NAKED LUNCH Production: UK, c.1964-72 Creators: Antony Balch & Brion Gysin Category: Unfilmed Project Around 1964, Antony Balch and Brion Gysin made the first draft of a film script based on William S. Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch. Over subsequent years the script underwent several revisions, with text by Gysin and storyboards Continue Reading
NIGHT OF THE EAGLE
NIGHT OF THE EAGLE Production: UK, 1962 Director: Sidney Hayers US release title: Burn, Witch, Burn Category: Horror/Witchcraft Male lead Peter Wyngarde went on to achieve cult status due to his role as florid secret agent Jason King in Monty Berman’s camp British televison series Department S (1969-70) and its subsequent spin-off, simply entitled Continue Reading
RAGING BULL
RAGING BULL Production: USA, 1980 Director: Martin Scorsese Category: Violence If Martin Scorsese’s earlier Taxi Driver was largely concerned with violence and psychosis, Raging Bull – his biographical portrait of boxer Jake LaMotta – was almost purely about male violence and uncontrollable anger, both inside and outside the ring; not with Continue Reading
THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES
THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES Production: UK, 1971 Director: Robert Fuest Category: Horror Fuest cut his teeth on classic cult TV series The Avengers, directing such outstanding episodes as “Game”, “The Rotters”, and “They Keep Killing Steed”. Dr. Phibes is filled with similar flourishes of camp and the bizarre, utilising Vincent Price to Continue Reading
YOKAI HYAKU MONOGATARI
YOKAI HYAKU MONOGATARI (“100 Monster Stories”) Production: Japan, 1968 Director: Yasuda Kimiyoshi Category: Horror One of the most bizarre Japanese films of the 60s, as a temple comes under siege by all the misshapen yokai (monsters) of Hell. The demons range from cute (one-eyed, one-legged umbrella-style prostitute monsters with 12-inch Continue Reading
THE LAST MOVIE
THE LAST MOVIE Production: USA, 1970-71 Director: Dennis Hopper Category: Drugs/Experimental Posted by The Purple Gas
HELL UP IN HARLEM
HELL UP IN HARLEM Production: USA, 1973 Director: Larry Cohen Category: Blaxploitation/Gangster Posted by Cryptomaniac
POSSESSION
POSSESSION Production: France/Germany, 1981 Director: Andrej Zulawski Category: Horror Zulawski’s inexplicable, apocalyptic “fairytale for adults” features the ultimate screen portrayal of female madness by Isabelle Adjani as a disturbed young woman who gives birth to a squamous, octopoid creature and goes on to copulate with it; the film also resonates Continue Reading