Showing posts with label horror is dead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror is dead. Show all posts

March 26, 2017

The End of Dr Blood's Video Vault

Yes, it's really the end of the blog this time.

This news will come as no surprise to my readers who have noticed that I've slowed down a lot over the last couple of years and not watched many movies at all. For one thing, I don't have the time or patience for reviewing horror movies anymore, and for another, I've lost interest in movies completely. I could blame it on various health issues that have come and gone, but really it's just part of getting older and growing out of stuff.

I'll leave the blog up as some of what I wrote is funny to go back and look at. In particular, the horrible punctuation mistakes of the early posts are somewhat amusing, and all of the vitriol I poured out on crappy low-budget horror is still relevant. Pointless movies made by delusional people which I really only wrote about because I had nothing better to do. Meh, we live and learn.

So what's next? Nothing really.

Up until fairly recently, I'd still been buying the occasional DVD from CeX, and although I wanted to write a series of posts called "The Joy of CeX", it's just not the same as those fantastic pawn shop scavenger hunts I used to go on. There's no satisfaction from the hunt when you can easily look up whatever you want and buy it from a website. The bargains are there, of course, because DVD and Blu-ray are almost dead as a format. Hell, the entire movie industry is pretty much dead now too, or if not dead, it's certainly extremely poorly and ready to kick the bucket at any time. There's nothing relevant for anyone my age. In fact, there's very little which is relevant for anyone over 18 now. It's mostly a lot of misguided, preachy, virtue-signalling, political crap which is so poorly disguised with feeble "storytelling" that only the very foolish still buy into it.

Having said that, I don't even watch the older movies I collected, they just sit on my bookshelves as a reminder of this great time-wasting folly. Same with the books I will never read and games which I never play.

So yeah, that's it. Nothing more to see here unless I change my mind again one day. I can't really see it happening though. There's no money to be made from any of this. In case you missed it, the magazines are slowly disappearing, and the big name blogs (which have never been acknowledged by normal people for having any credibility) are apparently e-begging. Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and all those Patreon pan-handlers can fuck right off. If you really want to pay "idiot tax" to a bunch of people who don't care about anyone except themselves, go ahead, but I'm not falling for it.

The whole "scene" is now an even bigger pile of cliquey shit with nothing but the really shitty people left in it. When they aren't cross-promoting each other, or falsely playing the victim while bullying and inciting witch-hunts against anyone who challenges their brainwashed opinions, they are regurgitating the same old nostalgia crap as clickbait. It's pathetic and boring. The rest of us, the good people who've seen the light, have kicked the dust of this crap off our feet and moved on.

Later, gators.


Update
Photobucket is holding everyone to ransom over third-party image hosting. It looks like they finally did what all the trolls, haters, psychopaths, bullies, and pathological liars couldn't do. They killed my blog.

December 23, 2016

2016 - The Year in Review

Damn, it's that time of year again when all the movie bloggers post top ten lists influenced by their political ideologies. So, while they cross-promote and virtue-signal each other like crazy people, I'll just calmly sidestep the circle-jerk by not making any lists whatsoever.

Once again, there haven't been enough horror movies this year to make a "Top 10 Best Horror Movies of 2016", let alone another "Top 10 Worst Horror Movies of 2016" to accompany it. Even combining all the movies from other genres which I've watched this year, it would be impossible to find 20 in total which I feel like mentioning again. It's really been that bad.

Cue the comedy tumbleweed...

Same time next year, Mr Tumbleweed?

Movies I Enjoyed in 2016

There were a few movies I liked, but apart from "Gods of Egypt", "The Huntsman: Winter's War", and "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children", none of them were from this year.

In October, I went on a minor journey into some Hitchcock classics with "The Birds" and "Rebecca", but I couldn't sustain enough interest in old movies I'd already seen dozens of times before to continue. I also discovered that I don't actually own DVDs of the more famous Hitchcock movies to make a series out of it and found myself slipping away from horror towards what can only be described as "great works of A-level English literature turned into dumbed-down movies for the plebs". I was just about to review "Great Expectations" when I realised that I couldn't stand any more of that horribly dated old bollocks. Even "The Joy of CeX" and their ridiculously low prices wasn't enough to tempt me back once the spell was broken.

