Season of the Witch (1973)

Or: George Romero does feminism. This might not seem like the most obvious conceit for a movie, but Romero’s at his happiest (and best) when exploring social themes and concerns under horror / supernatural premises, and this rarely-seen feature, recently exhumed on DVD in the US, is a flawed but worthwhile addition to the director’s canon. Season of the Witch was Romero’s third film, following the epochal Night of the Living Dead and the scarcely-mentioned romantic comedy There’s Always Vanilla, and tells the story of Joan, a bored and repressed middle-aged housewife who finds release and fulfillment through the occult. Her confidence grows as she begins to identify herself as a witch, even though she finds a new lease of life, she also takes on a whole range of new problems… Read more

Alien (1979)

When you come from a crappy region like mine you tend to hold onto the merest sources of civic pride with a pronounced vigour and trumpet them for the world to hear. With such thoughts in mind it is my honour to announce that Ridley Scott was not only educated here but also drew inspiration for the stunning opening in ‘Blade Runner’ from the surrounding industries. Not much you might retort if you managed to get through an entire sitting of ‘G.I. Jane’, but you’d have to concede that for the awe-inspiring Alien we should at least have named a library after him or something similar. Read more

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

When I was thinking of how good Alien was my mind turned to a film which might be placed somewhat closer towards the other end of the science-fiction/horror quality spectrum. With its premise readily apparent from the title I have to confess that I do hold Killer Klowns in something approaching genuine affection. It’s probably because it’s one of the first films I can remember watching as a child (I had very negligent parents) but with a few years growth under my belt I can still identify one or two redeeming features for any Black Lagoon readers who might happen across a copy to look out for. Read more

Body Snatchers (1993)

Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers has proved a remarkably robust novel. Each generation of film-makers seems to see its own concerns reflected in Finney’s tale of alien takeover; the 1956 film was basically all about the cold war, the 1978 adaptation poked fun at narcissism and pseudo-spirituality, and this 1993 version is… a teen movie. It doesn’t sound massively promising on paper, but in fact director Abel Ferrara (best known for the notorious Driller Killer slasher flick) uses the original plot to take a subtle and sober look at the crushing loneliness and isolation of adolescence. Gabrielle Anwar gives a nicely understated performance as Marty Malone, a teenage girl who reluctantly spends her life on the road with her father, who inspects military bases for their chemical safety, her step-mother and her younger step-brother. She already feels frozen out of her dad’s new family, but when one airbase become infected by alien pods which turn humans into emotionless ‘pod people’, she quickly realises that she has very few people she can turn to… Read more

The Fog (1979)

There seems to be a thing for John Carpenter remakes at the moment, with this year seeing a big-budget version of ‘Assault on Precinct 13′ and next year the (British) release of The Fog. There were high-hopes of The Fog at the time of it’s release, following as it did Carpenter’s seminal classic, ‘Halloween’ (readers will forgive me for overlooking his immediate successive offering - Elvis: The Movie - in this regard, though I suppose Kurt Russell as The King might conceivably be described as a form of horror). To be fair to Carpenter he doesn’t do a bad job here, and though The Fog lacks the searing impact of Halloween it suceeds in offerering up a more contemplative and developed story, with the trademark atmospherics and effects that you’d expect from his (early) offerings. Read more