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“In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill a man.” --- Alfred Hitchcock ::::::::::: MY CRITERIA FOR DISCUSSION ENCOMPASSES THE HORROR GENRE AND BEYOND, SO I USE THE TERM "NIGHTMARE MOVIES". SPOILERS CAN OCCUR WITH OR WITHOUT WARNING. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

set-pieces - Horrorphile

IMPORTANT NOTICE - INDEFINITE HIATUS!

February 6th 2012 01:05
blood writing
To my fellow horrorphiles and the True Believers, to all those who follow me in the Darkness ...

Due to a serious family issue, and to other variables, I have suspended posting on Horrorphile - Pleasure Of Nightmares until further notice.

I hope you will not abandon (unsubscribe or unfollow) me during this difficult period.

I can't say when I will be posting again, despite obligations, but hopefully soon.

In the meantime take the opportunity to sift through my movie review archives, there's more than enough there to entertain.

Long live the new flesh!

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ARE YOU SUPERSTITIOUS?

January 13th 2012 02:08
Black cat and number thirteen
It's Friday the 13th down under.

Does this day spark fear into your heart?

Do you find yourself wishing for something then swiftly knocking on the nearest piece of wood?

Do you avoid black cats in the street?

Do you steer clear of ladders blocking your path?

Do you have a rabbit's foot or a horseshoe tucked away in a drawer?

If you break a mirror do you crumple in despair?

If you're superstitious, then do you also believe in omens and premonitions?

If you're not superstitious, do you believe at all in fate?

Well, I believe in Stevie Wonder's Superstition. That's the funkateer in me.

The movie Superstition (1982) has some great moments.

But as far as a belief in supernatural causality goes, I'm a non-believer. I think. The dark romantic in me begs to differ. Perhaps I'm a sceptic then. Just like my belief in telekinesis and levitation will hover until I experience it firsthand and trust there's been no sleight of hand.



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HOW EVIL IS HORRORPHILE - PLEASURE OF NIGHTMARES?

November 23rd 2011 22:13
Dante's Inferno
The Gematriculator is an internet deduction service that uses the methods of Gematria, a system developed by Mr. Ivan Panin, a Russian mathematical genius, to determine how good or evil a web site or a text passage is in accordance with the Bible.

Gematria is the search of different patterns through a text, such as the amount of words beginning with a vowel. If the amount of these matches is divisible by a certain number, such as 7 (which is said to be God's number), there is an incontestable argument that the Spirit of God is ever present in the text. Another important aspect in gematria are the numerical values of letters: A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, and so on. The Gematriculator uses the Finnish alphabet, in which Y is a vowel.

Theological experts consider the mathematical patterns in the text of the Holy Bible as God's watermark of authenticity. Thus, the Gematriculator must be the divine cyberhand of God.

I'm an atheist, but I was curious to see how Horrorphile - Pleasure Of Nightmares fared ... The results were underwhelming to say the least.

This site is certified 28% EVIL by the Gematriculator

To see how evil your own site is, or perhaps a section of text you hold dear, click here.
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DEMON WOMAN

October 10th 2011 02:12
Demon Woman Bizarre Magazine
Hey, Zombie Boy … meet Demon Woman.

She’s been dubbed “Vampire Woman” by the Mexican media, and she currently features in Bizarre fetish magazine, 35-year-old Maria Jose Cristerna from the Zapopan city has tattoos covering 98% of her body, scores of facial piercings, six teflon implants in her chest and arms, four horns on her head, four fangs, and – since she did the photo shoot for Bizarre – a forked tongue


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HORRORPHILE'S FEROCIOUS FIFTH BIRTHDAY!

August 14th 2011 23:29
Scary birthday
I’ve reached a small, but notable milestone: five years of indulging in the Pleasure of Nightmares. Time flies when you’re getting off on movie murder, madness, and mayhem. But I’d like to think I’m doing a little more than causing tenebrous mischief; providing my True Believers - and those newbies eager to peer into the Darkness - with insight, musings, edification, and debate on what I term “nightmare movies”: the horror movie genre and beyond.

