tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post8870952682327298721..comments2024-01-09T04:01:00.672+00:00Comments on Breakfast In The Ruins: Gothic Originals / Horror Express 2020 #8: The Ghoul (Freddie Francis, 1975) Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14951955227326548340noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-3116840586287276982023-10-20T12:22:51.792+01:002023-10-20T12:22:51.792+01:00Thhanks for writing thisThhanks for writing thisHook Bookshttps://hookbooks-tochigi-japan.tumblr.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-57076906308978611992020-10-24T13:02:57.599+01:002020-10-24T13:02:57.599+01:00Thank you so much for your kind words Ian - I real...Thank you so much for your kind words Ian - I really appreciate it! As you might have noticed, I've been having a bit of a hard time keeping up the marathan posting schedule this October (real life getting in the way, etc), but it's really spiriting to know that there's someone out there enjoying the posts.<br /><br />I'm not sure how managed never to catch 'The Ghoul' on TV back in the day - everyone else of a certain age seems to have seen it that way! : D And yes, it does rip-off 'Psycho' quite a bit actually, doesn't it, which is... strange? It's as if Tony Hinds thought "I'm damned if if I'm actually writing anything new for this," and just stuck bits from 'The Reptile' on top of the basic plot structure from 'Psycho', or something along those lines.<br /><br />Thanks too for mentioning 'The She Creature'! Having never seen it before, I loved the sheer, accidental weirdness of it... it really made an impression on me. I've actually been really getting into '50s American monster movies and atomic sci-fi flicks recently. I was too snobby to bother watching them when I was an SF-loving kid, and when I got a bit older they just seemed really square and boring compared to wilder 60/70s horror movies. But, now I've finally seen the light and realised that they're short, fun to watch and almost always have something really bizarre or unexpected going on in them. It's becoming a nice process of belated discovery.<br /><br /> Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14951955227326548340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-54503279567143096732020-10-21T08:16:20.395+01:002020-10-21T08:16:20.395+01:00Thanks for this series of pre-Halloween reviews. ...Thanks for this series of pre-Halloween reviews. It's now a 'Breakfast in the Ruins' tradition that I look forward to every October.<br /><br />With 'The Ghoul', I think it first turned up on British TV as part of those Saturday-night horror double bills that BBC2 would show every summer. I remember watching it at the age of 13 and being totally unimpressed by it. Partly this was because it formed the second half of a bill with 'Night of the Demon' which, although it seemed a bit creaky by the end of the 1970s, I was really enthused about. And partly it was because I'd recently seen 'Psycho' and the murders in 'The Ghoul' seemed to rip those off -- the shower scene being transplanted to a four-poster bed with billowy curtains taking the place of the streams of water, and Ian McCullough's death-scene being very similar to Martin Balsam's. <br /><br />I watched 'The Ghoul' again earlier this year and, now a middle-aged codger, I warmed to it rather more. It’s disconcerting to see Cushing, normally imperious as a heroic savant or a calculating villain, playing such a lost, weak character, and the film's generally handsomely staged. I agree, though, that the ending is rubbish. What gets me is the fact that Don Henderson is wearing a nappy... <br /><br />Incidentally, I also recall watching 'The She Creature' during one of those BBC2 Saturday-night horror seasons! Even back then, I realised its plot was nonsensical, but there's something about the film's theremin-serenaded atmosphere and the shots of the she-creature emerging from the surf that's stayed in my memory ever since. So it was nice to see you giving the film a little bit of love the other day.Ian Smithnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-77388772285691070202020-10-20T11:05:40.095+01:002020-10-20T11:05:40.095+01:00"I honestly can't imagine how I would hav..."I honestly can't imagine how I would have reacted to something like 'The Ghoul' as a teenager... would I have loved it, or would it have put me off this-sort-of-thing for life? Could have gone either way."<br /><br />I suspect what would have happened is that the next week, BBC1 would have put Psychomania on, then it would have fired up the "this is amazing! more!" syndrome haha.<br /><br />To be a fan is to persevere, as you never quite know what yr gonna get once those credits roll.......which is why we keep at it :) The rewards are worth it when a gem is found!Maurice Mickelwhitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05415253943533672436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-76933261770022117902020-10-20T11:01:56.492+01:002020-10-20T11:01:56.492+01:00This comment has been removed by the author.Maurice Mickelwhitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05415253943533672436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-20100840376110525352020-10-19T22:43:02.111+01:002020-10-19T22:43:02.111+01:00Thank you as always for your kind words Maurice, a...Thank you as always for your kind words Maurice, and those sound like some happy memories indeed. I honestly can't imagine how I would have reacted to something like 'The Ghoul' as a teenager... would I have loved it, or would it have put me off this-sort-of-thing for life? Could have gone either way.<br /><br />Despite watching it for the first time as adult, I probably end up on the same page as you, in that I feel so warmly toward creaky old British horror films that I can pretty much always find something to like about them.<br /><br />Oddly enough, your comment also reminded me of the fact that the first Italian horror film I ever saw was 'Zombie Flesh Eaters 2' (I was on a tight budget, and it was cheaper than the first one, for obvious reasons). It's a wonder I didn't just pack it in there and then, after that experience.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14951955227326548340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3369610344911858466.post-6789068617086826982020-10-19T17:35:26.036+01:002020-10-19T17:35:26.036+01:00Superb write up, Ben, superb. I know its flawed, I...Superb write up, Ben, superb. I know its flawed, I know it creaks and the ghoul himself is a let down, but I can't help but have a comfort food soft spot for me. Lots of memories of watching it as an initiate, on late night BBC in the mid 90s, when I had a full blown foggy wood at the end of the garden for gothic el max.<br /><br />Its also unwittingly responsible for my moving up the scale slightly when finding a VHS in the secondhand shop and thinking "Ian McCulloch? From The Ghoul? Well, this'll be alright then as I like The Ghoul!" and wandering home with a copy of Zombie Flesh Eaters under my arm, aged CONSIDERABLY under 18.<br /><br />Maurice Mickelwhitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05415253943533672436noreply@blogger.com