August 2011
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July 2011
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November 2010
18 posts
Retro Games: Beyond Dark Castle
It was 1987. A time when men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small, furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. It was also the year Beyond Dark Castle debuted on the Macintosh. For a nine-year-old boy, Beyond Dark Castle was the ultimate gaming experience, sufficiently addictive and challenging to capture my attention for hours on end. After...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Invasion of the Body...
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was released in 1956, embodies the deep and pervasive sense of paranoia that gripped the United States during the Cold War. The film is often interpreted as an allegory about the threat of communism. After all, if there’s one thing worse than being invaded by aliens, it’s being invaded by evil bastard communist aliens intent of destroying...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: The Creature from the...
There are two reasons why Creature from the Black Lagoon will go down in history as a brilliant horror film. First, it has a scary-ass monster: a hideous, amphibious reptile that shambles after its victims and squeezes the life from them with its webbed hands. The creature, which was designed by Millicent Patrick, is one of the most terrifying monsters to emerge from the classic Universal horror...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: The Wolf Man
The Wolf Man, which was produced in 1941, is one of the most atmospheric werewolf films ever made. The movie opens with a passage about lycanthropy from an ancient tome: “A disease of the mind in which human beings imagine they are wolf-men. According to an old legend which persists in certain localities, the victims actually assume the physical characteristics of the animal. There is a...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Scream
Wes Craven is skilled in the art of terror. And Scream is his masterwork. Thanks to Scary Movie, it’s difficult to sit through the entire film without smirking. Nevertheless, the film remains one of the most impressive exercises in horror to emerge from the nineties, far more memorable than the slew of fun but largely unintelligent films it inspired. Singlehandedly reinvigorated slasher...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Urban Legend
Michelle rounds a corner, wipers thumping furiously, headlights illuminating the rain swept road. Yawning, she grabs a cassette, slams it into the stereo. The car is filled with music. Anything to say awake. Singing to herself, she doesn’t notice the fuel gauge. The car begins to cough and splutter. In the distance, she sees a small service station: an old, decrepit place. Michelle rolls up...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Disturbing Behaviour
Cradle Bay seems nice, peaceful - somewhere Steve Clarke and his family can move, settle down and forget about the past. But Cradle Bay, with its high proportion of clean-cut, impossibly wholesome teenagers, isn’t what it seems. Something sinister is going on. Cue the spooky music.
While most teens are out bonking, boozing and smoking dope the kids of Cradle Bay are baking apple pies,...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Undead
Strange meteorites hurtle through the atmosphere and slam into a small Australian town, flattening a senior citizen and ripping a hole through a drunken cricketer. Much to their dismay, the residents of Berkley find themselves besieged by flesh eating zombies. Undead is a fun, tongue-in-cheek blood spattered zombie epic.
At the beginning of the film, we’re fleetingly introduced to the...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Bad Taste
Bad Taste is a considerable achievement considering the constraints under which it was made: a bunch of friends, led by the ever innovative Bolex wielding Peter Jackson, worked on the film every weekend over four years. Although they secured a little funding from the New Zealand Film Commission late in the piece, the film was largely financed by its young director. As one of the stars Mike Minett...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: The Texas Chainsaw...
If you’re anything like me, you probably haven’t watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I avoided the film for over a decade because of its title. Seriously, who in their right mind would watch a film called ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’? Anyone who raised their hand is a sick, twisted individual…
If you haven’t seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you’d be mistaken to...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Dawn of the Dead...
For horror fans, remaking the George Romero classic Dawn of the Dead is like rewriting the bible. You don’t even attempt it. When it was announced that newcomer Zack Snyder was going to direct the remake, a million horror fanatics cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Unlike the recent slew of Hollywood remakes, however, Dawn of the Dead isn’t that bad.
So what makes Dawn of...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: A Nightmare on Elm...
A Nightmare on Elm Street marks the big screen debut of Freddy Krueger. A menacing, sardonic and horribly scarred psychopath that haunts teenagers’ dreams, Freddy is one of the most iconic figures in the history of horror. In the film, he is a notorious child murderer acquitted on a technicality. In a move later deemed to be exceptionally foolish, residents form an angry mob and burn him...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: The Evil Dead
During the production of Evil Dead, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were given a little advice one of their friends: “Fellas, no matter what you do, keep the blood running down the screen.” Fortunately, they did just that.
The bloodstained tale of five people stuck in a remote cabin besieged by flesh-possessing demons, Evil Dead doesn’t disappoint when it comes to gratuitous gore....
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Tremors
Tremors features one of the most hideous creatures ever captured on celluloid, a behemoth so utterly terrifying you’ll soil your underpants just looking at the cover. But that’s enough about Kevin Bacon…I think you’ll agree that the monsters in Tremors are pretty damn terrifying too.
Graboids are enormous, subterranean worms that live beneath the scorched sand of...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: The Silence of the...
The Silence of the Lambs is a brilliant and horrific film that introduced the world to one of the creepiest characters ever to grace the big screen. A great deal of the film’s atmosphere can be attributed to the cinematography of Tak Fujimoto. Although the audience doesn’t witness the crimes being committed, the results of the bloody murders are evident from the outset of the film,...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: The Mummy
When Stephen Sommers was given the opportunity to remake Universal’s classic horror movie, The Mummy, he completely disregarded the original film and produced one of the most enjoyable horror movies in recent years. Although the film has strong elements of adventure and comedy, it also has the ability to make your skin crawl. The opening sequence is brilliantly executed. One of the most...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Evil Dead 2
Before he became a legitimate director with films like ‘A Simple Plan’ and ‘Spiderman’, Sam Raimi was the master of B-Grade schlock. His Evil Dead trilogy spawned an enormous cult following for its ingenuity, gore and humour. Evil Dead 2 is a masterful film. If you haven’t experienced the movie, prepare yourself for some quirky and genuinely scary...
Greatest Horror Films Ever: Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead is a dark and disturbing horror film, an appropriately depressing conclusion to George Romero’s zombie trilogy. A small group of soldiers and scientist are holed up in a bunker while zombies wreak havoc on the world above. There are three words that warrant this films’ inclusion in the top horror films of all time: ‘Banned in Queensland’.
Although the film...