Scare Sarah

Going away this summer? - Island of Death (1977)

2011-10-25T14:10:00.001+01:00

Holidays are a time to get away from the stresses and strains of real life and relax in a pretty sun soaked clime. Island of Death opens with just such a scene, as young London couple Celia and Christopher arrive on the Greek island of Mikonos. The architecture and winding streets are reminiscent of Don’t Look Now, with the nooks and crannies and twists and turns that are just begging for someone to run around them in a blind panic later in the film. On the BBFC’s Video Nasty list for its potential to corrupt the mind of the viewer, it doesn’t take long to see why, as the couple have sex in a phone booth while talking to Christopher’s mother. Later that night they make their first killing.

On their first morning at the holiday villa, Celia rebuffs Christopher’s sexual advances. All that traveling and murder have clearly worn the poor girl out. Frustrated, he goes for a walk and encounters an innocent goat. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Later, Celia goes out herself and, apparently rested, seduces a local decorator while watched by Christopher through the lens of his camera. After the deed Celia and Chris nail the native labourer to the ground by his hands then pour white paint down his throat while he is semi-conscious. An ingenious, stomach churning scene it is too, as they laugh wildly and take pictures of the body.

They make their way through the island, first seducing then killing, adulterers, homosexuals and drug addicts. Basically anyone they see as deviant. Christopher in particular sees himself as a bit of an avenging angel, which is ironic considering their own relaxed sexual morals. The film then climaxes in a scene of revenge that is both completely unexpected and slightly out of place.

Both the sex and violence in the film are classic pornographic in their styling. Scenes are broken up into gratuitous black and white snapshots that wouldn’t look out of place in a porn magazine (so I’ve heard). Not five minutes goes by without someone getting it on, with a bit of bestiality and rape thrown in for good measure. Their use of photography in their crimes accentuated this even more, making them able to literally lust over their exploits in the comfort of their own rooms, over and over again.

When viewed through 21st century eyes and with modern sensibilities, it's hard to understand why it was included in the nasties list as it's not particularly difficult to watch. That may either be because I’m not corruptible or I’ve already been corrupted. Either way, Island of Death is a wonderfully vicious and unflinching little film, make no mistake, just not one for all the family.

What dreams are made of - Amer (2011)

2011-09-11T11:28:00.000+01:00

In the 1970s Italy was famous for its visually stunning Giallo horror films, full of dramatic and scantily clad full-bodied women, mysterious story lines and eye-candy of all varieties. This slick French homage to the genre opens with an equally glossy montage, with split sliding screens, blocks of bright colours and a swinging, cheerful soundtrack. From the outset the styling is brash and colourful and very, very French. So much so you could be fooled in to thinking you are watching a European sports car advert unfold, rather than the highbrow erotic horror it is.

We meet Ana at three pivotal points in her life. The first time we see her she is about 9 years old. A young, affluent Parisian couple argues after finding a small dead bird in the house. They’re watched by Ana, their daughter, through a key hole. She runs to her room where she sees her witch-like grandmother, head covered in a black shawl, rising up from behind her bed as though she had been lying on the floor. Her grandfather is dead in one of the other bedrooms. And to top it all, she walks in on her parents having sex. Can’t this kid catch a break?

Next, Ana has grown into an accidentally seductive adolescent; teasing boys and nearly getting into trouble with her short skirt, only to be rescued by her forever furious mother. We see close-ups of her bare legs as an ant crawls along them, reminding us of her immaturity. In the final chapter, adult Ana returns to her empty family home and she is transported back in time to her childhood fantasies with tragic consequences. Whether in reality or in her mind, it is not clear where we leave Ana. Throughout, her mother looks at her with hatred, and her father with disdain.

Amer is pornographic in its styling and the soundtrack breathy, with flashing primary colours washing the screen making your heart race and close ups so extreme you have to make your eyes wide enough to watch. A structured narrative is absent here. Doors slam, transporting you to other rooms, reflections appear in the blades of knives and the film techniques used visually and audibly dizzy the viewer. In fact Amer treats you to such arty direction you have no option but to smile and perhaps clap and nod in equally arty agreement.

The danger with films such as this though, that leave so much to the imagination, is that you can’t help wondering if it’s all style over substance. Are you filling in the gaps because the creator wanted you to use your mind and explore all possibilities of the uncontainable story? Or, is there simply no story at all? Whatever side of the fence you fall on you would be hard pushed to deny it is visually a thing of beauty, inspired by the stunning Italian horrors of the past, sure to inspire many a young film student’s wet dream in the future.

Love is like a butterfly... - The Collector (1965)

2011-08-28T21:51:00.001+01:00

When I was a kid I collected all kinds of crap; stamps, car number plates and the cardboard you get inside the packaging of ladies stockings. That may sound odd, but it's completely normal, officer. In The Collector our leading man, Frederick Clegg (Terence Stamp) collects butterflies and more... The first 15 minutes of the film pass without hardly any need for dialogue as his unusual and, some would say demented, secret life is explained. He runs gaily through fields capturing butterflies to add to his collection like he's the happiest man alive. Then he drives into town and kidnaps a pretty young woman called Miranda with the same amount of emotion you or I would display doing our weekly shop, subduing her with Chloroform.

Frederick is not your typical looking psychopath; he's not the scrawny or pale type we've come to expect. He's actually quite exotic looking with his olive skinned complexion and dark eyes. Perhaps demonstrating how psychosis really doesn't discriminate. Once he does break the silence however, in that plain yet hypnotic old fashioned English accent, his calmness gives away his true mental state.

When Miranda (Samantha Eggar) wakes up in his basement she is assured that, despite knocking her unconscious and locking her up, he doesn't want to molester her, as he puts it. Frederick wants to add her to his collection of pretty things. He wants to get to know her and for her to love him. Sounds sweet really. Except we all know love can soon turn to anger and Miranda quickly realises her only chance of ever being free is to go along with his wishes, give in and pretend to like him. Unfortunately, Frederick becomes more deluded and convinces himself that the longer he keeps her, the more likely it is she will fall in love with him. Repeatedly she tries to escape but every time he manages to contain his new possession until the story takes an unexpectedly sad turn.

The situations Frederick puts himself in, his cold thought processes and the consequences this has on others makes for uncomfortable viewing of the highest order. He makes human life seem disposable like a child that can never find anything to satisfy him. Terence Stamp plays him with a Norman Bates awkwardness until his mind switches to the job in hand and he's as cool as a cucumber. Miranda and Frederick's relationship, despite the extreme circumstances, could very easily mirror any new couple. The insecure partner constantly trying to change or contain the other. You could argue that Frederick is merely cutting to the chase. Perhaps he should have pinned Miranda under some glass with his butterflies when he had the chance.

We're going Up North! - The Manchester Horror Double Bill

2011-07-21T10:52:00.001+01:00

Anyone who knows me can testify, I'm not that well travelled. Which is why when The Classic Horror Campaign was asked to go up to Manchester to put on a special weekend of horror film screenings, I jumped at the chance. We're joining forces with The Lass O'Gowrie pub to screen our favourites Night of the Demon and Vampire Circus on Saturday 23rd July and Cat People and Scream and Scream Again on Sunday 24th July. Goodness me, it's like we're on tour or something!

As well as the films expect the usual horror giveaways along side some very special guests including author of Beating the Devil: The Making of Night of the Demon, Tony Earnshaw. He'll be signing copies of his very sought after book. And horror photographer Amanda Norman will be offering the chance to have a picture taken that will not be suitable for your passport!

Tickets will be available on the door but space is limited so I recommend booking online using the links below.

Saturday 23rd July - Night of the Demon / Vampire Circus BUY TICKETS
Sunday 24th July - Cat People / Scream and Scream Again BUY TICKETS

We'll be seeing you..mwa ha ha ha haaaaa ahem.

Say That You Love Me - ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE (2006)

2011-06-25T10:22:00.001+01:00

I remember that time back in school when you return to lessons after a holiday only for your peers to find you have transformed from an awkward ugly duckling in to a sexy swan. Okay firstly, bad imagery, nobody wants to think about sexy swans. Secondly, that never happened to me, but I did witness it happen to other lucky biatches. Suddenly all the boys and girls either want them or want to be them. Then they want to kill them.

Mandy Lane (Amber Heard, Zombieland, The Stepfather) has done just that; she is now a hot and voluptuous teenager who can command the attention of anyone she wants. She's modest too, and doesn't seem to be comfortable with all this new attention. She even has the obligatory geeky male best friend Emmet (Michael Welch, Day of the Dead, Twilight) who is also in love with her. After a serious bout of jealousy leads Emmet to cause a fatal accident at a party, the two friends go their separate ways, with Mandy blossoming further in the bosom of her new high school hierarchy.

Mandy is invited to a house party at a secluded ranch, where all the boys are after her. On the first night they drink and take drugs and basically begin the perfect teen horror slasher recipe, leaving themselves vulnerable to what lurks outside in the dark. Eventually, as you would expect, the other members of the group start to die in truly gruesome methods and the perpetrator is revealed early on. As a viewer you think that was a bad move, but no, the best is still yet to come.

Apart from a few injury continuity issues (one minute someones face is falling off, the next minute, their face has fallen back on) I don't have a bad word to say about this film. The colour wash is like a warm bubble bath for your eyes. I know the cast is almost exclusively teenagers but they are just as credible as any characters in Stand By Me or The Virgin Suicides for example. They have that dreamy quality to them that could never be confused with a trashy flick. A tiny bit contrived, yes, but easy on the eye and very smile making. Director Jonathan Levine's expert touch is complemented by the closing scene's soundtrack of Bobby Vinton's Sealed with a Kiss.

A little Texas Chainsaw in the cinematography, the twist at the end was so surprising it only occurred to me a fraction of a second before the reveal, when I was overwhelmed by both the sadness and excitement you only rarely get in films after you develop an affinity for the victim. You are them and it is your heart that's beating not quite fast enough to kill you before the killer does. All The Boys Love... is a modern study of a beautiful and classy 1970's horror that will leave you smiling as though you have something to hide.

The Return of the Horror Double Bill.... Returns!

2011-06-24T10:39:00.000+01:00

For all you guys and ghouls out there that miss BBC2′s iconic horror double bill seasons of the 70′s and 80′s, you can relive those halcyon days (or nights!) with the Classic Horror Campaign!The Classic Horror Campaign now has a whole series of events and double bill screenings lined up over the next few months in London, Manchester and Brighton! You can book your tickets in advance to avoid disappointment by going to our page at WeGotTickets. See below for a round-up of our exciting Summer of Screams!

Sunday 26th June – Cat People & Scream and Scream Again – Roxy Bar & Screen, London 3pm
Saturday 23rd July – Night of the Demon & Vampire Circus – The Lass O’Gowrie, Manchester 8pm
Sunday 24th July – Cat People & Scream and Scream Again – The Lass O’Gowrie, Manchester 6:30pm
Sunday 31st July - Horror Hotel & Abominable Dr Phibes - Roxy Bar & Screen, London 3pm
Sunday 21st August – films to be confirmed – Komedia, Brighton 6:30pm

Hope to see you all there! It'll be a scream, baby.

The Classic Horror Campaign Presents... The Horror Double Bill

2011-04-20T10:20:00.002+01:00

Roxy Bar And Screen, 128-132 Borough High Street, London, UK

The months of talk and speculation are over. This Friday 22nd April sees the very first Classic Horror Campaign film screening at London's Roxy Bar & Screen. The event kicks off at 3pm with Night of the Demon, followed by the classic Vampire Circus. There will be horror giveaways, drinks and food available so get there early and pay your £5 on the door. Check out the event's Facebook page or if you need more information just send me an email. Also, if you can't make it this time why not show your support by signing the petition and find out how and why The Classic Horror Campaign started in the first place.

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run - Blooded (2011)

2011-03-31T20:40:00.002+01:00

We humans think a lot of animals don't we? Often putting their well being above that of our loved ones and considering them part of the family. That aspect of animal loving I can understand. After all, your dog isn't going to tell you to pick your dirty clothes up off the floor five times, is he? And your goldfish isn't going to ignore you for a day because you forgot to get her special food in the weekly shop either. I digress. There is however, another side of this debate; a subversive side, some might say. There are renegade groups who will stop at nothing, with no laws getting in their way, to prevent what they see as cruelty to their beloved animals. What a good idea for a revenge horror.

Blooded begins as a documentary telling the story of a recent "incident" involving animal rights activists, The Real Animal League (RAL) and a group of deer hunting 20-somethings. The leader of the deer hunters, if you will, Lucus Bell, is a very outspoken man. We see in television news footage him proclaiming to a baying press pack that the recent change in the law will not stop him hunting.

This bravado undoubtedly riles his apposers so he decides to take off to the Scottish hills for a few days with some friends. Secluded Scottish hills, may I add. They spend the first day shooting then settle down to a few drinks and a bit of a feast, then off to bed. The next thing they know it's morning, but they have not woken up in their beds. Instead they're in their underwear, separated from each other, on a cold hillside. Now they're being hunted.

Shot in an untypical docudrama, mockumentary style, Blooded makes the genre more like a Crimewatch reconstruction with a second set of actors playing the parts of the documentary actors. This style makes it feel very real, fresh and just a little bit chilling. The violence is quite restrained for the subject matter as the theme meant they could've pushed it to torture porn levels but they didn't, and I think it is a better film for it.

These obsessive activist groups, with their deliberately terrorist-like approach sadly do nothing but detract our fury away from their cause and on to them. In the same vein Blooded cleverly managed to blur the line between what is morally right and wrong.

You can see Blooded via download & on demand from April 1st 2011, further details are available from the official site ONLINE and ON TV.

More lesbians please - Life Blood aka Pearblossom (2009)

2011-02-03T19:09:00.001Z

Vampires, lesbians and films are three of my favourite things. But here I saw very little vampire, virtually no lesbianism and to use the word film was pushing it. God has entrusted our world’s fate to two new homemade avenging angels with a penchant for human blood. The only problem? One of them turns out to be evil.

At a New Year’s Eve party actress Brooke (Sophie Monk) walks in on a colleague about to rape a young woman. After being enraged by his chauvinistic attitude towards her (and, strangely, not because he is potentially rapey), she stabs him in the throat several times with a pin and the blood flows like tomato ketchup out of a squeezy bottle. Which, I suspect, may have been what they used to create the special effects. She picks up her lesbian lover Rhea (Anya Lahiri) and they make their getaway along the Pearblossom Highway. Brooke confesses that she’s just killed a man and while shocked, Rhea begins to calm down until they hit and kill an animal in the road. Inexplicably Rhea, now playing on the uncontrollable, hypersensitive female stereotype no doubt, sees this as a sign that something bad is about to happen. And nothing to do with the dead man lying on the floor back at the party. Well they do say people love animals more than humans. They get out of the car and God appears to them in see through night clothes. Only God is a woman. Stay with me, people. God tells them that they have been chosen to be her immortal avenging instruments and to kill all of the evil people in the world. They need to go through some kind of special supernatural incubation period that takes forty years but when they come out…they look exactly the same as they did before. Except that now, they need blood to survive.

I did rather enjoy the neck breaking scene and Patrick Renna did well as the geeky drooling gas station attendant, Dan. The comedic energy of the supporting cast made it feel as though they were in a separate film from the leads, who were as flat as pretty pancakes. I could’ve watched Danny Woodburn as the hapless cop and the perfect Charles Napier as his short tempered Sheriff on their own. Apparently Napier didn’t see the need to attend the screen test for the film as he’s played about ten different cops in his career, he was born for this role. He also got all the best lines.

I couldn’t quite tell if it was just that the acting was bad or that they genuinely thought that a realistic portrayal of a lesbian couple would be to merely look as sappy as possible. The lesbian angle was virtually non existent and I suspect it was just peddled to get you to watch a film that held very little substance apart from its own hype. Were we supposed to be shocked or excited at the thought of lesbian vampires? I was hoping to be experiencing at least one of those but it just didn’t happen. The two leads’ dialogue was laborious and played as though they were having a boring chat over lunch.

I don’t think I was imagining the all-men-are-evil theme, what with God being a girl and the pointless heterosexual domestic scene at the end where the good-for-nothing boyfriend gets his just desserts. But surely it’s worth a watch just for the sexy underwear and girls kissing? I can’t actually believe I’m saying this, but no.

