Interviews

Here are some interviews I've conducted with various people involved in the world of horror: from film directors, actors and musicians, to authors, academics and critics...














Popular posts from this blog

The Butterfly Room

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2012 Dir. Jonathan Zarantonello Featuring a strong female cast comprised of renowned veterans of the genre, The Butterfly Room is headed by the fabulous and formidable Barbara Steele ( Black Sunday, Nightmare Castle, Pit and the Pendulum, Silent Scream , Shivers ), who delivers a mesmeric performance as maniacal matriarch Ann. Mentally unstable yet strangely vulnerable, her vanquished relationship with estranged daughter Dorothy (Heather Langenkamp) drives her to weave maternal bonds around a young girl called Alice (Julia Putnam). It turns out enigmatic Alice is not what she seems though, and has a few dark secrets of her own. Shocking revelations push an already unstable Ann over the edge as she seeks to preserve her relationship with Alice at any cost... With its mix of melodrama, Grand Guignol camp and tragic pathos, and its casting of a sensational older star in the role of a severely unhinged recluse, The Butterfly Room echoes 'hagsploitation' creepers such as C...
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Burrishoole Abbey

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As mentioned in my post about Abney Park Cemetery , I like wandering around graveyards – the older the better - and taking photos. I’ve been staying outside Newport, County Mayo, with friends for the last few days, and much to my morbid delight was able to visit the ruins of Burrishoole Abbey and the cemetery that surrounds it. Situated upon a sheltered shore just outside the town, the abbey was founded in 1470 by Richard de Burgo of Turlough - Lord MacWilliam Oughter - and apparently built without the permission of the Pope. In 1793 the roof of the abbey collapsed and because almost all the friaries and abbeys across Ireland were suppressed in the wake of the Reformation in the 16th century, it was never rebuilt. All that remains today is the rather gothic looking church and the eastern wall of the cloister, while the grounds are still used as a cemetery. The close proximity of the cemetery to the sea and the eerie atmosphere such combined imagery evokes, really reminded me of th...
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Random Creepy Scene #2,786: Insidious

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As I’ve mentioned on here before, I consider myself quite a hardened horror fan. It takes a lot to actually scare me. The stuff I find that tends to inflict sleepless nights upon me is low-key, subtly suggestive material, not wall to wall gore. The last film I saw that truly ‘scared’ me was Insidious . In it, a family who believe their house is haunted eventually realise that their comatose son has been attracting evil spirits who want to possess his body, while his soul is stuck in a permanent state of astral projection, lost in a shadowy realm where the dead don’t rest easy. Even though the film follows a vulnerable young family and the inconceivable forces that stalk them, Insidious still has a cold, often detached feel which really enhances its ability to disturb. Perforated with unsettling imagery, methodically orchestrated jump scares, moments of flesh-creeping dread and (for the most part) a slow-burning and ominous atmosphere, Insidious is a well crafted and unnervin...
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