In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham told Congress that EC Comics were creating juvenile delinquents. That horror comics like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror were warping young minds with their gleeful violence and moral ambiguity. The Comics Code Authority formed, EC folded, and an entire generation grew up being told those comics had … Read more
If you grew up haunting video stores in the ‘80s, this awkwardly cut-down 112 minute movie length version of Salem’s Lot was all you could dig up. A far cry from the 3 hour Tobe Hooper adaptation that aired in ’79. Whole subplots vanished. Character beats were snuffed. But for many of us who missed … Read more
Some movies just come out of nowhere and hit you like a semi truck… at least that was my experience when i snuck into a screening back in the spring of ’89. My burgeoning cinematic snobbery had me feeling fairly aloof to some of the then-recent King adaptions – don’t get me wrong, I read … Read more
By 1982, the heyday of the ’60s and ’70s Amicus horror anthologies was long past, and even mainstream horror comic books (thriving at Marvel and DC since the early ’70s) were winding down. Ghost Rider was flaming out, and The House of Mystery was up for sale. Many of these concepts would later get revamped, … Read more
When is a Creepshow movie not a Creepshow movie? When it’s based on the Tales From The Darkside TV show (1983-1988), which itself is an adaptation of the Creepshow idea into a syndicated television series. But Laurel (George A. Romero and Richard P. Rubinstein’s production company which produced the film) couldn’t secure the rights to … Read more
I just love a good Stephen King baddie. And Max von Sydow’s Leland Gaunt is one of his best – he’s elegant, sinister, and having the time of his life watching Castle Rock burn. It’s a masterclass in restrained villainy. He’s the sort of evil that just nudges the door open and lets a person’s … Read more
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve…” This film appeared in my life as I awkwardly began navigating Junior High – being shoved into that heady time when early burgeoning social pressures crept in and started edging me outside my childhood comfort zones. I’d spent a … Read more
David Cronenberg showed uncharacteristic restraint when he adapted Stephen King’s 1979 novel into something that moves between supernatural thriller and political thriller. King’s style in the ‘70s wasn’t so much about the things that go bump in the night – he was more interested in why they do. He filled his stories with ordinary people … Read more
When Silver Bullet came out in 1985, it arrived near the end of a brief but pointed wave of werewolf films. What’s striking is how each one used the same myth to explore different topics. The Howling looked at the tension between instinct and control – how civilised people convince themselves they’re not beasts. American … Read more