BL-24 - Flipbook - Page 110
C U LT U R E & A RT S
But I do miss the days where to get
hold of an uncut copy of Zombie 2
was akin to stumbling across a lost
Caravaggio. The illicit thrill! The crap
quality! The Horror! A few taps on a
keyboard just aren’t quite the same.
EIGHT
FAVOURITES
Yes, I know, there’s no Nosferatu, The
Bride of Frankenstein, The Innocents,
Dracula (Lugosi and Lee), Rosemary’s
Baby, Don’t Look Now, Carrie, The
Exorcist, The Omen, Halloween, The
Shining, Alien, The Thing, Evil Dead
1 and 2, Audition, The Ring, The
Descent, Hereditary and Midsommer.
But I assume you’ve seen them all
anyway. If you haven’t, why not? Go
away, and get watching.
mostly in the daytime (no gloomy
gothic castles here), Tobe Hooper’s
dusty, grimy masterpiece starts off
with a gibbering nutter (one of the
murderous family, obvs) slicing his
hand open, and builds to a nearunbearable crescendo of tension and
terror. All set to the most jarring and
discordant of soundtracks. Yet there’s
dark humour here (the supper scene is
jet black), alongside a couple of great
jump shots.
camp as Lord Summerisle, while Britt
Ekland writhes and pouts as only
she can. It all builds to an incendiary
climax. Altogether now – “Christ! No,
no dear God! No, Christ!”
The Wicker Man (1973)
SUSPIRIA
Don’t come to Dario Argento’s
greatest work expecting linear
plots, coherent dialogue or anything
that really makes any real sense.
Just immerse yourselves in his
mesmerically brilliant, colour
drenched visuals, his splenetic editing,
and terror-soaked vision of hell.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The plot involves a young ballerina
coming to a famous German ballet
school, which is also the home of
some ancient witches. Thow in a
harsh, prickly Goblins score, a neck
hungry dog, bloody pits of razor wire,
and a batshit-crazy 昀椀nal act. Argento
at his 昀椀nest.
THE
WICKER MAN
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
THE TEXAS
CHAINSAW
MASSACRE
For a 昀椀lm with such a brilliant (and
brilliantly lurid) title, the gore is
actually pretty restrained. Set in the
searing heat of a Texas summer, and
Possibly the greatest British 昀椀lm of
all time. Robin Hardy’s folk horror
classic may not be splattered with
blood and guts. But it’s strange,
subtle and endlessly unsettling,
a 昀椀lm that lingers in the darkest
recesses of the imagination. And from
the moment Neil Howie (Edward
Woodward’s God-fearing copper) 昀氀ies
into Summerisle from the Scottish
mainland – in search of Rowan, a
young girl who has gone missing –
you know it’s not going to end well.
There are folk songs and priapic
pagans, lusty couplings and sumptuous
wigs. Christopher Lee is wickedly
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ISSUE 24
Suspiria (1976)
