On Tuesday night, we arrived back in Vancouver after an action-packed 10 day trip to the UK. It had been close to five years since I’d been back so most of that time was spent catching up with family and it was great to see everyone again. Some people have changed a lot (one didn’t even exist last time I was there) and other people are just the same. I also made a couple of trips to my favourite comic shop – Comic Connections – to catch up with some friends (and reacquaint myself with Strongbow), and spent a bit of time wandering around the town. A few things have changed (the baked potato guy outside McDonalds wasn’t there and a few of the shops are different) but otherwise, my home town has stayed pretty much how it was last time I was there. We also ate some fantastic food. I can highly recommend The Three Pigeons. We had a Christmas lunch there and the food was delicious. The Three Pigeons was my “local” when I was younger, and my wife and I spent many an evening there when we first met so going back was a bit of a trip down memory lane. I can also recommend … Read More
Happy Birthday, Clive Barker
I first encountered Clive Barker’s writing when I read Cabal. It was the second horror novel I’d read, the first being Barbara Hambly’s Immortal Blood (known as Those Who Hunt the Night outside of the UK). I was blown away – it was just such a cool story. I still have my original copy of that book (along with three other versions). I followed up Cabal with The Damnation Game and Weaveworld and I’ve been reading and rereading his books ever since. Imajica is still one of my favourite novels and I reread Cabal this year and really enjoyed it – it’s aged surprisingly well. His films have also been a big part of my life. My wife introduced me to Hellraiser (a fact I still find extremely amusing and which went a long way towards convincing me she was someone I could spend the rest of my life with) and it immediately became one of my favourite films. I have multiple copies on DVD and VHS (yes, VHS), including a copy signed by Pinhead himself, Doug Bradley. I have all the Hellraiser sequels on DVD, even the terrible ones and the Hellraiser/Prophecy crossover fan film – Hellraiser: Prophecy. I love Lord of Illusions and although the movie adaptation of Cabal, Nightbreed, isn’t as good as the source material, I still have … Read More
The Conjuring
My wife and I went to see The Conjuring on Saturday. We’re both horror fans (it was Ann that introduced me to one of my favourite films, Hellraiser) and we both enjoyed it. I’m pleased that Hollywood has finally moved away from the “teen horror” of films like Final Destination and its brief flirtation with torture porn (Hostel 3 anyone?). They seem to have rediscovered the 70s style paranormal horror exemplified by films like The Exorcist and Audrey Rose and I for one approve. The Conjuring is “based on a true story” – the paranormal investigators in the film, Ed and Lorraine Warren are real people and the film covers a couple of their cases. How true the story is, I don’t know but The Conjuring is a solid entry into the haunted house sub-genre. It’s appropriately tense and creepy and feels a lot like those older films. Like most modern horror films, it relies on rising tension punctuated by sudden shocks but it’s effective and if you like your horror creepy, it’s well worth a look. [The Conjuring by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 31 July 2013]
Look Who’s Evil Now
My wife introduced me to horror films one afternoon when she suggested we rent out Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. That film has since become one of my favourites and even now, <cough> years later, we’re still drawn to horror films. So, it was inevitable that we’d go to see the Evil Dead remake. And by that I mean this one: Not this one: Let’s get something straight right from the start. There are no plot surprises in this film. This is the type of horror film that The Cabin in the Woods skewered so beautifully. There was some attempt at a credible explanation for why our protagonists don’t run from the cabin (which given the amount of rain in this film is located somewhere near Vancouver) at the first sign of trouble but beyond that you get all the requisite plot holes and dumb decisions you would expect. But that’s not why people watch Evil Dead and the remake has updated the story without losing the flavour of the original. Which makes it a very gory film. Very. Despite being labelled on the Cineplex website as a “thriller” this is not a watered down PG-13 teen-horror. This is a full on, in your … Read More