Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1982)
One of the films successfully prosecuted by the DPP in their crackdown on so-called ‘video nasties’, Romano Scavolini’s film (originally titled Nightmare - the lurid qualifier was added for the video release) isn’t actually nearly as bad as you might think. It falls just short of actually being a good film, but it’s sufficiently interesting and diverting to raise it above much of the other exploitation schlock that fell foul of the law in the mid 80s. Baird Stafford plays George Tatum, a test subject in an experiment to ‘rebuild’ mental patients with radical new medication. Successfully reformed, George is released, but when he is plagued by flashbacks to a particularly traumatic childhood event, he flips and goes on a killing rampage… Read more
Wolf Creek (2004)
If the opening credits are to be believed, Australian director Greg McLean’s debut feature Wolf Creek is based on a true story. It’s not, but the story of three backpacking friends who fall into the hands of a psychopath in the Australian bush derives much of its impact from echoing on a number of cases that have made the headlines in the past few years - most notably, the murder of British traveller Peter Falconio, along with the high-profile manhunts that have followed the killings of other backpackers and tourists. It’s not entirely clear whether McLean was intentionally riffing on real life events or not, but Wolf Creek feels pretty timely, and this helps overcome the film’s main flaw - the overfamiliarity of the story. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before, and the theme of an innocent’s slow descent into hell at the hands of a maniac has been pretty definitively explored in films such as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Misery. Wolf Creek is distinguished, however, by McLean’s skilful handling of this material; whether the film still stands up in ten years time remains to be seen, but it feels terrifyingly now, a slasher movie that feels entirely in tune with the age in which it was made. Read more
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
I’ve always wondered why there is always so much litter blowing around in end of the world films. Where does it all come from? Sure, you’d expect a certain amount of societal flotsam to be kicking around the place for the first few months after we’d all gone under, but wouldn’t it all get blown into the sea at some point? Have our geography teachers being deceiving us all along about prevailing winds? Read more
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Wes Craven’s second feature shares many thematic traits with his debut, Last House On The Left, even if on the surface they share little in common. Hills tells the story of the Carter family, travelling across the Californian desert in their Winnebago in search of an inherited silver mine. A road accident leaves them stranded in a nuclear testing site - and an easy target for the mutated, cannibalistic family that lives in the nearby hills. As the Carters are picked off one by one, the surviving family members realise they have to play the mutants at their own game, leading to a deadly cycle of attack and retribution… Read more
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Where do you even start with a film like Dawn of the Dead? Having already looked at Romero’s work in general, as well as casting a glance at some of the films he has inspired, it is all too easy to let his achievements speak for themselves and correspondingly difficult to confine any discussion of one of his offerings to the merits of that particular piece. This is especially so when you’re considering the second film in a series of four, all of which have their own messages but which are inextricably linked. It’s rather like trying to pull a vertebra from someone’s back (a metaphor which I trust will be deemed appropriate in a discussion of any movie involving Tom Savini); however well intentioned it’s really all going to go wrong. Try we must though. Read more
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