Horror | Cagey Films

Clive Rees’ The Blockhouse (1973) and other recent Indicator releases

Posted on March 30, 2022March 29, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Father Roche (Donald Pleasence) confronts an ancient religion on a remote Greek island in Kostas Karagiannis’ The Devil’s Men (1976)

Recent releases from Indicator have seemed oddly random – from an unexceptional genre movie (Kostas Karagiorgis’ The Devil’s Men [1076]) to an arthouse war film (Clive Rees’ The Blockhouse [1973]), a ghost story that comes across like a television play (Kevin Billington’s Voices [1973]) to an interesting if unsuccessful literary adaptation (Anthony Friedmann’s Bartleby [1970]) and a revisionist detective story which plays with the tropes of the English country house mystery (Chris Petit’s An Unsuitable Job for a Woman [1982]).

Tobe Hooper’s mangled career

Posted on March 16, 2022June 16, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Bill Gartley (Robert Englund), consumed by evil, is now barely human in Tobe Hooper's The Mangler (1995)

As a filmmaker, Tobe Hooper’s creative interests were not always in sync with audiences and critics. His mixture of theatrical performance and constructed-in-studio settings are on full display in the generally disdained Stephen King adaptation The Mangler (1995), whose uneven dramatic execution undermines an often impressively menacing horror-fantasy about the bloody appetite of capitalism, an inhuman force which devours those doomed to serve it. Hooper’s Spontaneous Combustion (1990), on the other hand, is a half-baked mess which mostly lacks any visual interest to make up for its many narrative inadequacies.

Recent disks from England, part two: Arrow

Posted on March 2, 2022February 25, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

A young woman's psychic powers make her a target of nefarious forces in Nico Mastorakis' Death Has Blue Eyes (1976)

Arrow’s big pre-Christmas sale brought a wide range of titles, some old, some new: Juan Simon Piquer’s Spanish slasher Pieces (1982), Chelsea Stardust’s horror comedy Satanic Panic (2019), Giancarlo Santi’s spaghetti western The Grand Duel (1972), Lee Min-jae’s horror comedy Zombie for Sale (2019), Jill Gevargizian’s psycho horror The Stylist (2020),Nico Mastorakis incoherent first feature Death Has Blue Eyes (1976), a Japanese double bill of sci-fi crime movies, Nobuo Adachi’s The Invisible Man Appears (1949) and Mitsuo Murayama’s The Invisible Man vs the Human Fly (1957), Riccardo Freda’s mix of melodrama and giallo Double Face (1969), Jacques Tourneur’s late film noir Nightfall (1956), and Giorgio Ferroni’s atmospheric Gothic horror Mill of the Stone Women (1960).

Avery Crounse’s Eyes of Fire (1983)

Posted on February 12, 2022May 13, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Severin’s All the Haunts Be Ours box set resurrects an interesting independent American feature from the early ’80s, Avery Crounse’s Eyes of Fire (1983) uses folk horror elements as a metaphor for colonialism and the violence inherent in Manifest Destiny.

Folk horror and Argentine noir

Posted on January 26, 2022April 25, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Collage is used as an organizing principle in Kier-la Janisse's epic folk horror documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (2021)

The year gets off to an interesting start with a pair of excellent Argentinian films noirs – Román Viñoly Barreto’s The Beast Must Die (1952) and Fernando Ayala’s The Bitter Stems (1956) – beautifully restored by the Film Noir Foundation; Prana Bailey-Bond’s Censor (2021), a disturbing British psychological horror; and Kier-la Janisse’s Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched (2021), an epic documentary exploring the folk horror genre.

Early winter viewing, part 2

Posted on January 12, 2022January 9, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

A Chinese demon possesses a New York businessman in Barry Rosen's Devil's Express (1976)

I continue my cold-weather plunge into the cheap, cheesy and outre depths of exploitation, finding a few gems among the dross of low-budget horror, science fiction, fantasy and comedy, ending up with an unsettling documentary about someone who devoted his life to filmmaking at the expense of everything including his identity.

Paul Morrissey’s Gothic horrors

Posted on January 5, 2022January 3, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

The Count (Udo Kier) reacts to non-virgin blood in Paul Morrissey's Blood for Dracula (1974)

It’s been a long time coming, but Paul Morrissey’s two unique Gothic horror movies from the early 1970s – Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) and Blood for Dracula (1974) – have finally arrived on disk in superb restorations, the former from Vinegar Syndrome, the latter from Severin. Both editions are packed with hours of extras, and Flesh for Frankenstein is finally available in 3D (both digital and anaglyphic) as well as flat. Together, the home video highlight of 2021.

Year End 2021

Posted on January 1, 2022January 5, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

The Count (Udo Kier) is worried about his blood supply in Paul Morrissey's Blood for Dracula (1974)

It’s been a good year for movies on disk, with a remarkable range of releases from many companies which are devoting considerable resources to rediscovering, restoring and preserving movies in numerous genres. Ranging across nationalities and spanning cinema history, there was plenty to divert attention from a real world which has become so depressing and exhausting.

Early winter viewing, part 1

Posted on December 29, 2021July 9, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Mrs. Johnson (Soledad Miranda) stalks and kills the people she blames for her husband's death in Jess Franco's She Killed in Ecstasy (1970)

As the winter turns cold, I take another plunge into the depths of horror, exploitation, sex and death with a range of releases which vary widely in style and nationality. I just can’t stay away from this stuff – maybe I need therapy?

Chad Crawford Kinkle’s folk horror

Posted on December 15, 2021May 4, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Katie (Katie Groshong)'s concern for Stephanie (Stephanie Kinkle)'s welfare becomes a dangerous obsession in Chad Crawford Kinkle's Dementer (2019)

Arrow’s recent two-disk Blu-ray set showcases Chad Crawford Kinkle’s distinctive approach to folk horror in his subtle and disturbing features Jug Face (2013) and Dementer (2019), both of which centre on women whose lives are overshadowed by dark religious forces.

Tag: Horror