The films of Freddie Francis have always shown the work of a skilled visual craftsman -- one of the very best, in fact -- but also one who performs better when others provide him a creative vision and context from within which he can do his work. I find it rather telling that many of the best films that Francis worked on -- Glory, The Straight Story, The Elephant Man -- were those in which he acted as cinematographer to a visionary director, years after he gave up regularly directing himself. The Skull, made for Amicus in 1965, is a particularly effective case for Francis's talent with a camera and against his knack for creating his own stories. Although the film is hampered by a lackluster script and poor casting choices, its ultimate chance at success rests on Francis's shoulders – for better or for worse.
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In 1979, Roger Ebert called George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead “an ultimate horror film” and, in a separate review a few days later, cited its horrifying, satiric, and well-crafted elements as combining to make it such. I am a huge Dawn of the Dead fan (as I write this, there is a Flyboy action figure on my desk), and ever since first watching it in college, I have waited for another zombie film with insight and terror comparable to that of Romero’s masterpiece. Enter the sequel to Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later, another ultimate horror film.(read more...)