Pure shit which makes no sense.

Instead, I watched "The Wailing", hoping that South Korea was going to deliver the goods like they did with "Gwoemul" ten years ago. I got really into it to start with as it ticked all the right boxes of "otherness" and "different", but alas, it was not to last. This already tonally-challenged abomination turned into pure shit two-thirds of the way through, didn't make a lick of sense to me at the end, and I gave up on watching and reviewing movies again. We don't even "do" Hallowe'en in Britain, so there was no point in burning myself out even further.


TV Shows of 2016

Other than compulsory viewing of "EastEnders" and "Wentworth", I mainly used the television to play Xbox games this year. I didn't watch any "Game of Thrones" except the last two episodes, and I have no interest left in "The Walking Dead", "American Horror Story", or "Ash vs. Evil Dead".


I did force myself to watch the entire first season of "Westworld", although after a couple of episodes, it turned into yet another one of those shows with more padding than narrative progression. The whole thing could have been condensed into one movie without all the "Groundhog Day" repetition, flashbacks, "flashforwards", and general messing about with timelines. Oh wait, it already was. Yeah, I think I'll stick with the original 1973 movie, thank you, rather than waste my time with another "Lost". Just like how the "Losties" were dead all along, I expect the "Westies" will all turn out to be robots when "Westworld" returns for another season in 2018 (when everyone has forgotten about it) anyway.

In fact, the highlight of this year was watching Donald Trump win the Presidential Election. Considering that I'm not into boring politics, I was still intrigued enough to watch it on the BBC, who dragged the final result out forever in the vain hope that it would change in favour of their fellow Lefties. It was great but cringeworthy late night television. Watching more and more American Democrats and SJW-types get well and truly served when Hillary Clinton lost was hilarious to me, and the fallout which followed on social media was like bittersweet icing on a cake already made delicious with their salty tears of misery.


It would be fantastic if Trump's win signalled the beginning of a long overdue worldwide change back to normality and killed the annoying Millennial religion of SJW-dom, political correctness gone mad, and the crybully victim-culture which the mainstream media has milked for all it's worth, but I doubt that it will happen. The Illuminati bankers and Reptilians from Saturn have had their plans delayed a little bit, but that's all. The fact that we voted to leave the EU six months ago in Britain and still no "Brexit" has occurred speaks volumes. As the old joke goes, "It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government still gets in."


In Remembrance


A veritable shit load of actors, entertainers, and celebrities died again this year, including several "stars" who apparently only departed this plane of existence just to upset millions of people who had never been fans of theirs before. Here are the majority of the ones I heard about through the wailing and gnashing of teeth on social media. I've highlighted the names of those I knew of before they died. R.I.P.

