Series: Film / TV

For many people, the mention of Japanese horror cinema will most likely bring to mind the series of colorful monster movies that Toho Studios brought to the world, starting with 1954’s Gojira. But while those Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, King Kong and assorted kaiju-eiga films were undoubtedly a lot of fun, as any horror fan would tell you, they are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the field of Japanese horror, or J-horror as it is known today. From the increasingly sophisticated horror fare of the 1960s to the unbelievably gore-drenched and pyrotechnic displays of the late ‘90s and 2000s,

A lank-haired ghost girl, her face completely shrouded by her wet and stringy locks, crawls out of a well and then straight through a watcher’s TV set! The girl in question, of course, is Sadako Yamamura, a character who has, since her first on-screen appearance in 1998’s Ringu, become one of the most frightening creations in all of Japanese cinema. Based on the 1991 novel Ring by Koji Suzuki, the first Ring film would prove so popular that it went on to become the basis for an entire franchise; a bewildering number of interlinked projects that today comprises some eight Japanese films,

We all love our pets, right? And we all love nature and all the many creatures that God in His wisdom has placed alongside us, right? Well, possibly, but surely not all the time! For today’s Shocktober column, I would like to shine a light on five times the fauna that we share planet Earth with were not so easy to get along with. From beetles and bears to spiders and dogs and worms, these five instances of Nature gone amok will surely prove perfect fare for this creepiest of all holiday seasons: 

BUG (1975)

Viewers who may be having some insect problems in their own abode may feel a bit better about their domestic situation when they see what the residents of a small California desert town have to contend with,

When the average film buff thinks of British horror, odds are that he or she will automatically zoom in on Hammer, the studio that, from 1957 until the early ‘70s, dominated the English fright market in a very big way. But, of course, Hammer was hardly the only game in town. In today’s Shocktober column, I would like to focus on a half dozen very fine British horror films that were not a product of Hammer Studios, but all of which might provide for some shivery entertainment value during this scariest of holiday seasons:

THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS (1959)

The notorious exploits of 19th century cadaver peddlers Burke &

Started by businessman William Hinds in 1934, Hammer Studios in England would eventually carve out for itself a reputation among movie buffs as one of the finest purveyors of horror fare in cinema history. The studio’s first film was the obscure comedy entitled The Public Life of Henry the Ninth, in 1935, and it would not be until 1953, with Four Sided Triangle (the lack of a hyphen in the film’s title is annoying), that the studio would begin to produce the sci-fi and horror films for which it would soon become best known.

Six (Nongiallo) Italian Horrors

As you may have discerned from some of my previous Shocktober columns, I really do love the Italian film genre known as the giallo, featuring as it does stylish murder mysteries, gorgeous location shooting, catchy theme music, and, more often than not, violent and grisly set pieces. But as most horror buffs have long been aware, the giallo film was not the only kind of horror product that the Italians gave to the world, by a long shot. From Gothically inflected period horrors of the 1960s to blood-soaked supernatural shockers of the ‘70s,

Featuring masked and black-gloved serial killers wielding straight-edged blades, violent and stylized mayhem, byzantine plotting, and, more often than not, gorgeous theme melodies, the Italian film genre known as the giallo was kick-started by the great cinematographer/director Mario Bava in 1963, with his remarkable black-and-white film The Girl Who Knew Too Much. But the genre would really come into its own in the 1970s, when Italy came out with a raft of large-budgeted wonders that really took the world by storm. I have already written here of such marvelous gialli as those starring “The Queen of Giallo,” Edwige Fenech;

Born Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko in 1882 in Lugos, a town that was then part of Austria-Hungary but that today lies in Romania, Bela Lugosi (he would go on to take his famous last name from the town of his birth) is today regarded as one of the true titans of cinematic terror. A veteran of the National Theatre of Hungary, Lugosi, over the course of some four dozen horror films for Universal and various Poverty Row studios, has managed, over the decades since his passing in 1956, to remain one of the true cinematic greats in the arena of horror.

When you think of the horror film, certain decades automatically spring to mind in connection with specific events. The 1930s were surely dominated by Universal, with that studio’s Frankenstein, Dracula, and Invisible Man fare. The ‘40s were also dominated by Universal, with RKO producer Val Lewton also beginning to make his mark with a classic series of highly atmospheric wringers. The ‘60s saw the horror film taking a quantum leap forward into modernity, with sure fare as Psycho and Night of the Living Dead breaking down all kinds of taboos; the Italians and Mexicans stunning audiences with a series of Gothically inflected shockers;

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1939, Wes Craven would go on to become a legendary director, screenwriter and producer. Before his passing in 2015, at the age of 76, he helmed almost 20 films in the arena of horror, carving out for himself a place in the modern-day pantheon of great frightmakers. Starting with 1972’s remarkably effective (although wholly offputting) classic The Last House on the Left, Craven proceeded to create the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise in 1984, and the Scream franchise in 1996. The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986) and Shocker (1989) also proved to be rattlingly good film jolters.