The Horror Film Watch

[ravenus]

THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE - John Hough


Adapted by horror master Richard Matheson from his own book Hell House, this is a modern day take on the haunted house or Bad Place (as Stephen King would refer to it) archetype. The protagonists, a physicist with experience in parapsychology and two psychic mediums are courted by an offer of $100, 000 each if they can exorcise the notorious Balasko mansion - Hell House - a repository of shocking perversion during the life of its owner and fearful even after because of bizarre events that have caused the death of almost all the members of two previous missions to cure its evils.

What differentiates this from countless other films that deal with haunted houses is the constant juxtaposition of the hard-headed rational with the supernatural. The characters are well fleshed out and refreshingly non-stereotypical. The testy arguments between the medium and the physicist make for gripping viewing, and no small credit to the actors that play them superlatively. Hough's direction is very intense and it's a great surprise that he never did any thing else of much consequence. The other highlights of the film are the excellent sets and absolutely spectacular visuals (by Alan Hume whose work spans from the Carry On films to Return of The Jedi) - I am guessing that Kubrick got some of his ideas for The Shining from this film. The only disappointment, apart from a couple of silly Argento-esque scenes involving a black cat, comes from the hokey climax exorcism. But even with this caveat, this film remains a must-see in the lists of the true horror fan.


PS: I think this thread ought to be made a sticky, what say?

 

[Foxbat]

Ravenus: I've moved your post to Reviews because, quite frankly, I think you've written a very good review of the film.

I like the idea of having 'Film Watch' stickys (could have one for SciFi, Fantasy etc.) but I'll seek some further advice from the other mods.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Great stuff - site is being updated to include such reviews - are you up for that, Ravenus?

 

[ravenus]

Great stuff - site is being updated to include such reviews - are you up for that, Ravenus?

I would love to wrie about horror films, although my movie watching is restricted to what I get hold of, based on recommendations and reviews from people and sites I trust, which generally does not include the newer films.

 

[ravenus]

KOLCHAK – THE NIGHT STALKER (John Moxey)

A modern-day re-telling of the vampire legend, Night Stalker was adapted for American television (ABC-TV) in ’71 by Richard Matheson from a novel by Jeff Rice. Since I have not read Rice’s novel and cannot attest to its quality, I will content myself with saying that this in most parts an excellently scripted film by Matheson, who with his rationalization of vampire lore in I am Legend was an apt candidate for this adaptation.

The setting is vulgar Las Vegas, the vampire is Skorzeny, a frightening quasi-animal being, and his nemesis, his Van Helsing, is Carl Kolchak, a down and out hard-nosed reporter looking for the scoop that will restore his name in the big circles. In gritty non-stylized fashion the film follows Kolchak’s attempt to cover the mysterious murders where the victims have been drained of blood and a robbery at the blood bank, all the while uttering rapid-fire reports into his tape-recorder. This is juxtaposed with the authorities’ clampdown on disbursing information, skillfully depicting Kolchak’s frustration at not being allowed to break out his big story. Initially believing the killer to be a maniac with a vampire fixation, Kolchak is forced to revise his skepticism when he sees Skorzeny brush off scores of policemen and their bullets without so much as a twinge. The climax has Kolchak tracking the vampire to his lair and vanquishing him, only to find his hopes for the big story squelched by city authority adamant about not scaring away business.

Director John Moxey does an admirable job at the helm, always lending the proceedings a believably mundane (though in no way uninteresting) air. The acting is quite serviceable, with special mentions to Darren McGavin for Kolchak and Barry Atwater for Skorzeny. Skorzeny is splendidly depicted as a formidable loathsome beast, thanks to an adroit combination of shadowy shots, eerie non-flashy make-up and of course, Atwater’s performance. The use of a crucifix in the climax strikes me as the lone false note since even the deliberate irony of this cliché in an otherwise intensely contemporary narrative does not convince one to accept it without wincing.

 

[Foxbat]

Night Of The Living Dead

This is the restored version which is a part of the Trilogy Of The Dead (Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead, Day Of The Dead). All directed by George A. Romero.

Night Of The Living Dead was made on a shoestring budget in 1968. Black and White, 4:3, mono sound. This new version has a much improved picture quality(although grainy in places) and sound (it doesn’t say so anywhere in the literature but I’d swear it was now a very subtle encoded Dolby 5.1) The film also claims to have an extra 15 minutes footage which should please all the Romerophiles out there in DVDLand.

