Rue Morgue 'British horror' special

The next issue of Rue Morgue magazine is a subtly branded British Horror Special. And while most of the contents is predictably about old horror topics, including The Wicker Man and Peter Cushing, there is evidently some BHR coverage in there including Harold's Going Stiff, Sightseers and, slightly bizarrely, Simon Pegg-starring flop A Fantastic Fear of Everything.

The irony is that Rue Morgue generally hates British horror.

When I was researching and writing Urban Terrors: New British Horror Cinema, most of the reviews I found in Rue Morgue were extraordinarily negative. According to the mag's warped view of modern British horror, apparently, Dog Soldiers "plays dead with the best of them", Doctor Sleep has a "pedestrian idea of scariness", The Zombie Diaries is "inconsistent", Evil Aliens is "an abortion of piss-poor CGI, outlandish 'acting' and imaginative yet crappy effects", Nature Morte is a "formulaic police procedural" and a "lame-ass murder mystery", The Devil's Chair is "straight-to-video calibre nonsense", The Devil's Tattoo is "a shipwreck of a movie" (to be fair, it is) and - most point-missingly of all - 28 Days Later is "a colossal wankfest from start to finish, easily one of the biggest disappointments of the calendar year"!

Rue Morgue, which is generally an okay magazine, despite their antipathy towards British films, is available in the UK from the fine folk at Hemlock Books. This issue is published on 1st May.

Kim Newman on British horror

Here's an interesting interview with Kim Newman, ostensibly about old British horror films but with some discussion of the British Horror Revival too.

BHR titles which he mentions include Eden Lake, Harold's Going Stiff, Long Time Dead, Nine Lives, Mum and Dad, Cockneys vs Zombies and The Devil's Business.

Derby festival presents four top British horror directors

Derby Quad is staging a new film festival next month called iD Fest ("celebrating identity through film") and among the programme is a discussion panel with four leading lights of the British Horror Revival. It is being billed as 'Directing Independent British Features' but all four panelists have solid horror cred (though some have done non-horror too).

• Jake West directed Razor Blade Smile, Evil Aliens and Doghouse (as well as Club Death, Pumpkinhead 3 and one segment of The ABCs of Death)
• Johannes Roberts directed F and Storage 24 (as well as Forest of the Damned, Darkhunters and When Evil Calls, and co-directed Sanitarium and Hellbreeder)
• Paul Andrew Williams directed The Cottage and Cherry Tree Lane (and wrote the original script of The Children)
• Dominic Burns directed Cut, Airborne and UFO (and, as an actor, appeared in The Reverend, Kill Keith, Strippers vs Werewolves, Cockneys vs Zombies - and is producing The Devil's Tower)

The panel is at 4.00pm on Saturday 11th May, tickets are four quid a pop. Find out more at www.idfest.co.uk

Summer Scars - new UK DVD next month

Julian Richards' Summer Scars gets a UK re-release on 6th May. I said in my original review that I don't consider this a horror film (which I stand by, and which is why it's not included in Urban Terrors) though it is undoubtedly borderline and I have certainly seen it filed under 'horror'. This new release is playing up that angle with the sleeve which calls it an "unsettling, realistic terror flick". It's certainly a fine movie so if you haven't seen it, pick up a copy and make up your own mind.

Press release

Soda Pictures has announced the UK DVD re-release of Julian Richards' BAFTA winning hostage horror SUMMER SCARS with a street day of May 6th 2013.

SUMMER SCARS tells the story of a gang of delinquents who ditch school to hang out in the woods where some hot rodding on a stolen moped changes the fate of their day. They crash into Peter, an ex-army loner, who is delighted to have some company. First he gains their trust by joining in their games, but then his behaviour begins to change. Peter uses what he has learned about the kids against them, bullying the aplha boys, belittling the weaker ones and saving his worst for the only girl of the group. As events spiral out of control the youths resort to extreme measures in order to survive the ordeal.

SUMMER SCARS re-unites Richards with lead actor Kevin Howarth, the dynamic director/actor team behind cult sensation THE LAST HORROR MOVIE. Richards has since directed the forthcoming Hollywood thriller SHIVER starring Danielle Harris, John Jarratt and Casper Van Dien, whilst Howarth has starred alongside Wesley Snipes in GALLOWWALKER and Sean Pertwee in THE SEASONING HOUSE.