SPINE TINGLER! THE WILLIAM CASTLE STORY **** USA 2007 Dir: Jeffery Schwarz. 82 mins Everyone has fun at a William Castle film experience. I remember being scared as a very young version of me staring at the photo from The Tingler (1959) in Monster World magazine of the hand rising from the bathtub. So why would a documentary on the man behind the gimmicks be a rollicking trip? Well in fact it is with moments of pathos included. Castle was orphaned at a young age, so he had to grow up and make his way in the world, which he…
Author: Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood Born in Ottawa Ontario, Canada; Terry is a "Monster kid ', film fan and popular culture person. Once worked in television as a commercial writer/ Director. Writer of the SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET site covering aspects of the Horror Genre from Books, Comics, to Film old and new. He has previously written for WE BELONG DEAD and MONSTERMANIA magazines, The Spooky Isle UK website, Horror hound and Turner Classic Movies. Published Book of own writings titled SCREEN AND SCREEN AGAIN: ESSAYS ON THE HORROR FILM on amazon world wide plus contributed to other genre books. Chaired numerous convention panel discussions on Horror and Comics Terry is member of The Horror Writers Association and Dracula Society in U.K.
THE KARLOFF COMPENDIUM by Stephen Jacobs You could say I am somewhat of a student of the horror genre, not The Student Of Prague (1913). I have read extensively on Dear Boris including Mr. Jacobs’s first volume Boris Karloff: More Than A Monster and like those sequels, I wondered what else one mine from the life of one William Pratt. I was pleasantly surprised by The Karloff Compendium, a three hundred-plus page coffee table-sized book that you can pick up anytime, open a page and learn something new on the one and only Boris Karloff. Chapters are filled with anecdotes…
PUNCH *** UK 2023 Dir: Andy Edwards. 80 mins A few years ago, I made it to Brighton for a brief vacation. Being a combination of a Rocker because I do enjoy rockabilly music and a Mod for scooters, and clothes and being a huge fan of The Who made me sort of an odd person. Not as odd as throughout the lovely hospitality, and trips to the locals no mention of the legend of Punch, a man who dispatches wayward teenage girls with a huge club. Andy Edwards’s film Punch (2023) takes that simple idea, tosses in some elements…
GODZILLA MINUS ONE ***** Japan / USA 2023 Dir: Takashi Yamazaki. 125 mins The last Godzilla films I saw in a theatre were Godzilla Vs. the Thing (1964) with King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1962), not the CGI remake. I stuffed myself with popcorn with enough salt for a month and actual butter along with some watered-down lemonade and loved it. I had no idea what I was watching but it was fun, and stuff got wrecked by giant monsters. Fast forward to a much older, perhaps not wiser modern theatre and the magnificent new Godzilla Minus One (2023) showing on…
My top Fifty British Horror films (Irish, Wales and Scottish not included. Not my instructions) are in no particular order. Bit bigger than Inhotep’s iN HO TOP TEN from years ago in Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazine or was that centuries? The years are but gulps of tana leaf tea and shuffling about musty crypts. Perhaps these will engender a baker’s dozen of shudders in you. A baker’s dozen is thirteen, a most unlucky number at a certain dinner table. Love to know comments as these will not be nailed to a church door. Remember this holiday season ‘Nothing ever…