Merry Christmas!

Ho ho ho and Merry Christmas! With so many classic films screening on UK television over the Christmas period, I thought I'd start a thread of what to look out for over the coming days...

Just done the ritualistic flick through the seasonal Radio Times and pleased to see that 1) the BBC has remembered films made before 1980 and 2) New Year’s Eve on BBC Four is wall-to-wall Jaws programming. What better way to welcome 2026 than watching Jaws 2.

Great to see a Eureka release make it onto the Sight and Sound Discs of the Year (in the current issue of the print magazine) for the second year running. A very fun one to work on, co-produced by myself and Jacob Milligan.

As part of the BFI's Too Much season celebrating melodrama, The Phantom of the Opera is screening at the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield on Sunday 30 November with an intro by me and a live score by HarmonieBand. Grab a ticket, it'll be a one-off experience!: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/too-muc...

I wrote a piece for the BFI on the mighty Phantom of the Opera, which turns 100 years old in 2025. Phantom is currently screening around the country as part of the BFI's Too Much season celebrating melodrama.

Prizes up for grabs before tomorrow's Masters of Cinema screening of Message from Space at the Showroom, Sheffield: Shogun's Samurai (not even released until Monday!) and our collection of the first three films in the excellent Abashiri Prison series. Tickets: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/masters...

Next weekend, Masters of Cinema presents Kinji Fukasaku's Message from Space (often unofficially called Japanese Star Wars) at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield. This is such a fun film, recommended to any fan of science fiction or special effects cinema. Tickets: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/masters...

Went to see Relay yesterday, which is both one of the best films I've seen at the cinema all year and one of the most surprising. A proper old-fashioned paranoid suspense thriller with shades of The Conversation and Enemy of the State. They don't (very often) make them like this anymore.

And then we had a howling good time on the podcast with our guest @craigimann.bsky.social to talk about the history of Werewolves on Film: open.spotify.com/episode/5TOy...

A great weekend at @celluloidscreams.bsky.social (15 years on from my first, which is wild). Highlights: Descendent (alien abductions and familial dramas), Head Like a Hole (a modern Outer Limits episode about bullshit jobs) and doc Silver Screamers (in which senior citizens make a horror movie).

Had an amazing time at @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social last weekend as ever. Highlights: Bone Lake (a twisty erotic thriller with great gore effects), Dead by Dawn (an inventive and very Polish neo-giallo) and Redux Redux (lo-fi sci-fi with a Terminator vibe), plus Bulk, Portal to Hell and Mag Mag.

Larry Fessenden’s Depraved is coming to 4K UHD later this month via IFC and OCN. I wrote an essay to accompany the set, which hopefully just about captures how much I love this movie. Thanks very much to @jlalibs.com for the opportunity. Pre-order a copy here: vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/...

Prizes up for grabs before the Masters of Cinema screening of The Cat and the Canary at Showroom Cinema tomorrow: The Man Who Laughs on Blu-ray and The Old Dark House on 4K UHD. Come and see a great film and maybe win some other great films. Tickets here: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/masters...

Very proud of Wrack and Ruin: The Rubble Film at DEFA. It collects some of the earliest and most important East German films, all made in the immediate aftermath of WWII. Producing this box involved many, many hours of digging through the DEFA / PROGRESS Film archives – all of them worth it.

Next weekend, Masters of Cinema brings Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary to the Showroom in Sheffield. This is, hands down, my favourite silent film – spooky and hilarious in equal measure. The Saturday screening comes with an intro and free Blu-rays! Tickets: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/masters...

An interview with yours truly in The Jewish Telegraph, discussing "Wrack and Ruin: The Rubble Film at DEFA". This beautifully produced blu-ray box set includes: The Murderers Are Among Us, Somewhere in Berlin, Police Raid, Marriage in the Shadows and The Blum Affair. tinyurl.com/2tjkyay6

The 100 Years of Community Cinema Exhibition is now open 🎉 Come down to Bloc Projects in Sheffield and take a journey through the last century of volunteer-led film!

Congratulations, Craig and Rob. 👍

Overwhelmed by the reaction to Survivors, the documentary Rob Nevitt and I have been working on for @severinfilms.bsky.social on the making and legacy of Threads. Thanks to @dianearodgers.bsky.social for a fun Q&A after the premiere. To steal a joke from @reecedinsdale.bsky.social: we had a blast.

Well, that was a fun evening. No, really! #Threads #survivors

Delighted to be part of last night's premiere of Rob Nevitt and Craig Mann's SURVIVORS: THE SPECTRE OF THREADS. Beautiful, amazing interviews, archive footage and hauntological soundtrack. Never been so proud to live at the centre of a fictional nuclear disaster #wyrdtv #hauntology

An absolutely amazing night at the world premiere of Survivors: The Spectre Of Threads, here in #Sheffield where the film was shot 41 years ago. I can't stress enough how much I want @craigimann.bsky.social and Robert Nevitt's brilliant documentary to be seen as widely as possible. #FilmSky

Just got my hands on Heart of Stone (1950), the first East German film shot in colour. It's a grand fairy tale from Paul Verhoeven (not that one, the German one) given the deluxe treatment on Blu-ray by Eureka / Masters of Cinema under the watchful eye of producer @craigimann.bsky.social.