Want to come to my party? - The Violent Kind (2010)

2011-01-15T18:21:00.001Z

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this one from all-mod-cons directors The Butcher Brothers, who have previously had outings with The Hamiltons and the April Fools Day remake. Both have packed quite a punch. Billed simply as a birthday party gone wrong, pleasingly The Violent Kind turned out to be so much more than that. Part horror, part sci-fi, we’re taken on a rollercoaster ride of a story, touching on several popular filmic influences on the way. When Cody takes his two biker gang friends to his mother’s cabin to celebrate her birthday, his ex-girlfriend Michelle is involved in a car accident that kills her new boyfriend. She is seriously injured and needs medical attention but mysteriously all their mobile phones have lost their signal and nobody’s car will start. They’re stranded.

Unconscious and covered in blood, they take Michelle up to one of the bedrooms. When left alone she attempts to eat half the face of a party goer in a bloody frenzy. When they go back in to the bedroom to check on her she is climbing on the ceiling, think Spiderman crossed with The Exorcist. And when they get her tied to the bed she spouts out some warnings in a chillingly demonic voice. Q, the other gang member, sets out on foot and comes across Michelle’s dead boyfriend. Only he doesn’t seem to be dead anymore. He stumbles about, confused but surprisingly cheerful, his head a bloody mess.

All the while some mysterious men are outside patiently watching the group. They bide their time and when they finally make their violent entrance they turn the story on its head. Suddenly, it becomes the scene of a home invasion gangster movie. But there is something very odd about these people; they all look and act like they’re 1950’s rockabillies. It’s funny and frightening all at once. They’ve come for Michelle but first they want to have fun with Cody’s short temper and some knives.

At times, The Violent Kind is quite beautiful – such as when the rockabilly gang is standing outside in the woods watching the house, their backdrop complete with a Fright Night sky, and a colourful evil face can almost be made out in the clouds. Several times we are touched by other film references like the madness of Reservoir Dogs, the lost youth of The Lost Boys and timeless imagery of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, demonstrating the film’s message of how impressionable we are.

The acting was exciting. Joe Egender plays Vernon the rockabilly gang leader with so much electrifying enthusiasm that he is my lasting memory of this surprise of a film. He bounds about like a character out of a Tarantino movie or perhaps even more fittingly, like Malcolm McDowell’s Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange.

The Violent Kind is a reflection on our human kind, our false hopes and arrogance. It’s a lesson in our behaviour as a race and that if we can’t act humanely towards each other how do we expect those who are impressionable to act humanely towards us?

Do you believe in Santa Claus? - Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

2010-12-24T17:03:00.003Z

What kind of film do people want to see this time of year? A nice, heartwarming Christmas movie to fill you with all of the old joys? A film with all the fuzzy feelings and glitter you've grown to expect? Or a new story with some shocking revelations about that old man with a white beard, who dresses in red and lets himself in to your bedroom in the middle of the night...? Early December in the snowy mountains of northern Finland, an archaeological dig with a difference is underway. By Christmas Eve they finally dig up what they've been looking for. Reindeer are dying and all the naughty children have started to disappear.

Little boy Pietari has started to notice footprints in the snow outside his bedroom window and along with his friend stumbles upon the secret dig in the mountains. He convinces himself they are digging up Santa, but who believes in Santa Claus these days? Certainly not his dad Rauno, who has enough problems of his own. The reindeer him and his colleagues were relying on to hunt and sell have all turned up dead, rotting and worthless. It looks like it's going to be a cold, grim Christmas for the townsfolk. Grim that is, until they discover what the diggers have found and subsequently let escape. It's Santa! It looks like they might have something to sell after all. But this Santa, to put it simply, is a freaking mentalist. He has a penchant for running after kids stark naked with everything hanging out, including his long white beard. In the old days naughty children just didn't get bought any GameStations or PlayCubes, but now they just get chased with weapons, kidnapped and tied up in sacks. Fair enough, if you ask me.

Rare Exports exhibits such beautiful and clever imagery you can't help but fall for it. At one point Pietari stands in front of a giant door emblazoned with the number 24, nicely mirroring the Christmas Eve door on the advent calendar he was so reluctant to open. And the constant snowfall, nose-running chill and surprise comedic energy highlights their desperation making you feel an affinity with their loss.

A little slow at first but I didn't mind that at all as it gave me time to take in the new concept that Santa was truly evil and not just the otherworldly authoritative figure I always thought he was. This film quickly becomes the story of a brave boy and the notion that believing actually means surviving.

The first incarnation of Rare Exports was the short film Official Safety Instructions and it just shows you that this Christmas movie has been begging to be made for some time. So with this story I must pose the question, do you believe in Santa Claus? If you do, I guess I'll be seeing you next year after all.

Wrong time of the month? - Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet (2010)

2010-12-22T20:41:00.000Z

Everyone knows you don’t bother a woman with PMS, especially one carrying a sharp object, but in Blood Night people do just that. We meet young Mary Hatchet in her bedroom one evening much like we meet the young Michael Myers – and while comparisons have in fact been made to Halloween, I’d say this one resembles the grimy-looking remakes more closely. Everything about Mary seems normal until the arrival of her first period which seems to have brought on less of the women’s problems and more of the homicidal tendencies.

One night little Mary kills her mother and father with a pair of scissors and an axe. Once apprehended she is sent to an asylum where she spends the rest of her childhood and is then subjected to a series of sexual assaults by a member of staff. She becomes pregnant and after losing the baby during childbirth she snaps, again, this time going on a bloody killing spree throughout the hospital. Covered in blood and completely naked, which she is throughout the entire film in fact, Mary calmly walks down the road with another severed head covering her modesty. She is killed by police and from then on the local teenagers christen that night Blood Night. Cue dramatic and scary music! Twenty years later a new set of teenagers are preparing for the next Blood Night and they start dropping like flies.

Set firstly in the early 1970’s, ‘80’s and later on in 2002, Blood Night certainly does a good job of recreating those eras without it feeling like you’re witnessing a retro fancy dress party. A slightly new take on the teen slasher sub-genre, it makes a pleasant change to see teenagers celebrating the anniversary of the death of a killer in such a derogatory way. They march the streets with Mary masks, smearing sanitary towels with fake blood and defacing her gravestone. Such is the bravery that comes from taunting the dead when you think they can’t come back, it makes her return for revenge all the more satisfying.

Bill Moseley’s portrayal of Graveyard Gus, the obligatory adult who tells the scary foreboding stories and who seems to know a bit too much about everything, is the shining light in this piece. I’m all for blood and guts in my horror, but if you’ve seen one brain splatter to the floor in a comedy fashion you’ve seen them all, and you really did see them all here. I did enjoy the scene where a girl’s intestines were being slowly pulled out with a pickaxe though, and when another girl gets covered in blood and guts like someone had just thrown them at her from a bucket. (They probably had.)

So the vengeful ghost of a naked, axe wielding protagonist who says nothing but the occasional scream sounds pretty good. It could’ve been too if it was just a bit shorter, if the effects were better executed and if the actors didn’t look so bored. Bill Moseley is the best part in a film that is at times almost inspired, but never quite surpasses the B movie quality it ultimately is. And that would be fine if it wasn’t desperately trying to be something more.

Harder! No, that's too hard! - Breath of Hate (2010)

2010-12-09T20:03:00.000Z

Hypothetically, if you were a prostitute desperate to go straight, do you think it would ever be a good idea to do one last job? Chances are something awful and irreversible would happen like your mother would find out or you’d be hired for a quickie by your middle-aged boss. Bad idea. But that’s just what Love has gone ahead and done. She has met a boy and he wants to take her away from all of this but her pimp wants to send her on another job, right in to the hands of a psychopath. Breath of Hate has the illustrious setting of a 1970’s soft porn film and suggestion of an uncomfortable snuff movie all in one

A curious trio have made themselves at home in an empty mansion up in the hills; one mysterious, exciting and moody man who seems to hide some dark secrets, a domineering and lecherous lesbian and a deranged simple boy with an unhealthy sexual obsession with palaeontology, of all things. To pass the time they hire three prostitutes for some entertainment but little do the girls know that these ‘clients’ are in fact escaped mental patients. See, I told you it would be a bad idea. Unwittingly they each pair off with their new partner and you can’t help but feel like you might never see them again. And actually, the scenes are not played in sequence and so you are privy to the girl’s fate right from the start. Our Love walks to the bedroom with the leader of the group and it just so happens that his name is Hate. When he discovers her name he becomes convinced they were meant to be together and begins to show his frightening side and penchant for sadism. Hate wants to change the world and needs Love to do it. Meanwhile Love’s sappy boyfriend has started looking for her.

The only time Breath of Hate faltered wasn’t with the acting as such but more with the timing and the script. At times it felt much like a poorly paced porn film and the romance, although very pleasant, did not belong here. Ezra Buzzington as Hate is completely terrifying with his calculating affectation and sinister Southern drawl. He is one of those men you always want to stay on the good side of - but even that good side could still get you in to a lot of trouble. The prostitutes are actually a delight to watch. They’re convincing, ditsy and satisfyingly slutty. The pimp, his lackey and girlfriend provide the comic relief. The humour in this film is not overdone and is instead desperately grabbed at as some very welcome escape from the desperation within that house.

A game is underway here and victim must rely on aggressor to see them through. So the question must be, would you let yourself believe the philosophy of an insane man? After all, knowledge is power, as they say. But the perceived knowledge to a psychotic could surely have potentially explosive consequences. Comeuppance is such a great theme for a horror film. This superiority lets you enjoy the kind of violence that you should normally be deploring. Breath of Hate is the story of the pursuit of the ultimate in satisfaction. It’s about us striving to be the best no matter how evil your best may be and no matter what you have to do to get to the very end.

Some people never learn - The Quatermass Experiment (1953)

2010-12-07T12:00:00.003Z

I've been having a bit of a spooky sci-fi fest of late. I'm no geek (no offence) but there's something I love about the world it creates. In science fiction anything can happen and even though its idea of the future can seem a little dated, it still manages to be otherworldly and magnificent. Professor Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) has sent a rocket ship in to space with three men inside. But something goes wrong and the ship crashes back to Earth early, a little light on crew.

Deep in the English countryside, firemen, police and reporters surround the rocket. Panicking about how to get the crew free, they enlist its creator, Quatermass to advise. They drop the pressure inside the ship and the doors open like something out of an early Star Trek. But to everyone's surprise, only one crew member, Victor is in there. Like a soldier returning home from war he seems shell shocked and can barely string a sentence together. They have to rely on the video tape from the ship's black box to explain where the other men have gone. This found footage element is way ahead of its time. The slow motion movements of the men, due to the zero gravity, make it all the more sinister. It's fascinating to watch them overwhelmed by an unseen entity when an alien presence enters the ship, much like a poltergeist enters a living room.

In the days that follow, Victor suffers some unusual and gruesome physical changes. His skin becomes swollen and shiny and his skull seems to be mutating. When his wife sees that he seems to have a cactus attached to his hand (don't ask) her wailing gets so loud it's no longer audible. Much like the wife in The Fly, she looks at her husband adoringly until she sees his new form and can't get rid soon enough. Fair enough, I mean it's one thing your other half letting themselves go a bit but quite another when they develop a cactus for a hand and go around sucking the life out of everyone.

The famous BBC made-for-TV Quatermass Experiment begins as quite a serious political demonstration of how the British public are being appeased and treated like children. And at the expense of our safety, scientific experiments are being allowed to proceed by an unscrupulous American, cough. The British don't get away with anything though, shown to be a nation of jobsworths, but willing to play along.

It ends with the surprisingly beautiful scene of the monster being burned, viewed through a church window; less like flames and more like sparklers on Guy Fawkes night. Although I think that was more by accident than design, it provides some much needed light in the black and white film. The confusion, the panic and the horror is intense and palpable and you really get a feel that they're terrified because they don't know what they're getting themselves in to. Obviously much experience gained from that time giving it a real wartime atmosphere. The horror is like a new contagious disease or chemical warfare, when you don't know how is it transferred, if it will kill you or who you can trust.

Don't lose your head - Scanners (1981)

2010-11-15T21:00:00.000Z

Perhaps even more than horror, as a child science fiction was a huge part of my life and interests. Although the two genres are very closely linked, maybe it is more acceptable to parents for their kids to be in to aliens or little green men than knife wielding killers covered in blood. Unbelievable. Scanners is one of those movies that blur the line between sci-fi and horror because if its gore. It's present day (in the 1980's) and there is a seemingly growing group of powerful psychics and mind controllers called Scanners. Now a group of scientists take up the services of an informant to destroy them.

Scanner Cameron has been captured by a Doctor Ruth (Patrick McGoohan) and his skills are honed so that he can track down other, more evil scanners. A revolution is happening and they want to take over the world, producing more scanners for their army. It later becomes apparent that their quirks are in fact the result of a medical experiment conducted on their mothers while they were in the womb.

Cameron is like a child in his affectation, surprisingly trusting, simple and searching for answers. Conspiracy theories and betrayal are strong themes. I found it quite reminiscent of Firestarter, with special people being hunted because they have a gift that they can't control and causes harm to others.

The actual scanning, or mind infiltrating, leads to some quite staggering scenes that may never leave me. Huge veins protrude out of the side of their faces and along their arms. They gain size so fast that blood begins the ooze and squirt out of them. And then they catch fire in a way that can only be described as a thing of beauty.

I can't help thinking that if it had a bigger budget, or indeed if it was remade (wash my mouth out), it would have more of a Fourth Kind feel to the face distortions that go on during the scanning process. Although it works amazingly well without that CGI and the other effects are quite magnificent. The real horror here is the control they could have on your mind and the unbelievably devastating effects that that can have on your brain, and indeed your head. And that's something that no migraine medication can reverse.

Kids, eh! - The Innocents (1961)

2010-11-08T21:50:00.002Z

I know I go on about the olden days making me feel a little queasy. Although it's mainly Westerns that I hate, sometimes it's hard to see how a horror film set in a time that I cannot connect to puts me off a little. How wrong am I? Very. Based on the novella The Turn of the Screw, a new governess, Miss Giddens is put in independent charge of two small children, the orphaned niece and nephew of a very busy man. After hearing voices, seeing visions and witnessing the children's behaviour change she begins to think the big old house is haunted.

The niece Flora shows her creepy colours almost immediately, what with staring at her new charge while she sleeps and singing manically and all. That's enough to put the willies up anyone. And now her brother Miles is sent home from boarding school for being a bit evil. Miss Giddens is all fired up to reprimand him but when he arrives he turns out to be quite the charmer. But a bit too grown up for his own good. He refuses to talk about school and cuts her off in an authoritative instant.
The children immediately feel too confident, lulling Giddens in to a false sense of security, and thus insuring that it is they who are in charge of her and not the other way around. As time passes they grow in confidence and maturity and their spontaneous fits of laughter knock you for six.

The lighting in the black and white shines like it is filled with all the colours of the rainbow. The shadows of the house provide the children plenty of places to hide. It's very sophisticated camera work for the time, with above waist shots coupled with a teetering footstep giving the impression of the figure floating along the floor. In focus foreground and background shots, with figures on opposite ends of the frame, make your own vision feel distorted.

The visions of the ghosts wouldn't look out of place in a John Carpenter film. The whole piece is a study of perfect ghost story telling. There are long drawn out scenes of Giddens walking around the house in darkness. These scenes are not boring, they're excruciating because of the terror you feel at not being able to see around the corner. At the time censors cut the scene where Miss Giddens kisses the little boy on the lips as it looked too sensual, and I must confess, it does!

Black and white and set in the olden days (sorry, Victorian England) you may think this couldn't possibly hold any horror you would be interested in. So, olden days, seems like I'm coming round to you after all.

A hitchhiker's guide to serial-killing - Psychoville Halloween Special (2010)

2010-11-03T16:22:00.001Z

For those of you who haven't seen the BBC's comedy horror TV series Psychoville, you need to rectify this as soon as possible. From the geniuses behind the dark horrific joy (and I mean that in the best possible way) that is The League of Gentlemen (Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton) , we are treated to some old fashioned freaks and horrors and the scum of the earth. In other words, a delight. The Psychoville Halloween Special is told in a horror anthology style with a bit of found footage thrown in for good measure. It also touches on a more gory and modern version of The Vault of Horror.

