Horror - Black Swan

Hope you all had a great time over the holidays.  If not, never mind there's plenty of horror films out there to make you feel better.

Today, I'll be watching Black Swan to cheer myself up over the fact that I have to work New Years Eve night.

Ballet's not really my thing, but I have enjoyed all of Aronofskys works before this, even the utterly bleak and downbeat Requiem For A Dream, and the reviews are singing the praises of the film, so I thought I would let myself be converted.

Horror - Christmas Day

To any of you taking a quick break from the Christmas Day insanity, or for those not interested in such nonsense, Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or Happy Whatever to you all.

I'm off to get hammered.

Horror - Next Year's Calender

Just been directed by Mark to the vintage-sexiness-meets-eat-your-brains that is My Zombie Pin-Up

If you like your calenders a touch Alberto Vargas mixed with more than a dash George A. Romero, then this is the place to buy next years.

Recommended.

Horror - 4BIA

I enjoy a good portmanteau, this is my next viewing...

Horror - Christmas BBC Ghost Stories

Well, finally after several years, the BBC are back to screening their traditional Christmas ghost story.

This year just screams quality.  John Hurt starring, in a role first played by Sir Michael Horden, in a remake of M.R. James' Whistle And I'll Come To You.  The story of a man who sees an apparition on a deserted winter beach, who then is haunted by the spectre again and and again to a horrifying climax.

I loved the original and when I saw John Hurt was to star in this years seasonal remake, I got quite excited.

If you're in the UK, or can access BBC2 anywhere, then this Christmas Eve you have a treat waiting in store for you.  Promises to be truly spine-chilling.

Full details (with a spooky preview clip) can be found here.

Horror - Jean Rollin R.I.P.

I'm a couple of days late to this (due to the debate on the internet on whether he had actually died or not), but RIP to Jean Rollin.  Auteur to such art-house Euro classics such as Fascination, Curse of the Living Dead and Les Frisson des Vampires, he shaped European horror throughout the sixties and seventies - as well as shaping my video collection.  If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't know that French and Italian noblewomen wandered around Chateaux naked, whilst gazing wistfully at newlywed brides.
The idea that vampires were all models for Chanel was completely unheard of, so for that at least, I thank him.

Horror - Shockheaded Peter

Want to terrify your kids and possibly mentally scar them for life?  Next time you settle down to read them a cosy bedtime story, reach for Struwwelpeter, a collection of cautionary tales from Germany, more than 150 years ago., teaching kids why they shouldn't suck their thumbs or why they should always maintain good hygiene.  Cruel Frederick is very gruesome in particular.

Here's an nice animated version of Little Suck-a-Thumb, and remember, these tales are aimed at the under 8's.

Horror - Les Diaboliques

Well, that's enough for today.  I'm off to bed to watch a classic, Les Diaboliques.

That is if I can get my old video recorder to work...

Horror - Enter The Void

Not, strictly speaking, a horror film - but it does explore the concept of life after death, so I hope you forgive me but I thought I would give it a plug here, just because it's so visually audacious.  Just don't watch it with that drug-bore you know.

"Man, you've got to watch it tripping."  You know, that guy.

Horror - Cuckoo

Here's a novel clock, every hour Jack Nicholson bursts through the door shouting "Here's Johnny!"

Horror - Top 10 Ghosts

Reece Shearsmith from The League of Gentlemen has compiled his top 10 ghosts for The Guardian Guide magazine, do you agree with his choices?

Horror - Christmas Treat

Horror - More Decorations

Thanks to  Mark for this ornament 

You can buy one here. 

And this heart-warming Nativity scene

You can even get cards here...

This tree is going to be pretty horrible at this rate.
Right, that's enough of all that.  Normal service will resume soon.

Horror - Haunted Air

Just had my attention drawn to this beautiful book of anonymous Halloween photographs pre-1955,
Haunted Air

"These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits, mementoes of the treasured, now unrecognisable, other. Torn from album pages, sold piecemeal for pennies and scattered, abandoned to melancholy chance and the hands of strangers."

Lovely stuff.

Horror - Wall Art

Thanks to Jenn  for pointing me in the direction of Etsy, lots of cool stuff on there.  Just take a look at this

and this zombie pinata

I could spend all day on here.

Horror - Centipede Christmas

Tis the season to be stitched to someones anus, apparently.

You can get these charming Human Centipede tree decorations here, as well as this severed zombie finger to hang up.

Horror - Baubles

Reece Shearsmith has today posted a picture on Twitter of his Christmas tree decorations.

But what I want to know is, where the Hell can I get them?

Horror - Forbidden House

Horror - Guillermo Del Toro 'Insane'

Love Guillermo Del Toro.  Pan's Labyrinth was stunning and Cronos, Blade II, and The Devils Backbone were all excellent horrors - each with a different mood and pace.  I'm also really enjoying The Fall at the moment, the second installment of his The Straintrilogy.

So imagine how pleased I was to see this...

A trailer that shows you nothing, tells you nothing and says you'll know nothing until 2013!