The very simple story of a group of individuals barricaded in a house - besieged by flesh-eating zombies is given a good shot in the arm by the added charge of claustrophobia and diverging viewpoints within the group. Cut off from the outside world, the limited choices drive this band of people to ever desperate measures. Meanwhile, the danger grows greater by the hour as more creatures converge on the house and inside, disparate minds seek their own survival – even if it costs their companions their lives.

It is a film that revels in its black and white simplicity – feeding on its stark surroundings just as the ever-present zombies try to feed on them. There are some very up and down performances from the actors – parts very wooden whilst in other scenes, life grips them as they desperately fight the monsters outside and simultaneously battle the creatures of their own inner fears.

For all its faults, this is a film that grips, that grinds and then buries our heroes into the dust. Romero is not scared to sacrifice his people, this is not your typical Hollywood, don’t expect it to be all roses at the end.

This is a film that will make you think twice about taking that late night shortcut through the graveyard. Yeah, we know it’s all a load of rubbish…..still no point in tempting fate, is there?

 

[Foxbat]

Dawn Of The Dead: The second film in Anchor Bay’s recent release of The Trilogy Of The Dead on DVD.

This time the Zombies are in colour- but still a 4:3 ratio. The disc transfer itself gives a good, clear picture with very little colour leakage. There are a few moments of grain and a couple of times where bad bits of film make their appearance but, on the whole, very acceptable given its age and low budget origins.

Where the disc falls down a little is on the sound. Whereas Night Of The Living Dead benefited from some very obvious reprocessing, the sound here seems to be a straight port (mono). But it gets worse, it sounds like the whole soundtrack has been recorded through an old sock. People who have invested heavily in the sound side of things might find this a bit irritating., On the whole, this is an annoying but not fatal flaw.

The film itself is iconic and probably needs little introduction here. Suffice to say that in many fans eyes this is The Zombie flick. Our heroes are barricaded in a shopping mall – which leads to some very strong visuals. I just love the camera shots of Zombies and then switching to mannequins within the mall clothing departments. Also intriguing is the way the Zombies have some sort of instinct that leads them to this place. Just what exactly is Romero saying about us and our consumerist habits? Is there an irony in the fact that Zombies consume Humans in this shrine to consumerism? Hmmm…I wonder.

And all this against a background of that irritating muzak we have come to expect in these places.
Again, the acting quality is variable and the whole film a tad on the long side - but very effective nonetheless. Even after so many years, there are still parts of this film that has me on the edge of my seat.

A highly recommended film that raises one final question: Why oh why won’t anybody give George Romero a really decent budget? The results could be very interesting.

 

[Foxbat]

Day Of The Dead: The final part of George A. Romero’s Zombie trilogy.The Dead have inherited the Earth. Mankind is in a minority.

The disc itself is a 1.85:1 ratio (which means it will fill the whole screen of your standard widescreen TV) but is not anamorphic – which translates to: decent picture but not as good as it could have been. Of course, as always, this is probably more a budgetary limitation rather than a creative choice. Same for the sound. We’ve moved into the realms of stereo (after all – we are talking 1985) but nothing to write home about.

Here’s a fascinating fact – stereo was actually developed for film, not for music – and the first film to use a stereo soundtrack was Fantasia (1942….or thereabouts).

Our heroes are now a mixture of military and scientist holed up in an old bunker. Above ground, a chainlink fence keeps back a horde of Zombies - whilst below, the scientists work on ways of combating the threat. Despite the use of a helicopter and radio, the group are not sure if they are the only ones to survive this holocaust – which adds tension and causes friction between the two factions.

Oblivious to all of this, one scientist carries out his own grotesque experiments on the Living Dead, which provoke some moral questions both within the group and for the viewer.

The Zombie make-up has, by now, improved considerably and moved away from the bog-standard gray face and ‘ketchup for blood’ routine. Now our walking dead are much more putrid and in various states of decay. Claustrophobia (enhanced by much dim artificial lighting) is there in abundance – along with paranoia and the many other rollercoaster effects of being surrounded by hordes of creatures wishing to feast on your flesh.

The acting was quite okay in this one, although, by now, some of the characters have become a bit clichéd. Although they are all new to the trilogy, it is the usual cross-section of people you tend to find in these kinds of flicks – the paranoid captain, the mad scientist, the brute who gets upset if anybody hurts his pal, the guy who cracks and can’t take anymore (that would be me) and the token female.

