I finally got the chance to watch Inside last night. And I must say that this is one of my favourite movies I have ever seen. An urgent warning to those who cannot stand the sight of blood or cannot sit through a horror movie: you will not like this movie. Although there is a lot more too it than just gore, this movie is definitely not for the faint hearted. I was even covering my eyes throughout the film which is something I very rarely do when I watch horror films.

I found the film extremely interesting (aside from all the gore) in the fact that it conveyed the true nature of human behaviour on many different levels. There is nothing scarier than two women going balls out psycho at each other for either their survival or a baby. As well the as maternal instincts, there were the very basic instinct for survival. The main character was so depressed over the death of her boyfriend that she couldn’t even think to give birth to the baby she was carrying. Once someone threatened her existence and the existence of her unborn child, she immediately fights for survival when only minutes before she was probably wishing she were dead.

I loved the feeling of claustrophobia in this film. A majority of the duration of the film was inside the main character’s home. It certainly gives a sense of being trapped in a nightmare. All the surrounding houses are oblivious to the bloodbath that is occuring inside.

This film is sad, twisted and sickening all at the same time. If you are a fan of films that make you sit on the edge of your seat and have some sort of twisted logic to it all, then this is for you.

I was brought up watching horror movies, thanks to my cousins who constantly were able to hire out such ridiculous movies like Chucky and Halloween. Looking back, I have no idea how our parents were able to know that we were in a room by ourselves watching things that parents would normally protest. Or maybe they had no idea. However, I never really began to truly appreciate and enjoy a good horror movie until roughly ten years ago. I have watched an endless amount of these movies, even my favourites countless times and the only answer I have for why I like horror is I find them truly entertaining and also very funny. So if you’re like me and you like reading about your favourite genre, here is a list of 8 Horror Movie Books that’ll get you on your way.

1.Horror: The Definitive Guide to the Cinema of Fear - James Marriot.

This is a great reference book, both for newbies to the genre and for die-hards. This book provides brief plot summaries to films ranging from the 1930s to 2005 with pictures along the way. There are also great summaries on the turn of the genre as time goes on, contributions to the genre and different traits such as Zombies and Serial Killers.

2. The Encyclopedia of Horror - Richard Davis.

This book is not directly about Horror films, but more about the aspects of Horror itself. It studies creatures such as Vampires and Werewolves and the folklore behind them. It ties them in with the films which makes for interesting reading.

3. Shock! Horror! Astounding Artwork from the Video-Nasty Era - Francis Brewster, Marc Morris, Harvey Fenton.

This book is absolutely fantastic! Page sized posters in alphabetical order by movie title throughout. Filled with banned or censored video covers from the Video Nasty era. There is also vast information about “video nasties” which describes various films at the time and what got them banned in the first place. Very informative and also a great creative inspiration in terms of illustration.

4. The Psychotronic Video Guide to Film - Michael J. Weldon.

There is not only horror films listed in this book, but also sci-fi, fantasy and even porn. A lot more comprehensive than Horror: The Definitive Guide to the Cinema of Fear. This book runs through over 3000 films - some famous and some you may never find. At over 650 pages, it is one of the most complete guides to the weird, wacky and gruesome films.

5. 60 Great Horror Movie Posters - Bruce Hershenson.

Well presented selection of 60 Horror Movie Posters on gloss paper. They are page sized posters so they truly show off their creativity. It is interesting to see the evolution of the posters as time goes on.

6. Nightmare, USA - Stephen Thrower.

One of my absolute favourite books of the genre. Thrower puts together such a comprehensive book on American Horror Films between 1970 - 1985. This is similar in size to a phone book but there is no space wasted here. Every horror movie fan should own this book!

7. Trash: The Graphic Genius of Xploitation Movie Posters - Jacques Boyreau.

Mainly focusing on the different aspects of the exploitation genre, this book is a compilation of the best and the weirdest exploitation movie posters with varying prints throughout. Not exactly the best book out there on the subject, but certainly one of the more interesting ones.

