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

Great series ... and I found out in episode 2 that the hotel that was used as the location for many of the Hammer films and also 'The Rock Horror Picture Show' is where I will be eating/staying over for the works Christmas do. :eek:

Can't wait
 
It's remarkable how much impact the old Universal horrors have had. If you asked a 10 year old to draw Frankenstein's monster, they will draw the one depicted by Boris Karloff with the flat head and the neck bolts. They've never seen the film, but that design is so iconic and absorbed into popular culture, it's become the standard.

Same with Dracula, Bela Lugosi's Dracula has become so famous that most depictions replicate it, and it's become the template. Bram Stoker in his novel never said anything about a black collared cape, a white waistcoat or slick backed hair, but Universal's artistic license has become the norm. If you go into a fancy dress shop every dracula outfit will be based on Lugosi's version.
 
The Amazon listings mention the director/cast commentary is on both discs.
I wasn't even aware of the other commentary even though I have the Tigon boxset.

Tigon made some very collectible films .
It's a shame that most of them are not in the boxset.

Just got The PlaybirRAB with Mary Millington , didn't even realise it was Tigon.
I have the Tigon book in the loft which I shall have to dig out
 
That brought back memories of staying up late on Friday night to watch a horror movie in the 70's and early 80's. Mind you, I disagree with his comments about the later Hammer movies, I quite enjoyed the naughty ones with Ingrid Pitt :)

It was also nice to see a part of the programme devoted to Peter Cushing, a much under appreciated actor.
 
I belive the two commentaries are different, though I haven't either release, only the most recent commentary-free one.

Tigon produced some interesting material. Mary Millington was a lovely, tragic figure. Her Come Play With Me was also a Tigon film and was also released as a SE DVD.
 
I'll be watching later on as I'll be recording Spooks & Horizon at 9... once Only Connect finishes. Monday night's TV is much too good.

I fear though there may well be nothing new in this series, but I hope not. I've read the press releases and each show looks as though it will be dealing with the 'usual suspects': Universal B&W, Hammer & then the 1970s ending with Halloween in 1978. There's certainly no mention therein of either Mario Bava or Drio Argento (and it's probably an impossibility to expect Jean Rollin or Jess Franco to get even a mention). If so, then it will be disappointing for this viewer.
 
yep, episode 2 was great but I have to disagree with him over his sternly delivered first line that 'Hammer wasn't camp!', IMO it was the epitome of camp.
Actually looking back at those Hammer clips I found it hard to feel any fondness for them, not even on a nostalgic level. Admittedly that made a few good ones but on the whole I thought they were pretty naff.
 
This has been very good so far. The fact that I'm also about the same age as Gatiss means that I remember these films being on TV in exactly the same way. I distinctly remember being terrified the first time I saw "Asylum" as a fairly young lad (and rather delighted to see the later Hammer films with plenty of gratuitous female nudity :-)

The old Hollywood classics of the 30s and 40s used to get a regular outing on TV as well. We don't see anywhere near enough of the old classics these days.
 
From what I've seen of him over the years he seems to suffer from the same afflication as most critics ie "My opinion is the only one that counts and thus is far more important than yours"
 
Glad someone else mentioned it. I thought the music was excellent throughout.

Strange as there is a another thread about the use of intrusive background music in programs but this one got it just right.
 
I think the director/cast commentary is the same on both discs.
Just ordered Come Play With Me too.
I helped make that ripoff bastard Sullivan a millionaire.

When CPWM was made he published outright lies regarding an uncut continental version of Come Play With Me and sold thousanRAB of crappy porno mags with the promise that stills from this version would appear .

These days he would get locked up for such mis-selling.
I even got sent a copy of a crap UK porn mag with a new "foreign" cover attached to it instead to try and pass it off as something that it wasn't.

If this had been 10 years later I would have done something about it but I was only about 15/16 at the time.:o
 
Thought it was a wonderful programme! I really wish the BBC would make more shows like this - their Film Noir season with documentary was also absolutely excellent.

I would not have had a clue this programme was on if not for the OP, so thanks for bringing it to attention with this thread. Why don't the BBC advertise these programmes more? I bet many more people would watch if they had a clue they were on.
 
It's good they're showing Tenebrae - don't think it gets shown much. Suspiria is really the only one that gets an outing. Looking forward to the blu-ray release of Tenebrae to add to Suspirai & Inferno + the other forthcoming releases.

Hopefully I will now be able to watch tonight's programme earlier than I thought, at the time of the repeat transmission. From the above comments, it seems to have been OK.
 
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