We take a look at ten great hidden gems from the 1980s; how many have you seen…? The 1980s was an eclectic melting pot of cinema. Blockbusters and franchises were becoming a big thing. The success of home video also gave films a place to succeed beyond the cinema screens. Cinema fandom has always clustered […]
The Gruesome Brilliance of 1980s Italian Horror Cinema
Tom Jolliffe goes back to the 80s to look at a crazy, gore-filled period in Italian horror cinema… There’s a great legacy in Italian horror. Most famously, the giallo films which rose to prominence through the 60’s and 70’s (led first by Mario Bava, and taken to new heights via Dario Argento) put Italian horror […]
Garish Colour, Prog Rock, Masked Killers and a Glass Fetish: Dario Argento’s Glory Years
With his new giallo Dark Glasses coming to Shudder in October, Tom Jolliffe looks back at the defining films of Dario Argento… Looking back over his peak years, whilst Dario Argento may not have been the first pioneer of Giallo horror, he followed in the footsteps of the great Mario Bava and popularised Italian horror […]
October Horrors 2021 – Opera (1987)
Opera, 1987. Directed by Dario Argento. Starring Cristina Marsillach, Urbano Barberini, Daria Nicolodi, Ian Charleson, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni and William McNamara. SYNOPSIS: A young soprano is forced to contend with a sadistic killer stalking the halls of the opera house in which she sings. Ah, Opera. The height of high culture and home to some of […]
Oscars 2021: Best Animated Short Film Nominees Reviewed
Shaun Munro reviews 2021’s Oscar-nominated animated short films… With the 93rd Academy Awards imminently due to take place, what better time to shine a light on the typically underserved short film categories? This year’s slate of nominees for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar range from traditional and quaint to boundary-pushing, transgressive, and inevitably heartbreaking. […]
Daria Nicolodi: Remembering a Horror Icon
Tom Jolliffe looks back at the iconic career of the late Daria Nicolodi… 2020 hasn’t been very forgiving, and it was sad to hear the news of Daria Nicolodi’s passing. To a corner of horror fandom, particularly those versed in golden era Giallo horror from Dario Argento (to whom she was a long term partner, […]
Master of Horror: Five Essential Dario Argento Films
Dominic O’Brien selects his Five Essential Films of Dario Argento… Although he has fallen from grace somewhat recently, during the 70s and 80s Dario Argento was the master of suspense and mystery. During this time he managed to craft some of the finest pieces of Italian giallo and genre films. Still, to this day his […]