8. Sleazoid Express: A Mind-Twisting Tour Through the Grindhouse Cinema of Times Square - Bill Landis, Michelle Clifford.

At first I was disappointed with this book because it looked like a text book that you would find at any university campus. But as I began to read, I felt that the book truly captured the essence of 42nd Street and the movies that played there. Some find this book tedious with it’s focus on certain movies, however I feel that a lot of the movies brought into focus were certainly some of the most profound and affective. This book is a must read.

I was looking at my tortured self from across a dank room. I was lying in a dentist’s chair only I was not at the dentist. I was in a demented looking hospital. The white tiled walls had been tarnished from years of neglect. Smudges and splatters remained dry on the walls.  Medical equipment was everywhere but it was obvious they had not been used in a long time. Their parts had gathered dust and dirt and appeared to be broken. However, there was one machine still working but at the time I was unsure of what it was. It was a clear, dome shaped thing placed right next to me in the chair.

I watched myself on this chair. My shin was pale, my eyes were dark and sunken and I was looking exactly in the direction where I was standing in the door way, looking at myself almost pleading for help. But my eyes were hollow, like I had already died. There was no emotion in them.

My body was bent in a uncomfortable state and my hair - blonde - was matted to my head. My clothes were sticking to me from the sweat. A mask covered my mouth and nose - like an oxygen mask. Only the clear tube that ran from the mask went to the machine next to me.

There was a man beside me, who was dressed like a doctor. Only he didn’t seem like he was a doctor - more like a mad scientist type. He was middle aged and his cheeks were sunken. His eyes seemed like they were bulging out.  He clutched his clipboard and looked at me - the me in the chair - almost like I was a cancer to him, a disease.

But the me in the chair didn’t care for him. I just kept looking at myself in the door way, wheezing. What the fuck was going on, I thought to myself, the me in the doorway. How did I get here? Why do I look like I am dieing?

The machine that was working seemed to turn on. It was buzzing quietly and I watched it, wondering what was happening. Then all of a sudden the me in the chair started squirming and looked as though she tried to yell out but couldn’t. I started to panic, what was happening? Then it hit me suddenly also - the feeling of having my insides ripped out. I clutched to the door frame as I lost my balance and dropped to my knees, only I didn’t try to scream. I couldn’t. It was like something had gone down my throat and started pulling out my stomach.

The doctor didn’t flinch and didn’t notice me in the doorway, but constantly watched my tortured self in the chair. I squirmed around menacingly. I was sure if I could scream, I would have screamed for help but I just couldn’t.

Then the pain stopped.  I desperately gasped for air and started coughing so much that I thought I was going to throw up. I needed air. I got up, hoping to open my chest and bring more air into it but the machine caught my eye. It was now filled with a black liquid. It wasn’t pitch black, but looked as though ash was mixed with water. Crouching on my knees, I peered at myself in the chair. There was blood around my mouth and coming from my nose. Before I could think of what was happening, the machine started up again. The me in the chair started crying, but never took her eyes off. I wanted to ask her what was happening and how I got here, but an immense pain ran through both of our bodies and I fell back.

The pain stopped and I sat up and crawled back into the room. I looked at the machine and it was now filled with blood and blood clots.

I yelled out in desperation, “What’s happening?!”

The doctor turned to me finally - seeing that I existed. He didn’t seem shocked that an exact replica of the person in the chair was standing in the doorway.

He pointed to the machine.

“See that?”

It was polluted with blood clots and murky water.

I nodded, dumbfounded. I looked at myself in the chair. The blood had dried from my mouth and nose, but I was still wheezing and looking to myself for help.

“That is what happens to smokers. That is what is inside your body. See that black stuff? That should not be black. It should be clear. And well, the blood clots.. you wouldn’t have them in the first place if you didn’t smoke.”

The me in the chair started crying and closed her eyes. She looked away from me and to the wall in front of her. I looked at the doctor and then back at myself. I was absolutley speechless.

