The Mire Beasts, tentacled octopoid monstrosities tucked away in Episode One (“The Executioners”) and Episode Two (“The Death of Time”) of the 1965 Doctor Who story The Chase, are among the least exposed, least celebrated monsters in the Who pantheon. Indeed The Chase marks their sole appearance in the series, and thanks to the (some would say) questionable quality of the story in which they reside, little has been written about them.

This is a shame, because, as the The Chase’s excellent 2010 DVD transfer reveals, they are remarkably eerie and impressive. Even aside from the sterling efforts of the Doctor Who Restoration Team, who worked wonders on the DVD transfer, it should be said that the inherent graininess of the image, resulting from a combination of low studio lighting, black and white recording, and deteriorated film elements, bestows upon the Mire Beasts a mystery and magic that bright studio lighting and crystal clear video technology would only dispel.

In Episode One of The Chase, the TARDIS lands in a vast desert wilderness. Two of the Doctor’s companions, Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) head off across the rolling dunes to explore. After a long climb up a steep gradient they find an ancient trap door hidden beneath the sand. Entering the shadowy space below they are menaced by a dimly seen tentacled creature. In Episode Two they are saved by a pair of fish-like humanoid creatures. They are Aridians; the time travellers have landed on the planet Aridius, which was once covered in giant oceans. When the twin suns of the planet began to grow in intensity the oceans boiled away and the amphibious Aridians were driven underground, where they now reside in vast catacombed cities …  Meanwhile, the Doctor (William Hartnell) and fellow companion Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) get lost in a sandstorm whilst looking for their friends. The next morning, when the storm abates, the dunes look completely different and the TARDIS is lost beneath the sands. In addition, the Doctor’s mortal enemies the Daleks have tracked him to Aridius; keen to possess the TARDIS, they force a group of Aridians to dig it from the sand. Fleeing the Daleks, the Doctor and Barbara are reunited with Vicki and Ian in the catacombs. The Daleks demand that the Aridians hand over the time travellers, but before this can be done the Mire Beasts kill the Aridian responsible for the handover. The Doctor and his friends manage to evade a Dalek sentry, re-enter the TARDIS and make their escape into the Time Vortex, with the Daleks in hot pursuit.

We discover, during Episode Two, that the Mire Beasts are giant carnivorous octopi who originally lived in the slime at the bottom of Aridius’s oceans. When the planet began to dry up they evolved into a land-based form and began to invade the Aridians’ underground cities. One supposes that they eat Aridians, which is fair enough considering that the whole planet seems devoid of any sort of ecosystem except for the two races. The fact that the drippy Aridians are so quickly persuaded to hand over the TARDIS crew to the Daleks reduces their claim to our sympathy, and one therefore cannot help but wish the Mire Beasts every success in their efforts to winkle these whey-faced ninnies from their underground bolt-holes and gobble them up.

Any creature with tentacles and an amorphous, hard-to-delineate body shape cannot fail to remind horror fans of the eldritch monstrosities roaming the work of H.P. Lovecraft, and the Mire Beasts are no exception. Indeed the Lovecraftian deity Cthulhu himself is described as having octopoid characteristics. Likewise, swamps or mires are natural locations for horror: one is reminded of Lovecraft’s The Statement of Randolph Carter, in which an occultist disappears while exploring an underground crypt in Big Cypress Swamp. Were the Mire Beasts involved? Lovecraft himself refused to be drawn on what lurked beneath Big Cypress Swamp and there’s nothing in The Chase to disprove the theory.

Swamps are horrific because of a tendency in human thinking to regard anything wet and slimy as disgusting and abject; hence the Mire Beasts not only seem repugnant because they are gelatinous invertebrates but because they are associated, via their name, with mud, slime and goo. The word ‘mire’ comes from the old Norse mýrr, relating to moss, and the word moss itself can sometimes refer, in Scottish and Northern English, to a bog or swamp, which suggests that Mire Beasts may perhaps have brought the word ‘mire’ to Earth with them, along with their octopoid genes, when they crash-landed in the Northern lands. As Criswell so wisely put it in Ed Wood Jr.’s Plan 9 From Outer Space, “Can you prove that it didn’t happen?” (While there is no indication in The Chase that the Mire Beasts have a civilisation or a language, this may simply be an oversight on the part of the other characters, who do not seek to communicate with them but simply scream and run like idiots.)

The Chase was the fourth story written for Doctor Who by Terry Nation. Location filming for the long shots of Ian and Vicki exploring the planet Aridius was undertaken at the seaside resort of Camber Sands, East Sussex in April 1965. The story was transmitted over six weeks between 22nd May and 26th June 1965, and viewing figures hovered between nine and ten million throughout. The story was originally made on 405-line studio video with filmed inserts, but after the original videotapes were wiped the only surviving version was a 16mm film recording negative produced by BBC Enterprises for overseas sale.

The charm of low budget stories like The Chase is that they resemble a sort of (accidental) surrealist theatre production; the cramped sets and painted backcloths bear only a nodding resemblance to reality and instead seem like the products of Expressionist stage design or the early cinema of Georges Méliès. Of course, being a horror-scifi fantasy about alien worlds and mysterious monsters means that Doctor Who has a special dispensation to jettison realism in favour of flights of imagination. If the viewer is young enough not to care about failed trompe l’oeil, or generous enough with their frame of reference to find the shortfall between ambition and achievement aesthetically enjoyable in itself, stories like The Chase – along with others such as The Web Planet (1965) and The Underwater Menace (1967) – are awash with strange visual pleasures. It’s perhaps a sign that the series producers understood this that later stories introduced a more deliberate vein of surrealism, in stories such as The Celestial Toymaker (1966) and The Mind Robber (1968), both of which revel in artificiality and oblique visual constructions.

Note the recurrence in the script of writer Terry Nation’s penchant for nominative determinism, this time with an amusingly incoherent twist: a desert planet called Aridius (but of course) turns out to have been once a rich ocean world, which rather begs the question of why the natives named the planet as they did. Perhaps ‘arid’ is Aridian for ‘wet’, which would suit both the original climate and the characters of the Aridians themselves…

Stephen Thrower, Horrorpedia

Related: Bog | swamps

The Region 2 DVD cover

The Target novelisation, written by John Peel (not the DJ) and published in 1989 (quite late in the day, owing to difficulty securing agreement with Terry Nation).

The Exorcist is a 2014 British BBC radio 4 drama based upon William Peter Blatty’s bestselling novel (previously adapted as a film by the author and William Friedkin in 1973) about the possession of a young girl, Regan, by a demon. The two-part radio version has been produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane and adapted by Robert Forrest. Alexandra Mathie plays the demon, Robert Glenister plays Karras and Ian McDiarmid is Merrin.

Macfarlane told The Guardian: ”In the book there is some doubt about whether Regan’s head turns around or not. Our version may not have these filmic tricks, but it has a gradual, creeping, perhaps more toxic horror. You feel tainted by hearing it. Robert Forrest, who adapted the story for us, was fascinated by the psychological story and he has put Father Karras, the priest figure, at the centre of the story. It takes him to the point of a possible breakdown. It does feel like a departure for Radio 4, but it is a classic of the horror genre. On the BBC iPlayer it will carry a warning, because we think it is frightening. In the film the demon is very foul-mouthed, but we have changed that so it is not just a ranting presence, but something really frightening, witty and knowing instead. It gets right inside Karras’s head.”

The Exorcist will be broadcast on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 February at 11pm.

BBC blog

WH

The film world in Britain during the early 80s was grim. Most of the grand cinema palaces of yesteryear were, if not already transformed into Bingo halls, falling apart, offering a less-than-enticing combination of bad projection, uncomfortable, dirty seats and programmes which required the audience to sit through endless amounts of commercials and unwatchable travelogues before finally being allowed to see the main feature. With unemployment at an all-time high, people were more inclined to stay home and save their money, watching any of the three TV channels available until closedown before midnight.

But as the decade began, an alternative appeared that would chance viewing habits forever. The video recorder. Although they’d been on the market for a few years, it was in 1980 that the VCR first began to be more than just a rich man’s toy. Although still relatively costly to buy, many electrical stores offered reasonable monthly rental schemes for VCR’s. Seemingly overnight, every household in the country had a video recorder next to the TV and an expensive family night out at the pictures suddenly seemed less attractive when you could choose from a multitude of feature films for the same price and watch in the comfort of your own home, as the number of films available to buy or rent exploded.

