Oct 31st   
The Shadow of the Cat*     
(GB 1961)
Universal-International/BHP. 79m. bw

An old lady is murdered for her inheritance, but is witnessed by her pet cat, who takes revenge on the would-be inheritors. Curious but characteristic Hammer thriller under another name: the plot developments are obviously enough stated, but also well conveyed in style and mood.

w: George Baxt
p: Sam Penington
d: John Gilling
s: Andre Morell, Barbara Shelley, Freda Jackson, Conrad Phillips, William Lucas, Richard Warner, Vanda Godsell, Alan Wheatley, Andrew Crawford, Catherine Lacey
ph: Arthur Grant
m: Mikis Theodorakis

Jun 21st 
Aliens**  
(US 1986)                                                          
Twentieth Century Fox/Brandywine. 137m.

The sole survivor of Alien returns to the mysterious planet after several years in stasis, where the monsters have wiped out most of an Earth colony.
Forceful sequel with plenty of testosterone, lacking the original's shock factor but ingenious and suspenseful enough to hold its own. A cult hit following the director's previous success The Terminator.

Written by: James Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill.
Producer: Gale Ann Hurd.
Director: James Cameron.
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, William Hope, Paul Maxwell.
Photography: Adrian Biddle.
Music: James Horner.

+ Ripley's aged daughter is played by Sigourney Weaver's mother, Colchester-born Elizabeth Inglis

 Aug 31st 
The Swarm  

(US 1978)                                         
Warner Bros. 152m. Panavision

A Texas community is beset by a mutated force of killer bees.
Straight-faced nonsense with risible dialogue among an impressive cast, that tries to lend pathos where it can. The central theme is handled on a misguidedly epic level 20 years after this sort of film was made for less money and more effectively as a straightforward monster movie.

Written by: Sterling Silliphant, from the novel by Arthur Herzog.
Producer/Director: Irwin Allen.
Starring: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia De Havilland, Fred MacMurray, Ben Johnson, Jose Ferrer, Bradford Dillman, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Lee Grant, Christian Juttner.
Photography: Fred Konenekamp.
Music: Jerry Goldsmith.

Aug 11th  
The Sentinel      
(US 1976)                           
Universal. 92m.

A model suffering from nightmarish hallucinations moves into a Brooklyn Heights apartment which houses the gateway to Hell.
Diabolical (in the wrong sense) supernatural horror variation on Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, with mostly pointless star cameos and much indulgence of gore and sadomasochism drowning out characterisation.

Written by: Michael Winner, Jeffrey Konvitz, from his novel.
Producer: Jeffrey Konvitz.
Director: Michael Winner.
Starring: Cristina Raines, Chris Sarandon, Burgess Meredith, Ava Gardner, Arthur Kennedy, John Carradine, Sylvia Miles, Beverley D'Angelo, Eli Wallach, Martin Balsam, Jose Ferrer, Deborah Raffin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken.
Photography: Dick Kratinn.
Music: Gil Melle.

May 29th  
The Last Man on Earth*                       
(Ita 1963)                                 
Associated Producers Inc./Produzioni la Regina. 86m. Totalscope

A lone immune survivor of a global deadly plague roams the streets of Rome fighting off vampire-like zombies, including those of his late wife and former colleagues.
Gloomy parable with an apposite theme, the first of various versions of Richard Matheson's story "I Am Legend" (also later made as The Omega Man with Charlton Heston), made originally at a time when this sort of apocalyptic drama was in vogue after the Cuban missile crisis.

Written by: William F. Leicester, Logan Swanson (Richard Matheson, from his novel).
Producer: Robert L. Lippert.
Directors: Sidney Salkov, Ubaddo B. Ragona.
Starring: Vincent Price, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Emma Danieli, Franca Bettoia, Umberto Rau.
Photography: Franco Delli Colli.
Music: Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter.

Apr 27th  
The Monster Club   
(GB 1980)                 
ITC/Chips/Sword and Sorcery. 97m.         

A horror writer is invited to an underground disco club of horrors where he is related tales of other monsters and their victims who meet grisly ends.
Cut price and none-too-subtle horror comic compendium occasionally with atmospheric moments, and interminable modern musical interludes that were presumably intended to widen the audience.

