My Top Ten slasher films (that aren't Halloween or Friday the 13th)

It's that time of the year again: the weather has taken a turn for the colder, the evenings are getting shorter and the trees are looking that little bit barer. Yup, October has finally rolled around, and so our horror-hungry eyes look towards Halloween. I'm a big slasher fan, and this is usually my favourite month to re-visit some classic (and lesser appreciated) titles. So in putting together this list, I decided to leave out the usual heavy-hitters; no Carpenter's Halloween or the much loved Friday the 13th series, I'll even go as far as omitting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Why? Well, I kinda figured that nearly everyone (casual and hardcore horror fans alike) has seen these titles already; we all know they're awesome, and are the obvious choices for not just slasher lists, but 'Top Ten' horrors in general. I've also left off the more serial killer-orientated entries (such as Maniac, Nightmare in a Damaged Brain, etc) just to keep things a little bit more traditional. So, lets get stuck in!

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5 Things I'd like to see in the new 'Skull Island' film.

At Comic Con over the weekend, Legendary Pictures (Pacific Rim, Godzilla) announced they were making a new King Kong film. Now, Legendary have a pretty good reputation for keeping fans happy with their iterations of iconic material they've handled so far (they were behind both the Batman and Watchmen films, to name but a few), so seeing them get involved in re-booting/reinventing King Kong seems like a pretty good idea at this point. It's early days yet for the project (no director, etc, announced), but seeing as I coming down after a hard few days of King Kong myself, I figure I may as well give my hopes for it, as it stands right now.

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The Nostalgic Attic's guide to... GODZILLA

When a new entry in a long-established series comes out, or more likely these days, a reboot, there are plenty of film fans who like to dive into the previous entries if they haven't seen them. To catch up, as it were. A new Star Wars film in the works? No problem. Three films to watch. Friday the 13th or a Star Trek? Things get a little tougher here, with both coming in at 12 films per series, and that's not even mentioning the TV shows. So, when something like Godzilla lands with a hyped up marketing campaign and mega-bucks production values, and with a whopping 28 entries in the series, what's a newcomer to do?

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The Top Ten Exploding Heads from the 80's

There is nothing quite like a really well-timed exploding head in a film. They still give me a giddy thrill. The best ones for me were those that were not signposted by the director, and were able to knock your socks off with a bloody gush of brain matter. The crazy thing is, there are nearly too many exploding heads to even narrow it down to a top ten, and that's just from the decade that taste forgot. So I did my best, factoring the effects work, wetness and overall feel of the scene in to come up with a list I feel happy to stand by.

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The Top Ten Heavy Metal films from the '80's.

Heavy metal has always been the musical underdog, constantly struggling for mainstream acceptability and radio play. It's no major surprise when you see a film soundtrack stuffed full of chart music and radio-friendly tunes; it makes sense that the producers want to shift as many copies of these things as they can, and appeal to all bases. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as every film needs to have music that suits it tonally. It's just sometimes, you really wanna rock out with a film, know what I mean? Thank fuck for the 80's then, when not only could we get big rock artists giving tracks to some great soundtracks, but sometimes the entire film became about the spectacle that is heavy metal it self. I've compiled my favourite films that not only have some rockin' soundtracks, but also take on the ethos that make metal such a fun genre to feature on film. No doubt there will be some disagreements over the placing on this list, but hey! It's my list, deal with it!

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