Random Recommends

A bit of a short post this week, as I'm about to head off for a nice long weekend of work, so being something of a slacker while I still can!

So, in the spirit of slack (but also general bonhomie), I'm posting up the odds and ends of horror through which I've been happily rummaging over the past month or so.

Here they be...

FILM

Deathdream (1974) (aka Dead of Night)

Reasons why it's splendid:

1) It's a rare thing in a horror flick for the characters to behave in any kind of logical fashion; it's almost a genre hallmark to have the urge to shout "don't... do... THAT!" at the screen. I found Deathdream refreshing in that the actions of the characters, though sometimes extreme, always make sense according to personality, backstory and their role within the events of the film.

2) Hits above its (clearly somewhat limited) budget, always admirable.

3) Has one of the most heart-wrenching final scenes ever - if you don't feel like welling up even a bit, you're dead as a vampire in the midday sun.



Lake Mungo (2008)

Thanks and praises due to those at All Things Horror for this one - I took their advice and watched it before reading their review, and well worth the watch it was. Lake Mungo is a ghost story told in the style of a documentary, about the accidental drowning of a teenage girl and the effect of her death on her family. It's definitely not a scare a minute sort of horror, but it unsettles in all the right ways. Catch it before the inevitable remake (already in development according to IMDb. Sigh.)

BOOKS

Short stories by Richard Matheson

I never realised how much of Matheson's stories I already knew until I bought a book of them recently. I Am Legend, Stir Of Echoes, Duel, What Dreams May Come, Hell House and numerous episodes of "The Twilight Zone" have all emerged from his writing. His short stories are unusual, imaginative and written in a wonderfully evocative prose style. He also seems to like robots. Yay!


Men, Women and Chain Saws by Carol J. Clover

Writtten in the early 1990s, this book explores gender issues in slasher and supernatural films of the 70s and 80s. Clover challenges some of the preconceptions about horror audiences, the nature of their identification with the characters in horror and the false distiction between high and low forms of horror. This is the work that is generally credited with establishing the concept of the "final girl", and it is an illuminating and thought-provoking read.

Hope that you enjoy the above if you give them a look.


And so, off to work!