Author: Peter 'Witchfinder' Hopkins

VOODOO MAN *** USA 1944 Dir: William Beaudine. 62 mins The last of nine Monogram movies starring Bela Lugosi, this fascinating, self-referential quickie (shot in seven days) opens with a sequence so cliched in modern horror that you wonder if it felt fresh and chilling in 1944. A young woman stops off at a gas station for directions from a slightly ominous attendant who prefigures hundreds of harbingers to come: “You’re a stranger in this part of the world, aren’t you?” Car trouble ends in abduction at the hands of two goons – one of them played by a floppy…

MADE ME DO IT **** USA 2017 Dir: Benjamin Ironside Koppin. 90 mins The Rob Zombie HALLOWEEN-style opening CCTV-captured asylum scenes and SE7EN-style title sequence may reveal key influences, but this intense, low-bodycount latter-day slasher movie is a strong picture in its own right. Downbeat college student Anna B Shaffer and her younger emo brother (Jason Gregory London) are terrorised by a psychotic escapee (Kyle Van Vonderen) while the story reveals the grim details of his upbringing. Director Koppin has fun with slasher tropes: the ballsy heroine who shines in a sea of unhelpful / cowardly male characters; the notably…

Central PA horror fans have the chance to attend the debut of Creature Feature Weekend, a new horror convention coming to the Wyndham Gettysburg, on Labor Day Weekend Friday, 30th August, 2019 through Sunday, 1st September, 2019. Your ticket to Creature Feature Weekend includes admission to Q&A panels with some of the biggest names in American horror cinema, independent film screenings, memorabilia auctions, and much more. Creature Feature Celebrity Guests: The Lost Boys Reunion Corey Feldman & Jamison Newlander (The Frog Brothers Together Again) plus Tim Cappello LIVE in Concert! In addition to Joe Bob Briggs (The Last Drive-In),…

3 LIVES ** Germany 2019 Dir: Juliane Block. 81 mins woman who’d been raped 15 years ago is abducted, and when she wakes up locked in a bunker, discovers she knows her eventual rescuers—the man who raped her and his former friend. They flee from violent ex-soldiers pursuing them through the wilderness and try to uncover who’s responsible for their plight. There’s an intensity to 3 LIVES that is brought to life by the three leads—Mhairi Calvey, Martin Caps, and Tyron Ricketts—as their natural chemistry helps give depth to the relationships between the three characters. It does seem like they…

One banana, two banana, three banana, GORE! The cult-favorite animal rock-band from Hanna-Barbera’s 1968 The Banana Splits Adventure Hour variety program is back with a blood-spattered vengeance! THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE will offer a new take on the classic characters. The film follows a boy named Harley and his family as they go to a taping of The Banana Splits TV show, which is supposed to be a fun-filled birthday for young Harley. But things take an unexpected turn — and the body count quickly rises. Can Harley, his mom and their new pals safely escape? “Get nostalgic and horrified…