TRICK OR TREAT? Halloween and Horror titles available from Park Circus

TRICK OR TREAT?

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IMAGE: friday the 13th (see p7)

TRICK OR TREAT? Halloween and Horror titles available from Park Circus We’ve got all manner of devilish tricks and ghoulish treats in store to make Halloween more than just a day-long celebration of the macabre. Resurrect your own spooky season with the dirty secrets lurking in our vaults. There are glistening digital prints of genre classics for special screenings, and Gothic chills from both the Hammer catalogue and the vivid adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe from Roger Corman and Vincent Price. Not to mention fantastic creatures of all genetic possibility in numerous insane incarnations. Programme your own midnight movie marathon with our extensive range of cult oddities, grindhouse endurance tests and surreal hallucinations. And, not forgetting the younger generation, a selection of dark fantasies and creepy whimsy. Remember, a horror shared is a horror halved. For updates and further details - see www.parkcircus.com/horror Words: James Kloda is a freelance film writer and gonzo hack. He is the home entertainment reviewer for The Dark Side, the UK’s premier magazine of the macabre and fantastic, and has offered indelicate musings on genre offerings both past and present for a range of publications academic, trade and populist. Recently, he attempted a spirited, if ultimately woebegone, defence of Exorcist II: Heretic for Centipede Press’ definitive compendium on the franchise. Images: © the appropriate studio. All rights reserved. Brochure designed by and © Park Circus Limited, 2013. All rights reserved.

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cover image: motel hell (SEE p21)

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contents Just a little guide to help you navigate the bloodsoaked aisles of the Park Circus vaults. You wouldn’t want to end up taking a wrong turn, would you? There are zombies, vampires and chainsaw-wielding maniacs in here.

halloween hoedown hammer-time



p5



p11

christopher lee

p13



peter cushing

gothic poe-try vincent price



p14



p15



roger corman

p16



p18

stephen king

p19

midnight movies

p20

grindhouse



p22

the monster squad wolfmen vampires zombies ghouls



p23

 

p24 p25

 

p26 p27

ray harryhausen



p28

fantastic creatures & unnatural animals  a superb vintage william castle the new breed

p30



p31

 

p33 p34

don’t be afraid of the boogeyman  walk on the wild side IMAGE: nightmare on elm street (see p6)

TRICK OR TREAT?

p35



p37

Please note: we can’t promise to protect you from the transparent guy. You’re on your own with him...

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IMAGE: scream (see p33)

Distribution Materials Many titles are available on DCP. These are marked throughout this brochure with digital .

Marketing Materials We have high res publicity images and copy for each film available for inclusion in your own brochures and websites. For some titles we can supply trailers, posters or print ready poster files for you to duplicate locally to help promote screenings.

TERRITORY AVAILABILITY Note that inclusion of a title within this catalogue does not guarantee rights or print availability for a specific territory. Please get in touch for further details.

Booking titles Please contact your usual sales person to make bookings. UK Office - for International/UK enquiries Park Circus Limited T: +44 (0) 141 332 2175 E: [email protected] Office opening hours: Monday to Friday 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM GMT US Office - for US Domestic enquiries Park Circus LLC T: (661) 702 2136 E: [email protected] Office opening hours: Monday to Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM PST France Office - for France enquiries Park Circus Films SARL T: 09 52 58 89 53 E: [email protected] Office opening hours: Monday to Friday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM CET

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HALLOWEEN HOEDOWN

IMAGE: carrie (see P19)

HALLOWEEN HOEDOWN Line the aisles with Jack’o’lanterns and, for once, leave the cobwebs on the seats. Halloween is positioned between the end of summer and advent of Christmas, a time when spirits depressed by the onset of winter need a dose of the outrageous and an electrifying shock to the system. Like any festival, it is best celebrated with a large group and there is nothing like that community feeling of fellow enthusiasts jumping as a frightened Mexican wave, recoiling together at a gore-saturated extremity or filling the theatre with polyphonic laughter at the wickedly outré. This season, we have a number of defining classics of the genre to spill their innards at large on the big screen, many newly restored in blood-curdling high-definition. From psychic nerds to hammy vampire slayers, comicbook demons and angry automobiles, via head-spinning possession, haunted hotels and the slasher of your dreams. There’s something for every nightmarish predilection to announce the witching hour with. Just keep repeating, “It’s only a movie, it’s only a movie…” See also The Stephen King Collection (p19) for Carrie, The Shining, Christine and more from the master of horror.

Child’s Play Dir: Tom Holland

When serial killer Charles Lee Ray is mortally wounded in a police shoot-out, he uses a voodoo spell to transfer his soul into Chucky, an innocuous ‘Good Guys’ doll. Young Andy receives him as a birthday gift, and Chucky soon embarks on a killing spree. However, Charles doesn’t want to be trapped in the body of the doll forever, escape is possible by transferring his personality into the first human he reveals his identity to... and naturally Andy is curious about his new toy. TRICK OR TREAT?

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HALLOWEEN HOEDOWN

A Nightmare On Elm Street

digital

Dir: Wes Craven

In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him. Packed with genuine scares and nasty scenes of sadism, Wes Craven’s definitive slasher is also streaked with darkly surreal wit. Robert Englund as the horrifically disfigured, gleeful Freddy Krueger became a quipping, laconic antihero in the numerous sequels, but here he drips with unforgettable menace. One, two, and he’s coming for you… Also available: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS TRICK OR TREAT? www.parkcircus.com 6 OF 39 A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAMPAGE MASTER A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD

HALLOWEEN HOEDOWN

The Evil Dead

digital

Dir: Sam Raimi

Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons. Raimi’s seminal horror made a cult icon of Bruce Campbell and turned its director into hot property. Much imitated, but never bettered, The Evil Dead was the birth of an independently-spirited, viscerallyminded new wave in low budget horror cinema.

The Exorcist (Director’s Cut)

digital

Dir: William Friedkin

The belief in the existence of evil, and the doubt that evil can be conquered by faith. From these two themes, director William Friedkin with writer William Peter Blatty made The Exorcist, the frightening and realistic story of a young girl possessed by a malevolent entity. From its bile-strewn images of innocence being mercilessly profaned, it remains one of the most shocking movies ever to come out of America.

Friday The 13th

digital

Dir: Sean S. Cunningham

Terror and suspense abound in this 24-hour nightmare of spilled blood. Camp Crystal Lake has been closed for years due to several vicious and unsolved murders. The camp’s new owner and seven teenagers are readying the property for re-opening despite warnings of a ‘death curse’ by local residents. Of course, this proves true on the unlucky-for-some date as one-byone they are creatively picked off by a violent killer. Also available: Friday the 13th 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009) There are two Friday the 13ths in 2013: Sept/ Dec.

Fright Night

digital

Dir: Tom Holland

Meet Jerry Dandrige. He’s sweet, sexy, and likes to sleep in late. You might think he’s the perfect neighbour. But before inviting Jerry in for a nightcap, there’s just one thing you should know: he prefers his drinks warm, red, and straight from the jugular! Only 17-year-old Charley Brewster knows his bloodcurdling secret. When Charley can’t get anybody to believe him, he turns to TV horror host, Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), a histrionic has-been who used to be the ‘Great Vampire Killer’ in creaky movies. Welcome to Fright Night, a horrific howl of horror and humour. TRICK OR TREAT?

