Author Archives: Jimi Fletcher

Ghostbusters featured

They Came, They Saw, They Kicked Ass: The Unbeatable Brilliance of Ghostbusters

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On Saturday, 26th of December 1987 the UK terrestrial premiere of Ivan Reitman’s 1984 blockbuster Ghostbusters was very much a big deal.

I won’t lie, it blew my six-year old mind. My main memories of that first viewing are mostly of scenes in the second half, especially the spectacular, mad climax where, among other wild and fantastic occurrences, a gigantic marshmallow man was accidentally willed into existence and started stomping on New York City. I mean, what was this film? I wanted in. From that point onwards, it was Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters. I wanted the toys (oh, how I wanted the fire station so much), I wanted the comics, I wanted the Panini sticker album […]

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Larry Cohen featured

We’re ‘Cohen’ to the Movies: King Cohen and the Story of a True Maverick

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I’ve been thinking – when was the last time one of Larry Cohen’s films was screened on terrestrial TV?

I’m not counting Phone Booth, the brilliantly simple and super-tense Joel Schumacher thriller from 2002 that he wrote. No, I mean a proper, legit Larry Cohen-directed film. There are more than a few out there. Blimey, was it really around twenty or so years ago, when Channel 5, in its infant years, screened Q: The Winged Serpent on a Saturday night? It might be. I remember satellite channel Bravo, in its ‘twisted cult horror’ incarnation, showing The Stuff, and one of the Sky movie channels put on A Return to Salem’s Lot one night (a screening I taped for myself). After that, I’m struggling to think of any more […]

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Psycho II featured

Still Crazy After All These Years? Psycho II Was a Sequel Worth Waiting For

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The Bates Motel. No Vacancies.

We see a woman named Marion, clad in a dressing gown, in one of the rooms. She walks into the bathroom, undresses, leaves the gown on the toilet, and steps in the shower, turning it on. There’s a moment of happiness for her as she basks in the water, but that doesn’t last long. Look closely at the background. The door has opened. A figure walks through. Looks like a woman. Suddenly the shower curtain has been drawn and the figure is brandishing a knife. Marion screams, but nothing can save her […]

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The Hunger featured

Bela Lugosi’s Dead: The Hunger and the New Vampire Movie

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When one thinks of vampire films of the 1980s, the first example that comes to mind is probably The Lost Boys, the 1987 hit that fused the teen rebel movie with Gothic horror to spectacularly popular effect.

From there you might move on to Near Dark, released that same year, which was the darker, meaner, more poetic sibling to Joel Schumacher’s pop-culture rush. Then there’s the delightful Fright Night, one of the best combinations of comedy horror ever made, and while we’re at it, let’s spare a thought for its fun but inferior sequel, Fright Night Part II, and wonder why it still isn’t available on Blu-ray or even DVD […]

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