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A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss

GNC

GNC

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This starts tomorrow night on BBC Four at nine o'clock, and looks like it might well be great.

Here are the details, plus an interview with Mr Gatiss:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vcwm7

It's more like a personal journey through the genre, which is fine by me. He knows his stuff.
 
It was indeed great! Some good interviews, including maybe Gloria Stuart's last one (she died a couple of weeks ago), a sympathetic look at the films and stars, and even if John Carpenter doesn't like Val Lewton movies (he's wrong) I'm really looking forward to the Hammer episode next week, and the 1970s renaissance one the week after.

Check it out on iPlayer if you missed it, or catch the repeat later in the week.
 
Another fantastic episode! Good to see Blood on Satan's Claw getting its due. Only one thing I don't like is to see how old everyone's getting, poor Barbara Shelley looked like she'd had a stroke.
 
Mal_Content said:
echoes of blood on satans claw in recent dr who?
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Not sure... any episode in particular in mind?
 
This show is wonderful, digging up many lovely memories, even if Gatiss did seem to have led my own childhood exactly but with the added bonus of a successful career.
:(
Yes, some of those old Hammer guys look like aliens now, don't they? I'm amazed they're still alive (maybe they aren't...).
 
Not sure... any episode in particular in mind?
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The Hungry Earth - waving to each other across valley, buried alien.
(erm that's about it as far as I remember)
 
I did love the mention for Halls of Hammer magazine. That was lovely.
 
A fine way to end an excellent series last night, great to see David Warner interviewed on TV, don't think I've ever seen that before. I could have watched another hour of that, and though I don't mind gory movies I share Mr Gatiss's feelings about the less imaginative horror that's around these days. Mind you, it's pulled itself out of a slump before, so...

Incidentally, does George A. Romero have a pet budgie? Sounded like it, it was making more noise than he was.
 
I'm still getting over the revelation that the producers of the Omen originally wanted Charles Bronson in the Gregory Peck role...
 
bigphoot1 said:
I'm still getting over the revelation that the producers of the Omen originally wanted Charles Bronson in the Gregory Peck role...
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No way the Devil would have won if he'd messed with Chuck.
 
gncxx said:
No way the Devil would have won if he'd messed with Chuck.
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Death Wish VI - The Apocalypse

Has quite a ring to it actually, has anyone got Michael Winner's telephone number? ;)
 
Heckler20 said:
gncxx said:
No way the Devil would have won if he'd messed with Chuck.
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Death Wish VI - The Apocalypse

Has quite a ring to it actually, has anyone got Michael Winner's telephone number? ;)
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Maybe that should be Death Wish 666 - The Apocalypse :D
 
Heckler20 said:
Death Wish VI - The Apocalypse

Has quite a ring to it actually, has anyone got Michael Winner's telephone number? ;)
Click to expand...

Winner should be easy to get hold of, Chuck might be a bit trickier...
 
What a great little series this was. And i'm with Gatiss when he says as he gets older it's the ghosts and not the gore that draw him.
I have to say I've not seen Blood on Satan's Claw, or all of Witchfinder General (as a kid I think I self censored it, feeling pretty soon in that I wouldn't be able to deal with it).
 
Watched it all on iPlayer yesterday. Really good series.

Had to laugh at the bit where he said he paper-clipped the pages shut over the pictures of 'Freaks', I recall the same thing with an early 80s brochure from Madam Tussauds. I think it was Robespierre's head on a stick and a fella getting garrotted that I couldn't stomach. I was only 6 or 7.
 
tonylovell said:
, Witchfinder General (as a kid I think I self censored it, feeling pretty soon in that I wouldn't be able to deal with it).
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I have it on DVD and I still have trouble sitting through it, one of the most nihilistic movies ever made.
 
Heckler20 said:
tonylovell said:
, Witchfinder General (as a kid I think I self censored it, feeling pretty soon in that I wouldn't be able to deal with it).
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I have it on DVD and I still have trouble sitting through it, one of the most nihilistic movies ever made.
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Superbly made, Vincent Price is great, but it's a massive downer and really hard to enjoy by the end. Probably a classic of its kind, for what it's worth.
 
I had a girlfriend, long time ago, who really got off on, 'Witchfinder General' and had a thing about V.Price in the role of Matthew Hopkins. Quite strange.

Last time I saw it, I thought of her. :?
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
I had a girlfriend, long time ago, who really got off on, 'Witchfinder General' and had a thing about V.Price in the role of Matthew Hopkins. Quite strange.

Last time I saw it, I thought of her. :?
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*Chews end of pencil*
*Strokes chin*

Tell us more......? :D
 
Re: The Blood on Satan's Claw I looked it up on Youtube after watching the programme and someone's uploaded the complete film, haven't got round to watching it yet but looking forward to it.
 
Easily the best docu series on the BBC of recent. I truly enjoyed each episode and loved the way he drew comaprisons about how society was reflected through the films of their day.
 
As with Attenborough and few others, there's so much joy to be had in watching someone who not only knows their stuff but you can see how much a part of them it is. Like many of us I would guess, Gatiss obviously grew up devouring this material. For me, it was Denis Gifford's A Pictorial History of Horror Movies that I read cover to cover repeatedly. And like Gatiss paper-clipping pages together in certain of his books, there were some photos that just had to be skipped over.
 
mr_macabre said:
Re: The Blood on Satan's Claw I looked it up on Youtube after watching the programme and someone's uploaded the complete film, haven't got round to watching it yet but looking forward to it.
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It's very much worth a look, though last time I watched it about three years ago it looked it's age.
 
Baltar! I have that book. For me the ones I disliked were the woman with the axe in her head and the sort of skinned man crawling up a beach. Thankfully, I think, they were on the same page. I didn't avoid them but they did make me stare, which I think is the same sort of thing.

My scariest pages in any book were in this kid's bible we had. I could not bear to look at the page with Satan jumping off a rock or the one with the flood. In fact, I avoid the old Tate gallery altogether because I hate big creepy paintings generally, especially the John Martins, which I'm emarrassed to say make me feel physically ill.
:roll:
 
Back tonight with a new one on BBC4 -
Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss

Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling voyage through European horror cinema. From the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the wake of World War I to lesbian vampires in 1970s Belgium, from the black-gloved killers of Italy's bloody Giallo thrillers to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, Mark reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition. On a journey that spans the continent from Ostend to Slovakia, Mark explores classic filming locations and talks to the genre's leading talents, including directors Dario Argento and Guillermo del Toro.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nmsw7
 
Just watched it, great stuff from Mark Gatiss as usual, a shame it wasn't a series. Nice to see this area of the genre highlighted, not something you often get in mainstream TV, and some excellent clips, but a bit spoiler-y which was the only real letdown. Good interviews too - Edith Scob's reaction to the scathing Eyes Without a Face review was priceless! Here's hoping it's whetted some appetites to start seeking these out, Living Dead at Manchester Morgue is such a great zombie movie for example.
 
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