The vampire: that harbinger of everlasting life and eternal damnation. From the cloaked gothic majesty of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” to the down and dirty night-crawlers of Kathryn Bigelow’s “Near Dark”, vampire’s have formed the basis for more literary and cinematic horror than any other fictional creature.
Early cinematic incarnations of the blood-sucking sun-haters were based on Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Infamously, Friedrich Murnau made “Nosferatu” in Germany without acquiring the rights to film the novel. After a lawsuit, all copies of the film were ordered to be destroyed. The film …

“Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a DeLorean”: The Magic of Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis was once asked if television was a bad influence on children. He answered, emphatically, “television isn’t an education, but I see no reason to turn it off.” What would so many television-starved children give for Zemeckis as a babysitter, or indeed a father: ‘Can I pur-lease watch more TV?’/’Of course you can!’ He was a product of the television generation – this new visual medium that found its way into most …

Part of our “Top10Films: Dustin Hoffman” feature
Dir. Bob Fosse; screenplay by Julian Barry; starring Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner, Stanley Beck
Considered by many US-based critics as a film lacking the sort of anti-establishment relish that made its origin of study the darling of counter-culture 1950s and 1960s Americana, “Lenny” plays better in the United Kingdom where mainstream media is more open to the real meaning of the comedian’s ‘blah blah blah’ skit and other obscene eccentricities. Frequently, we see Hollywood actors, musicians, and comic stars appear on talk shows …

Part of the Top10Films: Dustin Hoffman feature
Dir. Alan J. Pakula; screenplay by William Goldman; starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Jason Robards, Ned Beatty
My first cinematic introduction to the Watergate saga arrived in the form a simpleton named Forrest Gump phoning the police after seeing some people burglarising the building across from his hotel. Of course, at the time I was eleven years old and neither understood the reference or had much interest in it. Watching the film now, the moment is another lovely touch in the …

Sam Peckinpah’s notorious Straw Dogs was banned in the UK for many years. Finally released uncut in 2002 audiences could make up there own mind about the film’s hard-hitting and shocking violence that includes a protracted double rape of a young woman. Whatever way you perceive the film it is undoubtedly a thought-provoking and intense piece of work. Daniel Stephens attempts to pick apart the film’s underlying message.

The allure of the single location film
Films set in a single location (or predominantly in a single location) have always fascinated me. Perhaps it’s their theatre roots, as many single-location films derive from the work of playwrights. The consequence of that is strong characterisation, an emphasis on good acting, and tight control of plot that usually takes place over a few hours.
Another reason I am a fan of single location (and indeed single day films or those set over a short prescribed period of time) derives from my distaste …

Clint Eastwood may be to many casual filmgoers the gun-toting authoritarian Harry Callahan from the “Dirty Harry” movies, or perhaps the man with no name from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, or more recently Frankie Dunn in “Million Dollar Baby. He’s an iconic Hollywood figure who has embodied some of the world’s most recognisable characters in many of the most prominent films of the last fifty years. But he’s also as accomplished behind the camera as he is in front of it, directing such classics as “Play Misty For Me”, “The …

Warning: the following top 10 list contains graphic images of sex and violence.
Let’s face it, it’s only a matter of time before the dead rise and feast on the living. If it’s not experimental government farm machinery or a space probe returning from Venus, it’s going to be some ungodly Warlock opening the gates of Hell that’ll send them shuffling forth. And when that time comes, I don’t intend to have my brains eaten. No, siree. So these ten films are shown on a continual loop …