A serial killer is defined as an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, usually with a cooling-off period between murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification. Serial killers are not the same as mass murderers nor spree killers, who usually commit murders in two or …

Welcome to the Invasions Of The Body Snatchers full historical overview of this cult classic science fiction film In 1955 author Jack Finney published a novel entitled The Body Snatchers, first serialised in Collier’s Magazine the year before. It describes the fictional town of Santa Mira, California being invaded by seeds that have drifted to Earth from space. The seeds …

Since 1967 a number of American filmmakers have tried their hand at making movies of great violence that have managed to further refine the complexity of the statement contained in the groundbreaking big-budget Hollywood blockbuster Bonnie And Clyde (1967). One filmmaker who earned his ‘Red Badge’ is Sam Peckinpah who, like Arthur Penn and John Frankenheimer, can be seen as …

I have a confession to make: I love a good conspiracy theory. Thanks to the internet, there are more conspiracy theories than ever before. They range from the simply fanciful – like KFC is owned by the Ku Klux Klan which laces the food with a drug that makes coloured men impotent – to the overly complex, like the death …

Just as the thirties had been a golden age for Gothic horror films, so the fifties would do the same for science fiction. The power of the atom had undeniably hooked the public on the wonders of science. This, coupled with the development of rocket power and the first major UFO sightings, provided a wealth of exploitable material for the …

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, …

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 …

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. …

When I asked Horror News readers and Facebook friends to tell me their favourite feature films by first-time directors, I received a fantastic response. The suggestions poured in and all kinds of weird and wonderful titles fronted up for selection. While I can’t deny the quality or appeal of some nominations – Play Misty For Me (1971) by Clint Eastwood, …

The forties got off to a cracking start with Paramount’s Technicolor production of Doctor Cyclops (1940) starring Albert Dekker as a crazed scientist who discovers the secret of miniaturisation deep in the South American jungles. The film contains superb special effects sequences which required the construction of gigantic sets and props of everyday articles, including books, chairs, pot-plants and scientific …

Rate This MovieSYNOPSIS: “Eccentric millionaire Fredrick Loren and his fourth wife, Annabelle, have invited five people to the house on Haunted Hill for a ‘Haunted House’ party. Whoever will stay in the house for one night will earn ten thousand dollars each. As the night progresses, all the guests are trapped inside the house with ghosts, murderers, and other terrors.” …

Rate This MovieSYNOPSIS: “Near a grey and unnamed city is The Zone, an alien place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers. Over his wife’s objections, a man rises in the early morning and leaves her with their disabled daughter to meet two men. He’s a Stalker, one of a handful who have the mental gifts (and who risk imprisonment) to …