Mocata's Den of Horror

 For decades, one of the top selling authors in the U.K. was a man called Dennis Wheatley.  His books were published in many countries around the world and translated into numerous different languages.  A handful of his novels were even adapted into films.  Wheatley's novels, by and large, were thrillers in the purest sense-- they thrilled his audience.  His books contained things such as adventure, romance, espionage, war, and, probably most famously, the occult.  Out of the fifty-plus novels he wrote, there are a total of nine which are typically categorized as "black magic stories".  These books are not a series really (although some of the included novels are part of various series he wrote), just a general topic that these books were lumped under by the publisher.  The truth is that some of the novels in that group contain little or no black magic.  Others, however, certainly are stories of black magic. The first of these books was 1934'...

 I have previously discussed a couple of Italian cannibal films on here and I figured it was time to do another, so decided I may as well knock out the most notorious of the bunch: Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust .  Most people are probably not aware of the Italian cannibal film boom from the '70s and '80s, but many people are still aware of this particular film. DVD release from EC Entertainment   Booklet from EC Entertainment DVD release With a reputation such as the one Cannibal Holocaust has developed over the years, one may wonder whether or not the movie itself can hold up to it.  After all, this is a film that shocked people during its original release in 1980, but the world has changed so much in the four decades that have passed since then, so would it have the same impact today?  Is this a movie that would instead lose any shock value it once had as audiences became desensitized?  Well, first let's talk about the movie itself and then we can...

For Halloween, there are so many movies to watch to get into the spirit of the season, as well as books to read, and, of course, music to listen to.  I already wrote a bit about Denial of God's most recent album, The Hallow Mass in my post about the book, The Reel Ghoul , so here are a few more that I think really capture the spirit of Halloween. Acid Witch: Evil Sound Screamers This is the third full-length album by Acid Witch, a band that has referred to its own music as "Halloween metal".  That makes Acid Witch a natural choice for Halloween music.  The lyrics often incorporate horror movie themes and Halloween.  There is also some of the stoner doom kind of stuff, which initially put me off from the band, but then I heard some of the band's music and was able to look past the stoner stuff, which I have never really been a fan of.  Evil Sound Screamers , to me, seems to be the most Halloween-oriented album thus far.  Though still present, the stoner ele...

The Beast Within is something of a forgotten gem of '80s horror.  Released in 1982, it features Ronny Cox (who would later appear in Robocop and Total Recall ), Bibi Besch, R.G. Armstrong, and others, including Paul Clemens as the main character, Michael MacCleary, who has inherited some monstrous curse from his unknown father.  Born as the result of an attack on his mother, Caroline (Bibi Besch), on the night of her wedding to Eli MacCleary (Ronny Cox), Michael is raised by the two as if he were any normal child, rather than the result of a sexual assault.  When, in his late teens, Michael starts exhibiting strange symptoms and the doctors are unable to determine the cause, Eli and Caroline return to the town where the attack occurred all those years ago, looking for answers.  Unknown to them, Michael heads there as well, driven by some instinct inside him. U.S. theatrical poster Michael begins to show signs of some personality change, developing an obsession with...

Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director who worked in just about every genre there is.  He did sex comedies, westerns, historical/period pieces, gialli, and basically anything else Italian cinema had to offer during his long career.  His directorial credits go back to short documentaries in the late 1940s. Laserdisc edition by The Roan Group However, it wasn't until the late '70s that he would begin the work that would form his legacy, whether he liked it or not. VHS release by Anchor Bay Entertainment 1979 saw the release of his film Zombie (aka Zombi 2 , Zombie Flesheaters , Woodoo , Zombie 2: The Dead Are Among Us , and many others).  This film would kick off the most celebrated part of his career, with films like House By the Cemetery , The Gates of Hell , The Beyond , and The New York Ripper to follow.  Written by Dardano Sacchetti (who ended up taking his name off the movie) and Elisa Briganti, Zombie was Fulci's first foray into horror.  He had previou...

What can you say about Dawn of the Dead ?  It is one of the most revered of horror classics and arguably, the most beloved of zombie films.  A film that both shoves gruesome gore-filled scenes in your face and presents some still-relevant social commentary about consumerism, Dawn of the Dead was a follow-up to another already classic film, Night of the Living Dead , that managed to stand on its own, rather than just hanging out in the shadow of its predecessor.  It is an American movie with Italian funding, featuring a score by an Italian prog rock group, mixed with various pieces of stock music.  There is a nearly-as-classic documentary by Roy Frumkes that deals with the making of the film, Document of the Dead .  On top of all that, there are multiple cuts of the film, with each having its own group who support it as the best version. The "Ultimate Edition" DVD release from Anchor Bay Includes U.S. theatrical cut, extended cut, Argento's cut, and Document of ...

Aristide Massaccesi, primarily known by the pseudonym, Joe D'Amato, didn't just slog through the foul waters of horror and exploitation, but also delved into pornography, both of the softcore and hardcore varieties.  It is only fitting then, that this was his approach to the cannibal film boom that was happening in the late '70s. Blu-ray edition with slip-case from Severin Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali (1977), aka Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals and Trap Them and Kill Them , mixes up the jungle adventure featuring cannibals with the softcore porn elements of an independent woman reporter named Emanuelle, played by Laura Gemser, who played Emanuelle in a number of films, starting with Black Emanuelle (1976), who does whatever she needs to do to get her story, all the while taking the time to have sex with anybody and everybody she feels inclined to do so with.  While she is undercover in a mental hospital, she encounters a young woman who is violent towards nurses...

Hammer's classic adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's novel, The Devil Rides Out , is now 50 years old.  Both the book and film tell the story of a group of old friends who deal with a Satanic cult. The novel, first published in 1934, is part of a series based around the character the Duc de Richleau.  The earlier novels in this series deal with an elderly Duc and his adventures with the group of friends featured in The Devil Rides Out , while later on, the novels told about his younger days. Hammer would later adapt another of Wheatley's black magic-themed novels, To the Devil-- a Daughter , with the film differing so far greatly from the source novel that the two are virtually unrelated.  There do still remain a few elements that the film has in common with the novel, but to call this one an adaptation is using the term extremely loosely.  Hammer also adapted one of Wheatley's non-occult oriented tales, Uncharted Seas , as The Lost Continent , but I am focusing on his...

If you grew up in the '80s as I did, Freddy Krueger is bound to be as recognizable to you as the Trix rabbit, or, more appropriately, Count Chocula.  Most people automatically think of Freddy's glove and his wisecracks, but there was more to the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies.  One major aspect that is memorable, although still somewhat overlooked, is the music.  The scores for these movies were excellent (some more than others, of course).  Varèse Sarabande put together a beautiful package for those of us who love the music as well as the movies. This is a collection of the scores for each movie, from Wes Craven's classic original film to the misguided Freddy Vs. Jason .  Each CD includes the original soundtrack album, then additional material not included on those original releases.  There is a whole hell of a lot of music included in this box, with the CDs ranging from about 55 minutes to around 75. Varèse Sarabande really did a wonderful job with ...