Lennie Bluett
Leonard White
Yves Vincent
Richard Libertini
Myra Carter
Anna Synodinou
Umberto Raho
Angus Scrimm
Ed Stewart
David Bowie
David Margulies
Brian Bedford
Conrad Phillips
Franco Citti
Alan Rickman
Micole Mercurio
Bairbre Dowling
Sheila Sim
Dan Haggerty
Lois Ramsey
Glenn Frey
Colin Vearncombe
Abe Vigoda
Frank Finlay
Terry Wogan
Dave Mirra
Richard Gladman
Maurice White
William Haze
Louise Plowright
George Martin
James Douglas
Nancy Reagan
Richard Davalos
Robert Horton
Keith Emerson
Sylvia Anderson
Paul Daniels
Larry Drake
Ken Howard
Earl Hamner, Jr.
Garry Shandling
Patty Duke
Frank De Felitta
Ronnie Corbett
Douglas Wilmer
Merle Haggard
David Swift
Martin Fitzmaurice
Doris Roberts
Victoria Wood
Prince
Madeleine Lebeau
Sylvia Kauders
Reg Grundy
Nick Lashaway
William Schallert
Nicholas Fisk
Valerie Lush
Ian Watkin
Rosanna Huffman
Burt Kwouk
Angela Paton
Harambe
David Spielberg
Muhammed Ali
Lidia Biondi
Ronnie Claire Edwards
Ann Morgan Guilbert
Dave Swarbick
Anton Yelchin
Sharon Douglas
Götz George
Stuart Nisbet
Robin Hardy
Caroline Aherne
Michael Cimino
Noel Neill
Corrado Farina
Seamon Glass
Ken Barrie
Vivean Gray
Terence Bayler
David Huddleston
Barry Jenner
Cynthia Szigeti
Kenny Baker
Patricia English
Arthur Hiller
Michael Leader
Steven Hill
Marvin Kaplan
Peter Comi
Gene Wilder
Jon Polito
John Hostetter
Johnny Rebel
Hazel Douglas
James Stacy
Alexis Arquette
Todd Kimsey
Herschell Gordon Lewis
Peter Collingwood
Laura Troschel
Pete Burns
Gary Dubin
Ricky Callan
Jean Alexander
Richard Cavendish
Margaret Ashcroft
Lene Tiemroth
John Carson
Robert Vaughn
Lisa Lynn Masters
Yevgeni Lazarev
Andrew Sachs
Colonel Abrams
Bernard Gallagher
Valerie Gaunt
Van Williams
Alice Drummond
Don Calfa
Margaret Whitton
Peter Vaughan
Greg Lake
Walter Swinburn
Alan Thicke
Bernard Fox
Rick Parfitt

...and this evil fuck. Burn in Hell!


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

December 13, 2015

2015 - The Year in Review

Although I'm obviously out of the loop when it comes to all The Asylum/SyFy Channel movies, generic Blumhouse Productions, the lazy "mumblecore" abominations, and the slew of other low-budget "indie horror" camcorder shitefests which the Millennials (who need watering) keep shilling because they have nothing else to talk about, since I haven't seen any new movie this year which could rightfully be called "horror", there's only one way this year's lists can go.

My Top 10 Best Horror Movies of 2015


My Top 10 Worst Horror Movies of 2015


If there were enough "horror genre" (in the loosest sense) movies released to make two lists with, I certainly don't remember them. Actually, all the movies this year have been forgettable.

A lot of people will argue that the fault lies in the how the studios are sticking to known formulas because they won't take any financial risks, but even though I'm not into politics, I also blame the constantly whinging SJWs and Libtards for the fact that none of today's mediocre movie entertainment has any grit to it. The special snowflakes kept pretending to be offended by everything until "the powers that be" foolishly listened and pandered to their insanity. And that's why we can't have nice things.

I'll leave the more "informative" listmaking to the "professional journalists" (you know, the nerds who flip burgers or sit in call centre cubicles in real life but pretend to be movie gurus online) who are racking their pretentious brains to come up with enough movies from obscure film festivals to populate their clickbait "end of year" articles. Now that hardly anyone buys physical media, nobody cares what they write anymore either, and thus, my non-lists (which wasted much less of your valuable time) are equally valid. Ah, the irony. They fought so hard to get their names on DVD sleeves and used every dirty trick in the book to get where they are for nothing. Comedy gold.

My Top 10 Best Non-Horror Movies of 2015


My Top 10 Worst Non-Horror Movies of 2015


It's tempting to say that "Spectre" was the worst, but I could barely stay awake through that James Blond cashgrab, and I didn't have the patience to review it. "Mad Max: Fury Road", "Terminator Genisys", and "Jurassic World" were disappointingly shit too.


TV Shows of 2015

Other than "Eastenders", "Come Dine with Me", "Gogglebox", and a multitude of British real estate programmes, I didn't watch much television this year.

The first three episodes of BBC1's "River" were very good indeed, but the rest of the story dragged before it petered out into total bollocks.


From American TV, "Ash vs. Evil Dead" and "American Horror Story: Hotel" were as insipid as everyone expected, and I stopped watching either of them after only a couple of episodes.