Most major distributors looked upon home video with suspicion, and were reluctant to release their biggest titles onto this new format when there was still money to be made from theatrical reissues, and so the rental shops which began to spring up on the high street were, for the most part, filled with low budget, independent films from a multitude of small distributors who appeared to cash in on the video boom. And it quickly became clear that there was a substantial audience for the material which the British Board of Film Censors had long fought to protect us from. The more lurid the cover art, the more sex and violence promised by the blurb, the more the public wanted it. Labels like Go Video, Astra, Intervision and Vipco emerged to release films from all over the world, with horror being the most reliable genre. Big hits were made out of films which had barely ever seen the light of a movie screen in the UK and directors such as Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci became as bankable in the video world as Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorcese. The video rental top ten was regularly packed with movies like I Spit On Your Grave, The Driller Killer and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Buy Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide on Nucleus DVD from Amazon.co.uk

Buy Shogun Assassin uncut on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Some of these were films which the BBFC had banned outright, heavily cut or which stood little chance of being passed if submitted for approval. But there was no compulsory censorship of video, so images that were forbidden in the cinema could be enjoyed in their full gory glory at home. Video labels were buying up whatever salacious sounding titles that they could find and releasing them without even considering submitting them to the BBFC. And the British public could not get enough of it. Every street corner, it seemed, had a video shop. Even off-licenses and petrol stations got in on the action.

But this frivolous phase of viewing freedom would not last.

It wasn’t long before rumours started spreading about the open availability of films showing extreme, explicit violence, torture and mutilation. Films too extreme even for an ‘X’ certificate were openly available to anyone, even children. The public could use the slow motion and pause buttons to get maximum perverse pleasure from their video sadism. Worse still, it seemed that Cannibal Holocaust and SS Experiment Camp had replaced balloon benders and clowns as a staple of children’s parties. Not innocent mind was safe from the onslaught of the Video Nasties, a term first used in the trade that would be a household word by 1982.

Once the press had their teeth into the story, there was no stopping them. “Ban the Sadist Videos!” screamed The Daily Mail, outlining the dangers that the uncensored world of home entertainment presented to the country’s moral fabric. Various politicians and pressure groups (not least Mary Whitehouse’s National Viewers and Listeners Association) were quick to take up the cause. Teachers groups expressed concern about the effect on impressionable children, and church groups were quick to complain too. Faced with such pressure, the Director of Public Prosecutions agreed to the first obscenity charges to be brought against horror videos, and soon police forces up and down the country were carrying out random raids on shops, clearing the shelves of potentially obscene material.

As the whole concept of horror movies being obscene was so new, worried video shop owners had no idea which films they would be prosecuted for, so in an effort to clarify the situation the Department of Public Prosecutions issued a list of  “nasties”, based on titles which had been successfully prosecuted or which were awaiting trial. The list would vary in length over the next few years, before settling on 39 movies. In addition to the official Nasties list various local councils had their own selection of condemned videos to muddy the situation a little more. Shops found stocking the forbidden films during police raids – and police raids were a weekly occurrence – faced prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act.

When their day in court came most video shop owners pleaded no contest to the charges of issuing obscene material for gain in order to avoid a lengthy prison sentence – this meant that many movies were condemned as Obscene without ever going before a jury, or even being watched by magistrates. Some distributors stopped distributing their horror titles in order to avoid the wrath of the DPP. One distributor was sent to jail for marketing Nightmares in a Damaged Brain, despite the fact that it was not the uncut version he was distributing (as much as the retailers, the distributors often had no idea of which version of a film they’d released and, of course, had no way to know that horror films would suddenly fall foul of the OPA). London based Palace Pictures pointed out the absurdity of travelling up and down the country to defend The Evil Dead – which was released on video in the BBFC X-rated cut version – against various local charges of obscenity, so had the case centralised to a court in the East end of London — where the film was found not guilty. This, however, did not prevent other police forces from continuing to seize the film. An acquittal under the OPA did not necessarily set a national precedent, and local sensibilities would continue to come into play (though notably, a single conviction DID seem to set some sort of precedent, conveniently).

Buy uncut The Evil Dead trilogy on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

The British Board of Film Censors, who had seen their income drop to rock bottom during the video boom, were quick to back up the dangers of an unregulated system of distribution. The BBFC were soon appointed by Parliament to govern the classification of all films to be released on video in the UK. The 1984 Video Recordings Act ensured that Britain would never again fall prey to the immoral whims of smut peddling distributors hungry to make a quick buck. Over the course of the next few years, all unclassified videos would be removed from the shelves of British video stores. By 1988, it was illegal to sell an unclassified tape.

Buy Cannibal Holocaust and the Savage Cinema of Ruggero Deodato book from Amazon.co.uk

Of course, it was not only horror and sex films that were released without BBFC certificates but films from all genres, including children’s films. Many smaller, well established shops had to remove the majority of their stock , forcing a large number out of business. Many distributors could not afford the high price of BBFC classification for their films — particularly if the censors then demanded cuts, as was often the case. By this time, the major Hollywood producers had woken up to the money to be made from video, and the public increasingly had the chance to take home a recent blockbuster instead of an obscure 1970′s horror film. Most small labels simply vanished. The VRA ensured that it was no longer the little guy making the money from the video industry.

Amazingly, as the hysteria died down, BBFC head James Ferman still felt compelled to overprotect the public from the dangers of violent imagery. Even though they were never on any Video Nasties lists he refused to grant BBFC certificates to numerous films, including The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Straw Dogs. He had various forbidden images such as nunchakus (chain sticks) and blood on breasts, which he considered to be a trigger image for rapists. Although the Video Recordings Act was brought in to combat violent video, he was even stricter on sexual images – female genitalia was forbidden, as was any sex act involving more than two people. “Instructional” drug use and criminal activity would be cut, to prevent ‘copycat’ crime. And of course, most horror films had to be cut. As a result a strong black market grew throughout the UK for pirate videos of uncut horror or sex videos, and a huge underground fan base emerged, with fanzines, books and film festivals keeping the Nasties alive.

Buy The Art of the Nasty book from Amazon.co.uk

Strangely, the British public didn’t seem to mind the nanny mentality, happy to believe that censorship of material freely available in the rest of Europe was for their own good. This belief was encouraged by the tabloids, who were only too keen to stoke up public hysteria by linking headline-grabbing crimes to video violence, be it the Hungerford massacre and Rambo, or the Jamie Bulger case and Child’s Play 3.

Buy Child’s Play 3 on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

However, times change, even in Britain, and with a new millennium came a new maturity. The public no longer seemed overly worried by horror videos – possibly because new bête noires like the internet and video games have taken their place. Once Ferman resigned from the BBFC at the end of 1998, UK film censorship turned over a new leaf.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Straw Dogs, The Exorcist and The Story of O – all considered threats to public safety by Ferman – quickly received uncut certificates. When challenged at appeal over their refusal to pass The Last House on the Left uncut, the BBFC were publicly forced to admit that there was no legal reason for them to arbitrarily cut films that were once banned as Video Nasties – something they had always claimed was a legal requirement they had no control over – and subsequently a lot of the Nasties have now been passed uncut… some with a 15 certificate! With one or two exceptions, Ferman’s immediate successor Robin Duval managed to erase the strict censorship regime which emanated from the Nasties scare and now it is relatively rare for a horror movie to be cut or banned to protect the impressionable minds of the British public.

There are, of course, still exceptions – most recently The Bunny Game has been banned outright, while The Human Centipede 2 was initially banned before finally being released with extensive cuts. But by and large, it is now acknowledged that horror films are not a threat to civilisation. We perhaps shouldn’t be too complacent, given British history and the current moral panic that is once again gripping the country (this time aimed at internet porn, but always likely to mutate as the moralists look to assert control), but it seems unlikely that we’ll ever see a return to the dark days of the 1980s again.

David Flint

Dracula: The Dark Prince is a 2013 American horror film directed by Pearry Reginald Teo (Necromenta, Dead Inside/The Evil Inside) from a screenplay co-written by him, Steven Paul and Nicole Jones-Dion. It stars Luke Roberts, Jon Voight (Anaconda), Kelly Wenham, Ben Robson, Holly Earl, Stephen Hogan, Richard Ashton, Poppy Corby-Tuech and Vasilescu Valentin.

