Hello, there. I’m Darren, and this is a collection of stuff I’ve written over the years, mainly about music but there’s some other stuff too, such as film, TV and merch. You’ll also find the odd bit of promo for videos and music I’ve made. Thanks for dropping by.
As the end credits roll on Monsters, British director Gareth Edwards’ first theatrical feature, the gentleman sitting behind me says what many viewers might well be thinking.
The film’s set-up is this: a space probe returning to Earth explodes over Mexico, scattering spores that grow into giant, octopus-like aliens. These aliens, known to the population as simply ‘creatures’, turn large parts of the country into a no-go...
What’s a kiss between friends? As it happens, quite a lot, if one of those friends is a Time Lord. In May 1996, when the telefilm that has come to be known as Doctor Who: The Movie first aired, it attracted the ire of many long-term fans. Its ‘crimes’ were legion, but two in particular raised certain viewers’ hackles to planet-scraping heights: 1) the Doctor said that he was “half...
The lights were off, the jack o’lantern was carved and lit, the bag of Haribo Horror Mix was open and Night Of The Demon was flickering on the telly. A perfect Halloween? It would have been if all this was happening on 31 October. But, alas, it was 30 October, and I was celebrating All Hallows’ Eve a day early for the second year running.
In 2009, I caught the bus into town to see Steve Earle play my local concert hall. This year I...
Another one bit the dust - or so I thought. Back in June 2009, it was reported that Primeval, ITV1’s prime-time science-fiction show, had possibly breathed its last. After 23 episodes through three series, the programme that brought dinosaurs to Saturday teatime for the first time since (I think) the 1974 Doctor Who serial Invasion Of The Dinosaurs wasn’t...
On Monday night, watching A History Of Horror With Mark Gatiss (a jewel of a series from BBC4), I was struck by one scene in particular. As Gatiss stood in an Aladdin’s cave of collectable pulp treasures, he picked up a copy of The House Of Hammer magazine, the look on his face saying all that needed to be said. But he said it anyway: “This is a Proustian moment for me. This brings back a rush of unbelievable happy...
Blimey, where are all the kids? Standing in the foyer of the NFT1, the largest screen at the BFI on London’s Southbank, I’m surrounded by 40-something blokes. I’m not sure why I’m so surprised. After all, I too am a member of this species, and the event I’m attending is billed as a “special treat for those of you who have to work for a living”.
It’s just that, well, we’re all here for a screening of a CBBC programme, a 5.15pm, after-school treat. Sure, there’s a Q&A afterwards with its creators...
"Just when you thought it was safe to come out from behind the sofa…"
So runs the advertising blurb for the new Doctor Who stage show. I’ve long been suspicious of the cliché that has small children cowering behind items of furniture while Who is on telly. As a young fan in the early 1970s, I didn’t watch the show from behind the settee. Why would I? I thought that the series’ monsters were more likely to be lurking there. I avoided the area at all times, just like I avoided visiting the bottom of the garden, and I made sure that I was always out of the bathroom before the loo stopped flushing, particularly at night. Evil apple trees and toilet monsters are scarily real when you’re five.
Having missed it at FrightFest, where it was the closing film of the five-day festival, I took the opportunity while on holiday last week to see Daniel Stamm’s The Last Exorcism.
Produced by Eli Roth - who also seems to have taken on a large chunk of the film’s PR, if the number of times he’s crossed my line of sight in the past month is anything to go by - this latest entry in the exorcism sub-genre was shot in a shakycam style, which cunningly...
One of the pleasures of holidaying in the UK is watching fellow tourists wander around in shorts and T-shirts as they try to convince themselves that the sun has got its hat on, instead of its pac-a-mac and wellies.
Another is having, and indeed taking, the opportunity to visit any nearby Doctor Who filming locations – those real-life places that, through their long-term recognisability, act a bit like standing sets. Hence, while enjoying the gentle, picturesque joys of...
Tobe or not Tobe? That is the question - and that is also a gag that only works if you pronounce it correctly.
While Bill Shakespeare’s bones are groaning for a thousandth time, Mr Tobe ‘call me Toby’ Hooper, the director, producer and co-writer of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, is facing the cameras of the press at this year’s FrightFest, Film4’s annual five-day festival of horror cinema, and word gets around that he’ll only be signing autographs for 15 or 20...