A decent enough film but the weakest of the three in my opinion. I suppose it does exactly what it says on the tin. So, if you like Zombies and gore and all that stuff then give it a whirl.

If not….well…it kind of reminds me of a scene from another film – Natural Born Killers. An old Indian recites the story of a woman who finds a wounded snake. She takes it in and nurses it back to health – and then shows surprise when the snake bites her.
“Listen,” says the snake, “You knew what I was when you took me in”.
Nuff said.

 

[ravenus]

Is it alright to have discussions in the reviews threads?

Assuming so,
I really liked Day of the Dead and my order of preference in the series would be Dawn-Day-Night. It had an intense claustrophobic atmsphere and I thought the performances were mostly quite excellent. I would specifically disagree with Foxbat for his 'token female' observation. I thought the female protagonist in Day was one of the best I've seen - capable and resourceful without trying to come across as gung-ho. I think all the women who bemoan the lack of good heroines should give this one a look.
In fact one sees a progression in strength of the women protagonists in the Dead series. In Night she is mostly a catatonic wreck, in Dawn she is braver and more resigned to her situation while in Day she is picking up the pieces and actively trying to put things back to normal.

 

[ravenus]

MARTIN - George Romero

Martin is a vampire but unlike any you have sen before. Stripped of all notions of the romantic and the supernatural he is seen more as a victim of grotesque circumstance and his own psychological makeup. Martin comes of a deeply disturbed stock with oppressive religious fixations and has a deeply introverted silent geeky personality. He comes to stay with a storekeeper uncle who believes he is actually an 84-year old vampire. This fantastic situation is brilliantly contrasted by the deliberately staid and prosaic setting of the movie. Romero gives us the American version of Orwell's Aspidistra community as the backdrop for his deconstruction of the vampire myth. Martin constantly taunts his uncle's superstitions about the nature of vampirism ("There is NO magic", he repeatedly says), but he IS driven by a bloodthirst, the origin of which is never really explained to us...is it pathological or psychological or what? We don't know. Martin hunts his victims, solitary women, injecting them with heavy sedative and then cutting their wrists to drink blood. He is also achingly hungry for sexual affection, clumsily wrapping his drugged victims around his naked self, trying to soothe them saying "Just go to sleep, it'll be alright."This tragic, sordid spectacle is contrasted with surreal B/W visions where Martin sees himself as a powerful vampire of an earlier age who is able to seduce his willing victims. The movie is filled with scenes of palpable bleakness and pitch-black ironic humor.

This is Romero's most visually creative film, with a brilliant juxtaposition of the real and surreal worlds of Martin. John Amplas is a brilliant fit in the title role - with his wonderfully expressive sorrowful eyes and his feline physique he makes us root for his character, even when he is slitting wrists and drinking blood. All the other characters are also performed brilliantly. In conclusion, I think this film makes a greater impact on me than the Living Dead series because it feels absolutely intimate and personal throughout.

 

[ravenus]

HAXAN - Benjamin Christensen

This was a brilliant silent film made circa 1922. The film primarily aims to provide a historical and social perspective on witchcraft in the medieval era. Christensen used different techniques to portray his vision - he starts off showing authentic ink illustrations depicting either actual witch trials or popular lore about witches showing them as servants of the devil. This part of the film seems almost quaint since a lot of the illustrations are of a crudely detailed variety, which is amusing but not really gripping from an aesthetic point of view. He intersperses the illustration with dramatized sequences depicting popular perceptions of witch-lore. Since this is a silent film the narrative is in the form of cue cards, and the shots are accompanied by a background of prominent classical pieces. Some of these dramatized sequences are amazingly well shot; the make up and costume for the demons is incredibly good and some of the special FX look very much ahead of the period in which the film was shot.

The film's core really takes life with its dramatized depiction of a typical witch-hunt scenario: the superstition-fueled paranoia of the masses which causes innocent folks to get labeled as witches, the methods of physical and mental torture used by the religious inquisitors to literally force these accused to 'confess' their guilt, and they in desperation and anger naming others as accomplices thus making for a vicious cycle of religious terror. The film depicts this in a deliberate matter-of-fact way that raises our emotion at the kind of injustice and anarchy that prevailed in the bygone societies. The screenplay and visual treatment is really brilliant in this segment and we get a palpable idea of the mass hysteria of that time.

