I've had a dark romance with horror movies for thirty-five years. I was first seduced at age seven or eight, watching re-runs on television of Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who in THE SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE and Tom Baker as the Doctor in THE ARK IN SPAC; that cosmic horror left an indelible impression. A couple of years later the imagery from the TV spots for John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN and Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING became embedded in the dark corners of my mind. Then, barely into my teens, watching Ridley Scott's ALIEN and Richard Donner's THE OMEN on VHS, and seeing Tobe Hooper's POLTERGEIST at the cinema, all had a profound effect on my psyche. At age 13 I saw the theatrical release of HALLOWEEN II (illegally, as it was restricted to 16 in New Zealand) ... and that was it! I was a True Believer! A gorehound, terrorfreak, HORRORPHILE! I collected Fangoria magazine (when it was good) and have every issue from August 1979 (#1) through to December 1988 (#79 - I think it was the cover featuring Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers that killed it for me). These days I collect Rue Morgue magazine, and have around 400 horror movies in my extensive cine library. In nightmare cinema (a broad term I use that often harnesses movies beyond the traditional horror genre) I particularly relish a phantasmogorical, oneiric atmosphere and a dark moody tone. Graphic violence can be exhilarating when executed with conviction, style, intelligence and panache, but tension, suspense, and performance are paramount. I savour the illusion of special effects makeup - Tom Savini, Rob Bottin, Rick Baker, Stan Winston (RIP), Dick Smith, Greg Nicotero & Howard Berger, Sergio Stivaletti, Carlo Rambaldi ... they're all magicians of the macabre! But, to be more precise, I'm actually a complete CINEPHILE - I love the artifice of movies. However, I'm fussy in my tastes, I don't dig just any kind of movie. As a rule of thumb the kinds of films that I end up purchasing for my ever-growing eclectic collection are of a darker hue; I gravitate toward lurid dramas and documentaries, visceral gangster flicks, moody science-fiction, pitch-black comedies, intense action thrillers, trashy exploitation ... and of course, horror, pure and unbridled. I have a particularly depraved taste for all things creepy, scary, gruesome, and transgressive, which is why I thought hosting a site on the high art and deep trash of nightmare movies was a bloody good idea. So this is HORRORPHILE ... Welcome to my PLEASURE OF NIGHTMARES!
my all-time favourite nightmare movies
1. ALIEN (USA, 1979) directed by Ridley Scott 2. HALLOWEEN (USA, 1978) directed by John Carpenter 3. DAY OF THE DEAD (USA, 1985) directed by George Romero 4. THE THING (USA, 1982) directed by John Carpenter 5. PHANTASM (USA, 1978) directed by Don Coscarelli 6. DEEP RED (Italy, 1975) directed by Dario Argento 7. VIDEODROME (Canada, 1982) directed by David Cronenberg 8. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (USA, 1981) directed by John Landis 9. THE EVIL DEAD(USA, 1982) directed by Sam Riami 10. SUSPIRIA (Italy, 1977) directed by Dario Argento 11. ERASERHEAD (USA, 1976) directed by David Lynch 12. POSSESSION (Germany/Poland, 1981) directed by Andrzej Zulawski 13. ANGEL HEART (USA, 1987) directed by Alan Parker 14. DEAD RINGERS (Canada, 1988) directed by David Cronenberg 15. THEM (France/Romania, 2006) directed by David Moreau & Xavier Palud 16. THE DESCENT (UK, 2005) directed by Neil Marshall 17. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (USA, 1956) directed by Don Siegel 18. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Sweden, 2008) directed by Tomas Alfredson 19. CAT PEOPLE (USA, 1942) directed by Jacques Tourneur 20. DAWN OF THE DEAD (USA, 2004) directed by Zack Snyder
my other movie sites
BRUNO DANTE'S CULT PROJECTIONS http://cultprojections.com ... basking in the dark sunshine of cult cinema The lewd and the ludicrous, the wicked and profane, the savage and sardonic, the ethereal and arcane. Come and visit my movie parlour of lurid, vivid dreams!