Remembering Those We Lost


As ever, a load of actors, entertainers, and "celebrities" died this year. Here are some of the most famous ones. There were plenty more, but I've left out the names of those who I didn't recognise and, in all honesty, never gave two shits about in the first place. R.I.P.

Lance Percival
Rod Taylor
Anita Ekberg
Leonard Nimoy
Lesley Gore
Ben Woolf
Robert Z'Dar
Tom Towles
Claire Gordon
Geoffrey Lewis
Richard Dysart
Nigel Terry
Betsy Palmer
Grace Lee Whitney
Richard Johnson
Sir Christopher Lee
Ron Moody
Patrick Macnee
Val Doonican
Lynn Anderson
Zhanna Friske
Irwin Keyes
Omar Sharif
George Cole
Cilla Black
Wes Craven
Yvonne Craig
Dean Jones
Gordon Honeycombe
Peter Baldwin
Maureen O'Hara
Saeed Jaffrey
Warren Mitchell
Gunnar Hansen
Colin Welland
Nicholas Smith
Robert Loggia
Anthony Valentine


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

December 16, 2014

2014 - The Year in Review

Since I haven't been reviewing for over a year now, but I've still been watching movies occasionally, I'll just end this year (and hopefully this blog forever) with three very subjective lists of what I consider to be the best and worst movies that I've seen in 2014.

Lots of people have tried to get me to come back to blogging. I thank them all for their encouragement and constant support, but my heart's not in it anymore. I can barely get back into character to write this post. I haven't been into the horror genre for a very long time (in hindsight, I should have stayed quit when I gave up on this foolishness back in 2011). Suffice it to say that I've moved on to other more lucrative pursuits, and I don't have time to argue the toss with online bullies.

This year has also been full of personal tragedies and unexpected bereavements which have been more important to me than reviewing stupid movies. I was already done with this pointless hobby and the dogs in mangers it attracts, but real life events cemented my decision.

On the plus side, I've cut ties with a lot of people who are too obsessed with movies for their own good (or anyone else's), I've made many new and far better friends than I ever had in previous years, and I even rekindled some old important friendships which I'd lost due to my own assholitis and neglect. We live and learn, I suppose. Well, some of us do.

Anyway, maybe you'll get something out of this post, maybe you won't. It is what it is.


My Top 10 Worst Horror Movies of 2014

1. Oculus - just another clone of "The Gate Crasher" segment of "From Beyond the Grave" (1974) but rendered incomprehensible and boring through bad writing and mostly annoying characters/acting. Karen Gillan is the only reason why anyone watched it anyway.

2. The Battery - aka Two drunken baseball players trapped in a car by zombies during a micro-budget clone of "The Walking Dead". Fucking dreck. I can't stand "The Walking Dead" either.

3. The Babadook - because it's not really horror, and although I could see what they were all trying to do, the story lacks cohesion in so many ways that it doesn't make any sense on any level to anyone (no matter how some people try to force it to). The pacing is very slow, and the movie lacks inertia, but I have to admit that it all looks good and the pop-up book is kind of cool. The kid in it is an outstanding actor for his age but intentionally annoying as piss too. A real shame because I generally love Australian movies, and I wanted to enjoy this one.

4. Annabelle - boring as shit sequel to "The Conjuring" which was also boring as shit. Sorry again, James Wan, if you accidentally read this, it's nothing personal, but you already know that I didn't like your ghostie movies.

5. V/H/S: Viral - aka Only one semi-decent segment (the parallel universe one) surrounded by more shakycam, puke-inducing, found footage shite.

6. Dracula Untold - bahahahahaha NO! Historically inaccurate and almost unwatchable! I tried though.

7. The Sacrament - "Bad Dreams" (1988) did the cult thing much better. Hell, even Kevin Smith's "Red State" (2011) did the cult thing much better. This is just a stupid Waco-style mockumentary for millennials. Aside from the horrible found footage gimmick, it all feels like an average TV movie. Not worth piss.

