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Book Reviews ...
Blasphemy
- The Anthology of Religious Erotic Horror
(Massacre Publications)
Religion, erotica and horror!
Forthcoming from Massacre Publications, Blasphemy, is described as the Anthology
of Religious Erotic Horror and we are told that between its sinful pages we can expect
to find stories blending religion, erotica and horror!
It includes a story from Alex Severin (interviewed elsewhere in this zine) in which you can expect to step back with her into the Romanov ruled Imperial Russia and play voyeur as
Grigory Rasputin plucks from the vine another Ripened Fruit. Other
writers include: Jean Roberta, Deborah Alton, Mark Zirbel, Ronald Damien Malfi, and even more sinful delights!
Visit the
website to learn more: www.religiouserotica.com
A pocketful of horrors ...
Pocket Essentials: Horror Films
(Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell)
These slim volumes from the pocket essentials are quite informative guides to world of film and its history.
I picked up one, would you have guessed - Horror Films? I found it a really interesting read and it told me a few things within its 96 pages that even a horror
aficionado like me didn't know about the genre.
It
begins with the question: What is horror? And goes on to dissect the genre and
discuss what the ingredients of the horror flick are and analyses the mechanics of how they scare.
The book then goes on to the silent era, moves through the 30s and 40s black and white classics,
the paranoia of the 50s, the psychos and swingers of the 60s, the 70s and 80s, and ending in the post-modern 90s.
In each section a selection of films from that era are reviewed in detail. So you get
everything from the expressionist German classic Cabinet of Dr Caligari to the low budget chilling pseudo documentary,
Blair Witch. Taking in on the way such classics as of the genre
as Dead of Night, The Exorcist and The Evil Dead.
In the last section of the book, Ten Terrifying Auteurs are picked i.e. ten directors of horror
films who the authors consider are major influences on the horror movie. These
include Universal's James Whale, Hammer's Terence Fisher and Freddy's creator Wes Craven.
Again a selection of their films are reviewed in detail.
All in all a very interesting trip through the history of the horror film.
Other pocket essentials in our area of interest include: John Carpenter, David
Cronenberg, Slasher Movies, and last but defiantly not least - Vampire Films!
Film, Video and DVD reviews
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The Last House on the Left
Dir: Wes Craven With:
Sandra Cassel, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred Lincoln
Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassel) is
a teenager living in the Connecticut suburbs, she and her more outgoing friend Phyllis (Lucy Grantham) head into New York
one night to see a band and try to score some grass. This brings them into contact
with a gang of escaped criminals. These include leader Krug (David Hess), his
girlfriend Sadie (Jeramie Rain), the razor-wielding Weasel (Fred Lincoln) and Krug's heroin-addicted son, Junior (Marc Sheffler). They kidnap the girls and take them out to the woods, then brutally rape and murder
them.
Later the same
day, the four end up staying in the home of a nice middle class couple who live nearby. Unbeknown to the gang these
are Mari's parents.
Mari's parents (Gaylord St James
and Cynthia Carr), learn of the gang's crimes and inflict bloody revenge upon them - involving chainsaws and a castration
(nice family film then!)
Last House,
structurly, was based around Bergman's The Virgin Spring. Unfortunatley Wes Craven's debut is not well acted, weakly structured and
badly shot.
But this film is important and Wes
Craven would go on to make the much better The Hills Have Eyes and of course later introduce the
world to Freddy Kruegar!
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