The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies Part 3

Ultimo Mondo Cannibal or Last Cannibal World (1977) had been Deodato's precursor to this shocking episode, which was essentially an action-packed cannibal movie with precious little in the way of gore. His approach to this feature, however, observed a distinct transition, choosing to make use of the doc.u.mentary filmmaking techniques of Paolo Cavara, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi. There was a disconcertingly rough edge to the second half of the film, which in a series of powerful scenes revealed only the slightest suggestion of gore rather than the antic.i.p.ated visceral excess.

Soon after its Italian premiere, Cannibal Holocaust was confiscated by a magistrate and Deodato was arrested on charges of obscenity. It was the magistrate's belief the director had produced a vile snuff movie and rumours abounded as to the onscreen killing of some of the actors. Deodato was later cleared, but his film was banned in his home country and then later in the UK. Such was its reputation it faced prohibition across almost the entire globe. The appalling levels of physical and s.e.xual violence were borne out to be highly controversial, as was the unnecessary cruelty displayed towards the animal life featured in the film. This callous disregard had already angered and caused a significant amount of tension among the members of the cast and crew. Furthermore, the unrelenting violence detailed in the grainy doc.u.mentary sequences, recorded on hand-held cameras, proved a little too realistic for the censoring authorities. In February1982 Cannibal Holocaust was released to video in the UK, but by July 1983 its notoriety had ensured it a place among the Director of Public Prosecutions' list of seventy-four videos that proliferated the country without having been certified by the BBFC. The film was successfully prosecuted for obscenity and banned until 2001 when it was pa.s.sed with an "18" certificate following the extensive editing of the animal cruelty and scenes of s.e.xual violence. Owing to its graphic content, several different versions of Cannibal Holocaust have been peddled in various countries with countless edits to the "Last Road to h.e.l.l".

Several films have since attempted to pose as Cannibal Holocaust II, although an official sequel has never been released and isn't likely to be following a recent breakdown in negotiations between Deodato and potential financiers. Mario Gariazzo's Schiave Bianche: Violenza en Amazzonia (1985), also known as Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story, hoped to exploit the movie's infamy when it saw release as Cannibal Holocaust 2: The Catherine Miles Story. Antonio Climati's jungle adventure Natura Contro (1988), while also going by the name The Green Inferno, a.s.sumed the t.i.tle Cannibal Holocaust II on its UK release. Bruno Mattei later produced Mondo Cannibale, Cannibal World in 2003, which was released as Cannibal Holocaust 2: The Beginning to an expectant j.a.panese audience. His film bore an uncanny resemblance in plot to Deodato's original, but lacked the original's abominable groundbreaking impact. Thirty years later, Cannibal Holocaust remains a unique moment in the history of cinematic horror.

MARCOS (VINCENTE PARRA) toils amidst the blood and guts of a slaughterhouse as livestock fall to the butcher's knife ready to be carved up and packaged for the shops and markets of his hometown. When he leaves work, he returns to his old whitewashed house in one of the poorer areas of town close to a recently constructed block of flats. While out on a date with his girlfriend Paula (Emma Cohen), the two get a little too pa.s.sionate on the backseat of a taxi, which annoys the driver. In the ensuing confrontation, the enraged Marcos kills the belligerent taxi driver. The following day Paula insists they should confess his crime to the police. Marcos knows the authorities will never believe his explanation of those tragic events and he does not have the kind of money that can afford a reliable lawyer. Paula persists and threatens to turn him in; unable to curb his anger he slits her throat with a butcher's knife and conceals her body beneath the bed. Soon after Marcos confesses his crimes to his brother Steve, he too insists the police should be informed. Marcos's situation becomes even worse when he once again shows himself incapable of controlling his temper. In the ensuing melee, he bludgeons his own brother to death with a handy wrench. People continue to arrive at his humble abode; first comes his brother's girlfriend, then her father and finally a waitress, none of them ever to be seen again. The bodies are kept hidden in his bedroom, and the odour of decay is disguised by a copious supply of air fresheners. In a rare moment of clarity, Marcos decides to chop his victims into little pieces and take them to the slaughterhouse, where he can then grind them down and mix them with the ordinary supply of meat. As Marcos's world descends into madness, so develops a suggestively h.o.m.os.e.xual friends.h.i.+p with a curious young man named Nestor (Eusebio Poncela), who spends much of his time walking his dog. From his thirteenth-floor apartment in the flats adjacent to Marcos's house, he has observed the gruesome secret contained within. Maybe he recognizes another social outcast, but for whatever reason he chooses to remain quiet about what he has seen and for once Marcos chooses to spare his life.

La Semana del Asesino, which translates as "The Week of the Murderer", was ent.i.tled Apartment on the 13th Floor and was also given the exploitative t.i.tle of Cannibal Man in the hope of arousing more interest when it was released in the UK and North America. The t.i.tle, however, is somewhat misleading, for there are no scenes of flesh eating evidenced anywhere in this film. Instead, Eloy de la Iglesia's feature is a character study of a seemingly reserved man's struggle in the squalor of his environment and the subsequent anger that so often becomes manifest in such urban decay. It also goes on to reveal how in a single moment a person's life can fall into utter chaos. As a character study, it bears comparison to James McNaughton's equally austere Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) and is reminiscent of the claustrophobic insanity of Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965). Raul Artigot's grainy cinematography added to the air of despair, which history has shown to be a reflection of a country that thought so little of its poor.

While this wasn't a particularly gory film, with the notable exception of the opening scenes in the slaughterhouse, it still managed to make it to the Director of Public Prosecutions' list of video nasties in July 1983 following its previous release to video in November 1981. It was finally granted an issue to video in 1993, on the understanding three seconds of unpleasantness were removed from the final cut. The relations.h.i.+p between Marcos and Nestor was also considered as being highly provocative and it has been suggested that there was concern among the censors in the UK as to its subtle h.o.m.oerotic subtext. This wouldn't be the last time Iglesia incorporated a h.o.m.os.e.xual theme in one of his films, which, in the fiercely Catholic Spain of the day, was considered a challenge to the country's authority.

THREE PETTY CRIMINALS, Roberto, Lina and Mario, conspire to kidnap the daughter of a rich couple and hold her hostage until they agree to pay their ransom. The police, however, are wise to their scheme and arrive on the scene forcing the villains to take leave of the country with the little girl still their hostage. Their escape leads them to an old friend, Antonio, and his young wife Manuela. While in the jungle, their jeep breaks down and their desirable guide is captured by a cannibal tribe. As she is dragged away, the camera moves in to dwell on her struggling body as it is sliced open and eaten. The kidnappers manage to escape the flesh-hungry tribe and get the jeep back on the road, soon after arriving at Antonio's retreat. The despicable Mario returns his host's hospitality by tying Manuela between two trees and raping her. When Antonio discovers what has happened he lures the kidnappers into the jungle and once he has overpowered them, returns their treachery by binding them to a tree ready for the cannibals to savour fresh meat. Meanwhile, the battered Manuela comes to the aid of the parents of the kidnapped girl, as the cannibal tribesman track them further into their jungle domain.