Suddenly I was sucked back into reality. I woke up instantly and thought about what I had just dreamed. I had quit smoking a while ago. But it was obvious to me that if anything was every going to kill me, if there was anything that would stop me from enjoying my life, if there was anything that would dramatically shorten my life, if there was anything that would make me more ill and vulnerable to cancer -  it would be smoking.

I refuse to end up like the me in the chair.

I’ve almost given up on coming up with an awesome plot for a script. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t watch horror movies to get inspiration. Or even for just the fun of it.I finally watched The Wizard of Gore after purchasing it months ago. I love these old school exploitation flicks. Some people wonder why “a girl like me” would enjoy seeing horror films like this. The Wizard of Gore is just one of the reasons why I love horror. It’s so over the top, pushes boundaries and it’s fucking funny.

You don’t see films like these anymore. And if you do, it’s because they are being remade into fake, glossy, flashy films that take away so much grittiness from the original that it makes the film an empty shell. If you want to see the “real” shit, go back to the source my dear friends, because you will just be disappointed otherwise.

The Wizard of Gore was remade at the end of last year with Crispin Glover playing Montag the Magnificent. I’d watch the remake for his performance only - you can never miss a Crispin Glover film, especially when he seems so comfortable in roles that just creeps you the fuck out.

I should put out a warning though: This isn’t one of those late 60’s, early 70’s horror films that are rated MA but are tame in the gore stakes. This film is quite gory. The playing with guts scenes don’t really make it a good film to show to someone who has a weak stomach. Also, I wouldn’t recommend watching this film while you’re eating.

To shed a little more light on the subject: The Wizard of Gore is about a magician - Montag - who is able to saw girls in half, drive a metal stake through their brain or shove swords down their throats and they come out perfectly fine only to be found dead a while after the performance from injuries that they would have sustained from Montag’s tricks. Some woman (who obviously wears the pants in her relationship) who hosts a show called “Housewives coffee break” (apparently everyone watches this show, including men and children) and her fiance begin to suspect the magician of the murders after attending his shows.

This film is exactly the crap you want it to be. Not only is it gory, but it’s funny without intentionally being funny. Sherry (aka some woman) wears the same outfit twice when it’s supposed to be the “next evening”. Her fiance Jack talks on the phone like he’s responding to a nagging mother, (”Aw Sherry! I don’t wanna go again!”) and extra’s popping up in different scenes supposedly playing different characters but wearing the same outfits throughout the duration of the film. I guess it’s just another one of director’s Herschell Gordon Lewis’ (aka Godfather of Gore… he has a myspace. Seriously) salvo traits.

One thing I do love about this movie is that it really makes you think about illusion and reality. Towards the end, it seems as though the illusion of Montag starts wearing off as we begin to see reality and illusion. The reality is that poor girl getting the sword shoved down her throat is spitting up blood and the illusion is that she’s standing calmly, under a trance, as Montag gently glides the sword down her throat. It’s an interesting concept, one that seems to have paved the way for other films using the same concept.

There’s also the usual amount of plot holes which are discussed at the end of the movie. For example, Montag stealing the dead women’s bodies from the morgue is never explained. It looks as though it’s supposed to serve the purpose of answering the various plot holes in a discussion between Sherry and Jack on a rug drinking wine. Then it just goes insane from there. It’s an insane ending that just creates more plot holes.

I somehow have a feeling this film will enter my rotation of films I repeatedly watch when I’m either bored or sick. If you like these kinds of exploitation films, then you’ll love The Wizard of Gore.

I just got back from seeing 28 Weeks Later. I must admit that I was a bit reluctant to see this film after it got a bit of a negative write up in STM… but then, who the hell really reads STM? And I usually don’t really listen to reviews anyway, unless I’m hearing a whole bunch of reports that pretty much say the same old negative thing.

Here’s my two cents: if you liked 28 Days Later, you like other “Zombie” films, you’ll like this one. Go see it.