Plot:

In his search for the Lightbringer, Dracula crosses paths with a beautiful crusader named Alina who bears a remarkable resemblance to his murdered bride. One look at her and Dracula is immediately smitten. Could Alina be the reincarnation of his long-dead love? Dracula has Alina kidnapped and brought to his castle…

Review:

When I was a kid, Dracula was the horror character. The king of the bad men – no ambiguity, no white-washing. Dracula was scary, whether he was Christopher Lee and any lesser version. Then things began to change. I’ll put the finger of blame on the influence of Anne Rice and the 1979 Dracula, which first began to reinvent him as the tortured romantic character (Love at First Bite did likewise the same year, but at least that was a comedy). Since then, it’s almost guaranteed that Dracula movies (and vampire movies in general) will follow the same pattern, retooling the character as swooning material for teenage goths.

This depressing state of affairs plummets to new depths in the truly appalling Dracula: The Dark Prince (not to be confused with Dark Prince: The Legend of Dracula or Dracula Prince of Darkness), a film with all the charm and finesse of a SyFy production, but with none of the eccentricity or charm of those films. The only saving grace this film has – and it’s no saving grace at all, given how ham-fistedly it is executed – is that it at least tries something different with the Dracula myth. However, no-one was really crying out for a Dracula film that is a low rent sword and sorcery tale.

The film opens with clumsy animation setting the scene (and, in retrospect, acting as warning) as we see the Coppola-inspired origin of Dracula in 15th century Wallachia. A hundred years later, Dracula (Luke Roberts) is the master of… what, exactly? He seems confined to a castle, recruiting a useless army of desperately-trying-to-be-sexy female vampires (a few gratuitous boob shots being the only clue that this isn’t s SyFy Original) and a handful of warriors, alongside creepy assistant Renfield (Stephen Hogan in one of a handful of Bram Stoker name nods) where he frets about nebulous enemies.

These include would-be slayers (attention, Buffy fans!) Alina (Kelly Wenham) and Esme (Holly Earl), who are transporting miraculous weapon The Lightbringer to Leonardo Van Helsing (Jon Voight), when they are set upon by a band of brigands led by Lucian (Ben Robson). Before you know it, Lucian has joined forces with Van Helsing, the two Slayerettes and an unlikely viking Andros (Richard Ashton) to defeat Dracula, though why they are bothering isn’t entirely clear, given how little he seems to do. Alina is captured, and wouldn’t you know it, she turns out to be the spitting image / reincarnation of Dracula’s long lost love. Yes, the most well worn and annoying of the Dracula movie cliches is shamelessly trotted out again. Soon, she is torn between the personality free Dracula and the unpleasant Lucian, as the remaining good guys storm the castle.

The central idea behind the film is that The Lightbringer – a sword with assorted attachments – was used by Cain to slay Abel! As such, only a descendent of Cain can use the weapon and only a descendent of Abel – which includes Dracula – can be killed by it. The film does it’s best to convince us that these are two rare groups of people, when surely they would make up the whole of humanity if we believe the Bible. A quick check reveals that this weapon is not included in the original Cain and Abel story.

Shot in Romania – though you’d never know it, as any opportunity for location authenticity is buried beneath CGI and the sort of murky lighting that crap films mistake for atmosphere – this is a real mess. The acting is generally pretty shocking, the accents are all over the place – most of the leads speak with the sort of wooden, middle-class English stage school flatness that you find littering British TV, while Andros is curiously Northern and Voight adopts a scenery-munching Eastern European accent that makes no sense at all. The performances are also at soap opera level, so it’s hardly a surprise to find that Roberts is a Holby City veteran. Here, decked out in an unconvincing long blonde wig, he displays all the personality of a log and the idea that he is either a seductive charmer or a threatening monster is frankly laughable. He’s almost certainly the weakest Dracula ever seen.

Worst of all though, the film is numbingly dull. Little actually happens, and the few action scenes are clumsily handled. For the most part, it’s a series of scenes of people spewing exposition, wandering through dimly-lit woods or Dracula mooning over Alina like a lovestruck teenager.

Of course, the film might have somehow pulled all this together in the final five minutes, miraculously turning into a masterpiece of cinema. As my screener had a fault that rendered these final moments unplayable, I’ll probably never know, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and suggest that it remained as awful as the preceding 90 minutes.

This is the nadir of the ‘romantic Dracula’ films. If nothing else, it should at least be used to show others why they should avoid going down that route ever again. Let’s get back to a Dracula who wants to tear the heroine’s throat out, not give her a bunch of flowers and promise to still respect her in the morning.

David Flint – The full version of this review is at Strange Things Are Happening

Buy Dracula: The Dark Prince on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“The Dark Prince shows very little blood, no gore, and were it not for a trio of breast pairs briefly exposed here and there, it would seem that the film might have been intended for teenagers or mature women with its romance novel overtones.  Given how many notes it tries to hit on the heartstring and fantasy adventure fronts, it is indeed questionable who the target audience is.  Even with brief nudity, the eroticism is toned down.  Swordfights occur, but they are few and far between.  In their place are scenes involving a lot of bobbing heads that talk, plot, and scheme, without too much else of sustaining interest taking place.” Culture Crypt

” … the tone of the movie is SyFy, as for the acting… The girls do what they can with what amounts to two pretty shoddily drawn warrior women. Luke Roberts works well as the misunderstood Dracula but pretty poorly as the monstrous creature. Stephen Hogan is literally channelling Wormtongue. A lot of the film is built in CGI, its ok but it does show. I kind of feel it wanted to be castlevania but didn’t quite work out how to be epic. Nude boobs on show, for titillation purposes, just seem gratuitous. The film wanted to do something different, kudos for that, but it seemed to throw a lot in the mix, gave it a quick shimmy and hoped for the best.” Taliesin Meets the Vampires

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Slumber Party Massacre is a 1982 slasher film produced and directed by Amy Holden Jones and written by feminist Rita Mae Brown as a parody (her original titles were Don’t Open the Door and Sleepless Nights). It stars Michele Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella, Debra Deliso and Andree Honore. Future Scream Queen Brinke Stevens has a minor role. Amy Holden Jones wanted to direct and asked Frances Doel – then head of the script department at New World Pictures – for advice. She gave Jones a number of scripts one of which was Don’t Open the Door. She saw the first eight pages had a dialogue scene, a suspense scene and a violent action scene, and decided to film them. Her cinematographer husband Michael Chapman got some short ends of film for her and they borrowed some equipment, hired some actors and shot the scenes at their house over a weekend for $1,000. She showed the result to Corman who agreed to finance the film.

There have been three sequels to the movie: Slumber Party Massacre II, Slumber Party Massacre III and Cheerleader Massacre. The film is included on The Massacre Collection DVD, which also includes Sorority House Massacre, Sorority House Massacre II and Hard to Die. Jason Paul Collum directed the documentary Sleepless Nights: Revisiting the Slumber Party Massacres (2010).

Trish Devereaux (Michelle Michaels), an 18 year-old senior decides to throw a slumber party while her parents are away for the weekend and their neighbor Mr. Contant (Rigg Kennedy) is given the job of checking in on the girls during the night. That morning, she gets up, dresses and heads to school. Meanwhile, a mass murderer with a fondness for power drills, Russ Thorn (Michael Villella), has escaped from prison, kills a telephone repair woman (Jean Vargas) with a power drill and steals her van. Trish meets up with her friends Kim (Debra Deliso), Jackie (Andree Honore) and Diane (Gina Hunter) and the girls on her basketball team. The new girl, Valerie Bates (Robin Stille) is invited by Trish, but refuses after hearing Diane talking cruelly about her.