Terreur Cannibale was released just as the boom for cannibal movies was about to implode and included within its running time several sequences from Jess Franco's equally exploitative Mondo Cannibale (1980) with rumours abounding that Franco had been brought in to re-film certain scenes. For many years, it was also intimated that Franco had directed this film, but that had fallen to Alain Deruelle. He has never been able to escape the criticism launched at him for his use of so much stock footage, low-budget locales more than likely set in France and a cast of pallid natives, some of whom were overweight, with ever so delicately styled hair. However, there was just enough gore along with a smattering of voyeuristic s.e.x and that provocative t.i.tle to arouse the interests of the Director of Public Prosecutions in July 1983 following the film's release to video in October 1981. In July 1985, however, Cannibal Terror, along with The Evil Dead, Inferno and Dead and Buried would win a case at Snaresbrook Crown Court leading to their removal from the DPP's list of banned videos. It was finally pa.s.sed without cuts by the BBFC in 2003.

IN AN INVENTIVE turn that would demand hours of work in post-production, Lucio Fulci plays a tormented version of himself. After years of gory filmmaking, we are witness to his descent into complete and utter madness. His psychiatric consultant, with a mind to murder his own adulterous wife, is far from sympathetic, taking the director back to relive the s.a.d.i.s.tic depravity of his and several other directors' bloodthirsty films. Tormented by these terrifying visions of rape and butchery, each cut and spliced from a variety of graphic horror movies, Fulci fears he has to be the skulking psychopath in the raincoat as his sense of reality swirls into a visceral kaleidoscope of hallucinatory carnage. As his fragile state of mind deteriorates still further, he alludes to a cat eating away into his brains.

Cat in the Brain, which in Italy was known as Un Gatto Nel Cervello, and later ent.i.tled Nightmare Concert and I Volti del Terrore, was a film created for only the most ardent of Fulci's fans. With only a tenuous plot, he and editor Vincenzo Toma.s.si cut and juxtaposed a variety of extremely gory horror clips to create a grisly pastiche from his most notorious cinematic years. These films would include Fulci's Touch of Death (1988) and Il Fantasma di Sodoma (1988), along with five films he was brought in to oversee, Mario Bianchi's The Murder Secret (1988), Andrea Bianchi's Ma.s.sacre (1989), Leandro Lucchetti's b.l.o.o.d.y Psycho (1989), Giovanni Simonelli's Hansel and Gretel (1989) and Enzo Milioni's Luna di Sangue (1989). This unrelenting tide of torturous blood and guts was in many ways a homage to his own achievements, but also dropped a cynical wink to those experts who would have you believe that onscreen violence was precipitant for the atrocities in the world around us. Almost every character in this film was there for the slaughter, whether it was by chainsaw, hatchet or knife. Such was the intensity of the continuous flow of blood, it was almost impossible for the censors to cut, except in Germany where twenty minutes of footage was removed.

When the film was submitted to the BBFC for video release in February 1999, it was rejected because it contained so many sequences detailing unacceptable levels of violence committed against women, which were often s.e.xual in nature. There was a relish apparent in this violence, with the women in certain instances seemingly enjoying their plight. While the BBFC considered the possibility of cutting certain frames, it concluded that the excessive quant.i.ty of violence made such an endeavour ultimately fruitless, as it would be unlikely to change the general tone presented in Fulci's film. However, four years later the Board unleashed Cat in the Brain on the British public as an "18" uncut. In 2009, Fulci enthusiasts in the United States finally had the chance to see this film just as the Master of Gore had intended.

CHARLES LEE RAY (Brad Dourif), also known as the Lake Sh.o.r.e Strangler, chases through Chicago's night-time streets, his serial killing ways about to be brought to an end by the gun of Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon). Just before he dies he manages to break into a toyshop and chants a mystical incantation. Huge dark clouds engulf the sky as his evil soul is transferred into the lifeless body of a child's doll. In the same city, Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) struggles as a single parent, working on a jewellery counter in a busy department store, to maintain the apartment where she lives with her six-year-old son Andy (Alex Vincent). He can't get enough of the children's television show "Good Guys", and yearns for a Good Guy doll. When he opens his birthday presents and can't find the doll of his dreams, his disappointment is all too obvious. Karen will do anything to put a smile on her son's face and manages to buy one of the dolls from a peddler for only $30. However, this turns out to be the same doll that was possessed by the monstrous Charlie Lee Ray, who now goes by the name Chucky. Chucky remains lifeless for much of the film, but his blank unfeeling stares are enough to raise a sense of alarm. When he embarks on his bloodshed he uses the stealth and cunning of Charlie Lee Ray to ensure his victims can't slip away. Who would ever suspect a child's toy?

Tom Holland's creepy direction was to surprise the world of horror cinema. With a contrived premise that offered very little flexibility, he created a gripping horror movie with an imaginatively orchestrated air of suspense, much the way Wes Craven had only four years before in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Chucky's point-of-view shots kept the audience guessing, but the shocks soon followed as the levels of violence became ever more intense. Holland didn't resort to the more commonplace annoying teenagers and gratuitous s.e.x; instead he cleverly lured his audience and then applied the shock treatment. Maybe he was lucky in that such dolls such as the Cabbage Patch Kids were very much in vogue at that time, or maybe Holland was just born to direct impossible horror movies. His record speaks for itself he directed Fright Night (1985) and has entries in HBO's Tales from the Crypt and the Masters of Horror series. The final shot of an open door was a portent to the sequels to come, Child's Play 2 (1990), Child's Play 3 (1991) which was surrounded by controversy during the trial of the murder of young Jamie Bulger when the video was found at the house of Jon Venables Bride of Chucky (1998) and Seed of Chucky (2004). It was then announced that a darker retelling of this film was scheduled for a release in December 2011. The Chucky character was also an ideal design for comic books and so followed Innovation Publis.h.i.+ng's adaptation of Child's Play 2 in 1990 along with an ongoing series that commenced a year later, which sadly only ran to five issues. Chucky fans had no need to worry; an adaptation of Child's Play 3 soon went to press. It wasn't until 2007, when Devil's Due Publis.h.i.+ng obtained the licence that the malevolent doll finally returned to comic books. Almost twenty years later Charles Band picked upon this theme to give the world the dubious pleasure of the Gingerdead Man (2005), which was followed by a surprising sequel in 2008.