HORROR HORROR http://www.horrorhorror.com 42 essential cinema nightmares for those eager to peer into the Darkness! All you need to know about a selection of cult/classic horror movies. [I only hosted this site from March - November 2011]
Mothers Day (1980) was one of Tromas better efforts, but thats not saying much. Yes, Im the first to admit Im no fan of the Troma oeuvre. Along with The Toxic Avenger (1984), its regarded highly among Troma fans, but its a piece of crap really. The movie poster is amusing though. It was directed by Charlie Kaufman and co-written by Kaufman and Warren Leight. Who would have thought the time had come to remake a Troma movie?! Actually the time hasnt come, despite what the credits to Mothers Day (2010) tell you. It says its based on the original screenplay, and theres even a second credit that says the movie is based on the original movie.
Jaime King as Beth
So big Troma daddy Lloyd Kaufman has managed to squeeze a sweet intellectual property deal with the producers of the new movie. For the record, there are seventeen (17 - count em!) producers on the re-boot. And its one doozy of a re-boot with almost no recognizable elements from the original. Oh what, theres a mother, and her three sons. And there are a few house prisoners too. But that buck stops there.
Rebecca De Mornay as Mother
The Koffin brothers, Ike (Patrick Flueger), Addley (Warren Kole), and Johnny (Matt OLeary) return home to their mothers pad after a bungled robbery. Johnnys hurt real bad, bleedin everywhere, screamin blue murder. They aint got the stolen cash, and it turns out mama aint got possession of the house no more. A couple of city slickers have moved in, havin themselves a party. Well, theres hell to pay. Best they start fuckin with the strangers til mama gets there.
Patrick Flueger as Ike
Mother Koffin (Rebecca De Mornay) turns up with wallflower sis Lydia (Deborah Ann Woll) and she aint none too pleased. Her baby sons spillin tears and blood all over the sofa and shes sure as hell them city slickers have her envelopes of cash hidden somewhere. She was sending the boys money, but the boys had been out of town, and there was foreclosure on the house. Now the Sohapis, Beth (Jaime King) and Daniel (Frank Grillo) - Koffin, Sohapi, gettit? - have moved in and are trying to mend their lives having lost their lil un, with a new bun in the oven.
Briana Evigan as Annette
Warren Kole as Addley
Beth and Daniel are celebrating his birthday in the basement rumpus room with close friends, Annette (Briana Evigan), George (Shawn Ashmore), Julie (Lisa Marcos), Treshawn (Lyriq Bent), Gina (Kandyse McClure), Dave (Tony Nappo), and Melissa (Jessie Rusu). When the Koffin boys arrive the party quickly turns upside down. George is hauled upstairs to have his basic nurses skills put to use on Johnny (gaffer-taping up the gaping shotgun wound is a start), while trigger-happy meth-head Addley finds excuses to terrorise the prisoners. Soon enough theres innocent blood spilled. Lots of it.
George tries to stem the blood flow of Johnny's nasty wound
Director Darren Lynn Bousman gave us Saw II (2005), III (2006) and IV (2007). I guess you could say hes skilled on the torture porn front. He keeps much of that in restraint and actually allows his competent cast to apply some generous strokes of characterisation and impressive performance. Rebecca De Mornay seems to be relishing the role as the maternal devil. She has demons in her closet, alright, and theyll be bursting out soon enough. Jaime King provides a solid counterpoint of fragility and determination, as does Shawn Ashmores angry doctor, and Flueger and Kole as the two older Koffin brothers.
Beth, Dave (Tony Nappo),Gina (Kandyse McClure), Annette, and Julie (Lisa Marcos)
The movie is mostly domestic bound, and as such begins to feel like a stage play, albeit housing a vicious nightmare scenario. The home invasion is one of the more realistic nightmares to seize the modern horror movie. Mothers Day isnt a bad movie, and it has some moments, but there is a distinct in-one-eye-and-out-the-other feel about the production. I have a feeling it was edited down to an American R rating. The ending is left wide-open, but somehow I doubt well be seeing a The Day After Mothers Day.
