LATEST ADDITIONS

The past couple of years have seen the DVD release of some great feature-length documentaries pandering to fans of exploitation films. Going to Pieces took a look at the rise and fall of the slasher genre, while the Friday the 13th and Halloween franchises have both been treated to celebratory retrospective documentaries in the form of His Name Was Jason and Halloween: 25 Years of Terror.

Based on the first of Stephenie Meyer's popular series of novels, Twilight was the surprise success story at the box office late last year. Produced for less than $40million, the film took more than four times that at US cinemas alone. Having never heard of the franchise before, I was even more surprised to discover that this wasn't just a US phenomenon, but that the books shared a similarly rabid fanbase here in the UK. So, when the Blu-ray review copy of Twilight arrived in the HCC office, I was intrigued enough to volunteer to review it. Frankly, I wish I hadn't bothered...

Reviewing Wes Craven's 1972 debut feature The Last House on the Left isn't an easy thing. For those, like myself, who became horror devotees during the early 1980s the film has a significance and impact that is often lost on younger audiences. In this way it is much like those other '70s genre classics The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Exorcist, which are often greeted by hoots of derision rather than screams of terror these days.

Last year marked the 20th anniversary of George Lucas' acclaimed sci-fi flick Star Wars. So it came as something of a surprise (to this writer, at least) that there was no sign of any cinema activity to celebrate this fact. There was no re-release of the film (not even in a 3D incarnation, something that has been rumoured as being in the works for several years now), and the all-new CG-animated Clone Wars movie is only getting its cinema release this summer.