I love @mayhemfilmfestival.bsky.social and the people behind it. These announcements are amazing (will always get excited about new Ben Wheatley movies and films about demonic laundromats). Passes still a very reasonable £85 until Sunday.

For the last year, I've been making a documentary on Threads for @severinfilms.bsky.social. It's called Survivors: The Spectre of Threads and has its world premiere at the Showroom in Sheffield on Saturday. Some of the lovely people in it below, tickets here: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/sff-clo...

Heart of Stone, the first East German folktale film, has hit the low stock page on the Eureka site. This is by far my favourite single title I have produced, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s macabre and beautiful and plays like a socialist Powell and Pressburger: eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/heart-...

Another little blu-ray update of some recent titles from Eureka Entertainment, specifically seven new limited edition sets featuring my favourite: Hong Kong cinema! From Ringo Lam to Chang Cheh, Lo Wei to Andy Lau and beyond... #PhysicalMedia youtu.be/RwernGQSZiQ

“The Descent is a modern horror film,” I thought to myself, before having an existential crisis over the fact that The Descent is as old now as Fright Night was in 2005.

Next weekend, the Masters of Cinema series is bringing Trouble Every Day – an amazing slice of arthouse horror by Claire Denis – to the Showroom in Sheffield from a new 4K restoration. Saturday comes with an intro (and a chance to win free Blu-rays). Tickets: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/masters...

Our @severinfilms.bsky.social documentary Survivors: The Spectre of Threads will be closing the Sheffield Film Festival on 30 August! Grab a ticket, feel a bit of paralysing nuclear dread, maybe win a special edition Traffic Warden action figure. Tickets here: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/sff-clo...

EXCITING - the world premiere of a new documentary called 'SURVIVORS', about infamous 1980s traumatic teleplay THREADS, by my chums @craigimann.bsky.social and Rob Nevitt has just been announced - 30/31 Aug at Sheffield's Showroom Cinema! showroomcinema.org.uk/film/sff-clo...

Really excited to have an essay in this amazing @secondsightfilms.bsky.social release. On some days I’d say this is my favourite horror movie of the last 25 years. Huge thanks to @phillipescott.bsky.social for asking me to write something.

Glass Eye Pix now has a partner label with Vinegar Syndrome and the first title is a favourite: the inventive dystopian throwback Automatons, in which our robot overlords look like 1950s toys. So good I own the making-of book.

The Masters of Cinema series is bringing Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure to the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield this weekend. Two screenings across Saturday and Sunday (Saturday comes with an intro and a chance to win free Blu-rays as a bonus). You can grab tickets here: showroomcinema.org.uk/film/masters...

I'm in this. Not the unboxing video, but the boxset itself. If you squint you will see my name in lights about halfway down the list of extras. Except they forgot the lights.

Unboxing of Strange New Worlds: Science Fiction at DEFA now up on Eureka’s YouTube channel. Thanks again to @carlydraws.bsky.social for the amazing artwork.

For #SpaceshipSaturday, here's another look at my art for DEFA Strange New worlds set: a retro rocket cover, and four interior pieces of art for each film. Vintage sci fi fans, check it out at Eureka Entertainment! eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/strang... #art #scifi #defa

Eureka currently really has the monopoly when it comes to releasing classic German genre cinema, including this East German Western, part of a series of anti-capitalist alternatives to the West German Karl May series and shot in similar locations in Yugoslavia.

Had a great weekend at the inaugural Culture Shock Festival of Fantastic Film at the Showroom Cinema this weekend (courtesy of the @celluloidscreams.bsky.social team). My pick of the new films is the bizarre Estonian sci-fi anthology The Black Hole. Retrospective has to be Terror of Mechagodzilla.

Really enjoyed doing a piece on HIGH NOON for @craigimann.bsky.social and Eureka. Fred Zinnemann’s critique of the American West is as relevant as ever…

A selection of films from the Masters of Cinema Series are coming to the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield, beginning with Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure. More films to be announced (including a preview of a future release). You can grab a ticket for Cure here: www.showroomworkstation.org.uk/mastersofcin...

July is a good month for Western fans at Eureka. High Noon is coming to 4K UHD and East Germany’s first Western, The Sons of Great Bear, is making its home video debut in the UK. Also a good month for me – High Noon is an all-timer and I’ve loved producing all of our DEFA releases so far.

Who is the real villain in Sinners? I wrote about the nuanced message in Sinners everyone seems to miss!

The closest I’ll get to holiday appropriate viewing this weekend…

Eureka’s March releases. Very happy with how Mabuse Lives! turned out, and really pleased to be getting more German genre movies on disc in the UK. There’s more to come.

I spent all of last week having a very cultured time in France, but have to be honest and admit I planned the entire trip around seeing the original Greta puppet from Gremlins 2 in Lyon’s Musée Cinéma et Miniature.

Recently announced by Eureka, DEFA's Heart of Stone! This is East Germany's first folktale adaptation and its first film in colour, a really macabre story of greed filled with weird and beautiful imagery. A blast to produce, with amazing art by @carlydraws.bsky.social and great expert contributions.

I gave my partner’s dad an old Blu-ray player and a copy of High Noon recently, and now he asks for more discs as gifts whenever a special occasion rolls around. (Re)introducing people who love films to physical media is a good feeling.

'New' review (written in 2021) out on Craig Ian Mann's Phases of the Moon: A Cultural History of the Werewolf Film www.revenantjournal.com/contents/1452/