Shotgun blast at point blank range does terrible things to the face
Between August 1942 and February 1943 the siege of Stalingrad was not only one of WWIIs most significant battles being the largest on the Eastern Front, but is also regarded as one of the bloodiest and most brutal battles in the history of warfare. It resulted in massive casualties and it marked a turning point in Hitlers resolute belief in the power of the will because he failed to attain any further strategic victories in the East and never fully recovered his earlier military strengths. Stalingrad (1993) focuses on the fates of several platoon members in Germanys 6th Army as they struggle against the unforgiving Russian winter and the cruel treatment at the hands of their own commanders and leaders.
Thomas Kretschmann as Hans
From the producers of the cult classic submarine thriller Das Boot (1982), and directed by Joseph Vilsmaier from a screenplay by Christoph Fromm (who had his name removed after his early and substantially more realistic - draft was changed dramatically), Jurgen Buscher, Johannes Heide, and Vilsmaier, Stalingrad is a powerful and compelling drama that depicts the horror, desperation, and harrowing resignation of war. It bombed at the American box office (probably due to audiences rejecting the original German-language version, and the American dubbed version being so poorly executed). It has finally been given a release in Australasia in a restored widescreen DVD release (and a new directors cut no less!) and it looks and sounds excellent (you have the option of the dub version, but I wouldnt recommend it!).
The sunshine and rest and recreation of coastal Italy in the movies opening scene is quickly cast aside as our clutch of determined soldiers are thrown into the chaos and carnage of the battle into Stalingrad. Hans (a young and handsome Thomas Kretschmann), Rollo (Jochen Nickel), Fritz (Dominique Hortwitz), GeGe (Sebastian Rudolph), and Otto (Sylvester Groth) are subject to the relentless defence of the Red Army. Their numbers soon start to dwindle as the horrific combat injuries rise.
Hans confronts a badly wounded Russian soldier
Hans encounters a female Rusky in the sewers of the ruined buildings, Irina (Dana Vavrova, the directors late wife), who speaks fluent German. He disarms her, and she admits she still could have killed him with her canteen knife hidden in her boot. She manages to slip through his fingers, but he will meet her again in far harsher conditions.
Excellent performances from the entire cast, but if I had to single out any for the Iron Cross it would be Jochen Nickel and Dana Vavrova. The score is probably the movies weakest element, at times veering into TV movie mediocre territory, but then coming back with something eerie and full of percussive punctuation. The violence, while not as graphic in its execution, is explicit in the aftermath (lots of severed limbs!) Remember that the battle of Stalingrad was especially brutal, and this is wartime brutality, not playground bruises! More than a million soldiers were killed in action, froze to death (the Germans just didnt have the Rusky boots to cope with the bitter cold, and as such suffered extreme frostbite!), or died of starvation; much of the 6th Army was trapped within the city so no supplies could get to them.
Irina (Dana Vavrova), Hans, and Fritz (Dominique Hortwitz) at the end of their tether
Stalingrad bears the hallmarks of classic unpretentious 70s style storytelling, with impressive production values. Not as viscerally realistic as Platoon (1986), but just as gritty, not surreal like Apocalypse Now (1979), but just as nightmarish, not as poetically expressionistic as Come and See (1985), but just as unsentimental, and yet profoundly affecting. Stalingrad is up there with the all-time great war movies.
Do you find yourself wishing for something then swiftly knocking on the nearest piece of wood?
Do you avoid black cats in the street?
Do you steer clear of ladders blocking your path?
Do you have a rabbit's foot or a horseshoe tucked away in a drawer?
If you break a mirror do you crumple in despair?
If you're superstitious, then do you also believe in omens and premonitions?
If you're not superstitious, do you believe at all in fate?
Well, I believe in Stevie Wonder's Superstition. That's the funkateer in me.
The movie Superstition (1982) has some great moments.
But as far as a belief in supernatural causality goes, I'm a non-believer. I think. The dark romantic in me begs to differ. Perhaps I'm a sceptic then. Just like my belief in telekinesis and levitation will hover until I experience it firsthand and trust there's been no sleight of hand.
The lovely folk at Paramount have given me an exclusive trailer to a new horror-thriller from the States, but set in Europe, about a woman who becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms during her mission to discover what happened to her mother, who had allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism.