8. Leprechaun: Origins - No Warwick Davis? No fun! Get to fuck!

9. See No Evil 2 - a half-arsed sequel to a half-arsed WWE slasher which I didn't ever like very much. Kane is now F13's Jason and can survive being pumped full of embalming fluid. Whatever.

10. Starry Eyes - half-"Faust" and half-"Contracted" but twice as disappointing originality-wise. It could've been a classic, but it wasn't, not even for 2014. "Eat" and "Raaz 3" had similar themes. Mind you, so did "Showgirls".

Runners-up include nearly everything from Blumhouse Productions, all of the SyFy channel/The Asylum movies, and 99.9% of American indie (i.e. 5 delusional guys and a shaky Jazzcam in their backyard) horror movies made this year.

I had no interest in Ouija and didnt watch it, so I can't comment on that. I didn't ever see the remake of Blacker Than the Night either due to a very limited theatrical release. I don't consider ABCs of Death 2 to be anything other than a collection of mediocre YouTube videos, so that's not even a movie. There were others on DVD and Netflix which I watched about five minutes of each and then either fast-forwarded through or ditched, but other than Wer and The Quiet Ones, I don't remember what they were.

To balance things, however, here's a "Top 10 Best Horror Movies of 2014". Not that any of them were great, mind you, nor will any of them be remembered or thought of as "classics" in the future.


My Top 10 Best Horror Movies of 2014

1. S.O.B. Summer of Blood - yeah, it's mostly a comedy, but I liked it because it ticked every box necessary on the way through (especially for us older guys who loathe political correctness). Years ago, when my tastes were different, I would have switched something like this just after the pivotal scene, but I'm glad that I stayed with it. I hope to see more from everyone involved in this production one day. Having made some inquiries, I know that it's not a vain hope either.

2. Housebound - again, not too serious, but well acted and competent despite being all over the place tonally. It's from New Zealand, I believe.

3. When Animals Dream - sort of like "Let the Right One In" but with werewolves instead. I now prefer this to "Ginger Snaps" even though (subtextually) it's not meant to be another "coming of age" metaphor.

4. Tusk - hmmmm, bit of a theme here with comedies. It's very good though. I felt bad for the walrus guy.

5. 13 Sins - a remake, but far better than the original. Very "Twilight Zone"-ish.

6. Raaz 3: The Third Dimension - cool Bollywood horror. The best of its kind ever according to box office figures. The actresses in it are uber hot.

7. The Damned - really from last year, but I only watched it this year. It's core is "Restrepo" all over again, so the monster is not very original. Some would liken it to "Satan's Triangle" in places too. The acting and story is better and faster though.

8. The Town That Dreaded Sundown - a remake/sequel and a clone of "Scream" combined, but it's still highly entertaining and has better production values than most of the movies on this list.

9. [REC]⁴ Apocalypse - miles better than the last sequel, and a worthy finale. Possibly the second best of the entire "[REC]" series.

10. Wrong Turn 6 - Jesus fuck, the gore effects were brutal! Not the best story ever, but at least it had a story too. Apparently, all copies of this movie have been withdrawn now due to a kerfuffle over some private photographs used in poor taste and without permission. If you've already bought it, you can probably make a small fortune by selling it on eBay.

Runner up: Cheap Thrills - more of a thriller than horror, I suppose, but exceptionally good for what it is. More suspense than most horror anyway, and decent acting. I'd recommend it more highly if the hipsters hadn't latched onto it and overhyped it.

Runner-up 2: Bunshinsaba 3 - just because I hardly ever recommend Asian horror.

Runner-up 3: The Taking of Deborah Logan - despite taking me three tries to get through it.


And finally, for more positivity from a showbiz year filled with sadness, toxic people, disappointment, and negativity...

My Top 10 Movies of 2014

1. I Origins - one of the best indie movies I've ever seen.

2. Nightcrawler

3. The Voices

4. 300: Rise of an Empire

5. Bad Words

6. John Wick

7. S.O.B. Summer of Blood

8. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - Eva Green again, 'nuff said.