I didn’t think I’d still be hosting this “blog” site five years down the track when I first signed up to Orble. I’ve since delivered 987 posts. I’m definitely one of the veteran Orblers now, but don’t worry, I’m not going to go all nostalgic and sentimental on your ass. I could grumble about how little revenue I make (actually, none since I violated Google Adsense’s content policy, bah humbug!), so it’s a labour of love these days. I can hear you say, “Harden the fuck up Horrorphile!” Okay


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IMPENDING ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE ...?

May 20th 2011 03:28
CDC's zombie apocalpyse
A friend and fellow Orbler (although she doesn't post in this neck of the woods much anymore) hosts a curious and fascinating website called Extraordinary Intelligence that deals all things paranormal, supernatural and conspiratorial. Basically all the mysteries and oddities that keep life (and beyond) interesting.

Natalina, the site's host, editor and writer, posted an amusing story about an apparently imminent zombie apocalypse and the measures we may need to take to deal with this potentially catastrophic event


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A NIGHT OF HORROR 2011 - SHORT FILM HIGHLIGHTS

April 14th 2011 03:53
The White Face Sarah-Laure Estragnat
Film festivals are often the only chance you’ll get to see short films. Although these days some of them might end up on youtube, chances are slim. The best short films usually are, well, short. But there are exceptions to the rule. A Night Of Horror International Film Festival actually began as a three-night Australian short film showcase, and festival directors Dean Bertram and Lisa Mitchell have maintained strong support of the short film format with several mini-programs within the festival, including the Lovecraftian Lunacy selection of shorts that has been a staple of the festival since the beginning.

Dendy Newtown marquee A Night Of Horror
I’ve only been attending A Night Of Horror for the past three years, but I’ve seen some real doozies each year. 2011 was no exception. In fact I’ll be bold enough to say that this year that many of the short films have been giving the features a run for their money! A short film is a curious creature though, because there is less time for in-depth characterisation and certainly next to no time for any exposition. Instead a short film must work on several levels simultaneously right from the get-go, and work extra hard to impress the audience. Originality of script, acting, and atmosphere are paramount


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A NIGHT OF HORROR 2011 AWARDS

April 12th 2011 04:22
A Night Of Horror 2011 banner art
The 5th annual A Night Of Horror International Film Festival is over for another year. There were more low-budget, indie features than in the 3rd and 4th years, and only one feature was from Europe, but the audience attendance was up and the enthusiasm amongst the attending horrorphiles was, as always, feverish. Three Australasian features, The Tunnel (2011), The Reef (2011), and Wound (2010), garnered a lot of attention and accolades, which was great to see.

I was on the jury for the short films, along with Steven Kastrissios, director of The Horseman (2010), and Stefan Popescu, co-director of the Sydney Underground Film Festival, but the number of films nominated (considering how many were screened throughout the festival) was scarce. I’ll be doing a wrap-up of the short films in another separate post


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THE EVIL DEAD and CHAINSAW MAID 2 - LEE HARDCASTLE CLAYMATION!

April 5th 2011 00:16
The Evil Dead in 60 Seconds
Evil Dead - The Musical poster
Evil Dead – The Musical. I had heard through the nasty grapevine of such a production, and my attention was recently drawn to a clip of the stage show. Yes, Ash and deadites dancing and singing live on stage. It’s an Off-Broadway production that features an audience participation section at the front known as the “splatter seats”. Whatever. I don’t care that Evil Dead 2 (1986) and Army of Darkness (1987) were both comedies, and I don’t care if the musical has songs called What the Fuck Was That?! I’m not watching one of my favourite horror movies turned into a troupe of singing dancing demons. It’s wrong. Just wrong.

Evil Dead - The Musical clip (just to rub salt in the wound)
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SYDNEY ZOMBIE MARCH - MARCH 26th 2011

March 28th 2011 01:11
Sydney Zombie March 2011
Sydney Zombie March 2011 Michael Berman
Zombie March organiser Michael Berman addresses the horde
I finally attended my first zombie march! But I have to be straight up with you: I wasn’t in special effects make-up, a mask or a costume. Lame I know, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be as impressive as the overseas zombie marches I’ve seen footage and stills from. And I was right; it wasn’t as impressive. But it certainly had things going for it. The Sydney Zombie March organiser Michael Berman has certainly managed to garner a sizeable and enthusiastic horde of zombies, and this year was easily the biggest gathering yet. But I have a couple of serious reservations. I have my beef with the Sydney Zombie March, if you will.