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HALLOWEEN HOEDOWN

Halloween

digital

Dir: John Carpenter

An exercise in simple, pure terror, Halloween takes us into the world of Michael Myers, who stabbed his sister to death at a young age. Locked away for years in an asylum, Michael escapes one night and returns home to continue his killing spree. The film made a star out of Jamie Lee Curtis as the resourceful babysitter who is chased by the psycho on Halloween night, and turned the slasher movie into a viable, successful genre. Halloween has been copied, parodied and even turned into a franchise of its own, but still remains the standard to which all other modern horror films are measured. TRICK OR TREAT? www.parkcircus.com

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digital

Dir: Roman Polanski

A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbours and unusual occurrences. When the wife (Mia Farrow) becomes mysteriously pregnant, doubt over the safety and identity of her unborn child begins to fray her psyche. Roman Polanski’s masterpiece of slow-build horror and abject paranoia will linger long once its mortifying conclusion has been reached.

Ghostbusters

digital

Dir: Ivan Reitman

A trio of university parasychologists lose their research grant and decide to open their own business, ‘Ghostbusters’. Almost at once they are summoned to investigate the strange happenings in a Central Park West apartment. What they discover is that all of Manhattan is being besieged by otherworldly demons. When there’s something strange in the neighbourhood, who ya gonna call? Also available: gHOSTBUSTERS 2

The Silence Of The Lambs Dir: Jonathan Demme

Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee, is assigned by her superior to interview an imprisoned, cannibalistic psychopath, Hannibal Lecter, in the hope that he may help uncover the identity of an elusive serial killer who skins his female victims. Lecter’s dazzling criminal genius unearths clues, but at the price of deadly mind games with the vulnerable Clarice.

MY BLOODY VALENTINE Dir: George Mihalka

Twenty years after a tragic mining accident on Valentine’s night, a group of teenagers attend a dance. A box of Valentine candy arrives, containing an ominous message and a bloodsoaked heart. Before the night is over, terror will strike again and again and again... TRICK OR TREAT?

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HALLOWEEN HOEDOWN

Rosemary’s Baby

The Amityville HorroR Dir: Stuart Rosenberg

The middle-class Lutz family are terrorised by their new Long Island home, which is possessed by vitriolic demons.

curse Of The Demon (night of the demon)

digital

Dir: Jacques Tourneur

An American psychologist journeys to London to debunk a devil-worshipping cult. Based on a short story by seminal horror writer M. R. James and atmospherically directed as an occult noir by Jacques Tourneur, this is superior scare fare and will have audiences pointing in fear: “It’s in the trees! It’s coming!”

Exorcist II: The Heretic Dir: John Boorman

The spirit that possessed Regan MacNeil still lurks within her and a troubled priest (Richard Burton) is sent to help. Often considered one of the greatest film follies of all time, Boorman’s bizarre, visionary movie is certainly winged camp but is nothing but barmy entertainment, stuffed with lunatic imagery and potent ideas. Definitely one for the midnight crowd.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers Dir: Philip Kaufman

This dazzling, whip-smart remake of the 1956 spine-tingler stars Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and Leonard Nimoy as characters caught in an eerie tale of possession by alien pod-people.

Twilight Zone: The Movie Dir: Steven Spielberg/John Landis/Joe Dante/George Miller

Four horror/sci-fi segments directed by famous directors, bringing their own distinctive sensibilities to versions of classic stories from Rod Serling’s landmark television series.

Shallow Grave

digital

Dir: Danny Boyle

Directed by Academy Award-winner Danny Boyle, this is a savagely entertaining contemporary black comedy, which sees three cocksure twentysomethings sharing a flat in Edinburgh getting more than they bargained for when they go in search of a new roommate.

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HALLOWEEN HOEDOWN - FURTHER EXPERIMENTS IN TERR0R

And to complement this diabolical raft of some of the most striking and shocking horror from the last fifty years, you might want to consider peeking through those shielded eyes for further experiments in terror.

Hammer is a British institution. For a golden period, the company consistently brought lurid reimaginings of the classic monster figures to life, upping the ante in every way conceivable: defiant colour, garish smatterings of blood, low-cut corsetry and impolite violence. Horror grew up under Hammer and revelled in it. But the studio had a moral compass underpinning the depictions of nefarious deeds, the sincerity of its two principal actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The latter could be bestial and terrifying (Dracula) or subtle, natural victim (Frankenstein’s monster); Cushing invested his characters with thoughtful anxiety, never a clear-cut hero or villain. Cushing would have been 100 this year and this adds momentum to the resurgence of the unique brand. A Hammer horror is a perfectly grown-up way to spend the evening.

The Curse Of Frankenstein

digital

Dir: Terence Fisher

The night before his execution for murder, Baron Frankenstein recounts his controversial experiments to create life in a version of Mary Shelley’s novel that ruefully captures the moral complexity of the story whilst losing none of its devastating irony.

(horror of) Dracula Dir: Terence Fisher

Jonathan Harker, a student of vampires, ventures to Dracula’s castle and attacks him. The vengeful count leaves his dark abode to prey on the family of his assailant’s fiancée. The only man able to protect them is Dr. Van Helsing (Cushing), a friend of Harker’s and enemy of the undead.

The Mummy

digital

Dir: Terence Fisher

One by one the archaeologists who discovered the 4,000 year-old tomb of Princess Ananka are brutally murdered. Kharis (Lee), high priest in Egypt centuries ago, has been brought to life by the power of the ancient gods and his sole purpose is to destroy those responsible for the desecration of the sacred resting place. But Isobel Banning, wife of one of the explorers (Cushing), resembles the beautiful princess, forcing the tormented monster to disobey orders and abduct her to an unknown fate. TRICK OR TREAT?

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HAmmer-time

HAMMER-TIME

HAmmer-time IMAGE: the gorgon

Countess Dracula

Vampire Circus

Dir: Peter Sasdy

Dir: Robert Young

One day in a fit of rage, embittered widow Countess Elizabeth strikes a chambermaid and blood from the girl splashes onto the her face. To her amazement, her skin becomes youthful and smooth. Elizabeth kidnaps the maid and kills her, making herself look 25 years younger. But the effect is only temporary, so what lengths will she go to keep up appearances?

A circus arrives at a Serbian village where it will perform a show for the locals. Many of them believe that the plague that has gripped their community is the result of a curse inflicted on them by Count Mitterhaus, a vampire. Unbeknown to them, the leader of the circus is the Count’s cousin intent on reviving his relative and having his revenge...

Dracula Has Risen From The Grave Dir: Freddie Francis

Resurrected from an icy river tomb, the Count returns with a lust for life and blood. The most religiously-themed of the Dracula movies, this one has him battling with a monsignor whose niece is the vampire’s intended... victim, that is.