Russ Thorn watches the girls leave school from the van and a girl named Linda (Brinke Stevens) goes back inside the school to retrieve a book for a test but is attacked by Thorn and murdered with a power drill. That evening, the party and the bloody decimation begins of the girls, as they smoke pot and talk about boys. Valerie lives next door conveniently and is babysitting her younger sister Courtney (Jennifer Meyers). Diane’s boyfriend John (Jim Boyce) and two other guys from school Jeff (David Millbern) and Neil (Joe Johnson) arrive who spy on the girls undressing. Thorn kills Mr. Contant, drilling through his neck, and meanwhile, Courtney is begging Valerie to go crash the party, but Valerie protests. Diane begins making out with John in the car and after she gets out to ask Trish permission to go off with John, she comes back to find him decapitated. Diane tries to flee, but is murdered with the drill…

Buy The Slumber Party Massacre on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

“With a cast of ‘teens’ who all look to be in their twenties (but weren’t they all in the 80s?), the film features the standard tropes and cliches of the genre – scantily clad girls, no way to contact the authorities for help, a killer who has an almost supernatural ability to move about the environment and an almost super-human strength – but remember that Slumber Party Massacre was made in 1982 and at the time it was actually a pioneer of the genre, paving the way for the tens of thousands of slasher movies that followed!” Phil Wheat, Nerdly

“Slumber Party Massacre would have been a somewhat better movie had it either been allowed to remain the parody it was meant to be, or received a more thorough rebuild when the satirical intentions were abandoned. Nevertheless, I’m really kind of glad we wound up with this misbegotten half-measure instead. Slasher flicks are as abundant as sparrows, and slasher spoofs are only slightly less common, but I know of nothing else quite like this movie. Try to imagine the results of removing the humor from something without removing the gags. Russ Thorn’s signature weapon, for example, is an electric drill with a helical bit easily a foot and a half long. Russ waving that thing around is actually an effectively dreadful image, but it’s also one that invites the crudest possible Freudian interpretation. And Amy Holden Jones likes to frame her shots of Thorn sticking his tool into women so that the drill is juxtaposed with the killer’s crotch.” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

“As with most slasher films, the body count is overwhelmingly female: seven girls snuff it, compared to five men. There are long, lingering shots of women soaping themselves in showers; and for teenage girls, the female characters seem to be inordinately fond of lacy, grown-up negligees. But the film’s gender commentary becomes more obvious with the portrayal of Russ Thorn (Michael Villella), the killer driller of the film. He’s no Leatherface; in fact, he resembles a mouth-breathing Spanish teacher in 80s double denim, with a weirdly feminine voice to boot.” Zing Tsjeng,  Dazed Digital

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Ten O’Clock People is an upcoming 2015 American horror film directed by Tom Holland (Child’s Play, Fright Night) from a screenplay by E. J. Meyers, based upon a Stephen King short story (from Nightmares and Dreamscapes). This is Tom Holland’s third time working with King material, the first two being on The Langoliers and Thinner. Rachel Nichols (pictured) and Jay Baruchel have been announced as the stars and filming is set to begin in June in Montreal, Canada.

Ex-smoker Brandon Pearson thinks he’s finally kicked the habit when he discovers smoking cessation drug Zynex. But when he succumbs to his cravings and tosses the drug, he uncovers a frightening world full of perilous creatures few but he can see.

The Quiet Ones is a 2013 British horror film produced by Hammer Films starring Jared Harris, Sam Claflin, Olivia Cooke, Erin Richards, Rory Fleck-Byrne and Laurie Calvert. It is released April 2014.

Directed by John Pogue (Quarantine 2: Terminal), and apparently “inspired by true events”, The Quiet Ones ”tells the story of an unorthodox professor who uses controversial methods and leads his best students off the grid to take part in a dangerous experiment: to create a poltergeist. Based on the theory that paranormal activity is caused by human negative energy, the rogue scientists perform a series of tests on a young patient, pushing her to the edge of sanity. As frightening occurrences begin to take place with shocking and gruesome consequences, the group quickly realizes they have triggered a force more terrifying than they ever could have imagined.”

IMDb | Official page

Honeyspider is a 2014 American horror written and produced by Kenny Caperton (owner of The Myers House NC) and directed by Josh Hasty (A Mannequin in Static) of Black House Capital. The film stars Frank Aard (April Fool’s Day remake), Joan Schuermeyer (Zombieland and Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2), Rachel Jeffreys, Samantha Mills (Bombshell Bloodbath) and newcomer Mariah Brown. The film is currently in post-production.

Plot:

It’s Halloween day in 1989 and college student Jackie Blue wants to enjoy a quiet birthday in the midst of a chaotic semester at school. Her friend Amber has other ideas and persuades Jackie to come to the annual Halloween party on campus after her shift at the local movie theater. As the night unfolds, it becomes apparent that Jackie will get more excitement than she bargained for on her birthday this year. The murder that plays out on the silver screen becomes an ominous parallel to reality, as Jackie falls under a strange spell while everyone around her is turning up dead. All the while, a mysterious stranger watches over Jackie’s every move as she succumbs to hallucinations and slowly unravels. Jackie finds herself helplessly trapped like prey in a spider’s web, and all she can do is try to survive the night…

Related: The Web of Fear: Spiders in Horror Cinema (article) | Halloween | spiders

Facebook

Atrocious is a 2010 Spanish found footage horror film, written and directed by Fernando Barreda Luna, and starring Rafael Amaya, Cristian Valencia and Clara Moraleda.

In April 2010, the Quintanilla family travelled to their old farmhouse in Sitges, where teenagers Christian and July set about investigating the Legend of the Girl of Garraf Woods , a local legend of a ghost haunting the nearby area. Using video cameras, the brother and sister recorded their findings as they went along. Five days later, the Quintanilla family was found murdered under strange circumstances. The local police reported the existence of 37 hours of recorded evidence. Atrocious finally reveals the shocking true footage of those tragic five days…

Buy Atrocious on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“There’s the kernel of a really strong horror film here, and Luna certainly has talent, though perhaps more as a director than as a scriptwriter. For all its unevenness, many genre fans will find this appealing, and it’s a great calling card – let’s hope there’s more, better work to come from this talented team.” Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film

“Even in a horror subgenre that I don’t care very much for in general, it still doesn’t take me a whole lot to sell me on a movie. A decent story, execution that doesn’t betray the concept, and the all-too-rare likeable characters are all I really need. It doesn’t seem those few things are all that much to ask for, but it’s shockingly seldom that that these piece come together in a horror film these days. Luckily, this short, sweet Spanish entry hits the right notes for a scary little time that I can totally recommend.” DVD Verdict

“Although the found footage subgenre has certainly thrown up a few gems over the last few years and probably still has room for a few more before it disappears into the ether, Atrocious is sadly not one of them. The film is definitely towards the bottom of the barrel, and even ardent fans of Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch and their many imitators are likely to struggle to find much to enjoy – mainly due to the fact that almost nothing happens during the entire running time. For the most part the film is made up of the two unlikeable protagonists wandering aimlessly around, with Luna seeming to be under the impression that the mere sight of the semi-picturesque hedge labyrinth is enough to make things atmospheric and creepy.” Beyond Hollywood

IMDb | Wikipedia | Related: found footage | Spanish horror

WH

Gemini is a 2014 Filipino horror film from Blackswan Pictures co-produced and directed by Ato Bautista from a screenplay by Shugo Praico. It stars twins Sheena McBride, Brigitte McBride, plus Lance Raymuno, Alvin Anson, Sarah Gaugler and Mon Confiado. The film is currently in post production but he has posted an extended promo online – click on the HD link and watch it on Vimeo.com.

Julia, a psychiatric patient is tormented by her demons. Stricken by guilt and fear, she seeks the help of Manuel, a mysterious police detective, to save her from Judith, her estranged evil twin sister who wants her dead. As Julia and Manuel track Judith down and solve the crime that the twins committed years back, the film spirals down to a mind boggling ride as the truth of Julia’s nightmarish dark past unravels.

Source: Twitch

The Purge: Anarchy  – formerly The Next Chapter of The Purge and The Zone – is an upcoming 2014 American horror-thriller film directed and written by James DeMonaco. It is the sequel to 2013 film The Purge, starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey.

The sequel film stars Frank Grillo, Zach Gilford, Michael K. Williams, Carmen Ejogo and Kiele Sanchez. The film is set for a June 20, 2014 release date worldwide and a teaser trailer has been released.

Press info:

Returning alongside writer/director/producer James DeMonaco to produce the sequel to 2013’s sleeper hit are Blumhouse Productions’ Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity and Insidious series), alongside Sébastien K. Lemercier (Assault on Precinct 13, Four Lovers) and Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay (Pain & Gain, Transformers franchise), Brad Fuller (The Amityville Horror, A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Andrew Form (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th).

Wikipedia | IMDb | Source: Collider

Witchboard is a 1986 American horror film written and directed by Kevin S. Tenney (Night of the Demons, Brain Dead). It stars Tawny Kitaen, Stephen Nichols, Todd Allen and Kathleen Wilhoite. The film focuses on a female college student who is harassed and later possessed by an evil spirit after communicating with it through a friend’s Ouija board. The film has spawned two sequels, Witchboard 2: The Devil’s Doorway (1993) and Witchboard III: The Possession (1995).

