Tag: horror

Mary Shelley’s timeless masterwork FRANKENSTEIN was first published 200 years ago. Mary began writing the book when she was still a teenager, and it is now recognised as not only a landmark work of Gothic literature, but also arguably the first true science fiction novel. It is through cinema, though, that most have come to know her immortal creation, beginning in 1910 with the first film adaptation, a silent movie generally known as the Edison FRANKENSTEIN (it was produced by the famous inventor Thomas Edison). The film’s director deliberately downplayed the story’s horrific elements, and the resulting 14 minute film is more of an amusing, pioneering oddity than a horror classic.

‘Where there is no imagination there is no horror.’ Arthur Conan Doyle

Horror fans seldom greet the news of yet another Hollywood remake with much enthusiasm. It usually involves a well-loved classic being cynically resurrected as a cash-in. But if the team behind the revival are sufficiently interesting, or the film in question adequately iconic, then its possible to make exceptions.

Ghost stories have long been traditionally associated with Christmas, and a good spinechiller can prove a welcome spooky antidote to the saccharine sentimentality of the season. Anyone likely to be in the Liverpool area over the next few weeks, who fancies an evening of ghosts and goosebumps, should check out The Haunting of Hill House, the new production at the city’s Playhouse Theatre. It comes with an impressive pedigree, adapted from a 1959 novel by America’s queen of psychological horror Shirley Jackson, staged in association with the legendary Gothic film studio Hammer.

Alchemy’s resident horror fiend Gavin Baddeley attends a lot of horror festivals, but he reckons the Welsh event, Abertoir, is among the best. So we asked him to report back on the best new fear flicks that previewed at 2015’s six day Aberystwyth marathon of the macabre…

If Selfridges can open their Christmas shop at the start of August, we don’t think it’s too early to get excited about Halloween!

Decades after his death in 1993, Vincent Price remains one of cinema’s most distinctive and distinguished Gothic icons.