Series: Film / TV

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “sleeper” as “someone or something unpromising or unnoticed that suddenly attains prominence or value,” and that is just the kind of horror film that I would like to discuss in today’s Shocktober column. Below you will find five examples of what I would consider a “sleeper” horror film; films that are sleepers not because they might put you to sleep – far from it – but rather, because they are seldom-discussed items that just might surprise you with their manifold fine qualities. All five of these films are ones that have somehow managed,

Born in Madrid in 1930, Jesus Franco Manera would go on to become one of the most prolific filmmakers that international cinema has ever witnessed. Under his professional name Jess Franco, the man would, starting in 1959 and then continuing all the way to the year of his death in 2013, ultimately come out with no fewer than 173 films (!), all of which he either directed, wrote, produced, and/or appeared in as an actor. Franco’s films covered an enormous variety of subject matter – horror, sci-fi, giallo, war movies, “adult films” and so many others – and his distinctive visual style,

As I have mentioned elsewhere, starting in the late 1950s and proceeding on throughout the ‘60s, the Mexican film industry enjoyed a Golden Age of sorts when it came to the field of horror. I have already written here on FanLit of such wonderful Mexican fright fests as The Vampire (1957), The Vampire’s Coffin (1958), The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy (1958), The Ship of Monsters (1960), The Witch’s Mirror (1960), The Brainiac (1961),

Born in upstate NY in 1948, John Carpenter would go on to become not only one of the foremost directors of horror films of his generation, but a producer, screenwriter and composer, as well. His first film, the amusing sci-fi thriller Dark Star (’74), had shown how very effective he could be even on a limited budget, while his second, Assault on Precinct 13 (’76), had been a remarkably tense urban-crime wringer that was more than a little in debt to, of all things, the seminal 1968 zombie film Night of the Living Dead.

What fan of horror cinema does not like a good vampire story? Perhaps the most popular and oft-used figure in the history of the scary movie, the vampire, going back to Max Schreck’s rat-visaged monster in 1922’s Nosferatu and on to Bela Lugosi’s infamous count in 1931’s Dracula, has been a mainstay in tales of fright almost from the very beginning. And the cinema’s love affair with the bloodsucking creatures of the night seems to show no sign of abatement, as a latter-day series of sparkly pretty-boy vampires would seem to suggest. In today’s Shocktober column,

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.