Unwelcome Caller

A somewhat surprising take from Hammer Film Productions, especially considering how many rather traditional Dracula centred vampire horror movies they made throughout the years, 1974's Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, written and directed by Brian Clemens, breaks the mold... or perhaps it stakes the mold. Set in a rather vague time period – most likely somewhere within the 18th-19th centuries, Clemens builds a world in which many varieties of vampires exist. With a cold open showing a rural village and countryside being afflicted by an unknown caped creature who is sucking the age and beauty out of its young women, the town’s doctor, Marcus (John Carson), has the good sense to send a message to his old friend Captain Kronos (Horst Janson), who, along with his trusty sidekick Professor Hieronymus Grost (John Cater) – who unfortunately has been born with a hunchback, as well as recently rescued Carla (Caroline Munro) – who was sentenced to the stocks for dancing on the Sabbath, this ragtag triumvirate becomes the team to hunt such evil things.

Zach Cregger’s follow-up to his surprise horror hit Barbarian (2022) – which was a wildly original premise, that, despite some flaws, ensnared its audience, finds Weapons (2025) doing the very same thing... coming up with a mesmeric premise that is sure to impress fans of the genre. Told in a most engaging way, for some modern viewers it may come across as a tad lethargic, but it better helps grow the mystery, suspense and thrills of this slow-burner of a story – as its non-linear approach may answer a question or two, while also adding more questions along the way.

Beating the famed comedy duo of Abbott and Costello to the horror comedy circuit both one and two years prior to their 1941 classic Hold That Ghost, Bob Hope released The Cat and the Canary in 1939, following it up in quick succession (just eight months later) with The Ghost Breakers in 1940 – it was originally a play written by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard (there are also two silent films from 1914 and 1922 based on it that are thought to be lost – the former being directed by Cecil B. DeMille). Directed by George Marshall, the mystery infused horror comedy follows a socialite, Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard), who has learned on a stormy New York night that she has inherited a supposedly haunted castle on a secluded Cuban isle ominously named Black.

A rush job of a film, the slasher mystery thriller Schizoid (1980) came about when writer and director David Paulsen bumped into the film’s producer, Menahem Golan, asking him if he’s got any good ideas. Coming up with something for the next day, he was given a measly two weeks to polish off a script, and a few more weeks before it went into production... the only other stipulation, there’s got to be a starring part for Klaus Kinski. Not usually a recipe for success, it is immediately evident that this is guerilla film making at its most rushed. But, at the same time, something rather interesting happened – a cast came together that makes this murder mystery a bit more complex... more on that a little bit later.

It all started with X – an ode to the 1970s early slasher movies; then, it was followed up by prequel Pearl – a horror flashback paying tribute to the early days of colour cinema; and it all concludes (supposedly) with MaXXXine (2024) – which leaps into 1985... following survivor of the original, Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), as she navigates Los Angeles – attempting to make it in the cutthroat world of show business. One of the more unique trilogies in cinema history, writer/director Ti West’s conclusion is not complex in its narrative... if you’ve been in tune with the films from the very beginning, it will likely not be too difficult to guess where it’s all leading to, but it is utterly impressive in its cinematic dialogue – in other words, how it pulls its inspiration from the history of the industry to create a striking pastiche of the 80s era.