These days, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds tends to be unfairly overlooked. Though it made a considerable amount of money upon it’s 2005 release, it was met with mixed reviews, and these days, the general public seem to have forgotten about it. War of the Worlds has never taken on the iconic status of Jaws, … Continue reading
Francis Ford Coppola has made some of the greatest movies of all time, and remains one of the world’s most influential filmmakers. The Conversation, The Godfather and it’s sequel, and Apocalypse Now were all seminal, cinema-altering movies which went some way to defining the American New Wave. Sadly, Coppola never really adapted once the Hollywood … Continue reading
Carrie is the sort of movie you watch as a teenager and enjoy without getting much out of. It’s only when you revisit it as an adult, having gained a far greater understanding of cinema, that you understand what an accomplished and brilliant movie it is. Brian de Palma’s 1976 horror movie is a fantastic … Continue reading
John Carpenter’s Halloween defined a genre and lead to a boom of imitators. Most of these – Friday the 13th, Prom Night – were bloodier retreads, with non of Halloween’s restraint, scares or sense of style. But as the 80s began, slashers proved to be big business – profitable franchises which could be churned out … Continue reading
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Horror fans tend to dismiss the 2000s as being the nadir of the genre, and it’s hard not to agree with them. The constant remakes of older, established slasher films, the seemingly endless parade of Japanese ghost stories – always advertised as “the scariest thing since The Ring” – and, of course, the gruesome and frankly … Continue reading
Halloween was not the first slasher movie – before its release in 1978, there was Hitchcock’s Psycho, which generated some of the tropes, and in 1974, there was Black Christmas and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the latter two in particularly coming up with the teen focus, masked killers, and concepts such as the final … Continue reading
There have been many classic movies about the Vietnam war – The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket – but it is Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Apocalypse Now, the first of the Vietnam movies, which remains the definitive film of the era. It was the first American movie to deal with the war, made when … Continue reading
Ask someone today about fairy tales, and they’ll probably describe simple children’s stories; fantasies about princesses and monsters which contain no real sense of threat or danger – just little fictions to help babies sleep at night. The prince will always save the day, the witch will always be vanquished, and the kingdom will always … Continue reading
The Silence of the Lambs remains one of the few movies to sweep the ‘big’ Oscars, winning Best Director, Actor, Actress, Writing and Best Picture. Whilst it’s not surprising that the Academy lavished such praise upon the movie – it’s an incredibly well drawn and brilliantly constructed film – what is surprising is that they chose … Continue reading
The Exorcist is widely considered to be the scariest horror movie of all time. William Friedkin’s movie, adapted from William Peter Blatty’s novel, caused a huge stir upon its release in 1973 – audiences were absolutely terrified by it, and to this day, the movie sits firmly atop top ten horror movie lists. But it’s a … Continue reading