Brandon Sinclair brings out his ouija board at a party and attempts to contact David, the spirit of a ten-year-old boy with whom he has communicated numerous times. The spirit responds, but Jim, formerly Brandon’s best friend and now nemesis, insults David, making David angry and provoking David to slash the tires of Brandon’s car.

The next day, Linda, Jim’s live-in girlfriend, sees Brandon’s ouija board (which Brandon left behind from the previous night) and tries to contact David. The spirit that appears is actually an evil being (Malfeitor) acting under the guise of David. This malicious spirit starts being nice and helpful, informing Linda where her lost diamond engagement ring is. Meanwhile, at the construction site where Jim is working, Jim’s friend Lloyd is killed by the murderous spirit. Linda again contacts Malfeitor—whom she still believes to be David—and he lies, responding that he did not cause the accident. Linda begins to fall under “progressive entrapment”, in which the spirit changes and starts to terrorize the user, making the person weak and easy to possess…

“It’s a fine example of a horror movie from the 1980′s. It’s packed with fake-out scares, including the impressive fake-out-scare-holy-shit-real-scare-afterall scare, cheesy special effects, and some genuinely cool horror scenes. There’s a moment when you see the world from the spirit’s point of view, we ride along as the camera seems to float down hallways, above beds, etc, and it is fairly freaky.” Fister Roboto, Left Hand Horror

“Witchboard is a winner in a BIG way.  From sets that look like they were constructed in someone’s garage to a plot that literally revolves around a piece of cardboard, this movie should be required viewing for any film student itching to make a scary movie. With almost nothing to work with, director Kevin Tenney somehow gets everything right, and turns out a horror movie that is not only hysterical to watch, but actually manages some brilliant jump-scares in the process.” Tower Farm Reviews

“This is a brilliant, world class example of how truly excellent a terrible ’80s flick can be: big hair, tight jeans, ruthlessly annoying characters, and straight-up bad acting. Yet somehow all of these awful things add up to make something entirely enjoyable.” Erin Page, Twins of Evil

Buy Witchboard on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

New Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Kevin S. Tenney and Actors Stephen Nichols, Kathleen Wilhoite And James Quinn |  Audio Commentary With Writer/Director Kevin S. Tenney, Executive Producer Walter Josten And Producer Jeff Geoffray | New Interviews With Kevin Tenney, Tawny Kitaen, J.P. Luebsen, James Quinn, Walter Josten, Todd Allen And More | Theatrical Trailer | TV Spots | Still Gallery

Wikipedia | IMDb

King Kong Escapes, (released in Japan as King Kong’s Counterattack (キングコングの逆襲 Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū), is a 1967 Kaiju film. A Japanese/American co-production from Toho and Rankin-Bass (Mad Monster Party). Directed by Ishiro Honda and featuring special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, the film starred both American actors – such as Rhodes Reason and Linda Miller – alongside Japanese actors – such as Akira Takarada, Mie Hama and Eisei Amamoto. The film was a loose adaptation of the Rankin-Bass Saturday morning cartoon series The King Kong Show and was the second and final Japanese-made film featuring the King Kong character.

Plot:

An evil genius named Dr. Hu creates Mechani-Kong, a robotic version of King Kong, to dig for a highly radioactive Element X, found only at the North Pole. Mechni-Kong enters an ice cave and begins to dig into a glacier, but the radiation destroys its brain circuits and the robot shuts down. Hu then sets his sights on getting the real Kong to finish the job. Hu is taken to task by a beautiful female overseer, Madame Piranha. Her country’s government (which is not named but may be North Korea) is financing the doctor’s schemes, and she frequently berates him for his failure to get results. Meanwhile, a submarine commanded by Carl Nelson arrives at Mondo Island where the legendary King Kong lives. Much like the original 1933 film, the giant ape gets into an intense fight with a dinosaur, a large serpent, and falls in love with a human. In this case, Lt. Susan Watson (Linda Miller).

Dr. Hu subsequently goes to Mondo Island, abducts Kong and brings him back to his base at the North Pole. Kong is hypnotized by a flashing light device and fitted with a radio earpiece. Hu commands Kong to retrieve the Element X from the cave. Problems with the earpiece ensue and Hu has to kidnap Susan Watson, the only person who can control Kong. After Watson and her fellow officers are captured by Hu, Madame Piranha unsuccessfully tries to seduce Nelson to bring him over to her side. Eventually Kong escapes and swims all the way to Japan where the climactic battle with Mechni-Kong transpires. Standing in for the Empire State Building from the original film is the Tokyo Tower where the two giants face off in the finale…

Buy King Kong Escapes on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“The Japanese…are all thumbs when it comes to making monster movies like ‘King Kong Escapes.’ The Toho moviemakers are quite good in building miniature sets, but much of the process photography—matching the miniatures with the full-scale shots—is just bad…the plotting is hopelessly primitive…” Vincent Canby, New York Times, 1968

“It’s difficult to assign a single genre to “King Kong Escapes.” On the one hand, it has all the hallmarks of a kaiju film, with two giant beasts wreaking havoc in the heart of Tokyo. On the other, it adds to the mix elements of science fiction, adventure, and even James Bond spy films. It’s a formula that Toho used successfully in such films as “Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster,” but here the resulting tone often feels uneven. Yet as gloriously mad as it is, “King Kong Escapes” is a thoroughbred descendant of the “King Kong” movie legacy with all the proper provenance. It may be a little out there for purists, but if you’ve got a monkey on your back for all things Kong, it’s absolutely essential.” Ed Glaser, Neon Harbor

“Toho fans, monster kids and generally anyone with a playfully less serious side to their cinema watching will get a kick out of this fun Kong adventure. The Japanese version is essential for Kaiju fanatics, but for most, the dubbed edition works just fine.” Cool Ass Cinema

Wikipedia | IMDb

Horrorpedia is a non-profit website. Please help us cover our web-hosting costs by buying from our affiliate links. Thank you.

Join the Horrorpedia online community on Tumblr (8,000 more images!) | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Sleepaway Camp (also marketed on VHS as Nightmare Vacation) is a 1983 slasher horror film written and directed by Robert Hiltzik who also served as executive producer. The film came at a time when slasher films were in their heyday, and is largely known for its twist ending which is considered by some to be one of the most shocking endings among horror films. The film was released theatrically on a limited basis by United Film Distribution Company on November 18, 1983. On its opening weekend it had grossed a total of $430,000 in the US. When it opened, it was the top grossing film in New York, beating out its horror competition by taking in almost double the gross of Amityville 3-D. With a budget of $350,00, it went on to take $11 million at the US box office. 

In the late 1980s, Michael A. Simpson directed two sequels, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988) and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989). The killer gleefully tortures and kills anyone who misbehaves or is deemed to be annoying. However, these films had more of a comic tone than the original. Another rogue sequel, Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor, directed by Jim Markovic, was partially filmed but never completed. In 2002 the unfinished footage was released and made available as an exclusive fourth disc in Anchor Bay/Starz Entertainment’s Sleepaway Camp DVD boxed set. In 2012 the film was completed and released.

A new film, Return to Sleepaway Camp, was completed in 2003. It was directed by Robert Hiltzik, the director of the original 1983 film. He decided that this chapter will ignore the story lines of the previous sequels, stating that he wanted to pick up from where the original film ended. According to Fangoria.com the digital effects were redone from 2006 to 2008. The film finally found distribution, and was released November 4, 2008, by Magnolia/Magnet Pictures. The purportedly final film in Hiltzik’s Sleepaway Camp trilogy, titled Sleepaway Camp Reunion, was also announced to be in the making but didn’t materialise. Hiltzik now owns the rights to the Sleepaway Camp franchise, which, in 2013, it was announced will receive a reboot.

Plot:

Summer: John Baker and his two children, Angela and Peter, out on a lake. After their boat flips, John and the children head ashore, where John’s lover, Lenny, is calling. As the family swims, a motorboat accidentally runs them over, killing John and Peter.