9. Gone Girl

10. Edge of Tomorrow

Runner-up: Guardians of the Galaxy

Runner-up 2: Vendetta - the Danny Dyer one.

Runner-up 3: Fury

As for my "Worst 10 Movies of 2014", that would be too mean, especially since there are so many which seemed to be intentionally competing for the label. I'd like to give the top positions on that list to Lost Time, Septic Man, The Guest, Honeymoon, or I, Frankenstein, but from the major theatrical releases, Noah, The Equalizer, and Left Behind are even more boring. I haven't seen Exodus or Paddington yet though.


Bonus: My Top TV Series of 2014

1. Game of Thrones

2. Orange Is the New Black

3. The Leftovers

4. Wentworth

I haven't watched enough television to make a "Top Ten" of these either, plus I can't abide the more obvious choices of The Walking Dead or American Horror Story: Freakshow. They became too "samey", and I gave up on both. I binge-watched all of Fringe, Bates Motel, Doctor Who, and Breaking Bad earlier this year on Netflix, but they are old now (like me) and don't count.


I don't care if you enjoyed my choices or hated them, I liked what I liked and disliked what I didn't, and since this is still my blog not yours, that's all that really matters. There are millions of other bloggers publishing similar lists, so if you don't like mine, it's not the end of the world. Maybe you'll find one which you agree with somewhere else. Nobody needs to take this personally. Outside of the big name cliques and shills who all repeat each other, I'm sure everyone has different favourites from this very polarising year.


Merry Christmas, everybody, and have a very Happy New Year!

Adiós.

October 31, 2013

Happy Hallowe'en 2013!


It's here! It's Hallowe'en 2013!

The big non-event has finally arrived on a Thursday when nobody can do anything for it.



I'm completely burnt out by horror this month anyway, so I'm going to have a long hiatus. There are no new theatrical releases on my radar until at least March 2014, and I'm bored with these lacklustre straight-to-DVD horror movies and "hobby horror" crapfests.

I was going to write about Empire Pictures and Full Moon, but I can't be bothered to do it anymore. In fact, I can't be bothered to write reviews of anything. After over 2000 reviews, and more online "fights" over them than I can remember, I think I've finally grown out of it.

We only had one theatrical horror release in October, and it was that soulless "Carrie" remake. I think that's what finally killed the genre for old school horror fans such as myself. Let the new kids on the block gush over their slew of shitty movies which I'm never going to watch. I'm not going to waste any more of my time.

No more remakes, sequels, and clones for me.

As far as I'm concerned, horror is dead.

No more Twitter, no more Facebook, or any of the other social networking sites which don't send any traffic back to Blogger anyway. The internet "horror community" (what a joke!) is too full of cliques of cyberbullies and trolls all fighting among themselves, and I'm leaving them to it. The internet is not the fun place it used to be where you could make a few pretend friends and hang out when you were bored.

I'm done with it.

October 16, 2013

Enough with the Paranormal Activity clones and parodies already!

Who would have thought that when "Paranormal CRAPtivity"—a low-budget haunted house movie that most people only liked because of buxom beauty Katie Featherston and the original downbeat ending which was changed to a lamer one—came out in 2007, it would lead to so many clones and parodies?


When it comes to clones, the Japanese almost got there first with their "Official Sequel" which came out (on November 20th, 2010) before the true sequel (actually a prequel) in their country but a month later for everyone else. It was a nice try though.


Predictably, we then had two more "Paranormal Activity" cashgrabs which gave us exactly the same jump scares all over again but even less so. Sadly, a fifth movie is rumoured to be on the way next year too.


Back to 2009, and The Asylum just had to make their own mockbuster version called "Paranormal Entity". Bizarrely, it's slightly better than the movie it clones, and it's cheaper to buy. But then they had to go and ruin everything by renaming some of their not very good movies for the UK. "Paranormal Entity 2" is really "8213: Gacy House" (2010), in case you didn't already know.


