Wayne's 31 Days of Horror Film Challenge Day 3 - Young Frankenstein

The chance to revisit some older horror gems that you haven’t made it back to yet is, for me at least, part of the appeal of #31daysofhorror. Maybe something you’ve only seen the once or, more likely, something you’ve purchased and has remained in the wrapper since.

Tonight, faced with the not inconsiderable challenge of picking from a range of hefty “anthology” options I’ve elected to go with an unopened shelf lurker- Ghost Stories (2017), Andy Nyman & Jeremy Dyson’s film adaptation of their West End production of the same name. We managed to catch this at the local film theatre just after its rather scandalously short run at our multiplex. I made it a bit of a mission to watch it as I’d only heard great things about the stage show and there was no way we could nip down to London any time soon. Plus, Andy Nyman who also stars in the film had appeared on my radar as someone who cared deeply about the genre and who had invested a lot of that love and knowledge into this project.

At that point I’d only really seen Nyman in Jake West’s excellent Video Nasty: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (2010) documentary where he was effusively talking about the horror genre- specifically about video shops and the rental industry and their part in the 80’s video boom. Horror was of course a massive part of that boom and the subsequent “video nasties” scare really helped to shape a lot of horror enthusiasts’ collections not least of all because they were deemed so taboo. It was watching Nyman talk about these experiences that formed a weird connection to him as someone to watch and look out for and a strange sort-of kinship.

I then half remembered it was Andy who’d appeared alongside Davina McCall in the Big Brother themed zombie series Dead Set (2008) where he played a less than sympathetic TV exec who was hell bent of surviving the zombie apocalypse- at the expense of anyone who got in his way. Turns out too he is in the BBC’s original Woman in Black (1989) that was just re-released.

After we’d watched Ghost Stories, I recall walking out of the film theatre feeling like id experienced something quite unsettling. There are moments that have stuck with me to this day and elements that were as moving as they were scary. The cast is superb, the effects are great… you get the idea. It’s definitely a film that benefits from a second viewing for reasons I won’t go into here. 

Also, in the interests of total disclosure its worth mentioning the other notable Anthology Horror movies that nearly got selected. George Romero’s Creepshow 1 & 2, Michaels Dougherty Trick r Treat and The Twilight Zone Movie directed by… Everyone. All strong contenders and likely a few will make their way into the list further down the line. Plenty of days of Horror left!