The only problem IMO comes in the last stage when the film's social agenda cuts into its dramatic value by attempting to draw parallels between the perceptions of society in the medieval and modern age, about how a lot of what is accepted as psycho-somatic illness today would have been considered as witch-like behavior then.

 

[ravenus]

Curse of Frankenstein - Terence Fisher

CoF was the first of the Frankenstein movies made by Hammer Studios. Unlike the Universal films, Hammer's series focussed on the character of Dr. Viktor Frankenstein as opposed to the Creature (which many movie-goers mistakenly think is called Frankenstein). He is portrayed here as an obsessed and ruthless scientist who will brook no resistance and stop at nothing in his experiments, even going to the extent of killing an old man with the intent of obtaining his brain. He is not evil but utterly amoral, unconcerned with the theological implications of his work.

Given its qualification of being foremost a potboiler, this is quite a good film with some cool ideas in Jimmy Sangster's script and an excellent performance by Peter Cushing as Viktor Frankenstein. Cushing breathes life into the role like few others can, making the doctor a thoroughly believable, if none too likeable, character.

The film has it's share of flaws: Besides fixing some of the more glaring plot holes, getting a slightly more stylish look and better actors for the supporting roles would have helped (though Christopher Lee in a brief role as the creature is good enough). But this is still definitely worth the watch and, in my view, a hell lot more entertaining than the stodgy 1994 Kenneth Branagh - Robert De Niro movie.

 

[ravenus]

KWAIDAN - Masaki Kobayashi

A set of 4 ghost stories, the last one left incomplete.
3 of the stories were shot well, but the fact that the stories were very slight and rather too predictable for the horror fan reduced their value for me. I'll talk about what I felt was the best episode in the lot

Hoichi the Earless

Hoichi's story is of a blind youth in a monastery who is called by a mysterious visitor to perform his rendition of the legend of the courageous Heike clan - not realizing that his visior comes from the spectral world and that he is actually performing for the ghosts of the Heike nobility. Sensing danger to his person, the priest has Hoichi's body painted over with holy scripture to render him invisible to the spectres, but something goes horribly wrong and the consequences are macabre.

With the advantage of a script that actually fills the bulk of its shooting length, Kobayashi has provided us with one of the most ravishing, sumptuous, GODLIKE visual experiences on screen. He often uses painted backdrops and the visual tones have a richness that suggests a painting more than a photograph. The composition and arrangement of shots is simply MASTERFUL, no two ways about it. Some annoyances like hastily bunged in slapstick humor but even that notwithstanding it remains indeed an awesome experience that one has been fortunate enough to face.

 

[Foxbat]

DVD Region 1
Dracula: The Legacy Collection

This 1931 version by Universal provides Bela Lugosi at his finest. His mannerisms, accent and piercing eyes provide the yardstick against which all other Draculas are measured. The Director, Todd Browning provides a moody kind of filming and relies heavily on dialogue. In a sense, the lack of action adds credibility to this work – makes it in a way more thought provoking. Despite the special effects being quite limited at the time, the Dracula transformations are pulled of with subtlety and skill – usually relying on a description from another character, a shadow of a bat or just a panning of the camera. This, in a sense, adds to the air of menace that Dracula brings with him as he crosses the sea to England. The most powerful scene is probably when Van Helsing and Dracula meet for the first time – and the quality of acting here is first class. Also, in my opinion, this film has the maddest, baddest and best Renfield actor by a mile – just check out his laugh!

Somebody once said about Plan 9 From Outer Space that ‘No matter what time of day you watch this film, it always feels like you are watching it at three in the morning’.
The same can be said for Dracula. It just has that effect.

The actual transfer itself is fairly good but the film is really starting to show its age. There is some noticeable frame damage in places but not too much to detract from the film itself.

But why review a film of such age and one that is already so well known?
Because, delve deep into this disk and there is a diamond waiting to be found.

Let me set the scene: I want to see a film as it was meant to be seen – with the best possible transfer to the new technology that pervades every moment of our modern lives. I don’t like change and, in general, I’m not interested in extras on the DVD. It was almost by accident that I switched on the alternative score – composed by Philip Glass and performed by the Kronos Quartet.

