Showing results by author "Jon Towlson" in All Categories

The long-awaited sequel to the NUMBER ONE BEST SELLER 40 Cult Movies: From Alice, Sweet Alice to Zombies of Mora Tau. Join critic and author Jon Towlson on a tour of 40 MORE cult movies! From Abbott and Costello to horror classics Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) to cult curios like Devil Girl from Mars (1954) and Castle Freak (1995), Jon brings you 40 more of the best cult movies around! Praise for 40 Cult Movies: From Alice, Sweet Alice to Zombies of Mora Tau. 'This is the best book on cult films since Danny Peary's 1980s series of books.' - PLAN 9 CRUNCH '...

From devil child shocker Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) to Z-grade monochrome masterpiece Zombies of Mora Tau (1957), join acclaimed film critic and author Jon Towlson on a tour of 40 great cult movies. Experience afresh cult classics like Freaks (1932) and Night of the Living Dead (1968) and discover Euro art house rarities like Edge of Sanity (1989). From punk classic Suburbia (1984) to Gasper Noe’s phantasmagoric Enter the Void (2009) to slasher oddity The Redeemer: Son of Satan (1978), this book is sure to bring you some of the strangest movies you will ever see. And it will make you ...

A collection of his finest writing on horror cinema by the acclaimed critic and journalist, Jon Towlson. Essays range from studies of auteurs Tod Browning and George A. Romero to reflections on Universal horror, analysis of the 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead, and commentaries on contemporary international horror cinema. The volume contains reviews of over 25 modern horror films, including Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014) and Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor (2020). Plus, interviews conducted with leading creatives in horror cinema: Jason Blum (Blumhouse Productions), Scott Derrickson (...

A novel of faith, guilt, and the evil that wears a human face. In the shadow of a decaying inner-city estate, a woman is found murdered—her body defiled with a crucifix. The community turns to its young priest, Father Dean Sterry, for guidance. But Sterry is drowning in his own sins: a secret affair, a lost child, and a silence that may cost more lives. Then he arrives. A nameless drifter, his body etched with cryptic religious tattoos, bearing no past, only judgment. A man who speaks in scripture and silence. Who watches children too closely. Who claims no identity—yet knows every ...

When drama student Alice Bright arrives at the gothic Cadogan House in Knightsbridge, she expects a fresh start in London—and a room rented from fellow student Janice. But Janice is dead, found hanging in the building’s lift in what appears to be a bizarre suicide. With nowhere else to go, Alice is offered a place to stay by a nervous neighbour, Kathy, and quickly becomes entangled in a web of paranoia, occult symbols, and sinister secrets. The deeper Alice digs into the building’s past, the more she uncovers: a scandal involving sex, drugs and Satanism in the 1960s, a string of ...

When Judy receives a mysterious invitation, she follows its cryptic instructions to an abandoned cellar—where a man named Rex is chained, blindfolded, and gagged. Around his neck, a sign reads: "I killed Delores. Do with me as you will." As Judy's past with her murdered stepdaughter Delores resurfaces in vivid, disturbing fragments, the cellar becomes more than a prison—it becomes a confessional, a courtroom, and a mirror. Others begin to arrive, each summoned by the same blue-bordered envelope. Each with secrets. Each with sins. Each with a dark heart. But someone is watching. ...

Dark Thrills Anthology Vol. 1 Gripping. Provocative. Unsettling. Step into the shadows with Dark Thrills Anthology Vol. 1—a haunting collection of psychological and occult thrillers that will leave your pulse racing and your mind unraveling. Within these pages, voyeurism meets vengeance, obsession spirals into madness, and ancient rituals bleed into the modern world. Each story peels back the fragile layers of sanity to expose what lurks beneath: forbidden truths, twisted desires, and the chilling cost of knowledge. Crafted to disturb, provoke, and haunt, this anthology dares you to ...

Trevor never expected to fall for Suzanne: fierce, unapologetic, unforgettable. Their love affair ignited like a matchstick—brief, brilliant, and consuming. But when Suzanne dies suddenly in a dingy hotel room above a rail yard, Trevor is left with nothing but grief… and a promise. “It’s yours,” she whispered. “Forever and ever.” Haunted by her memory and obsessed with the vow she made, Trevor spirals into a surreal descent through mourning, madness, and desire. When he discovers her heart has been taken—literally—he sets out to reclaim what was his. Even if it means ...

Some rooms should never be opened. The house was supposed to be a new beginning. For Jane, it offered escape—a fragile hope of safety with Craig, the man who promised stability. But behind the attic door, sealed tight with dust and silence, lies the darkroom—a hidden space that holds more than forgotten photographs. Inside, Jane discovers images that should never have existed. Grainy. Distorted. Children with hollow eyes and twisted limbs. The deeper she digs, the more the darkroom reveals—not just the horrors of the past, but the terrifying possibility that they never ended. As ...

A tale of masks, monsters, and the fantasies we dare invite in. In a polished Islington townhouse, Helen and Steve Blake prepare for a dinner unlike any other. He’s a smooth-talking television producer. She’s a woman playing the part of a perfect wife. Their guest? Joseph Edge—an ex-con, a convicted murderer and rapist, freshly released after fifteen years behind bars and now a reformed man… or so they think. What begins as a probing interview for a potential documentary quickly spirals into something darker. Joe is meant to be a subject, a symbol of redemption. But as wine is ...

Raymond lives a life of silence and shadows, running a quiet camera shop by day and developing strangers' photographs by night. When a woman named Debbie moves into the flat opposite his, her beauty and loneliness captivate him. From his window, he begins to observe her—harmlessly at first. But soon, watching turns to obsession. When Debbie becomes entangled in a violent crime, Raymond is the only one who knows the truth. Caught between protecting her and preserving his own fragile world, he makes a fateful choice that sets off a chain of betrayal, sacrifice, and ultimately, tragedy. As ...

In London's shadowy streets, Rory went looking for love. Instead, he found a monster. In the shadowy streets of London, 16-year-old Rory arrives searching for love—but finds himself trapped in a brutal world run by a man known only as Mr Brightside. Three years later, haunted and hardened, Rory crosses paths with Bryan, a hopeful bartender who sees beyond Rory’s scars. As Bryan falls deeper, Rory fights against emotions he's buried beneath violence, addiction, and the ghost of a long-lost lover. But Mr Brightside wants Rory back—and he doesn’t take no for an answer. Torn between the...

A love letter to cinema. ‘Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, my window on the world was film, and as a filmmaker, teacher and film critic, I have encountered many people for whom the cinema fulfils the same function.’ This memoir by acclaimed film critic Jon Towlson reflects on the various ways in which film provides a ‘window on the world’ for the author, his students, people he has known and the community to which he belongs. Discussing a range of cinema-related activities, from film societies to film workshops, cine clubs, film education classes, repertory cinemas and home video,...