A History Of Horror With Mark Gatiss

I loved the bit of footage showing Peter Cushing and Vincent Price being interviewed. Cushing looks a bit the worst for wear, but Price is in full on, horror effect make up and the caption comes up saying 'On set 1973'.

No shit Sherlock :D
 
Hammer is like Marmite, either you like it or hate it

The Dracula and Frankenstein films were absolutely top notch with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing playing their respective roles to perfection

Shame they didn't build on the werewolf and zombie films

And it's nice to see the company coming back, can't wait to see The Woman in Black when it comes out....Whether Daniel Radcliffe can pull off the Arthur Kipps role remains to be seen
 
Again another top notch programme, yes a few key films were missed out but hey he had to summarise about 15 years worth of heavy horror production in 1 hour. Thankyou Mark Gatiss for acknowledging Amicus and their own unique style. Far too many retrospectives relegate Amicus to a footnote.

Also I think Gatiss was very fair. He was completely right to take Hammer to task for their latter output, those lesbian vampire movies really were on the whole pretty poor, and Hammer did start taking quality control out of the equation. But Hammer in their heyday really were great. It's so remarkable how it all happened, how much Hammer punched above it's weight. I loved the tribute to Peter Cushing, one of my favourites too ( I was always fascinated by the bone structure of his face :) ). How lucky we are that as fate would have it 3 wonderful stars of the genre peak at the same time in an era of peak horror production (Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee)

Interestingly enough now is a very important time for the reborn 'Hammer' they are the main producers of the English language remake of Let The Right One In, and they have just Green Lit 'the Woman in Black'. Whilst i know the 60s glory days of Hammer will not happen again, i hope the relaunched Hammer is successful as an independent studio. I've become embarrassed by how much UK film production is ultimately down to American money and pandering to an American audience nowadays.
 
Agree completely - an excellent interview with the great man, with such a considered, thoughtful answer to the question. Makes me very proud to be a fan of horror.
 
I've a suspicion that Gatiss like others of us over a certain age have little time for modern horror and its excesses ;) A bit like rock music - ones tastes never get beyond whatever one was listening to up mid 20s. After that point its all noise. :p

Edit I see Dawn is in 4:3, a bit dissapointing

Re versions - comments above me and below me The edit is the Cannes edit which BBC2 screened in their Forbidden season in 1997
 
I agree, after seeing the programme i was very interested in both Hammer and seeing those 2 films in paticular.

I was also interested in seeing The Quatermass Xperiment and glad to notice that its on BBC 4 tonight :)
 
Have recorded the last episode to watch later, but did watch some of Dawn of the Dead.

Have to say, regardless or which version it was, that is a classic horror film - so much better and more atmospheric, and scary (in my opinion) than the remake.

Yes the make-up isn't as good as todays (or even 1985's Day of the Dead) standarRAB, and the blood looked fake, but the gore level and effects were good for the time.

Out of all horror films, it's Zombies that 'scare' me the most, but not the recent ones - just the 70's/80's Romero and Fulci ones, for some reason.

They don't have to run/be quick - that just doesn't worry me - its just the 'dread' of the numbers growing, and even though they 'shuffle' about, you kind guess they'd get you in the end.
 
I thought that to. 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.

But overall it was still a good program. I suppose you have to pick and choose otherwise it would be an 8 parter (and some would say why not? ;))
 
I'm not really a horror movie fan myself but this series has been very good so far. It's great to see someone intelligent talking about something that they know a lot about and clearly love.

I'm not familiar with most of the films shown in the clips but it's interesting to see some of the elements that appear to have inspired characters and situations in The League of Gentlemen and Psychoville (which I know Gatiss didn't write but I assume that the other two fellows share his taste in gothic horror).
 
I was also pleased to see Mario + Barbara Steele (see the other thread I mention above for my comments). Lucas's All the Colors of the Dark is truly massive at over 1100 pages; Troy Howart's Haunted World of MB is slightly easier to lift at a mere 350 pages.
 
When films end production they usually have miles more footage than is necessary .
Then its down to the work of the director and editor to cut the film into what the director wants before the finished product goes to cinemas.

The long version of DOTD is a version of the film that was available BEFORE this editing process was complete and before the full music track was laid which is why its inferior.

Unlike other extended versions which usually appear after the directors original cut has been screened and he then goes back sometimes and adRAB previously cut scenes that were perhaps cut to shorten the film for cinemas or cut for other reasons.

DOTD Long Version is an UNFINISHED product - its not the original version with some bits put back in , its the work in progress before it went to the cinema but it was all that Romero had when he was asked if he wanted to premier the film at the Cannes Film Festival.

Not wanting to miss such a marketing opportunity he had no choice but to send the film in the state it was currently in at that point.

Somehow copies of the long version surfaced a few years later but they were subsequently withdrawn and the long version became a bit of a legend.

When a company wanted to market the long version on Laserdisc in the mid 90's , part of the contract was that they were able to sell it as The Directors Cut which was clearly better than " the long version".

So it was misleadingly sold on LD and early dvd under that banner.
Once that deal was ended Romero was able to admit that the directors cut is the cinema version
 
Well Gatiss did state at the start this series would be entirely subjective to him, so i suppose thats his get out clause. I don't think the series is trying to be a authoratative 'history of horror' I think it's Gatiss' opinion of what were the 3 main Golden Ages and eras.
 
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