Exorcism – a devil of a job

It sounded interesting in black and white. An exorcist hunts down demons in a world where even his own church doubts whether people can be possessed.
Apparitions (BBC1) sees Father Jacob (actor Martin Shaw) play a Roman Catholic priest whose job is to promote candidates for sainthood.
In his work to canonise Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Jacob [...]

Dead Set on bringing zombies to reality

For some time now I’ve been a fan of Charlie Brooker. His TV reviews in The Guardian often have me chuckling away and more often than not I find myself nodding along in agreement with wry views on TV, celebrities and life and general.
So when I read that he’d been commissioned to write to write [...]

Can you outwit a zombie?

If each decision could be your last…would you make the right choice?
Well, given how my morning went I’d say no. Today, I struggled to outwit a zombie.
A quiet morning at work gave me the chance the try out a new interactive internet game called Survive the Outbreak.
Outbreak is a grown-up horror version of the old [...]

Battlestar Galactica – the fourth series

 Today sees the UK DVD release of the fourth and final series of Battlestar Galactica (BSG).
I became hooked on BSG after watching the three-hour mini-series written and produced by Ronald D Moore and directed by Michael Rymer in 2003.
The mini-series was the first part of the Battlestar Galactica reimagining based on the 1978 Battlestar Galactica [...]

The Clarence – an Irish slice of luxury

 

The Clarence

 The Clarence hotel in Dublin will always hold a special place in my heart.
 It is, without doubt, the best hotel I’ve have stayed in. And, as an added bonus, it’s also in my favourite city in the world.
I love Dublin and have visited the city almost every year since I was [...]

Bonekickers – utterly bonkers, utterley watchable

The team of archaeologists in Bonekickers have so far managed to stumble across the remains of Joan of Arc, discover the preserved body of Boudica, the queen of the British Iceni tribe, and, oh yes, find part of the cross that Christ was crucified on.

The series, which is coming to an end tonight on BBC1, [...]

The Lost Boys – my all-time favourite film

It can hardly be described as the scariest horror film ever made. In fact, the clashing eighties clothes on show are probably more frightening than the teeth. But there’s just something about the mix of comedy and comic-book-style horror that makes The Lost Boys work fantastically well.

The Lost Boys (1987)

 The main focus of the [...]

A page-turning nightmare….

Serial killers, blood-sucking vampires and other-worldly monsters quite often feature in the books that fill my shelves. 
I always have a book on the go and I need to read at least a couple of chapters of something before bed prior to nodding off.
Despite the fact that my bedtime reading leans towards horror and gore, [...]

REVIEW: The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by Howard Phillips Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft is a master of the American horror tale. But despite his work now being regarded as the most important supernatural fiction of the 20th Century, his work is still a stranger to most people’s bookcases.
Which is a shame – his gripping tales of madness and cosmic terror are unparalleled. And his [...]