U is for The Unholy (2021)

Thanks to a kind message from Mermaid Heather, I recently discovered that this movie was actually the sixth adaptation of James Herbert's bibliography. Given that his works are so infrequently mined, I felt compelled to watch and as luck would have it I had a free letter.

Alice (Cricket Brown) gains the power to heal and says the Virgin Mary is speaking through her. With the help of tabloid journalist Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), she spreads her word. Or is it?

There was some terrific pedigree here. Herbert's source material (his 1983 book Shrine), produced by Sam Raimi and some top level character actors the likes of Morgan, Bill Sadler and Katie Aselton. However, like I mentioned yesterday, the Hollywood system can't seem break out of its same old tricks. Having just watched Terrified before this, the difference between a filmmaker who knows what he's doing and one who doesn't is made abundantly clear. Evan Spiliotopoulos is definitely a better writer than he is a director.

Cricket Brown as Alice in The Unholy.

A scary movie is more than just easy jump scares and CGI apparitions. For instance, the first scene of The Unholy is basically the first scene of Bava's 1960 film Black Sunday except shot in first person. One scene is effective, the other is not. I bet you can guess which one. And don't get me started on its penchant for exposition and over explanation. Restraint could've really helped this movie. 

It's a shame because as far as I can remember (it has been a few decades), this was a fairly pure adaptation of Herbert's book. Sure, there was the usual condensing of characters and updating to modern day, but it hit all the beats and the casting was great. I thought the exchanges between Alice and Gerry were sincere, and few things bring me more joy than watching Cary Elwes do an accent (any American Crime fans in the house??). Problem is every time the solid cast built up some momentum - CG FACE FLY AT SCREEN! I wonder if that's actually what it said in the script?

Seeing Herbert onscreen is always a happy day, but I'm thankful the cast was skilled enough to keep it - despite post production's worst efforts - from being a painful disaster. I wonder if the studio system is ever going to break out of these old habits... 

10 Years!

Can you believe it? This humble blog I started as a VHS coverbox archive has been chugging along for a decade now. I've recorded hundreds of covers from the home video era, along with documenting everything that has come along in horror since 2007. It's been pretty wild.

I've made a lot of friends and contacts since then that have allowed me to start making my own films as well as program shorts for three festivals. In celebration of The Horror Section's tenth anniversary I wanted to look back at my most visited posts over the years. Let's dive right in, shall we?

Coincidentally, number ten – with over 1400 looks - was an anniversary post itself. Posted three years ago today, it was another reflective list of seven significant accomplishments I'd made since I'd started THS that included finally archiving my mass collection of horror junk, being accredited for film festivals and keeping a regimented routine of writing at least two-hundred posts a year. 2014 was a really good year for me.

You are going to notice that a lot of my top ten posts are reviews of world premiere screenings, mostly from TIFF's Midnight Madness or Montreal's Fantasia. Number nine was for Mike Flanagan's 2013 film, Oculus.

I really love this film because it focuses on the things that make great horror – simplicity, atmosphere and supporting performances. Flanagan has since gone on to further cement himself as one of the genre's top filmmakers. I mean, Gerald's Game! You need mad skills to put that off.

At almost 1600 views, number eight was my review of V/H/S, the 2012 anthology. Toronto After Dark put on a special screening of that in the summer and man, was The Bloor packed that night. Even though the reception of V/H/S was lukewarm, there was some major anticipation for the film. I know I was pumped. I think I prefer Part 2 overall – mainly because of Timo's Safe Haven – but it was great experience, no less.

Number Seven on the list goes to a review of one of my favourite documentaries of recent years, Jake West's Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape.

As I commented in my post, the sheer amount of content in this set was ridiculous. In addition to the doc, you had separate features including trailers for every single title on the UK's infamous list. That's seventy-two trailers! I believe this set was initially an import, so for a time it may have been somewhat rare on this side of the pond – hence the almost 1700 views.

The sixth highest hits was for one of my first posts, coming only three days after THS's inception. It was a list of Ten Great Modern Horror Films that included the likes of The Descent, Session 9 and The Devil's Backbone. I had previously written about these movies on different review sites (now long gone) but at the onset, I wanted to pull together a best-of-the-best into one definitive list.