The Gorgon Dir: Terence Fisher

In early-20th century middle-Europe, villagers are literally becoming petrified by a snake-haired siren in Hammer’s grotesque foray into Greek mythology.

Hands Of The Ripper Dir: Peter Sasdy

As a wave of horrific murders sweep through London, two men realise that the perpetrator can be no one else but a young girl they have taken in after finding at a crime scene. As they discover her past, they learn that she is the child of the infamous Ripper. Now they must devise a way of stopping her murderous urges. TRICK OR TREAT? www.parkcircus.com

The Vampire Lovers Dir: Roy Ward Baker

In a peaceful hamlet in 18th-century Eastern Europe, a female vampire with lesbian tendencies ravages the townsfolk, who, years earlier, killed off her fellow kind.

The Hound Of The Baskervilles Dir: Terence Fisher

In this spellbinding Sherlock Holmes mystery, Cushing stars as the great detective who must unlock the mystery of a hound’s horrible cry and the systematic deaths of generations of the Baskerville family.

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CHRISTOPHER LEE If there was one word to describe Christopher Lee, it would be stentorian. That voice full of stoic challenge; his self-possession and rigid demeanour. The actor essayed many an antihero, but was so insistent in the purpose of his character, immoral or otherwise, that it is difficult not to appreciate his gravity and comprehend his delusion. He will forever best be known as Hammer’s bloodsucker (see page 11), but there is much more to appreciate.

The Bloody Judge Dir: Jess Franco

Lee is Judge Jeffries, the Lord Chief Justice of 17th century England, who condemns women as witches without compunction to further his political career.

The City Of The Dead Dir: John Moxey

On the advice of her demonology professor, a young female student travels to a small town to research a paper on witchcraft. Whilst there, she notices some weird happenings: things begin to happen in earnest when she finds herself marked for sacrifice by an undead coven of witches in this atmospheric British tingler.

Circus Of Fear Dir: John Moxey

Following an audacious bank heist, a Scotland Yard Inspector poses as a photographer to visit the circus from where some of the notes have come into circulation. But he becomes aware of deeply sinister forces at work after he discovers a sack containing the body of one of the robbers.

The Fu Manchu collection [featuring The Blood Of, The Brides Of, The Castle Of, The Face Of, The Vengeance Of] The Chinese criminal with the drooping moustache may have become shorthand for racial stereotype, but was also a cultural archetype for sneering master villain. In Lee’s incarnation, the films are cheerfully Eurotrash but the actor never lets the schlock get the better of him. TRICK OR TREAT?

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christopher lee

IMAGE: the city of the dead

peter cushing IMAGE: the uncanny

PETER CUSHING: 100TH ANNIVERSARY No one did sorrow like Peter Cushing: the flesh from his cheekbones become wearily sucked back, as if exposing skull. There is something always morbidly touching about the actor, even if some of the characters he played were genuine monsters, like the iconic Victor Frankenstein. It is his solemn dignity and brooding circumspection that begs intrigue, which went far beyond the Hammer stable. 2013 is the 100th anniversary since Cushing’s birth, and is an ideal time for silver screen tribute.

House Of The Long Shadows

Corruption

Dir: Pete Walker

Dir: Robert Hartford-Davis

Desi Arnaz Jr. plays a young writer who bets that he can bat out a mystery play in one evening, squirrelling himself away in an old mansion where, unbeknownst to him, a bizarre family reunion is scheduled to commence. But then the participants begin dropping like flies. House of the Long Shadows represents the only co-starring effort of those titans of terror Cushing, Lee and Price.

Cushing plays Sir John Rowan, a brilliant surgeon decapitating prostitutes for pituitary gland fluid to repair the badly-burned face of his fiancée. Advertised at the time as “A super-shock picture so no woman will be admitted to see it alone!”, this rarely-seen demented foray into nastiness has been digitally restored.

Nothing But The Night Dir: Peter Sasdy

Trustees of the Van Traylen fund have been winding up dead, apparent suicides. When the final three die in a mysterious bus accident alongside thirty orphans, the police inspector assigned to the case (Lee) notices a number of discrepancies and enlists the help of a psychiatrist (Cushing) to get to the bottom of it.

At The Earth’s Core Dir: Kevin Connor

A Victorian-era scientist and his assistant take a test run in their Iron Mole drilling machine and end up in a strange underground labyrinth full of prehistoric monsters and cavemen, and ruled by a species of giant telepathic bird. TRICK OR TREAT? www.parkcircus.com

digital

The Uncanny Dir: Denis Héroux

Wilbur Gray is an eccentric author who urges his publisher to print a manuscript that tells three gruesome stories of the revenge exacted by cats on those who have wronged them. They may have nine lives, but they certainly aren’t afraid of taking human ones.

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Another classic horror double act to rival that of Hammer’s enfants terribles. Inspired by the stories of claustrophobic insanity and private paranoia written by Edgar Allan Poe, pioneering B-movie producer and director Roger Corman made a series of films that, despite their meagre budgets, looked dazzlingly ambitious and artful. What powered these Gothic epics was Vincent Price, brimming with sinister camp, adroitly straddling the line between homicidal madness and earnest self-delusion that characterised Poe’s protagonists.

House Of Usher (1960) When a beautiful young woman’s suitor arrives to ask her hand in marriage, the doors of the mysterious house of Usher fling open and terror begins. Her jealous brother will resort to macabre ends to prevent the family bloodline from getting tainted.

The Masque Of The Red Death Whilst a virulent epidemic rages outside, a Satan-worshipping prince stays confined in his castle and holds a party for the elite. All is revelry and debauchery until, during the great masque which crowns the entertainment, the guests succumb to the plague one-by-one.

Pit and The Pendulum

digital

Price stars as Nicholas Medina, the son of a notorious Spanish Inquisition torturer, whose wife has died under mysterious circumstances. The tormented Medina comes to believe that she was buried alive, and can hear his wife’s voice calling out to him.

The Raven Inspired by Poe’s poem, and starring horror legends Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff alongside Price, this is a cult classic of wizards duelling for magical supremacy.

Tales Of Terror A ghoulish anthology dramatising three of Poe’s short stories (Morella, The Black Cat, and The Case of M. Valdemar).

The Tomb Of Ligeia IMAGE: pit and the pendulum

TRICK OR TREAT?

A widower falls in love and marries an exact replica of his first wife. The second wife soon discovers her husband’s fixation with his dead spouse and becomes the object of evil happenings. www.parkcircus.com

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gothic poe-try

gothic poe-try: VINCENT PRICE & ROGER CORMAN

Price was a performer who was better than the mould in which he was typecast. Critical reaction seemed to trap him in a repertory of malevolent dilettantes and effete magicians, yet he always played them with arch relish. Outside of the Poe cycle, there is plenty more opportunity to watch the macabre master of disguise.

the Mad Magician

digital

Dir: John Brahm

Gallico the Great is a respected inventor of stage magic effects but wants the celebrity of a headline act. When a rival steals his wife and attempts to appropriate his famed buzz-saw trick, Gallico goes berserk. One murder follows another as he tries to cover his tracks: Price was rarely more crazed than here.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes/ Dr. Phibes Rises Again Dir: Robert Fuest

A man who was disfigured in a car wreck seeks revenge on those he believes are responsible for the death of his wife. Each slaying is patterned after the plagues brought down on Rameses, from killer locusts to blood-sucking bats. In the second film, he sets out for Egypt to find the secret elixir of life so that he may resurrect his beloved.

the Comedy Of Terrors Dir: Jacques Tourneur

A horror spoof in which a funeral director, who is in arrears on rent, aggressively pursues customers to bolster his business. The fact that they haven’t died yet doesn’t seem to dissuade him.

