C. M. Rosens

The next 10 horror movies are mainly about British Gothic, or I guess I should say specifically English Gothic from the 1970s. The gritty misery of the 1970s was ripe for Gothic narratives, and I really like the ones I watched here.

I haven’t watched any UK-made films up to this point in the challenge, and I live here, so I wanted to rectify that and catch up on a few I haven’t seen.

• The Cat and the Canary (1978) dir. Radley Metzger, written by Radley Metzger and John Willard. The opening sequence culminates in a shot of a cat strung up from a tree, and then the plot happens. This is based on the play version by John Willard. I really love this one, it’s such a British banger. Cyrus West is played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, a fabulous character actor of film, stage, and TV, who does a fantastic job. I laughed out loud all the way through his speech. Really enjoyable. I much prefer this one to the Italian Gothic version! I choose to read certain characters as gay, but that’s implicit so I hesitate to give the rainbow symbol. A group of potential heirs gather in a forbidding old house to learn which of them will inherit a fortune. Later, they learn that a flesh-rending maniac is loose.
  {UK}

• Tarry-Dan Tarry-Dan Scarey Old Spooky Man (1978) dir. John Reardon, written by Peter McDougall. I was really hesitant to watch this as I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go – I gave it a shot and I was really impressed. It’s a good bit of Cornish drama, with teen angst and the psychological unravelling of a boy convinced he’s some kind of mystical knight, obsessed with an old tramp whom the kids make fun of. He learns of a terrible burden his family line must bear, which he cannot outrun or avoid. This is a great one. It’s 47min, so it counts for the Challenge (films must have a minimum of 45min runtime). When he finds himself plagued with nightmares about a historic battle fought on the site of the village he lives in, delinquent Cornish teenager Jonah Grattan becomes obsessed with a potential link to a local homeless man.
  {UK}

• The Descent (2005) dir. Neil Marshall, written by Neil Marshall. I had this logged as “Watched” and fancied it after The Cave (2005). It became apparent that I had not, in fact, watched this film at all. I think I saw the opening few scenes and for some reason stopped there and never finished it. Watching it AFTER The Cave was the right choice. This is much better, it’s Neil Marshall at his peak, and it’s got a load of really gnarly survival moments before we even get to the monsters. I think it’s much higher stakes than The Cave, because it’s not state of the art equipment and flashy gear. That’s usually what lets US-made films down; style over substance. This film is just a bunch of experienced cavers with standard gear and their psychological traumas deep underground, and that makes for a really compelling, tense narrative. Now I’ve actually seen it, I would def put this on the rewatch pile. After a personal tragedy, Sarah joins her friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. But when a rockfall traps them deep underground, their adventure turns into a nightmare. As they search for a way out, the group discovers they are not alone—lurking in the darkness are savage, cave-dwelling creatures. With rising tension and dwindling trust, the women must fight to survive against both the predators and each other.
  {UK}

• Dabbe (2006) dir. Hasan Karacadağ, written by Hasan Karacadağ. It’s time to catch up on the full Dabbe franchise! I’ve seen 4+5 and they are really good, still my favourites so far. Hasan Karacadağ is a big loss to the film industry – he fell foul of the political environment due to social media comments made around the coup, which meant he had to leave Türkiye for Japan (apparently). This has some good use of found footage, but isn’t a found footage film. It’s a vehicle for some philosophy and theological pontificating, but ultimately it’s a pretty good horror. The horror also originates in the USA and is imported to Türkiye, where it causes the destruction of Turkish youth, and I think that’s an inherently geopolitical statement from Karacadağ about the dangers of US cultural-imperialism and its insidious nature. A cruel suicide wave spreads from the United States to a small Turkish town, where a man kills himself after spending time on the computer. His friends are still getting disturbing emails from him.
  {Türkiye}

