Just seen this advertised on Auntie Beeb:

History of Horror

Looks like it'll be a blinder. I'm a fan of Gatiss and he's someone worth following on Twitter.

Likewise. He's a pretty busy bloke, what with writing/starring in Sherlock and now the BBC4 First Men In The Moon adaptation.

Been waiting for this for a good while now - looks like he has some decent contributors (hope he gets the other members of the League involved) . . .

After the show is over and all is said and done i found the show to be rather enjoyable, it's clear that Gatiss is a big horror fan though he does come across more of a fanboy of particular era's of horror, rather than the genre itself and for all the good the show had to offer i still felt that the show seemed to cover those era's with a wide brush stroke and at times swept over and through the genre with a fleeting pass. The end of the show and Gatiss's final comments really didn't settle with me, yes that might be his personal taste and liking of the genre and not seeing anything in recent years but the genre is still going strong and has been for years, there is plenty of great horror out there you've just got to know where to look.

Overall it was a good show, but it certainly wasn't the definitive look and evaluation of the history of horror.

Yeah I don't think it was meant to be, hence 'A' History rather that 'The' - I was happy with Gatiss' overview, but a shame it only skimmed the surface (he mentioned in an interview having to leave out The Innocents, which is one of my favourites). I agree it was a bit dismissive to cover contemporary horror in a few sentences, but I guess Gatiss just doesn't have much to say about them. I also imagine he has less time than he once had to discover the good stuff, what with writing every other show on tv! Lets have A History of Horror with Kim Newman for the next series, eh BBC4 . . . ?

Did you listen to the League in the haunted house on radio 4? I loved Mark's skeptical question during the ouija board session . . .

I thought it was good beginners guide to horror for the uninitiated.

However I was disappointed that Gatiss made Hammer out to be just churning out Frankenstein and Dracula, amongst a few other things, when in fact they did more than that during the 60s and 70s, for example:

One Million BC, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Paranoiac, Scream of Fear, The Abominable Snowman, The Mummy, Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, Nightmare, Captain Clegg (aka Night Creatures), The Phantom of the Opera, The Gorgon, Kiss of the Vampire, The Nanny, She, Rasputin the Mad Monk, The Witches, The Anniversary, The Devil Rides Out (shockingly not mentioned), Hands of the Ripper, Fear of the Night, Straight on till Morning, etc.

Same with Amicus apart from Dr. Terror's House of Horror, and Tales from the Crypt, they also did Dr. Who and the Daleks/Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD
The Skull, Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood, I, Monster, And Now the Screaming Starts! Vault of Horror, The Beast Must Die, Madhouse, The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth's Core, The People That Time Forgot, which like Hammer are all on dvd.

As with Tigon, The Sorcerers, Curse of the Crimson Altar, The Blood Beast Terror, Doomwatch, Virgin Witch, The Creeping Flesh. They did a few more horror films but they were awful.

I was surprised Peter Walker didn't even get a mention for his contribution to the 70s British horror movies.

Speaking of 70s horror movies, Wes Craven and his controversial movie The Last House on the Left, as well as The Hills Have Eyes wasn't acknowledged, and neither was Brian De Palma with his adaptation of Stephen King's classic Carrie, or his other horror movies Sisters, and The Fury.

Other omissions were Herzog's Nosferatu, Don Coscarelli's low budget cult classic Phantasm, Ridley Scott's sci fi horror classic Alien, as well as Italy's contribution to horror genre with their Giallo movies, which gave us Argento, and Fulci.

I fail to see why he didn't do another episode mentioning the 80's horror films, as they introduced us to even more great directors such as Sam Raimi, Joe Dante, Stuart Gordon, etc, especially in an article he mentions Evil Dead 2 being is favourite.

Like I said it's a good documentary for people just getting in to horror, but someone like Kim Newman, or Mark Kermode would be a better choice to take it one step further, as I'm sure they know some great unknown horror movies.

It was comissioned as a three episode series, so obviously there wouldn't room to fit all of that in. I remember Gatiss saying in an interview he was particularly pained to have to cut out his piece on The Innocents. Still waiting for that definitive series on horror - don't think I could stomach a whole show fronted by Kermode, Kim's my man . . .

Kim Newman has updated his Nightmare Movies, which hopefully will be released this year. I've still got the one he did in the 80s.

Its a shame the small studios like Hammer, Amicus, Tigon, AIP are a thing of the past. When they were churning them out frequently I think it sparked more creative energy and variety.
There simply isnt the variety of movie storytelling anymore, and the flimsy excuse that the old ones were camp or cheesy just masks the truth that they took more creative risks and were willing to use their imagination, even when faced with budgetary restrictions.

Asylum is a sad successor to the likes of Hammer/Amicus or Tigon.

I have books on Hammer and Amicus but no little about Tigon's history.

The film world as a whole would be a far better place if Asylum didn't exist.

I have only seen their trailers.
Someone told me their Sherlock Holmes isnt bad if you ignore the helium voiced detective.
Some of their rip off titles are audaciously clever (I Am Omega, The Terminators), but talk about low aspirations.

There was a Canadian company that churned out dozens of cheap action/horror flicks for US cable tv a few years ago. Average IMDB rating for them is 3/10. Some of the ideas sounded interesting, too bad they lacked the execution.
I think their last was a Dolph Lundgren movie.

Its fun to look back on old history of horror books-I have one released in the early 70s and there's a line at the back: "as we go to press, a new film the Exorcist is packing theaters...."

I'd love to see some old horror interviews with Vincent Price etc.
There's a youtube Tonight Show clip of him taking about Theater of Blood and I heard an obscure radio interview where he discussed his new film the Abominable Dr Phibes.

Blast from the past.

I've always thought Charles Band was the successor to Roger Corman. His 80s films were great fun to watch, and some of them are cult classics now.