Cry Of The Banshee Dir: Gordon Hessler

A 16th-century lord goes on a rampage to rid the countryside of witches. He kills the children of the chief sorceress, who retaliates by putting a death hex on him and his heirs.

House Of Wax Dir: André de Toth

IMAGE: THE mad magician

Professor Henry Jarrod is a true artist whose wax sculptures are uncannily lifelike. He specializes in violent historical tableaux such as the beheading of Marie Antoinette or the burning of Joan of Arc...

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VINCENT PRICE

VINCENT PRICE

VINCENT PRICE IMAGE: theatre of blood

The Monster Club

Scream and Scream Again

Dir: Roy Ward Baker

A rich collection of vampires, werewolves, snakemen, wasp-women, ghouls and other weird creatures gather to enjoy themselves amid the flashing lights and rock music at the Monster Club. Vampire Eramus (Price, his only role as a bloodsucker) takes a recent victim there and spins three fantastical tales.

Dr. The Dr. The

Goldfoot and Bikini Machine/ Goldfoot and Girl Bombs

Dir: Norman Taurog/Mario Bava

The foppish mad scientist Dr. Goldfoot has invented an army of bikini-clad robots who are programmed to seek out wealthy men and charm them into signing over their assets: in Bava’s follow-up, he plots another saucy scheme to take over the world by killing off the major global military leaders. TRICK OR TREAT?

Dir: Gordon Hessler

A deranged scientist, seeking to create a race of superhumans by means of organic transplant, commits a series of brutal murders in order to utilize their bodies.

Theatre Of Blood Dir: Douglas Hickox

Edward Lionheart is a crazed Shakespearean actor who adds murder to his repertoire when he takes gruesome revenge on the critics who slighted him. Price is a glorious hamper of hamminess in this deft and witty film: tuck in.

Madhouse Dir: Jim Clark

A horror movie star returns to his famous role after years in a mental institution. But the character seems to be committing murders independent of his will.

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ROGER CORMAN IMAGE: bloody mama

ROGER CORMAN Corman had a knack for economy, not only financially but in storytelling. His prolific career is full of highlights both eccentric, satirical and morbid. Famous for kick-starting the careers of many filmmakers (Joe Dante, Jack Nicholson), this is an ideal time to remember that he was a great director in his own right.

A Bucket Of Blood

Bloody Mama

When Walter Paisley accidentally kills his neighbour’s cat and covers the remains in plaster to hide the evidence, he is acclaimed as a brilliant sculptor. But with his work now in demand, Walter must return to this method to produce new masterpieces…

Ma Barker (Shelley Winters) and her four sons leave a life of poverty for one of sadism, incest, murder and violence, until the FBI begin to hunt them down.

The Haunted Palace When a man arrives in the village of Arkham to claim the mansion that was once the domain of his great-great grandfather, a black magician who was burned alive, he discovers that the place is populated by strangely deformed people who are under his ancestor’s curse. Which, unsurprisingly, threatens to possesses him.

Premature Burial Guy Carrell (Ray Milland) is obsessed with the idea that he will be buried while in a state of catalepsy. He marries a woman who promises to cure him with love but then his fears become real.

Tower Of London Vincent Price stars in this chilling tale based on the story of King Richard III, a disfigured, homicidal misanthrope who tortured his way to the British throne.

Gas! -or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It A poisonous gas accidentally escapes from a chemical company in Alaska and kills off everyone in the world over the age of 25. A society forms that is a twisted parody of our destroyed civilisation.

The Trip A TV-commercial director decides to try LSD, and experiences visions of sex, death, dancing girls and a torture chamber.

X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes Involved in research seeking to increase the power of the human eye, a scientist decides to test a new serum on himself, which will allow him to see as if with X-rays. But his vision continues to develop in sensitivity until he can no longer bear it. If thine own eye offend thee…

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stephen king

IMAGE: the shining

stephen king The master of terror and suspense is the world’s bestselling horror author. Film adaptations of his terrifying stories make for some of the creepiest tales ever commited to celluloid.

CARRIE

THINNER

digital

Dir: Brian De Palma

Dir: Tom Holland

Carrie is a born victim: ruthlessly bullied by her classmates, inhibited by her psychoticallyreligious mother. When she becomes the butt of a vicious prank, her telekinetic powers are unleashed to devastating effect.

A lawyer is cursed by a gypsy to lose weight...and lose weight...and lose weight...

CHRISTINE

A young doctor and his family move to a small town in Maine and discover that they are living near a very unusual burial ground. Their neighbours are reluctant to talk about the cemetery, and for good reason too…

digital

Dir: John Carpenter

Christine is a sleek shocker telling the story of a 1958 Plymouth Fury that takes on human characteristics, particularly those pertaining to her name, and the devastating effects this ‘psycho-bitch-with-a-fuel-tank’ has on her once mild-mannered owner.

THE SHINING

digital

Dir: Mary Lambert

Also available: pet sematary 2

MISERY Dir: Rob Reiner

Dir: Stanley Kubrick

Think of the greatest terror imaginable. Is it a monstrous alien? A lethal epidemic? Or is it fear of being murdered by someone who should love and protect you - a member of your own family? In a signature role, Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, who’s come to the isolated Overlook Hotel as off-season caretaker with his wife and son before slowly descending into a ghostly time warp of madness and murder. From a script he co-adapted from the Stephen King novel, Stanley Kubrick melds vivid performances, menacing settings and dreamlike tracking shots into a milestone of the macabre. TRICK OR TREAT?

PET SEMATARY

Successful romantic novelist, Paul Sheldon, who just had his life saved by his No.1 fan now lives to regret it. When Ann Wilkes discovers that her favorite character has been killed off in his latest novel she’ll do anything to make sure he brings her back to life. Now Paul Sheldon must write as if his life depended on it...because it does.

CREEPSHOW Dir: George A. Romero

Inspired by the E.C. comics of the 1950s, George A. Romero and Stephen King bring five tales of terror to the screen.

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MIDNIGHT MOVIES IMAGE:dead & buried

MIDNIGHT MOVIES The ideal slot to experience horror. ‘After hours’ in the relative sanctuary of the movie theatre, surrounded by like-minded souls, but utterly alone once the light hits the screen. Or laughing out loud at the demented frolics before you within a community addicted to the weird and wonderful. Whether they’re enlivened by fancy dress or fun gimmickry, or played po-faced to provide genuine fright during the witching hour, there is nothing like the opportunity to revel in the bonkers and brutal with a bunch of other game individuals. Enjoyed in unusual double bills or just memorable one-offs, these midnight movies became ‘cult’ for a reason…

Brain Damage

Dead & Buried

Dir: Frank Henenlotter

Dir: Gary Sherman

Probably shouldn’t give away the plot of this bizarre tale but, suffice to say, a nice young man’s life changes when a 1,000 year-old brain-eating parasite named Elmer slithers under his New York City apartment door one day… and that’s not the half of it!