Directed by relative newcomer William Brent Bell, The Devil Inside (2012) is his third feature, and his second horror. The cast are relative unknowns (always a drawcard in my books). I'm rather partial to a little demonic possession. This looks to be the nightmare The Last Exorcism (2010) ultimately failed to be
Its been a rough ride this year. Australia banned two movies; one of these was heavily cut, then banned just prior to its straight-to-video release, while the other was passed uncut, then banned, then appealed/re-submitted in a cut version and passed (with its original R18 rating). These two movies - A Serbian Film and The Human Centipede II - are two of the most imaginative and potent nightmare movies of the past twenty years. But there is an axe to be ground by those that carry neo-conservative umbrellas to shield themselves and if they can, the rest of society from the moral corruption they insist is rife in such reprehensible pornographic cinema.
To these fundamentalist fuckwits, I say, how dare you imply that Im a sick, twisted, depraved, sociopathic danger to society
The Last Circus (2010) is the flamboyant, over-the-top new movie from Spanish agent provocateur Alex de la Iglesia, the director who gave us Accion Mutante (1993) and The Day of the Beast (1995). Its original title is Balada Triste de Trompeta, which translates roughly as The Sad Trumpet Ballad, a more fitting banner, as this is very much a tragic tale of love blared loud and torn asunder. It is a comedy as black as midnight satin, and as absurd as the clowns who star; payaso triste and payaso tonto, the sad clown Javier (Carlos Areces) and the happy clown Sergio (Antonio de la Torre). And last but not least, the fair lady in between, la chica de la tela, Natalia (Carolina Bang).
Carlos Areces as Javier
Our dark romance kicks off in 1937 in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, where young Javier sees his clown father forced to join the militia and fight against Nationalists. His brave father, still in costume, is handed a machete and cuts his way across the urban battlefield. But a Captain cuts Javiers father down, and in turn Javier blinds the officer, then escapes. There is a score to be settled further down the track.
Antonio de la Torre as Sergio
It is 1973 and Javier joins a ragtag circus troupe. The tragedy in his life seeps through his pores, and it is not surprising he can only manage to score the position of Sad Clown, and receive the cruel end of the stick from the borderline psychopath Sergio, playing, ironically, the Happy Clown. But it is the trapeze girl, Natalia, who steals Javiers heart, even though she cant tear herself away from the rough sex and abusive treatment she receives at the hands and loins of Sergio. Javier takes it upon himself to free Natalia, and, perhaps, persuade her to love him. Natalia is torn between her fascination and affection for Javier and her sexual co-dependence with Sergio
Razorback (1984) is a curious creature, curious being the operative word, and its more beast than creature. This was Russell Mulcahys feature debut after proving hugely successful at directing vivid and imaginative video clips for pop bands, namely Duran Duran. He was lured back to his old stomping ground of Australia by the promise of harnessing a huge pig of a horror movie; a $5.5 million B-movie that became affectionately known as Jaws on trotters. It was certainly riding on the crusty fins of Spielbergs blockbuster, but also the massive success of another Australian director, George Miller, and his Ozploitation cult classic Mad Max (1979). Razorback snorts and grunts, throws up a lot of dust, and sprays a lot of feral spittle, but the guts of it is far more a lurid curiosity than anything else, a horror-comedy to be sure, often unintentionally.
Gregory Harrison as Carl faces the movie's ham
A massive Rhino-sized boar is terrorizing the farming community of the Australian Outback township known as Gamulla. This wild pig is a freak of nature, all 400 kilos of the hairy ugly bastard, screeching like a locomotive, tearing at anything that moves with its monstrous tusks, its thunderous muscles twitching like a pissed snake. This oversized marauder can rip a man to shreds, but tear right through a house and out the other side into the fiery sunset. And thats just what it does, taking Jake Cullen (Bill Kerr)s young son with it.
Judy Morris as Beth
Jake is sworn to avenge his sons death, especially after hes acquitted of the poor boys murder. Then in swans Beth Winters (Judy Morris), an American TV journo with a kangaroos as pet meat story to expose. Unfortunately she gets the wrong end of the tusk, and its her husband Carl (Gregory Harrison) who arrives on the scene determined to find out what really happened. The locals, especially the misfit Baker brothers Benny (Chris Haywood) and Dicko (David Argue), dont take to kindly to snooping Yankees, especially when theyre told theyre Canadians
Horrorphile: Tell me a little about your first feature Roadkill (1996). What happened to it after it was released? Why such a long interval until The Revenant?
