The Prowler’s Farley Granger R.I.P.

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Christian Sellers

It is a common method for ageing actors whose glory days are long behind them to accept roles in low budget horror movies in order to remain in the public spotlight. The slasher genre saw such esteemed screen legends as Jack Palance, Glenn Ford and Donald Pleasence appearing in a variety of pictures during the cycle’s heyday. Farley Granger, perhaps most famous for his work with Alfred Hitchcock on the classics Rope and Strangers on a Train, followed major success both on screen and Broadway with the Italian thriller La polizia chiede aiuto (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?), before taking one of the lead roles in Joseph Zito’s 1981 slasher The Prowler. Continue reading →

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By Sword, By Pick, By Axe: The Making of The Mutilator

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Christian Sellers

Critics may scoff and most film fans may turn their noses up at them, but the slasher genre is the perfect training ground for a young, wannabe filmmaker. With an almost non-existent budget, a simple premise, aided by a likeable cast and some inventive special effects, can result in a modest performance at the box office. It is the one genre that was at its most lucrative outside of the studio system; Friday the 13th was produced without the assistance of Paramount Pictures, who later purchased the film and ran an extensive publicity campaign, and John Carpenter’s independent hit Halloween would inspire a generation of filmmakers to shoot their own cheap thrillers. Continue reading →

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Writer Calls on Horror Fans to Boycott Leisure Books

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Thomas Ellison

When I wrote about the demise of Leisure’s mass market paperback line in favor of e-books, I had no idea the terrible drama playing out behind the scenes.  According to genre author Brian Keene, Dorchester/Leisure Books stopped paying royalties owed to their writers back in late 2009.  Then, with the payment issues still unresolved, Dorchester suddenly announced they were switching to e-books format and shutting down the paperback brands.  Now, with many of their former and current writers suffering because of missed payments and outright stealing of books the company no longer have rights to, Brian Keene is asking for all horror fans to boycott Dorchester/Leisure Books. Continue reading →

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Coppola’s Dementia 13 Making Its Way to Blu-ray

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Christian Sellers

Over the last couple of years there have been countless Roger Corman productions that have made their way to Blu-ray and now the latest to be upgraded is Francis Ford Coppola’s commercial debut Dementia 13. Having completed work on a picture entitled The Young Racers in Ireland, Corman discovered that he still had some of his budget remaining and so offered Coppola the chance to direct a quick thriller using actors and props from the production, a common method for Corman. Considered by some to be a prototype for the slasher cycle that would follow over a decade later, Dementia 13 slipped into obscurity for many years before being rediscovered on home video. Continue reading →

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Murder on Film? The Story of Snuff

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Christian Sellers

Although they had courted controversy throughout the latter half of the 1960s with a string of sexploitation pictures that became regular attractions around Times Square, little did Michael and Roberta Findlay know that their legacy would be that of a supposed snuff film. Despite the revelation at the end of the movie that fooled audiences into believing the events to be real, the filmmakers themselves played no part in this, nor the shameless marketing that further fuelled the rumours that an actress in the movie had in fact been murdered in front of the camera. But what exactly is a ‘snuff’ film? One dictionary defines it as ‘a pornographic movie of an actual murder.’ Continue reading →

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Small Screen Slashers – Trapped

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Christian Sellers

The same year that he fought Yul Brynner to the death in the science fiction classic Westworld, thirty-two year old James Brolin was forced to flee for his life through a closed department store from vicious guard dogs. Produced by Universal TV and debuting on ABC in 1973, Trapped would be overshadowed by Brolin’s big screen success and would remain overlooked and underappreciated, a fate many made-for-television films would suffer. A simple premise with few locations and characters, Trapped would make full use of its claustrophobic environment, whilst also fuelling the same kind of fear of dogs that Cujo would conjure up a decade later. Continue reading →

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Stan Winston and the Slasher Film

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Christian Sellers

In the otherwise excellent book The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio, aside from a brief mention of the Friday the 13th sequels Stan Winston’s early work in the slasher genre was strangely omitted. This dismissal was not only reserved for the slice ‘n’ dice cycle, however, as both the overlooked splatter classic Mansion of the Doomed and the atmospheric thriller Dead & Buried were also overlooked. There was a section set aside from many of his earlier projects, ranging from the made-for-TV movie Gargoyles to the Star Wars Holiday Special, yet the first genre picture to receive significant page space was James Cameron’s sci-fi slasher The Terminator. Continue reading →

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A Retro Slasher Salute to USA Network 1985-1995

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Thomas Ellison

These days USA Network is known for wrasslin’, Law & Order marathons, and hip original shows like Burn Notice.  Back in the 1980s and early 1990s USA featured some really wild and crazy shows, the kind of shows that stay with impressionable young children long after they’ve turned old and gray.  So here’s a fond look back at some of the programs on USA Network that corrupted my youth. Continue reading →

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Troma’s Mother’s Day Coming To Blu-Ray

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Dusk

A remake may be out in a few weeks and an appendage-movie in Father’s Day later, but June 7 brings Mother’s Day (1980) home on blu-ray. Not typical Troma fare at all, but back then 80’s Troma wasn’t really Troma yet. I always found the flick somewhat atypical and unsafe. The opening scene pulls a real con on slasher tropes, and once the ladies are in over their head, story structure falls apart for a seemingly never-ending loop of degradation. Of course it’s all set-up for another reversal, this time comeuppance for the villains. It’ll be interesting to see how well this grungy movie scrubs up for BD – not too well I hope! Read on for cover art & extras. Continue reading →

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Is Mass Market Horror Fiction Dead?

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Thomas Ellison

Over the last thirty years the market for horror novels has exploded, dried up to almost nothing, found new life through the splatterpunk movement, died off again, and then made a comeback through Leisure Books’ line of mass market horror novels.  Last September, Leisure shut down their paperback lines with all future publications coming out in electronic form.  Now that the biggest horror publisher is out of the game horror writers are scrambling to find new outlets for their work.  Horror fiction has suffered many set backs before but this time it looks like the genre is down for the count. Continue reading →

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