As I was watching the film, there were a few things which popped into my head. As we all know, I can’t really watch a movie without coming away with something. The first thing that popped into my mind was how much it was like Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The second thing was that there was probably a reason for the fact that it was so similar…

Of course, one of the things that have always been consistent with Zombie films of recent times (1960’s onwards) is that the creatures in the films are never actually referred to as Zombies. The Living Dead, The Infected, The Undead, Walkers… whatever.. but NEVER Zombies. I think it’s because the actual word of “Zombie” doesn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of people like say, Dracula, Werewolf or George Bush. The word Zombie seems almost like a mystical creature, although so is Dracula, Werewolves and George Bush, they don’t seem to have the same comical effect as “Zombie” does… though “George Bush” might.

I admit, it was a cheap and easy shot at G.B. A little too easy…

Continuing on… then it would seem silly to have a serious film about the post-apocalyptic state of the U.K if you’re calling these things “Zombies”. It’s enough to scoff at. The word “Zombie” brings to mind sluggish, slow, bumbling, clumsy and stupid creatures that anyone could outrun. They remind you of the kid who was always 30 minutes late to class either because they slept in or were getting stoned. Sluggish. Slow. Bumbling. Clumsy. Stupid creatures. Easy to outrun (because they could never be bothered to run). They were always good value.

Back in the day (30s - late 80s), the word “Zombie” was not really used in Zombie films much and as time went on, the word wasn’t used at all. But in post-production, directors like George A. Romero and Lucio Fulci referred to the creatures as Zombies. As time went on (Late 80s - present) it almost seems taboo to call these Living Dead.. Zombies. With the exception of Resident Evil.

Not only is the very word “Zombie” being completely removed from any part of the production process (except maybe in scripts were it instructs actors to “walk like a Zombie”), but these new Living Dead are not the Romero Zombies. They’re fast, ferocious and pretty much what you’d expect of yourself if you went mental for the rest of your life: spewing blood, biting people, gouging eyes out.

Is this kind of new breed of “Zombie” scarier than the sluggish creatures of yesteryear?

Yes. They are too much like our very selves. They are fast, they’re smart and they run. They still have instincts we have. They still have feelings. They’re probably more hungry than Oprah is all. To know that these new Zombies are so close to ourselves, it’s almost as though humans walking around and killing each other in cold blood for no reason.

AND

No. The slower creatures were also scary. Simply because while it looked as though there was one slow fucker you could outrun, you’d turn back and see 4. Then 16. Then 25. Then 43. Then you’re fucked. With their slowness comes a eeriness that cannot be replaced or matched by these new “breed” of the Living Dead (LD … I’m getting lazy).

In saying that, why are people suddenly so engrossed in these films once more? Night of the Living Dead showed a world on the brink of the beginning of chaos. Dawn of the Dead showed the gradual decline of the human race: an apocalypse. Day of the Dead showed the immediate aftermath of the apocalypse. Land of the Dead showed the post-apocalyptic world. The latter two films are probably most related to our world now. While it’s easy to say that, there is an important factor some forget. I am only able to sit here and type this now because my world has not ended. There are many people all over the world who have lost their homes, lost their loved ones. It may be to illness or it may be because of the “War on Terror”, the most paradoxical phrase in the current media. It’s easy to take example from the latter occurrence because it’s all we hear about on the news. But for us lucky people who are actually able to go and see these films in a free country, our world has not ended. For the others who are less fortunate than us, they’re living what we fear. These films show the “future”, but are happening right now. Just because it is not at our doorstep now, who is to say that it won’t ever come? Who is to say that our world hasn’t already ended and we have already been subdued to a fight for survival?

