“They don’t make them like that anymore” is something you often hear said. And as far as horror films go I think that’s true. The great days of the atmospheric horror movies ended, in my opinion, in the 1970s.
But surely a contender for worst ever has to be the mutant jellyfish /man creature (were-jelly?) from The Sting of Death. If you haven’t experienced the doubtful pleasure of this film do yourself a favour and track it down now!
The Thing From Another World is one of those handful of films I was exposed to at a tender age on late night TV. Along with Karloff’s Frankenstein, Them! and Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, to this day it still excites me to watch it and it takes me back to being an 11 year full of wonder at the images coming from our black and white TV!
Imagine a 7 year old boy addicted to watching Dr Who every Saturday teatime in the 60s. The Daleks, of course, were the really scary ones, the ones you hid behind the sofa to avoid. But for me, as a child, the ones that terrified me most were the yetis, specifically the ones that appeared in 1968’s Web of Fear.
Picture the scene: It’s a Friday morning sometime in the early 70s and I’m sat in school trying my hardest to look interested in a geography lesson. But it’s not ox-bow lakes and waterfalls that are on my young mind. All I can think of is the film that’s advertised on Tyne Tees TV at 10.30pm that night.
If you are ever in any doubt how big the creature is in The Giant Claw, don’t worry….every ten minutes or so one of the characters will tell you “It’s as big as a battleship”!
Eric McNaughton puts his glasses on for a look at a neglected gem, Dr Cyclops. “Now you can call me ‘Cyclops’ because I have one good eye”. In 1940 Paramount studios returned to the world of horror films.
On a sweltering day in August 1977, a telephone call to the police lead into what has been described as ‘the most documented account of poltergeist activity in British History;’ and has divided experts and critics alike for over forty years.
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920) needs no introduction, it is one of the most influential horror films of all time and one of the most important German films of all time.
I’m going to start by saying that I really wanted to praise this book to the stars and back. It covers the era that I constantly research and write about.