It begins with a young man called Drew giving a tour of an abandoned mental asylum to a television researcher working on a Most Haunted rip off. As a boy he was dared to break in to this asylum and while he was there he spied the matron putting pins in to muffins for the Trick or Treaters. Mmm, sharp. She captures him and tells him a selection of frightening Halloween tales to teach him a lesson.

There's an enraged clown who has a penchant for prostitutes and shouting at children. He fancies himself as a Scrooge for Halloween and gets haunted by some Trick or Treaters. There's a crazy midwife who thinks her toy doll is actually a real baby. Her and her husband are trying to sell their house but she is 'rubbish at cleaning' throwing her baby's toys all over the place.

But probably the best story in the anthology is when a mother and son's car breaks down on their way to a fancy dress party. Arguing over his choice of outfit; 'It would be in bad taste to go as Fred West. Too recent.' They have to thumb a lift with a man who looks crazier than they do.

Relying on many British references for some of the humour, it nicely sets up the new series coming next year. You might be thinking, how scary can a TV comedy really be? But it's scary in a circus of freaks kind of a way. And it's a testament to the writing that it draws British acting royalty like Imelda Staunton, Eileen Atkins and Dawn French. And the creepy we're coming to get you feel and all that that brings. Psychoville is character led. They find themselves in frighteningly venerable situations they can't get out of; be it allowing their own family to get too close, going in to a stranger's house or by simply making someone angry. And we all do that in one way or another, don't we?

Guilt is a funny thing - The Disappeared (2008)

2010-10-28T21:50:00.002+01:00

Guilt. It can eat you up and make you sick. You can't shake it. On deprived and sometimes violent council estates, the sort where hope is often quashed at birth, real friends and sanity can be hard to find. It's all too tempting to want to find an escape or just a more glamorous causes for the hole you're in. Matt is released from a psychiatric unit for young people following the disappearance of his little brother, Tom. But it seems other children in the area are going missing too.

After the disappearance of Tom, Matt began to see and hear things that weren't there. His dad who still silently blames him, that's clear, sent him away to hospital for his own protection. In flashback scenes we see that teenager Matt wasn't always the softly spoken and withdrawn boy presented to us now. The only problem seems to be that he can still see and hear things, someone in particular. He plays a video tape of news reports recorded at the time of the search and we hear Tom calling him, and he is angry.

Matt meets a girl on the estate called Amy. She's lonely too. He feels compelled to confess all to her, about hearing Tom, his confusion over his father's culpability and the guilt he carries. Amy advises him to visit the local medium who warns that their area is overrun with evil spirits. Here we explore the possibility that the estate is cursed and there are ghosts everywhere. And that the reason the sky seems dark and the atmosphere soulless, is because supernatural forces are at work. Could a demon really be possessing the inhabitants?

But the scariest aspects of The Disappeared are found in its bleakness and the neglected institutions Matt finds himself in. A subtle demonic and religious undertone is carried, with the smooth editing ensuring your eyes are drawn to the most important parts of the picture. It has made for TV written all over it - but then I do love TV. Ghost stories and suspected psychosis are perfect bedfellows in horror films. A question I never tire toying with; are they messages from beyond the grave or simply someone losing their mind?

La la la la, la la la la, la laa - Rosemary's Baby (1968)

2010-10-26T20:45:00.002+01:00

There is a basic fear that we all have, albeit subconsciously, that all children are the spawn of the Devil and are out to get us. Young and in love couple Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy (John Cassavetes) move in to their new apartment and soon a seemingly happy occupant throws herself from the top floor window. To top it off their neighbours are the over familiar type, always popping by at inopportune moments and being general pains in the necks.

Guy seems totally enamoured with their elderly neighbours. Rosemary finds them suffocating. The lively characters, most notably Ruth Gordon, deceive them in to thinking they are innocent, they confuse and spin around them until the couple are where they are required to be. And before they know it they're wide open, but by the time their sinister and far more competent true selves are revealed it is too late. This is demonstrated in a bizarre scene where Rosemary thinks she is dreaming but is actually the centre of a frightening satanic ritual, surrounded by her naked neighbours standing over her in bed. But never mind that! They make friends and all their dreams become a reality, with Guy's acting career taking off and Rosemary becoming pregnant. The condition doesn't suit her though and she starts to lose weight rather than gain it. She has also developed a taste for raw meat. All perfectly natural.

Early on the film is almost silent as they potter about their new apartment. Demonstrating an enormous amount of mundane yet reassuring reality, with Rosemary suggesting they "make love" and her husband immediately turning out the light and spending 10 minutes getting himself undressed. The film's atmosphere has a seamless switch when later her husband casually confesses to having sex with her while she was passed out in bed. This signifies a huge shift in their relationship and the disintegrating trust between the couple. A partner and a home that once was warm has now turned frosty.

Much like many of Ira Levin's female characters, Farrow plays her submissive and washed out, with any attempts at independence futile because they lack conviction. The dark foreboding tone that's only recognised by the viewer and Rosemary early on is not without its humour as the devil worshippers attempt to ingratiate themselves within the family. The soundtrack is an all encompassing drunken theme and gives you the impression that if you were standing you would more than likely topple over with your head spinning. Without having to show too much the demonic forces of the film suffocate us with the constant age old warning; be careful what you wish for.

Tiredness kills - Hush (2009)

2010-10-18T14:00:00.001+01:00

I love road trip horrors where a killer stalks his victims along a deserted road. I don't know why though as I can barely concentrate enough to reapply my lipstick and eat a sandwich while driving let alone navigate my way around a psychotic trucker. With his girlfriend Beth sleeping next to him, loser Zakes narrowly misses a white truck on the motorway. Angrily the driver overtakes him causing the back shutter to momentarily lift up revealing a naked and trapped woman inside.

After calling the police, who obviously don't believe them, they give up and pull in at a service station. The couple argue and separate but when Zakes goes looking for Beth she has vanished. After being thrown out by the security guards he gets to the car park in time to see the white truck drive away and Beth's broken necklace lying on the ground. He follows and you're immediately transported to a modern British take on The Hitcher, only now the victim is doing all the chasing. Zakes needs to prove that he isn't the loser everyone thinks he is.

Almost every seemingly trustworthy character turns out to be evil in some way. So much so that every character you meet you begin to doubt the sincerity of. Even the little old lady with the pot of tea. What did you put in that cup, little old lady...?

There is a truly great moment when Zakes looks at his girlfriend's text messages and realises she has spent a night with another man. Covered in blood and sweat and completely exhausted, you see his mind pause to try to decide if she's worth helping at all. He decides she is. Aww, young love, eh?

The setting was perfect. I've always thought of motorway service stations as places that don't really exist. They're on the outskirts, barely visible from the road. Much like airports, they're neither here nor there. Almost like no laws need to be observed.

Hush has a million plot lines that come to abrupt dead ends and never get explained, much of which would be suited to Hostel, but that's what makes it feel like a good old fashioned story. Who needs all the facts when you've still experienced the character's fear and torment? Although, I do feel a sequel coming on, but that might just be my cynicism.

New classic horrors - Scare Sarah Cinema (4)

2010-10-01T16:31:00.004+01:00

Interesting happenings in the world of SCARE SARAH lately, what with the Classic Horror Campaign and its petition gathering speed. It got me thinking about how I could incorporate mine and Cyberschiziod's love of the classics with my enthusiasm for our future classic horrors. And nothing seems to be more accessible for budding filmmakers right now than short horror films.

But with so much great new talent out there it is inevitable that some will never get the recognition they deserve. I looked in to this some more and found that actually, there are a few horror film competitions out there. So I thought to myself, why not one more...?

So here's where you come in. I already have a great prize, which for now must be kept under wraps in case, well I'll be honest with you, in case it just can't happen. But now I need your input. Have you entered a film contest before? Are you a filmmaker or has this whetted your appetite? What makes them good or bad? How long do you need to put your short together? Tell me what you want. You can email me if you prefer. I can't promise you fame and riches but at the very least it should be scary.

Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday (4) Japan’s Celebrity Cannibal

2010-09-24T14:56:00.003+01:00

After a long sabbatical Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday is back. How often do we hear of a horror film being based on a true story only to find out that it's merely loosely based on several different events that may or may not have happened? You get the idea. This week we look at Japan's celebrity cannibal.

If you are anything like me the nearest you have ever got to meeting a cannibal is to pop Silence of the Lambs in to the DVD player and lust over Lecter's pure abandon. He makes you fear him and like him all at once, but that's just make believe. Safe. A real cannibal's need to feed is far stronger than our worst hunger pains. And is more frenzied than any starved animal. And just like a wild animal, cannot be tamed.

In 1981 Issei Sagawa, born and raised in Japan, invited a fellow student to his French flat to discuss literature. Once behind closed doors and after recording her reciting some poetry, Sagawa shot his new friend Renee Hartevelt, in the neck. He'd been planning this for a long time; to kill and then eat another human being. But not just any human. You see, he had issues, apart from the obvious lady eating issues he was displaying. He thought he was ugly. And he thought Hartevelt was beautiful and wanted to keep her. Forever. As far as he was concerned, devouring her was a way of taking those characteristics he felt he lacked. He wanted to feed off people not for the sole purpose of eating the flesh but to also make him a better person.

Sagawa had sex with the body and took various photographs. When he was done he dumped what was left of her in a Paris park, but was seen doing so. Police traced Sagawa in a matter of days and arrested him for Hartevelt's murder. Once examined by numerous psychiatrists and deemed incurable he was deported back to Japan.

I first heard the full story of Sagawa about fifteen years ago in a TV documentary. After hearing every gruesome detail recounted they revealed to an innocent me that he was in fact free, not in prison at all. His father was rich and very influential and ensured he was release five years after the murder. He now lives an extraordinary life as a celebrity. So, Issei Sagawa; novelist, artist, food critic, soft porn star, cannibal. Is he cured? Was it a one off? Or will he get hungry again?

Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum - Long Pigs (2009)

2010-09-19T16:05:00.002+01:00

Some say horror mocumentaries can be a bit hit and miss. When they work they can inspire a new generation of film makers and shock audiences with their gritty realism. When they fail they are cast on to the pile with all the other low budget, bandwagon jumping flyby nights. I told you so, they say. But it's a testament to the makers of this film, as cannibalism both fascinates and repulses me, that I watched the entire movie with a smile on my face. Or maybe that just makes me a psychopath. Whichever.

Two young film makers have been given exclusive access to the self confessed serial cannibal, Anthony McAllister. He's a charismatic character with a sparkling sense of humour that hides a frightening single minded vision; humans are not special and have no more of a right to live than any cow, pig or lamb.

On the first night they pick up a prostitute. Assuming this is just another job for her she goes back to McAllister's house and as she walks in to the basement he hits her over the head. He strings her up and teaches us his ritual. It's quite meticulous. When questioned on whether or not he gets any sexual pleasure from this he insists not. It's all for culinary purposes.

The scenes with McAllister are interspersed with interviews with the police and a psychiatrist discussing serial killers and the increasing amount of missing persons in the city. At one point they even visit the father of one of his younger victims. This reminds you of the dangerous game the film makers are playing. You stop feeling sorry for them even as you see McAllister subtly luring them deeper in to his world while they remain oblivious. The friends of serial killers are easily influenced, says the psychiatrist, the killer can keep them under his thumb.

The characters are natural and completely believable. Even McAllister is a most likable monster. And like in The Rise of Leslie Vernon, the script is funny, but lacks the glossy filmic sections and is a better film because of it. You get an odd feeling of affinity with the killer when you stop recognising the victim's humanity. They're secondary, on the back burner, quite literally! Then like a slap in the face you're made to remember them through their family's anguish. Full of hope that they will see their loved ones again, but you know better.

Long Pigs is also a comment on our society's "need to know" philosophy. In our quest to know everything we should be careful who we step on in the process, as you don't know who will come back to bite you on the arse in the future. Then cook you for an hour and gobble up the rest of you with a nice Chianti.

Scare Sarah of the Dead - Zombie DVD giveaway!

2010-09-19T14:39:00.005+01:00

It seems to be a tradition with zombie films that we must be remined that they are of the dead. And new movie Armageddon of the Dead is no exception. Zombies have taken over the world and a husband and wife set off in search of their missing daughter, chopping up a few of the undead as they go I imagine. I've not seen it myself but it looks like a family run zombie killing machine!

Metrodome have given me 3 copies to give away so enter your details below and tell me you want the zombie DVD in your best zombie voice. So easy, you can do it. If you win you can tell me what it's like! The contest closes at midday on 1st October 2010. Good luck!

*This contest is now closed and the winners were Shooting Stars Mag, Unholy Moly and Scifishocks*

Humans don't run and zombies can't play the tambourine - Land of the Dead (2005)

2010-09-15T20:01:00.002+01:00

The dead have been coming back to life and feeding on the living for quite some time now. Not just in real life but in George A Romero's Land of the Dead. The film dives right in to a quite tantalising opener. The world has moved on from the initial shock of the zombie take over and is doing it's best to cope.

The zombies have been this way for so long now that they have begun to adapt. They've started to re-learn how society works. In their own drunk way they stalk around shops and garages, stacking shelves and holding petrol pumps. I'll never forget seeing an undead tambourine player, obviously still playing out his old life. With this new world brings inevitably a criminal underworld and this results in some rather odd Zombie snuff. They're chained up and tortured, made to fight like dogs while girls dance and have sex around them.

It's not that they are able to live side by side harmoniously but the zombies seem more adept at getting on with life. But what with them being far more, shall we say, bitey, they're never going to be the good guys in this. But they do somehow become more likable and more loyal than the human characters. That's the class divide for you.

Watching this film for the first time since it's release 5 years ago, you can see how much of an impact it had in that time on Hollywood zombies and its influence over the more low key zombie films of our generation. And watching it with fresh eyes you see the deeper social comment buried beneath all the boring guns and explosions. We humans are zombified. And predictable. Even after being completely wiped out in the human sense we still eventually revert back to what we know. Which for most people seems to be going through the motions.

Coming up I have a more modern zombie DVD giveaway. Come back soon for details.

Jingle bells, Batman smells - Black Christmas (1974)

2010-09-11T16:58:00.014+01:00

Believe it or not but the nights are drawing in, there's a chill in the air and the shops have started selling festive chocolate. Which I will eat by Halloween. My body is a temple. I've been keeping this little film on the back burner for quite some time, waiting for the weather to change.

Beginning with a classic 70's slasher feel it doesn't take long to break the mould and shock us with some deliciously foul language. I adore the Halloween films but something they miss is some dirty talk. And surely that's what your typical teen slasher is based on; debortuary. The point of view camera work lets us watch through the windows of a sorority house on the evening of a party to celebrate the end of term. We go inside and the phone rings and all the girls gather to witness what seems to be the latest in a series of heavy breather calls. But this time the man seems to want to interact a little more and we hear some of that filthy talk I was telling you about earlier.

Unlike many films of its type, the campaign isn't confined to one night. They receive calls from the demented psycho over a couple of days and nights. After the police discover a dead girl in the park and some of the other kids go missing they decide to take the calls more seriously and put a trace on them.

There are classic and dare I say corny lines and set ups all over the place. In the very first scene someone is being chastised for leaving the door open, there are two telephone lines in the house, there is an alcoholic character and all the girls seem to be deviant in some way shape or form. But these are all set ups I love.

The ending is more relaxed than it should be and heightens the urgency of the viewer. You're left thinking, save her, save her, but no one can hear you and no one comes. There are similarities with a lot of films but one that strikes a chord the most is the When a Stranger Calls original, right down to the zoom shots and bellowing soundtrack. Although in this film you know early on that the killer is in the house the whole time. The reveal here is replaced with the shock the characters get from this information and realising that we have gained a perverse pleasure in the fact that we knew all along.

Don't answer the door - Cherry Tree Lane (2010)

2010-09-03T14:10:00.001+01:00

I loved Funny Games. In fact, home invasion horror is one of my favourite sub genres, but then you could consider me to be one sick, sick puppy. When I say I loved it, I actually mean in hindsight. At the time I felt shocked; things happened that didn't and shouldn't normally happen. There were no happy endings. The dust had to settle before I could decide what I thought.

In this experimental work by writer and director Paul Andrew Williams (The Children and London to Brighton) we see a middle class and not quite middle aged couple in a strained marriage. Their teenage son has got himself involved with the wrong crowd and they deal with it by tearing strips out of each other. While waiting for him to come home someone knocks on the door. Unfortunately for Christine (Rachael Blake) it's not her son, it's a group of his friends. They force their way in and lay in to her husband Mike (Tom Butcher) who spends most of the film tied up and helpless on the floor. Until the end that is, when he is perhaps made to do things he wouldn't normally do, merely to redeem his perceived inadequacies.