Maybe there is a fear in people that one day our whole world will fall apart and we will lose everything that we know and hold dear, enough fear to become so interested in films that depict these very events. And as I said earlier, these more recent films are so similar to one another because the current behaviour of governments and the people seems to lead down a path of destruction. These films show similar downfalls due to selfishness, greed, lust, weakness (and of course, a nasty virus). They show similar reactions before the government steps in. The government shows similar reactions. It’s a vicious circle. Is the world really that grim that there can be no other path? Do I have to sit through another post-apocalyptic “Zombie” film to know what the human behavioural cycle is like? Destructive, hateful and cruel to each other? Are we all just disposable numbers and statistics?

I just came back from seeing Disturbia. It wasn’t really something I wanted to see but because it is a boring public holiday with nothing else to do, it seemed like the only option. All the other movies that were playing looked quite shiteous and it was between Disturbia and The Reaping.Disturbia it was.

Before I go and see a movie I don’t really give a shit about, I like to read up on it as much as I can. This includes reading people’s comments on IMDb, reading reviews of the film or sometimes even finding the entire plot and reading that. I don’t know why I do that, it probably is because I don’t really care about the movie so I just want to know all about it so there are no surprises. However, this does not apply with movies that I am very interested in seeing. I will avoid reading IMDb (aka The Whiny Bitches Database), Wikipedia, film reviews… ANYTHING to do with the film.

Disturbia is not really a film I would see. I don’t really like thriller movies that much. Well… okay. I don’t mind thriller movies but honestly, after about an hour of watching a film that conveys thrills very well I feel like taking up smoking again. The stress is unnecessary. If I want a scare, I’ll watch a horror film. The only problem is this - while to the outsider, a thriller and horror movie may seem similar they are in fact, very different.

Thriller films are different to horror films because women will actually go and see thrillers. They will actually WANT to go see a thriller, to get scared and to jump in their seats. I’m not exactly sure why women would rather see a thriller than a horror movie since horror is really just big comedic gore fest whereas I feel like I’m going to die in a theatre when I see a thriller. I don’t really like to go to the cinema to die of a heart attack, I’d much rather someone do that on screen with hilarious consequences if you get my drift.

Horror movies are taboo for women. You will rarely see a female watching a horror film without a male escort. She will most probably be there against her will. For my friends and I, this is usually not the case. My friend Petra is always up for watching a horror movie with me, and Nessa is up for it too. The others… I don’t think so. I don’t think I’ve seen that too often; where a bunch of females willingly go and see a horror movie that isn’t The Grudge or Saw or anything super gay like that.

So what the fuck is the difference between being scared shitless for about 45 minutes, or watching someone die on screen in a gory yet comedic way? Well.. there’s the obvious difference there. But why is forcing yourself to watch something that will scare you so much easier than watching something that will gross you out or make you laugh?

Women will willingly go to thriller films. They’ll go with a bunch of their friends, sit there and squeal about how scared they are. You know, like I did tonight. But they won’t go to horror films. Why. WHY!

Because maybe we like being scared. Maybe we like the rush of being freaked out for a little while. And maybe we also can’t stand to be grossed out. Maybe we can’t take horror films so thriller films are like our ’soft core’ shit. Who knows? Maybe we like the clues… the build up to the chase. The psychology of it all. The fact that it creeps us the fuck out. The emotions that the main character goes through. Maybe the Thriller film is like a Romantic Comedy that men are dragged to while the Horror film is like the Action movie that women are dragged to.

The experience of tonight has taught me a few things:

1) Treat the thriller genre like the romantic comedy: don’t see this movie on a first date. The guy will think you’re lame when you start screaming and cutting off the circulation of his arm. Kind of like how you would act in a romantic comedy movie, only instead of screaming you’d be crying and you’d probably still be cutting off the circulation of his arm.

2) Don’t buy any popcorn, especially the large serving. During the tense scenes, I ate like a pig. Guess it beats biting your nails. Wait. I did that too.

3) There is nothing you can do to stop squealing girls. Get it out on DVD if you want to see it without the added sound effects.

4) If you can see a thriller, you CAN see a horror film. Do it. Trust yourself. I believe in you!