Horror by Harrison

  Unpopular opinion time, Night of the Living Dead is superior to Dawn of the Dead . Don’t get me wrong, Dawn is excellent but it has serious pacing issues (ironically Zack Snyder of all people resolves that with the remake’s shorter runtime). Despite a few clunky moments, Night is nearly flawless. Night of the Living Dead was written by John Russo ( Santa Claws ) and George A. Romero ( Creepshow ) and directed by Romero. Night of the Living Dead was made on a budget of $114,000, made $5,452 upon opening, and went on to make $236,452 worldwide. Night of the Living Dead was released on October 1st, 1968 and immediately attracted controversy due to it’s realistically violent nature. Despite the controversy, the film has received overwhelmingly positive reviews and is considered a classic by modern audiences. Night of the Living Dead spawned five official sequels by Romero, several remakes (and remakes of the sequels), and an alternate continuity spin-off franchise helmed by Russo...

I’m not super familiar with French horror. Off the top of my head the only ones that I think I’ve seen are Eyes Without a Face , High Tension , Calvaire , and Diabolique . Of course two of these films differ quite a lot from the other two (for the record, it’s Eyes Without a Face/Diabolique versus Calvaire/High Tension ). Diabolique was written by Jérôme Géronimi ( The Wages of Fear ) and Henri-Georges Clouzot ( The Spy ), directed by Clouzot, and based on She Who Was No More by Boileau-Narcejac ( Faces in the Dark ). Diabolique was released on January 29, 1955 in France and November 21, 1955 in the US and made $12,498 worldwide against an unknown budget. Reviews were largely positive, however it was received quite negatively in Britain.  Diabolique follows Christina Delassalle (Véra Clouzot, The Wages of Fear ), a teacher who plots to murder her abusive husband (Paul Meurisse, Dilemma of Two Angels ) with the help of his mistress (Simone Signoret, Room at the Top ). Their pl...

  Going into this film, I didn’t know what to expect (except that there would presumably be a serial killer named Henry). I had no knowledge about the film other than it existed and I was not prepared for the brutality of it. It’s not any more violent than some of its contemporaries, but it was a bit more vicious than I expected. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was written by Richard Fire ( E/R ) and John McNaughton ( Wild Things ) with McNaughton also directing and is very loosely based on real-life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole. The film was made on a budget of $110,000 and made $609,939 upon its release on January 5th, 1986. The film was quite controversial and received mixed reviews. Like many of the films I’ve covered, the film has been reappraised over the years and received more positive critical analysis. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer follows serial killer Henry (Michael Rooker, Guardians of the Galaxy ) as he pulls his roommate Otis (Tom Towl...

          I feel a little bad. It seems like every time I review a film from this era I end up really disliking it. I’m afraid it feels like I’m coming down on the era as a whole, but in reality it is a coincidence that the films I’ve chosen I ended up not liking. I hoped to reverse that trend with Vampyr but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. Vampyr was written by Carl Theoddor Dreyer ( The Passion of Joan of Arc ) and Christen Jul ( Med livet som insats ) with Dreyer also directing. Vampyr was released on May 6th, 1932 in Germany to extremely negative reviews. Dreyer premiered a new cut of the film that September in France that received slightly more positive, though still largely negative, reviews. As is often the case, modern reviews have been far kinder. I was unable to find budget or box office information for this film.  Vampyr follows Allan Gray (Nicolas de Gunzburg), a writer who rents a room at an inn in a village called Courtempierre. Allan soo...