Keeping their artwork in the same style, The Asylum also delivered "Paranormal Entity 3: The Exorcist Tapes" aka "Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes" (2011) and "Paranormal Entity 4: The Awakening" aka "100 Ghost Street: The Return of Richard Speck" (2012) to the unsuspecting British public.


While not really the same thing, "Grave Encounters" (2011) and "Grave Encounters 2" (2012) would have earned less condemnation if they'd thought of some more original artwork to use. The sequel, however, is apparently full of YouTubers, which is enough reason to not watch it on its own.


It's this cloning of artwork that's started to get even more annoying than the movies on the DVDs inside the boxes! Shame on you, "Paranormal Incident" (2011) and "Paranormal Asylum" (2013). Who do you think you're fooling?


And then, of course, we had to have the spoofs, since horror has to be all about the comedy for certain Americans, doesn't it? Nyuk nyuk nyuk! No one cares! You may call it comedy, the rest of the Western world doesn't. We call it being jealous haters with no original thoughts of your own.


No, I couldn't find a sleeve for Jason Gerbay's "Abnormal Activity 2". I don't know if such a thing even exists (there's no IMDb page for it), but I don't intend to ever watch any of this no-budget "comedy" crap anyway. Perhaps it might be good, but I don't like comedies.


And then there were more... "Paranormal Calamity" (2010) and "Paranormal Parody" (2011). At least the latter unimaginatively lets you know exactly what it is!


And more... "Supernatural Activity" (2011) and "Paranormal Movie" (2012). Why?


Earlier this year, this nonsense seemed to reach its peak with Marlon Wayans' spoof "A Haunted House" (2013) and an inevitable porn parody. And that should have been the end of it. Really, it should have been.


But no! We also have an even more lacklustre offering in the form of "30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (2013) and the equally abysmal "Paranormal Whacktivity" (2013) only released last night! Aaaargh!


For the love of God! Enough already! Please STOP!


Update: April 30th, 2015

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

October 1, 2013

TCM's Horror Schedule for October 2013


What a difference a year makes! The last time I posted one of these TV schedules, there were loads of classic horror movies to watch. Sadly, apart from a ton of Public Domain and Vincent Price movies, there's not much else to look forward to this month. Shame on you TCM! How very disappointing.

Since they've also stopped providing a convenient .pdf file, I've manually reformatted the official schedule and corrected the typos. It's easier to print out and tick off the movies as you watch them this way, but as we've all got huge horror DVD collections and/or Netflix, I doubt that any of us will bother.


Tuesday, October 1st
NOTHING!

Wednesday, October 2nd
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 3rd
12:45am - The Collector (1965)
3:00am - Dr. Crippen (1963)

Friday, October 4th
8:00pm - Carnival of Souls (1962)
9:30pm - Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Saturday, October 5th
1:30am - Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
3:00am - Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
4:45am - The Wasp Woman (1959)
10:30am - The Gorgon (1964)
12:00pm - The Devil's Bride (1968)

Sunday, October 6th
2:00am - Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula (1966)
3:15am - Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966)

Monday, October 7th
NOTHING!

Tuesday, October 8th
NOTHING!

Wednesday, October 9th
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 10th
NOTHING!

Friday, October 11th
8:00pm - Horror of Dracula (1958)
9:30pm - Isle of the Dead (1945)
11:00pm - Dead of Night (1945)

Saturday, October 12th
1:00am - The Haunting (1963)
3:00am - The House of Seven Corpses (1974)
4:30am - Horror Castle (1963)
12:00pm - The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1961)
4:30pm - It Came from Outer Space (1953)
6:00pm - The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (1959)

Sunday, October 13th
NOTHING!

Monday, October 14th
12:00am - Nosferatu (1922)
2:00am - Vampyr (1932)
3:15am - The Vampire Bat (1933)
4:30am - The Vampire (1957)

Tuesday, October 15th
NOTHING!

Wednesday, October 16th
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 17th
NOTHING!