WITH THE GOLDEN years of the slasher at an end, Chopping Mall was released to cash in on the increasingly popular video market. The t.i.tle proved misleading as a group of teenage mall employees attempted to conceal themselves in the store in preparation for a late night party. It could have been an ideal setting for a slasher movie, but this isn't quite what it appears. The automated security system malfunctions and then goes wild. One by one the three robots try to exterminate the intruders, giving out very little in the way of gore. A suggested t.i.tle for the film was "Killbots", which would have been far more appropriate.

ON THE CHRISTMAS Eve of 1947, Harry sees his mother being fondled by Santa Claus, who, unbeknown to his young eyes, is actually his father. Unfortunately, this episode of yuletide pa.s.sion has a traumatic effect upon their son, which becomes manifest thirty-three years later.

Harry (Brandon Maggart) now works hard making toys at the Jolly Dreams toy factory. His home life is a little strange, for he sees himself as Santa Claus and is keen to instil his love for this seasonal jolly giant on all of his colleagues at the factory. From a rooftop vantage, he watches the children to see those who have been good and those who have been bad, recording his observations in a book that he keeps safely tucked away. However, while he works hard, he comes to realize his colleagues have little regard for him. He is laughed at when he tries to get them to give their unwanted toys to a local children's home. Their laughter triggers his downward spiral; in his mind he really is Santa Claus and he is about to give them all a Christmas they will never forget. Secreted away in his workshop beneath his home, he begins to create toy soldiers armed with swords and axes. He returns to the factory, taking the toys to give to the children, and soon after follows the slaughter with the most graphic murders of the film coming at midnight ma.s.s. As Harry's night of slaughter runs out of control, an angry mob carrying flaming torches sets out to find him and chases him through the streets in scenes vaguely reminiscent of Universal's Frankenstein features.

Christmas Evil was released as You Better Watch Out and on one of its dubious later releases became known as Terror in Toyland. It pre-dates the more successful Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) and follows both Black Christmas (1974) and Halloween (1978) in setting a ma.s.s murderer on the loose during a holiday celebration. While Silent Night, Deadly Night invited condemnation, Lewis Jackson's obscure film had a somewhat low-key reception. However, it went on to acquire cult status, and was accepted as being an essential part of the seasonal fare. This was in part due to the presence of character actor Brandon Maggart and the film's subversive comedic streak, which included the slapstick being-stuck-in-the-chimney routine, imagining his van is being pulled by reindeer and a police ident.i.ty line-up of the most scurrilous looking Santas you are ever likely to see. This feature, however, can be looked upon as a psychological study of a man whose obsession becomes so twisted he can't help but lose his mind. Jackson's aim was to make a horror movie, and while it wasn't to adhere to all of the emerging slasher precepts, its violence was graphic, particularly the attack outside the midnight ma.s.s where he gouges the eye of one of his victims with a toy soldier and then turns, administering a few machete blows to the head. The t.i.tle was changed to Christmas Evil without Jackson's knowledge; he has since acquired the rights to his film and future releases will go by the original name You Better Watch Out.

IN THE H. P. Lovecraft-inspired haven of Dunwich, New England, a priest Father William Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine) hangs himself in the grounds of the parish cemetery. Although the reasons for what follows are never satisfactorily explained, his suicide throws open the gates of h.e.l.l. The dead now rise from the earth to end their eternal slumber; the ghoulish priest seen among the first of this unholy horde. The zombies now emerge from the cemetery and begin to scour the town, ripping out their victims' brains and biting into the flesh of all who stand in their way.

Somewhere in New York City, a terrified psychic Mary Woodhouse (Catriona MacColl) collapses and dies during a seance. In death, she experiences a vision of the priest's suicide and the horror that follows. As the police begin their enquiries, another psychic who was present at the seance weeps uncontrollably about the opening of the gates of h.e.l.l. Peter Bell (Christopher George), an investigative journalist, learns of this strange incident and intent upon furthering his research goes to visit Mary's grave. As he stands by her unburied coffin, he is shocked when he hears her desperate cries for help. Using a pickaxe, he breaks through the coffin lid in a bid to rescue her, narrowly avoiding hacking her to pieces. She recalls the vision of the priest's death, and the unleas.h.i.+ng of a dark force from the very pits of h.e.l.l. At her insistence, Peter takes her to Dunwich, knowing they must find the remains of the priest before All Saints Day because if he were to arise, the dead will inevitably walk among the living and feed on their flesh. When they eventually reach the town of Dunwich they find the horror has already swept the entire town.

Paura Nella Citta Dei Morti Viventi, also known as City of the Living Dead and the Gates of h.e.l.l, saw Lucio Fulci once again resurrect the dead as he attempted to capture the b.l.o.o.d.y excess of the previous year's Zombie Flesh Eaters, which had seen release in parts of Europe as Zombi 2. For the duration of these ninety-three minutes, he succeeded in intensifying the brutality in the imagery from his previous effort and to his credit also created a suitably eerie milieu that was redolent of the works of H. P. Lovecraft, something few filmmakers have ever managed to achieve. This would be the first of three films that witnessed the opening of the gateway to h.e.l.l. It would be followed by The Beyond (1981), which featured a hotel built over a similarly abstract construct, and then there came the terror lying beneath The House by the Cemetery (1981). City of the Living Dead was also considered the second film in what has been labelled his zombie quartet that began with the Zombie Flesh Eaters and concluded with the two previously mentioned terrors from 1981. On this occasion, Fulci observed a more coherent linear approach to his storytelling than was evidenced twelve months later in The Beyond. To the outsider, however, it resembled a series of disparate episodes, each of which were held together using a wafer-thin premise. Fulci's vision was such he wanted his films to be viewed as a whole, rather than a separate series of unrelated incidents made up of actors, dialogue, scenery, lighting and sound. Viewed in this light, his approach become somewhat easier to understand.

When his cast arrived in Dunwich, they were greeted by the disquiet of a series of Gothic sets immersed in a mist-bound locale that threatened to erupt into hideous violence. Amidst the murk, he created a creepy air of suspense as the dead were briefly caught by the camera's eye and then simply vanished. Gino De Rossi's gore effects were to become the source of much discussion, with a considerable amount of attention being placed on an offending drill as it was bored deep into a victim's face. Further excess would follow with an array of worm-ridden carca.s.ses, eyes that bled, intestines seen to vomit before the camera's gaze and heads brutally torn open to expose the luscious sight of the human brain. Fulci's films had been guilty of greater atrocities, but City of the Living Dead was immediately cla.s.sified as an "X" when it went for cinematic release in the UK. The BBFC were not entirely enamoured with the drill scene and as a result it was cut from the original release. Further editing came when it was issued to video with cuts to the vomiting scenes and unsightly brain removal. Fulci's second splatterfest wouldn't be seen in it all of its bloodthirsty glory in the UK until the unedited release of 2001. Even though the entire movie was now available, the finale continued to arouse much debate. It has always been considered that the evil priest and his supernatural zombies were all too easily defeated, making many wonder if the director's meagre funding had just run out or was it possible some of the footage had been lost during the editing process. Unlike the two films that followed in the gateway to h.e.l.l trilogy, the denouement failed to satisfy and begged many questions.

