Bryn

Sydney, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA

Joined August 14th 2006

Number of Posts:

1020

Number of Comments:

4878

Karma:

"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?" --- Edgar Allan Poe

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My flesh and blood ...: I've had a dark romance with horror movies for nearly three decades.

Watching Ridley Scott's ALIEN on VHS, barely into my teens, and seeing Tobe Hooper's POLTERGEIST at the cinema had a profound effect on me. At age 13 I snuck into the theatrical release of HALLOWEEN II (which was restricted to 16 in New Zealand, my home country) ... and that was it! I was a fully-fledged gorehound, terrorfreak, HORRORPHILE!

I collected Fangoria magazine for many years and have every issue from August 1979 (issue #1) through to December 1988. In nightmare cinema I relish phantasmogorical, oneiric atmosphere and dark moody tones; tension and suspense are paramount. Graphic violence can be exhilarating when executed with conviction, style, intelligence and panache. I savour the illusion of special effects makeup - Tom Savini, Rob Bottin, Rick Baker, Stan Winston (RIP), Dick Smith, KNB (Greg Nicotero/Howard Berger) ... they're all magicians of the macabre!

But, to be more precise, I'm actually a complete cinephile. I love the artifice of movies. But I'm quite 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 on DVD for my eclectic collection are of a darker hue ... I gravitate toward lurid dramas, gangster flicks, moody sf, black comedies, action thrillers, exploitation ... and of course, horror. I have a particular taste for all things creepy, scary, gruesome and transgressive, which is why I thought writing a blog on the high art and deep trash of nightmare movies was a bloody good idea.

This is HORRORPHILE ... Welcome to my PLEASURE OF NIGHTMARES!
My top 20 favourite horror movies of all time ...: 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. Profondo Rosso (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 (Poland/Germany, 1981) directed by Andrzej Zulawski
13. Cat People (USA, 1942) directed by Jacques Tourneur
14. Angel Heart (USA, 1987) directed by Alan Parker
15. Dawn of the Dead (USA, 2004) directed by Zack Snyder
16. Dead Ringers (Canada, 1988) directed by David Cronenberg
17. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (USA, 1955) directed by Don Siegel
18. Ils (Them, France/Romania, 2006) directed by David Moreau & Xavier Palud
19. The Descent (UK, 2005) directed by Neil Marshall
20. Innocent Blood (aka A French Vampire in America, USA, 1992) directed by John Landis
My filmography ...: * Oneirodynia (horror, 1989, 7 mins, colour, Super-8)
* Rendezvous (thriller, 1991, 7 mins, b&w, Super-8)
* Penumbra (horror, 1993, 30 mins, colour, U-matic)
* Stylus: shoot the DJ (doco, 1996, 30 mins, colour, VHS)
* Firesign (biopic, 1997, 5 mins, colour, Super-8)
* neo-blue (sci-fi-exploitation, 1998, 20 mins, colour, Hi-8)
* Tattoo (horror-thriller, 2004, 100 pages, unproduced)
* Fruit & Petrol (comedy, 2006, 19 pages, unproduced)
* Venom is a Lady (noir-thriller, 2006, 20 pages, unproduced)
* Stiletto (horror, 2009, work-in-progess)
* 4-leaf clover (comedy-drama, 2009, work-in-progress)
* Strangers (sf, 2009, work-in-progress)

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