Eight years later, Angela is now living with her eccentric aunt Dr. Martha Thomas and cousin Ricky Thomas. Angela and Ricky are sent to Camp Arawak. Due to her introverted nature, Angela is bullied, her main tormentors being fellow camper Judy and camp counselor Meg. The head cook, Artie attempts to molest Angela until Ricky interrupts, and the two children flee. While Artie is boiling water for corn, an unseen figure knocks him off the chair, scalding him with the water. Ben eventually storms in, to the sound of Artie’s cries of pain. He is shocked by the chaos casted. Artie’s incident is deemed accidental by camp owner Mel Costic.

Campers Kenny and Mike begin to mock Angela, prompting Ricky and his friend Paul to get into a fight with them. After the brawl is broken up by Gene, Ricky and the rest of the boys involved in the fight leave, while Paul stays behind and befriends Angela. Later, Kenny is drowned by an unseen figure, his body found the next day and his death also ruled accidental by Mel. Campers Billy and Jimmy also pick on Angela, pelting her with water balloons. Billy is killed as well by a mysterious assailant who locks him in a bathroom stall and drops a beehive inside it, leaving him to be stung to death.

The relationship between Angela and Paul grows strained when Paul kisses her twice as a goodnight kiss, causing Angela to have a flashback to her youth when she and her brother witnessed their father in bed with Lenny. Paul is then seduced by Judy, who lures him into the woods and the two are found kissing by Angela and Ricky. Guilty, Paul attempts to explain himself to Angela while on the beach. As Paul talks to Angela, he is shooed away by Judy and Meg, who throw Angela into the water. After being taken out of the lake by lifeguard Hal and having sand flung at her by several small children, a clearly disturbed Angela is comforted by Ricky, who swears revenge on her aggressors. After the affair at the beach, Meg prepares for a date with Mel. During her shower, she is killed by the unseen killer, who slices down her back through the shower stall with a hunting knife.

Meg’s disappearance goes largely unnoticed and a social is held. Angela is approached by Paul, whom she tells to meet her at the waterfront afterwards. The six children who threw sand at Angela are taken out to go camping with counselor Eddie. When two of them ask to go back, Eddie takes them back to his car and drives back to the camp. The other four children are hacked to bits with Eddie’s axe when he returns. Soon after, Judy is killed with a lit straightening iron. The camp is thrown into a panic when Eddie announces the deaths of the four children…

Buy Sleepaway Camp uncut on Blu-ray + DVD combo from Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Sleepaway Camp takes the summer-camp-murderer formula that the Friday the 13th films created and perfects it with more intense POV sequences and more imaginative deaths. Plus, most of the murders take place just off-screen, or are only seen as shadows on a wall. However, many of the plot twists are completely insane, and most of the characters aren’t developed past first names. But the atmosphere, coupled with some unique themes, manages to make the film worth much more than many of its contemporaries. The twist ending is one of the most shocking in the history of any genre, and it makes up for most of the movie’s shortcomings. But it’s no matter. After the film is over, the killer is revealed, and the bodies are collected, all that remains are fleeting images of men in transparent shirts and girls in ill-fitting swimsuits. Because sex is everything. Don’t believe me? Just ask Sleepaway Camp.” William Tuttle, The Video Basement

“Small amount of blood, zero gore, zero nudity, buckets of laughs, the largest cooking pot I’ve ever seen in my life, water balloon fight on a roof, a Blue Oyster Cult t-shirt, heart-pounding softball action, the world’s fakest looking mustache and the immortal exchange “Eat shit and die, Ricky!” “Eat shit and live, Bill.” Check it out! If you don’t like it, then you’re probably taking life too seriously.” Happyotter

” … there is very little about Sleepaway Camp which is normal. Hiltzik had fashioned a disturbing tale, full of every type of cretin imaginable, and whilst the film often fails to convince, the sheer surrealism of the script and Rose’s convincing performance help cover up its shortcomings. An acquired taste for sure, but those interested in a slasher that’s a little different may take great pleasure in this.” Retro Slashers

“Did ALL males in the early 80s wear the shortest shorts available? The only people in the movie wearing pants are female (or Angela). One guy even has a short shirt. And the main, overly sympathetic counselor guy, wears a shirt that’s so tight it makes him appear to have the largest breasts in the film. In short, I felt really dirty watching this movie.” Horror Movie a Day

“Every minute spent at Camp Arawak provides more delight than the last, leading up to that glorious final scene which is by far one of the most memorable of any 80’s flick I’ve ever seen. If you love slashers, in particular cheesy, 80’s camp-fests then you’re in for the biggest treat. Granted if you’re looking for a serious genre flick, you will hate this. It hasn’t got a serious bone in its body, but if you want to have a bucket load of fun then you really cannot go wrong.” Horror Queen

Wikipedia | IMDb | Official Sleepaway Camp Website | Official Sleepaway Camp Sequels Website | Thanks to Happyotter for some images above

Horrorpedia is a non-profit website. Please help us cover our web-hosting costs by buying from our affiliate links. Thank you.

Join the Horrorpedia online community on Tumblr (8,000 more images!) | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

The Vampire Show is a four part Danish web series, shot in 2013 and available for viewing online. The episodes total just under 90 minutes.

Shot in English, the series a parody of reality TV, and has been described by the producers as “political satire”. It follows the lives (if that’s the right word!) of a group of vampires, who are being filmed by a TV crew.

The show is the creation of Xinxin Ren Gudbjörnsson, a Chinese filmmaker living in Denmark. After applications for funding were turned down, the production was shot independently for just 660 Kroner ($121), most of which seems to have been spent on the website (visit www.thevampireshow.com) and two pairs of plastic fangs. A crew of 20 people, including the cast, were sourced through a free casting agency and Facebook. Each episode was shot over a weekend once a month.

Unfortunately, the series is rather weak, even when you take into account the zero budget. It’s overly dark (and while studio lighting is costly, you can do wonders with a 500 watt security light and a bit of ingenuity) and rather too slow moving to be involving. More significantly, it’s not really very funny. But, we invite you to make your own mind up. Here’s the first episode – the others, along with behind the scenes footage, is on the website.

http://cphpost.dk/news/mission-impossible-how-to-make-a-tv-show-for-the-cost-of-a-tom-cruise-poster.3969.html

David Flint

Horrorpedia is a non-profit website. Please help us cover our web-hosting costs by buying from our affiliate links. Thank you.

Join the Horrorpedia online community on Tumblr (8,000 more images!) | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Legend Horror Classics was a British magazine published by Legend Publishing and which ran for thirteen issues between 1974 and 1975.

The magazine was very much a second fiddle imitation of Monster Mag, being a format that opened out to feature a large horror “pin-up” poster. Interestingly though, it arguably predicted Monster Mag follow-up House of Hammer, having a mix of comic strips and film features. The comic strips were usually four page adaptations of famous horror stories – the first issue featuring Dracula (the 1973 film rather than the novel), the second Frankenstein (based around the 1931 film) etc. Kevin O’Neill illustrated many of the comic strips and served as art editor, later becoming editor.

Other films adapted included The 7th Voyage of Sinbad in issue 3 and Hammer’s Dracula in issue 5, while more original stories include Blood Lust of the Zombies in issue 4 (which featured a gory cover still from Death Line), Terror from Space in issue 6, Killer Jaws (a shark story, predictably) in issue 8 and The Jokers in issue 9. The magazine also adapted Beowulf in issue 7.

From issue 11, the comic strips were dropped and the final issues were ‘themed’, concentrating on Dracula, werewolves and Frankenstein.

Although not particularly well distributed or popular (certainly in comparison to Monster Mag), Legend Horror Classics remains an interesting, oddball entry in the history of both horror movie magazines and British comic books, and copies are now highly collectable.

David Flint, Horrorpedia

Evil Dead Trap, known in Japan as Shiryō no wana (死霊の罠), is a 1988 Japanese horror film directed by Toshiharu Ikeda and produced by Japan Home Video.

Plot:

TV show host Nami asks her viewers to send in home movies; she receives a snuff film apparently shot at a nearby factory. Taking a camera crew out to investigate, Nami finds the factory deserted. As Nami and her crew begin to scour the factory, they are murdered one-by-one in grisly fashion until only Nami remains. She ultimately discovers that the killer is Hideki, a small, fetus-like man conjoined to his fully grown, naive twin-brother, who seems unaware of the killings…

Special effects were by Shinichi Wakasa who would go on to a career as a monster-suit maker for several Godzilla movies. Hitomi Kobayashi who plays the supporting role of Rei Sugiura was a top star for Japan Home Video (JHV) under their adult video (AV) label Alice Japan. JHV financed the film as a vehicle for Kobayashi but director Toshiharu Ikeda, unsure of Kobayashi’s acting ability, instead put Miyuki Ono in the starring role.