Number Five is a bit inexplicable, but the first of three Fantasia posts was for Patrick Laugier's follow-up to Martyrs, The Tall Man in 2012.

This film gets a lot of disinterest or disdain, mainly for not being Martyrs 2, but I remember Jessica Biel's performance really knocked my socks off. It was a good precursor to the great work she did more recently in The Sinner.

Coming in at over 2000 views at number four, is my post for Fantasia's world premiere in 2014 of Leo Gabriadze's film Cybernatural. This film was really wild, in that it didn't seem to care that it was infringing on so many copyrights it made my head spin. Google, YouTube and Facebook were all utilized in this micro-budget flick about a vengeful spirit killing teenagers off via Skype.

It was later released in an altered form as the re-branded Unfriended, which judging from the people who saw both was highly inferior. I imagine the high amount of my hits were due to the fact I would've been one of only a few hundred people that would've seen this first cut. I'll never forget that bat-shit scene where a girl is murdered within her Facebook feed, her animated sprite banging around inside her own desktop.

At number three, with over 2500 hits, is my most viewed Midnight Madness review for 2010's Insidious.

It's a franchise now, but seven years ago, the horror community was buzzing over this creeper from James Wan & Leigh Whannell. They had taken the festival circuit by storm six years earlier with Saw and everybody was curious to see whether they could repeat. I actually re-watched Insidious from my Ithaca hotel room last month and I was glad to see that it holds up. I believe the ending was changed from the premiere, but a lot of what these guys executed in this film have become Blumhouse touchstones.

Runner up, is my most viewed review was that of Steven R. Monroe's 2010 remake of I Spit On Your Grave.

An unpleasant film to be sure, but as a remake it's mostly successful because it fixed the problem I always had with the original. The focus of the 1978 movie was the rape, and not the revenge whereas Monroe took a more balanced approach. It made sitting through the nasty stuff a bit more palatable when subsequently the bad guys get it back just as good.

I Spit's reputation continues to live on (with two sequels to boot) so I guess it is not surprising almost 3000 people have looked in over the years.

Numero uno on the list with triple the hits of the closest competitor is my piece on James Herbert's Rat Trilogy that kicked off Rat Week.

I guess it makes sense, as I'm always prattling on about James Herbert. He has never been as popular over here as he should have been and I suppose people searching for info would naturally hit on my blog entries. My first Herbert post connected me with esteemed blogger Mermaid Heather and we've continued to keep in touch over the years as we creep by milestone after milestone.

I definitely plan on writing more about rodent-based horror in the future, but one thing at a time. For now, I'll just keep on keepin' on. Stay safe, kiddies.

Mass Market Nightmares.

Author Grady Hendrix's newest book Paperbacks From Hell hit shelves a few weeks ago. His last two publications Horrorstör and My Best Friend’s Exorcism were terrific and I was eager to see him tackle the world of non-fiction, especially an area as intriguing as this.

When I first heard about this book what struck me immediately was the outstanding concept. It was so simple and not even something I thought I needed until all those crazy-ass covers were paraded in front of me. I suppose it should have been no surprise that Paperbacks From Hell would be of interest to me given the nature of this blog. I may not be the most well read individual, but the similarities between perusing the eighties video store and the seventies fiction bookshelves are not lost on me. But more on that tomorrow.

Right now I’m talking about this tremendous book. Within the first few pages, Hendrix was telling of a novel about Nazi leprechauns (Gestapochauns!) and I was like, this is everything I ever wanted!

Paperbacks From Hell was very well laid out into chapters covering all the genre mainstays, including satanism, haunted houses, creepy kids, killer animals and vampires. Hendrix charts the history of the pulp paperback novel from Ira Levin’s publication of Rosemary's Baby in 1967 through to Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs – whose subsequent film adaptation came right before the horror market crash of the early nineties. Perhaps most admirable is that it appears that Hendrix actually read the majority of the books in this tome.