The horror here is not typical. It's the relentless determination that these boys have and the lengths they will go to in order to deliver punishment without remorse or a second thought. The whole stage felt completely normal to them. There were no rules.

The humour in some of the actor's performances are little light relief as they criticise their hostage's taste in films, frequently pause for a bite to eat and their prolific use of the word cunt (delete as appropriate). Funny Games was shocking and it worked on a level because it glamorised the violence, deliberately or not. Cherry Tree Lane is shocking because there is no glamorisation. The faultless acting not once made me doubt what I'd seen. The well lit blue setting and symmetrical props made it all pretty to watch, giving a stark contrast to the raw violence.

We don't see the sexual violence, that's played off screen. And ten minutes later you almost forget he just raped that woman. The tension and fear is created by forcing us, the viewer and the husband to constantly look away from it. The ending was perfect and left me not knowing whether to laugh nervously or gasp with fear.

And that's what home invasion is all about I guess. Your safe family home gets shaken and broken for good and there are no happy endings.

Out on DVD in the UK 13 September and in selected cinemas now.

The winner of the screener tickets and who will be making their way to London tonight is Daniel. Thanks for entering!

Free tickets! You heard me, FREE! - Cherry Tree Lane Contest!

2010-09-01T11:20:00.009+01:00

The latest in the Great British home invasion horror is here in the form of Cherry Tree Lane. This film looks fresh and edgy and I can't wait to watch it. Looks like it's one of the first hoodie horror films!

You should have my thoughts on it this weekend. But in the meantime I have a pair of tickets to give away for this Friday's advanced screening with an exclusive Q&A with the director, Andrew Paul Williams. Want them? Can you get to the Curzon Cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue in London for 18:40 on Friday 3rd September?

Then post a comment below by 11:00 on Friday 3rd September, saying you want in. You must be over 18 and provide your email so that I can contact you as time will be of the essence. I will randomly pick 1 winner to receive the pair of tickets and will contact them by 14:30 that day. That should give you enough time to get your glad rags on! Good luck!

Never shut your eyes while driving - Kilometre 31 (2006)

2010-08-31T19:38:00.014+01:00

AKA KM31 or Hell's Highway

You know the drill, someone's driving along the road, not paying attention and out steps someone or something creepy who stalks them for the rest of the film. That's pretty much true here except Kilometre 31 starts a little bit like Ils but with a more supernatural aggressor. This is Mexico's version of the hit and run urban legend. Vamonos!

A young woman named Agata is wiping her eyes when she hits a boy with her car. She gets out and calls for help just as she hears the boy laugh and start to sing. She takes a look at his face and while startled by his odd, ghostly appearance she is knocked down by a truck. Suffering horrendous injuries, she is confined to a coma. Sharing a bond with her twin sister Catalina, she becomes haunted by apparitions of a woman and young boy.

I'm not sure if I've seen a Mexican horror before but it had a distinctly Asian feel and I don't know if that was deliberate or incidental. All the Japanese horror hallmarks were there; ghosts playing terrible tricks and children that like to scare the shit out of you. These came to a head in a tragic scene of a man being fooled in to killing the love of his life.

I loved the score, it was genuinely haunting music that filled you with dread, often used as cheap scares but fun and most effective nonetheless. KM31 had a minimal story but I must admit, the scares felt a little relentless at times; a scene looks like it's coming to an end and then the TV comes on by itself, you think it's safe to take a breath when you see something lurking over someone's shoulder... To sum up, nowhere near as bad as people make out!

If this film and it's various sub-genre cousins can teach you anything it would probably be to keep your eyes on the road. And if you do hit any dead people, call the effing cops and get the eff outta there.

They're on the hunt for a virgin for reasons I can't quite fathom - Sleepwalkers (1992)

2010-08-23T18:55:00.014+01:00

Nobody quite manages to portray incest like Stephen King. Sorry, not incest, I mean normal family life. The colourful American suburbia that could only be the early '90's, we know exactly what we are in for. Or do we...?

A mother and her teenage son move to a new town. But as she packs him off to school she has a few errands for him including finding her a virgin to eat. That's not before they have a bit of a snog of course. These two are shapeshifters and mummy is getting hungry! Young Charles has set his sights on Tanya, a fellow student, to feed her.

Charles gets Tanya alone and begins to suck the life force out of her (or something). She manages to fight him off as his face turns in to a cat face that's more like the furry beast from Beauty and the Beast than a scary feline vampire. Still, a bloodied-cat-faced Charles drags himself home with the police hot on his tail. This leads to the best death by vegetable scene in the history of film. I'd just started to like corn on the cob too! Unfortunately the final girl is so annoying and the evil mother so hot that you want the girl to get eaten, or whatever the hell it is they are going to do with her.

The scenes between Charles and his mother exchange from such sinister demands to steamy encounters, that were they in any other setting but a comedy horror, would've made for a very different, darker kind of movie.

Punchy with attitude. A little bit poor man's Lost Boys, a bit pantomime, but after all that, probably the scariest part of this film is its Enya soundtrack...

Where did everyone go? - The Last Seven (2010)

2010-08-16T17:05:00.003+01:00

I always used to think that if I ever woke up one morning and found that everyone had disappeared, I'd eat lots of nice food and stay in a mansion or posh hotel. I'd pick up a big TV, lots of money and have everything I ever wanted. But that wouldn't really be the case. I'd walk for miles, searching for any sign of life. I'd keep going until I got lost and maybe had a bit of a cry. Sniff. Then eventually I'd hide away from anyone living due to the depravities that human beings would sink to in order to survive. In The Last Seven, they do just that, although this time they are forced to face their own sins and demons in the process.

After waking up in the middle of the road, William gets up and straightens his suit, and realising he is completely alone, heads off through the empty streets. Even though I've seen them a million times before in 28 Days Later and the like, I still love scenes of a desolate London. He walks until he finds himself at the top of a building. Seeming to be contemplating what the point is in carrying on he is surprised to find there are survivors. They all seem to be from very different backgrounds but with one thing in common, they don't remember who they are. While they try to figure out what to do they are being stalked by something and gradually the survivors start disappearing.

In flashback, as the characters slowly start to recall piece by piece what happened to them, we see the story unfold. And at last we can hold the individuals accountable for their predicament.

Although some of the acting felt a bit like they were reading the script for the first time and that reading aloud wasn't their best skill, I could be convinced in to quite liking the clunkiness. And all of that was overshadowed anyway by the beautiful imagery, much of it with some dark religious undertones. Despite its modern look and taking in to account its twist, The Last Seven is actually an old fashioned tale of what goes around comes around. Its about having to come to the realisation that what you are running towards may end up being the thing you should be running away from.

Out in the UK on DVD on the 30th August, you can watch the trailer here.

Hello? Hello? Hello? HELLO! HELLO! HELLO! Hello? HELLO!

2010-08-13T09:39:00.002+01:00

Horror movie rules state that the telephone can just as easily be your enemy as your friend. Being chased by a knife wielding killer? Then your mobile phone is either out of battery, out of range or you dropped it down the toilet while trying to scramble out the window. Babysitting some kids for a rich couple you've never met before? No sooner have you got the blighters off to bed, raided the fridge, drinks cabinet, any private looking box, drawer or cupboard, when the phone rings. Who is it? Some escaped mental patient who is either standing outside your front door or in a room upstairs, covered in blood, poised to chase you around the house for the next 90 minutes.

The inanimate telephone becomes either a distraction technique or the source of the fear itself. B-Movie Becky from The Horror Effect tagged me in a film meme where you have to put together screenshots following a theme! So, here are a selection of some of my favourite telephone themed horror movie pictures!

And here is a very short film called Bedfellows made by the very talented Drew Daywalt. Don't you hate it when someone calls you in the middle of the night? Gah!

According to the meme I have to tag 5 other blogs to take up the challenge. Let's see what this lot can come up with!

Cyberschizoid
The Spooky Vegan
Jonny's Cult Films
Hayes Hudson's House of Horror
Planet of Terror

There's somebody at the door - The Torment (2010)

2010-08-09T10:09:00.002+01:00

AKA The Possession of David O'Reilly (US release)

In the early hours of the morning David turns up at Alex and Kate's house, two of his oldest friends. He has discovered that his girlfriend, Sarah has been having an affair and he is the image of a broken man. But when everyone has gone to bed we see there is more to his tortured expression than was first apparent.

He hears a noise in the back garden, something that does not seem to completely surprise him, but he is terrified nonetheless. Through the back window we see a zombie-like figure, shifting in the darkness and David proceeds to sprinkle salt at the base of the door. He has obviously done this before. Or seen too many episodes of Supernatural, one of the two.

He stays the second night and it is that night that he drags his friends in to his nightmare. David is being haunted, possessed or tormented by something he does not understand. A monster that lurks outside and constantly tries to get in. Alex and Kate are obviously worried about him but because they cannot see what he sees they assume that the stress has had a serious effect on his mental state. But why can't they reach Sarah...?

An unusual story development; we are perhaps offered red herrings in an order I am not familiar with. Alex has set up CCTV in the flat that's triggered by movement. I had high hopes for this idea, being a big fan of Paranormal Activity, but not enough was made of this tool. It seemed like an idea that was forgotten about.

But I did enjoy the idea of the demon using the newspaper and a glass as an impromptu Ouija board. The point of view camera work was used to good effect, making you feel at home in their house without annoying the anti Blair Witch crowd. Essentially this is a story of mental illness verses real demons and that blurred line. In certain altered states who are we to be so confident in saying what is real and what is not?

Release on DVD in the UK today.

Want to join a cult? Then choose The Classic Horror Campaign!

2010-08-06T11:21:00.000+01:00

Gone are the days, it seems, that you can turn to the TV on a Saturday night and sit down to watch some good classic horror. Even on Halloween itself you'll be hard pushed to find anything remotely scary on the box. Must we be forced on to the streets to go Trick or Treating and end up getting kidnapped or killed or worse?! I've been watching a lot of the oldies lately. No matter how cheesy they may be they always manage to look good. They are automatically classy because of their age. They manage this with little or without the benefit of our newfangled cinema magic.

Take Nosferatu. Just look at this incarnation of Dracula. If you're of the school of thought that vampires should be pretty then this film could be a real shock to the system. His harsh features, bald head and long pointy fingers. The film itself is surreal. You feel like you're in a dream or have been drugged. Not sure I've seen anything close since.

Night of the Living Dead gave us zombies with social comment. Also, young kids who looked about 30. But young kids having fun they were. Just their voices sound creepy, like they know something is coming around the corner. This low budget film was packed with suspense and inspired many.

Psycho was purposely filmed in B&W because Hitchcock, who knew his stuff, could see that this would give the story more of a scary edge. The scenes, setting and actors where so painstakingly worked out to maximise fear and suspense.

These are just some of the more accessible movies. There is an amazing legacy still to be discovered. The Bide of Frankenstein, The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, pretty much all Hammer!

Check out horror blogger, Cyberschiziod's campaign to bring those horror classics back on to our TV screens in double bill form. Share your ideas, spread the word and sign the petition! And don't forget, something is coming...

Bats! Bats! Get em off me! - Bats (1999)

2010-08-03T18:36:00.019+01:00

One thing I hate about summer is things always drop on my head. By things I mean insects. They are just attracted to my head. Maybe it's because I have beautifully smelling hair, I don't know. Countless times I have to remove a bee from my hair with my bare hands! Creepy. I've never had a problem with bats but I am in no doubt that should I be near one, it would fall on my head. Which is why I have sympathy for the poor souls in this film who get killed because I am sure my inconvenience is on a par with theirs.

So, the film version of the above rant begins with a series of traumatic deaths in Texas. In one attack a bat bursts through a car windscreen while the occupants indulge in a little heavy petting. The confined space provides for some quite dramatic and explosive results.

These are not your common garden-variety bats. They have been infected, genetically modified. And now they are on the loose, feeding off the locals. All in the name of science! Lucky Zoologist, Sheila Casper is on hand to track them down before they eat everyone. They capture one and attach a tracking device to its wing, hoping it will lead them to the bat's lair. But in a genuinely creepy twist, the other bats attack it, as if they know it's been sent to rat them out.

People are warned to lock their doors but no one listens and instead chaos reins and the creatures start getting big....real big!

Despite the cheesy nature of this film we are treated to some great Batman-like scenes of hundreds of bats lunging at people, flying past the moon and, erm, munching on someones neck. There is also a scene in a supermarket, complete with country music playing over the loud speaker, where we get to see through the bat's eyes. One of the funniest monster, batty, animals run amok films around. It's making me look at pigeons in a whole new, unpleasant light...

Is the truth out there? - The Fourth Kind (2009)

2010-07-26T12:25:00.002+01:00

Growing up I was obsessed with aliens and UFO's, but once you've seen one little green man you've seen them all, right? They became less scary than the serial killer you could bump in to in a dark alley, be sitting next to at work or even end up marrying. But excitingly The Fourth Kind trailer promised something else more akin to demonic possession than Mork and Mindy.

Actress Milla Jovovich opens the film by claiming that what we are about to see is all true and based on actual footage and reports by the psychologist Dr Abbey Tyler, the character whom she plays. Thus trying to give the impression of this-film-really-is-based-on-a-true-story-honest-please-believe-me. God, sometimes I wish I wasn't such a cynic. We see cleverly interspersed and split screened scenes of the 'real' footage along side the dramatised footage with clips from an interview with the real Dr Tyler.

Set in the isolated town of Nome in Alaska, three of Dr Tyler's patients all begin to report the same sleeping problems. They wake up at around 3am, feeling very anxious. They look out the window and see an owl staring at them and no matter how hard they try they can't get it to fly away. Very Edgar Allan Poe! When Dr Tyler sees the pattern she decides to hypnotise the first patient Tommy, to find out if he sees anything else. Under hypnosis he describes the owl again but this time says it is not really an owl. He goes on to say that there is someone at his door. Whatever he sees then he cannot talk about as it obviously terrifies him. He later goes home and shoots his family and then himself claiming that would be better than having them see what he has seen.

This gets Dr Tyler some unwanted attention from the police and after she performs another hypnotism which leads to the patient unable to ever walk again she is put under house arrest with her two young children. It's this hypnotism that interested me the most. Drawing on The Exorcist, the patient convulses and levitates off the bed. He speaks in tongues and it seems the aliens are communicating through him, warning the doctor to stop her investigations.

A truth of this film is that actually there have been disappearances in Nome, just like there would be in any town, and the families aren't happy about this film trivialising their losses. Film staff have also been accused of publicising the movie with hoax posts on the Internet, trying to perpetuate the theory that Dr Abbey Tyler really exists. Quite ingenious.

When asked what I thought about the ending I said that I was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. If they showed the little green men it would've felt like E.T. or something. Leaving it like that may not have been the most exciting cinematic finale ever made, but it was I suppose more realistic, if it is possible for a film about an unseen, unexplained entity to be. Scared people will find any other possible explanation for something they don't understand, to save them from having to process the truth. So if the truth is out there, we probably don't want to know.

It was only a dream - The Vault of Horror (1973)

2010-07-21T21:11:00.020+01:00

What a nightmare; you get stuck in a lift and have nothing to say to the strangers stuck in there with you. That doesn't happen here though. In this modern time of such dream inspired films as The Matrix and Inception, I thought I'd get back to basics, in a typical 1970's England kind of way. Five men walk in to a lift and step out on a floor they didn't know existed. With no way of getting back in once the doors mysteriously shut behind them they make themselves comfortable around a lavish table with some drinkies. They set about discussing their nightmares to pass the time...

Harold starts off by confessing he is haunted be a reoccurring dream. The film goes in to subtitle with Midnight Mess. Here Harold's dream alter ego is a dodgy character. He kills a man after getting information from him regarding the whereabouts of his sister. He tracks her down to a small town where he is advised not to stay out after dark. At her house he shoots his sister and makes his way calmly to a restaurant where he is served a starter of soup made of blood. In disgust he realises he is surrounded by Vampires with teeth that look like they're bits of Polo sticking out their mouths. (I know it is Polo as I've done this myself.) They then hang him upside down and drain him with a tap from the neck. He tells the other men that this is not like him at all; he doesn't even have a sister!