Sequels followed in 1992 and 1993. Avoid the UK DVD which has footage substituted, containing a milder version.

Buy Evil Dead Trap uncut on Synpase Films DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Reviews:

“Overall, Evil Dead Trap is worth watching for fans of Eastern cinema, or for horror fans in general. Though not particularly different from its American or European counterparts and not quite as good as others have claimed, the film at least serves up an atmospheric, if somewhat slow, package of slice and dice. Viewers should be warned, however, that although for most of its running time the film lurches around quite happily in its own semi-coherent universe, the final act will either astound the audience with its sheer weirdness, or have them throwing empty bottles at the screen.” BeyondHollywood.com

“It’s tense, it’s genuinely horrific, it’s beautifully directed by Ikeda with a real eye for colour and marvellous use of the geometry offered by the perspectives of corridors. Really absolutely one of the best horror films (Japanese or otherwise) I’ve ever seen.” MJ Simpson

“Evil Dead Trap starts out with a fresh concept and some clever suprises, but quickly deteriorates into a splatter-by-numbers flick that we’ve been seeing for thirty years now. The final arc of the story is a different tale altogether, but comes as too little too late to redeem the pedestrian middle act. And, as I mentioned, it’s pretty goddamn silly. The movie is aided by a soundtrack whose minimalist aspects could well be ripped from one of its Italian counterparts but still has a distinctively Japanese feel to it. Oh, and if you’re looking for the loudest, most obnoxious foley work you’ve ever heard, you’ve found your movie. I know what they were trying to accomplish by drawing out the senses, but it really just plays out as being more annoying than frightening.” For the Retarded

Buy German poster from Amazon.com

IMDb | Wikipedia

WH

Trauma is a 1993 Italian giallo horror film directed by Dario Argento, starring Asia Argento, Piper Laurie, Christopher Rydell and Brad Dourif. Shot in and around Minneapolis, United States in August and September 1992 on a budget of $7 million, Trauma is notable as Italian director Dario Argento’s first feature length American production, following his collaboration with George A. Romero in making Two Evil Eyes in 1990. Adapting the treatment devised by Gianni Romoli and long-time Argento collaborator Franco Ferrini, Argento chose T.E.D. Klein as his co-writer.

Special effects technician Tom Savini, who had previously worked on Two Evil Eyes, was recruited to produce the films extensive gore and prosthetic effects. Savini also created the film’s central murder weapon, dubbed the ‘Noose-o-Matic’ by the crew. Savini devised a number of elaborate effects, but they were scrapped when Argento decided to minimize his trademark gore; according to Savini, “edge-of-the-seat suspense is what he was after”. Savini was also set to appear in a scrapped pre-credits sequence where his character was to be decapitated in an accident, an event that would trigger the killer’s psychosis.

Plot:

An anorexic young woman escapes from a psychiatric clinic and meets a young man who wants to help. She is caught and returned to her parents, who are soon beheaded by a garrotting stranger making the rounds about town, apparently striking only when it rains.The orphaned young woman and her new lover launch their own investigation and are endangered when a link is discovered with the victims and a particular operation performed years before…

Reviews:

“Trauma is definitely worth a look if you’re an Argento fan. The mystery is genuinely intriguing in the true giallo sense and the feeling of uneasiness is suitably enhanced by Pino Donaggio’s intermittently brilliant soundtrack, making Trauma feel at times very Lynchian. It’s quite pacey and doesn’t tend to drag its heels but there’s definitely a sense of something not weighing in as it should. The resolution of the mystery only half-satisfies even though it makes complete sense, while Argento’s throwaway visual flourishes and metaphors can be taken as a matter of individual taste. Patchy yet engrossing, this may make you wonder why Argento has such a dedicated following. You might need to watch one of his earlier films to remind you.” Eat My Brains

Buy Trauma on DVD from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

” …Trauma wasn’t well received at the time but I believe it suffered from too much hype on something that a lot of Americans don’t understand…the Giallo.  It is a fine thriller and one of the last times a master was in charge of an American horror film. Argento is one of the best and though I am aware that he has been playing variations on a theme for years, so do many others, Hitchcock, Scorsese, the list goes on. It’s not laziness, it’s his style. This Argento film really is a film best decided by personal taste and the hope that yours is in tune with his.” Christopher J. Jimenez, Sinful Celluloid

“In its exposé of American soullessness as a product of a “wound culture” that substitutes pop psychological diagnoses for interrogation of gender inequities and real social lack, Argento’s Trauma makes beheading a metaphor for contemporary life.” Linda Badley, Kinoeye

“Unsurprisingly, the combination of oddball characters, a typically barmy plot and over-the-top visuals meant that Trauma failed to find its intended mainstream audience. But let’s face it, no matter how hard he tried, Dario Argento simply couldn’t deliver a crossover movie and that’s why his attempt to try something a little radical needs to be given another chance.” Adrian Luther-Smith, Art of Darkness: The Cinema of Dario Argento, edited by Chris Gallant, FAB Press, 2001

Wikipedia | IMDb

WH

Sphere horror paperbacks were published in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s. They were hugely popular and many – such as Lust for a Vampire, Blind Terror, The Ghoul, Squirm and Dawn of the Dead – were movie tie-ins and novelisations. The initial novels chosen for publication focused on the occult. Sphere published pulp fiction novels by famous authors, such as Richard Matheson, Ray Russell, Colin Wilson, Graham Masterson, Clive Barker and Robert Bloch whilst also providing a vehicle for British career writers such as Guy N. Smith and Peter Tremayne, plus many lesser known writers whose work received a boost by being part of the Sphere publishing machine. Occasionally, they also published compilations of short stories and “non-fiction” titles such as What Witches Do. In the early years, like many other opportunistic publishers, they reprinted the vintage work of writers – such as Sheridan Le Fanu – with lurid cover art.

The listing below provides a celebration of the photography and artwork used to sell horror books by one particular British publishing company. For more information about each book visit the excellent Sordid Spheres web blog.

1970

John Blackburn – Bury Him Darkly

Robert Bloch and Ray Bradbury – Fever Dream

Robert Bloch – The Living Demons

Robert Bloch – Tales in a Jugular Vein

Angus Hall – Madhouse

Sheridan Le Fanu – The Best Horror Stories

Michel Parry - Countess Dracula
Sarban – The Sound of his Horn

Ray Russell – The Case Against Satan
William Seabrook – Witchcraft (non-fiction)
Kurt Singer (ed.) – The Oblong Box

Kurt Singer (ed.) – Plague of the Living Dead

Kurt Singer – (ed.) The House in the Valley
Robert Somerlott – The Inquisitor’s House

1971

Richard Davis (ed.) – The Year’s Best Horror Stories 1
Peter Haining (ed.) – The Wild Night Company
Angus Hall – The Scars of Dracula

Angus Hall – To Play the Devil – Buy on Amazon.co.uk
William Hughes – Blind Terror (Blind Terror film on Horrorpedia)

William Hughes – Lust for a Vampire (Lust for a Vampire film on Horrorpedia)
Ray Russell – Unholy Trinity
E. Spencer Shew – Hands Of The Ripper

Kurt Singer (ed) – The Day of the Dragon

David Sutton (ed.) – New Writings in the Horror and Supernatural 1

Alan Scott – Project Dracula

1972

Richard Davis (ed.) – The Year’s Best Horror Stories 2

Peter Haining (ed.) – The Clans of Darkness

Laurence Moody – What Became Of Jack And Jill?
Ronald Pearsall – The Exorcism

David Sutton (ed.) – New Writings in the Horror and Supernatural 2
Richard Tate – The Dead Travel Fast

Sam Moskowitz (ed.) – A Man Called Poe

1973

Richard Davis (ed.) – The Year’s Best Horror Stories 3
Stewart Farrar – What Witches Do: The Modern Coven Revealed (Non-Fiction)

Brian J. Frost (ed.) – Book of the Werewolf

Melissa Napier – The Haunted Woman
Daniel Farson – Jack The Ripper [non-fiction]
Raymond Rurdoff – The Dracula Archives