SNOW FALLS ONTO a struggling scar-faced teenager, as an obscured felon attempts to bury him alive. The newspaper headlines, which date back to 1975, are obsessed with the authorities' efforts to find the boy and his a.s.sailant, alas to no avail. Thirty years later a group of amiable young friends are on their way to the same region, Jotunheimen, with the prospect of a few days' s...o...b..arding on the slopes. En route, Young Morten (Rolf Kristian La.r.s.en) accidently breaks his leg, forcing the party to seek shelter overnight in an abandoned mountain hotel. They very quickly discover the phones have been out of action for many years, so any immediate chance of rescue is out of the question. While exploring the isolated hotel they learn it was closed to the public in 1975 when the proprietors' son went missing in the surrounding mountains. Eirik (Tomas Alf La.r.s.en) then sets off to get help, but he doesn't get far for there is a pickaxe-wielding psychopath prowling the grounds and the kids are soon to be his quarry. They don't know it yet, but the Mountain Man is Norway's answer to Michael Myers.

Fritt Vilt was highly derivative of the North American slasher movies of the early 1980s and while it didn't bring anything new to the concept it was the premiere for a fine young director in the guise of Roar Uthaug, whose work was introduced to a far wider audience than he had at first antic.i.p.ated. Four years before, he had graduated from the Norwegian Film School, and looked set for a career in commercials and music videos. This was his first time in the director's chair on a major production and he began his story very slowly, creating a likeable cast of characters before delivering them to this atmospheric setting, which oozed an unsettling aura of suspense. Such was his precise direction he was able to bring something new to the cliches of over twenty years past and gave the world his resourceful heroine, Jannicke, played by the talented Ingrid Bols Berdal. Praise was also lauded on this film thanks to the fluid cinematography of Daniel Voldheim, which savoured these stunning northerly landscapes before turning its attention to the claustrophobic shadows of the deserted hotel. The hotel contained an affectionate wink to Stanley Kubrick's telling of Stephen King's The s.h.i.+ning (1980), when one of the couples chooses room 217 for their stay, a portent of doom if ever there was one.

True to the slasher craze of the 1980s, this success was followed by a couple of sequels, Cold Prey 2: Resurrection was released in 2008 with Jannicke awakening in a hospital bed, while the latest sequel Cold Prey 3 (2010) returned to a series of grisly events in the 1980s. This film also paved the way for another Norwegian modern-day slasher, Patrik Syversen's Manhunt (Rovdyr) in 2008.

WHILE Color Me Blood Red was completed in early 1964, it sat on the shelf for over a year as producer David F. Friedman went through the lengthy process of terminating his business relations.h.i.+p with director Hersch.e.l.l Gordon Lewis. When it finally did appear, its low-budget production values saw it recognized as a fitting conclusion to the "Blood Trilogy". B-movie enthusiasts of the period would very quickly observe an obvious parallel with Roger Corman's Bucket of Blood (1959), although the acting was never the match of its predecessor.

Don Joseph, or Gordon Oas-Heim, takes the lead role as Adam Sorg, a frustrated painter unable to interest the public in the purchase of his work. After having his efforts sneered at during a local exhibition at the Farnsworth Galleries, he returns to his studio in search of inspiration. When his model Gigi accidentally cuts herself and her blood drips onto the canvas, he finds the revelation for which he has been searching, resulting in an uncontrollable frenzy at the easel. Gigi squeezes every bit of blood she can muster, but it is never going to be enough. It is not long before Sorg has to slice into his own fingers to set loose fresh pigment. He needs to complete the painting he has promised, but realizes it will be impossible to maintain this approach, so he returns to his original supply. Without so much as a word of warning, he stabs Gigi in the face and turns her b.l.o.o.d.y head into a brush to put the finis.h.i.+ng touches to his painting. Having buried Gigi's body, Sorg takes his masterpiece to display in the gallery. Commercial considerations are now of little import; he seeks the praise of the critics to give him the inspiration to pursue this new medium in the confines of his studio. Potential buyers pet.i.tion to make their acquisition, but Sorg refuses to sell. He is now fuelled with a pa.s.sion to create, but he needs to secure another source of this unique pigment. The slaughter now begins as he sets about the murder of other models to achieve his artistic l.u.s.t.

Lewis heightened the gore factor in his film when Sorg took to the opportunistic stalking of a young couple, before engaging a spear to stab the man, Norman, through the chest. Sorg subdues his screaming girlfriend Betty and steals her away. He is next seen standing before his bloodstrewn canvas. Having exhausted his palette he enters the next room, where Betsy's dead body is tied to a wall, her intestines hanging from her bleeding stomach. Lewis exacts every last morsel from this scene; he has Sorg squeeze more blood from the disembowelled girl before he returns to complete his insane masterpiece. The next day the bloodthirsty artist takes his creation to the gallery and once again refuses to sell. Instead, Sorg storms out of the gallery, failing to realize his painting is still wet. Hersch.e.l.l G. Lewis's cult following regard Color Me Blood Red as the least imaginative of his gory trilogy, lacking the spontaneity that had heralded Blood Feast (1963) and revealing little of the excess that had shocked with Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964). Sadly, there was nothing new on show and far too much padding was in evidence, particularly the tiresome beach party antics of the local teenagers. The gore-mongers of the day would have still drooled over the shots detailing Betty's ruptured intestines; such hideous scenes at this time were something of a novelty in American cinema. During the making of this movie, Lewis and Friedman considered making a fourth "Blood" film, ent.i.tled Suburban Roulette. Friedman, however, thought better of it, certain that the "super blood and gore" film market was at saturation point. He took the decision to abandon the series, leaving it to remain in the annals of cinematic horror as a b.l.o.o.d.y trilogy.