Now it's Arthur's turn. In his dream he is married to a loving wife but he is obsessively tidy. Everything has to be in it's correct place (sounds like me again). The contents of the cupboards are listed on the doors and heaven forbid anything is spilled on the carpet. After being chastised one too many times his wife snaps and murders him with an axe. But she is tidy about it. She sorts his body parts in to little labeled jars. Well that's English suburban housewives for you, they always come through in the end.

The rest of the men continue to discuss the nightmares that all detail their untimely demise. One man is strangled by a rope charmer's rope after he kills her to steal her act. Another fakes his own death, going so far as being buried and is then accidentally decapitated when dug up.

This is essentially a tale of what goes around comes around. What ever you do now will eventually come back to bite you. You can't even escape it in your dreams. Maybe our dreams are reflections of our real selves or maybe they mean nothing at all. But I think if we've learned anything tonight it's that I am a Polo abusing, obsessive compulsive. Oh, but it's only a dream though, isn't it...? Isn't it...?! Mwa ha ha haaah.

If you're interested in getting the horror classics back on TV click here and head over to fellow horror blogger Cyberschizoid's campaign and show your support!

Mummy issues - Homicidal (1961)

2010-07-20T11:20:00.001+01:00

All I seem to hear nowadays is people going on about remakes and how rubbish they are. What we don't seem to have anymore is the genuine rivalry between film makers, with them accusing each other of stealing their ideas. Hitchcock and William Castle were allegedly rivals. Now, whether it was just Press Hype or not I don't know, but to argue about ones own film style being stolen sounds like a whole lot of fun to me. Castle was of course responsible for the originals of House on Haunted Hill and 13 Ghosts. Here as the Hitchockian introduction to this film by Castle promises, we are about to witness someone go homicidal...

With a Psycho-like feel the very glamorous yet mysterious Emily checks in to a hotel. The bellboy she meets there she already knows. They plan to marry that night for reasons other than romance, which are yet to be revealed.

At the ceremony in the middle of a living room, Emily suddenly stabs their fat backstreet minister. With the stabbing sound effects less like the blade going through a watermelon of Psycho, but more of a football. But nicely dramatic and grotesque nonetheless. She flees, leaving the bellboy, shocked, to pick up the pieces. Returning home we see that Emily is the psychotic live-in nurse of Helga, the mute wheelchair bound childhood guardian of Warren and Miriam.

Privately, Emily switches from maniacal grinning to violent rages. Publicly, she still isn't really fooling anyone. Miriam and her boyfriend are on to her which puts them in more danger. Even her friend Warren is a little suspicious of her at first. And Warren is in line to inherit his hated late father's cash in two days time. Is Emily planning on getting her hands on his money? This photo shows the minutes before an extremely satisfying decapitation scene. Yes, I did say extremely satisfying.

This one definitely put a smile on my face even after guessing the big reveal early. The slickest film I've seen of its time. With a twist of an ending that will put more modern films to absolute shame. Regardless of the OTT dramatics, the acting here is second to none. And it just goes to show, a homicidal maniac can go from your best friend to your killer in a second.

Heeeeere's the winner! - The Shining contest

2010-07-13T20:24:00.002+01:00

Someone has been spending too much time in a dark empty room, away from their family, away from the TV and all other distractions. Someone has gone a little stir crazy and gone and won themselves that Shining mug I've been harping on about for the past couple of weeks!

So, heeeeere's the winner....

Carl from I Like Horror Movies

Well done, Carl. Thank you to everyone who took part. It was a great turn out. While we wait for Carl to tell us in no less than 1000 words how happy is about this, lets watch a Shining trailer!

And if you missed it click here to check out my review of Stanley's classic.

Scare Sarah Cinema (3) - Psychosis

2010-07-11T20:00:00.001+01:00

Those were the days; the 1990's when I didn't have a care in the world, my main problems were deciding whether or not I should buy the limited edition of a new CD or if my mum would moan if I ate chips on the way home instead of the dinner she cooked. Oh yeah, and Buffy was on TV! The source for some of my earlier crushes. Actually, it did run in to the 2000's when I really should've had more responsibilities, but the less said about that the better.

There is something heartening about seeing someone do well after (kind of) growing up with them (in a non stalkery way). Here we have Psychosis and Charisma Carpenter, hasn't she grown. One of the latest Brit horror flicks to give me further hope that the splatter/slasher is going down the glossy, sexy route. Along side Ricci Harnett, Paul Sculfor, Sean Chapman and Justin Hawkins (cough), Charisma plays an American horror novelist who relocates to the UK. She slowly becomes creeped out by strange goings on and scary neighbours. So much so, she finds it impossible to distinguish what is real and what is her imagination. Sounds cool, huh?

The DVD is out on the 19th July. Now, off you go.

Little pigs, little pigs... - Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980)

2010-07-08T14:00:00.003+01:00

The Shining is one of those films that has just always existed for me. It's always been there. Kubrick took a great novel by Stephen King and made it beautiful for our eyes instead of just our heads. With colours as bright as A Clockwork Orange and a script that was often improvised, it's still as fresh as the day it was born.

Jack has landed himself the job of temporary caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, while it's closed for the winter months. He takes his wife, Wendy and young son, Danny. Jack is told at the interview that a few years ago they had what they called a tragedy at the hotel, when the caretaker was overcome with cabin fever and killed his wife and children. "Do you think you will be suited to this kind of solitude, Mr Torrance?" But it
becomes apparent that there is more at work here than just weak personalities losing it, but something else may be controlling their minds.

A month passes and Jack begins to display all the signs. The hotel has a life of its own and that busy place it is during the summer soon disappears and the empty building takes on a whole different feel. Thoroughly worked on and wound up by the ghosts, Jack goes about correcting his family. And in this instance correcting means killing if a stern talking to doesn't suffice.

This is a Kubrick film through and through. Although it still retains the typical Stephen King subtle-as-a-brick setting up of the story with "How did you know we called him Doc? We never called him Doc in front of you" and "Part of the hotel was built on an Indian burial ground, ya know." So many of the striking dreamlike images are now ingrained in cinema history; Danny riding his trike down the corridors, the twin girls, blood pouring through the lift doors, the typewriter, the baseball bat, the axe, the baseball bat... I feel like I should go outside for a while...

Don't forget my contest to win a Shining mug ends this Saturday the 10th! Click here to enter.

Scare Sarah Cinema (2) - Spreading the love

2010-07-04T16:22:00.011+01:00

Not quite in the same vein of past Scare Sarah Cinema but I thought this was too good to just keep to myself. In the past I have highlighted some horror short films that are readily available on the net. You don't have to spend your hard earned cash on a DVD instead of paying the gas bill. DVD/gas bill, DVD/gas bill. Oh I hate that kind of dilemma.

Indie Movies Online, from tomorrow will be showing a full length classic horror movie each day for free. Here's the line up.

Ju-On White Ghost (2009) - July 5th
Ju-On Black Ghost (2009) - July 6th
Tokyo Gore Police (2008) - July 7th
Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009) - July 8th
X-Cross (2007) - July 9th
Starfish Hotel (2006) - July 12th
Samurai Princess (2009) - July 13th
Goth: Love of Death (2008) - July 14th
Battle Royale (2000) - July 15th
Day of the Dead (1985) - July 16th

I'll be watching a few of these myself and giving them the SS treatment. And unless I'm very much mistaken, there'll be a few Japanese-girls-with-long-black-hair-over-their-faces moments. Take a look and let me know what you think. But for now, get outta my cinema, punks.

Trust no one - The Host (2006)

2010-06-28T16:03:00.029+01:00

In 2000 a military civilian was ordered to dispose of large quantities of the dangerous chemical Formaldehyde in to the public sewerage system. It then found it's way in to the Han River. The beginning of The Host dramatises this incident with a creepy American scientist making a scared South Korean assistant pour hundreds of litres down the sink. Years later, a man jumps from a bridge in to the Han River, to his death. "I'll see you in Hell" he says as he goes.

Gang-du runs a snack bar by the river with his father and they both look after Gang-du's 13 year old daughter, Hyun-seo. The creature finally shows itself and begins to run up and down the river bank, eating up all the onlookers. Gang-du runs and grabs his daughter's arm, only to realise minutes later that it was not his daughter, but another schoolgirl. He turns to see the monster scoop her up and take her in to the sewer. The family are taken in to custody then hospital after fears their contact with the creature may have infected them with a virus. Gang-du receives a phone call from his daughter that night who has survived the attack and is stuck down the drain.

Despite the obvious political themes and referring at times to the American military presence in Korea, the humour brings a bright reality you wouldn't expect from this type of film. The not so sociable family, all with their foibles, work together to defeat the creature and in the vain hope of saving Hyun-seo.

The scariest part was the authority's tunnel vision and their method of killing the problem regardless of the amount of fatalities. When Agent Yellow is released, a yellow box suspended by a crane omitting a dirty yellow gas, to destroy the possible virus, (like Agent Orange used in Vietnam) you feel like you are caught in the middle of a biological attack. Never before have I been so amazed by a monster movie, it was made with such elegance and charm. Yes, I'm sure there are others around with far superior SFX but that's not what I'm interested in. I don't need a monster to look realistic. I mean, what does a real monster look like anyway?

All work & no play makes Jack (Sarah) a dull boy (girl) - Contest!

2010-06-25T13:25:00.002+01:00

Oh, how art imitates life. Or is it the other way round? Scare Sarah has been all about the work lately and a bit short on the old play. So I thought, it's right about time for a new contest! And look at what I have for you! A mug! A Shining mug! Beautiful.

I've decided to make the rules even simpler as you're a lazy bunch. Well, I am lazy and I judge everyone by my own standards. To be in with a chance of winning, do the following.

Rule 1: You must be a follower of Scare Sarah. So if you haven't already, click Follow up there on the right.

Rule 2: Comment once on this post telling me you want the mug/cup/vessel.

Rule 3: This is optional. If you spread the word I will give you 1 extra entry. Just tell me where you did your word spreading.

That's all. Enter by 22:00 GMT on the 10th July 2010. One winner will be picked at random. All entries consent to me publishing their first name or screen name on this site if they win. Open internationally. Fill your boots. Or the mug. If you win.

**This contest is now closed. Keep a look out for more free stuff!**

Shall we burn her? - Zombie women of satan (2010)

2010-06-24T19:46:00.007+01:00

Leave your high-horror-brow at the door and have a laugh for 90 minutes.
A group of circus type nightclub performers are doing their set among the strippers and the burlesque dancers. Meanwhile Daddy is getting his daughter to kidnap young girls to help with his sick experiments.

The supposedly up and coming group arrive at a farmhouse for their first big interview. Unfortunately for them, this is where the zombie experiments are being carried out and they are forced to fight their way through naked zombie women.

What some people may miss here is the typical subversive British humour. ZWOS is just like the creepiest and sickest parts of the brilliant TV series The League of Gentlemen. Far fetched? Completely. Is a non-zombie form of this dark world really happening somewhere in Britain? More than likely. While this film made me feel a little uncomfortable, apart from the toilet humour that I really didn't need, I couldn't help but feel a little impressed.

After its run at Cannes, Zombie Women of Satan is out now on DVD.

Aaron hates parasites - SS Delegated (1)

2010-06-09T14:17:00.001+01:00

Everybody knows the secret to good management, and horror blogging it transpires, is Delegation. Scare Sarah began in the hope of sharing a few scares because we are all here for the same reasons; to be scared! A select few will be sharing their inner most horrors with us and to start we have blogger, (Zed Word: Zombie Blog, Monster Chiller Horror Theatre) and podcaster (Screamwave) Aaron. Busy boy!

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Are horror fans, in general, more or less fearful as a fandom? Do we watch such terrifying depictions of slaughter and psychological trauma because we're desensitized to it and can revel carefree in the blood and tension? Or do we experience fear too strongly and therefore feel drawn to horror as a way to constantly externalize our dread? I can't speak for the fandom, but I can speak for myself. While I may be desensitized to certain things, there's one thing that -- without fail -- will reduce me to a trembling mess. PARASITES!

In fiction or reality, anything dealing with parasites (especially parasites that burrow into the body and squirm around under the skin or cause deformities like elephantiasis) will fill me with an unrelenting repulsion. Films like Shivers, Alien, Infested (aka. Ticks), Parasite, and more all rely on the fear of bodily invasion to create chills. Even the cheesiest of movies (like Infested), however, will make me squirm if parasites are involved. Parasites can swim around in your eyes. They can infest your brain. They can stream through your intestines. Not part of your body is safe from parasites. Cochliomyia hominivorax. Necator americanus. Wuchereria bancrofti. These are the names of demons!

In my real life, parasites also plague me. On a recent trip to Ottawa, I woke up in my hotel room and turned on my bedside lamp. In the dim light, I saw the worst possible thing: a bed bug crawling slowly toward my face over the hills of my pillow. I killed it and squished blood out of the little bastard, which means it may have been feeding on me already. The hotel gave me a new room and complimentary breakfasts, but for the rest of the night I slept above the sheets, with a sweater tucked in tightly at the waist and wrists. I also wore sweatpants tucked into a pair of thick socks. I just could not rest easily thinking something under the covers might be crawling silently over my bare skin in the dark and seeking out my blood.

Uggh. I feel sick just writing this. Parasites are out there people, and nature is more terrifying than anything in horror movies. So, if you're ever walking with me in the park and you see that I keep touching my head and arms, you now know it's because I'm checking for ticks. Although I am a horror blogger and have seen a lot of horrifying and extreme things in my horror films, encountering something as small as a bed bug will keep me up at nights in a cold sweat.

I am afraid of parasites.

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Eew, creepy, right? Thanks Aaron.

"You've got red on you" - Shaun of the dead (2004)

2010-06-06T18:00:00.000+01:00

It's been 6 years since I first saw this film and I know it inside out. And before I'd seen it I knew the actors from off the telly pretty well too. It had a matey feel, it was familiar and it showed Britain Britain Britain off, just as it is in the real.

Shaun is a bit of a loser, stuck in a rut. A rubbish boyfriend, rubbish son. After getting dumped by his girlfriend he becomes determined to sort his life out and prove himself. Luckily for him, the whole population has started turning in to zombies. The dead are waking up and attacking the living!! Nothing like a crisis to bring people together.

At first they don't see the horror all around them. Most people they come in to contact with are zombified anyway. Expressionless commuters, colleagues and family members. It isn't until Ed utters the haunting words, "There is a girl in the garden" that they get their first glimpse. After having to kill the zombie girl they retreat back inside to watch events unfold on the news, just like we all do when there is a global catastrophe. But here is Shaun's chance to show his girlfriend there is more to him.

Never has a RomZomCom, as it is self proclaimed, been so accurately set, so well balanced between smart, scary and a little sexy. It made you feel like you could do anything. No matter how crap your life is right now, just given one opportunity, you can make things happen and change things. Would I go out whacking zombies over the head? Maybe. I don't have a cricket bat but I do have a very big vacuum cleaner that I'm certain would do the job.

"We are going to live in the abandoned barn outside of town" Er, okay! - Village of the damned (1995)

2010-06-03T17:08:00.002+01:00

I know it's not the original but it still has a certain quality, an authenticity that comes with this kind of story. And all the best scary films have a good story. It starts with the most nonchalant music I've ever heard but some of the villagers can hear a whispering. All is not well here. There's something in the air and one sunny afternoon everyone passes out. A couple of hours later they all wake up. All except the ones who happened to be driving or BBQing before falling asleep. Well, shit happens.

Not long after this incident, most of the women in the village find they are pregnant, with conception dating back to the blackout and a mysterious doctor arrives to offer financial rewards to those who go through with the birth. This prompts some hilarious, almost Exorcist like dream sequences.

Soon the children are born and we fast forward about 8 years. I mean, it should've been obvious that something was up with them; bad hair, oversized coats, sinister grins and nods that lead to sudden, violent suicides. Seriously creepy effing kids. Anyway, it becomes common knowledge that they are reading and controlling the minds of the adults.

Rather slow in parts, it runs much like a Stephen King TV screenplay. Not necessarily a bad thing, just a thing. I did love the suicide scenes and the kids are adequately superior. The boy who began to learn empathy made me feel a bit sad. Wait. Do I have empathy?! Regardless of what horrors the kids committed, the overwhelming moral of the story is the horrors the grown ups allowed to happen due to their selfish needs. Adults aren't nearly as clever as they think they are. Damn it.

