YZ Double Bill

And so, with just moments to spare, the 2015 TV Alphabet Film Project is completed. Given the season that's in it, it seemed sensible to finish with a couple of horror films. Wait, that doesn't sound right. Oh well, today's post brought to you by the letters Y and Z and the number 2.

You're Next (Adam Wingard, 2011) is a slightly muddled affair. It starts off as quite a gory and nasty little slasher, but develops a sense of humour halfway through as if it suddenly realised that it isn't really scary enough or clever enough to be taken seriously. Thus, it lurches about a bit uncertainly, like a bad actor with a blender stuck in his head. It's not great, but it is amusing that the heroine is even more of a psychopathic killer than the bad guys.

Unlike many zombie films, Zombie Flesh Eaters (Lucio Fulci, 1979) has no subtext, or explanation or social commentary underlying the story. Instead it is content to show that if the dead really were to come back to life it would be pretty horrible, with rotting, maggot-infested corpses shambling around in good old-fashioned zombie style. Some pretty good blood-and-gore effects have stood the test of time, particularly the wince-worthy splintered-wood-in-the-eyeball sequence which earned the film a spot on the infamous video nasty list back in the 80s. And happily there's some gratuitous nudity to distract from the choppy editing and dodgy acting.

But what really elevates it is that is has a underwater fight between a zombie and a shark. That's right - a zombie vs shark smack-down. In true guerrilla film-making fashion, Fulci persuaded a man in zombie make-up to get into shark infested waters and pick a fight with one, all in the name of art. Say what you like about the quality of the film but that does deserve some measure of respect.

And so, there we have it. 26 films now deleted from my various recording devices, freeing up space to, well, record a whole pile of other film of variable quality.

This series has been brought to you by the number 26 and the letters A to Z. The entire list of reviews can be viewed in one handy list here, in reverse order for extra excitement. Or you can click on the links below because it's still Christmas and I'm feeling helpful. Until next year, farewell

Previously on the Alphabet Film Project....

A-B-C
Atlantic City
Blood of Fu Manchu
Curse of Frankenstein

D-E-F
Django
Esio Trot
Festen

G-H-I
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Ils

J-K-L
Julius Caesar
Klute
Late Chrysanthemums

M-N-O
Metropolis
Notorious
Ohayo

P-Q-R

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Quatermass and the Pit
Roman Holiday

S-T-U

Sherlock Holmes & the Scarlet Claw

Tender Mercies

Under the Skin

V-W-X

Virtuosity

Warrior

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Y-Z

You're Next

Zombie Flesh Eaters