VAMPIRE WEEKEND: PART ONE
THIS MONTH
LEGENDARY AUTHOR AND CRITIC KIM NEWMAN BRINGS US HIS UNIQUE TAKES ON CULT CINEMA
MATTHEW BRAZIER
WHEN I READ Carlos Clarens’ Horror Movies in 1971, I decided to be a horror-film completist. Horror Movies has what was then essential in film books —a tantalising and extensive filmography. Like many young fans, I put ticks next to the (few) films I’d seen and aspired to tick every title. It became a mission to see every horror film ever made.
Of course, even in 1971, an alarming number of films were lost —forget Lon Chaney as a sawtooth vampire in London After Midnight; what about F.W. Murnau’s Jekyll and Hyde movie Der Januskopf? —and a lot of the titles Clarens listed hadn’t been released in the UK and weren’t likely to be scheduled on our three TV channels. American ‘movies on TV’ paperback guides made us envy lucky Yanks who —we supposed —had a diet of Italian Hercules movies and Mexican wrestling pictures freely available, whereas Brits were lucky to get Dracula: Prince Of Darkness after the snooker on a Friday night.