In the town of Potters Bluff, all is not as it seems. Sheriff Dan Gillis is a man who’s determined to find out what sinister secrets lie behind a series of random acts of terrible violence. His search leads him to the town’s undertaker and, most chillingly of all, to his own wife.

The Burning

Death Line (RAW MEAT)

Dir: Tony Maylam

Dir: Gary Sherman

A disfigured man burned by kids whilst he was a gardener at summer camp returns to maul and decapitate with giant hedge shears. Cue lots of modern teens getting killed to the music of Rick Wakeman.

“Mind the doors!” There’s something pretty grisly going on in the tunnels between Holborn and Russell Square involving cannibalistic extube workers. You’ll never want to take the Underground again.

Crawlspace

Deranged

Dir: David Schmoeller

Dir: Alan Ormsby and Jeff Gillen

Gunther (Klaus Kinski) seems like a conscientious landlord who looks out for his female tenants. What they don’t know is that he has a crawlspace from where he watches their every intimate move and plans their murders.

A middle-aged farmer, whose domineering mother warped him into becoming a psychotic killer, mummifies her body when she dies and then takes home other women to keep her company. A gleeful, gory take on the Ed Gein story.

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Dir: Stuart Gordon

A doctor invents a machine that stimulates a sensory gland in the brain that allows the user to view an extra dimension. Unfortunately, when he sees the monstrous inhabitants of this realm, they can see him too and are rather eager to introduce him to their world: one that goes beyond the flesh.

Ghoulies/Ghoulies 2 Dir: Luca Bercovici/Albert Band

When a college student inherits an old mansion he finds he has also inherited its residents - a bunch of slimy, hairy, fanged creatures who’ll do anything for him. Even kill. And lurk in the toilet. Then they come back in a sequel giving both those on screen and in the auditorium a night they’ll never forget.

It’s Alive Dir: Larry Cohen

Mr. and Mrs. Davies are expecting a baby. Which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing when it’s scared. And it’s easily scared…

Killer Klowns From Outer Space Dir: Stephen Chiodo

Truly one-of-a-kind alien-invasion sci-fi featuring blood-drinking intergalactic clowns harvesting a small city of its plasma.

Terrorvision Dir: Ted Nicolaou

A bizarre cosmic accident has produced an oozing, tentacled creature which projects itself out of television sets and eats its viewers. The Ring on lysergic acid.

Troll/Troll 2 Dir: John Carl Buechler/Claudio Fragasso

IMAGE: troll 2

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When an evil troll attempts to bring about cataclysmic changes that will forever erase mankind, an ancient sorceress and a young boy join forces to stop him before he can carry out his diabolical plan. But that is nothing compared to the ‘so-bad-it’s-brilliant’ sequel. Trolls live in the woods around Nilbog and feed on the town’s population. By transforming themselves into people, the trolls are able to come into town and pick their menu. But before they can eat, their prey must first be turned into vegetables. Yes. You heard that right.

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MIDNIGHT MOVIES

From Beyond

GRINDHOUSE In the last few years, video nasties, Italian horror and exploitation schlock have all risen in popularity, partly in thanks to Quentin Tarantino but also due to dedicated DVD labels treating the movies with the respect their fans demand. But these grisly, stylish offerings are still best enjoyed on a big screen, where the lurid fantasy is magnified as perverse opulence.

Anthropophagous

Motel Hell

Dir: Joe D’Amato

Dir: Kevin Connor

A group of vacationers find themselves trapped on a deserted island and pursued by a bloodthirsty cannibal.

Veteran actor Rory Calhoun stars as fiendish Farmer Vincent in this deliciously ghoulish tale of the macabre that has now become a cult classic.

The Beyond

THE Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Dir: Lucio Fulci

A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where, after a series of gruesome, supernatural ‘accidents’, she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell. A film that proceeds with the narcotic illogic of a bad dream.

Dir: Tobe Hooper

Over ten years after making the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper returns to his deranged family of reclusive cannibals for another round of chainsaw chases and non-stop screaming.

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grindhouse

IMAGE: anthropophagous

THE MONSTER SQUAD

IMAGE: vampires (see page 25)

THE MONSTER SQUAD Take some time to thrill your audiences with contemporary re-imaginings of the antiheroes of Gothic literature. Iconic figures such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula or Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde have evolved over time to reflect the changes in society and audience taste. Inspired by these horror giants, modern day fiends include blaxploitation vampires, TRICK OR TREAT? shufflingwww.parkcircus.com adolescent were-teens, cadavers and amazing transparent monsters; they’re all here…

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WOLFMEN Fuzzy, fuddled and fierce, the werewolf appeals to man’s inner beast. Ideal for an evening of feral entertainment. Provided there’s a full moon.

Howling 2: Your Sister Is A Werewolf Dir: Philippe Mora

Ben White is investigating the death of his sister, a reporter killed with a silver bullet. His findings lead him to Transylvania to battle an evil witch queen and put an end to her werewolf coven in this demented sequel to Joe Dante’s classic.

The Beast Within Dir: Philippe Mora

A teenager is experiencing growing pains of a most shocking sort in this exciting, tense and all-too-real story of monstrous transformation.

Wolfen Dir: Michael Wadleigh

A New York cop investigates a series of brutal deaths that resemble animal attacks in this unnaturally hirsute thriller. TRICK OR TREAT? www.parkcircus.com

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THE MONSTER SQUAD: WOLFMEN

IMAGE: the beast within

VAMPIRES Vampires fascinate with their eroticism and immortal bloodlust. From the elegant traditional Gothic version to all manner of fanged fiends on an equality and diversity roll call, here’s a bunch to sink your teeth into.

Blacula/ Scream, Blacula, Scream Dir: William Crain/Bob Kelljan

An old victim of Count Dracula’s bite is loose and stalking the streets of 20th-century Los Angeles in this Blaxploitation classic: for the sequel, he returns to the world of the living by means of voodoo and is loose once again with insatiable lust. Perfect for a double bill.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula Dir: Francis Ford Coppola

Interview With The Vampire: the vampire chronicles Dir: Neil Jordan

A vampire tells his epic life story: love, betrayal, loneliness, and hunger in this sumptuously perverse adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel.

The Lost Boys Dir: Joel Schumacher

One of the most faithful adaptations of the source, Coppola punctuates his pitch-dark love story about the vampire who travels from Eastern Europe to England in search of human love with baroque flourishes.

After moving to a new town, two brothers are convinced that the area is frequented by vampires in this ‘80s leather-clad pop art in thrall to the Brat Pack.