SET IN A rain-swept New Jersey of 1963, the withdrawn twelve-year-old Alice Spages (Paula E. Sheppard) lives with her mother, Catherine (Linda Miller) and younger sister, Karen (Brooke s.h.i.+elds). Their lives are enveloped by the influential Catholic church with Karen making preparations for her first holy communion. Alice is obviously jealous of her sister and cruelly torments her, stealing her doll before locking her away while wearing a transparent mask. As Karen puts on her white veil and readies herself for her communion, she is strangled in the church by a figure who wears a child's yellow raincoat and a mask identical to that worn by her spiteful sister. Alice then takes her place wearing her sister's veil, which she maintains she picked up from the floor. She soon becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her sister. Can this emotionally disturbed child really be a killer? Maybe not, for as she retreats to her bas.e.m.e.nt shrine surrounded by an a.s.sortment of curious paraphernalia, a figure is seen stalking the hallways of her apartment building.

Alfred Sole's little-known slasher was released a couple of years later as Alice Sweet Alice, the t.i.tle by which it is more commonly known, and in 1981 as Holy Terror. This stylish movie would have remained in relative obscurity if it hadn't been for an appearance by Brooke s.h.i.+elds, who two years later attracted controversy in Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (1978) and then opened a few eyes in Blue Lagoon (1980). With Columbia Pictures having reneged on their interest in distributing this independently made movie, Allied Artists stepped into the frame. They demanded a change to the t.i.tle's religious theme, fearing it would affect the public's perception of the film's content and ultimately hinder its prospects at the box office.

The change in t.i.tle would not alter the observations being made of the Catholic Church in a modern-day inner city environment, but in its deliberation on the loss of innocence and the ensuing deep-rooted remorse, Communion had an unusual affiliation with Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1972). Sole, however, ventured considerably further in his narrative; he moved to challenge and question the notion of clerical celibacy. His use of the child's plastic raincoat would again evoke memories of Roeg's seminal tragedy, although the mask that was often found in the gialli of the day actually predated John Carpenter's creation for Halloween by two years. Communion, the novel written by Frank Lauria, was released in conjunction with the film through Bantam Books.

AN ABANDONED s.h.i.+P is observed drifting into New York harbour. When it is boarded by Lt. Tony Aris (Marino Mase) and his team of officers, thousands of containers of coffee are discovered, each concealing strange green pods. Shock after shock follows as the decimated remains of the former crew are uncovered below decks. They have fallen prey to this clutch of outlandish eggs, for when the temperature begins to rise they start to hum and then detonate, releasing a toxic liquid which, if it makes contact with the human body, consequently causes it to explode.

Colonel Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau) has been a.s.signed to the case and it isn't long before she determines a link between the appearance of the deadly pods and the recent catastrophic mission to Mars. On the journey through s.p.a.ce one of the astronauts disappeared without trace while the other, Commander Hubbard (Ian McCulloch), suffered a nervous breakdown on his return and hit the bottle. The indomitable Holmes has to convince Hubbard to help her to ensure the toxic cargo is returned to Manhattan; only then can she successfully continue her investigation. Their findings lead them on a trail to a coffee plantation in Colombia. Here they locate the missing astronaut from the flight to Mars is alive. Unknown to them his mind, however, is no longer his own; he has been infiltrated by an evil spider-like alien they call Cyclops. This monstrous creature's intent is to swallow the world with its lethal eggs and, as it has done on other worlds, annihilate life across the entire planet.

Contamination, which has also been packaged as Alien Contamination, Contamination: Alien on Earth, Toxic Sp.a.w.n, Contamin.a.z.ione, and Alien 2, was Luigi Cozzi's follow-up to his Italian box office hit Starcrash (1978). In the wake of this success he was keen to become involved with another science fiction venture and very soon found himself directing the first of many features to be inspired by Ridley Scott's Alien (1979). The pitiful budget meant that this was to be kept on Earth, and filming was completed over a five-week period, working between Rome, New York City, Florida and Colombia. Sadly, even with its eerie Goblin soundtrack, Cozzi's film did not fare very well on its Italian release, but as with so many of its contemporaries, it was to acquire a quite particular notoriety. As limited as the budget was, Cozzi delivered a series of graphic slow-motion effects to quite literally explode his cast before the camera's lens and their b.l.o.o.d.y remains spill forth over the set. This visceral excess saw the video cited in the UK as yet another video nasty in October 1983, with the film consigned to the list until January 1985.

When it was released to video by ViP and then European Creative Films, two minutes and forty seconds of cuts had to be made to guarantee it a place on the video shops' shelves. These were earmarked for the opening sequence, where a dead man's decomposing body was found in a cupboard, along with the graphic blast of several men after tampering with the alien pods as well as facial explosions and lingering shots of exploding human guts. There were further cuts to numerous gory explosions seen later in the film and finally the devouring of a man's head by the alien queen. As the years rolled by, att.i.tudes changed and in 2004 the BBFC pa.s.sed the Anchor Bay DVD as "15" uncut.

As Cozzi's film hit the Italian big screen, Ciro Ippolito released another unauthorized low-budget sequel to Ridley Scott's terrifying masterpiece, Alien 2 On Earth or Sulla Terra. The claustrophobia of the Nostromo was replaced by a pot-holing descent into deep caves in California. Both Cozzi and Ippolito would continue to write and direct for many years to come, carving out highly successful careers in Italian film and television.

AS THEY GO about their daily routine in the upkeep of the London sewage system, two operatives, Arthur (Ken Campbell) and George (Vas Blackwood), uncover a tunnel they haven't previously encountered. Their exploration of this dark pa.s.sageway brings them face to face with a deathly flesh-eating abomination.

Heading home late one night after a party, Kate (Franka Potente), a repellant London socialite, falls asleep on the platform while waiting for the last train. She awakens to find herself trapped in the bowels of the London underground, with all the exits firmly locked until early morning. By chance, a deserted train making its return to the depot draws up at the platform. She boards one of the carriages and meets the overly fixated Guy (Jeremy Sheffield) seen earlier at the party; she becomes the object of his desire before his thoughts turn to rape. During the attack, the creature from the film's opening scenes makes a return and drags him away, having already butchered the driver. Thus begins a nightmarish ordeal in the disorientating claustrophobia of these dimly lit tunnels, as Kate and a young homeless couple are stalked by a malfeasance with an instinct for vicious slaughter. Her path takes her deeper into the warren and on into the sewage system, where she discovers an abandoned subterranean surgery. Only then does she realize the nature of the beast.

The comparatively low-budget Creep has been compared to another British shocker from the past, the almost forgotten cannibal killer Death Line (1972), which made a similar descent into the London Underground. Christopher Smith confessed he had no knowledge of this almost forgotten precursor at the time of his shoot; rather, he referred to the underground scenes from An American Werewolf in London (1981) as his source of inspiration. Like many other regular pa.s.sengers on the London Underground, Smith had been frustrated by the experience of being stranded in one of the system's many tunnels for an overly long period and having to endure the sweat-ridden irritation of not knowing what was going on; not surprisingly for a man of his integrity this stimulated an idea. While he may not have mustered the hefty backing of the American studios, Smith wasn't remiss when it came to serving up the grisly mayhem by the bucket load in a tense and well-paced splatterfest that harked back to the Italian predilection for gore during the late 1970s and on into the 1980s. The ruthlessly determined and selfish figure of Kate didn't have the vulnerable qualities of the final girl of two decades past; her bourgeois tendencies made it very difficult to applaud her efforts as she sought to escape the creature that wanted so badly to savour her flesh. As Creep progressed, the audience's sympathy turned to the cannibalistic villain of the piece, poor Craig, who just couldn't help himself.

