Ed Wood (1994)

Is Ed Wood a horror movie? Strictly speaking, no, but it earns its place in the Black Lagoon through its illuminating and moving depiction of one of the genre’s most notorious - and intriguing - partnerships. Read more

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

I was expecting good things from a movie which no less a critic than George A. Romero unashamedly promotes at any opportunity as one of the finest zombie films he’s ever seen, but even I wasn’t prepared for the quality of Shaun of the Dead. My eyes tend to glaze over when I am confronted with a piece of recent British film-making, which is a real arse as some of my favourite films hail from these very shores (I have only to mention The Wicker Man as proof). I blame it on too much box office success for Richard Curtis and his insidious ‘rom-coms’, which have somehow distracted the cinema going public’s attention from the fact that Hugh Grant a) cannot act and; b) is a tosser. I thus made every effort to avoid Shaun of the Dead at the time of its release in light of reviews describing it as ‘the first romantic zombie comedy’ – no thank you. With several friends recommending it though I finally bit the bullet (having first been assured that Grant was nowhere to be seen) and can only apologies for every shrug of indifference I affected when being told to go and watch it at the cinema. Read more

The Evil Dead Trilogy (1981-1993)

The Evil Dead trilogy confounds expectations in all sorts of ways. At the most basic level, it’s not really much of a trilogy: an original film, a remake of that film and a third instalment that wilfully contradicts the first two. But it’s worth considering all Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn and Army of Darkness for two important reasons: firstly, all three represent important milestones in Sam Raimi’s bizarre journey from video nasty director to Hollywood maven, and secondly, I watched all three in one sitting, so I’ll damn well write them up in one. Read more