Monday 19 October 2015

Poster artist exhibition

Poster artist Graham Humphreys is most closely associated with 1980s titles like Evil Dead II and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but he's still around and still doing posters for films, including a number of British Horror Revival titles, so it's not inappropriate to let you know about a new exhibition of his work.

Humphreys created posters for Inbred, Lesbian Vampire Killers, The Woman in Black and A Day of Violence (plus the video sleeve for London Voodoo).

An exhibition of his horror work, Drawing Blood, runs at Proud Camden in That London from 28th October to 22nd November.

You can find out more about the artist at www.grahamhumphreys.com

Saturday 17 October 2015

Vampire Dawn DVD launch in Bath today

I know it's short notice, but if you're anywhere near Bath today get yourself along to the Bath Party Shop where director David Gunstone is launching the Director's Cut of his debut feature Vampire Dawn (see blogs passim).

The shop is at 49 Moorland Road and David will be there from midday. You can also purchase his second feature The Doomsditch Demon. I would have alerted you sooner but my screener of Vampire Dawn has only just turned up. Review on the way.

David is working on a third movie and has a fourth in prep.

Find out more at http://vampiredawn.moonfruit.com

Friday 9 October 2015

UK and US DVD sleeves for Howl

Here's the British DVD sleeve for Paul Hyett's werewolf on a train feature Howl.



The UK disc is released on 26th October. Before then you can catch Howl on the big screen at the Mayhem festival in Nottingham on 16th October, and at the Prince Charles Cinema in London on 18th.

The American disc follows on 12th January next year and looks like this:




Wednesday 7 October 2015

New book on 21st century British horror films

Johnny Walker’s book Contemporary British Horror Cinema: Industry, Genre and Society has just been published by Edinburgh University Press. This is of course only the second ever volume devoted to 21st century UK frightflicks.

Johnny lectures in Media at Northumbria University. Before heading up north he did his PhD here in Leicester at De Montfort University and we would occasionally quaff a few pints together and discuss Jason Impey films. He has written a number of pieces for magazine and academic journals, and spoken at various events, but Contemporary British Horror Cinema is his first book.

Where my own Urban Terrors: New British Horror Cinema 1997-2008 (which Johnny cites in his own work) took a populist approach to the subject matter, CBHC:IGS is much more of an academic work, full of citations and references. But it’s a historical rather than analytical or theoretical work, so don’t be too alarmed. I’d like to think that my book and Johnny’s are complementary.

The book will be launched on 13th November at the Abertoir Horror Film Festival in Aberystwyth (which is a bit better than the last minute launch in the Leicester University bookshop which I managed...)

Now here’s the bad news. Academic books are eye-wateringly expensive and this one will set you back seventy quid. There is a cheaper softback version on the way next year, so you may want to wait for that.

Expect a more detailed review in due course when I’ve read it.

Publisher's blurb:
Combining industry analysis, interviews and detailed textual readings, this book examines the post-millennial revival of Combining industrial research and primary interview material with detailed textual analysis, Contemporary British Horror Cinema looks beyond the dominant paradigms which have explained away British horror in the past, and sheds light on one of the most dynamic and distinctive yet scarcely talked about areas of contemporary British film production. Considering high-profile theatrical releases, including The Descent, Shaun of the Dead and The Woman in Black, as well as more obscure films such as The Devil s Chair, Resurrecting the Street Walker and Cherry Tree Lane, Contemporary British Horror Cinema provides a thorough examination of British horror film production in the twenty-first century.