There are a list of reasons why I loved this book, but chief among them are two. First, the presentation was wonderful, as I guess it had to be. You can’t have a book about colourful and provocative cover art and not deliver, but Paperbacks From Hell over excels in this department with all manner of the brazen and ridiculous. As Will Errickson points out in the afterword “you may have compiled a lengthy to-read list” and he was absolutely correct. My review notes basically turned into a wish list by the second or third chapter.

Secondly, I really appreciated the recurring mention of British author James Herbert. I’ve prattled on about him here many, many times largely because despite being the most successful horror novelist in the UK, he has never gotten his due across the pond. Within the pages of Paperbacks From Hell, he's treated like the horror giant and pioneer he was.

Considering the amount of absolutely bonkers stories are held within this book, it is amazing to me that more of them weren’t adapted to the screen. Shaun Hutson’s 1982 novel Slugs was adapted by Juan Simón (of Pieces fame), but an even more nutty looking title of his called Spawn was not.

Then again, I suppose I understand. In a film, you are limited to what you can put onscreen whereas imagination has no bounds within the pages of a book. Case in point, take this scenario from J.N. Williamson's Brotherkind;

“Rubin unravels the conspiracy: alien greys have teamed up with the Men in Black, Bigfoot and the Mothman to seed humanity with alien/human babies. P.S., they're not aliens at all, but part of a hidden race that we used to call fairies.”

This is true insanity. And back in the day, readers couldn’t get enough of it.

Paperbacks From Hell was a fantastically brisk read, an even better resource and I fully guarantee that you will have made your own list by the time you reach the last page.

The Secret of Crickley Hall.

The BBC mini-series adaptation of the James Herbert novel The Secret Of Crickley Hall was released on DVD this week.

A year after Eve (Suranne Jones) & Gabe's (Tom Ellis) son goes missing, they decide to move their family to the countryside, residing in the rustic manor of Crickley Hall. However, soon after arriving, they realize the house comes with a lot more than they bargained for. 

As I've stated before, film adaptations of Herbert (who sadly passed away earlier this year) work are few and far between, so I always welcome the coming of a new one. In contrast to the previous ones though, I hadn't read the book before seeing this, so I was going in totally blind. I have no excuse for not reading his second last tome – it is one of many that continues to collect dust on my bookshelf – but I've also talked often about my ever shrinking acquaintance with the medium. Anyway, on with it.

I really enjoyed The Secret of Crickley Hall. I have no knowledge of how well this stacks up as an adaptation, but for Herbert's contribution, it is clear he was still as sharp as ever in the last stage of his writing career. This is a wonderfully woven tale that shifts between the past and present effortlessly. It may not be as visually complicated in its back and forth as the recent film Oculus – which shared a similar conceit – but Crickley Hall sure makes up for that in sheer narrative weight.

Suranne Jones as Eve Caleigh in Secret of Crickley Hall.

I found the characters to be very well rounded, and was impressed by the extremely economical and affecting setup. The scenes involving the family unit I felt with especially strong.. It also helped immensely that all the characters were portrayed by great actors, both young and old. It was very nice to see some veterans like David Warner & Susan Lynch appear as well as not one, but two actors from Game of Thrones, Donald Sumpter & Maisie Williams.

This is an old school ghost tale, with strong, deliberate and well-crafted storytelling. This subject matter has been mined before, but there is a certain, and I have to use this word again, weight to the proceedings. I've seen a lot of recent television (a lot of it from the UK) dealing with the issue of loss, and this ranks among the best. There is a power to the mother's grief that propels the story and suspends your disbelief enough to think that she might stay in the house, even as the ghostly manifestations become increasingly more dangerous to her loved ones.

Maisie Williams (left) and Pixie Davies as Loren & Cally Caleigh.

I think that director Joe Ahearne really took advantage of the mini-series format here. Having three hours to work with, I really got the sense that he was able to cover as much of the book as possible. As we all know, when books are translated into features, they are often unjustly abbreviated (Stephen King's Hearts In Atlantis being one that comes to mind). I did find a few of the more violent set pieces a bit clunky, but they never took away from the piece as a whole. I can also relent that Ahearne’s decision for restraint may have served to keep the story grounded.

