lot of photos taken on the set of the film that have never been seen before. It also showcases original artwork created by fans of …
Read More »Burnt Flowers Fallen: Remembering Peter Steele and Type O Negative
Tuesday, April 14th marks the 11-year anniversary of the passing of one of rock’s most unique and charismatic frontmen. But, unless follow the metal or goth scenes, you might not even realize it. I’m speaking of the late, great Peter Steele: the mordant, towering, self-deprecating frontman of Type O Negative- one of heavy metal’s most ingenious and underrated bands. Emerging …
Read More »40 Years of Werewolves: Happy Anniversary to The Howling
40 Years of Werewolves Happy Anniversary to The Howling April 10, 2021 This is the impact THE HOWLING has had. There have been plenty of werewolf related films over the years. The Wolfman, Ginger Snaps, Wolf Cop, Dog Soldiers (2002), Cursed, Blood & Chocolate, Late Phases, Bad Moon, Silver Bullet, Teen Wolf, An American Werewolf in London, WolfCop II, Monster …
Read More »God Told Me to Do It: The Cosmic Horror of Koji Shiraishi
Koji Shiraishi is name undoubtedly known to most fans of Japanese horror. Over the past two decades he has dabbled in numerous forms of the genre, from ghosts to zombies and from urban legends to gore-porn, all with varying rate of success. However, the sub-genre that Shiraishi has truly mastered in a way that is hard to find comparison for, …
Read More »Morbid Innovator: How Grant Morrison Made a Place for the Macabre in Batman and Comic Book History
Undoubtedly, Bruce Wayne/Batman has undergone the most drastic change throughout his illustrious and brooding history of perhaps any other major comic book character. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger for the March, 1939 issue of Detective Comics, Batman was all but destined for fame as a morose, gothic, morally-ambiguous figure- an image that wouldn’t be fully realized until the …
Read More »White Zombie (1932) Indentured to Inhumanity
We know zombies once walked the earth as humans, but what of humans who walk among us lacking humanity? Is an inhumane human indeed a human being? Of course, regardless of cruel disposition, a human being is not a supernatural or otherworldly being. Heartless and brutal actions may create perceptions about a human being becoming a monster or a devil, …
Read More »Too Much Horror Business! – The Impact of Horror on Rock Music
Since its inception as a veritable facet of culture, horror has left its macabre imprint on just about every conceivable art form, from painting to sculpture to literature to film. Even classical composers like J.S. Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Béla Bartók, and Richard Wagner used horror as a basis for their work: images of Hell and damnation, Armageddon, …
Read More »My Top Science Fiction Action Films
My novel Scorpius Rex is an homage to all those spectacular films that successfully combined classic science fiction concepts with slam bang action adventure. Being a genre aficionado, I wanted to share a list of my favorites. These are NOT presented in order of merit. Trust me, you’re guaranteed a great evening with any of these adrenaline-fueled classics.
Read More »My Top 10 Horror Movies of 2020: Quarantine Edition
2020 was its own horror movie. The coronavirus shut the world down. It wasn’t one single city or one single place. It’s a “global pandemic.” Although, we are still not sure some people would do okay in an apocalypse. People went out and bought all the toilet paper. Stocking up and being prepared is great but, toilet paper? But I …
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