Kerry: We were able to get this movie financed for a miniscule amount of money through this company called Pan Am Picturesthey had bought the name and logo from the defunct airline, and used it for their film company, which should have told me something about the way this company worked. The idea was to shoot for a week, cut together a trailer, go to AFM and pre-sell the movie; use the advance money from the presales to finish the film. This worked greatbest trailer and one-sheet Pan Am ever had. Sold something like four times the budget of the movie. What I didnt know is that the owner of this companywell call him Pan Am Sam--would solicit investors from which he would steal every other dollar, invest what was left over in movies, which he would sell to foreign territories, collect the deposit money and then never deliver the movie, keeping the deposit. Anyway, he never came up with the rest of the money to finish the film, and in the mean time, the two producers I had hired to help make the movie started embezzling money from the budget to pay for rent and marijuana, so the whole thing fell apart. I went and lifted the negative from the lab, suspecting that these stoners would collude with Pan Am Sam and try to take the film, so when they did that a few months later, and discovered the film boxes which I had carefully returned to the lab filled with sand (inspired by Raiders of the Lost Arc), the mob guy left messages on my answering machine threatening to kill me. The LA district attorney was looking for me, a Hollywood PD detective was looking for me, and the lab was threatening me with a lawsuit. For a while I didnt leave the house without a switchblade, even to go jogging. Anyway, suffice to say the movie was never completed
Finally! D. Kerry Prior's undead buddy action comedy, The Revenant (2011), reaches the shores down under on official release! After two years of doing the festival circuit (it screened as part of Sydney's A Night Of Horror International Film Festival early last year and was considered by many as the best movie of the festival) the movie has finally secured American and international distribution. I do like my comedies black as midnight on a moonless night and this is no exception; a fresh take on the undead buddy movie set in the desolate urban expanse that is the City of Angels. The Revenant kicks some serious ass with its severed tongue squirming around inside its putrefying cheek.
Bart (David Anders), a decorated officer killed in action in the Middle East and shipped home, lies in his coffin awaiting burial. His distraught fiancée, Janet (Louise Griffiths) is comforted by her friend Mathilda (Jacy King) and Barts best pal Joey (Chris Wylde). But Chris is the one who gets the real shock when Bart breaks free of his box and returns to his friends abode, looking much worse for wear; his eyes glazed yellow, his skin pallid and crumbly, he stinks to high heaven, and when he tries to eat cold pizza he vomits up embalming fluid and black blood. A real charmer
What the fuck happened to respecting the intelligence and freedom of choice for adults in this supposedly modern cultural world? Since when did Australia become a nanny state? But it's not just Australia the whole world is descending into a strangled state of neo-conservatism; the artistic freedom of filmmakers (and photographers) are being compromised, and can be juxtaposed in deep irony against the progressive rise of amateur Y-Gen filmmakers armed with their smart phones and their abrasive raunch culture attitude.
A three-member panel of the Australian Classification Review Board has by unanimous decision determined that the film The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is classified RC (Refused Classification). The Review Board is an independent merits review body. It makes a fresh classification decision after an application for review has been formerly filed. This decision supersedes the original decision made by the Classification Board
Sometimes it's not the explicit nature of the violence that is so shocking.
Has any movie come close to shocking you? What's the most violent movie in your opinion?
Braindead is a comedy, so unlikely to be shocking.
I've not heard of the Dnepropetrovsk Murders.
Nice Thing reference.
I wonder how much Carpenter paid for the rights to use that back in '82?
Is a funkateer like a rocketeer? You'll need to ask George Clinton that question.
And a Happy New Year to you too.
You've got some gems to look forward to. Black Swan made the top of my Horrorphile list. I have a feeling Drive will make the top of my Cult Projections list.
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Comment by Bryn
on Horrorphile's 13 GORIEST MOVIES EVER MADE
Horrorphile
Has any movie come close to shocking you? What's the most violent movie in your opinion?
Braindead is a comedy, so unlikely to be shocking.
I've not heard of the Dnepropetrovsk Murders.