November 2005

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Sonny Chiba, Kriminal and Cinema Nocturna

Just a small update this cold Scottish Sunday evening to say that some new reviews are on the way. I'll be taking a look at one of Sonny Chiba's early offerings "Terror Beneath the Sea" from DarkSky Films.

Also being a big fan of Diabolik fumetti and Bava's movie, I recently picked up some Satanik and Kriminal fumetti at the aforementioned "Memorabilia" which I really enjoyed. This has led me to order Umberto Lenzi's movie of "Kriminal" from Thrauma and the sequel "Il Marchio di Kriminal" from Xploited. Reviews of both will up soon.

I have also been kindly given the opportunity to contribute some reviews and articles to Cinema Nocturna by the moderator there, Steve Genier. Thanks for the opportunity Steve.

They have some great articles and reviews that are well worth checking out and then discussing on the Nocturnal Forum.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Memorabilia 2005 - Glasgow

I attended Memorabilia at the SECC in Glasgow over the weekend. Loads of DVD stalls selling your favourite horror and exploitation favourites. Picked up a few bargains myself, a couple of Fernando di Leo classics and even a few giallos that an expert (!) like myself had not heard of.

Midnight Media were also there selling DVD's and some of their own publications. They had the latest issues of Uncut magazine plus new publications by Nigel Burrell and Paul Brown, namely "Giallo Scrapbook" and "Hispanic Horrors". I picked both of these up and I cannot recommend them enough. Indeed "Hispanic Horrors" contained a few titles that seem well worth tracking down.

One DVD stall in particular seemed to have two crazy Dutch guys drinking Tennents Super (a really strong Scottish lager that Glasgow's homeless tend to favour, but is held in high esteem in Europe) and trying to push Cannibal Holocaust onto every punter. They were boasting how cheap their DVD's were and I asked why this was. Turns out they were the owners of EC Entertainment who have produced some good discs in the past and whose edition of Cannibal Holocaust, while not the best looking or boasting lots of extras, is truly uncut!

However, main highlight for me was meeting Al "Sex Gore" Simpson from the SexGoreMutants site. SGM was one of my first points of reference along with DVD Maniacs when I was first getting into horror and exploitation movies. Their reviews determined what I would spend my student loan on next. So I urge you all to check it out especially as they are about to bring out a new publication entitled "Living Dead: Glasgow". One to look forward to I'm sure.