If YOU have never thought about death, it’s time you started thinking.” As the trailer for Faces of Death (1978) comes to an end, the final statement issues a firm declaration to anyone watching. What lies in store for us ...

The artwork on the old VHS covers of Nekromantik (1987), which featured a decaying corpse clutching a woman’s breast, might lead to the assumption that it’s a work of exploitation. While this particular image illustrates the marriage of sex and ...

“I’ve left the world behind I’m safe here in my mind I’m free to speak with my own kind This is my life, this is my life I’ll decide not you Keep the world with all its sin It’s not ...

“At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?”“Where was man?”― William Styron, Sophie’s Choice “I am not responsible!” The cry of a condemned criminal refusing to acknowledge guilt. “Who is responsible?” The question asked in Alain Resnais’ documentary, Nuit et Brouillard ...

“There are all sorts of things that scare us. The dead scare us, for one day we will be dead like them. The dark scares us, for we don’t know what is waiting in the dark.” – Alvin Schwartz, “Boo ...

Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is often described as one of the most controversial films ever made. It’s easy to understand why. Provocative and polarizing, its content is both shocking and subversive. Ruggero Deodato’s most notable work has incited repulsion in some, ...

At a faraway glance, Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter, 1974) seems like the unlikeliest film to be praised for its artistic merits. The story of a former Nazi rekindling a sadomasochistic relationship with a former prisoner seems scandalous, ...

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) is proof that positive controversy sells. When the infamous slasher film was released to theatres it was immediately met with outrage. The American public wasn’t quite ready for a beloved holiday icon to join the ...

The mysterious land of Transylvania, now a part of modern day Romania, has long been a staple for gothic horror. From the pages of Bram Stoker’s Dracula to the expressionist masterpiece of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu: A Symphony ...

Journalist Geoff Barton might not have foreseen the impact he would make when he coined the term NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) in Sounds magazine. The words would become synonymous with a tidal wave of bands that emerged ...