A History Of Horror With Mark Gatiss... Coming soon to BBC Four.

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dreedy3

New member
The level of creativity between 31 and 33 was incredible.Frankenstein,Dracula,Freaks,Wax Museum and Dr Jekyll had some real vision attached to them.Obviously they had nothing much to follow but the people working on them had great imagination and talent nonetheless.
 
BBC4 in particular suffers terribly from lack of publicity by the BBC itself. A BBC4 programme about horror probably ranks as low as it gets in terms of media-promotability. Sad but true.
 
As with a lot of old cinema, you need to atune to its wavelengh. I guess you either can or you can't. But you did miss a classic.

As for the Gatiss prog - okay in a lightweight, affecionate way I suppose.
 
This looks like it could be a good series to watch. :D

.....
Mark Gatiss celebrates the horror film in a new three-part series for BBC Four.

Mark begins his exploration of the genre by looking at the golden age of Hollywood horror of the Thirties and Forties and examines some iconic pictures directed by Englishman James Whale (Frankenstein, The Old Dark House and Bride Of Frankenstein), who lent the films a camp sensibility, and populated them with a largely British ex-pat cast.

The second episode concentrates on the complete reinterpretation of the genre. In the 1958 remake of Dracula, the original vampire with heavy face and foul breath was gone and along came the Byronic Count in the shape of Christopher Lee, a blooRABucker of almost gentlemanly proportions. It was at this time that horror films turned from black and white to colour and began to feature an element of sex, tapping into an increasingly permissive society.

The last programme in the series explores the gritty and graphic new wave of horror cinema from Night Of The Living Dead in 1968 to the movie Halloween ten years later, the first of the great slew of slasher films which were to dominate the next decade. Mark details the shifts in the horror genre, and meets leading film-makers from the era.
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theres been quite a bit of advertising for this though, more than I've seen for a bbc 4 show in a while

it was great tonight can't wait for next weeks one
 
This seems as good a thread as any to ask:

Has anyone bought the (finally) dvd issue of Curse of the Werewolf, starring Oliver Reed?

Its not clear what the aspect ratio is from amazon? Could anyone tell me what its been released in?

If its pan'n'scan I probably won't bother...
 
I agree with that criticism, even though I enjoyed the program. No mention of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"? And James Whale's "Frankenstein" was influenced by the "Golem" films.
 
Agreed. I've stated before on RAB that it feels very much like the BBC resents the channel and would rather it didn't exist. How else can you explain so liittle promotion? I bet they'd scrap it if they could.
 
I asked Mark Gatiss what the chances are of a follow up series covering 90s/00s Japanese and Europe? he said "Slim alas!" :(

On his Twitter he answered this (sorry don't know what the question was) - Thank you very much! Stay tuned for Barbaras Steele & Shelley, Roger Corman, Jimmy Sangster, Piers Haggard & many more...
 
quote from recent interview -

'In the final episode you mention that there have been some standout films since Halloween, which are your favourites?'

'The Shining. The Fog. American Werewolf. The Thing. Evil Dead II. Salem's Lot. Silence of the Lambs...'

I demand a 4th episode!!!:D
 
Nope sorry!:(

I copy and pasted everything it had on the BBC coming soon page for it.
Using logic I would say over the Halloween weekend perhaps.
 
That would be a nightmare scenario. :eek:



Yes, that's true. Radio Times could have done more though - they had only a small paragrah in the day's choices part.




Thanks for that - I wasn't aware of this. The old BBC double bills were an excellent way for viewers to see these films before the video age. Even though they're easily available nowadays, I can't help but feel that the lack of TV outings is closing them off to a new generation who won't otherwise receive any introduction to the films. I was mentioning this only the other day on RAB with regard to the similar situation of the lack of Laurel & Hardy films now being shown on TV.

Anyway, I'm off now to try to at last watch watch A History of Horror.
 
It was a good program and I realise it was a personal journey for Gatiss but I did think it could have had 5 minutes on the start of horror in cinema. A mention of the first horrors from Japan and Europe and maybe a mention of Nosferatu etc.
 
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