Another aspect that made this feel like an older tale was that most of the scares were of a practical nature. It is more common for digital effects to take center stage in ghost stories these days, but here it is kept fairly simple, save for one beautifully understated sequence involving phantom children. The rest was good old fashioned blood, sweat and tears.

David Warner as Percy Judd.

The Secret of Crickley Hall is a solid tale about the power of grief, hope and loss that combines two timelines into one compelling ghost story.

It Came From The Archives 18!

In honour of the recent passing of author James Herbert, I decided to showcase my collection of his works. His catalogue began in 1974 with the release of The Rats and went all the way up to last year with the final chapter of his Daniel Ash Trilogy, entitlted Ash. Here we go!

For my past post on this graphic novel, click here

*Special thanks to my brother for sending me pics from his stash for the ones (Haunted, Jonah & The Fog) that I was missing.

R.I.P. James Herbert 1943-2013.

It’s a very sad day here at The Horror Section. Yesterday, British author James Herbert died at his home in Sussex. He was 69.

Horror novelist James Herbert.

The importance of this man’s work to me in my formative years is immeasurable. He and Stephen King blasted my imagination to pieces with their dark and descriptive tales.

Herbert’s The Fog was one of the first horror novels I ever read, and my ratty, ear-marked paperback of Creed was perpetually on my bedside table. I even used to re-enact scenes from The Rat Trilogy with my G.I. Joes as a kid.

Good times.

Being from overseas, several of his works never got released domestically, so that meant I either had to stock up when I was over there, or have my relatives bring his latest offering whenever they visited. Each new tale was devoured in an instant.

Long time readers of this blog know I lamented how untapped his works were in terms of adaptation. His catalogue contains countless dark wonders, yet only five  – the most recent being the BBC mini The Secret of Crickley Hall last year – out of twenty-three of his works have been brought to the screen. You may say that is a good thing, but now that the man has left us, we will no longer be graced with new material.

On the bright side, Herbert was able to complete his Daniel Ash trilogy, as the last chapter, simply entitled Ash, was released last year.

A great talent, and an even greater storyteller, Herbert will be greatly missed.

To read a nice little obit over at The Guardian, click here.

DKTM 158

This week saw an abundance of trailers for upcoming genre projects, so here's a rundown for you.

Capital Z.

Perhaps the biggest thing to hit the Web this week was the new trailer for the movie adaptation of Max Brooks' zombie tome World War Z. Feast your eyes below.

My first reaction to this trailer was how overblown it looks, but upon further reflection I realized that we have never actually had a big budget zombie blockbuster before, as the zombie genre up until this point has been the domain of the low budget and independents. I guess the biggest would be Boyle's 28 Later films and Zombieland, but even those weren't particularly costly pictures to make. So, WWZ is what a hundred-million dollar zombie movie looks like.

I like this trailer, and despite all the CGI, as I cannot deny that those shots of the 'herd' are pretty eye-catching.  At the same time, I don't want this to become another I Am Legend. The book, even though it was grand in scope, was a collection of personal experiences, so it always felt intimate. By focusing in on Brad Pitt's character (or at least appearing to) it becomes more of an action movie with zombies in it. That's what I get from my Resident Evil movies and I want WWZ to have weight, dammit! Anyway, rant over.

Crickley Hall.

Being a huge fan of British writer James Herbert, this news is especially pleasing. Starting this Sunday, the BBC is premiering the newest adaptation of one of his works called The Secret of Crickley Hall. Here is the trailer.

Regular readers will know how incessantly I have rambled on about how many of Herbert's works remain unadapted, so good on the Beebs for getting on it, if no one else will.

Maniac Runs Red.

Here now is the full Red Band trailer for Franck Khalfoun's upcoming remake of Maniac.

It seems to have the tone right and I certainly respect Elijah Wood for taking on this role, but I'm worried the movie's largely first person perspective will become a little tiresome after a while. Still, this is exactly producer Alex Aja's wheelhouse and nobody working today does it better in my opinion.