I am finishing up writing this just as news broke that Ken Russell’s The Devils is getting a new 4K restoration that includes the full Director’s cut exactly as Russell intended. The central scene (called the Rape of Christ) was cut from the film by Warner Bros execs and has never been released, as it was seen as too controversial and anti-religious. Mark Kermode, the film critic, has been campaigning for years to have it fully restored. This is so exciting and you can bet I’ll be getting my hands on a copy. It’s so important for not just British horror, but British film-making in general - whether you know the film or not I would argue it’s central to our film history.

Anyway, on to April which has veered wildly from Sinners and Daughters of the Dust to 80s ridiculousness via Chopping Mall, silent film making in City Lights and taking a hard right turn to the infamous Nazi propaganda piece Triumph of the Will. I probably shouldn’t admit to watching that last one, but I am a film buff trying to watch important films in history, as well as 80s slasher trash films and this is one of them.

Deep Dive: Sinners

I finally got round to watching Sinners which got a record breaking 16 Oscar nominations and winning four: Best Actor (Michael B Jordan), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography (for Autumn Durald Arkapaw - the first woman to ever win in the category) and Best Original Score. In general, it was a great Oscar’s run for horror (Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for Weapons which I am yet to see).

I absolutely loved this, it was so much fun. I love a good period setting and Prohibition era Mississippi is really brought to life impeccably. The story follows twin brothers (Michael B Jordan), nicknamed Smoke and Stack, who return to their home town after working with the Chicago mob to open a juke joint with the money they have made. On opening night, a group of Irish vampires turn up to wreak havoc and from there we get a descent into carnage.

The obvious influence here is Robert Rodriguez’s sleezy vampire film From Dusk Til Dawn, except instead of featuring Salma Hayek basically performing soft core porn and Danny Trejo doing his thing, here we get an exploration of blues music and it’s relationship with the Irish - about how music evolves and is influenced.

There is one scene about half way through or so that I am pretty sure is a one take through the juke joint that was absolutely stunning and it’s well worth watching the film just for this one scene. As the music plays and the characters dance time collapses on itself. You see ghosts representing the past, present and future influences of Black music - from African tribal drums through to rap. It was technically brilliant, moving and had me totally enraptured.

One thing that struck me was that the vampires offer the patrons of the juke joint, who are all black, a way out of the misery of the south at that time. The Klu Klux Klan were active at this time and the film covers stories of lynchings and other acts of violence. The offer from the vampires is to become whole - to be able to truly be free from oppression and to have actual power. This made me think of the offer made to Thomasin at the end of The Witch, as she is given the chance to escape her admittedly miserable life (but at a cost). I won’t spoil either film, but the choices they make to these extremely tempting offers says a lot about the characters involved.

The acting is amazing too, Michael B Jordan is great in the lead role, but the supporting actors are also great. I don’t know about Amy Madigan’s performance in Weapons, but she had stiff competition from Wunmi Mosaku who really shines in her role as a practitioner of Hoodoo and the estranged wife of one of the brothers. Jack O’Donnell is clearly the new go to for male horror villains, taking over from Bill Skarsgard, with his performance in this and in the new 28 Years Later films.

Hammer it Home

The Abominable Snowman, 1957

This is not the worst we’ve seen, but really not that good. Peter Cushing and Maureen Connell do elevate this film, but there is one full shot of the Abominable Snowman and other than that you get a couple hands, which is quite boring. The full shot is quite impressive and whoever managed the set did a great job - it really does look like they’re trudging through the Himalayas. Other than that a lot of men talking again and white people playing Asian characters bring this down.

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Dracula, 1958

Hammer’s Dracula is really where the Hammer story begins properly. We’ve probably peaked quite early here and I’m not sure we’ll encounter a better Hammer Horror film. Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, Christopher Lee as Dracula and Terence Fisher directing just came together perfectly. The best bit in any Dracula retelling is Harker at Dracula’s castle and this is true here too - when he rushes across the table it’s so thrilling. I think I prefer it to Universal’s/Bela Lugosi’s Drac.

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(Some of) the rest

Depraved, 2019: This is a modern retelling of the Frankenstein story. Larry Fessenden is a really thoughtful and interesting director who makes horror inflected films that can feel like Richard Linklater at times. He is so thoroughly a New York director and his films show a love for the city. A doctor who has PTSD from his time in Iraq decides to figure out the secret to reanimation. He is backed by a Pharmaceutical bigwig played by Josh from Blair Witch. It’s a really interesting film that I liked a lot.

Threads, 1984: This is one of the bleakest films I have seen and I have seen some bleak films. It’s absolutely wild that the BBC produced and aired this. Based in Sheffield, half the film is a kitchen sink drama about a couple who are going to have a baby. In the background the news is going on about an escalation between the US and Russia over Iran (some things never change). Then nuclear bombs are dropped everywhere and the whole thing becomes bleaker and bleaker. This is not Fallout or any other fun post nuclear war scenario, this is the reality of what would happen and it’s baaad.

Daughters of the Dust, 1991: Less of a narrative and more a meditation on identity in post-slavery America. A group of Gullah women living in South Carolina stand at a crossroads as they decide whether to stay and carry on with their particular way of life, or move to the North to seek freedoms that are denied in the South. The matriarch clings to her roots and traditions passed down to her, while the next generation look at adopting Christianity and rejecting these old ways. History becomes circular as the story is narrated by an unborn child and you see ghosts of the past blend with the present and future (much like in Sinners).

MadS, 2024: A nice deal on a Shudder subscription allowed me to catch up on some things, including this French zombie film which is shot in one take. I always find one take films so impressive - I know it’s a bit of a gimmick, but when deployed well I really enjoy it. I actually thought this would be a really fun film, forgetting that the French go really hard with their body horror (there’s a whole micro genre called New French Extremity). Anyway, the one take idea for this works because of the escalating dread and confusion surrounding this infectious zombie disease. A post-Covid horror film if ever I saw one.

That’s it for April. Excitingly for May, I’ll be able to come in with one or two films I actually saw in the cinema - a rare treat for me, but there is suddenly a lot of exciting new horror out enticing me back. I’m also hoping to catch up on Rose of the Nevada too.