Dead Of Night - Hugo

I went with a couple of friends yesterday for our, slightly earlier than usual, Halloween meet-up, and we ended up in Deal. Taking the chance to visit the Museum of the Moving Image there, which is a house run by a couple of enthusiastic collectors supplemented by volunteers, I would well recommend a trip to this museum. Chronicling early pre-cinema days of shadow plays and magic lanterns the museum moves forward through the early years of cinema and has a fabulous collection of old posters and ephemera mainly from the Ealing films era. There's not so much on modern films or too many different genres, but this is a small museum and hopefully over the next few years will rotate some of their collection and exhibitions.

Anyway apart from buying a biography of Boris Karloff from their second-hand books shelf, we all had a laugh at the display containing one of the most odd merchandising toys ever sold.

A firm favourite of mine is the 1945 British portmanteau horror film 'Dead of Night,' so imaging our surprise to pull out a drawer and see a Hugo ventriloquist's dummy in front of our eyes! I can't imagine why, if you have seen the film you would have ever wanted to buy your child one of these disturbing toys!

Monday 21st October 2019

Carry On Screaming

Well it's not really a Halloween post... but whilst on a walk in the town of Deal yesterday I walked past the house of the late Charles Hawtrey, and since he starred in 'Carry On Screaming' I thought the photos deserved posting.

Monday 26th August 2019

A Musical Pazuzu!

I know the event has passed, but hats off to Romney Marsh Morris dancers who used a picture of Pazuzu (the demon from The Exorcist) playing an accordion to advertise their Halloween dance! I saw the poster in a shop in New Romney on my way to Rye yesterday.

Thursday 2nd November 2018

John Carpenter at the Shepherds Bush Empire, 16th October 2018

Thought I'd better put a few pictures up of last night's gig and my pre-Halloween treat to myself!

The gig ran for c75 minutes and the setlist is as follows. Absolute magic!

Escape From New York: Main Title

Assault on Precinct 13: Main Title

The Fog: Main Title Theme

Vortex (from Lost Themes)

Mystery (from Lost Themes)

They Live: Coming to L.A.

Starman: Starman Leaves

The Thing: Main Theme - Desolation

Distant Dream (from Lost Themes II)

Big Trouble in Little China: Pork Chop Express

Halloween 2018: The Shape Hunts

Halloween Theme: Main Title

In the Mouth of Madness: In the Mouth of Madness

Encore:

Body Bags

Vampires: Santiago

Prince of Darkness: Darkness Begins

Christine: Christine Attacks (Plymouth Fury)

Wednesday 17th October 2018

Goblin play Suspiria at The Union Chapel

Well, in terms of anticipation, the gig of the year so far. Hopefully, I won't get sued for using the band moniker 'Goblin'! To be honest I get confused with the amount of times the band Goblin have reformed and fallen out and due to legal reasons called themselves 'New Goblin', 'Goblin Keys', 'Goblin Four Of A Kind', 'Cherry Red' or 'Goblin Rebirth'...

Anyway, 'Claudio Simonetti's Goblin', a.k.a. 'Daemonia' was the band I had on my list of ten bands to see before I die. And although Simonetti is only one of the members of Goblin; film director Dario Argento has used him to score several subsequent films in a solo capacity after the initial dissolution of Goblin; so I guess he is still the member the majority of horror fans want to see play live.

I'd never been to Union Chapel in Islington before last night, and it was a great venue in terms of atmosphere and sound quality, although next time I might just bring a cushions as the church pews which provide the seating are somewhat hard!

An eclectic mix of people enjoyed Simonetti and his band perform the soundtrack to Dario Argento's film Suspiria live along to the screening of the film. I was about 5 rows back from the stage with two friends from Folkestone and a row behind the TV presenter and film aficionado Jonathon Ross. Bizarrely, across the aisle to my right was someone I know who lives less than half a mile from me, and who I never knew was a fan of Argento movies or Goblin's music... Actually after the gig I got to speak of him and I think the evening was a bit of an eye opener for him as he was visiting friends in London and not previously a fan of either!

And as for the concert / film, did it deliver? You bet it did!

Saturday 18th August 2018

Cinema in 1985

Only a few adverts from this year. I saw clips from Lifeforce at the time but never saw it at the cinema - what an underrated movie let down by an underwhelming title - they should've stuck with Colin Wilson's book title 'The Space Vampires.'