Simply amazing! This wonderful score is a masterpiece of incidental music. Unlike the original soundtrack which just kind of goes on and never really synchronises itself to the screen moments (is it Swan Lake? I can’t quite place it), this moody piece of brilliance rises and falls with the dialogue and action. It positively enhances, changes and…..I can’t believe I’m writing this….actually improves upon the original.

And finally: this is the Region 1 version which also includes the Spanish version (which many people say is actually better than Lugosi’s), Dracula’s Daughter, Son of Dracula and House of Dracula – all for below $30

If you buy the Region 2 version you get Dracula and House of Dracula.

If you have a multiregion player you’re laughing. If not, then let there be much wailing and gnashing of teeth as, yet again, Region 2 buyers lose out. But never fear, the R2 version is still worth buying just to get that new soundtrack alone –so, all is not lost – and we have not yet all become God’s Madmen.

 

[ravenus]

CREEPSHOW - George Romero

Creepshow arose from a collaboration between Romero and Stephen King, based on their mutual love for horror comics under the E.C. label. The hallmark of these stories is supposed to be their ironic humor wherein wicked/stupid people get their due punishment in macabre and often amusing ways. The film is designed as a campy comic-book type experience with deliberately one-dimensional characters that serve as wonderfully convenient victims for the bad things that happen to them.

The movie consists of 5 main episodes.

1. 'Father's day' deals with a nasty old man that got his head busted in by his daughter while yelling for his cake on father's day. And one day he returns from the grave for his cake. Awful story, told also in a totally awful way. Complete waste of time, not even recommended for Ed Harris fans that want to catch his early acting roles.

2. 'Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill' is about a retarded hillbilly farmer who finds a meteorite in his farm and dreams of making money off it, only to find strange things happening to him. This one offers stray glimpses of backwoods humor and the dubious pleasure of a laughable performance by Stephen King (da man himself).

3.'Something to Tide You Over' and 4. 'The Crate', both macabre revenge dramas. Romero is in much better form here, and extracts good performances from the lead actors in these stories. It's also nice to see Leslie Naked Gun Nielsen in a non-trademark role as a ruthless husband who buries alive his wife and her lover in sand to have them slowly drowned by the tide. Tide also features some excelent juxtaposition of visuals to a competent keyboard score. But one flaw in both of these episodes is the use of gaudy colored lighting for the actual horror scenes. It looks terrible and greatly reduces the impact of the scenes.

5.'They're Creeping Up On You' is the last and best story of the lot. About a Howard Hawks inspired reclusive billionaire tyrant Upson Pratt (Fantastically portrayed by E.G. Marshall) who lives in a germ-proof apartment, shouting orders over the phone to his subordinates who he treats like dirt. Some marvellous black humor here, for example Pratt cheerily greeting the wife of the man he drove to shoot himself, saying "I heard your husband went out with a bang."
Pratt's germ-proof fortress comes undone when he begins to notice roaches scampering across the place. The small trickle gradually increases and the final scenes showing the massive assault of roaches on Pratt's apartment and his person is not a sight for the squeamish.

 

[littlemissattitude]

5.'They're Creeping Up On You' is the last and best story of the lot. About a Howard Hawks inspired reclusive billionaire tyrant Upson Pratt (Fantastically portrayed by E.G. Marshall) who lives in a germ-proof apartment, shouting orders over the phone to his subordinates who he treats like dirt. Some marvellous black humor here, for example Pratt cheerily greeting the wife of the man he drove to shoot himself, saying "I heard your husband went out with a bang."
Pratt's germ-proof fortress comes undone when he begins to notice roaches scampering across the place. The small trickle gradually increases and the final scenes showing the massive assault of roaches on Pratt's apartment and his person is not a sight for the squeamish.

Um, ravenus...I think you mean Howard Hughes, not Howard Hawks. But it's a good oops, since Howard Hawks helped invent the "screwball comedy" which, as World Book Online tells us, "ridiculed the eccentric or silly behavior of wealthy characters." Since Howard Hughes most certainly qualified as an eccentric, wealthy person, it's an appropriate juxtaposition to have made.

By the way, there is a film coming out fairly soon about Howard Hughes's early life, called "The Aviator", directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes.

Sorry if this derails the thread. Then again, as much of a non-fan of DiCaprio as I am, "The Aviator could turn out to be a horror film, at least for me.

 

[ravenus]

Quickies rather than full reviews but this'll have to do:

2 horror movies adapted from books I haven't read.