Where do I sign up? - Miss zombie queen UK 2010

2010-06-02T21:03:00.000+01:00

New Brit horror flick, Zombie Women of Satan gets its DVD release on the 21st June. To celebrate, Revolver Entertainment are hosting the biggest zombie pageant ever seen in the UK!

Held at The Cobden Club in West London on 16th June, it should be an amazing evening with burlesque and fetish performances from Betty D'Light, Violet Eyes and music from Killer B-Movie. Click here for more info on the pageant and movie.

Don't know what the film is like yet, hopefully be reviewing it next week, but this sounds like fun. In fact, I won't be needing any makeup for my entry. All natural. I always have blood dripping from my mouth. What?

Catch it, bin it, kill it - Carriers (2009)

2010-05-31T20:13:00.018+01:00

We've all been there; your other half starts puking or sneezing and you start disinfecting all the surfaces they've touched, in a vein hope you escape the dreaded lergy.

Here we start the story with a seemingly happy group on a road trip. Very soon they come upon a man at the side of the road with his young daughter, asking for gas, but it's clear something's going on. The daughter has blood at her mouth so the group speed away. She is infected. But a mile down the road their car breaks down so they turn back for the other man's car. They seal the infected father and daughter in the back and get on their way. Most of the population has been wiped out by a virus.

As with all of these types of films the survivors are forever travelling towards something better, some form of hope and more importantly, a life without this plague they are suffering. Normally it's a hospital or research facility that has a cure. They find a medical centre where the doctor there has a cheerful message, "Sometimes choosing life is choosing a more painful form of death." They hot foot it out of there, managing to lose the father and daughter as they do it.

Also, as a typical symptom of the Apocalyptic Horror film, our main characters get their down time. They commandeer an empty (obviously) hotel and have fun on its supersize golf course. But hey, it wouldn't be much fun if they were the only guests checked in, would it? I dunno, they're like some evil hotel waiters ready to get there rocks off with the female members of the group. That is until they see that one of them is infected. They let them go and her friends turn on her.

Forever in its bleak landscape, I'm not sure what I expected when I sat down to watch this. I didn't expect to be asking myself if I was capable of these things. Was I above that? Could I survive this? There are no zombies here. No shocks, scares or people running from a horror. Just people slowly backing away from their friends and family. And yet it's a film about what people are capable of doing to keep from being alone. It's a film that makes you think, is this rotten life really worth surviving without the ones you love?

And a beautiful soundtrack....

Scare Sarah Cinema (1) - Horror shorts selection

2010-05-20T11:08:00.001+01:00

Over the past few months I've been lucky enough to have been given the nod on a few new short scary genre films doing the rounds. However I am inherently lazy so it has taken me a while to get round to watching them so you may have seen them already, but I don't care as I like the sound of my own voice. Go get your popcorn!

Italian film maker, Davide Melini's latest work, The Puzzle is a new take on one of the very first urban legends that gave me the creeps. A middle aged woman has an argument with her son on the phone. She is home alone and sits down to do a puzzle. The acting is a little questionable but the tension is well set up.

Next up, whether you love Twilight or hate it you should see the funny side of All-American Vampire, written by Lyz Reblin with director Zach Knue. I love films from students but where this is different is in the production value. This could go far in the YA market.

Stalker by Wreckroom Productions is pretty scary. A young girl has hallucinations that she is being stalked by a masked man, or is it real..? This company have quite a few on You Tube so well worth sifting through.

It just goes to show what's out there, just spend a while on You Tube and there are tons of great new talent. The great thing about short films is the potential. Maybe you've have a masterpiece you'd like to share? So, as you leave the Scare Sarah Cinema, don't forget to take all your crap with you.

Is there anybody there? - Paranormal Activity (2007)

2010-05-17T16:36:00.003+01:00

Sometimes during a lull of scary films, you are no longer watching them to be frightened, but more watching them in a pseudo-horror-sophisticated way of appreciating the technicalities of the plot and commenting on the amount of blood used in litres or the amount of virginal breasts seen in, well, pairs. I must say at times I have fallen in to this category, and as it's been a while since I have been scared by a film, imagine my horrified joy at watching Paranormal Activity for the first time.

Katie and Micah are a young couple who have been experiencing some disturbing poltergeist activity. In fact, it's Katie who, since she was a small child, seems to have been stalked by a dark presence wherever she goes. At the beginning of the film Micah has his new camcorder and greets Katie with it on the porch and sets the scene for his armature ghost investigation, with humour in his voice. He plans to record any activity through the night and fixes the camera in the bedroom facing their bed and the open bedroom door. Personally I can't sleep with the door open. Not that it would stop an axe murderer getting in, I just feel safer so here it really adds to the unease. The first few nights we hear knocking that doesn't always wake the couple. On another night we hear an almost inhuman sound followed by a very loud bang. They run down stairs to find the light fitting swinging from the ceiling.

As part of the investigation they invite a psychic, Dr Fredrichs to see if he senses anything. He does but warns them it is not a ghost they have, but a demon and this is not in his line of expertise. He discourages Micah from trying to communicate with the demon as this would be seen as inviting it in. Micah suggests trying to find out what it wants but Dr Fredrichs says what it wants is probably Katie. He suggests contacting a demonologist he knows. The demon is feeding off the increased negative energy as Micah constantly taunts it and refuses to let Katie contact the demon expert, sure that he can solve the problem himself. Micah is frustrated while trying to stay in control of the situation. But in control he is not, and that's what is really frightening about this film. The demon is not scared of them and anything they capture on camera is exactly what it wants them to see.

The incidents build in severity, violence and become more sinister, no longer just contained to the night time. Not wanting to give away key scenes but some I just did not see coming like when Katie is sleepwalking and stands looking at Micah for several hours before walking out of the room. I came to dread the night scenes (in a good way), not knowing what I would see through the dark doorway or in a corner of the bedroom and not wanting to look directly at the screen. Obvious comparisons were made to Blair Witch, what with the shaky camera work, the photo placed in the attic as a token/threat and the based on a true story with a Found Footage element. Paranormal Activity relies on the aspect of being at your most venerable while you sleep. With a script that was largely improvised, it takes a film like this to come along to remind you why you fell in love with horror in the first place.

And FYI; breasts, none and blood, I'd say about 250ml.

Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday (3) The movies made me do it

2010-05-07T10:48:00.000+01:00

What came first; the chicken or the egg? Art imitates life and vise-versa. We are bombarded by films based on true events but how often do we hear that a film has inspired someone to do something awful? It's always a horror or some other violent genre though, isn't it? It never happens with "nice" films like Free Willy or Ace Ventura. I don't know why I picked those films as they are the most likely to make me do Something Awful.

In the 1980's and '90's Britain went Video Nasty crazy. The Video Recordings Act came in to force, banning several titles in its path. Good god, they even made a list. It, and the Obscene Publications Act, were there to protect us from depravity and corruption. But what of the people who actually made them? In most cases they had not committed a crime by, or during, making these films and yet they were considered so shocking they were unfit for human consumption. Maybe they're right. I mean, what kind of sicko thinks it's a good idea for a killer doll to go around terrorising children...

Child's Play 3 was one of the first scary films I ever watched. I must've been about 11 years old at the time but it did little more than make me sleep a little less easy that night. But then I'm hard. In 1993 the UK press went all out to blame the murder of a 3 year old boy by two 11 year olds on CP3; claiming the killing was similar to certain scenes in the film. Such an uproar was caused the distributors withdrew it from sale in the UK & Ireland until 2002. Watching it now it seems ridiculous and tame compared to many films of its type. But it was rated 18 for a reason.

About 2 years ago three people abducted a teenager and took him to the woods. They tied him to a tree and set him on fire, apparently inspired by the film Severance.

I can understand society being outraged by these crimes and more so if the films themselves in some way had hypnotised individuals in to committing them. But I just can't see how a well balanced person would, after watching a horror film, think "hey, what a great idea!" And then go out and do it. I watched horror films before I was old enough, and while I do not claim to be 100% balanced, at no point was I even tempted to reenact any of them. If the argument here is that horror films shouldn't be allowed then you will lose. If on the other hand you think before being allowed to watch them you should have your mental health evaluated then you're crazy, but would have a valid point.

"Don't you blame the movies! Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative!"

“Are we talking about the Austin Powers Mike Myers?” - Halloween 2 (2009)

2010-05-02T18:18:00.007+01:00

In the first Halloween remake we were assured Michael was misunderstood and driven to these unspeakable acts of violence by that ungrateful bitch of a sister. In RZ's Halloween 2 however, he shreds his way through much of the cast like stabbing and slashing with knives is going out of fashion. "Fuck you" he says, with bravado.

We take up the story pretty much where the last one left off. Michael Myers has left carnage all around and has got himself killed in the process. They load his body in to the back of the ambulance, the vile ambulance drivers, who are right out of Texas Chainsaw, crash in to a cow and Michael wakes up. The usual then!

I really liked Rob Zombie’s first Halloween film and I don’t care who knows it, but this one, I felt a little horrified. On the one hand I like the fact that he is making a different film. Same back story but fleshed out with new facts and new conversations. Much like a drama based on a true story that has to give extra scenes but no one knows if they’re true or not.

What I felt uncomfortable with was the dream sequences and having to revisit young Michael and his mum every 20 minutes. Surely the source of Halloween’s scariness was Michael’s anonymity and the fleeting sightings of him through the back window or your rear view mirror and NOT to see him walking through fields like some evil version of Jonathan Smith from Highway to Heaven.

I really did enjoy Dr Loomis’ new starry attitude though. “Michael Myers is fucking dead!” he screams when asked about the disappearance of his body. A bit Scream 2 but fun to watch nonetheless.

I have peace with this film. Rob Zombie has made a different movie so far removed from the spirit of the original that it can’t be put on the same shelf. So, it’s a different film. Not one I would’ve enjoyed in a world before John Carpenter, but a film it is. Carpenter’s Myers is beautifully supernatural. Zombie’s Myers is, erm, something else.

Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday (2) The story of the 10 Rillington Place Murders

2010-04-30T10:10:00.001+01:00

Time for my second installment of the Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday regular. This week we look at the story of the 10 Rillington Place murders that took place in the 1940's and '50's by former special police constable, John Christie. So shocking was this story it was later made in to a film in 1971, which was my first introduction to 10 Rillington Place.

Christie lived with his wife, Ethel, in a ground floor flat in London's Notting Hill. He had been a petty criminal and frequented prostitutes for many years. In 1943 he invited Australian prostitute, Ruth Fuerst, back to his flat and strangled her. He buried her in the backyard and resigned from the police force a few months later. He got a job as a clerk in a factory and met colleague, Muriel Eady, who was to be his next victim. She was suffering from bronchitis and he claimed to have some medical background and that he had invented a new concoction that could help her. He took her back to his flat and got her to inhale the mixture through a tube connected to a jar, which was in actual fact just an over the counter chest medicine. While she was not looking he inserted another tube in to the jar and this tube was connected to the gas tap. Eady soon passed out from inhaling the domestic gas and he raped, strangled and buried her in the garden alongside his first victim.

A few years later he sublet the top floor flat to a young couple Timothy and Beryl Evans and their newborn baby Geraldine. A year later Timothy Evans confessed to the murder of his wife and baby and police found their bodies in an outhouse. Later Evans accused Christie of their murder, stating that Christie had tried to perform an abortion on his wife that had gone wrong. But Christie was the main witness for Evans' prosecution and he was sentenced to death in 1950. Two years after that Christie strangled his own wife, Ethel, in her bed. Between 19 January and 6 March 1953 he murdered 3 more women after modifying his gassing technique; just releasing the gas in to the room until they became drowsy. He hid these bodies in an alcove in the kitchen that he then wallpapered over and wrapped in a similar way to Evans' wife and daughter. On their discovery this cast doubt as to Timothy Evans' guilt but he had already been put to death.

Prior to his killing sprees Christie had been gassed himself during the war and spent months in a hospital unable to see or speak. Once he had recovered he claimed he was unable to talk loudly. I don't think you can talk about these murders and not mention the amazing film. Christie was played expertly by Richard Attenborough who effected Christie's quiet whisper of a voice to a chilling end.

In some ways this amazing film made these murders seem too real. Normally you hear about this kind of thing on the news but you rarely are made to see the victims lives before hand or witness the killer in the act, seeing his fragile yet manipulative side in a shocking reality check. Still one of may favourite movies.

Whose mother entered my Exorcist contest in Hell?

2010-04-27T10:08:00.005+01:00

Last week or thereabouts I opened my latest contest to win a painting of The Exorcist by none other than me me me. Me. Well, now I'm proud to announce the winner...

Nicole Hadaway!

of All Things Smart and Scary

Good God, you are lucky. Thanks to all who entered, I've already emailed Nicole the good news. While we wait for her to gush her eternal thanks let's watch a clip to keep you awake at night.

Don't have nightmares. Meh, who am I kidding?!

Fact is Stranger than Fiction Friday (1) The story of the Enfield Poltergeist

2010-04-23T16:00:00.002+01:00

How often do we hear of a horror film being based on a true story only to find out that it's merely loosely based on several different events that may or may not have happened? You get the idea. I started this blog because, since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated by apparently true stories about ghosts or tales of serial killers that have made it in to our history books. So this will hopefully be a regular event!

For anyone who doesn’t know Enfield is a large borough in North London. In August 1977 the Hodgson family, consisting of mother Peggy, her two daughters Margaret (12) and Janet (11) and two sons Johnny (10) and Billy (7) began to experience what they called poltergeist activity. They reported furniture moving, toys being thrown around the room and becoming hot to the touch, interference with bedclothes and knocking on walls. And more interestingly, physical assaults, levitation's and possession. Two passers by even claimed to see one of the girls, through her bedroom window, floating in the air in a horizontal position.

Very soon journalists came to visit and they also reported strange goings on like objects moving of their own accord. One of the journalists reported their sightings to the Society for Psychical Research who sent Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair to investigate. Possibly the most disturbing part of this is a recording, an excerpt can be heard in the film below, of Janet apparently channelling a man named Bill, who had died in that house. It has been said that she is using her false vocal chords which I imagine is something that is very difficult to do, especially for an 11 year old girl.

Police officers also witnessed the strange goings on and later signed statements confirming this. Also, their next door neighbour tried to test Janet by asking her to draw a circle around her light fitting. They left Janet alone and a minute later they were called back in. Janet told them that she had travelled through the wall and had gone in to her neighbour's bedroom and had dropped her book in there. The neighbour went next door and found a book and a circle drawn around her light fitting.

With all this “evidence” from reputable witnesses surely this just had to have happened just the way they said and that it had to be true? The problem is, the human mind is very complex and what we think we see isn’t always what we actually see. We can be susceptible to all kinds of suggestion. For instance, when I was about 5 I was sitting on our very brown rug and my dad lifted it up with me still on it. At the time I thought I was really flying and even now looking back that seemed the only logical explanation. I know I was only 5 but it felt so real and still does. Also, it was 1977 and what film would have been fresh in people’s minds? The Exorcist!

An elaborate hoax on a grand scale? The fact is though, most of the happenings have never been disproved. Many officials are not even condemning it, preferring to have more of an open mind on the subject. Whatever side of the fence you sit on here you have to admit, the recording of Janet and the ghost voice is terrifying and the photographs are amazing. I suppose it is something that will never be solved but it gives you the willies, right?

Some horror/blogging news!

2010-04-22T16:45:00.006+01:00

The Lammys are here! The Large Association of Movie Blogs blog has opened voting for their annual awards. Voting is open to current LAMBS only so if you haven't done so already, why don't you check out the poll and consider Scare Sarah for a few shinnies!

Exorcist Contest extension! That's right, I have extended the closing date for my latest contest. Just add your comment at the end my Exorcist review for the chance to win an original piece of artwork! Get in there before 24th April at 12:00GMT.

You've seen them around , now I've got one; my very own MEME! I don't want to give too much away but it will/should/hopefully be an every Friday kinda thing. So, wait, that's tomorrow! Oh my...

Can I please see some ID? - The Orphan (2009)

2010-04-16T20:00:00.000+01:00

Well now, I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. Not because I’m clever (but I am) but because someone already told me what the big reveal was going to be before I saw the film. Interestingly, I think it only altered my reaction a little. Quite quickly you realise the kid’s as evil as spiky knickers but it did rob me of quite a big laugh once the truth was outed.

