Learning on ScreenBritish Horror Rises
In a self-aware age, these ‘state of the nation’ themes are generally used quite self-consciously. To take one example, a small film made in Derby in 2012 called Devil’s Tower features a nightmarish tower block very pointedly called Albion Court. The poster tag-line, meanwhile, is ‘A Hell of a Place to Call Home’ – a nutshell description, presumably, of Britain itself.
If these films sound depressing and nihilistic – well, quite a few of them are. But several modern classics are already discernible in an overcrowded field. Among the most striking products of the 2000s were 28 Days Later (2002), Shaun of the Dead (2004) and The Descent (2005), which also happened to be the most lucrative releases of that decade, making $83 million, $30 million and $57 million respectively. Other significant titles include Isolation (2015), The Disappeared (2012), Outcast (2010), Harold’s Going Stiff (2011), The Borderlands (2013) and Let Me In (2010). The last-named is one of the ‘new’ Hammer films; of the others The Woman in Black (2012) was an expertly crafted thriller that ticked all the boxes for new audiences unfamiliar with traditional haunted house stories, making very nearly $130 million worldwide – a phenomenal figure that, appropriately, put Hammer way out in front, commercially speaking.
There are also plenty of modest little pictures like The Cottage (2008), The Devil’s Business (2011), The Sleeping Room (2014), Before Dawn (2013) and Cockneys Vs Zombies (2012) that achieve exactly what they set out to achieve and are very likable to boot. On top of this there’s an absolute avalanche of DIY titles that have come along in recent years, new technology having by now revolutionised, not just production, but also distribution. Amid the slew of DTV (direct to video) and VOD (video on demand) material out there, some genuinely imaginative oddities occasionally crop up, among them The Invisible Atomic Monsters From Mars (which has been resident on the Dailymotion video-sharing website since 2010) and the £250 production Claire (made available on Vimeo in 2013).
Whether this new boom can, in future decades, retain the enduring power of the old one is a question that only time, and future film historians, will be able to resolve. In the meantime the new English Gothic charts a bona-fide phenomenon that, where most mainstream commentary is concerned, has flown almost exclusively under the radar.
Jonathan Rigby
