The Wicker Man (1973)
Although it’s often named the best British horror film of all time, the impact of Robin Hardy’s incredible film lies in the fact that it ultimately has very little to do with the shocks and scares we normally associate with horror. The whole film is one giant red herring; the overt referencing of magic and paganism led me to expect a more supernatural conclusion, whereas there is in fact nothing in the film that one couldn’t expect to encounter in everyday life. The magnificent denouement yielded not terror but instead a sickening sense of realisation that such an outcome was glaringly obvious almost from the start, but I’d effectively been looking the other way. Read more
Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961)
This is a really difficult film to review, mainly because several weeks after watching it I still have absolutely no idea what to make of it all. Another of Roger Corman’s spare-change affairs, made this time in one week, it’s a knockabout comedy of errors which also has a few occasional pretensions at being a serious horror film. The plot goes something like this: crook Sparks Moran sees an opportunity to make a fortune when revolution breaks out on a Caribbean island by helping loyalists escape on his boat, killing them and then blaming their deaths on a legendary sea monster supposed to inhabit the area. Unfortunately for Moran, the monster exists, and sets about attacking his boat. Read more
Dracula (1931)
There have been numerous attempts to adapt Bram Stoker’s landmark work to the big screen but the one that still stands above all others is Universal’s 1931 offering. That is not to say that Todd Browning didn’t make mistakes-he did-but the end result is perhaps the definitive telling of the perennial tale of Count Dracula. Read more
The Spiral (aka Rasen) (1998)
The Spiral’s reputation seems to rest more on the film’s status - or lack of - than anything to do with the movie itself. Based on the second of Koji Suzuki’s Ring novels, Joji Iida shot the film almost back to back with Hideo Nakata’s peerless adaption of the first novel, and the results were released in Japanese cinemas simultaneously. But whereas Ring sparked what can only be described as an international phenomenon, The Spiral bombed, and was later overwritten by Nakata’s own Ring 2. Effectively exiled from the Ring saga - in cinema terms at least - the film has only recently been made available on DVD in the West,but remains relatively unknown. Read more
Horror Hotel (1960)
Horror Hotel-or ‘The City of the Dead’ to give it it’s U.S. video title-is a superb occult thriller which overcomes a clearly limited budget and some occasionally hit-and-miss acting and delivers a real classic. Read more
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