John and Kate, after losing their third child at birth, decide to adopt a nine year old girl called Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) from an orphanage. A little creepy from the outset, insisting on wearing old fashioned dresses with ribbons (what a freak), her new parents stuck with her oddities.

But because she was so strange she started to get bullied at school. This is when we first see Esther is not to be messed with. She follows one girl to the top of a slide and pushes her off and breaks her leg. She later does something unspeakable with a nun. The actress who played the nun, CCH Pounder, kind of reminded me of Scatman Crothers in The Shining. And you know what happened to him!

Esther threatens almost everyone who could expose her true nature with the usual, “if you tell, I’ll kill you” promise. As the story unravels it becomes apparent that they know very little about where she came from.

Say what you like about the movie but that little actress Isabelle Fuhrman is quite something after the reveal! Ridiculous and creepy, did what it said on the tin. You hated everyone you were supposed to hate; the kid for being evil and the dad for not believing the mum. Sometimes in films you find yourself wanting the evil spawn to succeed but not here. Maybe it was because again, I knew what the outcome was or maybe it was because the mum was hot, I really do not know. It definitely had the ick factor though. *shudders*

“Your mother would enter this Contest in Hell” Or words to that effect - The Exorcist (1973)

2010-04-12T22:04:00.015+01:00

Being of a generation who wasn’t born soon enough to witness first hand the uproar this film got on its release, I first saw this film with the back story fully ingrained in my mind, just like the story of Mary and Joseph or the fact the sky is blue.

It starts off slow, with Eastern prologue type scenes similar to the Italy scenes in The Omen. Whether we needed these or not I don’t know, but they are there nonetheless. Regan is a troubled child, her mother, Chris and father are separated and she begins to display signs of depression. They hear strange sounds in upstairs rooms and one night Regan gets in to her mother’s bed complaining that her own bed was shaking. In another scene Regan interrupts a small party her mother is having one night, stands in the middle of the room, urinates then utters the dreaded words “You’re gonna die up there.” That night Chris discovers her daughter seemingly convulsing and her bed shaking and levitating. Regan reveals she has been playing with a Ouija board and claims she can talk to spirits. As I said the film starts off slow, letting you gather all the information needed then suddenly, the shocking possession shows itself.

This troubling behaviour continues and secretly Chris suspects her daughter may have killed one of her friends. Several painful tests later the doctors are none the wiser, at first thinking Regan has a lesion on her brain. Believing her symptoms to be psychosomatic, and after exhausting all other possibilities, one of the doctors suggest an exorcism. His idea is that if she believes she is possessed by a demon, she should also believe this will remove it from her body. In fact, I’ve seen many documentaries on this subject, where exorcisms are merely a procedure used to rid the patient of dark and destructive thoughts. The ritual is quite traumatic and in some cases causes the “evil” to leave the body by way of vomiting.

Just looking at stills from this film is frightening. I think this is because for the most part the scary scenes don’t rely on the jump factor. They are played out in real time with you, an innocent onlooker, letting these scenes creep up on you. The dreamlike feel makes this less of a scary film but more of an experience. You cannot watch The Exorcist and not be touched by the oppressive atmosphere or be inspired by its message of hope. So much history and rumour surround this movie, much of it probably made up but you wouldn’t be blamed for wanting desperately to believe, just as I do, that the film itself is so powerful and full of evil that it infected the world around it.

***

So that brings us to contest time again. Yeah, I’m hawking something new. If you want the chance to win this piece of Exorcist artwork painted by moi, just follow these rules.

- Be or become a follower of Scare Sarah. Just click on the Follow button up top and sign in with your Google, Twitter or Yahoo details.

- Tell me some Exorcist trivia and post it in a comment below.

- For an extra entry, spread the word on Twitter or your blog or wherever. Just tell me where.

- One entry per person.

- Entries consent to their screen name being posted on this blog.

- Contest closes at 23:00 GMT on the 23 April 2010.

- Open internationally.

One winner will be selected at random and I will announce the result by the 26 April. God bless you, fingers crossed, touch wood.

*** This contest is now closed. Thanks ***

Ideas you pick up at the DIY store - Shallow Grave (1994)

2010-04-12T19:11:00.005+01:00

Although filmed before Trainspotting, its release was after and rode on the back of the trippy

dance scene of the ‘90’s, of which I was a part of, albeit a decade later. Director, Danny Boyle was a shining light, opening up

Great Britain

and showing its dirtiest, grimiest sides for the entire world to see. Big names here, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Keith Allen & Kerry Fox before they went all Hollywood.

Three friends decide they need a flat mate to help pay the rent so they hold auditions and find a few weirdos including Keith Allen. On his first night he makes quite an impression; he drinks lots and cracks a few jokes then the next day they find him naked, dead and naked on his bed. Just when they're about to call the police they go through his bag, as you do, and find piles and piles of cash. Too good to be true, they decide to keep the money and not call the police. This does leave them with one problem though; they need to get rid of the body. How? Well, they take him to the woods after visiting their local DIY shop, and chop him up. Christopher Eccleston's character draws the short straw and has this honour, much to his distress. Little did the friends know, this would send his already fragile character, over the edge.

They try not to but eventually they crack and spend some of the money. This is when someone comes looking for it and they start to turn on each other. The friends really did look and act like they’d been flat mates for years with their inside jokes and banter which turned in to sinister sibling-like sniping. I can’t walk round a DIY store now without imagining what tools I’d need to dismember a body. Yes dear, it’s true. Last weekend when we were walking through B&Q looking for paint I was in fact eyeing up the hacksaws and hammers.

Unlikely and brutal, coupled with the iconic dance soundtrack, it was and still is a wonder to behold. I keep harping on about the music, but it’s not just dance. We have great incidental and the use of Andy Williams’ Happy Heart at the end is pure theatre, highlighting the film’s humour and shock value.

The honesty in the characters is both awe inspiring and awkward. If it was down to you or your best friend to dismember a dead body you’d be hoping your best friend drew the short straw, wouldn’t you? If you had to knock the teeth out of the dead mans head you would vomit while you did it, wouldn’t you? This film showed that when it comes down to it, no matter how close you are and what you’ve been through together, no matter the promises you made, when it comes down to it people lie, cheat and kill and get away with it.

Nice pants - The Unborn (2009)

2010-04-04T17:50:00.006+01:00

I wasn't actually going to review this but last night I had a nightmare about being possessed by the devil and that I had to perform an exorcism on myself. So I thought maybe I should just get it over and done with before the devil kills me in my sleep and all.

Casey is babysitting a couple of kids when she hears a commotion upstairs. When she gets to the baby's room she finds his seven year old brother standing over him with a mirror, showing him his reflection. "Jumpy wants to be born now" sings the boy, then hits her across the face. Later, the token-black-girl-who-will-die-before-the-credits tells us that it's bad luck for a baby to see their reflection.

Casey then seems to be suffering with bad dreams where the recurring image of a boy stares at her and she starts hearing things in her bathroom cabinet. Later she discovers that she was supposed to be a twin. I must've zoned out for a moment but for some reason we then visit Casey's grandmother, Sofi. She tells the story of her childhood in a concentration camp and explains that the boy Casey is being haunted by is in fact Sofi's brother who died after being experimented on.

There were some great scenes with by standers being possessed by a demon and distorted people doing the crab up and down the stairs but it was just done way better in The Exorcist or even the Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Always been a bit of a fan of Odette Yustman since Cloverfield. Very easy on the eye. So she gets a 10 out of 10. She does get a little upstaged by her pants that she flashes several times. The film however, although I can't honestly say it was the most diabolical film I have ever seen, it's just that I've seen this story before in many different guises. It does try to distract us from this fact though, with the early shock scene of a fetus in the woods. I did like the mask on the dog though; very creepy papier mache of the boy's face. I might make one of those for myself to scare the kids this Halloween. That and the butcher's knife.

Duel's funnier little brother - Joy Ride (2001)

2010-03-31T19:02:00.010+01:00

Road trip Horror? Sold! To the very attractive young lady at the back!

The film begins with a guy buying a car to impress a girl, who seems to be a bit of a pain in the arse if you ask me but there's no accounting for taste. The road trip is planned!

On his way to pick her up Lewis has to bail out his loser brother, Fuller, from jail. While on their way they hear a trucker, Rusty Nail (I kid you not), on the CB radio and decide to wind him up by pretending to be a sexy woman, Candy Cane, talking dirty to him. They get bored and stop off at a motel and bump in to a guest who was being a bit of a racist towards the motel owner. At that moment they hear Rusty Nail on the CB again. They tell him to meet him/her at the hotel and give him the room number of the racist man. He turns up later that night ready for romance. The brothers hear arguing and then it goes quiet. The next morning the police are knocking on their door to tell them that the man next door is half dead with half his face ripped off.

Serious practical joke gone wrong! The acting I like. The brothers have a natural mischief about them. Reminds me of when I was a (little) younger and over the road a builder had taken 2 days to build this tiny wall so me and my sister went to the upstairs window and shouted for him to hurry up while hiding. We laughed until we couldn't breath. And, er, we recorded it too. You had to be there I guess... No one died though, geez...

Back to the film and the cops tell them to leave town. On the road they hear Rusty Nail again looking for Candy Cane. They tell him they had just been winding him up. He then reveals he is behind them in his truck. Later it gets a little darker. They have picked up the girl from the beginning of the film and Rusty Nail calls to let them know he is still watching them. And he has kidnapped a girl. He tells of what doctors do when they can't identify a body, of how they keep the jaw and fingers in a jar. Mmm, sexy talk. Not quite sure how accurate that is but lets go with it shall we!
What is it about these trucks that just ooze death these days? I'm thinking Duel, Jeepers Creepers, Maximum Overdrive. Is it the shear size of them? Their huge grills, deafening horns or the maniacal drivers themselves? I think the thing about these films is the killer remains anonymous. Because you only know who you're hiding from when you see the truck you are kind of protected. It's when you get out of the car and step in to say, a petrol station, is when you need to take a closer look at who else is in the cue behind you.

They were just playing - Ils (2006)

2010-03-24T19:20:00.015Z

AKA Them

We begin one night in Romania. A mother and daughter are arguing on the drive home. The mother has to swerve to avoid something in the road and she crashes the car in to a lamp post. The engine won't start so she gets out, lifts the bonnet and asks her daughter to try the engine. It doesn't start. She tries again. Her mother goes silent. She gets out of the car and her mother has disappeared. She hears something in the woods so she gets back in the car but someone has taken the key and they've locked her in.

This opener, and much of the other scenes, would not look out of place in Scream. Except without the music and jokes...and they're Romanian. And French! Now we meet our main characters; a French teacher, Clementine and her writer husband, Lucas. They settle down to a nice evening of frolics but they don't realise that all the while, the door was open.
Clementine goes down stairs during the night and she receives a 'silent' phone call. Later, they hear noises outside and someone steals their car. After they report it to the police all the lights go out.

Super clever directing with a 'now you see them, now you don't' approach. In one scene Lucas is hammering on the door, begging to be let back in. He keeps looking over his shoulder, nothing there. Looks again, nothing. Clementine gets the door open and then you see behind Lucas. One of Them is standing there.

Ils is scary because it plays on a basic fear. It says it's based on a true story but I assume it is merely loosely based on several stories much like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There are more obvious similarities too, between this and The Strangers or Funny Games. Certainly almost as disturbed as the latter. The emphasis on being played with by calm, amused lunatics and the growing popularity of the home invasion film. Here though there is another aspect of innocence, without giving too much away.

And what could be more scary? Your home is the one place you can feel safe and relaxed. Shut the door and people assume no one will come in. Sometimes people are wrong.

Good Lord, birds are creepy - Dead Birds (2004)

2010-03-21T21:59:00.011Z

This film is set in the 1800's. Anyone who knows me is aware of my dislike for the olden days. But I've always had a desire to do things that scare me so I thought, what the hell. On first impressions though, this didn't fill me with the unease that things like Dr Quinn Medicine Woman does or any BBC adaptation of a Bronte. The colours are so bright and the shooting scene at the bank is quite spectacular.

The film begins, as I said, with a group of confederate soldiers robbing a bank and shooting everyone in sight. They take over an abandoned farm house and are at once ambushed by something jumping out of the corn field. They shoot it and examine the dead body. I can only describe it as a skinny, shaved goat. Pretty cool, huh? Oh yeah, and there's a dead bird... I forgot to tell you that these male soldiers are accompanied by a quite slutty female companion. "Want to go and lie down?" God, I'm glad I'm not the only one to use that line.

After only a short while, the soldiers start to realise something supernatural may be lurking in that house; locked rooms, mysterious giggling, a book of spells... that old chestnut.

But really, what this film, in the early stages anyway, seemed to lack in the jump factor it made up for with its building suspense, which was text book and a bit more. Like with Isaiah Washington's character, he is sitting on the edge of the bed when his eye is caught by something low down. He stares at it and moves towards it for some time before we the viewer are allowed to see. This becomes a signature piece with characters staring in wardrobes and such, making me all spooked. Later, our lady is looking under the bed when she comes across a young boy who may have escaped from The Grudge. However, yes, I did nearly crap myself. So by the time one soldier finds a little girl crying in the corner with her back to him, I'm watching it through one eye!

Yes, it took about an hour to get going out of its 91 minute run time, but the surprising Stephen King type montage of disturbing images was something I didn't expect and made this film worthwhile.

And dare I say it? Some good old fashioned scares scared Sarah tonight!

"There are worse things than dying, ya know."

Something went bump in the night & definitely not in a rude way - Nearly Departed by Rook Hastings

2010-03-14T12:01:00.008Z

If, like me, you have the reading age of a 14 year old, I have a pretty good book here for you. After being practically forced in to reading this, and many other YA books, by my extremely alluring other half, I was pleasantly surprised by this. Pretty much immediately I was hooked.

Set in Weirdsville, a fictional estate in England, a group of unlikely friends are forced together by one girl. Emily is the school victim and she thinks she has a ghost in her house. She has heard noises, terrible screaming that goes on all night. To top it all, her mother has gone missing and she is home alone.

For some reason, all these kids believe her and agree to investigate, Scooby Gang style. They arrive at her house all on the pretence of a sleep over and set up all the necessary equipment. They talk late in to the night and are convinced nothing will happen when all of a sudden they hear screaming. Emily is trapped in her mother's empty bedroom. This isn't the scariest part. Later they talk of how they will look at the video recordings to see if anything was picked up. And something was; Emily's mother staring in to the lens.

Genuinely sinister moments when one character is describing the dead people he sees; the little girl on the swing, the woman constantly trying to get her key in her front door or the man standing in the dark corner, staring at him with an intense anger.

This story has all the ingredients of an episode of Buffy and the feel of a lite Brit horror film. The comradery is enchanting and scares chilling. An easy read with easy scares. Leaves you with the kind of unease that keeps you looking over your shoulder at night.

I can see their lips move - Quella villa accanto al cimitero (1981)

2010-03-10T20:53:00.007Z

AKA The House by the Cemetery or Zombie Hell House.

The latter title slightly giving too much of the plot it would seem, although not entirely. Banned in Britain in the '80's, I saw the very well dubbed version of this Italian film. Mostly it's impossible to see, apart from that bloody kid, Bob. More about him later!

We begin with the obligatory scene of a girl putting on her top after having sex in an empty house. She is calling out for her boyfriend but he is nowhere to be seen. Then he appears, covered in blood, before a mysterious figure appears and stabs the girl through the head.

Then we meet husband and wife team Norman and Lucy. They are moving to New England with son Bob so that Norman can pick up the research of a historian who had gone nuts and killed his mistress and himself. Bob is being visited by a young girl of about 8 years old. She can speak to him from across the street and warns him not to go to the house. You should be scared for the boy but he is just so bloody annoying! This part of the film definitely has The Shining written all over it. Actually, this film has wonderful cinematography and a musical score that would not be out of place in earlier '70's horrors like the Exorcist.

Back to the story and babysitter, Anna turns up. The creepiest thing about her is her giant eyebrows. She is shifty though, so I kept my eye on her. Later she is lured in to the basement and the door slams shut behind her. She calls for help but the only person around is Bob. When a kid stops to get his toy gun before even contemplating saving your life you know you're in trouble. Bloody Bob.