Written by: Edward Abraham, Valerie Abraham, based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes.
Producer: Milton Subotsky.
Director: Roy Ward Baker.
Starring: Vincent Price, John Carradine; Barbara Kellerman, James Laurenson, Simon Ward; Anthony Steel, Britt Ekland, Richard Johnson, Donald Pleasence; Stuart Whitman, Patrick Magee, Lesley Dunlop.
Photography: Peter Jessop.
Music: Douglas Gamley, John Georgiadis, Alan Hawkshaw.

+ Price’s closing speech proposing humans as members of the Monster Club:

“In the past 60 years ‘humes’ have exterminated over 150 million of their own kind. No effort has been spared to reach this astronomical figure, and the methods they have used must demand our unstinted admiration. You know, ‘humes’ began with some very serious disadvantages, but these they overcame with wonderful ingenuity. Not having a fang, or a claw, or even a whistle worth talking about, they invented guns and tanks and bombs and aeroplanes and extermination camps and poisoned gas and daggers and swords and bayonets and booby traps and atomic bombs and flying missiles, submarines! Warships! Aircraft carriers – and,  motor cars. They have even perfected a process, whereby, they can spread a lethal disease on any part of this planet! Not to say anything about nuclear power. Oh, during their short history, you know, ‘humes’ have subjected other ‘humes’ to death by: burning, hanging, decapitation, strangulation, electrocution, shooting, drowning, crushing, racking, disembowelling - and other methods far, far too revolting for the delicate stomachs of this august assembly.”

Preceded by:
A Contradiction*
(GB 2013.4m.; A separated husband remembers an incident with his wife in stored memories from different perspectives.; w: Edward Robinson, Phil Hurst, Steven Dorrington; d: Steven Dorrington; s: Tim Freeman, Nicola Goodchild, Phil Young; for Alma Films/Sci-London 48 Hour Challenge.)

Apr 8th   
The Fury** 
(US 1978)   
Twentieth Century Fox. 118m.

An ex-CIA agent goes on the run in search of his son who is being used by the government for his dangerous psychic powers.
Outrageous psychic thriller with all the force and imagination of its paperback fantasy origins, back to Carrie material for De Palma, with some Hitchcockian suspense, creating a sort of modern horror fable. The plot and characters usually take second place to the visuals.

Written by: John Farris, from his novel.
Producer: Frank Yablans.
Director: Brian De Palma.
Starring: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Amy Irving, Andrew Stevens, Fiona Lewis, Dennis Franz, Daryl Hannah.
Photography: Richard  H. Kline.
Music: John Williams.
Editing: Paul Hirsch.
Make-up: William Tuttle, Rick Baker.

Oct 31st   
The Return of Doctor X 
(US 1939)                                                       
Warner Bros. 62m. bw

A resurrected doctor hunts for victims in his blood group to keep himself alive.
Uneven Warners quickie, better in production values than might be expected, but content-wise an uncertain mixture of crime drama, romantic comedy and horror. Bogart is not so horrendous as the crook-cum-vampire as might be expected, but he would probably have been wiser to defer to Peter Lorre.

Written by: Lee Katz, based on the story "The Doctor's Secret" by William J. Makin.
Producers: Hal B. Wallis, Bryan Foy.
Director: Vincent Sherman.
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Wayne Morris, Dennis Morgan, John Litel, Rosemary Lane, Lya Lys.
Photography: Sid Hickox.
Music: Bernhard Kaun.

THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X. Humphrey Bogart as a vampire!? You'd better believe it.

Oct 12th   
Nosferatu**    
(Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall)

(Ger 1922)
Prana Films. 94m. bw. silent

A sinister vampire count arrives in a German port and spreads the plague.
Murnau's famous first film version of Dracula - cheekily changing the names of the characters, and was sued successfully by Bram Stoker's widow; most copies were therefore destroyed, except for some (including this 2006 restoration), what remains is a a stilted but highly entertaining fantasy melodrama. which admittedly shows its eccentricity with some of the added scenes (the vampire lugubriously walks along carrying his own coffin to his house and then dissolves into it!) Memorable for certain indelible images, not least its star's memorable make-up.