Count Yorga, Vampire

Vampires

Dir: Bob Kelljan

Dir: John Carpenter

In this contemporary version of the Dracula myth, a sophisticated and clever vampire establishes a coven in Los Angeles and terrorizes the local teenagers. Memorable, distinctive, it’s the best bloodsucker few know of and begs rediscovery.

A vampire hunter must retrieve a cross before it falls into the hands of the undead, producing dire consequences for humanity in John Carpenter’s actionpacked horror western.

See also Fright Night (p7) Dracula (p11), various Hammer vampire films (p12), Vampyr (p31), Hotel Transylvania (p34).

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THE MONSTER SQUAD: VAMPIRES

IMAGE: the lost boys

There are the shuffling creatures hungry for flesh. The more spry cadavers desperate for brains. And the running ones, all rage and instinctual attack. Zombies continue to fascinate and swarm our screens: they’re exactly like us, except totally dehumanised. There’s only one thing for it during a screening: barricade the doors!

Night Of The Living Dead (1968) Dir: George A. Romero

The original zombie classic. Subversive, political, terrifying: a ferocious portrait of America in the 60s.

Night Of The Living Dead (1990) Dir: Tom Savini

You know the drill: seven people barricade themselves inside a farmhouse whilst an army of flesh-eating zombies roam the countryside. This colourful remake directed by FX maestro Savini builds on its inspiration.

the Return Of The Living Dead Dir: Dan O’Bannon

Two employees of a medical supply company accidentally release a toxic gas that reanimates the dead. Soon the town is overrun with flesh-eating residents of the local cemetery who are hungry. For brains… IMAGE: NIGHT of the living dead (1990)

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See also White Zombie (p31)

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THE MONSTER SQUAD: ZOMBIES

ZOMBIES

Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, albeit usually misshapen and certainly over-powering. Eschewing more traditional horror stalwarts, there’s a whole menagerie of ghoulish goblins waiting to shiver the timbers.

The Ape Dir: William Nigh

A doctor disguised as an ape slays two women and attempts to kill a third in order to obtain their spinal fluids.

The Ghoul

digital

Dir: T. Hayes Hunter

An eminent Egyptologist (Boris Karloff) has purchased a precious stone stolen from a tomb. When he is buried, he has it with him, hoping to appease the gods after death. But the grave is robbed and the professor returns as a ghoul, anxious to seek revenge on those responsible.

The Manster Dir: Kenneth G. Crane/George P. Breakston

An American reporter in Japan is given a mysterious injection by a scientist, which turns him into a twoheaded monster in this bizarre curiosity.

Pumpkinhead Dir: Stan Winston

“For each of Man’s evils a special demon exists...” Pumpkinhead exists in folklore, via a diabolic ritual to ensure wrongs are righted. When a father’s son dies in an accident, he invokes the ancient score-setter, and finds that vengeance has no easy price.

The Amazing Transparent Man Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer

IMAGE: the ghoul

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From cult director Ulmer, a mad scientist experiments with a serum to make man transparent and uses an escaped convict to rob a bank. www.parkcircus.com

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THE MONSTER SQUAD: GHOULS

GHOULS

RAY HARRYHAUSEN

RAY HARRYHAUSEN Nathan Juran. Jim O’Connell. Don Chaffey. Heard of any of them? Probably not. Mention Ray Harryhausen and everyone nods their heads. Vigorously. These directors made films that the late animator endowed with his unique handiwork. Those skirmishing skeletons, the bronze colossus Talos creaking with might, the serpent-haired Medusa both terrifying and strangely voluptuous: those images are part of childhood and beg re-visitation on the big screen.

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers digital TRICK OR TREAT? www.parkcircus.com A young scientist and his new bride race against time to

stop an alien invasion of Earth.

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digital

Dir: Robert Gordon

A Navy submarine commander joins a pair of marine biologists to prevent a giant octopus from destroying San Francisco.

Jason AND The Argonauts

digital

Dir: Don Chaffey

The Greek hero leads a team of intrepid adventurers in a perilous quest for the legendary Golden Fleece.

Mysterious Island

digital

Dir: Cy Endfield

During the US Civil War, Union POWs escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a South Pacific island, inhabited by giant plants and animals.

The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad

digital

Dir: Nathan Juran

Sinbad is forced to return to the magical isle of Colossa in search of the secret to restore his thumb-sized fiancée to normal demeanour.

THE Golden Voyage Of Sinbad Dir: Gordon Hessler

Sinbad and his crew intercept a flying homunculus carrying a golden tablet. But this is one third of a puzzle that leads to untold riches, and the evil magician Koura is hell-bent on being the first to solve it…

Sinbad AND The Eye Of The Tiger Dir: Sam Wanamaker

Sinbad is enlisted by Princess Farah to help rid her brother of a curse that is gradually turning him into an ape.

First Men In The Moon Dir: Nathan Juran

Three astronauts, returning from the moon with a manuscript of a previous discovery, track down an aged adventurer, who tells a story of the first landing. A spectacular adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel of space travel.

20 Million Miles To Earth

digital

Dir: Nathan Juran

A US army rocket ship, returning from an exploratory flight to Venus, crashes into the sea off the coast of Sicily. But they did not come back alone…

THE 3 Worlds Of Gulliver IMAGE: jason and the argonauts

TRICK OR TREAT?

Dir: Jack Sher

Harryhausen’s stunning visual effects and Bernard Herrmann’s rousing score brings Jonathan Swift’s novel to life in an unforgettable adaptation. www.parkcircus.com

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RAY HARRYHAUSEN

It Came From Beneath The Sea

Nature must get fed up of us humans: constantly trashing it and ignoring the delicate balance of its beauty. So it begins to rebel, species mutating into vicious predators to fight back or prehistorical remnants rapidly returning to life in our self-polluted atmosphere. In the spirit of Harryhausen, there are angry insects, bilious frogs and hopping-mad bunnies to terrorise us all: freaks of nature can be gloriously dangerous. Let that be a lesson...

Mothra

digital

Dir: Ishirô Honda

A gigantic moth, worshipped as a goddess by an island people, begins to wreak havoc in Tokyo. Made by the director of Godzilla, with special effects by that film’s Eiji Tsubaraya, who pioneered ‘suitimation’, this is one of the best examples of the kaiju (Japanese monster movie).

The Bat People

Piranha

Dir: Jerry Jameson

Dir: Joe Dante

A doctor and his wife out vacationing in the mountains have a close encounter with some bats inhabiting a vast, mysterious cavern. Soon, the doctor begins to mutate into a horrible, blood-sucking monster, and his wife may be in for the same fate…

The sophomore effort for director Joe Dante, this lowbudget, high-camp horror spoof of Jaws is one of the most nastily fun movies of the 70s. A deadly strain of the flesh-eating fish, developed as a biological weapon in the Vietnam war, is accidentally released into the local river, which leads to a lake where a nearby children’s summer camp and tourist resort will provide plenty of fish food…

Frogs Dir: George McCowan

A revenge-of-nature film in which thousands of swamp critters attack a wheelchair-bound, Deep South plantation owner and his family on his birthday, the 4th of July. Has the fact that he’s been destroying the bayou wildlife around him have anything to do with it?