CHARGED WITH MURDER, Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cus.h.i.+ng) awaits the guillotine. From the confines of his prison cell, he tells a priest the story of how he created life from reconst.i.tuted dead bodies and how his creation escaped to commit the crimes of which he has been accused. For years, the Baron dedicated himself to studying under his teacher and friend Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart). Their time together in the laboratory seems to be the orphaned Baron's only reason for living. As they further their endeavours, their experimentation miraculously returns a dead dog to life. Victor's obsession demands they build on this success with a view to creating human life. Krempe refuses to become involved with such a heinous scheme and warns of the dangers of tampering with the forces of nature. Although he is opposed to his former protege's macabre designs, he stays on in the house to protect Victor's fiancee Elizabeth (Hazel Court), in what appears to be little more than an arranged marriage. Victor is oblivious to Elizabeth's needs; he thinks only of his compulsive research and the nurturing of his abominable child, a victim of the gallows pole, who now lies incarcerated in a fluid-filled tank. He later acquires the hands and then the eyes just before turning on the electricity to breathe life into his bizarre creation (Christopher Lee). The creature's brain, however, has been damaged and very soon it will break free to doom its surrogate father.

The experienced Terence Fisher was given the creative freedom to reinterpret this cla.s.sic, and he took considerable care to ensure the details in set design and costumes were appropriate for this celebrated Gothic-styled tragedy. Curse of Frankenstein was Hammer's first venture into pure horror although the studio's Quaterma.s.s Xperiment (1955) had contained more than a smattering of terror. It was also the first Hammer movie to be shot in colour, making ample use of the lurid capabilities of Eastmancolor, and more significantly was the first terror-based pairing of one of the genre's most renowned duos, Christopher Lee and Peter Cus.h.i.+ng. Surprisingly Lee was only considered for the role when Bernard Bresslaw's agent demanded a little more than Hammer could afford. This film, along with their masterpiece of the following year, The Horror of Dracula, was to define the company's way of thinking for their forthcoming excursions into horror, which continued for almost twenty years. Its ever so tepid application of gore was but the beginning of the genre's predilection for sanguinary excess, although in its day it was to upset many of the critics as the public flocked by the thousand to savour its gruesome pageant.

Universal had already threatened to sue Hammer if they were seen to imitate the make-up first used on Boris Karloff's monster, so it was left to Phil Leakey to create something no one had before seen. His skill coupled with Lee's portrayal made the monster every bit as terrifying as it had been at Universal and in the eyes of many of Mary Sh.e.l.ley's ardent enthusiasts, his design was far closer to the description alluded to in the original novel of 1818. Leakey, however, was never happy with his work, being denied both the time and budget to create the impression for which he would have hoped and ultimately been remembered. This wouldn't prevent Hammer's Frankenstein creation from returning for another six outings in, The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Evil of Frankenstein (1964), Frankenstein Created Woman (1967), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) and Frankenstein and the Monster from h.e.l.l (1973).

AFTER BRINGING DIRECTOR Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon) the rights to his new film, "Audra", Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar) a.s.sumes she will be given the lead role. Audra was a dangerously psychotic woman and the only way for a method actress of Samantha's calibre to become immersed in this woman's hopelessly deranged character is to appear insane and be committed to an asylum. While confined to the sanatorium her performance becomes a little too convincing and Stryker takes the decision to leave her there. He now has to find a new Audra and auditions six young women in the privacy of his remote New England mansion. One of these women tempts fate and openly admits she would be prepared to kill for her part in this film. Miles away from this secluded location Samantha has managed to escape her self-imposed incarceration, and arrives at the manse just as a crone-masked killer embarks upon the slaughter of these young hopefuls.

Following the success of Prom Night (1980) the Canada-based production team of Peter and Richard Simpson went straight into production with former cameraman Belgium-born Richard Ciupka, now promoted to directorial duties, to make a film that drifted into near obscurity before achieving a quite unique cult following. To say Curtains had a problematic production is an understatement. A few weeks into the shoot, the original lead actress, Celine Lamez, was fired when she refused to appear in a full frontal nude scene. Her scenes then had to be repeated, using her understudy Linda Thornson, thus adding to the film's spiralling expenses. Once the shoot had been completed, many scenes were heavily edited leaving gaping holes in what should have been a reasonably linear plot. Meanwhile the backers were becoming increasingly concerned with Ciupka's ability as a director, which led to him walking away from the film and Peter Simpson completing the second part of the shoot. Three years later Curtains was finally ready for release, but made very little impression on a market which by then was completely saturated by the slasher phenomenon. However, in keeping with the terrors of these years, this film refused to remain buried and acquired a more accepting audience when issued to video.

The VHS phenomenon of the 1980s certainly helped in bringing this film to a new audience, but this would have only ever worked if it had followed the now established conventions of the slasher trope. It achieved this by creating an unsettling milieu became immersed in this murderous episode, princ.i.p.ally in the form of an old house, which on many occasions has provided a fitting backdrop. Curtains could also boast one of the more memorable kills of the slasher years, the 'skate and slash' of Christie (Lesleh Donaldson) as she joyfully skated in the early morning to an eighties tune, only to discover a strange looking doll buried under the snow. It was then the killer engaged his pursuit, in a series of expertly ch.o.r.eographed chase scenes. This was almost matched by the final kill in the shadows of the claustrophobic prop room that ensured so much of the film's eerie premise was brought to a climactic finale. Ciupka would put this film behind him as he continued his career behind the camera and returned to the director's chair at the beginning of the 1990s HYSTERIA AND DISBELIEF engulf a television station as it reports on the zombie apocalypse that has now spiralled out of control. While a scientific expert fails to offer an explanation as to why this catastrophe is sweeping the globe, he carries a warning that even those walking dead recognized as friends and family can no longer be considered so; they are all abominations with but one craving the pleasure of human flesh.