We are lead on wild goose chases and there are parts of the film I still don't have closure with, but that's okay. Such an amazing use of blood and people seem to take a very long time to die. First the mutilation or impailing, then the writhing around in almost silence, culminating in a violent final breath. Pornographic in its styling, with the gratuitous close ups and zoom ins on the violent mutilations are something to behold.

Not seen this? What are you waiting for?

They've got real zombies in this vampire film! - The Wickeds (2005)

2010-03-08T20:31:00.009Z

Did I tell you I used to be a film maker? It's true. When I was 14 me and my friend made a movie on her camcorder. We got her pet cat to attack us and we used her mum's lipstick for blood. It was amazing. I cannot believe it didn't go global. Anyway, my hangups over with. On with the next review!

The Wickeds is a very low budget horror flick. We begin with a group of over-sexed, easily scared kids on their way to spend Halloween in a "haunted" house situated next door to a cemetery. They are unaware of The Wickeds circling them outside. They're having lots and lots of fun when they're interrupted by a couple of grave robbers who are running from some dead bodies that aren't dead enough. It is exactly what you want to see; a fat guy and a geek running around a cemetery being chased by a dead bride in too much make-up. The Wickeds are kind of vampires that seem to eat people a la zombie, if you will.

One of the friends are dragged out of the house and is set upon by the Wickeds. While all this is going on, two of the friends are upstairs, providing the sexy aspect. Not bad over-the-clothes sexy actually.

I didn't actually expect to like this film and I can't honestly say if I do or not. It does have a certain charm that comes with not being masked by, or being able to hide behind, the smoke and mirrors we are now used to. It's got guts with horrific acting. I must say I have no idea how they got the priest to agree to letting them film in his graveyard. They must've spent the whole film budget on his church roof.

Okay, who put the plastic wrap over the toilet? - April Fools Day (1986)

2010-03-06T16:37:00.007Z

Birthdays when I was a kid. I'd never learn. I'd be so excited, counting down the days from about two months before. Then, what with the anti-climax of the day, it was always such a disappointment. Stupid kids.

This is where we meet our main character, Muffy. Yes, you heard me right. From this outset we are led to believe we have pretty much summed Muffy up. For spring break she invites an unlikely group of college friends and acquaintances to her weekend island mansion.

When they arrive and all file off to their rooms in the giant house, they discover several April Fools tricks are greeting them. Some funny and clever; dribble glasses, chairs that make you fall backwards, others are dark, scary and confusing; a tape of a crying baby, drug paraphernalia and newspaper clippings of car accidents.

Pretty soon, one by one, the friends begin to go missing and their bodies start popping up, or bits of their bodies anyway. The still alive friends decide they need to get out of there but amazingly, without them noticing, Muffy has slowly started to lose the plot. Complete with shifty, creepy eyes their host becomes someone to fear.

Some think the very idea of this film made it too arty to stomach but no matter what you think about its validity as a horror film you cannot escape the pretty clever, spooky imagery. In particular, the manikin being dragged across screen and when the two kids are canoodling on the slatted walkway and they turn to see a couple of dead bodies floating on the water beneath.

Something of a classic? I can't decide. It's glossier than most 80's horror and a huge nudge to what was to come in the 90's. An important and necessary installment of retro horror/comedy? Absolutely.

And the winner is...

2010-03-06T10:43:00.004Z

It's time to reveal the winner of my latest contest and the coveted copy of horror film, Babysitter Wanted on DVD, selected at random. And the winner is....

Cory from Cory's Crappy Cinema!

Well done. I asked what your favourite urban legend was and Cory chose the bloody mary legend made famous in the Candyman films. This cast my mind back to when I was 14, in a school toilet with about ten others, repeating bloody mary, bloody mary in to the mirror. Nothing happend. Except for detention for all the boys in the girls toilet. Hey ho.

Thanks to everyone that entered and keep your creepers peeled for more contest to come!

Is it morning yet? - Dawning (2009)

2010-03-04T21:23:00.001Z

Remember the first time you saw your parents in a new, unfavourable light? Unsettling, wasn't it?

In Gregg Holtgrewe's new film we begin on a beautifully lit night. A brother and sister are driving to see their father and step mother at their house in the woods. As soon as they arrive you are hit by the tension between the family. It's obvious there is bad history there and it's palpable. It's not like they're not talking but the silence in between the dialog becomes the foreboding message of the film.

They seem to be getting along, begrudgingly, when the dog disappears. It finally turns up, badly injured. The father decides to put it out of it's misery with his riffle. You always know that when the dog gets it in these types of films, the horror has begun, right? Just when they think things can't get any worse, a visitor turns up. He attacks them but insists he isn't there to hurt them. He has a warning; something is coming.

They are, understandably scared and manage to overpower him. But are they biting the hand that feeds them? Something starts to change. Something is coming? Is it here already?

I love the scenes when our characters start to turn on each other, hearing things. Paranoia has begun to breed. It's feeding off their insecurities. Feeding off the insecurities forced on us by those closest to us. Are they hearing things that aren't there or are they just reading between the lines?

I can't tell you how surprised I was by this film. Oh wait, this is a blog, so I must. It wasn't in your face like many these days. There's nothing wrong with in your face but here we are lulled in to security. We live the awkward yet familiar feeling of responsibility with the characters. We recognise the terror of something coming and not understanding what it is or being able to stop it.

Something came to that house that night, and it was evil.

Thank you to Gregg for sending me his film. You can see the trailer here.

Roll up, roll up - Last chance to enter the Babysitter Wanted DVD giveaway!

2010-03-04T20:17:00.003Z

You have just over 24 hours left to enter my second ever contest to win a copy of one of my surprise favourite films of 2009, Babysitter Wanted.

All you have to do is be or become a follower of Scare Sarah and tell me what your favourite urban legend is. It's that simple. And right now your chances of winning are really rather high! This contest is open internationally so get commenting! You can do it here or there, I really couldn't care less.

**This contest is now closed**

I see dead people - Interview with horror photographer Amanda Norman

2010-03-01T20:27:00.010Z

For years now Amanda Norman has been at the forefront of horror art and photography. With her innovative yet classic style she can do no wrong right now. So when she agreed to do a little interview for Scare Sarah I almost peed my hypothetical pants.

What were your early photos like? Any relatives with the top of their heads chopped off?

I had a lot of early photos with the tops of heads chopped off and a lot of them had red eyes. Fortunately there was no blood and gore, but they were totally rubbish photographs.

Your photos are authentically eerie. Do any of them ever scare you?

They don't scare me, but sometimes I marvel at how eerie they are. Take for instance the shot of the 'Dark Angel', which is one of my favourite photos. I love how this image can potentially create fear for some viewers.

Do you ever get scared walking round graveyards or is it a peaceful experience for you?

There was one occasion when I felt unnerved at being in the cemetery on my own. I had this strong feeling that I was being watched and I attempted to shrug it off thinking that my imagination was getting the better of me as it had done on previous occasions in the same cemetery. On this particular occasion, I had to turn around as I felt a presence moving swiftly behind me and what I seen is kind of hard to describe. Imagine seeing a heat haze where the scene is shimmery, it was like that, but moving at a fast pace. Even though I seen this, I wasn't alarmed and I decided to move on. I've been to this cemetery since and not experienced anything strange.

What’s inspiring your work at the moment?

I have an obsession of taking photographs of silhouettes. The darkness is what draws the viewer in and within the darkness, ones imagination can run a mile with wondering what is hidden.

What was the first horror film you ever watched and how old where you?

This is a tough question as I can't really pinpoint an exact time. My mother is a big horror fan so as a young teenager I did get to see films like Hammer Horror, Carrie, Amityville Horror and Salem's Lot. I also watched The Exorcist, which scared the living pants off me. I ALWAYS lied to my mother promising her that I wouldn't get scared if I watched the film, but once the film had finished and I had to go to bed, the tears would come and I would get told to 'grow up'!

You probably get asked this all the time, but while developing your photos, have you ever experienced a Japanese girl with long black hair appearing in the background when they were not in the original picture?

I'd SHIT myself if I did! The closest I got to taking a photograph that looked like that Japanese girl is a portrait I took of my daughter Kerry.

Woah, that is scary! So where can we see more of your work and purchase prints?

Please visit my 'Horror & Gothic Collection' on Zazzle. The store features lots of greeting cards and business cards that can be fully personalized by the buyer. I'm also working on creating more 'Horror B Movie' style posters that again can be fully personalized. You will also find mugs, prints and calendars that feature my favourite Gothic and Horror photography.

Thanks again to Amanda.

You can check out any time you like but you can never leave - The Landlady by Roald Dahl

2010-02-27T20:02:00.009Z

What is more frightening; the fear of when you realise you are in danger or the fear that your aggressor will find out that you know everything they're planning to do to you?

This short story was written by Roald Dahl and subsequently adapted for television and featured on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Also turned in to an episode of the awesome British television series, Tales of the Unexpected of which I am the biggest fan. If you are not familiar with this take a look at these titles.

Need I say more?!

Young, trusting Billy is only seventeen when he gets two trains from London to Bath to begin his first ever job. Looking for a place to stay he comes upon a bed and breakfast with a vacancy sign that seems to hypnotise him. And when he rings the doorbell, he doesn't even take his finger from the button before the door opens and The Landlady appears. Typical of Dahl and indeed Hitchcock, the unashamedly hammy way of trying to shock and scare that you can't but love.

Our Landlady is suitably creepy. Claustrophobic, motherly and touchy feely. Even the description of her "white hand" patting him comfortingly on the knee is a little uncomfortable to watch.

As soon as Billy enters the B&B, several alarm bells begin to ring for the reader/viewer but not for Billy. The room is very cheap but the interior is very pleasant and all rooms are available. Not to mention the taxidermy. The short story makes only a subtle reference to Billy's fate on the final page yet the Tales of the Unexpected episode goes several steps further and shows us the results. A genuinely creepy little story to scare the kids.

Landlady: "...there wasn't a blemish on his body."

Billy: "A what?"

Landlady: "His skin was just like a baby's."

I've been doing some research & a couple of years ago these kids had a premonition then they all died - The Final Destination (2009)

2010-02-26T10:49:00.001Z

There is something reassuring about the Final Destination franchise. Just like the Saw series where they are constantly trying to make the killings more and more vomit inducingly elaborate, we have a familiar script and pleasantly surprising death scenes.

By now you can sense it. There is a quietness in the air like everyone has held their breath. You become ultra aware and wide eyed. You know something is coming, and that thing is Fate in the shape of big fat Death.

In the unlikely event you don't know what this is about, this film is based on a series of unfortunate events. With the final installment (we assume) our latest group of kids are watching a car race when Nick has a vision that a car will crash. This will in turn cause other cars to veer off the track and through the barrier in to the crowd of spectators, killing them all in various horrifying ways including fire, decapitation and impalement. Nick snaps out of it but as his premonition begins to come true he tells his friends and gets them out of the stadium, just in time to see a ball of flames explode.

The kids are then very grateful to be alive and become carefree and live each day to the fullest. This is where the bikinis come out when they celebrate at the poolside party. They think they've escaped death but no, you can never escape death, mwa ha ha haaa. We then revisit one of the people who didn't die at the stadium, but should have.

This is where we see fate come in to play. Sharp knives and hooks don't just fall off the side board. Water doesn't just just find its way round corners in to electrical circuits. But in Final Destination land, they do. We've had it all, including speeding buses dashing into view to swipe down a main character. Maybe the most memorable in this instalment is the boy jumping in to the swimming pool after accidentally turning on the pool drainer. He jumps down to the bottom to retrieve a coin and gets sucked by his pants to the bottom. As the suction pressure increases, his internal organs get sucked and spat out through the vent. Nice.

I've been doing some research and a couple of years ago these kids had a premonition then they escaped death and then they all died anyway. That's fate for you.

What hell is. Discuss - Dark Corners (2006)

2010-02-24T18:00:00.000Z

Thora Birch... Ever since The Hole I've got excited every time I hear of a film she is in. That excitement has begun to diminish as I have frequently been disappointed. I have to be honest here, I'm not entirely sure what I think about this one. I am certain however, that I was entirely confused by this film. Right up until the last 30 seconds, then I was like, Oh yeah, I get it, kinda... I felt it important to include spoilers in this review.

In this film we have 2 Thora Birch's, namely Susan (blonde Birch) and Karen (brunette Birch). We start with Karen. She wakes up in a grotty bedroom, goes to the bathroom and finds she has blood and cuts on her hands and face. She has no recollection of what's happened to her. We quickly realise she has a pretty worthless life, possibly attempting to reinforce the 'blondes have more fun' theory, meh.
Karen arrives late to work at the funeral parlour and we meet her boss, one of the most entertaining characters in the film. He munches through crisps while sewing together some dead guy's mouth, telling the story of how his twin brother died the eve of their 12th birthday and how he was glad to get his presents.

Then we meet Susan, whose life is totally different. She is happy and settled. She wakes suddenly as if from a nightmare. And she really was having a nightmare, about Karen's life. And Karen is, about Susan's life, if in a very skewed way. Susan's nightmares are of Karen experiencing a 'monster', visiting her at night, inflicting violence and rape and making her pregnant while she is unconscious. Karen dreams of Susan's IVF treatment but interprets it as her being violated.

Susan visits a hypnotist, Dr Woodleigh, to help her with her nightmares played by our very own Toby Stephens. He is a sinister character and is responsible for one of the more memorable lines in the film while Susan is out of earshot, "you ungrateful fucking cunt" in a terrifying distorted voice. Not the most shocking moment. That goes to Karen enduring an abortion at the hands of the monster. As each of their dreams become more blurred and characters appear in both of their lives we start to see Karen is actually Dr Woodleigh. He kills Susan and her husband walks in, understandably loses it and beats him to a pulp, hence the blood on Karen's face...

The background character really are creepy and exactly the kind of people you have in your nightmares. Big bold features and sideways stares.

"Hell is having your sins served up to you in an endless loop of torture."

£5 an hour & all the food you can eat - Babysitter Wanted Contest!

2010-02-23T13:23:00.000Z

No, I'm not looking for a babysitter. At the weekend I watched and reviewed the surprisingly amazing film Babysitter Wanted. Also, last week Scare Sarah reached and passed 100 followers! I should be getting a telegram from The Queen or something. I'm so proud about that and above all, that you people bother to post comments here. I really appreciate it.

To celebrate I've decided to give away a copy of Babysitter Wanted on DVD(R2)! Inspired by one of the most popular urban legends but with a twist. Now all you kids can find out what it's like to have a part time job...er, only if you're over 18 though.

All you have to do to enter is follow these god darn rules.

1) Be or become a follower of Scare Sarah.

2) Post a comment on this post stating your favourite urban legend.

3) Mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook or your blog or any other part of the Internet world (tell me where).

4) Provide your email address.

All entries must be 18 or over. The winner consents to having their name mentioned on this blog. Contest closes on the 5th March 2010. Open internationally but remember the DVD is region 2. Just saying.

I'm a Bloggenaire! - Scare Sarah featured on Final Girl

2010-02-23T09:38:00.003Z

Scare Sarah has been featured on the illustrious Final Girl for her Bloggenaire segment! Boy, she was tough on me. Get over there and check it out!

Thanks, thanks so much.

The butler did it - Spoilers anyone?

2010-02-21T11:12:00.001Z

"He was dead the whole time!"

"She was a 30-year-old midget!"

Yes, we've all experienced it. The moment someone lets slip, deliberately or by accident, the end of the film, an all encompassing part of the plot. They've ruined the entire experience for you haven't they? Good lord, they've spoiled it. Haven't they?

I recently ran a poll asking what you thought about spoilers. Did you hate them for perhaps obvious reasons or did you like them, even seek them out? I joked that maybe you wanted to seem as though you had worked out who the killer was so that your friends could be in ore of your greatness.

I can understand why people dislike them. The result of the pole made your thoughts quite clear; you didn't want them. Surely the whole point of watching a new film or reading a new book is to experience it for the first time? Have those scares or surprises first hand, as it happens. But really why are spoilers so popular?

I know my poll says different but take a quick look on the Internet and you'll see there are tons of websites dedicated to films, books and soaps, revealing all over the freaking place. I must say I'm in two minds. I want to be surprised. I want that exciting shock of the new in real time. But there is still a part of me that wants all the info right here right now. Maybe just so I can't ever be disappointed?

So, you voted yes or no. Care to elaborate?