Friday, October 18th
8:00pm - Burn, Witch, Burn (1962)
9:45pm - The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
11:15pm - The Seventh Victim (1943)

Saturday, October 19th
12:30am - Curse of the Demon (1958)
2:15am - I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
3:30am - The Leopard Man (1943)
10:30am - The Devil's Own (1966)
12:15pm - The Plague of the Zombies (1966)
8:00pm - Freaks (1932)
9:15pm - Mark of the Vampire (1935)
10:30pm - The Devil Doll (1936)

Sunday, October 20th
2:15am - Incubus (1965)
3:45am - The Hypnotic Eye (1960)

Monday, October 21st
12:00am - Haxan (1922)
2:00am - Kwaidan (1965)
6:15am - Eye of the Devil (1966)

Tuesday, October 22nd
4:30pm - A Place of One's Own (1945)

Wednesday, October 23rd
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 24th
8:00pm - House of Wax (1953)
9:45pm - The Mad Magician (1954)
11:00pm - House of Usher (1960)

Friday, October 25th
12:30am - Diary of a Madman (1963)
2:15am - The Tingler (1959)
3:45am - House on Haunted Hill (1959)
6:45am - Tower of London (1962)
8:15am - The Raven (1963)
6:30pm - The Walking Dead (1936)
8:00pm - A Bucket of Blood (1959)
9:15pm - Dementia 13 (1963)
10:45pm - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Saturday, October 26th
1:15am - Sisters (1973)
3:00am - Spider Baby (1964)
4:30am - Village of the Damned (1961)
10:30am - Maniac (1963)
8:00pm - Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
9:30pm - The Mummy (1932)
11:00pm - Cat People (1942)

Sunday, October 27th
12:30am - White Zombie (1932)
2:00am - Psychomania (1973)
3:30am - The Witches (1966)
4:15pm - Children of the Damned (1964)
6:00pm - Them! (1954)

Monday, October 28th
NOTHING!

Tuesday, October 29th
NOTHING!

Wednesday, October 30th
NOTHING!

Thursday, October 31st - HALLOWE'EN!
12:00am - Freaks (1932)
6:00am - The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
7:30am - The Mummy (1959)
9:00am - Horror Castle (1963)
10:30am - The Castle of the Living Dead (1964)
12:15pm - Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965)
1:45pm - The Devil's Bride (1968)
3:45pm - Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1969)
5:30pm - Horror Express (1972)
8:00pm - Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
9:30pm - The Haunted Palace (1963)
11:15pm - The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Continuing Hallowe'en through to Friday, November 1st
1:00am - The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
2:45am - Twice-Told Tales (1963)
5:00am - The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
6.30am - The Conqueror Worm (1968)
8:15am - Theatre of Blood (1973)


What will you be watching?

July 20, 2013

My Top Ten French Horror Films

Sometimes I get asked why I hate French horror films so much. It's not that I hate them though, it's just that I find them severely overrated.

Thus, I now present you with my definitive list of the best French horror films ever made!


1. Martyrs (2008)

"A young woman's quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity."

Ignore the intentionally vague ending which tries to be too clever for its own good, and this is top notch gore!



2. Ils (aka Them) (2006)

"Lucas and Clementine live peacefully in their isolated country house, but one night they wake up to strange noise... they're not alone... and a group of hooded assailants begin to terrorize them throughout the night."

One of the most realistic home invasion movies before "The Strangers" totally ripped it off, Americanised it, and replaced the scares with boredom.



3. Eyes Without a Face (1960)

"A brilliant surgeon, Dr. Génessier, helped by his assistant Louise, kidnaps nice young women. He removes their faces and tries to graft them onto the head on his beloved daughter Christiane, whose face has been entirely spoiled in a car crash."

A classic of French horror cinema which is only available in America as an overpriced Criterion DVD that I can't afford.



4. High Tension (2003)

"Two college friends, Marie and Alexa, encounter loads of trouble (and blood) while on vacation at Alexa's parents' country home when a mysterious killer invades their quiet getaway."

Alexandre Aja's gory ripoff of a Dean R. Koontz novel called "Intensity" but with a stupid ending tacked on.



5. Er... yeah...

Regardez le tumbleweed!

So much for the French "new wave" of horror movies, eh?