Two national guards, a reporter and her pilot boyfriend flee the besieged city of Philadelphia on board a helicopter. They land at a deserted shopping mall where they look to seek refuge, first slaying the zombies who have made their way into the complex and then by obstructing the large gla.s.s doors at the entry with vehicles. As they fight to clear the mall one of the national guards is bitten by the contaminated breed; it won't be long before he takes his place among this mindless herd. After making this shopper's paradise their own, the four settle in to their new life, but all too soon they realize that while they are safe from a society in collapse, they are little more than prisoners. The gravity of their situation is compounded by the revelation that Francine is pregnant and then a gang of bikers explode into the mall. They break down the doors, allowing droves of zombies to run amok in the halls and corridors of this huge shopping complex. As the bikers ride around the stores taking an insane pleasure in gunning down the zombies, a gun battle ensues with the team. The pilot takes a shot to the arm before being attacked by zombies in an elevator. The zombies then turn on the bike gang, who make a hasty retreat leaving the mall besieged by this deranged infestation. Only Francine the reporter and Peter, one of the national guards, make it to the roof to take a helicopter on into a country that has fallen into madness.

George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which is also known as Zombi and Zombie: Dawn of the Dead, marked the second instalment in his Living Dead series. The zombie outbreak that plagued Night of the Living Dead (1968) has now spread across the world; the original cast of characters, however, never gain a mention. Romero had hoped to produce a more ambitious sequel to his cult phenomenon of 1968, but his subsequent films hadn't been particularly successful, which made it difficult to finance the extravagant venture he had envisaged at a time when zombie movies were not in vogue. The idea had come in 1974, when Romero was invited to visit the Monroeville Mall. It had started as a joke, the idea that someone could survive in the mall should a catastrophe befall the country, but what had been intended as meaningless banter inspired Romero, who began to write the screenplay for what would become Dawn of the Dead. Unable to secure US funding, Dario Argento, who was an acknowledged admirer of Night of the Living Dead, announced he was willing to a.s.sist Romero in his project in exchange for international distribution rights. Argento had only recently acquired an international reputation with the loaded Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977).

With its savage depiction of flesh eating, dismemberment and exploding heads, Dawn of the Dead on its 1979 US release was without doubt the goriest film to have come out of America. Tom Savini's sanguinary effects were to set the standard for a new generation of visceral zombie movies and ensured he would never be out of work, although much of his subsequent efforts were to endure heavy censors.h.i.+p on both sides of the Atlantic. Romero's script was laced with dark humour and, as with his previous films, notably Night of the Living Dead and The Crazies (1973), he induced an undercurrent of social commentary which didn't get in the way of the requisite chomp of the zombie horde. While in the mall, he presented a vision of a pleasure-seeking America unaware that complete social collapse was a stone's throw from its own doors. Beneath the seeming l.u.s.tre, there was a country ignorant to the ravages of corporate consumerism, one that had already forgotten the political strife of the decade before.

The film was premiered in Italy in the September of 1978 as Zombi: L'alba dei Morti Viventi, nine months prior to its release in the US. Romero's splatterfest captured the imagination of the Italian public and proved to be a turning point for Lucio Fulci, who looked to direct a so-called sequel, Zombie 2, better known as Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) and Zombie. His film was also immensely popular and paved the way for some of the most memorable horror movies of the next few years. On its eventual American release the reviews were largely accepting of Dawn of the Dead's excessive gore and its receipts at the box office secured Romero's career. He returned with the first of his official sequels with Day of the Dead (1985), and twenty years later came Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009). Dawn of the Dead was remade in 2004. A television show loosely based on the films is still in the planning stages.

THE FINAL PART of George A. Romero's trilogy opens with a group of people searching for survivors in the devastated streets of Fort Myers, Florida. Their efforts go unrewarded, attracting instead an unwelcome gathering of zombies. Frustrated, they make their return to an underground silo where we learn they are a.s.signed to a military backed scientific detachment researching the zombie epidemic. The tension between the scientists and the military has been mounting for some time as their supplies have slowly diminished and little progress has been observed in the experiments on the zombie specimens held captive in the bunker's maze of underground tunnels.

Dr Logan, the facility's head scientist, borders on insanity. He has been surrept.i.tiously using dead soldiers in his research and remains steadfast in his belief that the zombies can be calmed and trained. If his experiments were ever discovered, he would be executed. This, however, does not deter him; he appears almost oblivious to the threat that surrounds him. In his laboratory, he keeps his prize specimen, Bub, a seemingly docile zombie who has exhibited a menial recognition of his past. The herded zombies, however, remain as dangerous as ever and it is no surprise when they break free of their restraints, and begin ripping and biting into the soldiers and one of the scientists. Rhodes, the military head of the base, is furious with this turn of events and declares the operation is to be terminated and the zombie specimens destroyed. Logan can't stop himself; he is soon after found feeding human flesh to Bub and Rhodes makes the grisly discovery in the freezer of the remains of his soldiers. As the audience always knew, Logan would one day have to pay the price for his gruesome experimentation. It isn't long before the zombies have completely overrun the caves as the military fall into chaos and Bub exacts his revenge on Rhodes for the killing of Logan. Those who survive manage to make it to a helicopter only to be confronted by another marauding band of zombies. Just when the audience is convinced that the apocalypse has consumed the heroes of the piece, Romero proves himself benign as he bestows upon his surviving cast an optimistic epilogue with the heroine of the story, Sarah, awakening on a beautiful beach, with the helicopter in the distance. Close by, her fellow survivors enjoy the surf as she crosses off another day on her calendar.

George A. Romero was offered seven million dollars to turn his latest script into another full-length film; in return it was insisted he make an R-rated film suitable for release to the corporate cinema chains that had become commonplace across the United States. Romero declined. He was adamant his grisly feature could only ever appear as an Unrated film; anything less would have been a compromise. The investors were all too aware that if they agreed to Romero's demands, his proposal would receive only a very limited release that would make it difficult to see a healthy return on their investment. The budget was subsequently halved. This made it impossible for Romero to produce the film he had so carefully planned. He was forced to re-write and scale down his script, although elements would surface twenty years later in Land of the Dead (2005). On its eventual release, the cinema-going public overlooked his film; at that time it was but one of many horror movies, most of them being "R" rated, which included Re-Animator, Fright Night, and Return of the Living Dead. Those who did see Day of the Dead were unsettled by it dark premise and cast of unsympathetic characters. The film was indeed grim, but unlike its precursors in the trilogy it did offer the faintest glimmer of hope at the finale.

The social commentary permeating Dawn of the Dead was largely forgotten, although Romero had hoped to demonstrate how a lack of communication could result in chaos and collapse. Pandemonium ran rife, and once again droves of zombies were set loose with Tom Savini's team, creating some of the most realistic splatter scenes of their career. Bodies were ripped apart and the zombies looked more disgusting than ever before with an array of bite marks and atrophied faces. A direct-to-DVD prequel set in 1968, written and directed by Ana Clavell, was released in 2005, ent.i.tled Day of the Dead 2: Contagium. A remake of Day of the Dead was also issued directly to DVD in 2008, although it only used a few elements of the original, princ.i.p.ally the underground silo.

