THE CALL OF CTHULU (2005)

I make no secret of the fact I'm a big fan of the 1920's author HP Lovecraft.  I honestly feel this this film really captures the emotion and mood of HP Lovecrafts writings, which is a hard thing to do given the otherworldly nature of his writings... The movie is a silent film with no dialogue, and shot in grainy black and white.... the film footage is cut with text/sign board dialogue but this only serves to obscure the and mystify the occult worlds created by Lovecraft and suits his novella's perfectly. I assumed this film was made shortly after the book was written, but as it turns out it was made in 2005 to fit the look and feel of a film made in the 1920's the time when the story was created.


As a recreation of the golden age era of science fiction / occult / horror cinema and I think it perfectly harnesses the theory that the scariest things are that which cannot be seen.  Unfortunately the great beast that is the mighty Cthulu is later seen and it kind of wrecks things a little (the creature fx seem outdated... I would have liked a bit more effort spent on the Cthulu demon but realistically that is how he would have looked had this film been made in the 1920's anyway) but that's my only grip with an otherwise captivating and authentic look back at the past of film making,

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PSYCHO (1960)

This is the first horror movie I ever saw... I wouldn't so much call it horror as it is now 'cute' by today's standards but still a really cool film. Of course directed by master film maker Alfred Hitchcock.

The film follows the exploits of a young real estate secretary who absconds with $40000 (a lot of money back then) entrusted to her real estate agency by a rich Texan. As fate would have it her road trip ends up stopping at the fateful "Bates Hotel" on a dark and rainy night. She then finds herself the object of the affections of one Norman Bates, hotel manager, taxidermy afficionado, and man child with very serious mother issues. I won't go too much further into the plot of the film for fear of ruining it for the first time viewer

The film itself is extremely well shot and executed and while there is virtually no gore, the mood created, dialogue and music all contribute to a very suspenseful and engrossing watch. I guess there in lies the challenge to create a genuinely engrossing thriller with virtually no explicit gore and Hitchcock was the master.

I'm not sure what horror films that came before it would have shown in the way of how the mind of a killer really works but to my knowledge this is the first film of its kind and may have invented the slasher genre, I'm sure the Friday 13th took some influence from this film as well as the many Simpsons references (Skinner and Agnes) ... you know you've had an influence on popular culture when you make into the Simpsons! Even the harsh string arrangements (violin or cello I assume) used in the background of the knife murder have become a part of modern culture and used to create a mood of fear in many movies since.

The good thing about this film is that you can watch it with your horror loving offspring, without scarring them for life, like some of the other films reviewed on this site would do. This is a film I would recommend for anyone, not just horror movie fans, do yourself a favour and watch it!



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RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD

Hmmm..... I had been searching for this film for a while now and upon finding it was extremely excited to pop it up on the television and see how it went.

I got the same feeling when I started watching this as when I saw "Pretty In Pink" or "Saint Elmo's Fire" or the "Breakfast Club" some extreme '80's force is strong with this one.... To be honest I was half expecting Molly Ringwald could pop out at any given moment.

Sometimes a movie is just a bunch of stuff that happens and this is that movie, it follows on from the zombie themes created by "Night of the Living Dead", in fact creator Russo worked with Romero on "Night of the Living Dead" but parted ways sometime after. Why did it take him so long to put out a movie? Who knows? Either way this things is just so god damned cheesy its hard to take seriously.... Some rather crappy dialogue and awful acting follow making me wonder if the production team were also just a bunch of unpaid zombie interns. The zombies themselves are rather comical and the killings rather uninspired, its comical but sometimes tragic as well. Its not funny enough to be a comedy (like Brain Dead or Shaun of the Dead) but not gritty enough to be taken seriously as a zombie movie. One good thing about this movie is that it's kind of like the zombie film that you can safely watch with your pre-teen child, or your grandma ... its fairly safe and won't gross out the non-initiated. Perhaps the type of movie you take to a bad taste 80's party.

It obviously had an impact on modern TV as the 'brains' bit you hear over used on this certainly made its way into modern zombie culture (that Halloween episode of the Simpsons for one)

Some horror movie fans really like this movie. Personally I don't get it. I might give it another watch at a later date to see if it grabs me the second time around.

I like to party as anyone who knows me would know..... I saw no party in this film. If you are new to zombies I recommend you check out Night of the living Dead or if you want a laugh Brain Dead 

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