Anyway, interesting to see The Black Cauldron come round again in this year. I did see Dune, but whilst A Nightmare On Elm Street was showing, I would've been watching Mel & Tina in Mad Max 3!

Tuesday 11th October 2017

Cinema in 1984 Part 2

Just a few more images from 1984. I must admit I can't remember the re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark in March, but presumably it was to get people in the spirit prior to Temple of Doom over the summer holidays. I've never seen Nick Nolte in Under Fire, but strangely now possess a copy of the soundtrack on CD as it is performed by the jazz guitarist Pat Metheny.

But the best of the crop or 1984 was Gremlins. Ghostbusters disappointed in my opinion. And the less said about Ewoks the better! I erred on the side of caution on that one and, not wishing to undermine any street credibility I may have had at the time, didn't go to see it.

Thursday 28th September 2017

Cinema in 1984 Part 1

Again... I was too young to get into an 18 or X certificate. 1984 was the first year I managed to sneak into a 15 cert. aged almost 14. So whilst others were able to see the likes of Stephen King classics of Christine, The Dead Zone and Creepshow, I was still enthusing about: Star Trek 3, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the 15 certificated, Police Academy!

Tuesday 26th September 2017

Cinema in Folkestone in 1983 Part 2

Well here are the rest of my Folkestone cinema adverts for 1983... and I'll start with two I actually went to see: 'Never Say Never Again' is a passable Bond movie, non-canonical, and basically a remake of Thunderball. Good to see Max Von Sydow as Blofeld and an up and coming Kim Basinger as a Bond girl... but the less said about Rowan Atkinson the better! Anyway, I enjoyed it more than Superman 3, which after the fabulous Superman 2, just failed to deliver for me - mainly due to Richard Pryor and the overall comedic tone of the movie.

Unfortunately I was still too young to see the raft of great horror that I had to wait to see either on TV or on VHS. Instead of watching zombies I was more eager to see 'Return of the Jedi' - again let's quickly pass over the Ewoks!

I thought I came across both Cronenberg's 'Scanners' and 'Videodrome' through Alex Cox's excellent BBC 2 Moviedrome series of cult movies, which he hosted from 1988 to 1994 (before handing over the reins to Mark Cousins). However it's strange how one's memory deceives, as after researching, it was only 'Dead Ringers' that I saw on Moviedrome, and I must've come across the other two independently in the late 80's.

'Long live the new flesh!'

Tuesday 19th September 2017

Cinema in Folkestone in 1983 Part 1

A few more adverts unearthed from the vaults... Again a good year for horror and fantasy cinema. Sadly Don Coscarelli's 'Beastmaster' was one I managed to overlook somehow. Aged 12 I could have made it into this PG rated film - perhaps I just didn't hear about it at the time, as it's a firm favourite and addition to my BluRay library now...

Jim Henson's 'Dark Crystal' is my favourite Jim Henson creation... well perhaps tied with the TV series 'The Storyteller'. And it was so great to visit the Jim Henson exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image on London's South Bank, shortly after his death, and see the actual props used in the film. For me this was so much better that 'Labyrinth' - and that's coming from a huge David Bowie fan!

Again two classics that I was too young to see on the big screen. 'Halloween 3' was shown on British TV not too long after, as I remember taping it on Betamax. A bit of a marmite film for some, but I've always loved it and found it offers so much more that the stalk and slash of all the other Halloween films.

'The Evil Dead' was something I had to wait until the late 80s to see on VHS.

Monday 18th September 2017

So what were you watching in 1981? Part 3

So, the final batch of adverts for 1981 from the local newspaper... and in this batch I was actually old enough to go and see: Clash of the Titans, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Time Bandits. Sadly I had to wait until Outland appeared on late night TV a few years later in the 1980s and The Funhouse on a DVD that I picked up quite cheap recently. But all now are firm favourites...

Sunday 27th August 2017

So what were you watching in 1981? Part 2

Here's another batch of cinema adverts from Folkestone's Curzon and Hythe's Classic cinemas.

The only one I saw here at the time was Chariots of Fire... however Motel Hell, Hawk The Slayer and the German film Christiane F (starring Bowie) have both since become favourites).

Saturday 25th August 2017