THE HORRIFIC BURNING of a photographer, by a gang of locals in broad daylight, acts as the prelude to the macabre carryings on in the quiet coastal town of Potter's Bluff. Shortly afterwards the same photographer is seen happily working away at the town's petrol station, as if he hadn't a care in the world. Sheriff Gillis (James Farentino) becomes suspicious when other people travelling through this picturesque resort start to go missing and then inexplicably turn up alive. With the help of the town's eccentric coroner, Dobbs (Jack Albertson), the sheriff tries to discover who is behind these senseless killings. His efforts, however, have no effect on the murderers, as they feed their excitement by photographing the deaths of their victims. Gillis is also beginning to have major concerns about the odd behaviour of his wife, Janet.

The unsettling nature of these deaths becomes all the more apparent when Gillis accidentally collides with someone as he is called out to deal with yet another attack. As he gets out of his squad car to examine the scene, he is shocked to find a severed arm enmeshed in the front grill, which will not stop twitching. In the resulting confusion the man he has just knocked over attacks him then retrieves his dismembered arm before taking off into the night. Dobbs later reveals the severed arm had come from someone who had to have been dead for more than four weeks. The sheriff is dumbfounded but his enquiries soon reveal his coroner to have a shady past; he was dismissed from his job many years before for carrying out a series of unauthorized autopsies. Dobbs then reveals his theory on reanimation and we learn the truth about the townsfolk of this idyllic locale.

Eight years after directing Death Line (1973), Gary Sherman returned with his eerie zombie movie Dead and Buried, which included the names of Alien's Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett among its writers. A surreal ambience pervaded his atmospheric direction as this ill-lit, fogbound coastal haven slowly began to evoke a cloying sense of claustrophobia while a deranged mob revelled in the slaughter of those who innocently set foot in this town. The pacing was often dreamlike, but this was punctured by a series of horrific and closely observed murders, including a hacking by fish hooks, burning by acid and death by embalming, each cleverly handled by special effects man Stan Winston. Stan had already acquired a formidable reputation having designed the Wookie costumes for the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) and would go on to ply his craft on Aliens (1986), Edward Scissorhands (1990), the Terminator series (19842009) and Jura.s.sic Park (1997) among many, many others. w.i.l.l.y Wonka's (1971) kindly Jack Albertson took on a morbidly eccentric role as the town's coroner and mortician, with a predilection for syringes. The young Lisa Marie, prior to her appearances in Mars Attacks (1996) and Sleepy Hollow (1999), played one of her earliest roles, and among the rampaging townsfolk, Robert Englund was also to be found, three years before he was set loose in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

Gary Sherman had a.s.sembled a very respectable team, but Dead and Buried could have drifted into almost obscurity if it hadn't been for the public outcry in the UK during the early 1980s, when the video nasty became the scourge of the country. On its low-key UK release in 1981, the film was given an "X" certificate, and at that time remained uncut. This was altered when it was released to video and then lambasted as a shameful video nasty in November 1983, before being dropped from the list in January 1985. When it was presented to the BBFC for release to video in 1990, thirty seconds of cuts were required before it could be pa.s.sed as an "18". On its return to the cutting room the attack and burning of the photographer by a mob of zombies was edited, as was the deletion of a hypodermic syringe being plunged into the photographer's eye and the bludgeoning of a hitchhiker with a rock. Finally, in 1999 Sherman's film was pa.s.sed by the BBFC to appear as it had on its cinematic release and, as with many other features of the period, this unusual zombie feature went on to attain its own cult following.

ASCIENTIST AND his daughter cower in mortal terror; he is about to pay the greatest price for his heinous experimentation in resurrecting the dead. In the town of Akron, Ohio, zombies are then seen overrunning a video store with one of the corpses shuffling up to the counter intent on taking a copy of Dawn of the Dead.

A few years later, that one foolish act has placed humanity in a desperate fight for survival as they battle the ever-growing zombie mult.i.tude. The Zombie Squad, an elite tactical team, has been trained by the government to put an end to these putrescent creatures, but even as they slaughter the mindless enemy, one of the team suffers a bite from a zombie's decapitated head as it lies on the floor. Unfortunately a cure for this virulent contamination is yet to be discovered. The Squad's brief is to move on and return to the source of the contagion in Akron, Ohio. Once they arrive, they disperse to retrieve the doc.u.ments left by the scientist whose experiments unleashed this deathly host. Their examination of the area uncovers a zealous religious cult, a group committed to the new dominion of the zombie. In a turn so very reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead, the brethren reveal they will sacrifice the living to satiate the zombies' craving for warm flesh. The cult, led by Reverend Jones, is fervent in the belief that it is G.o.d's will that the dead have arisen to punish the whole of mankind for their misdeeds. However, it soon comes to light that the Reverend's son was savaged by a zombie, and now takes his place among the shambling throng. The Zombie Squad are left to counter the serious threat posed by the cult and stave off the relentless tide of zombies as they race against time to locate the scientist's notes.

The Dead Next Door is the perfect example of how a youngster with an enthusiasm for filmmaking can get his work out there alongside the best, as long as he has belief and can capture the imagination of a man like Sam Raimi. Sam had enough faith in J. R. Bookwalter to finance this feature with his fee from Evil Dead II. Bookwalter's labour of love has its detractors; the Super 8-mm film certainly doesn't help, nor does some of the acting, and Bruce's Campbell's dubbing of two of the protagonists' voices has raised more than a few eyebrows. It should be remembered that this feature was shot when the man in the director's chair was only nineteen years old, with precious little experience in professional film production, and he had to wait another four years before his endeavour released to video. The volunteers in Akron provided their services for free during the shoot as well as post production. The film recalled the years of fan-film production as evidenced by the characters' names, Raimi, Carpenter, King, Savini and Romero. At the heart of Bookwalter's film was a craving for blood and guts and the application of gore was surprisingly effective, with decapitations and disembowelments aplenty, as were the zombies, which exhibited some rather ingenious design. Sam Raimi's faith was vindicated for this was only the beginning for the dedicated Bookwalter, who has since gone on to a highly successful career in directing and film production.

A FRIGHTENED WOMAN chases through the snow-covered woods only to be trapped and graphically devoured by n.a.z.i Zombies. Oblivious to this gruesome tragedy a group of medical students travel to this snow-laden retreat intent on a long Easter weekend of fun, fun, fun, not to mention the obligatory tumble between the sheets. Their cabin is located high up in the snow-bound mountains, far from the prying eyes of civilization and a perfect setting for something to go disastrously wrong. The youngsters don't share the