'Nightmare' (1964) – Freddie Francis.

Stylish director, and hugely beloved Hammer Films icon Freddie Francis's darkly circuitous chiller has an especially gripping screamplay by fellow lauded Hammer alumnus Jimmy Sangster, in this instance taking a most diabolical inspiration from Clouzot's deadly cool thriller 'Les Diaboliques'. A highly strung student suffers debilitating night terrors of such severity she must return to the rather austere, Gothic-inclined family home wherein the much younger Janet (Jennie Linden) experienced a grievous trauma so devastating that her frequent nightmares seem so distressingly vivid she becomes wholly convinced that these foul, lurid visions of ever-encroaching horror might not be mere fear-flocked figments of her increasingly fractured psyche, but something far more corporeal in nature, whereby it is not only her already tenuous hold on reality that is threatened by these grimly intrusive apparitions, Janet is in desperate fear of her very life! With its sublimely creepy chiaroscuro lighting, remarkably crisp and efficient direction by maestro Freddie Francis, a sinuously sinister script by Sangster, and a heartfelt, emotionally engaging performance by Jennie Linden as the horribly tormented Janet, 'Nightmare' is no less of a profoundly macabre, monochrome masterpiece than 'The Haunting', or Bryan Forbes's 'The Whisperers', this Hammer Films B/W classic is a sinister masterclass in grimly atmospheric, slowly simmering, psychologically dense, sweat-soaked shock! The visual quality of the wonderful Second Sight Blu-ray is outstanding, and includes some worthwhile extras, 'Nightmare' comes highly recommended.

 

'Murder Weapon' (1989) – David DeCoteau.

Perhaps one of the more conspicuously neglected 80s slashers is the feverishly titillating, terminally top-popping, Linnea Quigley produced sledgehammer-savage, sensationally sleazy slasher 'Murder Weapon', wherein two wickedly wholesome B-Movie babes organize a 'coming out of the psycho ward' party, as you do, and this perfectly perky pair of blissfully bikini-clad horror hotties do the nasty with their beer-boozy beaus, and very soon this fearlessly frothy beer bash turns terror-toxic, as it would appear that one especially perfidious party goer has taken the 'party till you drop' maxim to its more luridly logical conclusion! B-movie impresario David DeCoteau's blithely blood-soaked, bra-burstingly bonkers 'Murder Weapon' is a crudely effective, Neon-hued, wide-scream 80s slasher serenade starring the dazzlingly delicious, drop-dead gorgeous horror hottie Linnea Quigley!!!

 

 

'Firewalker' (1986) – J. Lee Thompson.

Forget Torvill & Dean, Siegfried & Roy, or Captain and Tennille, blockbuster entertainment's most dangerously dynamic, ruggedly charismatic, colourfully cinematic couple are the righteously rough n' tumble rapscallions Max & Leo, cult heroes Chuck Norris & Lou Gosset effortlessly make for an impishly irrepressible, adorably roguish pair of morally flexible, magnificently madcap, physically durable adventurers, being plucky, rather than lucky, their grandly conceived, poorly implemented, globe-trotting, riotously risk-laden treasure-seeking frequently misfiring, leaving their weary bodies battered and bruised, but even with wallets, and bellies empty, their indomitable warrior spirits remain unbowed! On one fateful eve they meet the blazingly beautiful blonde Melody Anderson, a headstrong woman, whose wining smile, velveteen thighs, and heady promise of a vast, cryptically well-hidden cache of Aztec Gold proves impossible to resist to these thrill-seeking, all-too mortal men, thus engendering a heroically hog-wild roller-coaster ride of gallopingly Gung ho, Golan-Globus goodness! Talented genre director J. Lee Thompson's delightfully quirky, explosively action-packed, mystically inclined boy's old adventure is a break-neck paced, B-movie classic, propelled by a suitably kinetic score by maestro Gary Chang, and is blessed with a great supporting cast, including an marrow-freezingly menacing performance by Sonny Landham as the truly nightmarish 'El Coyote', with the Stentorian actor John Rhys Davies making an indelible impression as the mad mercenary 'Corky'. There is a delightful whimsically to J Lee Thompson's greatly undervalued actioner, and Norris and Gossett have a surprisingly sparky chemistry, while the talented Gossett is clearly the finer, more nuanced Thespian, super-swarthy, iron-thewed martial arts wizard Chuck certainly makes the most of his uniquely robust physicality, and is a consistently fun, skell-savaging protagonist! For me, 'Firewalker' is arguably one of Golan-Globus's most absurdly entertaining, Pizza and Beer-fuelled, exotically far-flung, fist-flying frolics!

 

'Tread Softly' (1952) – David McDonald.

A musical is being rehearsed, and the blonde-haired diva (Frances Day) finally storms off in a huff, they subsequently lose the venue, and expressing the pluckiest 'the show must go on' tradition, the beleaguered theatrical company somewhat anxiously move the entire production to a phantasmagorically spooky, long-abandoned, darkly storied, creepily cob-webbed theatre wherein a dastardly murder had been vilely perpetrated many years earlier! Capable Director David McDonald's intriguingly odd, frequently bizarre, far from neatly coalesced admixture of rumbustious, toe-tapping musical, and ominous, shadow-soaked, Edgar Wallace-style haunted house murder mystery soon becomes a wickedly eccentric, terror-tinged vintage thriller whose narrative inconsistencies ultimately prove to be strangely endearing! While 'Tread Softly' stamps rather cumbrously over B-Thriller convention, this pleasingly noisome affair isn't without some interest to avid fans of macabre, but ever so slightly off-key 50s-era British murder mysteries! The standard of acting is generally robust across the well-trodden boards, with the ever reliable leading man John Bentley, and the luminously beautiful, splendidly vivacious Patricia Dainton making for an engagingly appealing couple now dangerously enmeshed within the murderous coils of some ever encroaching, life-threatening campaign of terror!

 

 'Killer Weekend' (2018) – Ben Kent.

This is a briskly-paced, fitfully amusing, luridly lad-magged British Zomcom with a terrifically titter-inducing twist. The noisome 'Mock-zom' action centring on an amusingly expletive prone group of disparate sitcom sardonic archetypes who find themselves on an increasingly boisterous, mishap-infected stag weekend in the country. Their elaborate Zombie-themed paintball escapades disturbingly take on a deliciously wrong-headed turn after these hapless, part-time paintballers accidentally kill one of the shambling, ill-painted, psychotically distempered faux-zombies for real, thereby hysterically helter-skeltering this bucolic, gag-infested, backwoods barmy B-Movie to a gallopingly grisly, suburban twits hit the fan, goo-flinging, Crossbow-swinging, fright-flocked finale! While 'Killer Weekend' is a somewhat derivative low-budget feature it nonetheless still proved to be an awesomeballs horror comedy, colourfully enlivened with some quality bants, zesty acting from a clearly game, 'give-it-a-go' cast, and, while, perhaps, not quite on par with blood-drenched Brit-Cult classics 'Severance', or 'Doghouse', it finally won me over with its rough-hewn charm, boundless enthusiasm, and splendidly splattery, far from stag-nant silliness!