Zombi: Dawn of the Dead (1978)
George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead is both a career high for the director and one of the most influential horror films ever made. It’s often forgotten, however, that it more or less owes its existence to another genre luminary, the Italian giallo director Dario Argento. Argento had made a name for himself throughout the 70s as both a producer and a director, through stylish slashers such as Profondo Rosso and Suspiria. Argento agreed to finance a sequel to Romero’s seminal Night of the Living Dead, inviting him to his house in Rome to write the script - and in return, Argento would be allowed to produce his own cut of the movie for release in Europe. Under the title Zombi: Dawn of the Dead (or simply “Zombies” in the UK), the film was a massive success in Europe and kick-started the Italian zombie cycle that led to a slew of unofficial sequels cashing in on the ‘Zombi’ title - most notably Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2. Whilst its influence was immediate, Argento’s version was superceded internationally by Romero’s US cut, and has only recently been exhumed (in the US) on DVD. Read more
The Driller Killer (1979)
With a title like Driller Killer it’s hardly surprising that Abel Ferrara’s directorial debut quickly found itself thrust into the centre of the ‘video nasty’ debate. To be fair to the Mary Whitehouses of the world, the promotional posters that accompanied the movie did more to inflame passions than to assuage them, and even now it’s difficult to find some of the more ‘graphic’ offerings on the internet. As is often the case with these ultra-nasties, the media attention is probably something of a mixed blessing. True, the stigma of being a tabloid outcast tends to end any dreams of commercial success that budding directors might once have harboured. Theirs is a future of horror convention walk-ons and the occasional appearance on documentaries exploring whether films are responsible for violence amongst teenagers. On the other hand, being branded a ‘nasty’ provides in its turn a measure of sinful credibility. No matter how rubbish a film is, if it was once banned then surely there must be something to it? Why else would it have provoked such a moral panic? Read more
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde slipped easily into the cultural consciousness, to the extent that even people who are unfamiliar with the book will have a sketchy idea of its central theme. Much of this can probably be laid at the door of lazy newsreaders, who are adept at finding a neighbour of the latest serial killer who is willing to say that really they were actually quite nice to chat to over the garden fence and that they can’t believe they tortured cats as a child. Of course, this is precisely the kind of phenomenon that prompted Stevenson to write the book in the first place, and it’s perhaps not surprising that with such a meaty philosophical question to ponder we still haven’t found the answers some 120 years later. It also helps explain why the book lends itself so well to screen adaptations (if you can overlook the cameo in Van Helsing) as Stevenson raises the key question but can never really answer it; just what would happen if you could release your ‘bad’ self? Read more
I Spit On Your Grave (1977)
It seems to have fallen to me to review many of the bloodier movies on this site, to the extent that it’s not uncommon for me to spend a couple of evenings a week watching eviscerations, disembowellments and other unpleasantness. For this reason, I occasionally wonder how desensitised I’m becoming to this sort of carnage, and whether I’m starting to lose objectivity - am I watching these films for their intellectual qualities or am I just bloodthirsty? It’s something of a relief, then, to report that I found I Spit On Your Grave pretty repugnant and gruelling, both for the film’s fairly sickening catalogue of violence, and for its total failure to put this violence into any sort of context. The plot - such as it is - tells the story of Jenny (Camille Keaton - Buster’s great-niece), an author who rents a house in some remote Connecticut woods in order to write her first novel. A city girl, she soon attracts the attention of four local rednecks, who gang rape and mutilate her and leave her for dead. Shellshocked, she plots her revenge, picking them off one by one. Read more
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
From a post-Scream perspective it’s easy to forget that Wes Craven also left an indelible impact on 1980s horror with his finest creation to date, the inimitable Freddy Krueger. A Nightmare on Elm Street is-without doubt-the superior of the two movies and Craven’s never really topped it. Rather like Halloween, a plethora of sequels and spin-offs has tarnished the reputation of the original Krueger brand but these should not be allowed to blot out the sheer magnificence of the original. Read more