I lived in London from 1988 and for about three years. And I discovered the SCALA CINEMA CLUB almost right away (thanks to a brief mention in Time Out Magazine of a zombie film all-nighter).
Most of the classic cult films I hold near and dear to my heart are films which I discovered at the Scala; the Romero films, the Argento films, the EVIL DEAD, RE-ANIMATOR and HELLRAISER films, etc, are all films I first saw during the wee hours at a Scala screening (since there was a loophole in the British film regulations film clubs were allowed to screen otherwise censored films fully uncut!).
I once missed ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS one Sunday morning cos I had to go straight to work! I got Jane Gile's book when it came out in 2018 and now there's a new documentary film on its way (Jane Giles was the programmer at the Scala). I can't wait.
Here's a brand new Q&A from Independent Cinema Office:
Dinner and an old dusty video tape that I've owned for years and years but never actually watched: Stephen King's World of Horror.
This is a UK vhs and it clocks in at just over 80 minutes. Apparently this was released as a two parter in the US (and user reviews on IMDb talk about a version running 270 minutes!!!). Some of the contents was later used for a video series called This is horror.
The tape was alright. If you're a King aficionado you'll probably be disappointed as there's not all that much of him in the documentary. Maybe 15-20 minutes or so taken from two different interviews. The rest is clips from films, interviews with FX people, and behind the scenes clips. I quite liked the tape, though, as it's almost a peek into the American horror/splatter movie world of the 80s. I miss that period in horror.
I don't think SK's World of Horror has been released on dvd, but at least some nice gent has been so kind as to upload it to YouTube. And now it's also embedded in this post, weeeee! (you can also find links to the three "This is Horror" tapes in the info section under the video on YouTube).
As someone mentioned recently it's a fantastic time to be a fan of old Hong Kong "new genre" films from the 80s. A lot of this stuff was released on vhs and dvd back in the day but has been neglected on the "new" media, bluray. However, now it seems a handful of labels are putting these films out by the bucket load.
Of course this can also be a disadvantage as some films might get lost in the shuffle. I hope that's not the case with Ringo Lam's awesome WILD SEARCH (you should get it!), which is now on bluray from Eureka in the UK. I've been a fan of the film for longer than I can remember and I own the it on vhs and dvd already. And today I received Eureka's new bluray. I ran all the way from the bus stop just to watch it right away!!! No, not really, but I did watch it after dinner and the print looks great. Very happy with this release.
There's a few cool extras and the price was good. However, I wonder why they didn't include the film's trailer. I got the standard edition (is there even a special edition with postcards and shit for this one?). 130 kr. from iMusic if you're on these shores.
PS: I watched Ringo Lam's American film MAXIMUM RISK recently. It stars the Belgian ham with cheese Jean-Claude Van Damme and it's almost like these films were made by two different Lam brothers, Fantastic HK Ringo Lam and Has-to-bow-to-shitty-Hollywood-rules Ringo Lam. Both films have action and shoot-out scenes, but whereas WILD SEARCH has depth and well written characters, MAXIMUM RISK has as much of that as Van Damme has facial expressions. Ringo should have stayed at home if you ask me.
I reviewed MAXIMUM RISK on the Danish side of this blog. Go here.
New Eureka trailer:
Hong Kong trailer:
Fan made music video for Anita Mui's song from the soundtrack:
