The Shining (1980)
The Shining is the most introspective of Stanley Kubrick’s movies and was received with a good measure of apathy in its day. This may seem surprising to modern audiences, who are used to seeing it close to the top of most ‘best horror film’ charts and who readily accept its place in the genre hall of fame. It probably didn’t help that Stephen King – author of the book on which it is based – turned on Kubrick after its release for expunging most of overt scares and instead offering up the defining tale of what happens when a family goes into meltdown. Compare this to the 1990s TV series for which King himself was the scriptwriter and you’ll probably understand why he was more than a little peeved. Read more
Uzumaki (2000)
It’s probably fair to say that Uzumaki is one cult Japanese horror movie that’s not going to be remade by Hollywood any time soon. If anything, the film is a fair benchmark of how different Western and Eastern cinema cultures really are: despite being probably the most wilfully odd movie I’ve ever seen, it was a sizeable mainstream hit in Japan, suggesting that the Japanese cinema-going public are more than open to material this extreme. Read more
Revolt of the Zombies (1936)
It is astonishing that the people behind one of the best films I’ve ever seen could also be responsible for one of the worst. After discovering the gem that is White Zombie I had high expectations of the Halerpin brothers’ follow-on, Revolt of the Zombies. Everything about it feels wrong, from the plot and pacing right through to the editing and casting. Though it was made four years after White Zombie it feels the more anachronistic of the two, and the Halperins seem to have forgotten everything that made their earlier offering the enduring classic that it is today. Read more