Last House on the Left (1972)
The directorial debut of genre superstar Wes Craven, Last House on the Left is another film whose violent reputation precedes it. It tells the story of two teenage girls, Mari and Phyllis, who are taken captive by a group of escaped murderers led by Krug (David Hess), raped and then finally murdered. Faced with the bumbling and ineffective local authorities, Mari’s parents decide to take matters into their own hands and avenge their dead daughter - in the most horrendous and brutal way possible. Read more
They Came Back (2004)
Okay, so it’s another film about the dead returning to life but I’ll wager that They Came Back is unlike any other zombie film you’re likely to have seen. When you think of the number of movies that are turned out on this subject you have to give credit to anyone who injects their story with a measure of originality; Romero and Fulci manage it, and Shaun of the Dead is a more recent Black Lagoon favourite. They Came Back offers us a stunningly simply plot twist, namely what would happen if the dead came back to life and DIDN’T try and kill the living? Considering the simplicity of the premise it’s surprising that it has never (to my knowledge) been tried before. When done well – as it is here – the results are infinitely more unsettling than dealing with the consequences of legions of the undead hunting down the living. Read more
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
A quarter of a century on from its original release, Cannibal Holocaust has lost none of its power to stir up fierce controversy and in many ways embodies the extremes to which Italian fringe cinema was prepared to go in the late 1970s and early 80s. It is only available in cut form in the UK, and a recent (uncut) reissue in the US ran into trouble when two firms of printers refused to print the DVD sleeve. It achieved notoriety in the UK during the 1980s when it topped the list of films banned by the DPP during their ‘video nasty’ witch-hunt, its title frequently used as a by-word for the (allegedly) corrupting depravity that the movie and its kind were engendering in the British public. In many ways, it’s a shame director Ruggero Deodato plumped for this title, as it does little to differentiate his film from other, less sophisticated splatter works such as Cannibal Apocalypse, Cannibal Ferox and Zombie Holocaust. Although it’s a film many will find unsettling and probably upsetting, Cannibal Holocaust is a good deal more subtle than its peers in its attempt to offer something a little more worthwhile than simply wall-to-wall dismemberment. Read more
Land of the Dead (2005)
Matt says…
With expectations almost unreasonably high for George Romero’s return to the genre he helped forge, it was perhaps inevitable that Land of the Dead would divide opinion. But although the film doesn’t really look or feel much like the previous installments of the Dead saga, it’s largely an elegant and worthwhile return to the director’s trademark themes, advancing the ongoing story in a consistent yet intriguing way. Read more
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Generally speaking, I’m not a movie purist when it comes to remakes - to my mind, there’s no reason why a good director can’t pull something fresh and interesting out of a familiar story. Even though the original is still held in high esteem, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, in which four survivors attempt to ride out a plague of zombies in a deserted shopping mall, is particularly ripe for retelling. When the original first opened in 1978, shopping malls were a relatively new proposition - hulking, vacuum-formed consumer paradises that seemed to embody the the retail culture of the future. Fast forward to 2004 and the situation’s just as Romero predicted, only much much larger - there’s a mall in every city, and a generation of babies who can recognise the McDonalds logo before they can say “mummy”. You’d think there’s a fascinating survival story to be told there, and there probably is, but director Zack Snyder’s none too interested in telling it; his Dawn of the Dead pays lip service to the original (title, mall, original cast cameos) but is essentially a slick but soulless major-studio action movie of the kind that Hollywood knocks out by the bucketload. It ticks all the requisite boxes for a summer blockbuster, but ultimately fails to live up to its potential. Read more
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