Night Of The Lepus Dir: William F. Claxton

Cole Hillman’s Arizona ranch is plagued with ‘mongrel’ rabbits, and he wants to employ an ecologically-sound control method: the animals are injected with geneticallymutated blood in an effort to develop a method of disrupting their reproduction. One of the test subjects escapes, resulting in a race of bloodthirsty, wolf-sized, man-, horse-, and cow-eating bunnies.

Reptilicus Dir: Sidney W. Pink

Copper miners in the tundras of Lapland discover a frozen piece of reptilian tail belonging to some unknown prehistoric creature. But then the fossil regenerates into a giant, acid-spitting monster that terrorizes the country and blowing it up will only create hundreds of little creatures...

Squirm Dir: Jeff Lieberman

When a power line falls to the ground on a rainy Georgia night, slimy killer sandworms emerge from the ground and terrorise a small town.

PROPHECY Dir: John Frankenheimer

A log company’s waste mutates the environment, creating a giant killer bear-monster. It’s part monster movie, part enviromental warning from veteran suspense director John Frankenheimer.

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fantastic creatures & unnatural animals

FANTASTIC CREATURES & UNNATURAL ANIMALS

Before Technicolor made murder luridly scarlet and monsters kaleidoscopic beasts, nightmares were imagined in stark monochrome. Looming silhouettes stalked the screen, long shadows cast to reflect the dark halves of human personality, the high contrast monochrome perfectly poised to dramatise the battle between good and evil. Horror cinema was getting to grips with scaring its audience, imagination let loose through experimental technique and ingeniously evocative imagery. There are Expressionist vampires, original haunted houses and the pre-flesh-eating zombie in this collection.

THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE (Thou shalt not kill) Dir: D. W. Griffith

This is the first psychological horror movie, pre-dating The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari by five years. Inspired by several stories by Poe, The Avenging Conscience was an important breakthrough in the development of film as an art form: it is also a dream-like descent into the bruised depths of the human mind.

The Fall Of The House Of Usher Dir: Jean Epstein

Having indirectly caused the death of his beloved, Roderick Usher stubbornly tries to resurrect her spirit by devoting himself to painting and sculpture. Epstein studiously avoids cheap shocks in this tale of hereditary madness, conveying the twilight zone between life and death with tightly-controlled, spookily-subtle technique.

I Bury The Living Dir: Albert Band

Unjustly ignored by many books on the horror film, I Bury the Living is a bone-chilling little mood piece, almost completely dominated by Richard Boone’s performance as a troubled man who becomes convinced that he has the power over life and death.

The Old Dark House Dir: James Whale IMAGE: the fall of the house of usher

TRICK OR TREAT?

One of the most literate, eccentric and visually striking horror films of the thirties. Five travellers caught in a violent storm take refuge in a sinister mansion inhabited by three certifiable lunatics. An artful mixture of chills and ghoulish humour. www.parkcircus.com

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a superb vintage

A SUPERB VINTAGE

Dir: Rupert Julian

This classic silent masterpiece stars Lon Chaney, in one of his most grotesque performances, as the crazed man without a face, who lives in the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera. Infatuated with a young opera singer, he kidnaps her and drags her to the depths below where she will sing only for him.

Vampyr Dir: Carl Theodor Dreyer

This unique film is the supreme example of horror sensed rather than seen. A young man spends a night in a lonely inn and suspects that he is surrounded by vampires, dreaming of his own death.

Waxworks Dir: Paul Leni and Leo Birinsky

A starving poet asked to write about the figures in the fantastic waxworks invents four portraits of cruelty. A haunting atmosphere is created through the expressionistic sets and ingenious lighting effects.

White Zombie Dir: Victor Halperin

One of the best examples from Hollywood’s Golden Age of horror cinema, this concerns an army of Haitian zombies who work in a sugar mill for the man who controls them. It’s a Gothic fairy tale filled with dreamlike imagery, echoes of romanticism and psychosexual overtones.

The Lodger Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

IMAGE: THE phantom of the opera

One of Hitchcock’s first films, based on the story of Jack The Ripper. As the suspicion that a neighbour may not be all he seems, the catand-mouse tension reaches almost unbearable proportion.

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a superb vintage

The Phantom Of The Opera

william castle

IMAGE: the tingler

WILLIAM CASTLE Castle was a filmmaker, showman and eccentric inventor of gimmicks. Glow-in-the-dark flying inflatable skeletons for House On Haunted Hill screenings, electrically-charged buzzers attached to the seats in The Tingler and ‘punishment polls’ for Mr. Sardonicus, where the audience voted on the villain’s fate. Can anyone out-gimmick the master at a screening today?

The Tingler

digital

An imaginative thriller that follows a scientist who believes screaming releases tensions that would otherwise kill people. When a deaf-mute theatre operator dies, Price discovers that the cause was an insect that attaches itself to a person’s spinal cord and can only be killed if the victim screams.

13 Ghosts A professor and his family move into an ancient house which hides a treasure and is plagued by ghosts of former owners. Plenty of chills and chuckles, with Margaret Hamilton cleverly cast as a sinister housekeeper.

Homicidal A pretty but rather strange young nurse presides over a creepy household which consists of a mute stroke victim and a decidedly un-macho young man.

Mr. Sardonicus This is the story of a reclusive count with a hideous grin frozen onto his face. He lures his wife’s boyfriend, a doctor, to his castle to cure him.

Strait-Jacket A crazed axe murderer, released after spending 20 years in a mental institution for lopping the heads off her husband and his lover, returns home to her daughter, who witnessed the slayings as a three-yearold. Shortly after her return, heads begin to roll again, with all the evidence pointing to the woman…

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the new breed

THE NEW BREED Halloween tends to beg nostalgia for seasonal cinema classics. But let’s not forget that the last two decades have seen the genre flourish with dark imagination, postmodern wit and eerie classicism from around the globe. Filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez and Guillermo del Toro turned their comicbook sensibilities into iconic nightmares, whilst J-Horror exploded a uniquely twisted surrealism. Meanwhile, the teen horror would never be the same after Wes Craven’s knowing reinvention of the slasher film that his Elm Street so nurtured with Scream. The new crop of horror cinema stands proud amongst its forefathers.

From Dusk Till Dawn

IMAGE: from dusk till dawn

The Others

Dir: Robert Rodriguez

Two deranged convicts kidnap a preacher and his kids, and flee for the safety of a remote nightclub in Mexico. Once they arrive, they discover that the place is anything but a safe haven for criminals. Featuring an outrageous plot hijacking that still thrills today.

Dir: Alejandro Amenábar

The Faculty

SCARY MOVIE

Dir: Robert Rodriguez

Dir: Keenen Ivory Wayans

Students suspect that their teachers are aliens after a series of bizarre occurrences.

A year after disposing the body of a man they accidently killed, a group of dumb teenagers are stalked by a bumbling serial killer.

Mimic Dir: Guillermo del Toro

Three years ago an entomologist genetically engineered an insect to kill cockroaches carrying a virulent disease. Now the species are out to destroy their only predator, mankind…

digital

Also available: scary movie 2, 3 and 4

Triangle

Cube

Dir: Christopher Smith

Dir: Vincenzo Natali

Seven strangers are involuntarily placed in an endless Kafkaesque maze laced with deadly traps.

