The Innocents (1961)
20th Century Fox were vexed by how to market The Innocents even before it was released. After the recent successes of Hammer Horror, it was recognised that there was a lot to be gained from promoting it as a good, old-fashioned spook-fest. However, even the densest of studio executives were aware that Jack Clayton had crafted something all together more sophisticated than The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula or The Mummy (no disrespect intended). Succour might therefore be found in jumping on the then-rumbling Hitchcock bandwagon, and drawing on the popular clamour for films in the Vertigo and Psycho mould. Read more
Scanners (1981)
It recently struck me that one of the more clever devices used by the sitcom Friends was the naming of its episodes. Prefixing each title with the words “The One Where…” is quite a sly but telling reference to how the mass audience receives film and television fiction: no matter how much you put into your product or how much merit it contains, its legacy in the popular mind will always rest on one single hook. Clearly, if David Cronenberg’s Scanners was a Friends episode it would be “The One Where The Guy’s Head Explodes”. Read more
Diary of the Dead (2008)
Pub quiz stalwarts will be familiar with the perennial question of which is the only band to have had a number one hit in every decade since the 1960s (answers on a postcard). Zombie film stalwarts are unlikely to need much prodding to point to George A. Romero as having (almost, if you skip the ‘90s) achieved a similar feat. Opinions on whether he has achieved a hit with the fifth entry into his rightly historic Dead series vary from review to review. Whilst the mainstream press is generally enthusiastic, genre commentators are divided and have, rarely for Romero, often been the source of vocal criticism. Read more
Godzilla (aka Gojira) (1954)
It’s a testament to how much of a bad rap the film Godzilla has received over the years that any discussion of the movie always has to start with a clarification of which film you’re talking about. No, it’s not the 1998 abomination with Matthew Broderick; no, it’s not the re-edit with Raymond Burr and a bunch of dubbed Japanese actors; and it’s not even any of the sequels you maybe dimly remember being showed on TV during the holidays. It’s the very first Godzilla film, made in 1954, released in Japan under the title of Gojira, and it’s a masterpiece. Read more
Re-Animator (1985)
Given that 1985 saw the release of both Re-Animator and Dan O’Bannon’s The Return Of The Living Dead, it’s a shame to reflect that the splatter horror has never really enjoyed a sustained level of output. Periodic stops and starts have whetted the appetite but have usually been followed by a series of sequels of decreasing quality and all too infrequent original output. I think this is a real shame, as splatter horror as a sub-genre naturally lends itself to a cross between the niche and general viewer. As well as being great for horror output in itself, this realisation of a duel market is also why splatter horrors, when done properly, can be among the most original, inventive and damned well enjoyable films going. Read more