• The Convent/Heretiks (2018) dir. Paul Hyett, written by Conal Palmer and Paul Hyett from a story by Gregory Blair. Paul Hyett directed one of my favourite werewolf films, Howl (2015), so I was really excited to come across this one. First off, we don’t have nuns butting in during the Witch Trials under the famously Protestant James VI of Scotland and I of England, because of the Reformation (under Henry VIII). We’re not letting that stand in the way. Aside from the faulty historical premise, which I’m choosing to believe is due to this being an Alternate Universe (AU) where the Reformation never happened, it’s a serviceable piece of Gothic supernatural drama with religious horror trappings. During the 17th century, a young woman is saved from execution and led to a priory to repent her sins but discovers a greater evil lies within.
  {UK}

• Gudubet (Ölmek İstemiyorum) / Hideous Creature (I Don’t Want To Die) (2025) dir. Mehmet Tan, written by Yilmaz Suvaci. This film is on Letterboxd & logged there, but with it has the bare minimum of info, so I’ve linked to IMDb. It was a dark and stormy night, and Gran was found dead in her chair. Family rivalry and drama right off the bat. This is a Turkish slasher with a creepy girl and her doll, a killer on the loose on a dark and stormy night, and a dysfunctional family. Unfortunately, they give the game away too soon, but the twist is pretty good and nearly saves it. There is no plot description on Letterboxd or IMDb.
  {Türkiye}

• To Fire You Come at Last (2023) dir. Sean Hogan, written by Sean Hogan. This is 45min, so counts towards the Challenge. Watched as part of All The Haunts Be Ours Box Set Vol 2, (Severin Films). I really enjoyed the tight focus on the 4 men throughout, and the script made a good stab at sounding period-accurate. It was very much like watching a stage play in some respects. I could see this working really well as a theatre piece with minimalistic staging, or as an immersive piece of theatre. What I would have liked in the dialogue is more hints of the Squire’s sins, and I think the dialogue at times sacrificed clarity to style. I did like the chapters, and the way this was shot. In rural 17th-century England, a group of men gather to carry a coffin on the long walk to the local graveyard for burial. Much ancient folklore and superstition surround the pathway to the church, and several of the party are afraid to walk it after dark. Squire Marlow, the grieving father of the dead man, promises to double their wages if they agree to make the mysterious journey full of unexpected revelations.
  {UK}

• SG̲aawaay Ḵ’uuna/Edge of the Knife (2018) dirs. Helen Haig-Brown  and Gwaai Edenshaw, written by Gwaai Edenshaw, Jaalen Edenshaw, Graham Richard, and Leonie Sandercock. This is my first time hearing Inupiaq spoken, so that’s really cool. I loved the community-centred narrative, and the slice-of-life feel of the village and its dynamics. The Haida language was nearly extinct, was hearing this whole film from native speakers is a real privilege. This was incredibly visceral in places, especially the descent into madness and grief of Adiits’ii. Island of Haida Gwaii, northern Canada, 19th century. During a fishing gathering, Adiits’ii commits an unfortunate act. Tormented, he runs away to the wilderness as his mind embraces madness.
  {Canada, First Nations}

• Robin Redbreast (1970) dir. James MacTaggart, written by John Bowen. I loved Bowen’s scripts for Ghost Stories for Christmas, so I was very curious about this one. It’s a classic for a reason. It reminded me a bit of Darklands (premise similarities) and Hammer Films’ The Witches (1966). After the break-up of a long-term relationship, urban sophisticate Norah seeks refuge in a remote house in the country.
  {UK}

• The Asphyx (1972) dir. Peter Newbrook, written by Brian Comport. An enjoyable take on Mary Shelley’s short story The Mortal Immortal meets Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer, with a dash of the Russian folktale, The Soldier & Death. I don’t normally like doomed immortal stories but this was engaging and a really fun Gothic Horror, with a good family drama at the core… and an immortal guinea pig. Hugo is a brilliant turn-of-the-century scientist, loved and respected by his family and friends, admired by his colleagues. But he is a man quickly becoming obsessed with a curious and frightening question…What is the mysterious apparition found in the photographs of his dying subjects?
  {UK}