It was like those fancy dress or masquerade parties that you go to where only half the people attending have bothered with a costume or a mask. It gives me the shits. Hosts and/or organisers have bothered to stage something where there are very specific regulations and a bunch of lazy party poopers spoil the vibe for everyone. The Sydney Zombie March suffered at the hands of too many half-arsed wannabes and hangers-on. It lacked the genuinely macabre and ghoulish soul the march demands


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I WAS TORTURED AND MURDERED FOR THE SAKE OF ART!

February 9th 2011 00:02
Sleeping in Blood City
Well, that post title is a little inaccurate. To be honest, I wasn’t actually tortured. And, as you can see, I wasn’t killed either … Unless of course I’m a ghost, but that would be a different type of story. I was beaten and tied to a chair and was shot at point blank range by a trained professional; a ruthless hit-man doing a job, and I was just another notch on his belt, another line through a name in his little black book, another mug-shot photograph to be burned and disposed off, another piece of scum off the filthy streets of Blood City.

Sleeping in Blood City (2011) is a short film written and directed by one of Orble’s very own; Shaun Katz, the cinephile behind Screen Adventure. He recently completed shooting and is now in the post-production stages. He cast me in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role of a victim; one of his lead character’s hit jobs. Ghost, as the killer is called (yes, funny that), is le samouraï, or thereabouts; a cool-headed, by-the-books, lone assassin who may have met his match


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EEL GIRL

September 30th 2010 13:08
Eel Girl movie poster
Kiwi-Pom writer/director Paul Campion’s deliciously black comedy-horror that channels the transgressive visceral edge of David Cronenberg with the sly comic surrealism of David Lynch is called Eel Girl (2008). I’d heard about it, but it took me a while before I finally got to see it. Eel Girl won Campion, whose background is as a textual painter and visual effects artist, several international awards, and the five-minute movie which features the special effects work of Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop, continues to play around the world at festivals. Campion is currently working on his first feature, a Nazi occult action-horror-thriller called The Devil’s Rock (2011).

Eel Girl is slick, sensual, grotesque, and fantastic. And I finally found it online


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HORRORPHILE HITS 500!

September 27th 2010 06:14
Incubus
Just a quick post - an unashamedly self-indulgent moment to pat myself on the back - to announce that Horrorphile – Pleasure of Nightmares has very recently acquired 500 email subscribers and counting. Woo hoo! I have 567 followers; a more recent net traffic addition in the wake of the whole Twitter phenomenon, and interesting to note that “following” is more popular than subscribing via email, as the number of followers crept up and passed my email subscribers very quickly.

I remember when I reached 20 subscribers and it felt good. Next goal is to reach 1000 followers, with email subscribers not far behind. I have to admit though that having subscribers feels more solid, whereas followers comes across as more ephemeral. Regardless of the format, it’s great having the support and it feels good that my list of followers increases almost daily. I guess that's where the jugular lies


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HORRORPHILE'S FEARSOME FOURTH BIRTHDAY

August 14th 2010 02:20
Skull birthday cake
It’s been four years, huh? Orble’s changed quite a bit since I wrote my first post referring to the horror genre as the black sheep of cinema. Not too many veteran Orble bloggers left. It takes commitment and dedication applied to your passion to keep writing on a daily basis without any proper remuneration for your efforts. I started Horrorphile – Pleasure of Nightmares because of my deep affinity with the Darkness and a desire to spread my knowledge and opinions to other like-minded freaks and geeks.

Back in October 2006 (two months after I’d started blogging) I was ranked 61 out of 691 Orble blogs. I had 249 hits a day, of which 79 were individual readers, and 48 were click or link readers (the ones that actually move and loiter around your site). The #1 blog was Music Times and Cibbuano’s 20/20 Filmsight was the only movie blog in the top twenty (#6


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BRING BACK THE GRINDHOUSE DOUBLE-FEATURES!