Salem's Lot - Tobe Hooper

This 2-part TV adaptation of Stephen King's book, which in itself was a modern-day take on Dracula, turns out a very so-so movie with many meant-to-be-scary parts being rather hokey. The idea of an entire town of people being taken over by vampires never really comes across. It has some good parts like mostly due to some decent acting (especially James Mason as the Renfield replacement Straker), but tends to be dull on the whole.



The Devil Rides Out - Terence Fisher

Based on a Dennis Wheatley novel about a group of people fending off the diabolical advances of a black magic coven...that guy's supposed to have written a lot of pulps using the occult as plot device.

Anyway the film, produced by Britain's famous Hammer Studios, maintains a mostly energetic pace with the actors, headed by Christopher Lee (playing the good guy for a change) and Charles Gray, appearing to have a lot of fun in their roles (also catch a young Paul Eddington who went on to play that beloved bumbling politician in BBC's Yes Minister and Yes Prime Ministerseries). The campy goings-on are quite entertaining even if often inconsistent...in this movie Satan appears far more easily despatched than his alcolytes. After the 2/3rds mark, apart from a cool scene where the protagonists from inside a sacred circle face off against a variety of nasties including the Angel of Death himself, it flags somewhat and is not one of the classic Hammers but still a nice modern-day diversion from their usual horror flicks.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Thanks for those - interesting to find what the adaptions were like to film - and nice to see you still around.

 

[koma]

Dawn of the dead

Not the original, the remake...
Great film this, with FAST zombies as opposed to the old slow motion lot.
Can't really be compared to Romero's classic but is certainly worth watching...

Land of the dead

Romero's latest (and worst) effort.
A complete waste of time, money and effort. Don't bother...

 

[Foxbat]

The Pete Walker Collection

Starring: Susan George, Sheila Keith, Jack Jones, Leo Gen, Judy Huxtable, and others.
Directed by: Pete Walker
Region 2 DVD

Anchor Bay presents us with a coffin shaped boxed set containing five movies by Pete Walker who is (arguably) one of the great shapers of British Horror. Unlike Hammer and its contemporaries, Walker avoids leaning on the Gothic trinity of mad scientists, monsters and the supernatural, he instead brings us the mundane normality that is middle class life in 1970s British culture. But beneath this veneer of Home Counties suburbia there lurks a dark beast that lives behind the twitching net curtains of those middle class dwellings. And in this sense, Walker is less Hammer and more leaning in the same direction of David Lynch when he unearthed what lay beneath the white picket fencing in America in shows such as Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet.

But Walker also likes his horror straightforward and in your face. There is not a lot of subtlety once the action begins.

The collection starts with Die Screaming Marianne starring Susan George a few months before her infamous role as the victim in Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs. This movie is more intrigue and less downright horror as it tells the tale of Marianne on the run from a mysterious figure called ‘The Judge’.

Next up is House Of Whipcord which begs the question – what would it actually be like if we took the law into our own hands. A blind ex-magistrate and an insane ex-prison governess do just that. The main significance of this movie is the appearance of Sheila Keith who plays a hard-faced and sadistic warden -easily believable and incredible scary. Keith would go on to deservedly become a stalwart on the British horror scene.

Frightmare sees Keith back again, this time as a newly freed asylum intern…..the trouble is, she’s still absolutely crazy and soon goes back to her old ways…..lets just say that Walker was being imaginative with a drill long before Driller Killer appeared on the scene.

House Of Mortal Sin looks at the results when a sex starved, crazy priest finally loses it for good. For the third time, Sheila Keith makes an appearance as the sadistic lead villainess and, as usual, steals the show.

The Comeback stars seventies crooner Jack Jones (never heard of him) and has some nice set pieces of more straightforward horror. It is probably notable for the appearance of Bill Owen who later went on to great fame in Last Of The Summer Wine.

All in all, not a bad bunch at £29.99. The film quality is not the greatest and it looks like most were just straight transfers from other mediums with little or no tidy up but they are still all quite watchable. I think the most notable thing when viewing a collection like this is how what was once so shocking is now not even blinked at.
And with that in mind, I have to say that this collection is not for those of you out there brought up on the latest CGI or brain blasting sound effects. These movies were made in the days when slide rules were the tip of technology and the only digits worth counting were your fingers(if you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask somebody over 40).

Still, if you are a bit of a connoisseur of Horror and fancy a tipple of vintage British seventies screen screams, this is definitely worth having a look at.