Greatest British Horror Films?

[Steve Crook]

Or put those two together and you get Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Elsa Lanchester and that lovely Marge Simpson hair with the white stripe.

Not a British Horror Film but it did have the lovely Valerie Hobson as Mrs Frankenstein.

Steve

[DB7]

SteveCrook: Not a British Horror Film

I'm not really sure what categorises a British 'horror' as many tend to be gothic chillers or subtle dark thrillers as opposed to the more overt American slasher films (probably the nearest we came was the 70s (s)exploitation video nasties). Some of those mentioned like 28 Days Later, Village/Children of the Damned and the Quatermass films are more sci-fi with threatening situations.

[Ascoyne D'Ascoyne]

SteveCrook: Or put those two together and you get Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Elsa Lanchester and that lovely Marge Simpson hair with the white stripe. Not a British Horror Film but it did have the lovely Valerie Hobson as Mrs Frankenstein. Steve

And the even lovelier Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius. It also had a super music score by Franz Waxman; he later wrote the sickly "Peyton Place" theme music if anybody else is old enough to remember it!

[JamesM]

Somebody mentioned Joseph Losey's film The Damned. I would really like to see this get the Anchor Bay treatment as I have never seen tghis film

[Simon Bermuda]

Not sure if I'd call them two of greatest British horror films, but certainly two of the most fun are:

Circus Of Horrors (1960) in which Anton Diffring gets a rare chance to play something other than a Nazi officer, namely a demented plastic surgeon who seeks out shapely but facially disfigured girls, operates on them to restore their beauty, and then blackmails them into performing in his travelling circus. A sister film to Powell's Peeping Tom.

Scream And Scream Again (1969) which features all three horror legends Lee, Cushing and Price, but fails to make the most of their teaming. However, it's still great fun, especially Alfred Marks' hilariously down-to-earth copper.

[smudge]

SCREAM AND SCREAM again is a wonderfully disjointed film. Its off kilter editing adds a heck of a lot to its weird atmosphere.

I've always found the concept of the slowly dismembered, isolated man at the start incredibly threatening.

Anybody know why it was given two different scores ?

SMUDGE

[Rob Compton]

Dunno Smudge? Started off with one and it was slowly dismembered? wink

rgds
Rob :)

[J Pearson]

Hmmm... Im a sucker for Cushing and Lee films...

'The Devil Rides Out' is a fav of mine and of course 'Dracula' cos my Dad worked on it. 'The Devils' is a good film too - particularly fond of Oliver Reed!

J.

[DB7]

Possibly that the score was a bit too "hip cat" for the 80s video release. The same fate befell Witchfinder General.

[DB7]

One I watched last night was The Lair of the White Worm. I'd forgotten what a wonderful piece of kitsch gothic nonsense this was and some of the imaginative fantasy scenes including the typically wooden Hugh Grant stepping into a cave... and onto Concorde (cue wrestling air hostesses). Phallic symbolism is a go-go from Concorde, E-Type Jags, long-nosed Sportsters and Amanda Donohoe's strap-on. Being a Ken Russell film there's also a good deal of female flesh on display as Miss Donohoe gives a lift to a teenage cub scout who gets more than he bargained for and a scantily clad Catherine "Dynasty" Oxenberg strung up as a human sacrifice. And as with all horrors, just as the story is wrapped up there's a final twist in the tale.

[Jim]

Lord Brett: The more I think about this, the more titles I come up with: Witchfinder General should certainly be in anyone's list, and I wonder if Roger Corman's British-shot Masque of the Red Death (1964) might count? The book DB7 recommends is, indeed, excellent.

Ah yes; The Masque of the Red Death - Hazel Court again, corr she couldn't half scream! She lives in America now I believe, I can't say I blame her!

[Jim]

Lord Brett: Ah yes; The Masque of the Red Death - Hazel Court again, corr she couldn't half scream! She lives in America now I believe, I can't say I blame her!

On the subject of Quatermass and the Pit, your Lordship, I found the scene with Duncan Lamont when working on his own, in the pit, quite scarey on first seeing the film in 1967, but I think the TV version was scarier still (in those days we were less sophisticated about special effects). But for me, I think the mixture of the supernatural and science fiction was always an attraction. shocked2

[PAULBATTERSON]

Originally posted by lambchopnixon@Mar 16 2004, 12:40 PM I'm looking through the history of British film, trying to find all the worthwhile films and so far under horror Peeping Tom stands supreme, but it's so much more than a British horror. Then there's the Wicker Man, more representitive of the Brit. horror tradition, and the best representitive I can find. I also like Plague of the Zombies for resisting every cliche it seems about to copy. Would anyone recommend to me their favourites to look for?

A EXCELLENT FILM IS "CURSE OF THE DEMON" A ANGLO/AMERICAN FILM... WELL WORTH THE WATCH.. ALSO THE GHOST TRAIN 1945 IS WORTH A CHUCKLE...

[samkydd]

Originally posted by lambchopnixon@Mar 16 2004, 12:40 PM I'm looking through the history of British film, trying to find all the worthwhile films and so far under horror Peeping Tom stands supreme, but it's so much more than a British horror. Then there's the Wicker Man, more representitive of the Brit. horror tradition, and the best representitive I can find. I also like Plague of the Zombies for resisting every cliche it seems about to copy. Would anyone recommend to me their favourites to look for?

My favourite is Vampyres (1974) for its gore, sex, nudity, English actors, baffling storyline and wonderful creepy old mansion location. All the right ingredients! Also the old original silent movie dracula one, it still scares the hell out of me!

[penfold]

The Ghoul from the thirties; Thorold Dickinson's Gaslight (more of a thriller, but watch it anyway) from the forties; The first Hammer Dracula from the fifties, or the TV versions of Quatermass 2, 1984 or Quatermass and the Pit, better than the later films...Death Line or Unman, Wittering and Zigo from the seventies, Company of Wolves from the eighties..