Written by: Henrik Galeen, based on the novel by Bram Stoker.
Producers: Enriko Dieckman, Albin Grau.
Director: F.W. Murnau.
Starring: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroder, Alexander Granach, Ruth Landshoff, John Gottowt.
Photography: Fritz Arno Wagner, Gunther Krampf.

Music: Dmytro Morykit (played from memory on piano.)

May 29th
House of the Long Shadows
(GB 1982)               

A young writer accepts a dare to write his latest novel in a haunted house, where there are unexpected visitors...
Poorly made horror spoof with wooden young leads, almost redeemed by its guest veterans all on screen together for the first time.

Written by: Michael Armstrong, based on the novel "Seven Keys to Baldpate" by Earl Derr Diggens.
Producers: Mennahem Golan, Yoram Globus.
Director: Pete Walker.
Starring: Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Desi Arnaz Jnr, John Carradine, Sheila Keith, Julie Peasgood, Richard Todd, Louise English.
Photography: Norman Langley.
Music: Richard Harvey.

HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS (1982). In the decade of slasher movies, the makers seemed to have forgotten how to make a proper haunted house film. John Carradine, Sheila Keith, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price reflect on an older era.

Jan 16th  
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies     
(GB/US 2015)

In an alternative 19th century Britain the martial arts trained Bennett sisters seek suitable husbands in the midst of an ongoing plague ward against zombies.
Straight faced comic book, translating the subtexts of Jane Austen's story into literal action and gory violence. Quite sustained for such nonsense, and the perfect fantasy for fans of Jane Austen and zombie films - wherever exactly that demographic lies.

Written and Directed by: Burr Steers, based on the novel by Seth Graham-Smith.
Producers (seven of them): Sean McKittrick, Allison Shearmur, Natalie Portman, Annette Savitch, Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson, Marc Butan.
Starring: Lily James, Sam Riley, Matt Smith, Charles Dance, Bella Heathcote, Jack Huston, Douglas Booth, Lena Headey, Sally Phillips.
Photography: Remi Adefarasin.
Music: Fernando Velazquez.

Nov 13th 

Black Rainbow** 

(GB 1989)                                   

Goldcrest. 103m.

A travelling medium who contacts the spirits of dead relatives starts to predict deaths before they happen.
Unsettling little chiller with a slightly unsatisfactory denouement (as with most ghost stories), but consistently well put together with some good performances in gritty, grimy autumnal American locations to try and downplay - and thereby enhance - the supernatural element.

Written and Directed by: Mike Hodges.
Producers: Geoffrey Helman, John Quested.
Starring: Rosanna Arquette, Jason Robards, Tom Hulce, Mark Joy, Ron Rosenthal, John Bennes.
Photography: Gerry Fisher.
Music: John Scott.
Editing: Malcolm Cooke.

Nov 9th 

Lifeforce 

(GB/US 1985)                             

Cannon. 116m. Panavision

An Anglo-American space exploration towards Halley's Comet encounters an organic alien ship, which unleashes a deadly plague of life-sucking aliens across London.
Spectacularly ridiculous sci-fi horror on a cheapjack production that undercuts both its setting and its plot (with Hertfordshire standing in laughably for London), but nonetheless arresting and suspenseful in its shock factor.

Written by: Dan O'Bannon, Don Jakoby, based on the novel "Space Vampires" by Colin Wilson.
Producers: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus.
Director: Tobe Hooper.
Starring: Steve Railsbeck, Mathilda May, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Michael Gothard, Nicholas Ball, Patrick Stewart, Aubrey Morris.
Photography: Alan Hume.
Music: Henry Mancini.
Prosthetic Make-up Effects: Nick Maley.
Special Visual Effects: John Dykstra.

Feb 29th
The Woman in Black** (12A)
Odeon Colchester

A young widowed lawyer is sent to settle the account at a cursed town in a far from dead house with its sinister woman in black...
The Hammer studio makes a welcome return (in name at least) with this much performed stage ghost story, now adapted into a gloomy film with most of the usual creepy sudden jolts, which are quite predictable in places but still effective, with the star mostly required to react in a startled manner like the bland Hammer heroes of old.

d: James Watkins
s: Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds, Janet McTeer, Roger Allam, Misha Handley, Sophie Stuckey, Liz White, Jessica Raine

Feb 17th
X the Unknown**
GB 1956. Exclusive (Hammer). 78m. bw

A remote research laborartory in Scotland is threatened by a radioactive flesh-eating lava from within the Earth's core.
Sparing but effective horror sci-fi with low-key special effects but a good assemblage of actors and situations to put the horror across, patterned after the success of Quatermass.

Written by: Jimmy Sangster.
Producer: Anthony Hinds.
Director: Lerslie Norman.
Starring: Dean Jagger, Leo McKern, Edward Chapman, William Lucas, John Harvey, Anthony Newley, Ian MacNaughton, Kenneth Cope.
Photography: Gerald Gibbs.
Music: James Bernard.

Feb 1st
Scanners
Canada 1980. Avco/Filmplan International. 103m.

Telepathic beings known as scanners are threatened by a sinister organisation attempting to wipe out dissenters.
Unpleasant paranoia thriller with notable shock effects (including exploding heads), with the director at his most excessive. One to turn the light on straight after watching.

Written and Directed by: David Cronenberg.
Producer: Charlie Heroux.
Starring: Patrick McGoohan, Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, Lawrence Dane, Robert Silverman.
Photography: Mark Irwin.
Music: Howard Shore.
Make-up Effects: Dick Smith.

Jan 13th
Devils of Darkness
GB 1965. Planet. 88m.

A French vampire cult under threat follows its trail to Britain.
Swinging Sixties horror film, more swinging than horrific, despite the best that formula can do.

Written by: Lyn Fairhurst.
Producer: Tom Blakeley.
Director: Lance Comfort.
Starring: William Sylvester, Hubert Noel, Tracy Reed, Carole Grey, Diana Decker, Peter Illing, Eddie Byrne, Victor Brooks, Burnell Tucker.
Photography: Reg Wyer.
Music: Bernie Fenton.

Jan 1st
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell*
GB 1973. Avco/Hammer. 89m. bw

A disciple of Dr. Frankenstein is sentenced to the asylum where he finds his mentor is still at work incognito.
The last of the Hammer Frankensteins, finishing off in lurid style. Unpleasant in tone and indicative of the increasing gratuitousness of the Hammers series since 1957, but a vast improvement on their preceding horrors, with the old guard giving it one last go.

Written by: John Elder (Anthony Hinds).
Producer: Roy Skeggs.
Director: Terence Fisher.
Starring: Peter Cushing, Shane Briant, Madeline Smith, David Prowse, John Stratton, Charles Lloyd Pack, Patrick Troughton, Bernard Lee.
Photography: Brian Probyn.
Music: James Bernard.

Dec 6th
Beetlejuice**
US 1988. Warner Bros/Geffen. 92m.

Recently deceased newly weds have tenant problems in their home and unwisely hire a mischievous fellow ghost to evict them.
Ghoulish comedy horror not entirely certain of its focus, whether Gothic or satirical, with the director's imagination running riot over a script that, characteristic of Burton, has plenty of holes.

Written by: Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren.
Producers: Michael Bender, Larry Wilson, Richard Hashimoto.
Director: Tim Burton.
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara, Glenn Shadix, Annie McEnroe, Robert Goulet, Dick Cavett.
Photography: Thomas Ackerman.
Music: Danny Elfman.

Jul 20th
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
GB 1968. Warner Bros/Seven Arts/Hammer. 92m.

Count Dracula wreaks vengeance on the priest who has isolated him from his castle.
The lines are showing in this clumsily scripted addition to the Hammer horror cycle, where the usual hard-working economical production values lack a good deal of atmosphere, despite the best that acting and art direction can do.

Written by: John Elder (Anthony Hinds).
Producer: Aida Young.
Director: Freddie Francis.
Starring: Christopher Lee, Veronica Carlson, Rupert Davies, Barry Andrews, Barbara Ewing, Ewan Hooper, Marion Mathie, Michael Ripper, George A. Cooper.
Photography: Arthur Grant.
Music: James Bernard.
Art Direction: Bernard Robinson.