Hemlock
Books
ISBN:
9780955777479
Paperback
Price:
£17.95
295
pages
Review
by Adrian Smith
To
paraphrase Jonathan Rigby in his book English Gothic, horror is the one
genre that Britain can truly claim as its own. And whilst British horror cinema
is inextricably connected to gothic-tinged memories of Christopher Lee,
cobweb-strewn castles and buxom scream queens, M.J. Simpson points out in this
excellently researched tome that the face of British horror today offers far
more.
Simpson
appears to have taken on the Herculean task of watching every film that could
fit the broad definition of being British (not always easy to tell, with
funding and production often involving multiple countries), and being horror,
again something of a broad church. A lot of the films he describes, giving not
only plot synopses but reviews, production information and interview extracts,
sound utterly terrible. He seems to have sat through a staggering amount of punishingly
bad films so that we, the readers, don't have to. But along the way he has
stumbled across a significant number of excellent films, too, many of which
have escaped either critical or commercial attention.
Using
the term British Horror Revival, Simpson offers a complete breakdown of the
twelve years covered, digging up each film and presenting them in the order
they received any kind of release. It is fascinating to see just how difficult
some filmmakers have getting distribution, often producing a film in the UK but
finding it only coming out on DVD in Japan or Australia. Many films manage a
few festival screenings before disappearing into obscurity, so Simpson is to be
praised for finding them again. Of course, some of them sound so terrible that
it does not seem that much of a pity, but others sound like genuine lost gems.
If horror is your thing, this book will have you scouring the internet looking
for DVD or download copies.
Amongst
the filmmakers discussed are genuine talents like Jake West (Evil Aliens,
2006), Shane Meadows (Dead Man's Shoes, 2006), Neil Marshall (The
Descent, 2005) and Danny Boyle, whose brilliant and devastating 28 Days
Later (2002) did much to raise the profile of the British Horror Revival
around the world. Amongst the more obscure entries you can find Beyond the
Rave (2008), a cheap teen-themed vampire horror co-produced by the newly
revived Hammer Films, which Cinema Retro covered extensively (and even appeared
in briefly!) here: http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php/archives/387-EXCLUSIVE-REPORT-FROM-THE-SET-OF-NEW-HAMMER-HORROR-FILM%21.html
This
is an extremely well-researched book, and M.J. Simpson's occasionally sarcastic
and exasperated tone is entertaining, even if it does give the impression that
he had regrets about this project once he had embarked on it. He has uncovered
some gems and revealed that there is a very active, mostly micro-budget British
film industry which gets frequently overshadowed by the Bonds, Harry Potters
and Richard Curtis rom-coms. It is a pity that aside from a few pages of colour
stills the majority of the imagery in the book is black and white. This is a
genre that is frequently soaked in the red stuff. The main gripe however has to
be the lack of an index or references. It is impossible to search for a
specific title unless you know the year it was released, and even then you have
to wade through the chapter concerned. The book could have served as a useful
reference guide, but instead it appears to have been designed to be read from cover
to cover. However, this is only a minor reservation. If you are interested in
the horror genre, or want to find out just how active dozens of British
filmmakers have are, this is a great read.
(Click here for on-line index of people mentioned in the book)
(Click here for on-line index of titles mentioned in the book)