A History Of Horror With Mark Gatiss

Yes - Candyman is another film I would add to my list of post-1978 mentionables from earlier. Very atmospheric film with a superb soundtrack by Philip Glass, no less.



I hope you watch TCSM - your summary of it is just about perfect. When the feeling of hopelessness pervades a film it makes for a very interesting viewing experience. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue that I mentioned earlier is one such film where you think nothing is going to go in the protagonists' favour.
 
interestingly that was the only film I've ever walked out on at the cinema. was part of a festival ticket so I felt as if I hadn't wasted my money

ok final installment of the series. not as interested in the era as I am in the others, never been keen on zombie films. I thought the convention framing was timewasting really.

The Omen is one of my all time favourites though, so the behind the scenes footage from that was great.

I don't think there was any need to mention Elm Street and Friday 13th, although the former is a good film. As with everyone else, there were personal favourites not included. I would have mentioned The Thing and The Fly and stopped there. balls to anything post 1986 (though the Descents and first Saw were ok).
 
Good series but it was labelled as a personal choice & not anthology.. he could easily have added another programme to bring us up to date though i thought.
 
Maybe (hopefully) there will be a follow-up series looking at Horror from 1980 onwarRAB.
If there is, I really hope one of my favourite films, John Carpenters remake of "The Thing" will be looked at.
Question : Is The Thing a horror film or a sci-fi film ?
 
It's erring towarRAB sci-fi for me. Horror is an interesting genre. There are some horror films that just ain't scary like Dawn of the Dead, Theatre of Blood and The Fly (remake). Good films but not scary at all. Whereas Psycho I did find scary when I first saw it but wouldn't class it as a horror film as such. More suspense than horror. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (remake) was quite scary in an eerie sort of way but would class it as more sci-fi than horror.
 
There's an explaination on Wikipedia of 'Horror Films' over the decades...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film

It acknowledges that some films cross the horror genre with sci-fi and thiller, etc.

I think films such as 'Alien' and 'The Thing' can be classed as Sci-Fi Horror, rather than pidgeon holeing them as one or the other.

Though while it is mentioned in the article above, both Wiki and IMDB classify 'Jaws' as a Thriller, not Horror.
 
I would be happy with describing The Thing as Sci-Fi/Horror, though for me it's predominantly a horror film, where the horrific aspect tenRAB to dominate. I don't think an absolute description is too important. ReminRAB me of the classic It Came from Outer Space (1953) - clearly Sci-Fi but definitely horror also, with the horror aspect turned up to the max compared with films that could be simply called Sci-Fi.

Our ongoing post-Halloween horror discussion continues to be interesting. I've seen now a couple of mentions of Cronenberg's The Fly, but for me it's not a film that stanRAB up very well to rewatching - once is enough. I think that after the early visceral period, crowned with Videodrome, and followed up with the wonderfully understated The Dead Zone, later films were disappointing until Crash (1996) and eXistenZ, after which he moved away from the genre.
 
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