Still, my interest is piqued.

Horror - Want To 'See A Ghost' ?

Really want to see this Thai horror-comedy, See A Ghost.  It comes out at the end of the month, and seems to string together all sorts of genres and themes.  Any film that throws crazy-inept cops, spooky ghosts and the ugliest Thai ladyboy ever seen into the mix surely deserves a look.

No English subtitles to this trailer, but you still have to give it a watch...

Horror - The Witch's Mirror

Well done to Mark for finding a horror film I haven't actually seen.

Damn you, now I have to go hunt it down!

Horror - The Walking Dead (again)

This is doing the rounds on the internet, but if you haven't seen it - it's every zombie death in The Walking Dead all cut together.  Great for all you zombie lovers out there, but don't watch if you want to see the series but haven't got round to it yet.  It's one giant spoiler.

Horror - Cthulhu Sex Toys

Came across these and they made me laugh.  Dildos in the shape of Cthulhu and other elder horrors.

I'm wracking my brain to think exactly who would want one of these, but if you do you can get one here.

Horror - Dick Smith Horror Make-Up Kit

Thanks to Paul's excellent Cobwebbed Room for reminding me of the best Christmas present I was given as a child.

I was given it in around 1980 - 81ish, and my dad did a cracking job applying the latex scars and wounds to my face.  I even won a Halloween competition at my school, dressed as a disfigured werewolf!

Happy days.

Anyway visit The Cobwebbed Room. I have spent ages trawling through his pages with a nostalgic far-away look in my eye!

Horror - Los Elementales

Los Elementales recounts the odyssey of an American geologist who goes to the south of Chile accompanied by a preteen daughter obsessed with the paranormal. She, who enjoys the strange happenings, encounters a haunted house inhabited by beings; among them are gnomes, elves, and fairies

Get rid of the CGI and put in some real prosthetics and effects, and this could be next years Pans Labyrinth.

Horror - Rec 3 & Rec 4

Posters for the prequel and the sequel to one of my favorite horrors of the last couple of years Rechave appeared online.

Rec Genesis will take place before the original film, charting the origin of the outbreak and will come out in the last half of 2011, and Rec Apocalypse will show the infection spreading to unknown proportions and will come out late 2012.  Original writers and directors Paco Plaza and Jaume Balaguero will return.

Hope they're not 'jumping the shark' with this franchise.

Thanks to Horror News for this.

Horror - And All Through The House

If Joan Collins murdering her husband, and then being terrorized by an escaped lunatic dressed as Santa doesn't get you into the festive spirit - then I don't know what will!

Check out this lovely bit of seasonal horror from one of my favorites, Tales from the Crypt.

Horror - Christmas Presents

If anyone wants to get me a Christmas present, these Cthulhu playing cards will do...

Or a new pair of shoes...

Cheers.

Horror - Vanishing On 7th Street

After a power outage, a group of people find themselves all alone in the city.  The rest of the populace have vanished into thin air leaving just their clothes behind, and the survivors lights are the only things they have to defend themselves against the ever-growing malevolent darkness.

An interesting premise, but it remains to be seen if this can hold up for a full 2 hours, or whether it's a Twilight Zone type story that should've been kept to half an hour.

Horror - Nightcap

Right - bed.  But first I'll watch...

Horror - Red State

'Clerks' and 'Dogma' director Kevin Smith has veered from his slacker-comedy movies to venture into the world of horror.  Red State is...

"A horror film in which a group of misfits encounter fundamentalism gone to the extreme in Middle America."

Starring John Goodman and Michael Parks it will arrive mid 2011.

Horror - Nearly Christmas

Rare Exports : A Christmas Tale

The most well-kept Christmas secret ever lies 500 meters below ground, and a young Finnish boy discovers the 'truth' about Santa Claus.

Directed by Jalmari Helander this is destined to be a festive must-see.  This Christmas Eve I will be watching It's A Wonderful Life, Scrooged followed by Rare Exports.

In London's West End last week they even had a genuine wild Santa (caged, of course for the publics safety, and guarded by two trained Santa Wranglers)  imported to promote the film.

Horror - Deus Irae

This short film is currently doing the rounds at festivals around Europe.  At just 13 minutes, the 'plot' concerns 3 priests attempting to exorcise a young girl (surprise surprise). But it's the effects, direction and editing that is packed into Deus Irae that makes it an eye-catcher.  Surely either a feature-length version or a movie career for its director Pedro Cristiani will follow.  If you get the chance, spend quarter of an hour with this little gem.

Be warned, the trailer, is by turns odd, funny, nasty, and silly.  Take those in any order your sense of humour dictates.

Horror - Flushed Away

Indonesia make a horror film.  About a haunted toilet.  Yes, that's some scary shit.



Insert own toilet-horror related gag here...

Horror - Korea Does Blair Witch

Anyone else getting tired of the whole hand-held 'found' video footage type of movies?  Well, not the Koreans, they think there's room to squeeze one more in