1974

Theodore Sturgeon – Caviar

1976

C L Moore – Shambleau
Guy N. Smith – The Ghoul

Robert Black – Legend of the Werewolf

Richard Curtis – Squirm

Ron Goulart – Vampirella 1:Bloodstalk

1977

August Derleth (ed.) – When Evil Wakes
Ron Goulart – Vampirella 2: On Alien Wings

Ron Goulart – Vampirella 3: Deadwalk

Vampirella on Horrorpedia

Ken Johnson – Blue Sunshine

Fritz Leiber - Night’s Black Agents
Robert J Myers – The Slave of Frankenstein

Robert J Myers – The Cross of Frankenstein
Jack Ramsey – The Rage

Ray Russell – Incubus
Andrew Sinclair – Cat

Colin Wilson – Black Room

1978

Ethel Blackledge – The Fire
John Christopher – The Possessors
John Christopher – The Little People
Basil Copper – Here Be Daemons

Basil Copper – The Great White Space
Giles Gordon (ed.) – A Book of Contemporary Nightmares

Peter Haining – Terror! A History Of Horror Illustrations From The Pulp Magazines

Peter Haining (ed) – Weird Tales

Peter Haining (ed) – More Weird Tales
Peter Haining (ed) – Ancient Mysteries Reader 1
Peter Haining (ed) – Ancient Mysteries Reader 2
Richard Matheson – Shock!

Richard Matheson – Shock 2

Richard Matheson – Shock 3

Stephen Marlowe – Translation
Michael Robson – Holocaust 2000
Peter Tremayne – The Ants

Peter Tremayne – The Vengeance Of She

1979

John Clark and Robin Evans – The Experiment
William Hope Hodgson – The Night Land
Robert R. McCammon – Baal

Kirby McCauley – Frights

Kirby McCauley – Frights 2
Jack Finney – Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
Graham Masterton – Charnel House

Graham Masterton – Devils of D-Day
Susan Sparrow – Dawn of the Dead

Gerald Suster – The Devil’s Maze
Peter Tremayne – The Curse of Loch Ness

1980

Les Daniels – The Black Castle
Gerald Suster – The Elect
Jere Cunningham – The Legacy
William Hope Hodgson – The House On The Borderland
Robin Squire – A Portrait Of Barbara

John Cameron – The Astrologer
Robert McCammon – Bethany’s Sin
William H. Hallahan – Keeper Of The Children

Ray Russell – The Devil’s Mirror

Roy Russell – Prince Of Darkness

1981

Basil Copper – Necropolis

M. Jay Livingstone – The Prodigy
Andrew Coburn – The Babysitter
Peter Tremayne – Zombie!

Graham Masterton – The Heirloom
Owen West [Dean R. Koontz] – The Funhouse
William Hope Hodgson – The Ghost Pirates

Graham Masterton - The Wells Of Hell
Graham Masterton – Famine
Marc Alexander – The Devil Hunter [non-fiction]
Guy Lyon Playfair – This House Is Haunted [non-fiction]
Robert R. McCammon – They Thirst

1982

Ronald Patrick – Beyond The Threshold

Peter Tremayne – The Morgow Rises

William Hope Hodgson – The Boats Of The Glen Carrig

Stephen Gallagher – Chimera
Marc Alexander – Haunted Houses You May Visit [non-fiction]
Michelle Smith & Lawrence Pazder – Michelle Remembers [non-fiction]
Dillibe Onyearma – Night Demon
Robert R. McCammon – The Night Boat

Ray Russell – Incubus

1983

James Darke – The Witches 1. The Prisoner

James Darke – The Witches 2. The Trial
James Darke – The Witches 3. The Torture

Basil Copper – Into The Silence
Les Daniels – The Silver Skull

1984

Peter Tremayne – Kiss Of The Cobra

Clive Barker – Books Of Blood 1
Clive Barker - Books Of Blood 2

Clive Barker – Books Of Blood 3
Graham Masterton – Tengu

George R. R. Martin – Fevre Dream
James Darke – Witches 4. The Escape

1985

Peter Tremayne – Swamp!

Peter Tremayne – Angelus!
Stephen Laws – The Ghost Train

Clive Barker – Books Of Blood 4
Clive Barker – Books Of Blood 5
Clive Barker – Books Of Blood 6
Rosalind Ashe – Dark Runner
James Darke – Witches 5. The Meeting
James Darke – Witches 6. The Killing

1986

Christopher Fowler - City Jitters

James Darke – Witches 7. The Feud
James Darke – Witches 8. The Plague

Clive Barker – The Damnation Game
Graham Masterton – Night Warriors
Lisa Tuttle – A Nest Of Nightmares

1987

Peter Tremayne – Nicor!
Peter Tremayne – Trollnight

Lisa Tuttle – Gabriel

1988

Alan Ryan (ed.) – Halloween Horrors

Guy N. Smith – Fiend

Stephen Laws – Spectre
Graham Masterton – Mirror
Eric Sauter – Predators
Robert McCammon – Swan Song

1989

Stephen Laws – Wyrm
Guy N. Smith – The Camp
Guy N. Smith – Mania

Graham Masterton – The Walkers
Graham Masterton – Ritual
Bernard King – Witch Beast

The listing above and many of the cover images are reproduced from the Sordid Spheres web blog. Bar the odd addition and amendment, the list first appeared in Paperback Fanatic 3 (August 2007). For more information about each title, its author and links to reviews, visit Sordid Spheres

Horrorpedia is a non-profit website. Please help us cover our web-hosting costs by buying from our affiliate links. Thank you.

Join the Horrorpedia online community on Tumblr (8,000 more images!) | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Paranormal Xperience (aka Paranormal Xperience 3D and PX3D) is a 2011 Spanish horror film. As the title suggests, it was shot in 3D and directed by Sergi Vizcaino. It stars Amaia Salamanca, Maxi Iglesias, Lucho Fernández, Úrsula Corberó, Miguel Ángel Jenner, Manuel de Blas, Alba Ribas, Eduard Farelo and Óscar Sinela

Plot:

Angela a psychiatry student whose skeptical of the existence of the paranormal in the world, is forced to investigate an old mining town for the purpose of proving or disproving paranormal activity. Along with her, she is accompanied by her younger sister Diana Whisper, who lends Angela her van, and a few other students. They journey to the town and go through some ancient salt mines. Aware of the danger provided by tampering with the grounds, through the legend of the sadistic Dr. Matarga, they still open a portal to the after life with disastrous consequences…

The film was released as a 2D DVD and 3D Blu-ray in the UK in February 2014.

Buy Paranormal Xperience on DVD or Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“We spend forty minutes having the students wander around and then forty minutes watching them being picked off by heavy smoker and creepy-mask owner, Martarga. Excuses to split up are forged, getaway vans develop engine problems, nut jobs loom in the corner of the frame and much is made of the fact that the female cast have attractive body parts (one memorable bit of mise en scene places Ursuala Corbero’s denim-short clad buttocks in a lingering, extreme close-up filling two-thirds of the frame while something goes on in the distance, barely glimpsed in the few inches left available, even Matarga notices, going on to compliment her on her ‘buen culo’ twenty minutes later).” Guy Adams, The British Fantasy Society

“The film was beautifully shot using some interesting locations. The ghost town looked pretty creepy (even in daylight) and the choice to set some of the action in a salt mine was a nice touch that offered an interesting look I had not seen in a horror film before. There are several effects/death scenes that are freaking outstanding!! These were achieved using some great practical effects. The sad part was that there is also a death scene where only CGI is used and it looked HORRIBLE.”  Corey Danna, HorrorNews.net

“Predictable and clichéd as it may be (does a film’s twist still count as a twist if we can see it coming from a mile off?), Paranormal Xperience does impress in its gore sequences. Despite being very obviously filmed for 3D (expect to see a lot of fingers, gore and grue thrown at the screen), it’s delightfully nasty at times, making good use of the old eyeball piercing, barbed wire garrotting and smashed glass splatter sequences throughout. The CGI blood is no good, and some of the makeup work is a bit iffy, but it only adds to the film’s charm.” Starburst

“It’s pretty. Shiny. Glossy. PX3D is like Gossip Girl but with more violence. The cast is good looking, some of the kill scenes were good and bloody, and it made a valiant attempt at being a paranormal/torture porn hybrid of some sort. There’s a decent story buried somewhere underneath all of the smooth visuals, though it’s a shame that it wasn’t fleshed out better.” The Horror Club

Wikipedia | IMDb