Scream

A woman who lives in an old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted.

digital

Dir: Wes Craven

The residents of a picturesque small town are being victimised by a masked psycho with a twisted love for scary movies, mimicking horror films with real acts of terror. An instant audience favourite for its unique style and humour.

A labyrinthine, mind-melting psychological horror from one of Britain’s best genre directors.

the ring Dir: Gore Verbinski

A mysterious video kills whoever watches it, unless the viewer can solve its mystery. Also available: THE Ring two

Also available: scream 2 and 3 TRICK OR TREAT? www.parkcircus.com

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Horror’s not just an adult entertainment: indeed, it lays particularly fertile eggs in a child’s mind - the thrills of trick-or-treating or the huddled duvet after a spooky bedtime story. After all, the genre is rooted in fantasy, often dark but also magical. There’s nothing to suggest that ghouls and ghosties can’t provide perfect family entertainment.

Hocus Pocus Dir: Kenny Ortega

You’re in for a devil of a time when three outlandishly wild witches return from 17th century Salem after they are accidently conjured up by some unsuspecting pranksters. Loaded with bewitching laughs, this is an outrageously wild comedy.

Hotel Transylvania

digital

Dir: Genndy Tartakovsky

Welcome to Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s lavish high-end resort, where monsters and their families can live it up away from the human world. When an ordinary guy discovers the resort and falls for the count’s teenage daughter Mavis, comedy high jinks ensue.

Corpse Bride Dir: Tim Burton

IMAGE: corpse bride

TRICK OR TREAT?

This stop-motion animated feature follows the story of Victor, a young man who is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious Corpse Bride, while his real fiancée waits bereft in the land of the living. Though existence in the Land of the Dead proves to be a lot more colorful than his strict Victorian upbringing, Victor learns that there is nothing in this world, or the next, that can keep him away from his one true love. www.parkcircus.com

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don’t be afraid of the boogeyman!

DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE BOOGEYMAN!

digital

Dir: Jim Henson

A teenager babysitting her little brother accidentally sends him to the land of the Goblin King: she must get him back by midnight or he will be turned into a gremlin.

The Thief Of Bagdad

digital

Dir: Ludwig Berger/Michael Powell/Tim Whelan

A young thief helps the wrongfully imprisoned King of Bagdad to escape. As the two attempt to restore peace to the city, their adventures bring them into contact with a genie and a flying carpet, both of which they will need if they are to defeat the evil Jaffar.

Willow

digital

Dir: Ron Howard

When young Willow Ufgood finds an abandoned baby, he is suddenly thrust into an adventure filled with magic and danger. This ground-breaking film features stunning special effects, dazzling action and a classic battle between good and evil.

Frankenweenie

digital

Dir: Tim Burton

Young Victor conducts a science experiment to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life, only to face unintended, sometimes monstrous, consequences.

THE GOONIES Dir: Richard Donner

The Goonies plunges a band of small heroes into a swashbuckling surprisearound-every corner quest beyond their wildest dreams.

GREMLINS

digital

Dir: Joe Dante

When young Billy Peltzer takes possession of his cuddly new pet, he gets a whole lot more than he bargained for. Also available: GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAs 3D digital Dir: Henry Selick

IMAGE: gremlins 2

The Pumpkin King of Halloween Town decides to spread Christmas joy to the world. But his well-meaning mission unwittingly puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere.

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don’t be afraid of the boogeyman!

Labyrinth

walk on the wild side

IMAGE: dead ringers

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE Horror is not just about monsters, spooks, slashers and buckets of blood. There is much that troubles with skin-crawling suggestion, macabre sexuality and unsettling oddity. From the distinctive visions of David Lynch and David Cronenberg to the near-psychedelic experiences of Santa Sangre and White Of The Eye, not forgetting the uncompromising rawness of Charles B. Pierce, these are films spiked with an unforgettable menace that will leave you disturbed and beguiled in equal measure.

Blue Velvet

The Keep

digital

Dir: David Lynch

Dir: Michael Mann

A sensual mystery thriller about strange happenings in a small all-American town. A college student stumbles across a bizarre mystery and wants to know more, perhaps too much more. The oblique world he’s found lurking beneath his hometown’s picture-postcard veneer is about to become violently stranger.

A troop of Nazis are forced to turn to a Jewish historian for help in battling the ancient demon they have inadvertently freed from its prison.

Dir: Neil Jordan

Neil Jordan’s fascinating and imaginative retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and werewolf fables. Adapted by Angela Carter from her own story. digital

Dir: David Cronenberg

Elliot and Beverly are identical twins (both played by Jeremy Irons) who share everything from their gynaecological practice to their women. However, when they both become attracted to the same girl, it becomes apparent that madness as well as blood ties the brothers together. TRICK OR TREAT?

Dir: Charles B. Pierce

The documentary-style story of a hooded killer who terrorized the border town of Texarkana, Arkansas in 1946, leaving no less than five murder victims in his wake. He was never caught...

The Company Of Wolves digital

Dead Ringers

The Town That Dreaded Sundown

The Evictors Dir: Charles B. Pierce

A young couple move into an eerie house which is located in a small Louisiana town, unaware of its violent history, and soon find themselves tormented by the previous owners.

White Of The Eye Dir: Donald Cammell

A stylish take on the woman-in-jeopardy and mad-killer genres, Cammell’s enigmatic, visceral movie poses the question, ‘What would you do if you suspected your husband to be a serial killer?’

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walk on the wild side IMAGE: what ever happened to baby Jane?

THE TENANT

Alice

Dir: Roman Polanski

Dir: Jan Svankmajer

A lonely young man rents a flat that was previously occupied by a girl who committed suicide. Gradually he becomes obsessed with her and begins to assume her identity…

When agit-prop puppetry meets Lewis Carroll, the result is this dark film inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Strange, bewildering, haunting and beautiful, you’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? Dir: Curtis Harrington

An ex-music hall singer becomes a recluse since the death of her only daughter, rocking and singing to the cradle that holds the child’s mummified remains. When the psycho biddy kidnaps a local girl to raise her as her own, she becomes locked with the parents into a fight to the finish. Auntie Roo’s finish!

Wicked Stepmother Dir: Larry Cohen

Transforming into a cigarette-smoking black cat is just one of Bette Davis’ evil tricks in this campy, fun-filled brew that mixes sorcery with mayhem.

digital

Altered States Dir: Ken Russell

A Harvard scientist conducts experiments on himself with a hallucinatory drug in an isolation chamber that may be causing him to regress genetically…

Hardware Dir: Richard Stanley

It is the 21st Century, a post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear world where our worst environmental fears have come true. A young couple find a dismantled robot in the desert, unaware that the creature was programmed to kill humans.

what ever happened to baby jane? digital Dir: Robert Aldrich

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford play rival sisters in a domestic dance of death. This highly charged melodrama is a modern gothic masterpiece.

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