A History Of Horror With Mark Gatiss

I think there has been some real American horror gems post 1978 :
Candyman
Remakes of The Fly and The Thing
Evil Dead II
Child's Play (Not exactly original or high art,but neat and underrated)
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Scream

While in no way is it perfect, A Nightmare on Elm Street was extremely inventive and very effective at the time; easily the second best of the original slasher craze.

Paranormal Activity,Blair Witch Project,Sixth Sense and The Others deserve credit for taking things back to basics.

Calling the first Saw "torture porn" is way off the mark IMO.I can understand why people would deride the sequels,but the first is more like a lesser budgeted horror version of Se7en.It's underrated IMO and deserves credit for mixing genres and playing off the old twist angle.
 
Great programme, really held my attention. Usually I get the fidgets & multitask, but this was fascinating.

I love all the old era Hollywood history, Gloria Stuart was wonderful.
 
Is ToB a true horror classic though? There's plenty of blood and not too little gore but not sure I would have it down as a classic. It's an enjoyable film all the same.
 
Well with "fast" zombies...
Not really zombies per se but 28 Days later has.

Dawn of the dead (remake) hints at survivors but again its open to interpretation with the end credits.
Most slow zombie films hint at the end it may be safe...or may not be...DUN DUN DUN!!
 
Watching that last night has convinced me I really have to attempt to sit through all of Texas Chainsaw Massacre...there's something about the way that movie is filmed, it just disturbs me like no other film ever has. Just the sense of helplessness and absolutely inane, pyschotic madness that pervades throughout it - and as was mentioned in the program, the sound design is terrifying.

Disappointed that Gatiss chose to completely overlook modern horror. The first Saw film (and ONLY the first), Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, and more recently Paranormal Activity and Drag Me To Hell, are all excellently made horror films. The criticism of identikit slashers/torture porn was justified, but I was disappointed he chose to go with the old-man view of "everything was better in my day".
 
Tonight's final ep did have a very rushed feel about it, yes. :(

I'd like to see more documentaries about horror. If not presented by Gatiss, then someone else.

I think the 80s horror genre deserves a documentary all of its own. Admittedly, I may be biased - those were the first horror flicks I was exposed to growing up, being born in '83. :p
 
Films like scream and such are just a load of teenages running around screaming lol, there is just no substance to any of it

I must confess to liking the saw franchise, yes its pure torture porn but i think the way each film works side by side and the fact it makes the viewer have to think about whats gone on works quite well
 
For me, this series demonstrates how excellent the BBC in general is, how excellent the much-decried BBC3 and BBC4 are in particular, and how ironic It is that we are delighting on watching it whilst 'our' government (and it's predecessor) should waste so much time wooing Rupert/James Murdoch and News International - to the BBCs detriment.

Well done, Mark Gatiss. Absolutely top quality.
 
I've just finished watching this.
I agree with everyone who thought it was excellent. As for certain films being absent, The subtitle for the programme is "A History Of Horror", not "THE History Of Horror"
 
Agree completely with both the above posts re BBC4. BBC4 became 'the new BBC2' a long time ago, and always seems to offer a veritable banquet of top programmes, prime examples at the moment being A History of Horror and Michael Wood's Story of England..
 
Apologies for posting positively about the BBC's output as a whole.

;-)

I didn't mean to favour or to initiate petty argument about one channel above another: my point was about recognising the excellence of the Gatiss prog and the BBC overall.
 
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