July 15th 2010 05:15
Plaza cinema Wellington NZ
I miss the Valhalla in Leichhardt, Sydney. The cinema is still there, but the wonderful and wicked repertory programmes are long gone. The cinema closed its doors to the public back in 2005. Back in the day there used to be a calendar poster showcasing up to six months worth of movie programming. While I worked for a cinema in Wellington, NZ, called The Paramount, during the 90s they produced a similar calendar modeled directly from the Valhalla version. It was an impressive display which utilised a movie’s original artwork, taglines, and critics’ praise neatly compacted. The movies screened were a mix of contemporary arthouse releases and cult classics.
Majestic theatre Wellington NZ
Wellington's majestic Majestic theatre a long time ago
Blood Beach movie poster
When I was much younger going into my teens there was a plethora of cinemas around Wellington; Plaza, Majestic, Lido, Roxy, Kings, Cinerama, Embassy, St. James, Regent, Penthouse, Paramount, to name a few. Most of those are gone now. The Plaza used to play double-feature horror movies on the weekend, usually B-movies, but often gems, especially to budding horrorphiles like myself. I remember those screenings fondly, as for most of them I was underage (I was around 13 or 14 and the movies were R16s, and very occasionally R18), so the “adult” factor greatly enhanced the experience.

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HALL OF INFAMY - REMEMBER TO VOTE!!!

June 28th 2010 07:49
Horror scream

Just a wee reminder to vote in the 3rd Annual Horrorphile Hall of Infamy ...

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SNIP

June 25th 2010 00:45
Snip movie poster
I am proud as a hardened horrorphile - and unashamed gorehound – to present to you the astonishing and deeply disturbing 12-minute short film, Snip (2008), written and directed by Julien Zenier, a Spaniard. I first saw Snip at the 3rd Annual A Night of Horror International Film Festival (2009) and was suitably astounded, not to mention visibly shaken. Few movies have made me wince (and almost cover my eyes) due to their convincingly graphic ferocity. I applaud Zenier for his audacity and his talent as a filmmaker, and to Quimera FX for their work on the special effects.

Snip operates as a very dark social commentary that uses extreme self-mutilation as a metaphor for the destructive power of popular culture projected from the distorted, exaggerated, but mostly sanitized medium of television. It also captures the fragility of the human psyche, and the vulnerability of the human body. The horror, the horror


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FRANKENSTEIN (1910) MOVIE and RUMAH DARA TRAILER

June 21st 2010 00:16
Frankenstein
It’s dreary day in Sydney, and I’m on my weekend, so nothing better to do than hole up and watch a few movies. I've got a few to catch up on. In the meantime here’s a couple of finds; the earliest version of Frankenstein - made in 1910 - put to film, only twelve minutes long and some startling special effects, considering when it was made.


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ANIMAL KINGDOM DOUBLE-PASS GIVEAWAYS!

June 15th 2010 02:39
Animal Kingdom original movie poster
The lovely folk at Madman Entertainment in conjunction with Contagious Communications have allowed me to giveaway five in-season double passes to the brilliant new Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom (2010). The movie is currently enjoying its nationwide theatrical season and overseas where it won the prestigious world cinema award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It is also receiving very high praise indeed from local film critics, and is one of my favourite Aussie dramas of the past twenty years.

To win one of these double-passes just name your favourite gangster movie and in 25 words or less why you like it so damn much.
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A NIGHT OF HORROR WAS A DARK AND BLOODY TREAT!

April 27th 2010 05:21
The Children Hannah Tointon
The blood has been shed and the guts have been spilled for another year, and now I want to make a short gush to thank the Sydney organisers and local and overseas participants in this year’s A Night Of Horror International Film Festival; co-directors Dean Bertram and Lisa Mitchell, programmer Shane K., the esteemed judges for the film and screenplay competitions, and to all the filmmakers and horrorphiles who supported the festival! It was both a delight and an inspiration, and a drunken hoot (the pub crawl following the awards ceremony on closing night).
The Revenant David Anders
The Horseman
Although I didn’t get to see all the movies I did see some great stuff, and will hopefully catch up with the ones I missed further down the track. My three favourites of the festival were the atmospheric 70s-esque UK shocker The Children (2008), the black-as-a-putrid-corpse undead buddy comedy, The Revenant (2009) from the States - which won best international feature and director - and the uber-brutal Aussie revenge flick The Horseman (2009) - which took out best Australian feature and director. I also thoroughly enjoyed Triangle (2009) and The Haunting in Connecticut (2009), both at the commercial end, but very well made and highly effective.

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