Shouldn’t this be Director of Smear Tactics? The IPCC is beyond a sick joke especially employing this cop.
A top Scotland Yard officer who was personally criticised for failings in the Jean Charles de Menezes shooting has been appointed to the leadership of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Commander Moir Stewart will be the IPCC’s new director of investigations and a member of its management board.
I am sitting at my desk shaking my head in disbelief….. WTF!
It’s one of those top 100 greatest films polls…and this time the genre is horror. Well it is that time of year isn’t it… When the undead get resurrected (and no, I don’t mean Blair this time) and ghoulish fiends lurk the corridors (though that could describe the Tories). I always have two categories for horror, subsets of the genre if you must, ones that go for the spine tingly shocker while others go for buckets of gore schlockers…personally I like a combo of the two… I enjoy spine tingling nightmarish scary ‘things that go bump in the night’ to the Driller Killer/Texas Chainsaw/Night of the Living Dead squishy bloody gore…. I am eclectic… And there’s always slippage from other genres (Alien…sci-fi/horror…haunted house on the hill transported into space)
Back to this poll… I certainly wouldn’t put The Shining at no. 1. But hey, this is all based on subjective (bad) taste. Here is the rest.
And here is mine (in no particular order..) and based on the 100 (and included a couple of my own) though I couldn’t be bothered to list 100 so you’ll have to make do with 35. I am sure I’ve missed some off……And before you ask, I have seen all of these films at some point in my life, no wonder I am anxious and traumatised…..
1. Wicker Man
2. Rosemary’s Baby
3. Bride of Frankenstein
4. Alien
5. Night of the Living Dead
6. Nosferatu
7. Scream trilogy
8. Suspiria
9. Don’t Look Now
10. Repulsion
11. The Haunting
12. The Exorcist
13. Cat People (the original)
14. The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari
15. Carrie
16. Omen
17. Cronos
18. Dead of Night
19. Hellraiser
20. Let the Right One In
21. The Company of Wolves
22. Witchfinder General (Anything starring Vincent Price)
23. Hammer horrors
24. Martin
25. Vampyr
26. The Masque of Red Death (anything made by Roger Corman)
27. Martyrs
28. Shaun of the Dead
29. Zombieland
30. Psycho
31. Psychomania
32. Twisted Nerve (ok, ok really scraping the bottom and utterly reactionary bilge but I remember this film as a kid especially the chilling whistling soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann which was resurrected by Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill the scene where Daryl Hannah dressed as a nurse walking down the hospital corridor whistling that tune ready to dispatch Uma Thurman).
33. The Old Dark House
34. The Blair Witch Project
35. Audition
NB: Another film I find an over rated schlocker is The Silence of the Lambs esp. the hammy performance from Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, I always think of Kenneth Williams in Carry on Screaming (‘Fryin’ tonight’!) and to be honest I much prefer Carry on…. and Kenneth Williams’ acting. And for my sins I have read the Hannibal Lecter books by Thomas Harris. Not impressed.
Just to include a couple of extra films.
36. Rocky Horror Picture Show
37. Planet Terror
38. Carry on Screaming
39. The Descent
40. The Orphanage
Another NB: Reading Sean’s and Tim’s comments about the definition of horror (and it can be loose) also Night of the Hunter is one of my favourite films of all time and really exposed how great Charles Laughton was as a director (and unbelievably the film flopped when first released) it is a kinda modern Grim fairy tale, is it horror? Also I suppose it is how we define horror… Anyway made me me want to include these (and thanks to Tim and Sean!):
41. Night of the Hunter
42. Pan’s Labyrinth
43. The Others
44. Devils Backbone
45. Halloween (never a fan of Friday 13th)
…..Twin Peaks exceptionally weird and chillifying….(I like David Lynch)
Finally have decided what I will talk about for my GMB branch TU history talks… the rise of the women’s liberation movement with a specific focus on socialist feminism. The talks have been widened to encompass radical history and a fair few revolve around viva la revolución (Soviet Union, China, Cuba…..). Mine has been slotted in for some time early next year.
Note to myself: Don’t do the preparation a week before the talk (like last time) that led to an almighty stress fest!
Off topic… saw this over at Hagley Road to Ladywood regarding this piece in the Indy about the Manic Street Preachers. As a sorta fan of the Manics (not as much as I was in the past) I liked reading these posts at Culture Sluts. Also, here’s an old post I wrote at SU giving my own tuppence halfpenny on the Manics….
Well, the weekend is approaching. Yay…
Though I have a LRC meeting tomorrow, slap bang late in the morning.
So hoping at some point to see the film An Education as I remember reading an extract from Lynn Barber’s memoirs about this teenage experience, and it has had good reviews. Have to say not a great fan of Nick Hornby but I did see a trailer for it some months ago and it whetted my appetite.
Banner of the names of people who have died in the custody of the state.
The inquest into the death of Mikey Powell will be opening next week after a 6 year wait. Six years! Why has it taken 6 years? Is it due to the bureaucracy, legal challenges, investigations? Such a long time to wait keeping families and friends in limbo. Where is the justice in that? I hope justice prevails for Mikey Powell’s family.
See links below:
Whatta a shame, eh?!
Honestly…..Gordon gets on board and does his cheerleading bit, kiss of death in reality as Blair’s bid to be el presidente of Europe is sinking faster than the Titanic (Sinking…sinking…sinking….gone). And says it all politically when The Bliar’s chief cheerleader is Silvio Berlusconi.
There’ll always be a job for one of the world’s top war criminals. I mean, I bet there’s a vacancy, for example, in the laundry section at one of Her Maj’s top notch slammers.
